My mind is a maze with the turns of the journey
The wise men wandered while aimed at the star
Their ears had the form of the wings of the angels
Attuned to the music they sang from afar
read more
PLAYbook for I Pray Anyway: Devotions for the Ambivalent is a creative, thought provoking guide/curriculum based on the book I PrayY Anyway: Devotions for the Ambivalent by Joyce Wilson-Sanford.
read more
Be completely humble and gentle
Be patient
forgiving one another in love
*Centering Our Soul “Speak To Us…Let Us Listen”
read more
Contemplatio
Interfaith Mindfulness-Based Contemplative Prayer
by James Burklo on August 16, 2018 | No Reviews or Comments
0
A 12th c French Catholic Christian monk, Guigo II, described the spiritual life as climbing a ladder. The steps were lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio – reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation. This “ladder” has defined Catholic Christian spiritual discipline ever since. An ancient practice, employed increasingly today in churches both Catholic and Protestant, is called “Lectio Divina”. It follows Guigo’s four steps.
read more
Grace is less to be identified with being unaffected by all that is going on around us, and more with being moved by the Spirit to work for peace and justice for all out of loving others as we love ourselves.
read more
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant…”
Mary Magdalene was the first person, male or female, to witness the empty tomb…the first to see angels who reported the resurrection…the first to hear the voice of, and see, the risen Christ…and the first to …
read more
Today marks the first Sunday of Lent, a time of self-reflection and lament. It is often considered a season of darkness. Something I am all too familiar with. The season of Lent reminds me of walking a labyrinth. A labyrinth is a path that requires you to go in and come out the same way in which you entered. It is a journey towards the center, then back out again, into the world to which you came. You cannot skip the part you did not like, or go around a difficult feeling, you must return the exact way you entered. But, even though the path does not change, you have, and in this we find new life.
read more
When you live in nature, in the scent of flowers, in the blessed light of the day and the sweet dew of the morning, you don’t have questions, you simply live and joy together with them. Your heart opens, you cry, cry, and your eyes are wet with dew. This is how this song was born, when your body, mind, and soul opens, God steps next to you in an unguarded moment, and pours her treasures into you.
read more
Every time I enter into mindful prayer, I start by gazing into a mirror, dimly. A dim inner mirror, gazed at with dim inner eyes. Slowly I polish the mirror with loving, open, non-judgmental attention. My inner eyes begin to adjust and focus. And I begin to see not just the face I expect or want to see, but the whole picture of my thoughts, sensations, and urges – physically, mentally, and spiritually. Warts and stray hairs and happy smile and all! Behind the eyes that appear in the mirror I begin to awaken to the subtle eyes of the One who is doing the seeing. And then we begin to see, face to face…
read more
All of us have experienced mental or physical suffering at the hands of other people. But each of us has also brought suffering to others.
read more
No shallow prayer
but words which plumb
the depth of our desire,
to which we might aspire.
We light these lights
for the instigators and the refusers
the obstinate and unyielding
for the ones who kept marching
Do not let the Christian doctrine of the Trinity alienate you from the oneness of God; for God is both the many and the one.
read more
The professor and mountaineer Ernest Gellner told of how he once became lost. No matter how he tried to follow his map, he could not find his way down the mountain. Then he realized that his map was of the wrong mountain.
read more
