What melts the coldness in your heart? Prayer (meditation) is a transformative practice that melts the hardness of living in a fallen world. What is a cold heart? As the song Cold Heart laments “it’s a human sign when things go wrong.” We think we keep this hidden but usually we’re only hiding from ourselves.
Continue reading “Week Thirty-Three. Beautiful Hope. Warm Heart.”
Listening to music is one of the things I can do that creates a shift in me, melting the coldness in my heart. It’s such a simple thing and yet I’ve noticed that I deny myself the simple pleasure that is so life-giving, filling me with beautiful hope. As I live my life in a world filled with extremes and excess, my heart freezes up at times without my awareness. When I feel stagnant or feel I’m going through the motions, I can create this shift of heart by listening to the right song, penetrating it with inspiration.
Continue reading “Week Thirty-Three. Beautiful Hope. Don’t Stop Believing.”In these dog days of summer, it’s easy to get lazy. I’ve gotten spiritually lazy, gotten away from seeking Mary’s help, wisdom, and guidance. As the new covenant, Mary always shows me the way to her Son, she shows me wisdom and is a weaver of hope.
Continue reading “Week Thirty-Three. Beautiful Hope. Weaver of Hope.”Valuing myself gives me an attitude of hope. Setting healthy boundaries and ordering my heart towards God, I have hope, beautiful hope. As I discover who I am in Christ and the hidden mystery of my life in Him, I have one purpose — to glorify God. It is this purpose that brings meaning to my life. As I move away from this purpose, I lose hope.
Continue reading “Week Thirty-Three. Beautiful Hope. An Attitude.”
Looking for God’s Goodness in contemplation and prayer. When I choose to live life, I become life. When I don’t, I’m not contributing/offering my best self to this one precious life I have to live. Today we contemplate a reflection from Word on Fire on what it means to live life.
Continue reading “Week Twenty. Hopeful. Looking for God’s Goodness and Weekly Reflection Summary.”That We May Have Life, a reflection from Pope Francis:
Continue reading “Week Twenty. Hopeful. Living Life.”Lord, I give you my soul with all its powers, my body with all its senses, my heart with all its senses, my heart with all its affections so my actions can be guided by your Divine plan.
Continue reading “Week Twenty. Hopeful. My All.”Living in the now, being present in the moment, guarantees us the protection of God. It is in the stretches of time when I anxiously anticipate the events of the future that I cheat myself out of the security God offers me right now not loving myself well.
Continue reading “Week Twenty. Hopeful. Living in the Moment.”
Have you ever thought about if you are living dead or alive? Living is experiencing joy in our day despite our circumstances. It is knowing who we are and whose we are. We who live alive bless the Lord now and forever.
Continue reading “Week Eight: Joy. Dead or Alive.”You might find the goodness of hope by Reading with the Divine Presence from the Center for Action and Contemplation, where you can also find the source references.
Lectio divina is a contemplative way of reading and relating to Scripture and other sacred writings. The medieval monk Guigo II (d. 1188) names the four steps of this foundational contemplative practice:
One day when I was busy working with my hands I began to think about our spiritual work, and all at once four stages in spiritual exercise came into my mind: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. These make a ladder for monks by which they are lifted up from earth to heaven. It has few rungs, yet its length is immense and wonderful, for its lower end rests upon the earth, but its top pierces the clouds and touches heavenly secrets.
Continue reading “Hope: Looking for God’s Goodness and Weekly Reflection Summary”
Smitten With Goodness 