How do you spend your noon hour?Most of us break for quick bite of lunch and rush though some errands that urgently snap up our time. Some may walk at a fast pace, working on their fitness while others put their feet up listening to the news. My hubby's favorite noon time is watching Price is Right with Drew and the "Come on Down" challenge.But how many of us pause, be present to God and pray? "Come on Down" may be God's challenge to us to slow down and listen for Him over this midday stop.The third time to pause is Noon.Pause and Listen to the Lesson of the HourLight is the theme for the noon hour. The sun is at its peak with the day half gone. You know the old adage, is the cup half full or half empty? The same can be applied to the noon pause.This pause gives us time to review the morning and recharge for the rest of the day.Stretch and GrowWiederkehr offers us questions to ponder at noon time: “Do we find ourselves focusing on the fact that the day is half gone or feeling delighted … [Read more...]
Mid Morning Pause- “Seven times a day I praise you…” Psalm 119:164
Seven Sacred Pauses by Macrina Wiederkehr entered my heart and soul with its message. See the July 21 post. The next several entries will feature thoughts about the daily rhythm of pausing for prayer throughout the day and even in the night.People have prayed at fixed hours for centuries. These moments can be called sacred pauses, the daily office, or the divine hours. The number of times each day varies from three to four to seven. Honoring God by honoring the hours connect us to the divine and increases our awareness to the movement of the spirit in our lives.I invite your comments as we honor the movement of the rhythm of each day as we Pause and learn the lesson of that hour (background and specific themes for the featured hour) and stretch and grow (questions to ponder and practices to try)I start off well with morning prayer, full of good intentions to bring my heart to God throughout the day. But in reality I get distracted by life, interrupted by other voices, and pulled in … [Read more...]
Pausing for Morning Prayer– “Seven times a day I praise you…” Psalm 119:164
Seven Sacred Pauses by Macrina Wiederkehr entered my heart and soul with its message. See the July 21 post. The next several entries will feature thoughts about the daily rhythm of pausing for prayer throughout the day and even in the night. People have prayed at fixed hours for centuries. These moments can be called sacred pauses, the daily office, or the divine hours. The number of times each day varies from three to four to seven. Honoring God by honoring the hours connect us to the divine and increases our awareness to the movement of the spirit in our lives. I invite your comments as we honor the movement of the rhythm of each day as we pause and learn the lesson of that hour (background and specific themes for the featured hour) and stretch and grow (questions to ponder and practices to try)Morning people drive people nuts. How do I know? I confess that I am one. We find it easy and natural to begin each day in prayer. We awaken with God, a form of resurrection. Morning brings a … [Read more...]
Spiritual Pause Power
Take a deep breath. Now I mean it – stop for a moment. Take a deep breath.Realize you are alive. Feel your lungs expand and the rush of air through your pursed lips.Pause.I have been pondering the power in pausing lately. Seven Sacred Pauses, written by Macrina Wiederkehr, provides the nourishment for my new venture into the spiritual practice of living mindfully by pausing to pray at set times each day.She writes, “Living mindfully is the art of living awake and ready to embrace the gift of the present moment.”This book is NOT about how to do the daily office, but contains reflections about applying the themes of specific hours to deepen our awareness of God and of life. Intentionally pausing at certain points each day awakens us, brings new insights that help us to go deeper instead of skimming along on the surface, and provides a touch point with our true self, not what the world is shouting to us to be.“We practice pausing to remember the sacredness of our names, who we are and … [Read more...]
The Spiritual Practice of Keeping your Mouth Shut and Listening to God
South African Terence Parkin won the Olympic silver medal in the men’s 200 breaststroke in Sydney in September of 2000. Though this is an accomplishment in itself, it is even more remarkable that Terrence has been deaf since birth.Terence did not hear the cheering, the splashing of the water or the background noises in the swimming pool. Strobe lights announced the start of each race and launched him off the pad into the water.What a feat to make the Olympics, to make the final match, and then win a medal on top of having a disability.Coach Graham Hill noted that Terence’s biggest strength is his deafness. “He doesn’t listen to the nonsense around him”.Keeping my mouth shut and listening more to God seems to be a lesson God is telling me lately. I laugh at the old adage that is why He only gave us one mouth and two ears. We need to listen more to Him, respond to His holy strobe light and forget the nonsense that the world throws at us.I ponder once again what is written in Proverbs … [Read more...]
Jesus Calling – Book Review
Jesus Calling If you could write down the words Jesus speaks to you, what would they be? Sarah Young has written a unique 365 day devotional called Jesus Calling. In her faith walk, she intentionally began to open her heart more and “began to listen to what He was saying.” Young writes, “I had been writing in prayer journals for years but that was one-way communication; I did all the talking, I knew that God communicated with me with the Bible, but I yearned for more. I decided to listen to God with pen in hand, writing down whatever I believed He was saying… my journaling had changed from monologue to dialogue.” Each day in this devotional is written as if Jesus Himself was speaking. The gift size book has one or two paragraphs daily with a message tied to a Scripture. The author encourages the reader to read each entry slowly and to keep a journal to record any thoughts you receive as you listen to God. Having a daily devotion time is a foundational practice for … [Read more...]
Are You God’s Tapestry?
God's Tapestry One of my favorite stories: When I was a little, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. As from the underside I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand, I complained to her that it sure looked messy from where I sat. She would smile at me, look down and gently say, "Child, you go about your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side." I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view. A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother's voice say, "Come and sit on my knee." This I did only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so … [Read more...]
Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary and Finding God
Ordinary. Mundane. Routine. Common. Does this sound boring to you? We have entered the church season called the Ordinary Time running now until Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday before the beginning of Advent. A long drawn out season of 33 or 34 Sundays, depending on which calendar the church follows. Ordinary time gets its name from the word “ordinal”, which means counted time and we count each Sunday as in the First Sunday after Pentecost, etc. The liturgical color for this season is green – very appropriate for summer time and for the idea of a fresh growth and new life. So how do we keep growing during ordinary times of our lives? How do we find the extraordinary in the ordinary and find God? Richard Foster in his wonderful book Prayer – Finding the Heart’s True Home, writes about the sanctity or holiness in the ordinary. “We pray the ordinary in three ways: first by turning ordinary experience of life into prayer, second, by seeing God in the ordinary experiences … [Read more...]