Perpetua and Felicity (Photo credit: Nick in exsilio)Don’t forget to read the small print!My church has the Bible reading printed on a separate sheet of paper each week with the bulletin. At the bottom of the final page is a section titled “Preparing for Next Week,”listing the upcoming scripture readings and a commemoration of Christians remembered from our past.I like this section. Besides preparing my heart for the next week’s Word from God, I discover a stories about people from our collective Christian roots.This coming Sunday many churches will commemorate Perpetua and Felicity.Who? That was my reaction. I didn’t know anything about these two women!No saints were more honored in the early Christian era than Perpetua and Felicity. The two women were arrested and imprisoned Carthage in 203 A.D. Perpetua was 22-year-old noblewoman with a son a few months old; Felicity, a pregnant slave. Their crime was defying Emperor’s prohibition of conversions to Christianity.They were taken to … [Read more...]
Three Ways to Use Your Imagination Spiritually
I played in a spaceship when I was seven years old. I spent hours exploring new worlds found in my imagination while never really leaving my backyard. My spaceship? A stocky tree with great climbing branches planted next on the southeast corner of our house. Different limbs warped into sections of my spacecraft: the galley, the lookout, the bridge for guiding my rocket into the mysterious universe.Sigh. I loved that tree.Patty Wysong has created a fun meme where once a week bloggers posted on the letter of the week. Check out the details here. It is called A2Z: Take 2. A2Z as she challenges bloggers to write a post each week going through the alphabet. Take 2 since this is the second time she has used this meme. Anyone can join in and you don’t have to always participate. This week’s letter is I.Image via WikipediaI = ImaginationImagination can be a helpful tool, even for adults. We use our minds to dream up decorating ideas, plots for novels, and innovative approaches to problem … [Read more...]
Put a New Spirit Deep Inside Me, Lord – Lectio Divina
Purify me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and celebration again; let the bones you crushed rejoice once more. Hide your face from my sins; wipe away all my guilty deeds! Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!Psalm 51:7-10Common English BiblePut a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!My simple prayer this week, Lord:Put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me.I turn to greet You.You are the One to send Your Spirit to embrace my heart.I can’t do it on my own.My old spirit is broken, weak and mired in the mud of life.Your spirit is new, whole and sparkles in Your light.I am unfaithful and distracted by worldly and ego driven wants.But my true hunger is for Your gift of faithfulness, one that only You can give.Plant Your spirit deep inside me.With roots so deep, nothing can remove it.Your spirit is a wellspring of bottomless depth.A rich deposit of Love.Nothing can take You away from me, Lord.Your … [Read more...]
Lent quote by Joan Chittister
Lent is not a ritual. It is time given to think seriously about who Jesus is for us, to renew our faith from the inside out. It is the moment when, as the baptismal waters flow on every Easter Vigil altar, we return to the baptismal font of the heart to say yes once more to the call of Jesus to the disciples, “Come and see” ( John 1:39). It is the act of beginning our spiritual life all over again refreshed and reoriented.Joan Chittister … [Read more...]
Call Me Crazy
Flickr Creative CommonsMy kids think I am crazy. In fact my son-in law Austin nicknamed me “Crazy” when he was dating my daughter. And foolishly he still married her knowing daughters tend to take after their mother.I do crazy things as a mother.3 AM - March 1986 – I dragged my kids from their cozy beds, bundled them up warmly and my husband and I drove 20 minutes to the Bryan airport.We weren’t the only crazy ones up that night to look through professional telescopes to glimpse at a once in a lifetime view of Halley’s Comet. Visible from earth every 75-76 years, this heavenly gift would not reappear until 2061. Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye from Earth.If you are lucky you may see it twice in your life. Lucky enough to have a crazy mother to drag you out of bed in the cold early spring morning to peer through a telescope to see a fuzzy cotton ball image zooming across the sky. 7 PM February 2012 - I text my kids to look up at the sky. … [Read more...]
Spiritual Homeostasis
Patty Wysong has created a fun meme where once a week bloggers posted on the letter of the week. Check out the details here. It is called A2Z: Take 2. A2Z as she challenges bloggers to write a post each week going through the alphabet. Take 2 since this is the second time she has used this meme. Anyone can join in and you don’t have to always participate. H = HomeostasisI am a nurse. I love the inner workings of the human body. I reflect on the pumping of the heart, the synapses between brain cells, and that we make 300 billion new cells every day and I am amazed at this miracle. Thank You Creator God!This week’s letter is H. Lately I have been praying and pondering balance and a great H word – homeostasis.Homeostasis comes from the Greek word, meaning same or stable. The human body is constantly managing complex interactions to keep our body on an even keel. It has to or we would die.Homeostasis works to control our blood sugar and the amount of oxygen in our lungs and in each … [Read more...]
God’s Promises – Lectio Divina
Words of Christ - 6/52 (Photo credit: Roger's Wife)“When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you’re not disappointed” (Jeremiah 29:12-14 MSG).I’ll listen. You’ll find me. I’ll make sure you’re not disappointedThank You Lord for listening. When I call on You, You hear me.To know You hang onto my every word – the whining, the tearful moans, the times I can’t find how to express myself – You know and You listen.Thank You Lord for letting me find You.When I come looking for You – You are there.When I can’t find You and wonder if You left – You stay with me.When I turn my back on You and drift into ego driven pleasures – You watch over me.Thank You Lord for forgiving me and patiently waiting for my heart to turn back to You.When I once again intentionally seek You and realize You are the true desire of my heart, I find you … [Read more...]
The Important Time of Day – Quote of the Week
prayer.. (Photo credit: aronki)Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.Etty Hillesum … [Read more...]