Tag: elders

Spiritual Listening

The way we listen to another is much more important than the words we use. “To listen another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service one human being ever performs for another,” says Quaker writer Douglas Steere. Spiritual listening is the art of becoming a listening presence, a way of being in which stillness and attentiveness provide the space for people to speak authentically and know they are being heard. 

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

The Cross as Revealing the Passion

When we are the one who takes cares of everyone else, it is hard to move from that role to being the one who is taken care of, as happens as we age or become ill.  However, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, we have an opportunity in those times to give as much to others in our passivities as in our activities. It is a time when we give our love and ourselves in a very deep way.

Read the reflection.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

Between Gift And Privilege

In various shamanic traditions, the word medicine is used to describe the unique combination of qualities that a particular living thing embodies.  A tree’s “medicine” might include the way it offers shade and shelter. In the same way, humans have medicine to offer. “Each one of us harbors a unique combination of inner gifts, waiting to be discovered, drawn out, and developed,” says Jonathan Harris.

Read or listen to the article.

From Awakin.

Listening for the Path of Life 

Brother Sean Glenn of Society of St. John the Evangelist relates that during years of intensive training for a career in music, he began to find pressures that robbed him of the early love he had for his career choice. He eventually was called to a different path. Lent, says Br. Sean, is a time when we can take stock of these dualities—these choices—in our lives. It is a time when we might ask if God is calling us to a different path. 

 Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Light a Candle for Ukraine

A Network for Grateful Living invites you to virtually light a candle for the people of Ukraine. During the lighting you may offer thoughts or prayers, joining more than 22 million people from 194 countries.

To light a candle.

From Network for Grateful Living.

Send Love – It Matters

In a lovely poem, Carrie Newcomer reminds us that even if we can’t be there to hug those who needs hugs – and food, and shelter, and hope – we can send love. Across the ocean, carried on God’s own spirit, we can send love.

Read and listen to the poem.

From Awakin.

Courage

We tend to think of courage as facing those things in life of which we are afraid.  But, says poet David Whyte, “To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences.”

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

Greater Good Resources for Peace and Conflict

The Greater Good Science Center, an educational nonprofit organization, offers resources for understanding the roots of peace, war, and reconciliation. Topics addressed in this article include Promoting peace and reconciliation, Reminders of human goodness, How political apology and forgiveness works, Resources for well-being and activism, and Resources for children’s well-being.

Read the article and find resources.

Found in Daily Good.

Our Best Farewell Gift

In Jesus’ farewell speech, he tells his followers he is leaving them his peace and his spirit.  What gift will we leave our loved ones? How can we leave a spirit of peace? Our lives and our deaths belong not just to us; they are to be given to others as a gift.

Read the reflection.

From Fr. Ron Rolheiser.

Change And New Doors

A little boy, whittling on a block of wood, just lets the shavings fall to the ground.  But our spiritual whittling means not rejecting these parts of ourselves but gathering them up and integrating them as we grow. A ministry that was once important in our lives may need to be let go for a new challenge.  

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

The 5 Kinds of Love We Often Overlook

Romantic love gets all the attention, but there are many ways to love, and not all of them involve a sexual partner, says Marisa Cohen.  Most of us give and receive more love than we realize.  Look at these five ways to experience love.

Read the essay.

From Happify Daily.

An Unusual Gift From My Grandfather

Her grandfather always brought her such unusual gifts.  The little cup full of dirt she could not play with seemed senseless to her.  But she watered it every day just as her grandfather had told her to do.  Then one day something unusual happened. She still thinks it was her first lesson in the power of service.

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

Writing a Better Story

Singer, songwriter, and poet Carrie Newcomer reflects on the stories of her life and comes up with a new storyline, in reflection and in song. “I can tell a story of love or a story of fear. I’m choosing each day to smooth down that clean page and tell a better story,” she says. What might your better story be?

Read and listen.

From Daily Good.

Trusting Our Essential Self  to God

Immense humility, not arrogance, characterizes someone who lives in his or her essential self. Richard Rohr calls it “the true self.” In this position, says Rohr, “You simultaneously know you are a child of God, but you also know that you didn’t earn it and you are not worthy of it. You know it’s entirely a gift.”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Working-Class Spirituality

Joanna Seibert reflects on the admonition of Bishop Steven Charleston that Christianity is not a spectator sport. “Eventually, all our spiritual practices connecting us to God will be calling us to some action, reaching out of ourselves in some way.”

