Tag: jesus

Gathered Wisdom, Oct 29, 2024

Marjorie George

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

A prayer for All Saints Day, November 1:
We pray for the “whole family of God, the living and the dead, those whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by sacrament, prayer, and praise” (Book of Common Prayer pg 862).

Who are the Saints

On November 1 each year, the Church celebrates All Saints Day in which we remember those we love but see no longer. In this sermon, Richard Rohr tells us saints are those who have been wounded and healed – not just people who reached perfection, but ordinary people like us.

Listen to the sermon.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

The Unclarity of Holiness

We live in a time of chaos and confusion. We long for clear and fruitful outcomes, and we want to know how we will get there, if we will get there. Br. Lucas Hall says we are to trust that “these confusing things, these things that we can’t clearly parse, will be used to the promised victory of God.”

Read or listen to the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Love Beyond Death

Why do we continue to pray for the dead? It is not because they need God’s mercy and forgiveness. It is to continue to be in communication with them, “to remain mindful of the special oxygen they breathed into the planet during their life, and to occasionally share a celebratory glass of wine with them.”

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser blog.

Four Stories of Mercy

The little girl needed someone to help her cry, so she climbed up into the lap of the nurse at the girls school in Sudan. Sister Marilyn Lacey of Mercy Beyond Borders tells this and more stories of compassion.

Watch the video or read the article.

Found in Daily Good.

Election Night Vigil

Join the Brothers of Society of St John the Evangelist in a vigil on Election Night, Tuesday, November 5. In the face of anxiety, uncertainty, and exhaustion around the 2024 Presidential Election, we invite you to join the Brothers in prayer to God our Creator and Governor for unity, guidance, and protection. The vigil begins at 7:00 PM Eastern Time in St. John’s Chapel, following the Holy Eucharist, and continues until the final polls close at 1:00 AM.

Join at any point in person or online at ssje.org/livestream.

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, Oct 1, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Your sacred space is where you find yourself over and over again. 

-Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion 

New Beginnings

Retirement is one of the many transitions we face in the last third of life. And though we may choose it and welcome it, we still will go through difficult emotions. Hilda Davis offers this Flourishing in Transition (FIT) ritual as we seek clarity for the path ahead.

Read the article.

From the Fuller De Pree Center.

Autumn and Impermanence

Autumn reminds us that there is a time to let go. Every autumn, says Joyce Rupp, “I turn and face the big question: how to cherish who and what I have but to hold these gifts freely, with open hands and heart.”

Read the reflection. 

From Joyce Rupp.

Patience with God

Our greatest faith struggle, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, is being patient with God. Jesus said the meek will inherit the earth, but mostly it doesn’t seem so. Justice does not seem to prevail. “How long, O Lord?” we ask.

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser.

Practicing the Gospel

The early Franciscan friars were more interested in practicing and living the gospel than in simply teaching about it. What about us? The prophets ask, “Why aren’t you doing what you say you believe?”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

God Callings

It is not just in our quiet time that we connect with God. Everything we do, all day long, is part of our following and serving God.  Sometimes we are doing, other times we are being – it is all our offering to God.

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, 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, Apr 2, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Behold my friends, the spring has come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!

-Sitting Bull as quoted in Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches by Mark Diedrich
From Well for the journey

Resurrection Fuels Action

If we don’t believe and live out Christ’s resurrection, how will we pray for God’s kingdom to come?  “How will we credibly usher in that kingdom in whatever small ways we can here and now, if we don’t believe in its ultimate fulfillment,” asks Debie Thomas, writing in CAC’s daily meditations.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

The Resurrection Gives Hope

The good news of the resurrection is not simply a promise to you and to me. It is a promise to all creation, that all things will be made new.  “In a world that stinks, the resurrection of Jesus is good news to all,” says Br. James Koester, “because it is a promise of life that is mended, healed, cleansed, and restored.” 

Read or listen to the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Nouwen: Easter Resurrection

There are many reasons we can lose our identity and our connection to God, says Joanna Seibert. Most of the reasons are based in fear.  It is in community that we are restored, with the help of others who tell their own stories.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Music rejuvenates memories of dementia patients

“Music is the one thing that opens up people’s brains, and it helps fire off neurons on both hemispheres of the brain,” say scientists and doctors.  Children are often amazed when their parents who suffer from dementia come alive when they hear a familiar tune.

Read the article.

Found at public radio station WLRN in South Florida.

Spring

By Mary Oliver

Somewhere
a black bear
has just risen from sleep
and is staring
down the mountain

Read the rest of the poem.

Found at tumblr online.

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, Mar 5, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Words may help, and silence may help, but the one thing that is needed is that the heart should turn to its Maker as the needle turns to the pole. For this, we must be still.

