Tag: pilgrim

Catching up to who we are

When we push people away to keep ourselves protected and safe, we end up being alone and isolated. When we guard ourselves against people who are different from us, we lose some of ourselves too.

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey.

Unlearning And Climbing Down Ladders

“The way down is the way up,” says Richard Rohr. In thinking about that, Joanna Seibert comes to realize that we are always learning and unlearning, climbing up and climbing down. In our spiritual life, the descent becomes an ascent as our outer life becomes less important and our inner life becomes heard.

Read the short reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Justice is Love in Action

Talking about justice is not the same as doing justice, says contemplative activist and Episcopal priest Adam Bucko.  Writing in a daily meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation, Bucko outlines concrete steps to begin a practice of contemplative action.

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Struggling with our Complexity

What is normal? What does it look like to be a normal human being? Fr. Ron Rolheiser believes it includes being complex and accepting that. “We aren’t necessarily over-greedy, over-sexed, or over-restless,” he says. “We are just normal human beings, walking around inside of human skin.  That’s what real life feels like!”

Read the essay.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

Pilgrims Journeying Within

As we close our study of Pilgrims Journeying Within this week, we are reminded that the spiritual journey never ends. We never arrive at a destination, but we learn so much on the path. Find readings and reflection prompts for “Coming Home,” the last chapter of The Soul of a Pilgrim here https://wisdomyears.org/journeying-within-our-next-online-offering/the-practice-of-coming-home/

Readings, reflections prompts, and practices for all chapters of he book are on the WisdomYears website at
https://wisdomyears.org/journeying-within-our-next-online-offering/

The study is good for individuals on their own or for small groups.

  A Lesson in Aging

“I always thought of myself as young,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, “even as the years piled up and my body began to betray my conception of myself as young.” Our souls, however, don’t age says Rolheiser – they mature. And in these later years, the soul wants to delve ever deeper into “the mystery of life, of community, of God, and of itself.”

Read the reflection.

From Kolbe Times.

A Second Gaze

Growing older gives us the opportunity for a second look at a situation. It is then that God offers us the grace to weep over our sins more than to perfectly overcome them, to humbly recognize our littleness rather than to become big.

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

A Flower’s Job Is To Bloom

Who makes us feel important? Do we seek acclaim from a particular group? If we do, says writer Srikumar Rao, we are putting ourselves into a prison and handing that person or group the key.

Read the essay.

From Awakin.

To Care

To care for the aging,” says Henri Nouwen in this meditation,  “means first of all to enter into close contact with your own aging self, to sense your own time, and to experience the movements of your own life cycle.”

Read the brief meditation.

From the Henri Nouwen Society.

Pilgrims Journeying Within

What if we embraced the unknown as sacred wisdom for the unfolding of our lives? What if we welcomed all that distresses and disorients us as having something to teach us? Chapter 7 of The Soul of a Pilgrim is The Practice of Embracing the Unknown.

Find reflection prompts and a weekly practice for The Soul of a Pilgrim study here.

Autumn Prayer of Acceptance

Gracious God of every turning season, your earth teaches me by her natural turning from one season to another. As she enters into the dying and rising cycle, she welcomes the changes.

Read the complete prayer.

Submitted by a friend and found on the webpage of Hanover Missionary Church.

Loving Things in Themselves

Richard Rohr believes that the only way to know how to love God is to love what God loves; “only then do we love with divine love and allow it to flow through us,” says Rohr.

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Summer’s Exodus

This summer, author Melanie Gillgrist learned that if she unclenches her hands, she will see that God has everything under control. Whatever manna God sends will be sufficient.

Read the essay.

From Renovare.

God’s Holy Vulnerables

Brother Sean Glenn of the Society of St. John the Evangelist writes about two different kinds of wisdom. The wisdom of the world is born of competition and comparison; it originates in our desire to define good and evil on our own limited terms. But biblical wisdom is born from the generous gift of God’s own experiential self-disclosure in Jesus.

Read or listen to the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Pilgrims Journeying Within

Sometimes we have to begin again. Something isn’t working, and the best we can do is start over. Do we meet that with joyful expectation, or with dread and distress? This week’s chapter in The Soul of a Pilgrim encourages us to always be beginning again.

Find the study material here.

A Mystical Way of Life

On this feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the Center for Action and Contemplation tells us that St. Francis found his calling when he met a leper on the road and was compelled to hug him. “He knew then what he was to do with his life: to embrace Jesus in the poor and rejected, in those who previously had repulsed him,” writes Franciscan priest and author Murray Bodo. 

Read the story.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise

Authors Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz have studied the power of silence in our world and conclude that “There is a deep yearning for silence in a world of more and more noise.” Certainly, mindfulness meditation has come into favor in recent years, but, say the authors, a “one size fits all” approach does not work. 

Read an excerpt from the new book Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise.

Found in Daily Good. 

Dealing with Loss, Grief, and Obsessions

“When we are driven to our knees by loss and frustration, the best, and only useful, thing we can do is to genuflect in helplessness before a God who can help us and express our affection to anyone who can support us,” writes Fr. Ron Rolheiser in this essay about dealing with grief. Time will heal the wound, says Rolheiser, but its rhythm cannot be rushed.

Read the essay.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

Three word theology

Much of our faith can be expressed in three words: God is love, Love your neighbor, Here am I. Three words in the Gospel of Luke – “Increase our faith” – spoken by the disciples to Jesus brought this realization to author Diana Butler Bass one recent Sunday morning.

Read the brief reflection.

From The Cottage.

Pilgrims Journeying Within

In week 5 of our study, we consider the practice of being uncomfortable. Author Christine Valters Paintner says that when we are able to stay present – to not run away – in uncomfortable circumstances, we open a space to grow spiritually. We must learn to “dance at the edge” of our discomfort.

Join the study.

Leave All and Follow Me

To grow spiritually means to leave behind that which has become too comfortable, says Br. Geoffrey Tristram. To let go of our habits, our compulsions.  “It is each morning awakening to a new day and saying to God, ‘Where do you want to lead me today on the journey of life? What are you asking me to leave behind? How are you asking me to change?’”  We resist change, but it’s how we grow. 

Read the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Reimaging

Jesus came to show us what God looks like with skin on. Incarnation is a re-imaging of God and re-imagining what a relationship with God can look like. We are called to form a new concept we have not seen before.

Read the short reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Grounding Power of Kindness

When Native Americans went on a hunt or a vision quest or long journey, they took with them a small medicine pouch that contained special objects reminding them of spiritual power: perhaps a feather, a bit of fur, a claw, a carved root, a pinch of tobacco, a pebble or a shell. They were to be reminders of the sources of healing and bounty and beauty. 

Read the reflection. 

From Sabbath Moment by Terry Hershey.

Being Blessed by Pagan Friends

Fr. Ron Rolheiser finds that his pagan friends, who have no use for organized religion, often bring positive energy, goodness, love, intelligence, humor, and sunshine into a room. It is a wonderful thing and should be blessed.

Read the reflection.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

Pilgrims Journeying Within

The inner journey asks us to set aside our own plans and agendas and follow where the path takes us. We yield to a greater presence at work in our lives.

Join us for chapter 4, Making the Way by Walking from The Soul of a Pilgrim. Reflection prompts and a weekly practice are on the Wisdom Years web page.