Are We Getting Healthier? Many of us focus our efforts on getting healthier during spring. We have survived all the special foods associated with holidays and our more sedentary winters. Some of us want to get healthier physically so we can be more active, and more attractive, during summer. Our bank accounts have absorbed all that holiday spending and paying our taxes. We might be working on building financial health. Can we get healthier spiritually in the same ways we... Read more
Are We Getting Healthier? Many of us focus our efforts on getting healthier during spring. We have survived all the special foods associated with holidays and our more sedentary winters. Some of us want to get healthier physically so we can be more active, and more attractive, during summer. Our bank accounts have absorbed all that holiday spending and paying our taxes. We might be working on building financial health. Can we get healthier spiritually in the same ways we... Read more
Creating Opportunities for Stillness I know people who say they would like their lives to be more contemplative but they do not have time. Contemplative practices are not easy. They require us to invest time and effort in taking the first steps on the path toward contemplative life. It can be a challenge for us to appreciate whether the benefits sacred stillness offers us are worth what it takes. We live in a world which does not particularly value stillness... Read more
Is Spiritual Life About Doing or Being? Some of us focus on the things spiritual life causes us to do. We believe spiritual life is about how we behave, our actions, what we do. There are specific ways to put what we believe into practice. Even thinking or believing certain things is a something we do. Others of us see spiritual life as something we are or who we become. We believe people recognize spiritual life in us because of... Read more
Everyday Liturgies for Our Spiritual Lives Some of us believe our calendars are like jigsaw puzzles. We color code our time commitments, separating work and family, recreation and spiritual life. The challenge for us is fitting all the pieces together to make the right picture. Contemplative practices help us see there are no divisions between the ways we spend our time. It becomes more and more challenging for us to distinguish between work and spiritual life. Our schedules are increasingly... Read more
Comfort in the Stillness of Familiar Things I practice a form of listening to sacred stillness known as centering prayer. One of the four guidelines of centering prayer tells practitioners to begin by sitting comfortably. As my contemplative practice has grown and deepened through the years I have considered the value of comfort. Some of us try to remind people it is important not to get too comfortable. The practice begins with sitting comfortably, not lying down or falling asleep.... Read more
Walking Our Own Everyday Labyrinths Some people find labyrinths a little confusing. They are afraid they might get lost, run into other people, or get in someone else’s way. There are people who are concerned because they do not understand how labyrinths work or who built the first one. I have walked and prayed labyrinths in churches and monasteries. There is one in a public garden within walking distance of where I live. Many churches and other accessible spaces have... Read more
Do We Need to Be a Mystic to Become a Monk? Many of us think of monastic life as filled with people who are particularly cosmic. Some of us see people in monastic life as different from us. They dedicate their lives to living into spiritual life in ways the rest of us have not. Our focus is on the differences between us and not the similarities which bring us together. We may assume monks can somehow tap into the... Read more
We Hear Our Stories in the Stillness Some of us try to follow an intentional, planned contemplative practice of listening to sacred stillness. It can be a challenge for us to discern and remember what we are listening to hear. Why are we listening to sacred stillness? What do we hope to hear as we sit quietly listening to stillness? We may listen to hear all the distractions of each day fade away into calm stillness. Some of us listen... Read more
Hope on a Spring Morning The sun dawns a little earlier on each spiring morning. Every day of spring brings a little more light and a little more warmth. We fold up winter and put it away for a few months. While winter mornings are a struggle and a challenge, a spring morning can be a revelation. The dark, grey world in which we thought we slept is, in fact, a celebration of colors. We wake up to more than... Read more
Strategic Monk
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