Tag: last third of life

Tale of the Ringless Ring

A man in a small village had to move to a different city for work. He wanted to take and wear his spiritual leader’s ring to remember him by.  But the spiritual teacher had a better idea: the man would not take the ring and thereby remember the spiritual teacher every time he looked at his empty ring finger.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Becoming A Compassionate Neighbor to Myself

If we are going to live with compassion for others, we must start with compassion for ourselves.  Processing our own pain helps us reach into the hearts of others who are in pain.

Read the reflection.

From Upper Room.

Life and the Living God

Walking through a forest, Br. Lucas Hall realized that our God is a living God. He participates in the growth experience. Our God does not just passively accept what we bring to Him. He is actively involved with things that are alive and give life rather than things that are static.

Read or listen to the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

How the Soul Matures

The process of dying is calibrated by God and nature “to help ease our grip on this world and more gracefully move on to the next world,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser.   The breakdown of our bodies deepens, softens, and matures the soul.

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser.

Surrendering to the Present Moment

If we pay attention we will see that most of our life is lived in the past or future rather than in the present. In fact, “the only way many of us know how to motivate ourselves is to create problems or to need to ‘fix’ someone or ourselves,” says Richard Rohr.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Understanding and Appreciating Our Differences

Our differences are grace, contends Fr. Ron Rolheiser.  There is in scripture a “strong, recurring motif,” says Rolheiser, “that God’s message to us generally comes through the stranger, the foreigner, from the one who is different from us, from a source from which we would never expect to hear God’s voice.”

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Praying With the News

Sometimes – actually often these days – the evening news programs leave us in anger and fear when we learn about the hatred and divisiveness of our society. But Rabbi Yael Levy uses this opportunity to pray for those affected by what we see and hear. 

Read the reflection.

From Awakin. 

Pathway Of Discernment

Ignatius of Loyola taught a method of discernment that involves active imagination. It includes envisioning the outcomes from the choices we make. The presence of peace becomes the defining moment.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert’s blog.

Sitting Alongside Suffering

What do we do when we cannot alleviate the suffering of someone we love? We want to spare this person’s pain, but we cannot. Best to sit alongside and massage the person’s feet.

Read the reflection.

From The Examined Family.

Who Is My Neighbor?

The story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), says Brother Geoffrey Tristram of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, is about boundaries. The priest and the Levite who “walked by on the other side” when they saw the beaten and robbed man were staying within the boundaries set by their religion and culture. The story is about God’s mercy – a mercy that has no boundaries.

Read or listen to Brother Geoffrey’s sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Dolphins And Going Deeper

Dolphins, says Joanna Seibert, can be seen as a metaphor for our journey “to the ground of our being ” as the Spirit leads us to the Christ deep within us. Dolphin-watching is easier when the sea is still, not choppy. So it is with our lives: “When the waves are too high, and the weather is stormy, the parts of ourselves showing us the path may be less visible.”

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

The Practice of Tsundoku & Why You May Want to Adopt It

Are there tons of books on your bookshelf that you swore you were going to read but you never did and now you feel guilty about it? Take heart – this may be a good thing. The Japanese call it tsundoku.

Read the article.

From Big Think.

Julian of Norwich

“If we only knew how God feels toward us, we would run to him with complete trust,” says Grace Pouch of Renovare. That is one of the deep theological truths that was revealed to Julian of Norwich in the “showings.” Mimi Dixon and Nathan Foster explore this thought in an encore podcast from Renovare.

Listen to the podcast. (It’s long – almost an hour.)

From Renovare.

Lion Heart

Pain is an emotion that has not settled down. It is behind a door that we have closed to shut it away. But pain is a remedy, says Luzuko Madonci.  It can be a healer, a helper, a teacher, a residue of something good that is happening.

Watch the video.

From Karmatube.

The Perils of Safety

Are we too cautious? asks Fr. Ron Rolheiser. . “Are our lives really about love and generosity rather than fear and self-protection?” Sometimes we can be so cautious and timid that fear rather than love becomes the compass for our life.

