Posts Tagged ‘Solitude and Silence’
How the Spiritual Formation of the Pastor Affects Spiritual Formation in the Congregation
“It you attempt to act and do for others or for the world without deepening your own self-understanding, freedom, integrity and capacity to love, you will not have anything to give others. You will communicate to them nothing but the contagion of your own obsessions, your aggressivity, your ambitions, your delusions and ends and means…”…
Read MorePracticing Lent: True Confessions
“The things we cannot accept in ourselves we project upon others. If I do not admit my shadow side, I will unconsciously find another who will carry my shadow for me. Once this projection is made, then I need not be upset with myself. My problems are now outside and I can fight them “out…
Read MorePracticing Lent: Cleaning Our Messy House
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” Psalm 51: 10 In her book Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris tells the story of working as an artist-in- residence at a parochial school, teaching children how to write poetry using the psalms as a model. One little boy…
Read MoreSweet Hours of Prayer: How Fixed Hour Prayer Nurtures Community
Part II “We are formed together as we learn to pray together. Ancient Jews and Christians uttered sacred prayers together. They did this every day—together. These prayers established sacred rhythms to their days and lives as a community. And they can do the same today. For us. As the Church. As a community of faith.”…
Read MoreBeyond Teamwork: Spiritual Community at the Leadership Level
“Christian community is founded solely on Jesus Christ and in fact, it already exists in Christ. It is not an ideal which we must realize, it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together It is much easier to talk about community—and even try to…
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