4.10.2006
HOLY GROUND
THE REVEALING of the Holy One is what we need to transform our lives. We need to know that the ground on which we are standing is holy ground. When we have found one truly holy place, then all places become holy.
- David Adam, Forward to Freedom
WALKING PRAYER: A PALM SUNDAY MEDITATION
TO TRY this practice, decide on an amount of time to spend in prayer. . . . Start by addressing God and stating your intention to know God's presence through the practice. Then begin to walk very slowly and continue for your set time. That is all.
At first, what may seem slow to you will still be quite fast. Every few steps, slow your pace even more. Try to reach a point where you are taking at least fifteen to thirty seconds for every step (this will seem like an incredibly long time). As you walk, pay attention to the movement of your feet. Feel them on the ground. Feel as one leaves the ground, moves through space, and then touches the earth again. Allow your mind to begin to move as slowly as your body. . . .
As we become familiar with this prayer practice, we perceive our surroundings more fully. We become aware of how quickly we are moving, and the desire to slow down and watch for God grows in our hearts. God begins to speak to us out of the content of our lives, and the knowledge that we are indeed on a journey into the holy grows.
- Daniel Wolpert, Creating A Life With God
A MASS MOVEMENT OF COMPASSION
Our times cry out for a mass movement of compassion. This urgent need coincides with the goal of the Christ-following life, for unless our faith makes us compassionate, it can hardly be called Christian. Following Jesus means moving out of our privatized, isolated, and self-enclosed worlds into a compassionate engagement with our suffering neighbor. As we open ourselves to the pilgrimage experience, ... we journey from self-centeredness to compassion. May you and I become everyday pilgrims whom God can use to bring healing to our broken world.
- Trevor Hudson, A Mile in My Shoes
A BOOK OF WISDOM
LET US ONLY intend to see and hear, and then the whole world becomes a book of wisdom and instruction to us. All that is regular in the order of nature, all that is accidental in the course of things, all the mistakes and disappointments that happen to us, and all the miseries and errors that we see in other people become so many plain lessons of advice to us. ...
If you would only carry this intention of profiting by the follies of the world and of learning the greatness of religion from the littleness and vanity of every other way of life, you would find every day, every place, and every person, a fresh proof of the wisdom of those who choose to live wholly to God.
- William Law, Total Devotion To God
THE REVEALING of the Holy One is what we need to transform our lives. We need to know that the ground on which we are standing is holy ground. When we have found one truly holy place, then all places become holy.
- David Adam, Forward to Freedom
WALKING PRAYER: A PALM SUNDAY MEDITATION
TO TRY this practice, decide on an amount of time to spend in prayer. . . . Start by addressing God and stating your intention to know God's presence through the practice. Then begin to walk very slowly and continue for your set time. That is all.
At first, what may seem slow to you will still be quite fast. Every few steps, slow your pace even more. Try to reach a point where you are taking at least fifteen to thirty seconds for every step (this will seem like an incredibly long time). As you walk, pay attention to the movement of your feet. Feel them on the ground. Feel as one leaves the ground, moves through space, and then touches the earth again. Allow your mind to begin to move as slowly as your body. . . .
As we become familiar with this prayer practice, we perceive our surroundings more fully. We become aware of how quickly we are moving, and the desire to slow down and watch for God grows in our hearts. God begins to speak to us out of the content of our lives, and the knowledge that we are indeed on a journey into the holy grows.
- Daniel Wolpert, Creating A Life With God
A MASS MOVEMENT OF COMPASSION
Our times cry out for a mass movement of compassion. This urgent need coincides with the goal of the Christ-following life, for unless our faith makes us compassionate, it can hardly be called Christian. Following Jesus means moving out of our privatized, isolated, and self-enclosed worlds into a compassionate engagement with our suffering neighbor. As we open ourselves to the pilgrimage experience, ... we journey from self-centeredness to compassion. May you and I become everyday pilgrims whom God can use to bring healing to our broken world.
- Trevor Hudson, A Mile in My Shoes
A BOOK OF WISDOM
LET US ONLY intend to see and hear, and then the whole world becomes a book of wisdom and instruction to us. All that is regular in the order of nature, all that is accidental in the course of things, all the mistakes and disappointments that happen to us, and all the miseries and errors that we see in other people become so many plain lessons of advice to us. ...
If you would only carry this intention of profiting by the follies of the world and of learning the greatness of religion from the littleness and vanity of every other way of life, you would find every day, every place, and every person, a fresh proof of the wisdom of those who choose to live wholly to God.
- William Law, Total Devotion To God