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Staying in monasteries in Italy

3/31/2018

     My pilgrimage to Italy starts April 4th. I’ll spend four nights in Rome, three in Assisi, one in Cortona and six in Florence. Unlike my usual two week stay in an apartment in Florence, I’ll be staying in monasteries-turned-guesthouses run by nuns. The bedrooms are simple, but thankfully ensuite. The public rooms are quiet, but thankfully without TV. Thankfully, the nuns are servants of Christ.
I’ll still be writing and walking around with God, but this trip feels different. What can I anticipate? What can I plan so I don’t treat these convents as just an inexpensive place to stay?
    Let me start with a theological question. What does God want me to hear on this pilgrimage and what might I do to listen? Asking what God wants me to hear is a big shift for me. I’d rather set the agenda and tell God the kinds of things I want God to tell me. To listen I need to be silent; to be silent I need to quiet my mind.
    Of course the practical response never changes: pray and walk, pray and sit, pray and meditate, pray and gaze, pray and be in the moment. Nothing new here, just a reminder to practice, practice, practice listening to God no matter where I am.
    How very grateful I am to be going on a pilgrimage in these places, at this time in my life. How very grateful for help with arrangements through www.monasterystays.

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"The Lord's Prayer Experience"

3/22/2018

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      At church on Sunday we gathered as a community to worship God through participation in The Lord’s Prayer Experience. Composer YOsef Kottler, along with musicians, soloists and choir members from Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, joined us at Memorial Congregational Church as our choir director Cathy Meyer led us in singing.
     According to Cathy, “YOsef wrote this piece of music after having a powerful spiritual moment learning about The Lord’s Prayer during a trip to Jerusalem. Now he feels called to bring this music to a wide variety of people, bringing them together to celebrate and share their faith journeys through song.”
     Prayer and song became one. We all were uplifted, but for one newcomer to our church, the service was a life-sustaining moment just when she needed it. She came to the service wondering if she could make it through. “I may not stay,” she told someone. She needed to return to the nursing home where her father was dying; the countdown was in hours. But stay she did. The music, the singing and the listening, opened her heart to God, and to God’s companionship. Her father died peacefully the next day in her presence.

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Gospel according to me~

3/19/2018

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In the Week 6 Day 1 post of the Society of St. John the Evangelist Lenten post, Br. Curtis suggests that there is a fifth Gospel, the Gospel according to you. What an intriguing idea, one that challenges me to give it a try. As Br. Curtis suggests, it will tell what my life is about. As I begin, the one thing I know for certain is that my Gospel will tell that God has called me to pray for people-- that is definitely a God call because never in a million years could I have thought that up myself. Prayer will be the special message of my Gospel.
meetingjesusinjohn.org/2018/01/01/week-6-day-1-sent-into-the-world/

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Staying connected to God through gratitude~

3/14/2018

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In today’s Lenten post from SSJE, Br. David asks us to reflect on the following: "How do I stay connected to this source of life and light? What interferes with that connection? What stops the flow of that divine energy and how can I remain in intimate union with Jesus? That connection is the source, the key, the secret, to our fruitfulness.” meetingjesusinjohn.org/2018/01/01/week-5-day-4-made-fruitful-by-love/

One way I stay connected to the source of life and light is by expressing, in concrete terms, gratitude for all the grace-filled moments in my life. I do a pretty good job of this in the morning as I start my day by naming specific things for which I am grateful. But then, as I become immersed in the everydayness of life, I forget God, I forget grace, I forget to be grateful. Saying the Jesus Prayer is one way I reopen the flow of divine energy.

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Walking around Florence with God

3/7/2018

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When I go to Florence I walk around with God. Oh, I do other things: I write, visit museums, and of course, eat. There are plenty of cafes and parks for writing, museums at every corner, and restaurants sprinkled throughout the city. And of course there are churches. Since I travel alone, my time is my own.

For complete article...
www.acottagebythesea.net/a-solitary-traveler

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Listening to Bede Griffiths

3/7/2018

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Bede Griffiths 1906-1996

    "Each man must discover the Center in himself, this Ground of his being, this Law of his life. It is hidden in the depths of every soul, waiting to be discovered. It is the treasure hidden in a field, the pearl of great price. It is the one thing which is necessary, which can satisfy all our desires and answer all our needs…it is the original Paradise from which we have all come."
Bede Griffiths, Return to the Center

     I have posted this by Bede Griffiths before and undoubtedly I will do so again. It is the reading for March 7 in “The Mystic Vision: Daily Encounters with the Divine,” compiled by Andrew Harvey and Anne Baring.
     It is a hopeful messages. God is within me, at the center of my being, there for me to discover. Griffiths writes as a Christian, but he affirms that the Christ message is for all people.
     As we know, it takes commitment, perseverance, and risk to find any treasure, and this is true of the Christ treasure as well. We must seek it with all our mind, body, and spirit, and be willing to pay the great price of letting go of the demands of self so we can find our Soul, and thus rest in the Ground of our Being, which I call God.
     The search for physical treasure takes physical activity, whereas the quest for the hidden treasure in our soul takes stillness. Meditation is one of the essential physical activities that can lead us to this treasure, to this original Paradise. I doubt that we can find it without it.

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Prayer matters

3/4/2018

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     Today while conversing with two women in church, we agreed that prayer made a difference. Both are living with a loved one who is ill, one at home, one in a nursing home. They told their stories and as we parted I said that I had been praying for them. “Thank you, I know it matters.”
     We looked at each other with certainty, shrugged our shoulders and agreed, “Yes, it does. We don’t know how, but it does.”
With hope, we went on our way. A comment by the author of Hebrews came to mind.
     Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11.1).

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Staying in monasteries in Italy

"The Lord's Prayer Experience"

Gospel according to me~

Staying connected to God through gratitude~

Walking around Florence with God

Listening to Bede Griffiths

Prayer matters

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