Tag: elders

A Quiet Morning

If you live in the San Antonio area,
join us for a morning of quiet and reflection
on the beautiful grounds
of the Bishop Jones Center,

Saturday, April 27, 9 a.m. to noon.

Click here for the details.

12 Truths I Learned from Life and Writing

With her characteristic wit and wisdom, Anne Lamott offers some lessons for all of us to think about. “Number two: almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes — including you.”

Read or watch the TED talk.

Found in Daily Good.

Feet

Joanna Seibert recalls the story of the accident that changed her life and set her on the course of ministry that became her life’s work. Her career in pediatric radiology, working in recovery, becoming a spiritual director, and being a pastoral caregiver—all have opened up to her as a direct result of her broken feet, she says.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna’s blog.

The Transformative Power of Art

“Art images are real and alive and have the power to change us and cause change,” says Richard Rohr. “They can shift our perspective on what we thought we knew and understood about a subject.” Art is more than decoration, he says. It can be an entirely new experience, “which perhaps cannot be accessed in another way.”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Love Alive

When you are troubled, speak your truth and stay in community, says Br. Luke Ditewig. “If you are waiting for new life, tell a trusted companion or group your experience and let them wait with you,” he adds.

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

The Light of Grace

His parents told him he could buy whatever he wanted with his newspaper income, but when he bought a conga drum for twenty dollars, his father made him take it back. It was a memory that never left him.

Read the story.

From Terry Hershey’s Sabbath Moment.

When My Father Faced An Emergency

What did her father do in an emergency, she was asked. You mean like the time the young man held them at knife-point while they were driving on the Big Sur coastline in California? That emergency? He was curious.

Read the delightful story.

From Awakin.

The Story of Accumulation

“The more you think you need to accumulate, the bigger fence you need to build around yourself and the fewer people you will trust and let into your life,” says Gareth Higgins, writing in Center for Action and Contemplation. “It’s the inverse of what it means to live in true peace and security, which only comes in the context of relationship with people you can trust.”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

A Lenten Fast to Live By

For what do you hunger? Can you even name it? Peace, yes, and freedom from fear. Safety for our children. A sense of spiritual well-being. And yet, our very daily practices undermine what we claim as our desires. Join the Wisdom Years community for a Lenten fast that invites us to lay down the old patterns and habits that deplete us and obstruct our full access to the divine image into which we were created.

Our study is from Feb 15 to March 21. We will meet weekly on Zoom for conversation, or you can use the material on you own.

To learn more

From The Wisdom Years.

The Dark Night as Impasse

Many good, healthy Christians speak of the “dark night of the soul,” a time when one feels completely bereft of God. It is a time when, as Fr. Ron Rolheiser puts it, “All the former ways you understood, imagined, and felt about things, especially as this relates to God, faith, and prayer, no longer work for you.”

Read the reflection.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

Paradox Holds Us

Author Debie Thomas reminds us that even when evil is real and among us, like the weeds growing alongside the wheat in the field, our railing against it will not change it. Rather, God has a plan and is in charge.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Effort Does Not Change the Person

Anthony DeMello reminds us that our intervention alone does not change a person. It is not what we do that brings holiness, says DeMello. “Holiness is not an achievement; it is a grace.”

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Giving Ourselves a Better Story

“Whether we feel good or bad about ourselves,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, “is often predicated on what kind of story we understand ourselves as living within.”  Christians recognize that we live within a bigger story than our own, and that gives meaning and dignity to our problems.

Read the essay.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Prayer for the New Year

Courtney Martin prays for peace, “By which,” she says, “I mean both may we not murder other people’s children, and also may we apologize to our own when we lob empty threats their way because we still haven’t learned how to take the deep breaths we are constantly asking them to take.”

Read the rest of the offered prayers.

From The Examined Family.

The Precious Present

Living in our bodies not our heads, spending time with children, walking in nature are all ways to be present to the moment. “God is not in the past or the future, but is there to greet us in the present moment,” says Joanna Seibert.

Read the short reflection.

From Joanna Seiberts’ blog.

Epiphany: The Lighted Path

Fr. Ron Rolheiser looks at the difference between King Herod’s reaction at the news of the birth of Jesus and that of the Wise Men in the biblical story. One seeks to kill the new king, the others bring  gifts. How do you react when your star is being eclipsed? This article and more are part of the Wisdom Years Epiphany study now on the Wisdom Years website. (Art by Helen Taylor.)

Find the material for the entire study here.

From The Wisdom Years.

An Awe Walk

Dacher Keltner describes awe as “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world” – a magnificent sunset, a tiny baby’s finger. But participants in recent research reported finding awe in ordinary places. Keltner suggests taking an “awe walk.”

Read the article.

From Awakin.

Epiphany Wisdom from the Wise Men

Joanna Seibert tells the story from Tolstoy about the three old hermits who turned out to be wiser than the bishop. She recalls that in the many times when she has tried to share her wisdom in retreats and classes, she most often learns from those who have been down-and-out.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Healing from grace

Terry Hershey recalls a story of how a poem brought healing to a group of young Kenyan women who were escaping from the horror of genital mutilation. Words of a poem have the power “to open doors, rather than shut them. To invite vulnerability, rather than disconnect us from our heart. To create space to give, rather than put up rigid boundaries that divide us from one another.”

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey’s Sabbath Moment.

The Dance of Hope

“The roots of fear run deep,” says Steven Charleston in his book about the survival of Native Americans.  In today’s world, “the hope we embrace must run just as deep. No matter what happens we must keep dancing, hand in hand, joined in a circle of equality, constantly moving in the slow rotation of justice and prayer.”

Read the reflection.

Found in Center for Action and Contemplation Daily Meditations.