Advent 2014 :: Coming Soon...

Advent begins in just two weeks on Sunday, November 30. I always find it helpful to consider how I will make space for the season beforehand. There are so many meaningful and rich Advent resources out there that it helps to narrow down which ones will be most helpful beforehand. Instead of posting my own list of online Advent resources, I will point you to Christine Sine’s blog, Godspace. She has already posted her annual list...HERE. Or you can check out my resource guide from last year...HERE.

Christine Sine's annual Advent series is always worth keeping up with. This year it is titled, “Who Will You Invite to the Manger?”.

Instead of posting online resoures, I will share several Advent books that I have enjoyed over the past several years. Most of them are available in Kindle format.  You can click on the book title to learn more about the book.

A Journey toward Home: Soul Travel from Advent through Epiphany 
By Christine Sine & Kristin Carroccino
Speaking of Christine Sine, this new guide to Advent was just published and includes reflections from a wide range of people.

Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas
By Jan L. Richardson
I really enjoyed this book last year and plan to use it again this Advent. Jan Ricardson has another Advent book called “Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas.” She also offers an online Advent retreat that you can check out HERE.

Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent 
By Enuma Okoro
This book focuses on waiting and longing of Elizabeth and Zechariah.

Monastery Journey to Christmas
By Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette
I purchased this book a few years ago and it quickly became a favorite!

Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas
This is a great compilation of readings from both classic and contemporary writers. An Advent classic!

Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year
By Malcolm Guite
A book of sonnets and poetry for the liturgical year that begins with Advent.

Preparing for Advent :: 2013

The first Sunday of Advent arrives the Sunday after Thanksgiving…Sunday, December 1. Here is my sixth annual blog post of resources and links in preparation for the Advent season. For those of you who have followed my blog in Advents past, there’s not a whole lot new here. But, I will pass on additional resources and links as I discover them. Please share any additional Advent resources or ideas that have been helpful to you in comments to this blog post.

I have often shared my frustration with reflections of the church calendar seasons that only center around a Northern Hemisphere experience and context. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking them. It’s just that there is a void of reflections, prayers and liturgies from a Southern Hemisphere experience. For example, many Advent reflections often parallel the darkness and waiting of winter, while down here in the Southern Hemisphere summer is upon us and we are enjoying more light and new life. If any of my Southern Hemisphere friends would like to share reflections on Advent from a spring and summer perspective, let me know. I’d love to initiate and compile some reflections on this!

Below if the list of Advent resources and books. Just click on the website or book title to check it out…

CRI/Voice - The Season of Advent: Anticipation and Hope
This is a helpful introduction and summary of Advent.

GodSpace Blog
This Advent Christine Sine will host a blog series, “Coming Home: Uncovering Our Roots in the Advent Story.“ It will include blog posts and reflections from a variety of contributors.

You can also like the Advent Facebook page...HERE.

Ignatian Spirituality Advent Resources
This page includes a variety of resources, including an Advent Retreat booklet based on Ignatian contemplative and prayer practices.

Sacred Space for Advent Online Retreat 2013

Songs for Advent
A couple years ago I discovered this Advent worship digital download. It quickly became a favorite!

Book of Common Prayer Daily Scripture Readings for Advent 
(Year Two - 2013/2014)

Revised Common Lectionary Sunday Scripture Readings for Advent
(Year A - 2013/2014)

Praying Advent
Creighton University’s Online Ministries offers a selection of materials to help people prayerfully enter into Advent, from short prayers to longer reflections and retreats.

Sojourners Top Ten Advent Resources (2012)

Books
The following are a few Advent books I have used in the past or will be using this year.

Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year
By Malcolm Guite
I recently discovered this book of sonnets and poetry for the liturgical year. Looking forward to using it beginning this Advent.

Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas
By Jan L. Richardson
This is a new one for me that I plan to use this Advent. Jan Ricardson has another Advent book called, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas.

Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent 
By Enuma Okoro
This was published last year and focuses on waiting and longing of Elizabeth and Zechariah.

Monastery Journey to Christmas
By Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette
I purchased this book a couple years ago and it quickly became a favorite!

Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas
This is a great compilation of readings from both classic and contemporary writers.

Waiting for the Light: An Advent Devotional
Christine Sine & Mustard Seed Associates have put together a book of reflections, liturgies, and prayers posted on Godspace blog in years past.

