Tag: elders

Gathered Wisdom, Feb 28, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

Lent is a time to take stock of the dualities in our lives. Listen and discern where God is giving you life, where God is speaking life into your life. Yet also, where has this life been robbed from you? Where does God invite you to lay aside the worship of other gods? Where does God invite you to walk back into larger life that Jesus shows us?

Br. Sean Glenn, SSJE
Read More and Comment >

The Way of Sabbath

“In the tempestuous ocean of time and toil, there are islands of stillness where man may enter a harbor and reclaim his dignity,” says Abraham Joshua Heschel in his book The Sabbath. The Wisdom Years five-week study of Sabbath is now online for individual or small group study.

Find it here.

I Have What You Need

What do we need? And do we really need it, whatever “it” is? The world tells us we need more, we deserve more, but what the world offers doesn’t satisfy.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Keep Changing

Why is it so hard to change? Maybe because we are in love with ourselves. We’re in love with “our way of thinking, our way of explaining, our way of doing,” says Richard Rohr. But Jesus calls us, from the very beginning of his preaching, to change, to turn, to repent.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

You Don’t Have to Know: Our Dark Materials

There will be dark times in our lives. There will be illness and suffering and death. We have to live it, we have to acknowledge it, but there is always a light for the way.

Read the reflection.

Found on Tarrantworks.

The Prayer of Charity

There is a long­standing Christian dictum that nobody makes progress in the spiritual life unless he or she prays, alone and in silence, for an hour a day, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. The problem is, few of us – good Christians and all – find the time to do it. Or is it make the time? Maybe there is another way to pray.

Read the essay.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.

If this post was forwarded to you, sign up to receive Gathered Wisdom in your email by subscribing at wisdomyears.org.

To learn more visit our website.

Gathered Wisdom, Feb. 21, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

Dreams give your soul wings. And images from dreams are the exquisite patterns on the wings. Hold your dream images as you would hold a butterfly — in your open, quiet palms, … gently enough so that they still can fly.

-Jill Mellick, The Art of Dreaming: Tools for Creative Dream Work

The Way of Sabbath

What if we thought of the fourth commandment as an invitation rather than a command? Would that change how we celebrate Sabbath? In The Sabbath, Abraham Joshua Heschel teaches that Sabbath is a sanctification of time, not place.

Join us for our study.
The Way of Sabbath starts February 23.

Get the details here.

What I Regret Most Are Failures of Kindness

What does American writer George Saunders regret the most about his life? Being unkind to a little girl in the seventh grade, as he tells a graduating class.

Read the speech transcript.

From Daily Good.

Mercy, Justice, and Walking Humbly

What does God require of us? He tells us through His prophet Micah: “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Scholar and retreat leader Megan McKenna unpacks what that means in her reflection.

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

God’s Quiet Presence in Our Lives

Most of the time, God’s presence within us and in our world is not dramatic. We mistake that for God’s absence. However, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, “God lies inside us as an invitation that fully respects our freedom, never overpowers us; but also never goes away.”

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Being Nice Isn’t The Same As Being  Kind

Being kind means caring. It means making an effort, says Donna Cameron. It is different from being nice. You can be nice but still reserved. You can be helpful but not warm and welcoming.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.

If this post was forwarded to you, sign up to receive Gathered Wisdom in your email by subscribing at wisdomyears.org.

To learn more visit our website.

Gathered Wisdom, Feb 7, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

Taking a moment
to figure out
how you really feel
instead of letting
old patterns decide for you
is one of the most
authentic things you can do

-Yung Pueblo, Clarity & Connection

From Well for the Journey

Visio Divina

Praying with our eyes is how Vivianne David describes visio divina. Traditionally, we take that to mean looking at art, but actually we do it all the time. Sitting in nature and allowing it to draw us to the God of creation is an act of visio divina.

Listen to the podcast (30 min)

From Renovare.

#heartivism: Gently Shaking The World

Activism so often includes anger and acts of violence. I am right, so you must be wrong. But Nipun Mehta, founder of Service Space, preaches “heartivism” – a third way between two “right” positions. This article is long but worth the read.

Read Mehta’s talk delivered in January 2023 for the 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium at University of Pennsylvania.

Found in Daily Good.

Musings About Valentine’s Day

Joyce Rupp intends to approach Valentine’s Day this year “as a time to observe and affirm the relationships that influence our lives in constructive and satisfying ways.” The lovers, friends, relatives, and colleagues who  “enrich us with their acceptance, guidance, and valuable encouragement.”

