Kristin Tennant (blogger at halfway to normal) a.k.a. kt_writes gets a NiNJA Interview. Great stuff (If the interviewee spits out coffee while watching it, I think I’ve done my job.)
Tell me what you think…
about SURPRISE.
Category: Spirituality
Topics pertain in some way to the unseen realm of Reality, the inner world, or the Divine, most often in a Christian and ecumenical context with the assumption that all people are in reality, beings with and of spirit.
Stealthy Wee Hours Premier of NiNJA Interviews!
5 Things I want to Teach my Kids this Christmas
1. People always matter more than things.
2. Be grateful because you are blessed. Many will have a sad or lonely Christmastime.
3. Giving causes joy (which is sturdy happiness).
4. Hope came as a baby. Hope is how we carry on. Sometimes lighting a candle helps us remember this.
5. Hugs and kisses make some of the best gifts.
What Things do you want to teach your kids this Christmas? No kids? Then leave your suggestions for the rest of us blind beggars.
2nd Sunday of Advent: Short Meditation
Scripture reading: Mark 1:1-8
To John:
Reverberate in the sparse places
Collect your wild honey
Prepare the way, ready your heart
Wash and be seen
Your King is coming
Your Savior
Your hope is come
He is on the move
In the wilderness, in the wilds.
(This poem is released into the public domain. It may be used and distributed freely. ) Remember to share (public art) or give away your own art during Advent this year. Read more info for this Artists Advent Project here.
Contemplative Reading Recommendations
Advent Season is the perfect time to get all high octane spiritually speaking. Read, meditate, pray, and learn from others, and you will be so enriched as you enter the Christmas season.
My favorite undertaker, and writer friend, Caleb Wilde has been blog writing about God and Greek influence. And it struck me how much the Contemplative stream of Christianity may help inform us about things and in places where our finite intellectualizing fails us. The intersection of life and death is one of those spots.
I asked Caleb who and what he’s read from this (as Richard Foster says) “Stream of Christianity”, and he asked for recommendations. So, I thought, I’d offer them to all of you.
Please recommend your favorites too.
My not-by-any-means exhaustive list of favorite Contemplative Stream writers.
By way of a high-qulaity but compact primer I recommend Richard Foster‘s who gives a fantastic overview to each of the 6 Streams of Christianity. His “Streams of Living Waters” book covers the basic 6 traditions categorized as: Charismatic, Holiness, Contemplative, Social Justice, Evangelical, and Incarnational flavors (if you will) within all of Christianity through the ages since Christ.
Gaining Christian spiritual insights from devoted lovers of God outside your own era and your own experience of a specific faith tradition is an invaluable blessing, and very faith building. Foster outlines major points and people of the Contemplative Stream, starting with the apostle John, in the book you see below:
Classic contemplative standby: Frances of Assisi (1181-1226)
Brother Lawrence (1611-1691) The Practice of the Presence of God (short read, and free online. sweet.)
Frank Laubach (1884-1970)
Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)
Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Thomas Merton “In My Own Words”
Henri Nouwen 1932-1996)
Here are 2 useful previously posted articles on this Stream.
1. Kataphatic and Apophatic Prayer Explained
2.Meditation to Contemplation – Kataphatic to Apophatic Prayer (an prayer exercise/experience)