Pay Attention :: Frederick Buechner

"From the simplest lyric to the most complex novel and densest drama, literature is asking us to pay attention. Pay attention to the frog. Pay attention to the west wind. Pay attention to the boy on the raft, the lady in the tower, the old man on the train. In sum, pay attention to the world and all that dwells therein and thereby learn at last to pay attention to yourself and all that dwells therein. . .

"Literature, painting, music — the most basic lesson that all art teaches us is to stop, look, and listen to life on this planet, including our own lives, as a vastly richer, deeper, more mysterious business than most of the time it ever occurs to us to suspect as we bumble along from day to day on automatic pilot. In a world that for the most part steers clear of the whole idea of holiness, art is one of the few places left where we can speak to each other of holy things. . .

"And when Jesus comes along saying that the greatest command of all is to love God and to love our neighbor, he too is asking us to pay attention. If we are to love God, we must first stop, look, and listen for him in what is happening around us and inside us. If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces, but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in."

~ Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations 
(Art, February 20)
(Originally published in: Beyond Words: Daily Readings in The ABC's of Faith)

Weekly Rilke :: "Go to the Limits of Your Longing"

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke
From Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, 1.59
Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

I Am the Kite

I am the kite:
Red and orange,
Fire in the sky,
Stunt Kite,
Cutting loops
And gashes in the blue,
My skin vibrates
On my frame with power.

I cut the cord
To fly yet higher still,
To show the rest
What freedom's all about.
I turn and twist
My fanciest curl
And set my course
For distance.

But, my mistake
Was not
To take the wind for granted,
But the cord
That tensioned me
To one I did not see
So far below.

The flyer is not me.

Lord, give me the anchor. Give me pause.
Let me know in freedom's limited flight,
The kite's first cause.

Bruce Barton Bailey
Sunday, May 29, 1994
University Presbyterian Church, Seattle, Washington

Fire

What makes a fire burn

is space between the logs,

a breathing space.

Too much of a good thing,

too many logs

packed in too tight

can douse the flames

almost as surely

as a pail of water would.

So building fires

requires attention

to the spaces in between,

as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build

open spaces

in the same way

we have learned

to pile on the logs,

then we can come to see how

it is fuel, and absence of the fuel

together, that make fire possible.

We only need to lay a log

lightly from time to time.

A fire

grows

simply because the space is there,

with openings

in which the flame

that knows just how it wants to burn

can find its way.

~Judy Sorum Brown
(Leader’s Guide to Reflective Practice by Judy Brown)

A Prayer and an Icon

"Jesus and Abba Menas. A 6th-century icon from the Monastery of Bawit in Middle Egypt, currently at the Louvre. It is one of the oldest icons in existence."

A print of this icon sits in the front of our class this week.

A Prayer of the Program in Christian Spirituality Community

Creating God:

you stretch wide the heavens

and open the human heart

to receive more and more of your love.

Your Spirit has enlarged our spirits

by drawing us together into this community

of prayer and listening,

hospitality and learning,

compassion and justice –

and we are grateful.

Keep stretching us by your grace

so that we may see, hear, and embrace

the new things you are doing.

Free us to be who you want us to be

so that we may love and serve one another,

our families and communities,

this seminary and the church,

the creation itself,

and you who are within and beyond everything.

We lean on your wisdom and grace

embodied so richly in Jesus Christ

in whose name we pray. Amen.

good words for the new year...

"And now let us welcome the New Year full of things that have never been." 

~ Rainer Maria Rilke  

"… every moment is a new beginning, every handshake a promise. I know that every quest implicates the other, just as every word can become prayer. If life is not a celebration, why remember it? If life — mine or that of my fellow man — is not an offering to the other, what are we doing on this earth?"

~ Elie Wiesel from “Open Heart”

"A new beginning! We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to a voice saying to us: “I have a gift for you and can’t wait for you to see it! Imagine!"

~ Henri Nouwen

"Teach me God not to wait for the sound of the arrow, but to listen for the creak of the bow. Tune my heart to your future for me."

~ Twitturgies by Gerard Kelly

Prayer Books for the New Year

For the past four years I have posted weekly prayers on the blog Prayers & Creeds (http://prayersandcreeds.wordpress.com/). While I often come across the prayers on various websites and blogs, many come from various prayer books that I have collected in recent years. I thought I would post the titles and links, in case anyone is looking for a prayer book for the new year. Most are available in Kindle versions, as well. Please post any additional recommendations in comments to this post! Just click on the book title below.