Read the reflection.

From Joyce Rupp’s newsletter.

God Hole

“Each of us has a hole in our mind, our heart, and our body that only God can fill,” writes Joanna Seibert. “So instead, we try to fill it with relationships, food, alcohol, drugs, shopping, sports, work, power . . .” But God calls us to help each other find that God hole and fill it with “the best unconditional love we can muster.”

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Our Longing for God’s Justice

For Isaiah it was not enough that God would someday shower righteous people with blessings. There must also be punishment for the unrighteous – a “day of vengeance” (Is. 61:2). We are not so far from calling for vengeance ourselves. Like the older brother of the prodigal son, we might be doing a lot of things right, but lack warmth for others in our hearts.

Read the reflection.

From Fr Ron Rolheiser.

Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.

If this post was forwarded to you, sign up to receive Gathered Wisdom in your email by subscribing at wisdomyears.org.

To learn more visit our website.

The Way of Sabbath

The Way of Sabbath

Marjorie George

On Our Website starting February 23

and Gathering by Zoom

Thursdays, 4 to 5:15 pm (Central time)

February 23 to March 23

Pulling from the wisdom of The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel, we will look at Sabbath not as a set of rules for one day of the week, but as a model for living all the days of the week.

Our time with friends and family on the Sabbath can make us more sensitive to the needs of other human beings.  Celebrating the grandeur and beauty of nature on Sabbath, we are made more sensitive to the needs of the earth and reminded that God calls us to serve as co-creators of a just and compassionate world. Time for silence on the Sabbath shows us the value of solitude and silence every day. As we celebrate Sabbath, we can carry with us something of the sabbath through the rest of the week.

Sabbath, says Abraham Heschel, is not only a day of detachment from material things. “It is a day of attachment to the spirit.”

Together we will read The Sabbath by Heschel, then gather on Thursdays from 4 to 5:15 (Central time) for conversation by Zoom.

The study material will also be posted on the Wisdom Years website for use by congregations, small groups, or individual study.

There is no cost for the study. Participants will need to buy their own book: The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel, publishers Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

To indicate your interest in this offering or if you have questions, please send an email to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com or to wisdomyears2020@gmail.com. 

To support independent book sellers, order from St. Mark’s Bookstore at https://www.stmarksbookstore.com

We apologize if you receive this notification more than once. We just don’t want anyone to miss this exciting news.

Gathered Wisdom, Jan 31, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

-Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

Found at Well for the Journey

Reclaim Your Chicken

Writer Jon Bernie says that connectedness comes when we practice awareness without effort.  No trying, no doing, no defensiveness, no chicken with its head cut off.  Just gazing and seeing without resistance. “This is what it means to understand profoundly—not personally—what responsibility really is: the realization that we are interwoven with everything and everyone.”

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Crowd Solidarity

Sometimes, says Diana Butler Bass, our prideful knowledge of scripture keeps us from clearly hearing the truth of the biblical message. The crowd that heard Jesus utter the Beatitudes might have been far different from us and so heard those words in a far different way than we do.

Read the reflection.

From The Cottage Sunday Musings.

The Unchosen One

What happens when a child actor is overlooked for the part of Anakin Skywalker for a Star Wars movie?  It depends on how you tell your story, says Devon Michael, who tells his own story in this Karma video.

Watch the video.

From Karmatube.

Unexpected Grace and Gratitude in Prison

Artist Brooke Rothshank went to Elkhart County Jail in Indiana to teach a class to the prisoners not knowing what to expect. But, she says, “When I left that first day I felt as if I had discovered a room full of goodness that was hidden away. I know these men made mistakes. I know I’ve made mistakes.  We didn’t know each other’s past, so all we could do was start right there in the present.”

Read the reflection.

From Grateful Living.

Today’s To-Do: Reach Out to an Older Relative

We often connect with the older adults in our lives only at family gatherings and holidays. But talking to older adults can be interesting and good for everyone. An article to pass on to your younger family and friends.

Read the short article.

From The Upside.

Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.

If this post was forwarded to you, sign up to receive Gathered Wisdom in your email by subscribing at wisdomyears.org.

To learn more visit our website.

Gathered Wisdom, Jan. 24, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

If you sat down and made a timeline of the growth spurts in your life, you would likely see a distinct pattern emerge—of setbacks, consistently setting you up for breakthroughs, “failures” leading you towards opportunities, challenges leading you toward growth, feeling lost eventually toward “finding yourself.”

