Tag: older adults

Gathered Wisdom, May 2, 2023

Marjorie George

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

Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.

-Erol Ozan, Talus
Found at Well for the Journey

In the Shelter of Each Other

What do Mr. Rogers and Willie Nelson have in common? They are what Terry Hershey calls church.

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey Sabbath Moment

Embracing Change

Esther de Waal finds that the Christian journey – like the journey of the Hebrews across the desert – is full of uncertainties. Christ, she says,  “challenges people to leave their nets, or to leave a nice safe booth, and follow him.”

Read the reflection

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Loss Gave Life to My Empathy

He was expecting a day full of fun with his family, then unexpected death abruptly overcame their plans. He now knows that episode shaped his life and his career.

Read the story.

From Grateful Living.

The Journey of Healing and Faith

“We may feel tempted to hide beneath our scars thinking they are still wounds,” says Br. Jack Crowley from the Society of St. John the Evangelist. Or we can look at the scars as reminders that we have been healed. “We can smile with the wrinkles around our eyes.”

Read the sermon.

From Society of St.John the Evangelist.

The History of the Journey

The Israelites remembered their salvation journey in the history psalms. These they told to their children as they recalled and celebrated how God formed them as a people.  We too can tell the stories of our journey.

Find the material for week 3, the storytelling psalms, of our “God’s People Speak to God” study here.

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 April 25

Marjorie George

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

Be outrageous in forgiving. Be dramatic in reconciling. Mistakes? Back up and make them as right as you can, then move on.

New Mercies, Measured Out with Coffee Spoons
(with apologies to T.S. Eliot)

The writer of Lamentations was hopeful because “he remembers the unchanging love of God. But he also hopes because he knows that God’s mercies are new every morning. This is the twofold nature of hope: it is rooted in God’s character and work, and it renews with the sunrise.”

Read the reflection from Molly Harnish.

From Kolbe Times.

Lessons For The Great Fifty Days Of Easter

Drawing from Bishop Steven Charleston’s Easter reflection, Joanna Seibert reminds us of the hope Easter brings and urges us to apply ourselves to the healing of society.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Our Utterly Unique Experience of God

The apostle Thomas gets a bad rap for being a doubter. But Brother Curtis Almquist sees it as Thomas needing to experience it for himself. We all have our own experiences of God, says Br. Almquist. “There is also a chamber in God, into which none other may enter excerpt you, the peculiarly unique person you are,” he says.

Read or listen to the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Instructions For Living An Easter Life

The Rev. Mike Marsh gleans three instructions for living Easter from the Gospel of Luke. Pay attention. Be astonished.  Tell about it.

Read the sermon.

Read more at Interrupting the Silence.

God’s People Speak to God

What hill are you climbing just now? The ancient Hebrews traveled uphill to the sacred city of Jerusalem in their quest for God. But they sang as they went. We hear their voices in the “psalms of ascent.”

Join us for our six-week study of the psalms. We gather by Zoom on Thursdays at 4 p.m. (Central time). Or use the study materials on your own.

Find it at
https://wisdomyears.org/gods-people-speak-to-god-introduction/

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, April 18, 2023

Marjorie George

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

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.

Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi – 13th century Persian poet     

The Invitation of Grace

We each have a song, says writer Terry Hershey. “It is the song that reminds us we are beautiful, when we feel ugly. It is the song that tells us we are whole, when we feel broken.”

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey Sabbath Moment

Resurrection Words

The Jesus story wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. He was supposed to conquer all the enemies of the Jews. Instead he died a horrible, cruel death. But then something strange happened – the resurrection!

Read the sermon from Br. James Koester.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Mighty in Contradiction: Love Powerfully

The opposite of love is not hate, says Patty De Llosa. It is power. Power seeks dominion, she says. love is about caring, taking in the message, finding what’s needed, seeing what wishes to appear and helping it to flower. Unfortunately, both of them operate in us.

Read the short reflection.

From Awakin.

Watchful for Resurrections

Death is inevitable, but so is resurrection. We remember that as our world emerges from winter into new life. Our own little resurrections come every time we choose to die to fear and egocentricity.

