Tag: wisdom

Gathered Wisdom, Nov 12, 2024

Marjorie George

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

At the deepest levels of our hearts we are all aching, for each other and for the same eternally Loving One who calls us. It would be well, I think, if we could acknowledge this more often to one another.  
-Gerald May, Will and Spirit
Found in Well for the Journey

Advent Rejoicing

Life is messy. But our God promises to stand with us in the midst of it. That is the message of Advent, says writer and podcaster Kate Bowler. This Advent, the Wisdom Years community will connect with the Advent message using Kate’s offering The Weary World Rejoices. We will read daily devotionals on our own, then come together on Thursdays, Dec. 5, 12 and 19 for an hour of online conversation.

To lean more and sign up to join us, click this link.

Our Vocation to be Bilingual and Ambidextrous

St. Paul thought that the second coming of Christ would happen in Paul’s lifetime. Clearly it did not. How are we to live, then, in this secular world until we come to eternal life?

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

 

Lessons From A Sunrise

What do you expect from the morning sunrise? What if it’s cloudy and hazy?

Read the brief reflection.

From Interrupting the Silence.

God’s Love Includes Imperfection 

We are living in love if we can maintain a daily yes, says Richard Rohr. “That doesn’t mean we don’t recognize injustice and stand against it, but we don’t let our hearts become hardened and our minds become rigid in its judgments.”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Campaign for kindness

“Choosing kindness isn’t about avoiding our differences but navigating them with respect and compassion,” says a campaign that seeks to navigate faith and politics in a congregation with divided political views.

Read the reflection or listen to the NPR interview.

Found in Daily Good.

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, Nov 5, 2024

Marjorie George

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

In chaos, I choose love.
In conflict, I choose love.
Even to the end, I will choose love.
I will not save the world,
but I will help the world;
I will be a force for good.

-Steve Garnaas-Holmes, Unfolding Light (www.unfoldinglight.net)

Advent Rejoicing

Life is messy. But our God promises to stand with us in the midst of it. That is the message of Advent, says writer and podcaster Kate Bowler. This Advent, the Wisdom Years community will connect with the Advent message using Kate’s offering The Weary World Rejoices. We will read daily devotionals on our own, then come together on Thursdays, Dec. 5, 12 and 19 for an hour of online conversation.

To lean more and sign up to join us, click this link.

Trusting in Christ’s Peace

We need a little good news. Like hearing that however bad the storms of life become, Christ is there to calm the waters and bring peace. “Peace” and “be still” can be our watchwords also, says Bishop Barbara Harris.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Intelligence versus Wisdom

What is the difference between being smart and being wise? “Wisdom is intelligence that’s colored by understanding,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. “When intelligence is not informed by empathy, what it produces will generally not contribute to the common good.”

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Standing in the Gap

How do we stay hopeful in the face of despair and disillusionment—especially when politics threaten to tear us in two? In this podcast, Kate Bowler speaks with Parker Palmer, a writer, teacher, and activist. Palmer brings wisdom from the years of living in this world without letting the bad in it overcome the good.

Listen to the podcast.

From Kate Bowler.

Growing Older

Getting older is about learning how to let go, says Bishop Steven Charleston – even letting go of names and memories we can no longer recall. He places memories with the Holy Spirit, to be recalled on the other side.

Read the short 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, 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 22, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Attention is the most concrete expression of love. 
What we pay attention to thrives. 
What we do not pay attention to withers and dies. 
What will you pay attention to today?

-Karen Maezen Miller, Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life
Found in Well for the Journey

Called to Love 

What do we do when we are faced with a decision to make? How do we discern what God would have us do? It is a matter of love, says Ruth Haley Barton. The questions to ask is, “What does love call for in this situation? What would love do?”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Come to Me 

It’s not so much that the Church is being persecuted these days as it is that so many people are indifferent to the Church. Jesus met the same obstacle, says Br. David Vryhof of Society of St. John the Evangelist. And yet so many are carrying burdens that Jesus would help with if only people knew to ask and were willing to trust.

Read the reflection.  

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

The Chat Checkout

Few of us willingly choose the slow checkout line at the grocery store. But Dutch grocers now offer a “chat checkout” where people choose the slow lane just for the conversation. The idea is catching on in other locales – in France they are called “Blablabla checkouts.”

Read the article. 

Found in Daily Good.

