Forum Replies Created
- Challenging People in Prayer Groups
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Randi , prayers coming for your test results and overall wellbeing..
Also , please pray for longtime friend whose storytelling repels others. Childhood trauma is at the root of his behavior. I can be with him because i am not triggered .
2 broken ribs ….so good to have fellow travelers on this pilgrimage. Prayers for your mom , Pamela. Having a sense of God’s presence is so comforting…, not to be taken for granted .i find people reach out to help with physical pain , but responding to emotional or spiritual pain is another matter. Not so easy.
a couple of days ago i fell on an uneven sidewalk. I thought i was of until last night when spasms of pain overtook me. As always with challenges, i look for and grasp the finger of God.
How true ..knowing i did my best, i am compassionate with myself . Knowing that about myself, i assume good will in others, even if they fail. Maybe assuming good will is a way to lead others into goodness.
As soon as i think i’m “there” i hit a brick wall …kind of dazed . i guess i’m not ” there” afterall. The journey continues.
Absolute favorite quote, eben
Linda: yes . Yes . Yes.
pamela-the music you have introduced me to over the years – wow!
take a listen
to olaf armands . Im listening to his music this am —haunting … gathers me up into quiet.
I could feel that image insidde my body and how it aligns with. What i take from today’s gospel.
it called to mind the lectio divina group we started here . At the end of our sessions, i find myself with copy paper and box of crayons ….making a drawing -coming straight out of my heart and onto paper. My friend this week suggested giving everyone in the group paper and access to crayons to make art around how they have been moved.
In our Lectio Divina group, my 87 yesr old friend , sally , says ….every week ….i might die tonight …withh a twinkle in her eye. Sally keeps abreast of current events . She has a rich store of memories with her husband an fbi agent , living all over the world. She makes us all laugh.
i tell her i want to be there for the sendoff.
my psychiatrist and i agree : if you keep going down , down down , in your sadness, despair , you come to peace and to a place of light . I guess that is on the level of bodily experiencing with thoughts on the sideline.
I woke up too early this morning with all kinds of wanting -to-do dancing across my mind ….its been a consoling week with family members nearby.
i get a coffee and sit for centering prayer . The sunday lectio is right there as i emerge, having done lectio divina with my church group this week. Then, so tired, i go back to bed. Now i read this with another coffee and I am crying. What a difference you have made in my life! I am now witnessing to this to all around me, daring to be my true self after a lifetime of feeling shamed. Thank you all (with copious tearss ).
Gosh, that image! It is like going towards the light is a big deal. You have to go thru a lot to get to the realization of that vision appearing in yiur mind’s eye.
thinking of Bonhoeffer , choosing to go where he was called, back to Germany when hitler was solidifying control. Choosing to serve for him was just presencing …nothing to do…just being with…
yesterday my family was bemoaning US politics. I was getting triggereed and escaped to my room. Then i realized, if i really care about my country, i need to stay and feel the grief and the fear that accompanies what is.
the doing will grow out of such being.
I know that i will never be left to my own devices.
I will pray . I appdeciate being part of this praying community
Somehow, i feel i have been transported to another stage of being in the past few days. All of a sudden, i was thrust into a situation where the inner silence i have been culrivating for years came forward at just the right time , for the righr people. I am amazed at what transpired by me keeping my ego out of the way. I’m not really believing that it was i that did that -getting ego to stand down.
we will see if this is a difference that makes a difference.
Please desperately ill Mary, experiencing her latest and most devastating recurrance of cancer, for husband johnand her daughters. Her son has been avoiding the family in recent years, so pray there will be some engagement for Mary’s sake.
Keeping ourselves company….
I am listening to a book on tape about conversations between God and figures in the old testament. What i learned is that we cant know who we are … who we are to become.
Jacob tried to define who he was by fooling his father to give him the blessing that belonged to Easau. So jacob pretended to be who he was not-a spectacular false self. When jaacob wrestlrd with the angel at Jabok , he came away limping , and gifted with a new name-i think Isreal. The way God brought about this crisis for jacob suggests the our God is the ultimate trickster. Only when Jacob reconciles with Esau after his interaction with the angel, is jacob free ti be himself.
