tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084Fri, 08 Nov 2024 14:51:05 +0000SpiritualityMindfulnessFaithLiving AwareCommunityContemplative LivingChurchCallingSabbaticalTheologyYouthPrayersAboutSermonsThomas MertonWorshipCreativityEvangelismPrairieFireBeginningsDeathGraduationHow to commentPrayerliving in the space between what is and what is becoming, finding our way together http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (suzanne)Blogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-3684763779737442727Wed, 21 Mar 2018 12:30:00 +00002018-03-21T07:30:08.314-05:00As we approach Easter, new life and new beginnings live strongly in my awareness. I wonder what new beginning is quietly forming within you, waiting for you to be ready for it to emerge? May you find yourself able to hold space for it to emerge into fullness. And may you recognize how Spirit meets you there. May the blessing below strengthen you on your journey. Blessing for a New http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2018/03/new-beginnings.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-4194298712943721895Thu, 15 Mar 2018 03:48:00 +00002018-03-14T22:48:09.969-05:00 I’ve been reflecting the past few days on the reality that we find what we look for in life. If we look for the problems, then life becomes about weakness and gaps and difficulties. We find ourselves living through days that become about issues and troubles. We seek after solutions and fixes for all that is wrong. And when we journey with this mindset, then what we most often notice is what ishttp://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2018/03/looking-for-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-2662740744061763653Tue, 14 Jul 2015 09:00:00 +00002015-07-14T04:00:02.463-05:00Contemplative LivingLiving AwareMindfulness While walking the beach on the shore of Lake Michigan, I was caught with wonder at the variety of rocks which formed the shore. The colors and shapes and sizes are beyond any ability to catalogue. How did they all get here, where did they all come from with their variety of texture and color, what storms of life have they lived through … ? And then my eye was caught by this and this … http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/07/my-selves-rocky-metaphor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-6308840612809729107Sat, 11 Jul 2015 11:49:00 +00002015-07-11T14:02:25.286-05:00Contemplative LivingMindfulnessSpiritualityThomas Merton... a few thoughts I have been journeying with on sabbatical ... The mystical texts talk about the difference between my real self and my false self, between my personality or ego-self and the true essence of who I am. The reality that we each are a manifestation of the personality we developed in order to successfully navigate the tides and currents of society and family, the http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-paradox-of-selves.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-8891254825122211192Fri, 26 Jun 2015 09:00:00 +00002015-06-26T04:00:01.351-05:00SabbaticalSpiritualityThomas MertonI have been reading some of Thomas Merton's writings while on sabbatical, and I have come across often his insistence that we live in the fullness of time. We don’t have to rush after it, what we seek is already here and if we give it time it will make itself known to us.  In contrast, Wayne Muller in Sabbath gives an accurate description of the world as I’ve experienced it up to http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/06/life-in-fullness.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-931332458519100252Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:00:00 +00002015-06-23T04:00:00.229-05:00Contemplative LivingSabbaticalSpirituality In the first chapter of my devotional reading (Sitting Still, by Patricia Hart Clifford), the author poses the question: What do you seek? ... What do I seek in the practice of centering prayer? What do I seek within myself and the world in the way I am living and moving and being? What do I seek in my relationship with God? What do I seek from the me within? What do I seek for the me http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/06/what-do-i-seek.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-2056137016190511811Fri, 19 Jun 2015 16:04:00 +00002015-06-19T11:04:02.858-05:00Contemplative LivingLiving AwareSabbaticalSpirituality “By breath, by blood, by body, by spirit we are all one. The air that is my breath is the air that you are breathing. And the air that is your breath is the air that I am breathing. … By breath, by blood, by body, by spirit we are all one.”        ~ Sara Tomsen This is the song clip that was running through my mind as I walked this morning. we arehttp://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-air-we-breathe.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-5306961099733554747Sat, 30 May 2015 11:39:00 +00002015-05-30T06:39:22.016-05:00Contemplative LivingMindfulnessSpirituality Sometimes the mountainis hidden from me in veilsof cloud, sometimesI am hidden from the mountainin veils of inattention, apathy, fatigue,when I forget or refuse to godown to the shore or a few yardsup the road, on a clear day,to reconfirmthat witnessing presence. ~ Witness, by Denise Levertov This poem touches me deep in the core of who I am coming to understand I am. It nudges me to http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/05/witness.