-Gregg Levoy, Psychology Today, November 3, 2022

Found at Well for the Journey.

Waiting for the Thaw

“It is in that place between despair and hope that we find the beauty of the thaw,” writes Virgina May Drotar. It is in the spring thaw that new life and God are most potent. The old is dying off but the new has not yet arrived. It is the season that teaches us to be patient.

Read the reflection.  

From Daily Good.

Being Part of the Symphony

We spend most of our lives as part of the entire orchestra, contributing to the music with our particular talent and instrument. But sometimes we are called on to do a solo, and then we must always keep our eyes on the conductor.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Commitment to What Makes Life Worthwhile

Endurance is staying with a task that matters, regardless of how difficult it may be. But, says Joan Chittister, “The notion of endurance takes on negative overtones, when I fail to realize that it is meant to bring out the best in me, not the worst. Endurance is not misery, not martyrdom, not spiritual masochism. Endurance means that I intend to survive the worst, singing as I go.”

Read the essay.

From Benetvision and Joan Chittister.

Mosquito Bites

W.H. Auden once said that when grace enters, we must dance. But what are the little irritations that often prevent us from seeing the presence of grace – like mosquitos at a picnic?  The challenge for us is not to let the minor difficulties impair our ability to see the grace that always surrounds us.

Read the reflection.

From Fr. Ron Rolheiser.

Still Following the Epiphany Light

How do we respond when we sense God is calling us into a new relationship with Him, either by our own choice or the circumstances life has brought us? What thresholds will we need to cross, and what opportunities and challenges will we encounter along the way? How do we begin again, incorporating all that life has taught us this far?

Our online study “Following the Epiphany Light” ends this week, but the material will remain on our website. It is ideal for personal use or for small groups in your congregation.

Find the material here.

Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.

If this post was forwarded to you, sign up to receive Gathered Wisdom in your email by subscribing at wisdomyears.org.

To learn more visit our website.

Gathered Wisdom, Jan 17, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long.

-May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude
From Well for the Journey

Crossing Thresholds

“A threshold is not a simple boundary,” says the Irish poet John O’Donohue. “It is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms and atmospheres.” Thresholds bring fear, confusion, excitement, hope, or sadness. We need to see them as not only something ending but also as opportunity for something to begin.

Read more from  our current Wisdom Years online study “Following the Epiphany Light” on our website.

Learn about the entire study.

Jesus the Good Shepherd and His Discovery

Jesus called himself “the good shepherd,” but did he always know that? In his life he was more like a lost sheep, thirsty, hungry, so terribly vulnerable and alone.

Read or listen to the sermon by Br. Curtis Almquist.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Two Types Of Heartbreaks

Violence is what happens when we don’t know what else to do with our suffering, says Parker Palmer. But our hearts can react to sorrow in two ways: they can break apart like shards of glass or open wider, growing into greater capacity for love.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

It’s All About the Glass

Whether we are a glass-half-full person or a glass-half-empty person, we are living as grateful people when we are grateful for having a glass at all. “Knowing that our lives are incomprehensibly precious, fragile, and fleeting reminds us to stop in our tracks and take stock, every moment, of what matters, how much is enough, and where wisdom would direct our attention,” says Kristi Nelson.

Read the reflection.

From Grateful Living.

A Call to Awakening

“Saints are those who wake up while in this world, instead of waiting for the next one,” says Richard Rohr. “History is continually graced with people who somehow learned to act beyond and outside their self-interest and for the good of the world, people who clearly operated by a power larger than their own. Consider Gandhi, Oskar Schindler, Martin Luther King Jr. Add to them Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, Óscar Romero, César Chávez, and many unsung leaders.”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.

If this post was forwarded to you, sign up to receive Gathered Wisdom in your email by subscribing at wisdomyears.org.

To learn more visit our website.

Gathered Wisdom, Jan. 10, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

Unclench your fists.
Hold out your hands.
Take mine.
Let us hold each other…
Glory Manifest.

– “Epiphany,” Madeleine L’Engle

www.wellforthejourney.org.

Following the Epiphany Light

The magi of the Epiphany were compelled to follow the strange star that appeared in the night sky, leaving familiar territory for places that were unknown and uncomfortable. Is God calling you to follow a new road? The journey will require humility, letting go, and moving bravely in a new direction. But it may take you to an encounter with Christ. Join us for “Following the Epiphany Light, online from Jan. 9 to 23. Get the details – https://wisdomyears.org/following-the-epiphany-light/.

