I invite you to try following a prayer discipline for 10 minutes a day or so for a week, and then discuss your experience with your spiritual director or a prayer partner. How do you do this?
Continue reading “Week Thirty-Three. Beautiful Hope. Looking for God’s Goodness and Weekly Reflection Summary”Resistance can open us up to deeper and more mature values. Our tendency for fleshly and sensual enjoyment can make us blind and insensitive to deeper values that spring from love. As I learn self-mastery, I grow in my love of inner truth.
Continue reading “Week Thirty-Three. Beautiful Hope. Self Mastery.”I’m learning to moderate my thoughts and actions of independence. Growing in humility helps me see that this life is not all about me, my wants, needs, and desires. A humble heart helps me see my spiritual poverty and my need for divine intervention giving me the breath of life.
Continue reading “Week Thirty-Three. Beautiful Hope. Breath of Life.”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.”Moderation allows us to avoid excess and extremes in our behavior and opinions. This virtue allows us to live a life of temperance knowing our value and another’s value. It is in this space that we can stand solid in who we are, where we own our story, and we can witness another’s story. In today’s practice of finding God’s goodness, Sikh activist Valarie Kaur shows us how she has made a commitment to listen to those with whom she disagrees. Here, in this reflection, she describes some of the practices that make it possible:
Continue reading “Week Thirty-Two. Moderation. Looking for God’s Goodness and Weekly Reflection Summary.”There is a saying in recovery that fear is faith that hasn’t said its prayers. I can be lulled into the comforts the world offers and fall spiritually asleep. Then I wonder why I feel dull and lack inspiration. I’m not reaping the benefits of moderation. I’ve become lazy and this laziness breeds spiritual disconnectedness.
Continue reading “Week Thirty-Two. Moderation. Encouraged.”Perhaps one of the most precious and powerful gifts we can give another person is to really listen to them, to listen with quiet, fascinated attention, with our whole being, fully present. This takes presence within and a stance of self-control. Where we moderate our own thoughts, perspectives, and agendas and empty ourselves to create space and holy ground, this is sacred listening.
Continue reading “Week Thirty-Two. Moderation. Sacred Listening.”
Smitten With Goodness 