I want to savor Your presence, Your love and feel Your support and comfort. You hold me in Your right hand, and I am safe and secure. I am Yours, I am loved, I’m Your beloved. How a lover chases after her love – I seek to know You, rest with You, enjoy You, hold Your hand, praise You. I want to introduce You to everyone I know.
Continue reading “Week Eight: Joy. Safe and Secure”How awesome God is it that your reign and glory trump everything here in this crazy chaotic world. Your kingdom has the final authority. Your reign is supreme and eternal. It is only with you that our souls live forever.
Continue reading “Week Eight: Joy. Awesomeness”How often do I look at the changing world around me, allowing it to create dis-ease in my mind or stir up fear in my heart? The amount of uncertainty we face is at an all time high it seems, but is it really? Behind the thin veneer of what the world has taught me to think was secure, the covering has been removed and exposed. Our world is not secure or our stable ground, but we must remember that it is not meant to provide all that we need. The world is good as it was created out of God’s goodness, but it is not the prize of my eternal home.
Continue reading “Week Eight: Joy. All I Need.”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”Do you practice the virtue of hope? Pope Francis calls hope the virtue that is hidden and humble. Hidden because so often we don’t see reasons for our hope in the world. Humble – because our hope is made real in the humility of Jesus who comes to walk with us, to share our life, our joys, and our struggles. As I practice the virtue of hope, I see that the face of Jesus is the only hope and stability I have in this fallen world. We are all called to hope.
Continue reading “Week Seven: Hope. Filled Up.”Hope is not merely a wish that something good might happen – it is the firm confidence and desire that the promises of God will be fulfilled.
Continue reading “Week Seven: Hope. Firm Confidence.”Continue reading “Week Seven: Hope. Smitten with Goodness.”Many people feel that they cannot go on and pray “Lord give me the strength to continue.” Prayer opens the heaven: it gives life oxygen; it gives a breath of fresh air even in the midst of breathlessness and lets us see things from a broader perspective… Do I cultivate intimacy with God, dialogue with him, listen to his word? Among the many things we do each day, let us not neglect prayer; let us dedicate time to it, let us use short invitations to be repeated often, let us read the gospel every day. The prayer that opens the heaven.
Pope Francis Angelus January 9, 2022
How do I live with hope when the world seems so lost? Our lives seem so painful and senseless at times, and it all seems so pointless. When I ask this question, I’m taking action as I’m seeking and looking for an answer. Hope is almost always connected to action.
Continue reading “Week Seven: Hope. A Powerful Force.”We live in a culture that produces hopelessness. We can see the evidence of this in the anxiety and depression rates we have in the US. Faced with chaotic realities, where the loudest voice defines truth, where the expectation is that we can do it all and have it all, we are rarely satisfied. Seldom do we allow ourselves to rest in the presence of God.
Continue reading “Week Seven: Hope. Beautiful Hope.”
Smitten With Goodness 