Sunday Musings

Genuine friendship was one of the greatest losses we’ve suffered from COVID, says Diana Butler Bass. People got out of the habit of going to parties, having lunch with friends, and going to church. With church attendance already in decline, COVID exacerbated the problem.

Read the essay.

From The Cottage.

A Revelation of Heaven on Earth

In the end we will not all go to heaven, heaven will come to us. Not in the great by-and-by, but in our ordinary lives.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

A Blessing for Learning to Let Go and Hold On

“living in the present is nice in theory. except when you are in pain.

so let’s bless that tension, the push pull of wanting to let go, sometimes needing to let go, and also needing to hold on.”

Read the rest of the blessing.

From Kate Bowler.

The Work Of Christmas In Epiphany

Theologian Howard Thurman says that the work of Christmas continues. After all the celebration on December 25, we are reminded that the real opportunity is before us.

Read the short reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.

If this post was forwarded to you, sign up to receive Gathered Wisdom in your email by subscribing at wisdomyears.org.

To learn more visit our website.

Gathered Wisdom, Jan 3, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

There will be time enough for running. 

For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. 

For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.

Jan L. Richardson, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas

Following The Epiphany Light

The magi left all that was familiar to follow a strange star, not knowing where it would take them. Their journey’s end revealed the Christ. Or was it a beginning? How is God leading you to leave what is comfortable in order to live into some new calling?

Following the Epiphany Light, the Epiphany offering from The Wisdom Years, begins January 9. Three ways to engage the study: join our Thursday-afternoon Zoom group, use the materials on your own, or gather a small group at your choice of time and location.

Materials will be posted on our website beginning January 9.

For the details.

New Year Transformation: Resources for the Journey

From Gratefulness.org, resources to support you in welcoming the new year with wholehearted curiosity, humility, courage, and a deepening appreciation of the transformative potential of these times.

See the resources.

From Grateful Living.

Staring into the Light

Fr. Ron Rolheiser repeats a story told by medical doctor and writer Rachel Naomi Remen about watching an elderly woman sit and stare into the light. She later saw the same look on the face of a newborn baby. We all, says Rolheiser, will one day be left staring into a very different light. 

Read the reflection.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

The Gerasenes Demoniac

The healing of our own personal demons takes work, grace, and time. There will be tears, there will be frustration, and there will be setbacks; but there will also be glory. That is the lesson in the story of Jesus and the demoniac in Gerasenes.

Read the reflection by Br. Br. Jack Crowley.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Remember

A poem by Joy Harjo

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.

Read the entire poem.

From Emergence Magazine.

Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.

If this post was forwarded to you, sign up to receive Gathered Wisdom in your email by subscribing at wisdomyears.org.

To learn more visit our website.

Following the Epiphany Light starts Jan 9

Following the Epiphany Light starts Jan 9

Marjorie George

The magi left all that was familiar to follow a strange star, not knowing where it would take them. Their journey’s end revealed the Christ. Or was it a beginning? How is God leading you to leave what is comfortable in order to live into some new calling?

Our Epiphany offering begins January 9 for three weeks.

Join the online conversation Jan 12, 19, and 26

4 to 5:15 pm (Central time)

Online with Zoom.

Or do the study on your own.

Each week for three weeks (on January 9, 16, and 23), we will post reading assignments, reflection prompts, and resources for “Following the Epiphany Light.” Using these materials, the Wisdom Years community will gather on Zoom as we discern together what God is calling each of us to do and be in this new year. As did the magi, we will follow the Epiphany star as we leave familiar territory for places that are unknown and require humility, letting go, and moving bravely in a new direction.

Additionally, Monday through Friday each week, we will send a daily text message, – a little Epiphany light – starting January 9.

If you want to do this study on your own, we invite you to use the materials as you wish. Or gather your own small group to meet in-person at a location of your choice.

If you want to join the Thursday afternoon online conversations please send an email to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com or wisdomyears2020.org. Indicate you want to join the Zoom conversation. Zoom gatherings will be January 12, 19, and 26 from 4 to 5:15 p.m. (Central time)

If you want to use the materials on your own or with your own small group, please send an email to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com or wisdomyears2020.org. Indicate you will be using the materials on your own. Material will be posted Jan 9, 16, and 23.

If you want to receive the daily text messages (Monday through Friday beginning January 9), please send your name and cell phone number to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com or wisdomyears2020.org.

You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to The Wisdom Years website. If you have already indicated your interest, you need do nothing more.

Visit our website at wisdomyears.org.