Yours Is the Day, Lord, Yours Is the Night: A Morning and Evening Prayer Book

Edited by Jeanie and David Gushee 

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals 

By Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Enuma Okoro

Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings From the Northumbria Community

Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle 

By Ted Loder

Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann 

By Walter Brueggemann

Prayers for a Privileged People 

By Walter Brueggemann

The Book of a Thousand Prayers

Compiled by Angela Ashwin

Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits 
Compiled by Michael Harter

For those on Facebook here is a great page of prayers from Christine Sine..."LIKE" it! 

Light for the Journey

Christ Has No Body – St. Teresa of Avila

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Saint Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

Ignatian Prayers & Spirituality in July

In honor of the feast day of Saint Ignatius on July 31, the website Ignatian Spirituality is celebrating by highlighting a selection of articles, blog posts, and videos to help you explore the riches of Ignatian spirituality. You can click on the banner above to explore the daily offerings this July.

 I also share a selection of Ignatain prayers I have posted on Prayers & Creeds these past few years. These are either classic Ignatian prayers, prayers by Jesuits, or Ignatian-inspired prayers. You can check them out by clicking...HERE.

Or you can click on each individual prayer below. I will be posting additional Ignatian prayers throughout July.

The Examen of Consciousness

El Examen de Conciencia ~ Una oración a Dios

Anima Christi (English & Spanish)
A Favorite Prayer of Saint Ignatius

Anima Christi
Rephrasing of this ancient prayer by David L. Fleming, SJ

Prayer of Gratitude

Ignatian Prayer of Gratitude

Ignatian Prayer for Detachment

A Prayer for Spiritual Freedom

Examination of Conscience – A Prayer Practice for Lent

This Lent I am going through an adapted version of the Spiritual Exercises, called “An Ignatian Prayer Adventure.” I just completed Week One and I recommend this eight-week retreat for prayer and reflection. It also serves as an excellent introduction to Ignatian spirituality. You can check it out by clicking: HERE.

Alongside this retreat, I am using a prayer book I recently purchased, Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits. I am discovering lots of new prayers and practices that compliment and speak into my formation at this time. The book includes a prayer practice appropriate for Lent called, “Examination of Conscience” based on the examen that Ignatius included in the Spiritual Exercises and urged his friends to do daily. I plan to utilize this practice during Lent and I thought I would pass it on for those who want to check it out. I have posted it on my other blog, “Quotations & Stuff.”

You can find it by clicking here:
Examination of Conscience

2011 Reads & Looking Ahead to 2012

Thanks to Goodreads for helping me easily compile my list of books read in 2011! All good books that uniquely spoke into my year and further shaped my formation.

- Gracias! A Latin American Journal, Henri Nouwen
- Praying our Goodbyes, Joyce Rupp
- Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes, William Bridges
- The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, Richard Rohr
- The Road To Assisi: The Essential Biography Of St. Francis, Paul Sabatier (Editor, Jon Sweeny)
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire
- Living Mission: The Voices and Vision of New Friars, Scott Bessenecker
- An Ignatian Spirituality Reader, George W. Traub
- The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
- Waiting for the Light: An Advent Devotional, Christine Sine
- Monastery Journey to Christmas, Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette

Next up in 2012…
This week I started compiling my reading list for 2012. I’m hoping to work in more fiction and autobiographies this year! Here’s my wish list for reads, so far…

- The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Jean-Pierre de Caussade
- Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Orbis Books)
- The Long Loneliness: Autobiography of Legendary Catholic Activist, Dorothy Day
- The Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith, Thomas Merton
- Life of Pi, Yann Martel
- Hearts On Fire: Praying with Jesuits, Edited by Michael Harter, SJ
- The Scandal of Service: Jesus Washes Our Feet, Jean Vanier
- From Brokenness to Community, Jean Vanier
- Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, David J Bosch

Yesterday I came across the below quote on “spiritual reading” from Jean-Pierre de Caussade in Richard Foster’s introduction to the book, The Sacrament of the Present Moment. I appreciate this reminder for a few of the books I plan to read this year.

“Read quietly, slowly, word for word to enter into the subject more with the heart than the mind…From time to time make short pauses to allow these truths time to flow through the recesses of the soul and to give occasion for the operation of the Holy Spirit who, during these peaceful pauses and times of silent attention, engraves and imprints these heavenly truths in the heart…Should this peace and rest last for a longer time it will be all the better. When you find that your mind wanders resume your reading and continue thus, frequently, renewing these same pause.” 

Reflecting on 2011

This morning I stumbled on this reflection exercise in a prayer book I recently purchased, Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits edited by Michael Harter, SJ. The below reflection questions were proposed by Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit from India. While the questions are proposed to reflect on a lifetime (a pretty big undertaking!), I think they could also be valuable in reflecting on a year. Perhaps some of the questions could be useful in reflecting on 2011 this New Year’s weekend.

