Faith formation and sacred conversations are the focus on the faith journey through spiritual direction, retreats, books, and other resources.
In a highly distracted world, it takes intention to truly listen to another. Three key elements include receiving, reflecting, and responding.
There are many beautiful metaphors for spiritual direction. My new favorite is that of a musical conductor, blending all the voices, harmonies, tones, expressions of the divine score. What are your favorite metaphors?
Retreat. it’s the battle for soldiers to pull back, to stand down, to disengage from the front line and find refuge away from the battlefield. This is no different than the spiritual call to retreat, to step away from the grind of daily life, to unplug from the connections that continually speak into our souls.
If there’s one gift I’ve received during the days of the coronavirus quarantine it has been the gift of abiding. With busniess, churches, entertainment and recreation closed, literally all roads lead home. And at home, along with the rest of the world I say put.
Liminal space refers to the time and space between two things. It’s an architectural word for those in-between functional places that get us from one place to another in a building, like a doorway or a hallway. But in life sometimes we get stuck in those metaphoric doorways and hallways rattling doorknobs of locked doors counting the minutes until we are out of this space.
Working with a spiritual director is allowing a companion to join you as an experienced observer on your faith pilgrimage through life. And as much as “abiding together” in spiritual direction has to do with sitting and dwelling, it’s really about creating a place to rest as we make pilgrimage through new territory of the inner life.
I used to have a problem with silence because I had worked long and hard at finding my own voice. Practicing silence felt like digressing. But being silent is different ahn being silenced…
A journal is the place where I live out my faith pilgrimage. I like that idea because journal and journey have the same root word meaning a place of progress. But I understand not everyone likes to journal as much as I do. I understand it can be hard, awkward, and potentially bring up horror stories of your fifth grade teaching making nasty comments about your writing.
Story is holy ground. Life is divine gift. Honoring and embracing the past, present and future life is our greatest calling. In our story, in our life, we find God.
Just as surely as we see signs when the seasons change, so God gives us signs of new awakenings within us as well…Change is rarely comfortable because it involves dismantling, rearranging, renovating, demolishing, constructing — all signs of a creative process. But be assured, no matter how uncomfortable or disorienting, this process, in the hands of a loving God is reason for hope. What are your areas of awakening? How are you responding to them? Who are the people who support you in it? What are the questions that are raised within you?
Doorways have fascinated me. It’s one of my favorite hash tags on Instagram. The artistry, character, and voice of a doorway is unique to each one. Some immediately offer welcome, while others evoke warnings, or unwelcome