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

God’s People Speak to God – a study of the psalms

The psalms of creation reveal God’s majesty and power and remind us that our God is a God of abundance, not scarcity. And yet, God has made man a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8).

Our study of the psalms starts this week. Engage it on your own, with your small group, or join us on Zoom on Thursdays from 4 to 5:15 pm (Central time). If you are interested in joining the Zoom group, send an email to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com.

The six-week study will be posted on the Wisdom Years website at
https://wisdomyears.org/gods-people-speak-to-god-introduction/

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.

God’s People Speak to God

God’s People Speak to God

Marjorie George

A new study from The Wisdom Years

A six-week study of the psalms

April 20 to May 25, 2023

With online conversation Thursdays, 4 to 5:15 p.m. (Central time)

We gaze adoringly at the new baby and immediately place him or her into the family legacy.

“He has your eyes,” we say to the dad. 

“I see Aunt Ruth in her smile.”

“He is going to be just like his grandfather.”

This new life is shaped in great part by those in the lineage who came before.

So it is with our ancient ancestors in the faith – the journey of the Old Testament Israelites becoming a people of God is our journey too. The joy and sorrow and tribulation we encounter along the way is the very same our ancestors knew.

For the Israelites, one expression of their relationship with God spilled out in the psalms they prayed and sang. In the psalms, the people praised God and argued with God and thanked God and got angry with God. All emotions we know today.

In this six-week study, we will be invited to make the psalms our own prayers and songs as we apply them to our lives. We will

  • look at the variety of psalms our ancestors relied on as they lived out their relationship with God
  • through reading the psalms and group discussion, identify our own desire to connect with God through the psalms
  • experience a community that provides a safe space, honesty, and acceptance

Each week we will post on our website a brief teaching, questions for reflection, and suggestions for bringing the psalms into our daily lives.

On Thursday afternoons, Apr 20 through May 25 (Apr 20 and 27, May 4, 11, 18, and 25) we will gather by Zoom from 4 to 5:15 p.m. (Central time) for full-group and small-group conversation.

To register for this study, or if you want to know more, please email Marjorie George at Marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com.

You are also welcome to use the material on your own or in congregational small group settings.

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This study is an offering from The Wisdom Years, a ministry of spiritual formation for those in the last third of their lives. Find us at www.wisdomyears.org.

Gathered Wisdom, April 4, 2023

Marjorie George

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

This issue of Gathered Wisdom is devoted to Holy Week – for Christians the holiest week of the year culminating in the glorious Day of Resurrection, Easter.

GW will take an Easter break next week and return on April 18.

Spring teaches me to look more carefully for the green stems of possibility: for the intuitive hunch that may turn into a larger insight, for the glance or touch that may thaw a frozen relationship, for the stranger’s act of kindness that makes the world seem hospitable again.

-Parker Palmer, There is a Season

Found in Well for the Journey

Holy Week: The Big Event

“Unless we walk through the darkness of Holy Week and Good Friday, unless we recognize the horror of sin and its consequence of Jesus dying on the cross, unless we experience the despair the disciples felt on Holy Saturday, we can’t fully understand the light and hope of Sunday morning.” – Kathleen Stephens

Read the reflection.

From The Upper Room.

The Sign of Jonah

Richard Rohr recalls Jesus saying the only sign he would give is the “sign of Jonah” (Matt 16:4) What does that mean for Holy Week?

Watch the video (12 min).

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Lent for Everyone

N. T. Wright wonders in this video if Jesus experienced doubt about who he was when the crowd taunted , “If you are the son of God . . . ”

Watch the short video (2 min).

From the Society for Promoting Cristian Knowledge (SPCK).

Prayers, Poems, and Meditations

The days of Holy Week are “pregnant with the immanence of God,” says The Rev. Dr. Paul Hooker of Austin Presbyterian Seminary. In this online booklet, prayers, poems, and meditations draw us in to connect with God’s closeness in Holy Week.

Read the online booklet.

From Austin Presbyterian Seminary.

Easter Light

The earth was dark twice, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. Once at the original creation and again on Good Friday afternoon. In the second, “God created the most staggering light of all – the resurrection.”

Read the reflection.

From the blog of 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 and The Wisdom Years ministry wish you a blessed Holy Week and joyous Easter.