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-8602985692947835522Fri, 22 May 2015 09:00:00 +00002015-05-22T04:00:00.979-05:00Contemplative LivingGraduationMindfulnessSpirituality A group I belong to recently put out this request: We are in graduation season around the country. What words would you share with folks entering the field of educational ministry in 2015? Here are the thoughts I shared. They are words I try to live by. Ideals which I believe are true regardless of any vocation. Make your own health and inner life a priority. Tend to it first and http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/05/thoughts-on-lifes-journey.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-6030513776272587799Mon, 18 May 2015 09:00:00 +00002015-05-18T04:00:00.602-05:00Contemplative LivingMindfulnessSpiritualityThomas Merton I used the book A Seven Day Journey with Thomas Merton as a guide for my time of silent retreat recently. In it Merton reminds me what I have been slow to live into faith. Namely, that love for God must lead into love for others, and this love must reveal itself in my actions. As surely as night follows day, so too must my love for God grow into love for others. They are inseparable. http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/05/love-in-particulars.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-4786861500979209778Sat, 16 May 2015 09:00:00 +00002015-05-16T04:00:00.266-05:00Contemplative LivingMindfulnessSabbatical No matter which road I take,       you are there.  Even after so many wrong turns       I know you are with me still.  And when I pause to consider,       pause to reach deep inside            and find the place of quiet inner knowing,  when I do this I know again I am safe    &http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/05/in-pause.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-258482901891436981Wed, 13 May 2015 09:30:00 +00002015-05-13T04:30:00.992-05:00Contemplative LivingMindfulnessSabbaticalSpirituality What I needed was the solitude to expand in breadth and depth and to be simplified out under the gaze of God more or less the way a plant spreads out its leaves in the sun.                                                                 &http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/05/solitude.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-4484724617254195703Mon, 11 May 2015 09:30:00 +00002015-05-11T04:30:00.789-05:00Contemplative LivingMindfulnessSabbaticalSpirituality Contemplation is this echo-response to the Holy One. It is the deep resonance in the inmost center of our spirit in which our very life loses its separate voice and resounds with the majesty and the mercy of the Hidden and Living One.                             ~ Thomas Merton I love this quote. Life, my life is an echo ofhttp://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-echo.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-8952550206038674261Fri, 08 May 2015 09:30:00 +00002015-05-08T04:30:00.818-05:00Contemplative LivingSabbaticalSpirituality I sit here outside my apartment (at Creighton University Retreat Center) listening to the soughing of the wind in the trees. I am at once thrilled I can hear it with my current hearing aids, when there was a time I no longer could, and simultaneously amazed at the beauty of the sound. Such melodious song as the wind whispers and roars its changeableness, yet always singing of things just http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/05/rooted-deeply-together.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-8864462977501377239Sat, 02 May 2015 09:30:00 +00002015-05-07T22:14:14.828-05:00Contemplative LivingFaithMindfulnessSpirituality This quote from John Philip Newell, found in my reading recently, struck me and stayed with me, resounding in the recesses of my heart: Early in the morning I seek your presence, O God, not because you are ever absent from me but because often I am absent from you at the heart of each moment where you forever dwell. I seek your presence, Holy One, not because you are absent from me, http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/05/in-this-moment.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-4365622716849216444Thu, 02 Apr 2015 11:22:00 +00002015-04-02T06:22:29.821-05:00SpiritualityTheology The scriptures tell us that each of us, every one of us, is created in the image and likeness of God. The image and likeness of God – two distinct things. One inherent in who we are, the other a choice. Within us, the core of our very essence is a reflection of the Holy One. Each person you know, each person you greet, every person you see is a reflection of God. In all our diversity, with http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-image-likeness-of-god.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-271172684388063501Fri, 27 Mar 2015 14:06:00 +00002015-03-27T09:06:00.898-05:00Contemplative LivingSpiritualityTheology “Some people esteem one day as better than another,  while others esteem all days alike.  