Kathleen M. Kelly

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Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 71 total)
  • “The Greatest Experience of God is No Experience”
  • Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on April 8, 2023 at 5:57 pm in reply to: Sunday April 2: Emptying and Listening #134313

    To continue Adeline’s reflection….knowing that Jesus experienced this and it being such a human experience…how can I ever whine again about my feelings of lostness, forsakenness , heartbreak? why not welcome it so I can sit with Him and with my brothers and sisters through time and space, who felt and feel such devastation.

    welcome, welcome, welcome…

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on April 4, 2023 at 2:08 pm in reply to: Sunday April 2: Emptying and Listening #134264

    what a beautiful prayer time today. Pamela, I loved how you waited before calling on people, to let the previous sharing sink in. It was so full of life – each sharing. And Helen, please accept my sympathy for the loss of your son. My prayers surround you.

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on April 4, 2023 at 1:51 am in reply to: Sunday April 2: Emptying and Listening #134257

    Susan, those dear ones you remember….somehow , though it is incredibly sad, they are alive for you and blessing you. I believe God can transform so much though the facts and even the feelings are the same.

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on April 2, 2023 at 12:15 pm in reply to: Sunday April 2: Emptying and Listening #134230

    Not trying, allowing.

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on March 28, 2023 at 4:09 pm in reply to: Sunday March 26: Stronger When We Wait #134158

    I can’t express my gratitude for this morning . I felt surrounded by God’s sheltering arms. It changed my day.

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on March 20, 2023 at 11:51 am in reply to: Sunday March 19: Live in Light, Walk in Truth #133977

    More thought on the gospel passage, though from a different angle….

    extrapolating from the condition of blindness. The Pharisees were blinded by their own satisfaction while the blind Mann could be cured because he knew he was blind. Spiritual illness is the worse handicap. Yet we are obsessed in our culture with physical illness and big big medical centers to assuage our fear of death. In medieval times, it was more important to make peace with Gid and others before death, not preventing death itself, at any cost. In the service of that living faith, Notre Dame and Charted were built. Now it’s not cathedrals. It’s medical centers.

    this has knocked my socks off for the last 24 hours. I did a deep dive into the Girardian lectionary for this moving reflection. It certainly is a corrective to the fear of physical death.

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on March 19, 2023 at 6:21 pm in reply to: Sunday March 19: Live in Light, Walk in Truth #133965

    this faith is the truth of God as God is in Godself and not as God is in ‘my’ self; Bernadette Roberts

     

    As long as I am in this body,  it is a living, breathing, sensate faith. It is BEING and all that is inside me and outside me, the whole universe. It is that longing in my heart. Yet there is also knowing, beyond thought. It is awareness but the object of awareness is everything and everybody, everywhere, at all times.

    The truth of God and being with God in godself, well, that is on the other side of the veil….I stand on this side of the veil, waiting.

     

     

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on March 17, 2023 at 2:22 pm in reply to: Sunday March 12: Come to Living Water #133928

    All of a sudden I realize how god must feel, wanting to wash love over people and then so many who are unable to accept….I crawl back to him for. Comfort. And sustenance.

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on March 14, 2023 at 8:25 pm in reply to: Sunday March 12: Come to Living Water #133865

    Revelation continues, and that is why these gospel stories deliver over and over to us during our contemplative prayer,  and our daily life. Actually, though I did study the woman at the well reading on Sunday, yesterday, as I was sitting with a situation within, up the story popped with all the nuances I needed.

    It just amazes me how scripture feeds me every single day. There is something about it that sets it apart from all other spiritual texts. I never tire of it.

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on March 14, 2023 at 1:46 am in reply to: Sunday March 12: Come to Living Water #133842

    This passage is so alive for me today. Jesus knew there was something different about her in that she was alone in the heat of mid day. The truth was likely that she was an outcast among the other women , since she had been married 5 times , and lived with someone not her husband. Jesus must have known that her history would yield many problems for her. yet he didn’t condemn her. in fact he treated her as having full dignity and humanity. He asked for a drink.
    can you imagine us going around doing good with people who are outcasts , in “irregular “ relationships, who have a myriad of disgusting problems? The last thing we would do is treat them as if we were the ones in need.

    what a lesson Jesus provides for us. He treated the woman at the well as the equal she was. More importantly (for me) , he didn’t analyze or  try to “fix” her like she was some kind of object. He was honest with her without condemning. He befriended her and her community  of Samaritans (outsiders for Jews). He persisted when criticized by his apostles.

    her gratitude must have lifted his heart as he made his way to the mountain top to talk to his father at day.’s end.

     

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on February 28, 2023 at 3:14 pm in reply to: Sunday February 26: What is Being Tested? #133428

    at the end of the online prayer, section session, I was moved to share and will now. I am an introvert and realize that when I spend a lot of time with people or crowded areas, I develop a debilitating headache, and need to sleep to make it go away. I pictured myself, generally, not just then, as having an electric current going directly to my brain. It gets so strong, it feels like it could explode if I didn’t do something. So, I walk or, better, do art. Some judge, inside or outside, will say, I feel too much, I think too much, I care too much (my mother’s words). Well, that is the dark side of a lot of good. But, in my minds eye, I see myself turning. down the current, like on a dimmer switch. I Say to my poor mind: It’s OK, Please rest (in MY arms, says God).

     

    Glad I am not alone on this freakin journey!

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on January 15, 2023 at 3:19 pm in reply to: Sunday January 15: The Mystery Beyond All Things #131503

    This helps. More and more, I am dropping into my body and giving that overused mind a break.
    I read , I do lectio, I write in my journal. I used all the intellectual tools at my disposal to discern right thinking, fight action. then, I forget all and drop down into my heart space.

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on December 3, 2020 at 1:45 pm in reply to: Sunday November 29: In A Garment of Silence #110247

    roger housdden provided the image of “threading the needle of the present  moment”.

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on December 3, 2020 at 1:39 pm in reply to: Sunday November 29: In A Garment of Silence #110246

    i feel”over the moon” about the reflection and postings so far.  (grin). i sense that we are all speaking the same language…. without  words! weirdly, it isnt about hope for me even. it is about threadingthe needle of the present moment, between despair and hope. this morning i woke up in a state of anxiety about an up oming surgery for my husband in syracuse, 250 miles away. after staying hoome these many months, what are we to do? stay the night before  in a hotel and will i stay over  or drive home and back the next day?

    i go and sit. silence calms. my mind stops and when my thinking resumes, it is slow. this stopping to  go into  silence makes these days a blessing.

    meister eckhart says that multiplicity is our greatest attachment.

    i was raised in syracuse and for 40 years have been near the canadian border. i actually like the darkness (although have needed a lamp for more light at times)., the worse the weather the more i want to go out in it. the other day i rode my bike by a hugr being next to the dirt path i was on. stopping, a snowy owl and i gazed in others eyes  for many minutes until a woman with a dog approached. as he took off over the st lawrence  river with his huge wing span dominating my view.

     

    doesnt that just sum up this magical journdy we are on? endless mystery and beauty for those grAnted vision.

     

    thank you all. kathy

    Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on November 18, 2020 at 7:18 pm in reply to: Sunday, November 8 – Oil in The Lamp #109862

    i agree with keeping my lamp trimmed  and filled with oil. it is not for me to know what god is doing . my job is to watch and wait. the oil is purchased throough hours spent in solitude and silence. i need endless amounts of  that,  it seems, to be really ready.

Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 71 total)