Gathered Wisdom, Mar 28, 2023

Marjorie George

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

What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and trying but by recognizing and receiving the people and places and practices that offer us the warmth of encouragement when we need to unfold.

-Oriah Mountain Dreamer, The Dance

From Well for the Journey

Community

Being in community has much to teach us, says Joanna Seibert. In community we learn, among other things, how our gifts are needed in the world – and that we don’t have all the gifts, and that’s OK.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

We Learn by Doing It Wrong

We tend to think that we learn by getting good at something. But Richard Rohr teaches that we learn best by our mistakes. “The only way we stay on the path with any authenticity is to constantly experience our incapacity to do it, our failure at doing it,” says Rohr.

Read the reflection

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

There are angels

To access our lightness, sometimes we have to see through the darkness. But always there are angels along the way. Enjoy this short video from Karma Tube,  an all-volunteer organization dedicated to contributing to the world in a meaningful way.

Watch the video.

More about Karma Tube.

Ask, Search, Knock

“Ask and it will be given to you,” said Jesus. (Matt 7:7).  But what if it’s not? What if I search and find nothing? Asking and searching takes an initiative and a willingness to expose our hearts, says Br Keith Nelson of the Society of John the Evangelist. Do we trust God’s generosity enough to name our need?

Read or listen to the sermon.

From SSJE

Faith through Mysticism

Being born into a Christian family and worshipping within a Christian church can give us a relationship to a religion, to an ideology, to a truth, and to a community of worship, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser.  But that is not the same as an actual faith in God .

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, Mar 21, 2023

Marjorie George

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

When we awaken and are able to recall who we are and to whom we belong, when we stand up and dust ourselves off and begin the journey home, God comes running to meet us.

Br. David Vryhof, SSJE
Read More

The Way of Sabbath

Our five-week study of Sabbath wraps up this week. Abraham Heschel’s book The Sabbath has taught us a new way to celebrate the seventh day of the week. Rather than seeing the fourth commandment as a series of  do’s and don’t’s, we realize that God’s gift to us of Sabbath is an invitation to rest in the nearer presence of God as we will in eternity.

Find all the material on The Way of Sabbath at the Wisdom Years website.

The Seven Types of Rest Everyone Needs

Sleep and rest are not the same thing, says Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a physician and sleep researcher. She identifies seven types of rest we all need – including physical, emotional, and spiritual.

Read the excerpt from Dr. Dalton-Smith’s TED Talk.

Found in Daily Good.

Enter Spring,
Parker Palmer Muses on the Season

Before spring becomes beautiful, it is plug ugly, nothing but mud and muck, says writer and teacher Parker Palmer. But in that mess are the conditions for rebirth. We often find that true in our own lives – what looks like it is totally dead and decaying actually holds the material from which new life comes.

Read the reflection.

Found at Fetzer Institute.

The Humility to Be Taught

Richard Rohr finds that Paul’s young disciple, Timothy, has a ”teachable spirit.” Timothy, says Rohr, possesses an “enduring sense of openness and humility that does not close down by reason of failure, facts, or cynical old age.” 

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

A Turtle’s Silver Bead Of Quietude

Turtles survive winter by digging into the mud at the bottom of the pond. There they actually stop breathing. They live believing, – even if they can’t name it – that the world will one day warm again and welcome them into its sunlight.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

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 7, 2023

Marjorie George

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

It may be that there is a laundry list you have prayerfully assembled to tackle this Lent. You are not going to get to everything. Pick one or two things and then stick with those. Hold these intentions as a focus of your prayer with Jesus and ask him to heal and transfigure them. In this way we can turn a season of discipline into a lifetime of discipleship.

Br. Jim Woodrum, SSJE
Read More

Awake and Connected to Our Divine Parent

Have you ever noticed that when you take your children to a playground they want to play with their friends but every once in a while glance at you to make sure you are still there? It is a form of “heathy attachment,” and is mindful of our relationship with God.

Read the essay.

From Renovare.

Bringing Forth New Life

Amma Syncletica, one of the Desert Mothers from the third and fourth centuries, advises the spiritual seeker to stay in one place. Just as eggs in a bird nest will not hatch if the mother abandons the nest, so the monk or the nun grows cold and their faith dies when they go from one place to another, says Amma. What is the lesson here for us?

