Hope

Hope-

It’s the fuel to get past the obstacles before us. If it didn’t exist, we’d have to make it up. Because it exists, we carry on, and we may do it well. Through it we know that our present condition is not all there is, and not all that is most important. Hope is not just joy (sturdy happiness) and courage to persevere for a better day, but for the perfect day. A day that we cannot truly wrap our brains around quite yet. But, it’s a state and circumstance ahead in which our hearts count on. We believe in this beautiful thing, and, in that way, we are more human, not less.

It is not futile to believe in something one can’t see, or to set one’s sights on a place one’s never been. Every great explorer journeyed somewhere they had never seen, and found a place they had never set foot on, that had once been myth to everyone else.

Have hope, never give it up.
Of the three enduring things -faith, hope, and love- the greatest is love, but faith and hope support it. Faith is trust. Hope is fuel for it all.
-lcd

Leave your comments about hope . . .

Ways of Examen for greater fulfillment

The practice of Examen (pronounced: EGGS-aye-men) brings our living and our growth into focus. It helps us see God, (and the Divine presence) in our day, and/or helps us see far more meaning in our day than we could by merely living without really noticing.

For me, the practice of Examen has sometimes turned self-critical, and produced guilt, instead of helped me see God and his encouragement. My spiritual director Lenoir Wible offered me her notes from her teacher, that are a more positive slant on the ways of Examen. It’s quite beneficial–even life-changing.

Remember God sings over you.

Give it a try for a week or so, and tell me if it’s helpful.
Have you ever tried the spiritual practice of Examen before?
(Chime in with your comments…)
 

Consciousness Examen

  • In the morning, upon awakening:
    Ask The Divine, Light of the World, to walk with you throughout the day.In the evening, before sleep:
  • 1. Briefly review your day.
  • 2. Thank God for the specific gift of the day.
  • 3. Celebrate God’s undefeated love at those moments of the day when you were loving or loved.
     
  • 4. Celebrate God’s undefeated love at those moments when you were less than loving – and hear God say to you: “I know that and I love you!”
     
  • 5. Ask yourself “What grace am I being invited to ask for?”
    Ask!
  • “What would life look like were that grace given?
     
  • Sit with this and ponder the answer with prayerful thanksgiving


Digg!

Wellness is found in community

house-painting

One reason I’m planning to be involved in community projects soon isn’t just to be a do-gooder. It’s because I sense that we all become more well within community. Isolation creates unhealth, healing is found in community, and interaction, and it forces us to grow. It gives us opportunities to smooth off our rough edge, and be tried. Community done well reflects the Divine, and the essence of the Divine is community–Trinity. Out of the overflow of Love Divine, humans were created. Then to carry on love, we must enact community and enlarge Love within and through each other by harmony and interaction. It’s a way to experience the Divine, if we understand it this way.

Making our communities better is ministry, and it’s ministry we can all do.

Kataphatic and Apophatic Prayer Explained

prayerpictInfo. gathered from:

SPIRITUALITY TODAY
Spring 1986, Vol. 38, pp. 41-52.

Frederick G. McLeod: 
      Apophatic or Kataphatic Prayer?

In regard to how kataphatic and apophatic are related to each other, they are in a sense complementary or perhaps better described as being at opposite ends of the same prayer spectrum. They aim at producing different kinds of faith experiences: apophatic at provoking an experience of union with the Lord beyond conscious awareness, and kataphatic at evoking experiences of God’s merciful and salvific love in which one is aware of a dynamic movement towards conversion as well as aiming at intimate experiences in which one seeks to know more who Christ is so as to be able to love and serve Him more and in which one sensibly feels an at-one-ment with Him.

Read the full article-