Tag: lent

Gathered Wisdom, Mar 15, 2025

Marjorie George

A collection of inspiration and resources for your spiritual journey, gathered from websites, blogs, and pass-alongs that have been shared with us.

Let me not look away, O God, from any truth I should see. Even if it is difficult, let me face the reality in which I live. Help me to see the world through other eyes, to listen to voices distant and different. Let me not look away.
-The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, Spirit Wheel
From Well for the Journey

Reflections

Conversations for Lent

Join the Wisdom Years community as we consider how Jesus is present in all of our life through some guided conversations this Lent.  We will gather by Zoom on Thursdays, March 20 through April 10 at 4 p.m. Central time.

If you would like to receive the Zoom links for the weekly conversations, send an email to marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com. (If you were part of the recent study on Ladder to the Light you will receive the Zoom link automatically,)

For the weekly conversation topics, go here.

Ash Wednesday

In the story of Jonah’s running away from God, Amanda Opelt finds pride in the prophet’s action. She calls us to look at our own prideful ways (“the most sly and insidious sin the Christian will struggle with”) and take on humility this Lent.

Read the reflection.

From Renovare.

An Ever-Unfolding Purpose

What does it mean to be guided by the Holy Spirit? Brother Keith Nelson of Society of St. John the Evangelist says “the pressure exerted upon us by the Holy Spirit is always creative, generative, and life-giving beyond what we can anticipate or imagine.” We are pressured from within to always become more, but the goal is not to be perfect.

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

The Desert: A Place of Preparation

“The desert is that place where we go to face our demons, feel our smallness, be in a special intimacy with God, and prepare ourselves for the promised land,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. Desert-time, he says, is time “to courageously face the chaos and the demons within us and to let God do battle with them through us.”  This is Lent.

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Grace Is God’s Name

Grace is not something God gives, it is who God is, says Richard Rohr. “God’s job is to make up for all the deficiencies in the universe,” says Rohr. “What else would God do?”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Lent Resources

Lent Reading Guide from Renovare
Using lectio divina, this guide draws on excerpts from the Gospel of John that give a big-picture account of Jesus’ passion, crucifixion, and resurrection. The lectio divina method is not just reading, but opens up conversation with God.
Find it here.

Virtual Sit Meditations
Join the staff of Center for Action and Contemplation every Sunday during Lent at 8:30 a.m. (PT) for a period of silence and contemplation. In addition, sign up for the free Lenten email series. Every week, you will receive a teaching in your inbox to inspire your Lenten practice and prepare you for the next virtual sit meditation.
For the details.

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.

Soul Stirrings Lenten Retreat

Soul Stirrings Lenten Retreat

Marjorie George

Friday, March 11

10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

At the Bishop Jones Center in San Antonio

An offering of The Wisdom Years

Our in-person Lenten retreat will look at some of the wisdom figures in scripture and in the words of writers who present ancient understandings of the wisdom characteristics of God.

The day will include:

  • some brief presentations
  • time on the grounds to reflect and respond by painting, taking photos, journaling, writing, or just sitting and enjoying nature. (Bring your own supplies.)
  • small-group work
  • lunch
  • Eucharist

Cost of $30 includes box lunch.

To save your space and for further registration information, email to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com. Participants will be limited in number – only 24 spaces available.

The Bishop Jones Center is located at 111 Torcido, San Antonio TX 78209 in a calm and beautiful natural setting.

For everyone’s safety, we ask that those who attend be fully vaccinated against COVID and willing to wear a mask indoors.

For more information about The Wisdom Years, visit our website at www.wisdomyears.org.