-Caroline Stephen (1834-1909), Quaker Strongholds
Found in Well for the Journey

Ways to Heal

Look, honor, and receive – three of the ways Jesus engages healing. What might you see, what might you learn, and from whom if you did the same?

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Making a Morning Connection

Before we check our email, before we watch the news or plan our day, go out into the garden, says Richard Rohr. There we will find what is real. “If we can find a way to be present to the ‘givens,’ especially the natural ‘givens,’ I believe we can be happy,” says Rohr.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Entering Lent

Is it necessary to sit in the ashes of Lent? Some theologians say yes. In this and other mythical images, Fr. Ron Rolheiser gives us an explanation of aspects of Lent.

Read the reflection.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

Freedom to Choose to Care

We can choose to give away our last dollar. Or not.  If you take the dollar from your pocket, says Terry Hershey, you open yourself to change. It will require action and the acceptance of any consequences of that choice. However, the music you make will be life-giving to anyone around you.

Read the reflection.

From Sabbath Moment.

A Different Kind of Fast

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. The Wisdom Years Lenten study on our website asks us to give up not just material goods but spiritual illnesses such as needing to be in control and rushing through life.

The study is designed for small groups and individuals. Do on your own or join our Zoom gatherings on Thursday afternoons.

To learn more

From The Wisdom Years.

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 20, 2024

Marjorie George

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

This Lent, God’s invitation is to join in the great work of mending. That’s what redemption means: mending something that is torn or broken. Each one of us is called to share with God in mending that which is broken: our relationship with God, our relationship with one another, our relationship with our broken planet.

Br. Geoffrey Tristram, SSJE
Read More

Reclaimed by Something Deeper

“Deep communion and dear compassion are formed much more by shared pain than by shared pleasure,” says Richard Rohr. Our wounds make sacred medicine. We must allow ourselves to be reclaimed by something deeper than the pain before us.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Permission to let go

For Lent, Terry Hershey plans to honor a soft heart and make choices that spill from a soft heart. As Etty Hillesum said, “Ultimately, we have just one moral duty. To reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others.”

Read the reflection.

From Sabbath Moment.

Fear as an Invitation

The Sea of Galilee is a large fresh-water lake in northern Israel/Palestine that is prone to sudden and violent storms. This must be what happened to Jesus and the Disciples in the biblical story about Jesus calming the storm  (Luke 8:22–25) We also are afraid for our lives, with good reason, but Jesus assures us not to fear.

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Effort Does Not Change The Person

“Holiness is not an achievement; it is a grace,” says Anthony De Mello. It is only our nonjudgmental awareness that heals and changes and makes us grow. But in its own way and at its own time.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Lenten Ashes

What is the symbolism of the ashes put on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday? “Smudging oneself with ashes says that this is not a season of celebration for you, that some important work is going on inside you, and that you are, metaphorically and really, in the cinders of a dead fire, waiting for something fuller in your life,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser.

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser’s blog.

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 13, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos
where you find
the peace
you did not think possible
and see what shimmers
beneath the storm

-Jan Richardson, The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings

Watching, Waiting, Working for Jesus

As Bro. Curtis Almquist reminds us, “Lent is upon us.” Ash Wednesday is tomorrow. We remember the time Jesus spent in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. It was a time for Jesus “to re-align himself to why God had given him life: to claim the right purpose, the right power, the right voice God had given him.” The focus of Lent, says Bro. Almquist, “can create space anew for the light, and life, and love to Jesus to teem in us and through us to our desperately broken world. Lent is to help us.”

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.
Visit their website for their Lenten study offering.

Love: The Fire of Transformation

Ilia Delio sees love as a fire of transformation. God’s fire, she says, “is destructive because it can swiftly eliminate all self-illusions, grandiose ideas, ego-inflation, and self-centeredness.” God’s fire will forge us into an ever-radiant new presence of God because God is forever being born within us.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.
CAC will offer virtual sit meditations during Lent. Learn more here.

Our Struggle with Riches

God is not against people having wealth – of money or talent or strength. The problem is that our wealth makes us think that we are self-sufficient, that we don’t need God. Jesus told us to be like little children because they understand that they need help.

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser.

For the Love of God

Were the desert mothers and fathers just a set of cranky, people-hating monastics? Or did they really give up all they had and move into caves the better to love God?

Read the book excerpt.

From Renovare.

Benedictine Way Of Life

Benedict cautions us to “listen with the ear of your heart.” This is the call to the spiritual life, says Deacon Joanna Seibert. It is a way to live in the world still connected to God. “First, we are to listen and pay attention. We are to use the ear of our hearts. We are to connect to something outside ourselves, hearing and loving. We hear and learn about love in a community outside of ourselves.”

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.