Let all be fully convinced in their own mind.” ~ Romans 14:5 Our experience of life is what we make of it. If we live our days expecting goodness in them, then that is what we will find. Even when the days are not filled with only joyous experiences, our attitude of positive expectation willhttp://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/03/making-meaning.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-8818836090627135233Mon, 23 Mar 2015 09:30:00 +00002015-03-23T04:30:00.797-05:00Contemplative LivingSpirituality “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me  for I am gentle and humble of heart  and you will find rest for your souls.” ~ Matthew 11:29 I am struck as I ponder the meaning of the word “yoke” that the first definition in the  M-W.com dictionary is “the frame joining the head or neck of two animals for working together.” I always pictured this yoke Jesus speaks of as http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/03/take-my-yoke-upon-you.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-6388026665719147818Mon, 16 Mar 2015 09:30:00 +00002015-03-16T04:30:01.656-05:00Contemplative LivingMindfulnessSpirituality “Those who find their life will lose it,  and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”                 ~ Matthew 10:39 Losing my life for Spirit’s sake, isn’t that what life is truly about? The meaning and purpose of my life is not lived for me alone. The heedless pursuit of pleasure, while exciting and intoxicating in http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/03/finding-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-7035106511982157138Sat, 14 Mar 2015 09:30:00 +00002015-03-14T04:30:00.330-05:00Contemplative LivingFaithMindfulnessSpirituality “But Jesus came and touched them saying, ‘Rise and have no fear.’” ~ Matthew 17:7 Fear so often is my go-to response. Yet I realize it is not fear of whatever it is that is before me. No, it’s fear of change, fear of upsetting my peace. The status quo, while not my preferred place to be, sure is a lot more enticing at times than wading through the waters of change. And so fear of whathttp://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/03/rise-and-have-no-fear.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-7634644988819961739Fri, 13 Mar 2015 09:30:00 +00002015-03-13T06:41:40.801-05:00Contemplative LivingMindfulnessSpirituality “Set your minds on things that are above,  not on things that are on earth.” ~ Colossians 3:2 Things above … like bringing healing and not harm, making amends and reconciliation, supporting and encouraging and nurturing … like recognizing the connectedness and the autonomy of others and holding that in tension for the growth of their desires not for my own … like giving and http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/03/set-your-minds-on-things-that-are-above.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-5948808212823181059Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:22:00 +00002015-03-10T10:22:40.516-05:00Contemplative LivingFaithSpirituality “When the Spirit of Truth comes, we shall experience freedom,  set free from all that has closed us in.” ~ Mercy Oduyoye I find that it’s not physical freedom that I desire, that I cherish. It’s freedom to be who I am. Freedom to speak my truth, to live my truth, to be my truth. This is the deepest desire of my heart, to be authentically me. Yet, all too often I find that what closeshttp://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/03/freedom-to-be.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-1782310544101275817Thu, 05 Mar 2015 11:30:00 +00002015-03-05T05:30:00.746-06:00Contemplative Living “We cannot afford not to fight for growth and understanding,  even when it is painful, as it is bound to be.” ~ May Sarton And who is it I battle but my ego-self. The part of me seeking to keep the status quo, to protect my equanimity by denying and deflecting pain. The part of me that values safety and equates “happiness” with lack of pain. This self has served an important purpose http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/03/to-fight-for-growth.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-2163826565627772874Tue, 03 Mar 2015 11:30:00 +00002015-03-13T09:46:40.277-05:00Contemplative LivingMindfulnessSpirituality “You shall worship the Sovereign your God, and God only shall you serve.” ~ Matthew 4:10 … and yet how often do I put things and goals and desires over the wishes of God? How often and in how many ways do I neglect the things of love and healing for things of selfish want and control? It is so easy to fall asleep to the choices I am making and their impact on my living and on the lives of http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-service-to-holy-one.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955468870703661084.post-7161697632311260650Mon, 02 Mar 2015 11:30:00 +00002015-03-13T09:47:03.720-05:00Contemplative LivingFaithMindfulness “No one knows what lies ahead, when we say yes to God.” ~ Jan L. Richardson … like seminary at age 40 … like moving to a place you’ve never seen and loving it. Oh my, yes. The world sees the outward changes - like moving, new jobs - but it’s the internal transformations, even the small ones, that are most significant. It’s coming to see the world differently, see yourself http://sacredthresholds.blogspot.com/2015/03/a-thousand-times-yes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (suzanne)0