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Claiming My Now

A Wisdom Years Workshop
for older adults
July 15, 2023, 9 am to 1 pm

Each season of life brings new revelations, new challenges, new blessings. During the “wisdom years” – the last third of life – while the body diminishes, the spiritual longing for a deeper relationship with God increases. Our “Claiming My Now” workshop is an opportunity to consider how we can navigate the joys and the challenges of the later years of life.

Get all the details.

How to Make Stress Your Friend

We are all used to being told to reduce the amount of stress in our lives. But health psychologist Kelly McGonigal has discovered that stress can actually be good for us and even make us more social.

Watch the TED talk or read the transcript.

Found in Daily Good. 

When Fear is All Around

Like the disciples in the boat when the great storm arose, we are surrounded by fear in these days – if not because of the political and social climate, then because of our personal experiences: a life-threatening illness, or the break-up of a marriage or friendship, a damaged career or an uncertain economic future.  Like Jesus, we must speak to our fears, says Brother David Vryhof.

Read the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

The Quid for Which There is No Quo

Consider the Amaryllis Belladonna, that, like the lilies of the field,  “neither toil nor spin” (Matt 6:28) yet are beautiful. And they show up just when you have given them up for dead.  Perhaps there is a lesson for us in the flowers.

Read the delightful essay.

From Daily Good.

Prayer Times

Deacon Joanna Seibert reminds us that from our Jewish forebearers we inherited a pattern of prayer three times a day. Early Christians often took to heart Psalm 119:164, “Seven times a day do I praise you.” By the Middle Ages, says Seibert, monks had developed a tradition of seven daily prayer times. In our day we can strengthen our prayers by intentionally adding Noonday Prayers and Compline to our daily routine.  The forms for both are in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

Read more.

From Joanna Seibert.

12 Truths I Learned from Life and Writing

The delightful and wise writer Anne Lamott offers 12 things she knows almost for sure as she leans in to being over 60. Thing number 2, for instance, is “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes — including you. ”

Read or listen to the TED Talk.

Found in Daily Good.

Resurrection is Messy

Our true selves are not defined by our virtue or accomplishments.  Our true selves are known best by our scars. Jesus’ scars did not go away after he was raised from death. When he appeared to his disciples he invited them to see the scars on his hands and his side.

Read the reflection.

From The Corners by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Synchronicity

We all have had the experience of running into just the right person, receiving just the right phone call, coming across just the right word when we needed it. These coincidences are known by some  as times of “synchronicity.” Patrick Murray calls them “moments of transformation.” They embrace us with a profound sense that life is ultimately purposeful, says Joanna Seibert.

Read the short reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Shape Of Silence

Writer Kent Nerburn invites us to pay attention to the silence that surrounds each day. “A day comes alive by the silence that surrounds our actions,” he says. “The shape of the silence that surrounds us . . . opens our heart to the unseen, and reminds us that the world is larger than the events that fill our days.”

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

A Lesson in Aging

Aging is a gift, even if unwanted, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser.  Aging, he says, “forces us, mostly against our will, to listen to our soul more deeply and more honestly so as to draw from its deeper wells and begin to make peace with its complexity, its shadow, and its deepest proclivities.” 

Read the reflection.

rom the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

An Open Empty Space

Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline, insists that regularly-scheduled private retreats are essential for spiritual growth. In this, we follow our leader, Jesus, who often went away to a lonely place for prayer and refreshment.

Read the reflection.

From Renovare.

Making It Real

We are limited, fallible, frail creatures, says Br. Lain Wilson of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. So when Jesus says to us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (Jn 14:1). Do we believe him? God is always speaking to us—in word and image, relationship and experience, memory and imagination. God is always speaking to us, and it’s up to us to learn how to listen. 

Read the reflection.

From SSJE.

See The Universe In A Sunflower

Just because we can’t see something right now doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It’s just a matter of time and latent conditions says Thich Nhat Hanh.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Trusting God

Even when we feel out of control, the psalmist teaches us to recall God’s past faithfulness and look toward to the future with trust.

Find the materials for week 5 of The Wisdom Years psalms study, “God’s People Speak to God.”