Have you ever walked a labyrinth? Walking a labyrinth is a spiritual practice that I seek on retreats and to be honest, whenever I see one inviting me closer. Based on the form of a circle and the spiral, this practice is an ancient and powerful symbol of wholeness and transformation. It is found in cultures throughout the world and has been added to many retreat centers as a form of walking prayer. Some of the earliest ones were found in Greece dating back to 2500-2000 BC. The path becomes a metaphor for the spiritual journey and for life, itself. The labyrinth is not a maze. Mazes have many paths and dead ends and they evoke a very different feeling than when we walk a labyrinth. A labyrinth is a unicursal with only one path in and the same path out. Its path meanders its way to the center. Walking this path enables you to experience peace, listen deeply, and reflect on where are you in your life. Some find healing or new ways to celebrate. Occasionally nothing is … [Read more...]
The Spiritual Practice of Wonder
Wonder is one of my three W's for 2019. The spiritual practice of wonder enriched my silent retreat earlier this month. As I stilled my heart and mind, God's wonders revealed themselves more and more and soon I was surrounded by delights found in his creation. What is Wonder? According to the dictionary, this experience is “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.” Another way of saying this is: “rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience.” This sensation often carries an element of surprise or seeing something new or in a fresh way. There may be hint of curiosity and joy too. Spirituality and Practice offers this insight: “Wonder begins in the senses, comes alive in the imagination, and flourishes in adoration of the Divine. It arises from our natural curiosity about the grand adventure of life.” Why Not Wonder? What stops us from this gift … [Read more...]
What is a Silent Retreat?
What is a silent retreat? I mentioned on several social media posts about the silent retreat I attended earlier in August. I was amazed at the questions about this type of spending time with God. The interest in the deepening of our relationship with our Creator is growing and I am finding more people curious about what this practice may bring to their spiritual journey. Going on retreat is an essential spiritual discipline for me. Time for silence and learning informs the mind and forms the spirit. I leave refreshed, renewed, transformed – not quite the same as I arrived. What is a Silent Retreat? Mother Teresa said, “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.” A spiritual retreat is an opportunity to slow down to spend time with God. Leaving behind the … [Read more...]
Visio Divina – The Practice and Resources
Visio Divina deepened my time with the Lord at my recent silent retreat. This a slow contemplative prayer practice similar to Lectio Divina or sacred reading. Visio Divina is Latin for divine seeing and involves praying with art and allowing God to speak to us through the use of an image. Prayerful consideration of and interaction with a photograph in the magazine, icon, piece of art, or other visual representation invites us to experience the divine in a unique and powerful way. This is the statue from my recent retreat that brought me closer and loved deeply by God. This practice enhanced my time with the Lord as I listened with the eyes of my heart, soaking in his love and gazing at this art piece. Meeting God Through Art: Visio Divina Meeting God Through Art: Visio Divina. – A Guided Prayer Journal with Images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a new book by my friend. Therese Kay. This book accompanied me on my retreat and inspired me to explore various art and … [Read more...]
The Spiritual Practice of Rinse and Repeat
Rinse and Repeat. I am hearing this jargon in so many conversations lately. #rinserepeat. Trending slang. It is also called the shampoo algorithm. You know the instructions on the shampoo bottle label? The phrase is a funny reference taken from hair washing guidance and applied to any action that needs to be replicated many times in order to reach a goal or change a behavior. You could use these words for ordinary actions. Get up, go to work, come home, bed – rinse and repeat. When we face a habit, desire, or practice that is best implemented on a never-ending cycle. Or when we fight with an imperfect or resistant obstacle such a weight loss. To achieve something great, it often takes weeks, months, or years of planning and hard work. You go through phases of trial and error. You take two steps forward and one step back. You try this, you try that. You start again. You rinse and repeat. Basically, it means to do it again. Two words that also contain … [Read more...]
Summer Reading
What is on your summer reading pile? I like to periodically update you all on what I am currently reading. Here are three I have read lately that are lingering in my mind and heart: A Prayer Journal – Flannery O'Connor Interesting collection of journal entries of writer Flannery O'Connor written between 1946 and 1947. Most are her prayers/conversations with God and her discernment as she discovers herself as a writer. What a great writer even in her journal entries. Lovely words like this: "Dear God, I cannot love Thee the way I want to. You are the slim crescent of a moon that I see and my self is the earth's shadow that keeps me from seeing all the moon. The crescent is beautiful and perhaps that is all one like I am should or could see; but what I am afraid of, dear God, is that my self shadow will grow so large that it blocks the whole moon, and that I will judge myself by the shadow that is nothing. I do not know you God because I am in the way. Please help me to … [Read more...]
Breath Prayers – A Spiritual Practice
Hit the pause button! For just a minute in the midst of your hurry-scurry of reading blog posts, responding to emails and juggling your to-do list, stop. Take a deep breath. Breath in – feeling the external air enter your lungs. Breath out – exhaling the internal. Air inward. Air outward. Breathing is so intuitive and intimate. Both conscious and unconscious. Lifegiving and life transformational. Breathing and praying share many of the same characteristics. Breath God in. Breath ego, worry, fear out. God surrounds us like air – invisible, life-giving, all around and within. We are like fish in the sea wondering what water really is. This powerful force sustaining and nurturing us on our journey. Breath Prayers The Bibles teaches us to “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) How do we do this? One type of prayer that has helped Christians across the ages to fulfill this command is breath … [Read more...]
Creativity, Inspiration and Whimsey, Oh My!
Creativity. Ever enter a room radiating this essence? I visited a friend's pottery studio last week. Every cell in my body tingled as I breathed in her imagination on the workbenches. I felt like the first time I walked down Walt Disney World's Main Street - all my senses bursting with glorious inspiration. One room held mounds of grey clay waiting to be shaped. The primary studio presented a great array of partially completed animals – dogs, cats, armadillos, mice, birds, - wearing unique forms of transportation – wheels, skateboards, balls, wagons, boats, planes. Quirky, humorous animals with unusual moving parts – all being molded by my potter friend for a show in Florida this coming winter. What an imaginative combination. My world whirled with wonderful whimsey. Her originality and imagination reminded me of my visit to the Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsey in Sarasota, Florida. A must see for any of us who needs some joy. Visiting their displays comes with a … [Read more...]