Tag: god

Gathered Wisdom, Sept 24, 2024

Marjorie George

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

May I be open to the teachings of this season of autumn, and turn, as autumn does, toward opportunities for my spiritual transformation.

Joyce Rupp, Out of the Ordinary
Found in Well for the Journey

Woe to you

We don’t like the hard sayings of Jesus. We want to hear words of comfort and forgiveness and acceptance. But sometimes we need to heed Jesus’ condemnation and call to repentance.

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

It’s Okay To Be Perfectly Human

Why are we so hard on ourselves? We expect ourselves to be perfect, but being “perfectly human” means we will make mistakes, and when we do, we can admit them and learn from them. 

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Marrying Orthodoxy To Orthopraxy

We may be able to articulate what we believe as Christians, but do we put it into action? “We are called to study God and the Spirit,” says Deacon Joanna Seibert, “but we are also compelled to find the God within ourselves, leading us to discover and connect to the God in others.”

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Joanna Seibert.

The Spiritual Meaning of the Autumn Equinox

The seasons of spring and summer, with their long days, are all about play and pleasure, notes Julie Peters writing in Spirituality and Health. During fall and winter, we have more hours of darkness than of light, more time for rest, solitude, and reflection.

Read the article.

From Spirituality and Health.

But We Had Music

Even while we watch our society fall apart, a single episode with nature can bolster hope.  For this poet it was the starlings. This short video sets Maria Popova’s poem “But We Had Music” to captivating visuals. 

Watch and listen.

From Daily Good.

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

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Gathered Wisdom, July 10, 2024

Marjorie George

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

The compassion that I am learning to offer myself expands outward into compassion for others, as well. 

-Katrina Kenison, Magical Journey
From Well for the Journey

Reweaving the Apocalypse

We may think that the tapestry of our life is ended. But perhaps there is a new tapestry to weave in these later years.

Read the reflection.

From William Martin.

Gospel Challenge

Fr. Ron Rolheiser reminds us that “gospel” means “good news,” not “good advice.” The gospels, says Rolheiser,  “are not so much a spiritual and moral theology book that tell us what we should be doing but are more an account of what God has already done for us.” Zacchaeus is our model.

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

The Eagle And The Chicken

The baby eagle grew up in a chicken coop and consequently thought he was a chicken. A naturalist came along and convinced him he was really an eagle. What is your reaction to this interesting fable? Would you have left the bird alone to be a happy chicken, or keep urging him to embrace his true nature?

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Life and the Living God

Br. Lucas Hall reminds us that God is not simply a concept – a set of principles or a series of instructions that we simply need to download into our brains and then we’ll be good. God is active, because life is active. Life moves. Life responds. We are invited to participate in that living.

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

A Foundational Practice

The ego insists on knowing and being certain; it refuses all unknowing, says Richard Rohr. “We cannot grow in the great art form, the integrative dance of action and contemplation, without a strong tolerance for ambiguity, an ability to allow, forgive, and contain a certain degree of anxiety, and a willingness to not know—and not even need to know,” says Rohr.

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, May 7, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Prayer is a mystery that begins in God. Our prayer is always in response to God’s initiative. It is God who has caught our attention.

Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE
Read More

Space that can Heal

Stillness and silence can be a fullness, rather than a void, says Terry Hershey. Healing space, he adds, is “an invitation to the sacrament of the present moment. To be here now. Fully.”

Read the reflection.

From Sabbath Moment.

God Is Bringing Us Home

As we age, we face “uncreation,” says Richard Rohr. What we have created in our younger years is no longer important. “My self-created self gave me a nice trail to walk on, and something to do each day, but it isn’t really me. It might be my career or my vocation; yet as good as it is, it isn’t my True Self. ” 

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Following Jesus – According to the Letter or the Spirit?

No matter how determined we are to right the wrongs of the Church, our bitterness, anger, judgmentalism, and mean spiritedness are not the way to do it, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. Right truth and right morals don’t necessarily make us disciples of Jesus.

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser’s blog.

Luminous Darkness and Holding My Thumb

Lucy Grace grew up in a neighborhood where gangs ruled and initiation into them involved things like raping someone’s mother. But Lucy learned to hold her thumb as a symbol of how things would be better some day.

Read the reflection.

Found in Daily Good.

Love God and Do What You Want

It is always a shock to learn that St Augustine said, “Love God and do what you want.” The kicker is that if we love God, what we will want is to be like Jesus. To do that, we must learn to love as Jesus did. 

Read the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

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, Apr 23, 2024

Marjorie George

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

God’s mission is to restore and renew all of creation in a loving embrace. Jesus intercedes and invites our participation.

Br. Luke Ditewig, SSJE
Read More and Comment

Dancing with the Enemy

A beloved professor tells the story of Jewish students and Muslims students going to New Orleans together to help clean up after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. It was a strained relationship until they started dancing.

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

Learning to See

The woman who was out of place, the woman who had just poured expensive perfume all over Jesus.  Simon saw a sinner; Jesus saw a woman in pain. Do we actually “see” those in need that Jesus places in front of us?

Read the article.

From Renovare.