I also recommend this blog article from my friend Daphne, as you look forward to 2012...Choosing to Name Your Year.  More soon on this one!

A Testament
I imagine that today I am to die. I ask for time to be alone and write down for friends a sort of testament for which the points that follow could serve as chapter titles.

1. These things I have loved in life:
    Things I tasted,
    looked at,
    smelled,
    heard,
    touched.
2. These experiences I have cherished.
3. These ideas have brought me liberation.
4. These beliefs I have outgrown.
5. These convictions I have lived by.
6. These are things I have lived for.
7. These insights I have gained I the school of life:
    Insights into God,
    the world,
    human nature,
    Jesus Christ,
    love,
    religion,
    prayer.
8. These risks I have took,
    these dangers I have courted.
9. These sufferings have seasoned me.
10. These lessons life has taught me.
11. These influences have shaped my life
  (persons, occupations, books, events).
12. These Scripture texts have lit my path.
13. These things I regret about my life.
14. These are my life achievements.
15. These persons are enshrined within my heart.
16. These are my unfilled desired.

I choose an ending for this document:
    a poem – my own or someone else’s,
  or a prayer,
  a sketch or a picture from a magazine,
  a Scripture text,
  or anything that I judge would be
    an apt conclusion to my testament.

~ Anthony De Mello, SJ

Advent is coming...

The first Sunday of Advent is Thanksgiving weekend on November 27…just 10-days away. For the past few years I have posted resources and links in preparation for the Advent season. I find it valuable to get ready and make space for Advent ahead of time. Especially in what can be a super hectic time of year, I desire to make space to listen, space to be still, and space to be nourished in this season of Advent.

For those of you who have followed my blog in Advents past, many of the links below will look familiar. Please share any additional Advent resources or ideas that have been helpful to you in comments to this blog post. I also plan to once again post regular reflections and prayers during the Advent season ahead.

Just click on the resources listed below....

CRI/Voice - The Season of Advent: Anticipation and Hope
This is a helpful introduction and summary of Advent.

Waiting for the Light: An Advent Devotional
This year Christine Sine & Mustard Seed Associates have put together a book of reflections, liturgies, and prayers posted on Godspace blog in years past. I am, especially, looking forward to this devotional. An e-reader version should be available, as well.

Christine Sine’s Annual Advent meditation video for 2011
“Lord Jesus Christ Draw Close”

GodSpace Blog
This Advent Christine Sine will host a blog series, “Jesus Is Coming: What Do We Expect?” It will include blog posts and reflections from a variety of contributors.

Ignatian Spirituality Advent Retreat & Resources
This page includes a variety of resources, including an Advent Retreat booklet based on Ignatian contemplative and prayer practices. I am planning on utilizing this resource this Advent. More to come!

Songs for Advent
A couple years ago I discovered this Advent worship digital download. It quickly became a favorite!

Book of Common Prayer Daily Scripture Readings for Advent 
(2011/2012- Year Two)

Revised Common Lectionary Sunday Scripture Readings for Advent
(2011/2012 - Year B)

Praying Advent
Creighton University’s Online Ministries offers a selection of materials to help people prayerfully enter into Advent, from short prayers to longer reflections and retreats.

Modern Sacred Family Advent Resources
This website offers resources and suggestions for observing Advent with kids.

Word of the People - Advent Videos
This is a website of visual media and videos that I have recently been exploring. It also includes some Advent videos.

Examen

While I consider myself very much a newbie to all things Ignatian, the themes and posture of Ignatian spirituality have impacted my life in significant ways these past several years. Ignatian themes of attentiveness, finding God in all things, contemplative activism, imagination, discernment and gratitude have all shaped and deepened my formation and vocation. I have often shared and reflected on these themes here on my blog. I have also posted regular reflections on This Ignatian Life blog. My recent TIL post, “Begin with Gratitude,” can be found HERE.

Recently I have given renewed intentionality in practicing the examen. Here is how I described examen in a reflection last year...The Ignatian practice of examen has been especially helpful, as I seek to listen and discern God’s at work in my feelings and experiences. The idea behind the examen is to open oneself to how God has been moving throughout a specific period of time, as well as allow the Lord to search your heart in a time of self-examination and confession. Pausing to regularly recognize both the beautiful and the difficult in my life has been a meaningful discipline.