Read the reflection.

About Joanna Seibert.

Prayer as Seeking Depth

When Jesus’ disciples asked him to “teach us to pray,” they weren’t looking for the ability to heal or do miraculous works. Rather, they saw Jesus’ depth connection to God and wanted that for themselves. 

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Fr. Ron Rolheiser.

Cognitive Bypassing

Can we change our emotions by thinking hard enough? Can we move our guts into our heads?  No, says Dr. Russell Wilson. “The uncomfortable truth is that there is a component of painful emotions that simply must be felt, as hard as that may be to hear.” 

Read the article.

From Awakin’.

On Meeting Loss, Finding Life

The continuing pandemic has brought loss and grief into every corner of our lives and our world. Perhaps we are past the point, early on, when we were anxious for life to return to “normal.” It is not going to, says Roshi Joan Halifax, and “with the widespread losses and uncertainty we now face, it is essential that we allow ourselves to grieve and to work with our fear in a wise and brave way –collectively, as well as on our own.

Read this address given by Roshi Joan Halifax on October 25, 2021, as she received the Sandy MacKinnon Award from Covenant Health, Edmonton, Canada.

From Daily Good.

Courage

Courage, says poet David Whyte, is not about bravely facing outrageously frightening situations. It is what love looks like when tested by the simple everyday necessities of being alive.

Read the reflection.

From A Network for Grateful Living.

Let The Sun Rise

In another wonderful video from Green Renaissance, James Motlhamme shares his experience of orienting to each new day with a sense of contentment and optimism. No matter how hard it gets, he says, each day the sun rises and gives us an opportunity to begin again.

Watch the video.

From A Network for Grateful Living.

The Really Terrible Orchestra

Some years ago, a group of frustrated people in Scotland decided that the pleasure of playing in an orchestra should not be limited to those who are good enough to do so, but should be available to the rankest of amateurs. So they formed The Really Terrible Orchestra, made up of those who love to play but aren’t very good at it.  Read this delightful essay about what happened next.

Read the essay.

From Daily Good.

A Prayerful Stance

Prayer, says Fr. Richard Rohr, is not words or even thinking. It is, rather, living in the awareness and presence of God right here, right now, all the time. Wherever we are, however we are, God is there with us.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

What we Do in Private

Since we are all part of the Body of Christ, everything we do affects the whole body. As Parker Palmer says, f you are here faithfully, you bring great blessing. Conversely, says Rumi,  If you are here unfaithfully, you bring great harm.

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Practicing Rehumanization as We Move Into Uncertainty

John Paul Lederach is a sociologist and specialist in conflict transformation. In this essay, Roshi Joan Halifax offers John Paul’s ideas for rehumanization in this time of uncertainty. We must foster our moral imagination in order to put others first and us second.

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

Prayer for the Earth: An Indigenous Response to These Times

A beautiful video prayer from an elder of Cherokee descent calls us back to the sacredness of earth during these hard times.  

Watch the video.

From Karmatube.

What Dying Can Teach Us about Living Better

In years of research, Dr. William Peters has found case after case in which dying persons, at the moment of death, drew on the companionship of the living. The result, he says, changes the living person’s understanding of death and life.

Read the article.

From Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper.

Peace Is Every Step: Thich Nhat Hanh’s 95-Year Earthwalk

“Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who was one of the world’s most influential Zen masters, spreading messages of mindfulness, compassion and nonviolence, died on January 22 at his home in the Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam. He was 95. A monk with global influence and an ally of Martin Luther King, he championed what he called ‘engaged Buddhism.'” This piece is from the New York Times, shared by Daily Good. 

Read more.

From Daily Good.

Finding God’s Will

We ask what is God’s will for us. We search for it and lament when we think we have missed it. But Diana Butler Bass finds that God’s will is for us to receive what God desires and to build communities around it.

Read the reflection.

From The Cottage.

Displacing Ego and Narcissism

We tend to assess the quality of things by how we ourselves are doing.  Do we need to kill our egos? No, says Ron Rolheiser, but we need to remember from whence come our gifts.

Read the reflection.

More about Fr. Ron.