Scripps Sundays

The imaginative prayer walk that I did a few weeks ago (where I ended up walking in my mind to the garden on 20th and imagined Jesus saying to me "Consider the lilies") is one that I adapted from  Pádraig Ó Tuama 's work when he was a chaplain at a retreat center in West Belfast.  He relayed a story about a teenage boy who went on one of these imaginative prayer walks and found himself walking through the woods. As he was walking, he was worried because the pathway kept changing. He found himself, eventually, in a dell, where he met Jesus. He said that Jesus asked him three questions:  How would you describe today?  Have you seen anything interesting along the way?  And:  Is it working?    Padraig shared that these questions that were so grounded in the moment, felt like an invitation to mindfulness. He wrote this poem in response:  Is it working?  When you’ve been alive for only five thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine days  ...

 

A colleague recently shared a quote from a book called Turning to Stone , by geologist Marcia Bjornerud. She shared that it underscored that God’s time is not simply an abstract, philosophical concept. It is written in the bones of our planet, and if, like geologists, we persist in learning how to read on such a massive chronological scale, it can afford us amazement, and perhaps something approaching hope. Here are some words about geological time: "The rocks around us tell us that change happens  by violence but mostly by patience; that survival entails the power to endure and the wisdom to recognize that the world can alter in a single day; that being thrown into even the harshest and most unfamiliar of environments can lead to beautiful transfigurations. How astonishing to know that palm trees once shaded a sweltering Arctic; that the summit of Mt. Everest is studded with fragments of ancient aquatic creatures; that an inland sea filled with plesiosaurs and mosasaurs used to s...

 I ran across this last week when googling images about "considering lilies" and loved this... lily of the valley  This is a newsletter I read from Yale Center for Faith and Culture:  "O ver the past week I’ve seen the campus halls come to life. The familiar presence of friends and returning students. The hopeful faces of new students. The movement and sacred bustling of life. The refreshing conversation that draws us in. It reminds me of two simple truths we must hold together. First, we are essentially connected to and interwoven with each other.  In bearing the image of God, our humanity mirrors the triune mutual indwelling of God. Years ago, I wrote about the  porousness  of our individual identities in  Exclusion & Embrace . The more we allow others to indwell us, the richer and more expansive our lives will be. I still believe and hope for us all to inhabit a sense of self that is “transformed by the Spirit of the new creation and engaged in ...

My friend Laura Johnston (who makes our beloved bookmarks) shared these words that she journaled this morning (as a part of her listening prayer practice),  a nd I thought this would resonate today as you recover from Covid.... 💜 You are enough. You are not the sum of what you can accomplish. You are beautiful, beloved & enough- just as you are. Believe these words.  Pass on these words to others. Breathe in my presence all around you. You're not alone. You're okay. Today is a new day to discover what I have for you.  Will you be present to notice? Breathe in my love & joy for you. You've got this. I'm with you.

  I am reading this beautiful book right now, and it's all I can do to not just skip all my work commitments and cozy up with this book all day.  Last night, I read a passage about Padraig's time as a chaplain at the De La Salle Pastoral Center in West Belfast where he led day long retreats for schools. He talked about a simple prayer time that he shared with the students using the gift of imagination. It usually lasted only about 4-5 minutes total.  In essence, this is what he invited them to do below,  and I would encourage you to follow along with the invitation too:  Imagine yourself taking a walk in a lovely place of your own choosing.  Picture the scenery in your mind with the colors, sights, and smells around you.  At one point on your walk, you see a stranger coming towards you,  and on closer inspection,  you realize it is Jesus.  He greets you by your name:  Anna... and you all engage in a conversation.  Imagine what ...

I loved this (especially the title) and hope it makes you laugh and be more kind to yourself this week.... Shutting up the asshole in my head. -Nadia Bolz Weber Several years ago, I asked my congregation this question: What thought do you have most often  about  yourself  to  yourself ? Then I had them write those on Post-It notes and stick them on the wall. We then walked around and read the answers and I remember it got real quiet. Written on those little sticky notes were things like, I'm fat. No one will ever love me for who I am. I'm a failure. I'll never be enough. These are the jagged things that we leave unsaid but that are on repeat in our heads, basically all the time. And it made me realize that so many of us are tormented by the distance between our Ideal Self and our Actual Self, tormented by the distance between our ideal income and our actual income, our ideal personality and our actual personality-- between our ideal weight, like, our driver's license...

I wrote the following reflection last Friday after my spiritual direction meeting (the one that I almost slept through after taking you to the airport!). Kelli (my spiritual director whom I've been meeting with since the spring) asked me to imagine the Trinity in the room with me here in my office. It was a really sweet time marking this place as one where God meets me in my work and prayer and play.  I wonder if you could do the same thing in your new space in your house....     Father, Son, and Spirit, help me imagine you in the room here with me.    Let me settle in. Give me the grace to breathe in the breath that you have given me for this moment. Let me tiptoe in this space as I know might sneak up on the holy here in my midst. Let me peek over your shoulder to see what you are up to. Let me notice you, God, here and now.   Show up in the objects and spaces here. Be tea. Be books. Be emails. Be photos. Hem me in, be...