While Jesus predicts that people will die of fear ‘as they await what menaces the world’ (Luke 21:26), he says to his followers: ‘Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man’ (Luke 21:36).
Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings.
In Mirabai Starr’s book ‘Saint John of the Cross: Luminous Darkness,’ she highlights four major themes found in the writings of John of the Cross (1542–1591): longing, silence, unknowing and love. This meditation focuses on these four enduring mystical themes.
What is Prayer? Prayer is intimacy with the Great Mystery. Be every moment aware of the Presence – how you are loved!
What a shock! How does Luke 14:25-33 fit with the God of love, having life and living it abundantly, honouring your mother and father, and loving your neighbour?
We all want a place at the table. To have the place that is near the most honoured person in the room, is a wonderful thing! To have a place at all, is an even greater gift.
When our focus is on Church rules, rationale and regulations, we often forget the real person, the intentional reason and the relevancy of why the rules were developed in the first place.
‘When we discern the sacramental principle in the world—the presence of God in every person and every place—then we can rejoice and celebrate the fullness of life and the joy of creation.’ (John Chryssavgis, Creation as Sacrament).
Baptism into life with God is too often related to precise ways of being, and specific practices within our religious life. However, ‘being ready’ with our soul’s lamps lit by the Spirit, and being companioned on the road with Jesus, means we are prepared to be immersed into any unexpected awesome adventure that comes before us - even if it is unexpected, and being revealed at a ‘midnight’ moment of life, or at the dawning of new horizons.
The word “innocent” from its Latin root means “not wounded.” That’s how we all start life. We’re all innocent. It doesn’t have anything to do with morally right or wrong. It has to do with not yet being wounded.
If we are incapable of hearing others, we will also be incapable of hearing God. If we spend all day controlling and blocking others, why would we change when we kneel to pray?
Our lives are in constant demand. We are drawn to the loudest voice, the daily task that is most pressing, or the cause of humanity that is deemed most urgent. Our senses are constantly bombarded by white noise: of life distracting us from the real life-giving source of peace, joy, love and hope.
During the apostle Paul’s lifetime, the church was not yet an institution or structural grouping of common practices and beliefs. The church was a living organism that communicated the gospel through relationships.
By the time Luke’s gospel was written (after A.D. 60), the church had entered a new generation of believers. They had limited memories of its start and development.
With so many competing messages, rules, expectations, and demands, it is often hard to hear God’s voice clearly.
Advocate, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Wisdom, Spirit of God, Holy Spirit, wind, breath, fire – across our Bible and within our Christian traditions, we experience many aspects of the Spirit.
Have you ever had an experience so incredible that when you tried to explain it to someone else, words didn’t really suffice?
There are many different types and ways of prayer but essentially, it is about relationship with God. He talks with us sharing His heart, and we talk with Him, sharing our hearts.
Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude, we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self.
Contemplation is the practice of being fully present—in heart, mind, and body—to what is in a way that allows you to creatively respond and work toward what could be.