Every life tells a story – a story rich with spiritual lessons. One spiritual practice I follow is learning about other Christians throughout church history and their spiritual journeys. Their lives fill me with hope, guidance and ways to draw closer to God.My faith tradition – Lutheran – has added to the worship and lectionary readings what they call commemorations – recognition of individuals or events that have been noteworthy in the life of the Church. Our Catholic friends have for centuries honored saints on certain festival days. What I am really enjoying is the expansion of the names on the Lutheran list to include people from all denominations. Periodically in this blog I will feature someone from this list, a brief biography, quotes, and inspiration from their life.Teresa of AvilaMany of you may never have heard of this woman who lived in the 1500s. We celebrate her day on October 15th. Teresa was born in Spain and at the age of fifteen, after her mother's death and the … [Read more...]
Weekend Reflections on the Word of God – October 11, 2009
Lectio Divina - a holy reading of the Bible slowly, savoring it, and enjoying it with the Lord – is the spiritual practice of sacred reading of the scriptures. The intention is not to learn or gain information but to deepen our relationship with God. St Benedict encourages us to “to listen with the ear of our hearts.”Join me once a week for Lectio Divina. I will share a verse and a word that spoke to my heart. Read and listen to the verses here. And gently ask God for a word or phrase that speaks to your heart for that day – that is what lectio means. Once we find that gift, we hold it, meditate, and savor its meaning. This step is called meditation.Then offer that word back to God in prayer or the third step of oratio. In prayer we allow our real selves to be touched and changed by the word of God.Finally, we simply rest in the presence of the One who has used His word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. No one who has ever been in love needs to be reminded … [Read more...]
Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus – A Favorite Hymn and a Contemplative Practice
You become what you think about. (Earl Nightingale).What do you focus on?So often I see only my problems, my faults, my limitations. My ego leads my thinking and behavior down wrong paths with a dimming flashlight. I focus on my circumstances, not my blessings.I know the answer. The ironic solution lies in my life verse from Hebrews 12:2: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”The old hymn, “Turn your Eyes upon Jesus” says it all:Turn your eyes upon Jesus.Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.Did you realize the lady who wrote this wonderful hymn, Helen Howarth Lemmel was blind? She had much heartache in her life including being deserted by her husband when she lost her sight.Lemmel could have focused on her losses, yet she spent her life in music including writing over 500 hymns. A woman without sight saw the vision of how to truly live: with eyes on Jesus.Some call this … [Read more...]
The Wonder of God’s Visible and Invisible World
When we traveled through Yellowstone this summer, the scenery overwhelmed me. I stood speechless in front of God’s incomprehensible creation of radiant colors in the translucent water pools and rising ghosts of eerie white steam against extraordinary blue skies.Behold the wonder of God. The planet we stand on is a mere glimpse of his creation, a small sliver of what he has made. Just imagine for a moment what God has created that we cannot see.God’s invisible handwork.As a nurse, I know full well the intricate marvel of the human body. The multitude of well organized mini-components working inside each of the estimated 100 trillion cells that makes up our bodies.Behold the wonder of GodThe Human Cell The power of a tiny microorganism to bring us mighty humans down. I am fascinated by the beauty of the viruses and bacteria who unfortunately spread havoc and fear in our world:Behold the wonder of GodThe Flu VirusOur … [Read more...]
Weekend Reflections on the Word of God – October 4, 2009
Lectio Divina - a holy reading of the Bible slowly, savoring it, and enjoying it with the Lord – is the spiritual practice of sacred reading of the scriptures. The intention is not to learn or gain information but to deepen our relationship with God. St Benedict encourages us to “to listen with the ear of our hearts.”Join me once a week for Lectio Divina. I will share a verse and a word that spoke to my heart. Read and listen to the verses here. And gently ask God for a word or phrase that speaks to your heart for that day – that is what lectio means. Once we find that gift, we hold it, meditate, and savor its meaning. This step is called meditation.Then offer that word back to God in prayer or the third step of oratio. In prayer we allow our real selves to be touched and changed by the word of God.Finally, we simply rest in the presence of the One who has used His word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. No one who has ever been in love needs to be reminded … [Read more...]
Seeing Myself through my Eyes or through God’s Eyes?
Last Monday’s post about feeling shocked, awkward and embarrassed after watching myself in home movies struck a cord with many readers. Comments, emails and twitter responses flew in.“I can most certainly identify with your horror at seeing yourself in your vacation movies. I am very disappointed in me - and I'm sure God is disappointed in the way I have taken care of the body He bestowed on me.”“Our church broadcasts our services on local access channel - I cannot bear to watch myself.“Why do you think I have a yahoo avatar instead of a photo of the genuine me????”So I have been pondering this all week.I wonder if this is truer for women than men.What is it inside of so many of us that cause this lack of self acceptance?What does this say about how we deeply feel about our self worth?Why can’t I accept who I see in the mirror and love her?I work with stained glass as a hobby. In my garage workshop, I have bits and pieces of broken, shattered glass. Some have sharp, irregular edges, … [Read more...]
The Fear of Seeing Yourself – My New Prayer
Friends came over this weekend. We all traveled together this summer on a New England/Canada cruise and we organized this evening for sharing photos and enjoying memories of our good times.My husband brought his digital movie camera on the trip and made DVDs for each family. We decided to watch the movie all together reliving the joy we experienced as a group.But something I saw on the video shocked me. I saw myself. There I was – twenty pounds heavier than last year. Every time I was in a shot I thought the quarter size “brown spot” on the side of my face grew as large as a watermelon. And watching my non-verbals – how awful I looked as I nodded, listening to the travel guide. I wanted to shout to that strange woman on the screen: “Your mouth is wide open, Jeanie, close it. You look so stupid.”My stomach tightened into a ball of embarrassment. But nobody else said a thing. Didn’t they notice how ugly I was in the movie? Maybe they were just being nice. Then to make thing worse, Monday … [Read more...]
Weekend Reflections on the Word of God
Lectio Divina - a holy reading of the Bible slowly, savoring it, and enjoying it with the Lord – is the spiritual practice of sacred reading of the scriptures. The intention is not to learn or gain information but to deepen our relationship with God. St Benedict encourages us to “to listen with the ear of our hearts.”Join me once a week for Lectio Divina. I will share a verse and a word that spoke to my heart. Read and listen to the verses here. And gently ask God for a word or phrase that speaks to your heart for that day – that is what lectio means. Once we find that gift, we hold it, meditate, and savor its meaning. This step is called meditation.Then offer that word back to God in prayer or the third step of oratio. In prayer we allow our real selves to be touched and changed by the word of God.Finally, we simply rest in the presence of the One who has used His word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. No one who has ever been in love needs to be reminded … [Read more...]