Forest Dwelling

We can age as wise elders, or we can just age. A program from Oblate Seminary in San Antonio, Texas, has as its aim living into the diminishments of aging in such a way that we live our last precious years with more grace, an open heart, and a deeper awareness of the presence of God.

This series of videos shares some of the wisdom offered by the program.

To learn more about Forest Dwelling.

Facing The Unknown

Trust is our currency and wisdom is our direction says Bishop Steven Charleston. “When we follow the Spirit, the unknown is only a bend in the road.”

Read the reflection.

Found in Joanna Seibert 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, Oct. 15, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done.
Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free.
Starhawk, American author and activist
From Well for the Journey.

Living into All the Honey: Embracing Grief and Joy

Poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer reads poems that span grief and joy from her new collection, All the Honey. She speaks of what she knows now about grief she didn’t know before her son died.

Watch the video.

From Karmatube

The First Bible

We are all connected, says Richard Rohr. Everything is part of everything else. Rohr says, “We now take it for granted that everything in the universe is deeply connected and linked, even light itself, which interestingly is the first act of creation” (Genesis 1:3).

Read the reflection

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Knowing More Than We Know

How do we make decisions? Is it only facts and probabilities that we depend on to try to find the right choice? Or do we rely on some inner sense that we just know is correct? Mary’s acceptance of becoming the mother of Jesus did not come from reason.

Read the reflection. 

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

On Friendship

“One of the richest experiences of grace that we can have this side of eternity is the experience of friendship,” says Ron Rolheiser. “True friendship is only possible among people who are practicing virtue,” he adds.  “A gang is not a circle of friendship, nor are many ideological circles. Why? Because friendship needs to bring grace and grace is only found in virtue.”

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser.

Join Election Night Virtual Prayers

Everyone is invited to join Election Night Virtual Prayers hosted by The Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations from 8 to 10 p.m. (ET) Nov. 5. 

Bishop Sean Rowe, who will become Episcopal Church presiding bishop on Nov. 1, will offer an opening reflection and prayer.

Episcopalians from around the church will hold silence and lead participants in prayers together for peace, the nation, and all people and countries.

For details, click 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, Oct 8, 2024

Marjorie George

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

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is leaves-acorn.jpg

When the eyes and ears are open, even the leaves on the trees teach like pages from the Scriptures.

-Kabir, as quoted in Legacy of the Heart by Wayne Muller
From Well for the Journey

10 Questions for your Autumn Equinox

It’s autumn – a time for slowing down and pondering.  The days are shorter – what is one activity that you want to stop doing? Courtney Martin offers 10 provocative questions for the season. 

Engage with the questions.

From The Examined Family.

Joy in Solidarity 

They met the small little man in a migrant shelter where he had stopped for a warm bowl of soup before crossing the border into the United States.  He would have to cross the desert, and his feet were filthy and sore inside his thin sneakers.

Read the story.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

A Place to Watch the Rain

The recommendation said that the man could sleep in a storm. His employer found out what that meant when the bad weather hit. In the midst of a storm, “we survive by affirming who we are,” says Terry Hershey.

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey’s Sabbath Moment.

Parker Palmer: On The Brink Of Everything

Joanna Seibert introduces us to Parker Palmer’s wisdom on growing older in his book On the Brink of Everything. “Palmer takes us to the brink of an alternative life,”.  Says Seibert “It is a slower life where we observe and become aware of so much we missed in this world while living at a frantic pace.”

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Searching for a Word Filled with Reality

Faith is not something you achieve, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. “Faith is a journey, with constant ups and downs, with alternating periods of fervor and dryness, with consolation giving way to desolation, and with graced moments where God feels tangibly present eclipsed by dark nights where God feels absent.”

Read the reflection.

From 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, 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, Sept 24, 2024

Marjorie George

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

May I be open to the teachings of this season of autumn, and turn, as autumn does, toward opportunities for my spiritual transformation.

Joyce Rupp, Out of the Ordinary
Found in Well for the Journey

Woe to you

We don’t like the hard sayings of Jesus. We want to hear words of comfort and forgiveness and acceptance. But sometimes we need to heed Jesus’ condemnation and call to repentance.

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

It’s Okay To Be Perfectly Human

Why are we so hard on ourselves? We expect ourselves to be perfect, but being “perfectly human” means we will make mistakes, and when we do, we can admit them and learn from them. 

