Spiritual Practice of You – The Practice of Lament The Drunkard’s Lament ~ BrontëBlog by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND Christians around the world, many will be spending the next four weeks in the Christian church celebrating the season of Advent, looking forward to annual celebration of the birth of Jesus. For many, this is a time of joy, hope and celebration of family and friends. For others, however, this is a time of sadness, despair,... Read more
Rounding out this series on gratitude, I would like to finish with my roots, Christianity. Thanksgiving through Christmas are my favorite time to preach because of the time I could spend teaching about gratitude. I feel that our churches need to spend more time talking about the need to offer love and gratitude rather than the focus on giving gifts and consuming food and experiences. I am reminded of Thomas Merton’s 4th and Walnut mystical experience: (from Conjectures... Read more
The following is a discussion I am leading on November 20th at Erie County Community College around the practice of Joy Finding the Joy in the Every Day A Presentation for EC3 Lunch and Learn Rob Giannamore, MDiv, MS, LPC The late Calypso poet Jimmy Buffett writes in his song “Barefoot Children” that “the wrinkles only go where the smiles have been”. Today, I want to talk about a topic that... Read more
In a previous series of blog posts, I tried writing weekly on healthy eating and living. I want to pivot and return to this project, however looking at it through the spiritual practice of you. Two quotes come to mind for me, “Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, as long as you ever can”. This is by John Wesley, the father of Methodism. The other quote is “Live in such a way as... Read more
This week, we continue our exploration into the many ways gratitude is seen in the Abrahamic religions. This week, I will be looking at the Islamic tradition and the practice of Shukr. An Outsider Looking In From an outsider looking in, one may ask, “why do Muslims bow so much when they pray?” Understanding shukr helps answer this question. Again, it is important that I am an outsider, born in the blood of Jesus Christian and in no way is... Read more
When I was still preaching, my favorite season of preaching was the Thanksgiving through Christmas seasons. I feel it is important to meditate on gratitude and providence during this season. I would like to spend the next four weeks looking at four perspectives of gratitude from the Abrahamic and Dharmic traditions. This week, we will look at the Jewish perspective of gratitude. Gratitude as a Spiritual Practice As a practice, gratitude enhances our satisfaction, our contentment... Read more
“Wonder is God’s way of getting our attention” – Joan Chittister “When we wonder, we touch God”, Nontando Hadebe Of the many modalities I use as a mental health therapist, Eric Erikson’s model of development leads my understanding of the clients I work with on a daily basis. As a pastor, I often and still use John Westerhoff’s developmental theory of faith development. A Brief Overview of Development Erik Erikson was a German psychoanalyst who would become... Read more
What is not there is there when you let go of your expectations Beware, keep alert: for you do not know when the time will come. Mark 13:33. I have always loved this text. From the old days when I was more of a conservative, fire and brimstone, slayed in the blood of the lamb Christian to now as a more mindfulness based mental health clinician, this text offers a lot. I want to focus on the latter, looking at... Read more
There are several YouTube videos that I enjoy around bicycling, specifically mountain biking. In the video, the person conducting the video buys a mountain bike from Walmart and proceeds to take it on a Black Diamond (the hardest) mountain bike trail. The bike holds up for maybe one or two runs down the hill and then the problems start showing; the chain breaks, the brakes fail, the fork bends and the shocks fail and ultimately, the bike is unridable. Christianity... Read more
7/8/21- Vacation starts today! Unfortunately it rained all day and I could not play on the gun range and get my 10 mile run in. Instead I am noshing on this amazing Halo Top ice cream. 590 calories for the whole thing. 15 g of carbs. Not the greatest start but it is vacation 7/9/21- Vacation day 2 and more rain, not getting much training in. Today we shopped for supplies for our road trip tomorrow. I took my bride... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In