A helpful introduction to the examen, including a five-step method of examen that I often use can be found here… "Rummaging for God: Praying Backwards through Your Day."

Photo Above: “Examen” statue of Saint Ignatius recently dedicated at Fairfield University. (http://ignatianspirituality.com/11175/the-examen-set-in-stone/)

Speaking of Seasons....

My below “favorite things” post on seasons reminded me of this recent reflection from Blessings of the Daily….

“As we journey along the pleasant and sometimes unpleasant rhythm of the season, we become more and more aware of the immutable wisdom of the seasons and of their Creator. We become more attentive to the questions of living in harmony with nature’s cycles, of looking deep into the seasons which shape our daily lives. From then, we glean inspiration and inner sustenance.

Ultimately, our lives become fully integrated only when we accept the guidance of God and harmonize with the cycles of nature, the cycles of the heart, the cycles of the liturgy, and the cycles of life and death.”

Taken from: Blessing of the Daily: A Monastic Prayer Book by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourette (September 22 entry)

Simplicity & the Present Moment

“Simplicity, letting go of opinions and cravings, is an act of compassion for ourselves. When we let go of yearnings for the future, preoccupations with the past, and strategies to protect the present, there is nowhere left to go but where we are. To connect with the present moment is to begin to appreciate the beauty of simplicity.” ~Jack Kornfield & Christiana Feldman

 Taken from: Blessing of the Daily: A Monastic Prayer Book by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourette (October 20 entry)

Spiritual Practice of Drinking Mate

My latest post on This Ignatian Life blog reflected on my appreciation for the Argentine tradition and custom of drinking mate. You can check out my reflection by clicking here...
The Spiritual Practice of Drinking Mate

Photo credit: Margi Felix-Lund

Seven Themes in the Life of Saint Francis of Assisi

I have recently been using the The Saint Francis Prayer Book: A Guide to Deepen Your Spiritual Life by Jon M. Sweeney. The book shares morning and evening prayers centered around seven themes that emerge from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. The Feast Day for Saint Francis of Assisi is most commonly centered around animals and creation. But, Francis's love for creation was just one aspect of his life that we can learn from. Here are the seven themes identified in the prayer book...

DAY ONE: Following Christ – the essence of Christian spirituality, and the only purpose of Francis’s own life. Francis tried to follow Christ’s guidelines for discipleship exactly as the original Twelve had done.

DAY TWO: Disregard for Possessions – the first and most important rule for a true follower of Jesus, according to Francis. The first Franciscans held no personal possessions, and they also owned nothing in common. But, it is not necessary to be a friar to keep the essence of this practice. As Francis’s biographer, Paul Sabatier, explains, the way of St Francis has, from its beginning, been open to “whoever was free at heart from all material servitude.”

DAY THREE: Peace and Care in Human Relationships – the sign of a person who has been transformed or is becoming transformed, by the Spirit of God. As a young adult first going through the stages of conversion, Francis became sensitive in his relationships for the first time. He began to notice the outcast, give of himself to the unfortunate, deal honestly and forthrightly with the wealthy and the powerful, and use his influence to reap peace whenever and wherever he could.

DAY FOUR: Love for All Creatures – the subject of so many legends of St. Francis. This virtue or quality is found in each of us more and more as we progress on our pilgrimage with Christ. We replace roughness toward God’s creatures and Creation with sensitivity to what is around us.

DAY FIVE: Preaching the Good News – the primary purpose of Francis’s vocation. Early in his religious life, Francis asked for intercessory prayer from Brother Sylvester and Sister Clare to ask God whether or not he should focus his life on contemplative work or active work. Sylvester and Clare confirmed that God’s intention for Francis’s vocation was to preach and teach. Francis’s life was extraordinary active and contemplative at the same time.

DAY SIX: Passion More Important than Learning – a central belief of Francis. There will never be a shortage of intellectuals, but the world needs more people striving for spiritual growth and he salvation of others. Francis believed and lived that God is found more in a passionate heart than a book.

DAY SEVEN: Joyful Simplicity – the atmosphere of Francis’s life. He surrounded his brothers, and those who he taught and cared for, with a spirit of joy for God’s goodness. The essential goodness of all things, because all things are from God, is seen in simple ways, by lives lived simply. Even Francis’s reaction to pain – as when he received pseudomedical treatment with fire to his face – was to find the goodness and beauty in Brother Fire, loving its goodness as he loved and revered all of God’s creation.

Taken from: The Saint Francis Prayer Book: A Guide to Deepen Your Spiritual Life by Jon M. Sweeney