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Marrying Orthodoxy To Orthopraxy

We may be able to articulate what we believe as Christians, but do we put it into action? “We are called to study God and the Spirit,” says Deacon Joanna Seibert, “but we are also compelled to find the God within ourselves, leading us to discover and connect to the God in others.”

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Joanna Seibert.

The Spiritual Meaning of the Autumn Equinox

The seasons of spring and summer, with their long days, are all about play and pleasure, notes Julie Peters writing in Spirituality and Health. During fall and winter, we have more hours of darkness than of light, more time for rest, solitude, and reflection.

Read the article.

From Spirituality and Health.

But We Had Music

Even while we watch our society fall apart, a single episode with nature can bolster hope.  For this poet it was the starlings. This short video sets Maria Popova’s poem “But We Had Music” to captivating visuals. 

Watch and listen.

From Daily Good.

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, Sept 17, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Peace in its most fundamental form is the connection of one human spirit to another.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, from A Network from Grateful Living’s Everyday Gratitude
Found at Well for the Journey

Violence Begets Violence

There is nothing good about violence, says the late Rev. James Lawson, writing in Daily Meditations. “It drains emotional, psychological, moral, and spiritual energy with no good consequences.”

Read the reflection.  

Found in Center for Action and Contemplation.

A Sparrow’s Song To Lift Up the Sky

The sky is falling, and what can one little sparrow do about it? Our society is crumbling, and what can one little act from you or me do about it? Maybe the one little thing we add will be the yeast to bring about change.

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

Do Not Fret

There is much to fret about in our world today, but Psalm 37 calls us particularly to leave off fretting. Instead, we must “claim our own agency to make for right in what is within our own reach and power,” says Br. Curtis Almquist, “especially on behalf of the powerless and voiceless in God’s creation.”

Read the short reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

 

Embittered Moralizing

As we age, we tend to become bitter, angry, and judgmental, especially against those who have not done the right things like we have, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. We become the older brother in the story of the prodigal son. How fair is it that someone who hasn’t gone to church in years gets the same mercy from God as we who are there every Sunday?

Read the reflection.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

Unceasing Thoughts Becoming Unceasing Prayers

Brother Lawrence knew how to pray without ceasing – while he was scrubbing pots, cooking, or buying wine for dinner. Henri Nouwen says to turn unceasing thoughts into prayers.

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, Sept 10, 2024

Marjorie George

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

When life feels too big to handle, go outside. Everything looks smaller when you’re standing under the sky.

L. R. Knost, The Gentle Parent
Found in Well for the Journey

Finishing First: What It Really Means to Win

How much does winning contribute to a good life? “When winning is pursued with integrity and a sense of purpose, it can be a catalyst for personal growth, fulfillment, and a more meaningful existence,” says writer Alene Dawson. But winning at any cost “can have a dark side, leading to cheating, self-harm, or a failure to connect winning to a larger life purpose.”

Read the article.

From the John Templeton Foundation, found in Daily Good.

About the John Templeton Foundation.

The Martyrs of Memphis

In the summer of 1878, Memphis was besieged by yellow fever. Some 5,000 people died from the mosquito-borne illness.  A community of Anglican nuns from New England could have left like so many did, but they stayed to care for the sick and dying.

Read the story of the martyrs of Memphis.

From Joanna Seibert.

Read about it in Episcopal Church dictionary.

Getting it Down to the Essentials

“Nobody comes to adulthood, let alone to old age, without being deeply hurt,” says Ron Rolheiser. All of us will be treated unfairly at some time in our lives. For that, we should grieve. Therefore the task of our later years is to forgive. It’s not a question of were we hurt; it’s what is my hurt and how can I move beyond it?

Read the reflection:

From Ron Rolheiser.

Wholehearted and Fully Alive

If we are going to experience life in its fullness, we have to be willing to “get in.” Terry Hershey quotes Paul Tillich as saying, “You are accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not seek for anything. Do not perform anything, do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.”

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey.

Anxiety: Opening Up to God

Brother Jack Crowley of Society of St. John the Evangelist writes about his trials with anxiety attacks. “One thing I have learned in my experiences with anxiety is you never really know how anxious someone is,” says Br. Jack. “Sometimes the most anxious person in the room is the last person you would suspect.”

Read the reflection.

From SSJE.

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.