The following reminder about Advent comes from Internet Monk, Michael Spencer: Happy New Year! If you or your church follows the Christian Year, you know what I am talking about. Yesterday [Sunday] was the first day of the church calendar, the first Sunday in Advent. [...]
Continue Reading...Monk Habits For Everyday People (Okholm Dennis L. ) Paperback. 144 pages. When Dennis Okholm began exploring the roots of contemporary Benedictine monasticism, he quickly found that St. Benedict has as much to offer Protestants as he does Roman Catholics. In Monk Habits for Everyday People, Okholm–a professor who was raised as a Pentecostal and [...]
Continue Reading...Lectionary Readings (Year C) Psalm 25.1-9 Jeremiah 33.14-16 1 Thessalonians 3.9-13 Luke 21.25-36 Prayer Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; [...]
Continue Reading...ADVENT – A TIME WHEN GOD BREAKS IN ON US The first coming of Christ the Lord, God’s son and our God, was in obscurity; the second will be in the sight of the whole world. When he came in obscurity no one recognised him but his own servants; when he comes openly he will [...]
Continue Reading...Christ the King Sunday celebrates the all-embracing authority of Christ as King and Lord of the cosmos. Officially called the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King, it is celebrated on the final Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Sunday before Advent. This year it falls on November 22, 2009. The Feast of Christ the [...]
Continue Reading...Written by Dallas Willard. I decided to discuss the use of pornography [(porne = prostitute) + (graphy = drawing)] because (1) it presents us with a peculiarly vivid case of spiritual formation and possible spiritual transformation, and (2) it is such a wide spread problem for people today, and also among Christians and those in [...]
Continue Reading...By Dallas Willard Is there a distinctive form of life that constitutes Christian Mysticism? Or is there just mysticism, which can be dressed in one or another cultural form, none of which makes any real difference to the substance of the life of the mystic? These are very difficult questions to discuss in a helpful [...]
Continue Reading...I recently came across an interesting blog called Metamorpha Blog – Spiritual Formation In Conversation. It is a spin off blog from Metamorpha.com, an online community for Christian spiritual formation. The vision of Metamorpha started in 2005 with Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel who together realized the deep need for communicating the heart of spiritual [...]
Continue Reading...ACCEPTING THE EMBRACE of GOD: THE ANCIENT ART of LECTIO DIVINA by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B. 1. THE PROCESS of LECTIO DIVINA A very ancient art, practiced at one time by all Christians, is the technique known as lectio divina – a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the [...]
Continue Reading...Hallowe’en? Pish Posh! This is Reformation Day! On October 31st (All Hallow’s Eve) 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Schlosskirke in Wittenburg, an act that led to events that changed the world forever. Luther helped bring the world back to the “profoundly relevent, beautiful and sweet message” that sinners [...]
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