Read the reflection from the Rev. Mary C. Earle on Richard Rohr’s “Daily Meditations.”

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Peace to Those Who Enjoy God’s Favor

Have you ever stood by the window watching for someone to get home – a child coming from school? A teenager out with your car for the very first time on a Saturday night? A spouse driving home from work during a bad storm? That is how God loves us, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser.

Read the essay.

More about Ron Rolheieser.

Age-Tempered Living: Choosing your Changes

“Getting older changes us and we can cooperate with it, or fight it, and it’s usually some kind of combination of the two,” says writer John Schuster. His method of choice in aging is “tempering” – doing more of what gives him joy and less of what doesn’t.

Read the reflection.

From Evocateur by John Schuster.

Three Lessons of Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rage

In a TED talk, Valerie Kaur reminds us that revolutionary love is what we need most right now. She compares it to being willing to go through labor in the name of love. As a Sikh, she speaks as an American who has been labeled as dangerous and “the other.”

Watch the powerful video. ( 22 min)

From Karma Tube.

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 28, 2023

Marjorie George

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

Lent is a time to take stock of the dualities in our lives. Listen and discern where God is giving you life, where God is speaking life into your life. Yet also, where has this life been robbed from you? Where does God invite you to lay aside the worship of other gods? Where does God invite you to walk back into larger life that Jesus shows us?

Br. Sean Glenn, SSJE
Read More and Comment >

The Way of Sabbath

“In the tempestuous ocean of time and toil, there are islands of stillness where man may enter a harbor and reclaim his dignity,” says Abraham Joshua Heschel in his book The Sabbath. The Wisdom Years five-week study of Sabbath is now online for individual or small group study.

Find it here.

I Have What You Need

What do we need? And do we really need it, whatever “it” is? The world tells us we need more, we deserve more, but what the world offers doesn’t satisfy.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Keep Changing

Why is it so hard to change? Maybe because we are in love with ourselves. We’re in love with “our way of thinking, our way of explaining, our way of doing,” says Richard Rohr. But Jesus calls us, from the very beginning of his preaching, to change, to turn, to repent.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

You Don’t Have to Know: Our Dark Materials

There will be dark times in our lives. There will be illness and suffering and death. We have to live it, we have to acknowledge it, but there is always a light for the way.

Read the reflection.

Found on Tarrantworks.

The Prayer of Charity

There is a long­standing Christian dictum that nobody makes progress in the spiritual life unless he or she prays, alone and in silence, for an hour a day, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. The problem is, few of us – good Christians and all – find the time to do it. Or is it make the time? Maybe there is another way to pray.

Read the essay.

More about 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, Feb. 21, 2023

Marjorie George

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

Dreams give your soul wings. And images from dreams are the exquisite patterns on the wings. Hold your dream images as you would hold a butterfly — in your open, quiet palms, … gently enough so that they still can fly.

-Jill Mellick, The Art of Dreaming: Tools for Creative Dream Work

The Way of Sabbath

What if we thought of the fourth commandment as an invitation rather than a command? Would that change how we celebrate Sabbath? In The Sabbath, Abraham Joshua Heschel teaches that Sabbath is a sanctification of time, not place.

Join us for our study.
The Way of Sabbath starts February 23.

Get the details here.

What I Regret Most Are Failures of Kindness

What does American writer George Saunders regret the most about his life? Being unkind to a little girl in the seventh grade, as he tells a graduating class.

Read the speech transcript.

From Daily Good.

Mercy, Justice, and Walking Humbly

What does God require of us? He tells us through His prophet Micah: “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Scholar and retreat leader Megan McKenna unpacks what that means in her reflection.

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

God’s Quiet Presence in Our Lives

Most of the time, God’s presence within us and in our world is not dramatic. We mistake that for God’s absence. However, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, “God lies inside us as an invitation that fully respects our freedom, never overpowers us; but also never goes away.”

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Being Nice Isn’t The Same As Being  Kind

Being kind means caring. It means making an effort, says Donna Cameron. It is different from being nice. You can be nice but still reserved. You can be helpful but not warm and welcoming.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

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.