In Safer Hands than Ours

Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that at funerals, he tells the grieving family that their loved one  “is now in hands safer than ours.” Our God is reliable, says Rolheiser. “Ultimately, God is not a God who cannot protect us, but is a God in whose hands and in whose promise we are far safer than when we rely upon ourselves.”

Read the reflection.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

An Interrupted Life

Christian philanthropist Fred Smith says that Paul’s Letter to the Romans “has had more impact on Western civilization and the life of the Church than any other he wrote.” Yet Paul never intended to stay in Rome; he was only passing through on his way to Spain. How do we deal with it when our plans are totally derailed by something not of our own making? Can we see it as God’s plan for us?

Read the reflection.

From The Gathering.

Healing Power of Presence

Sometimes you just need a friend to hold your hand. Sometimes you need to be a friend who will hold someone’s hand.

Read the reflection.

From Sabbath Moment.

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, Mar 19, 2024

Marjorie George

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

“A cherry tree doesn’t compare itself to other trees,” said Big Panda, “it just blossoms.”

-James Norbury, Big Panda & Tiny Dragon
Found in Well for the journey

Organizing With Love

Author Adrienne Maree Brown is a fan of mushrooms and dandelions because they are both so resilient. Humans are like that when they are engaging out of love. Perhaps humans’ core function is love, says Brown.

Read the essay.

From Awakin.

Our Cornerstone Spiritual Practice

Peace is our starting point in life, not its goal. “Peace is our rock of stability when all is in chaos and mountains slip into the sea,” says Bob Holmes. “Peace is the Christ energy in our hearts that holds all things together, connecting us into this Christ soaked universe at its quantum energetic source.”

Read the reflection.

From Contemplative Monk.

Ask, Search, Knock… and Wait

Jesus tells us to ask, search, and knock in the Gospel of Matthew (7:7-8). But what if we ask and receive nothing, or search and don’t find, or knock and the door remains closed. Asking, searching, and knocking bring us to a vulnerable stance, and vulnerability is the experience of uncertainty.

Read the reflection. 

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

God’s Inexhaustibility

“For all of us,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, “there are times in life when we seem to lose hope, when we look at the world or at ourselves and, consciously or unconsciously, think: ‘It’s too late! This has gone too far! Nothing can redeem this! All the chances to change this have been used up! It’s hopeless!’”

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser.

God’s Presence

God is never absent. Never, ever, ever. We need to remind ourselves about this every day, every moment. We are never alone. The vastness of God’s presence and love is more incredible than we can know, feel, or imagine.

Read the 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, Feb 27, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you.

-Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom, Stories That Heal

Feeling Lost? Here Are Four Steps to Finding Your Path

No matter our age, checking in with ourselves to see if we are living our values adds meaning and purpose to life. Here are some research-tested ways to figure out a way forward when we get derailed.

Read the article.

From Greater Good Magazine.

Flying Loose in Turbulent Times

“We are living through the breakdown and breaking open of much that has defined modern life,” says Cameron Timble, a pilot and pastor. It’s time to loosen our grip.

Read the article.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Healing Power of Sanctuary

Terry Hershey quotes Joseph Campbell: we all must “have a room, or a certain hour (or so) a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. If you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.”

Read the reflection.

From Sabbath Moment.

Remaining Grace

Abide has  a “gutsy quality” to it, says Br. Luke Ditewig. “Abide also means to remain or to stick with through challenge. Jesus says: ‘the Father stuck with me. I’ll stick with you no matter what. Abide in my love,’ Jesus says. ‘Remain with me.’ ”

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Ultimate Consolation

Do we always have to open the door to let Christ in? Is the doorknob on the inside or on the outside? In John’s gospel, Christ goes to the huddled disciples after the resurrection and walks through the door. What does that teach us?

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.

Gathered Wisdom, Dec 12, 2023

Marjorie George

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

We are so often in too much of a hurry, expecting God, at our bidding, to work miracles overnight. And we often judge the progress of God’s Kingdom by what we can see. But so often the real growth happens unseen. 

Br. Geoffrey Tristram, SSJE
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Voluntary Simplicity

Voluntary simplicity is about doing one thing at a time and being present at the doing of it. It is taking a walk and noticing what there is to see and smell. It means “going fewer places in one day rather than more, seeing less so I can see more, doing less so I can do more, acquiring less so I can have more,” says Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Read the essay.

From Awakin.

The Constellation of Your Belonging

This brief meditation invites us to imagine the constellation of our life. Using guided visualization and reflective prompts, this simple practice invites us into the realization of our connectedness to ourselves and everything around us.

Engage with the practice/meditation.

From Grateful Living.

Telling our story this Advent

It is easy to give up as we get older. To think there is nothing new to learn. To believe we are no longer needed. But Joanna Seibert reminds us of the importance of telling our stories, especially to our families.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Mary as a Model of Faith

Giving birth to Christ is something more than biological, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. “Mary is the pre-eminent example of the one who hears the word of God and keeps it. For this reason, more than because of biological motherhood, Jesus claims her as his mother.”  And we, too, are asked to give birth to faith.

Read the essay.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

The Spiritual Practice of Awe

What does it mean to experience awe? Is it sitting in your backyard listening to the songbirds? Or seeing a magnificent sunset? But can it also be seeing the scab that has grown over a cut on your arm or looking into the face of your neighbor?

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.