Friday, April 16, 2010 at 6:00 pm.
All participants of the faith sharing groups are invited to
celebrate the past year and our Longing for the Holy.
We
will gather for the Celebration of the Eucharist at 6:00 pm,
followed by a festive supper and community gathering.
Please respond to your group leader and as always,
spouses are most welcome! Come and celebrate! Call
Vicki at 415-435-1122.
"Spirituality for Everyday Life"
Review of Session One – Channeling our Life-Giving Energy
"In each human being, Rolheiser suggests, there is an
energy, a life force that is most often experienced as
desire or longing. We long for many things, we feel
restless, we seem compelled out of ourselves toward
something more." "Spirituality is what we do with
our desire. It concerns the way we channel that deep,
raging fire that is at the core of our lives," Rolheiser
explains.
In our gatherings we discussed what it
means to be spiritual and how we can be more disciplined
in directing our inner energy to do good. We
looked at St. Augustine and pondered his words:
You have made us for yourself, O God, and our
hearts are restless until they rest in you.
Review of Session Two – The Challenge of our Culture
People are naÏve about the complex culture we live
in. We are seduced by so much that we tend to,
"swing between being over-stimulated and being depressed."
"Our culture tends to encourage narcissism."
Everything is all about me and what makes
me happy, what makes me the best. In contrast, a
true and healthy self-love is open to others, gives as
well as receives and seeks the common good." Our
culture promotes the mind set, if something doesn't
make money or bring advancement we do not value
it. Restlessness is also an issue. We compulsively fill
our empty time and then complain there is never
enough time. Is there a sense of God in your life or is
everything focused on the self? St. Francis de Sales
teaches us that everyone "is called to holiness, a holiness
adapted to his or her particular life circumstance."
Review of Session Three – Spirituality in a Christian
Context: Love of God and Neighbor
Session 3 looks at the first two of the four essentials for a
healthy spiritual life; personal prayer and morality, and
social justice. Personal prayer is how we engage in an
intimate way with God, the language of our love relationship.
Without prayer it is difficult to order our lives. Thus,
a "disordered" life inhibits the giving of oneself "fully to
God and others." Jesus' teaching on our obligation to create
justice so the poor be raised up is as much an essential
component of his teaching as is personal prayer and morality."
It is crucial to become aware that when we care
for the poor and marginalized, we are not simply caring
for some stranger, but rather truly encountering the Lord.
Jesus teaches us, "to love God with all one's heart and
mind and to love one's neighbor as oneself." In what ways
can you offer real help to the most vulnerable in our society?
How can you closely link your prayer and your action
on behalf of others? Julian of Norwich grasped the
deep understanding of an intimate prayer life linked with
counseling others to enter into a deeper relationship with
God whose love is always "familiar."
Review of Session Four – Spirituality in a Christian
Context: A Heart for God and Each Other
Session 3 looked at two of the four essentials for a healthy
spiritual life. Session 4 looks at the other two, mellowness
of heart and community. "The Christian life is not
all prayer and sacrifice. It is also a life aware of the gifts
and joys God gives us." "Gratitude is as essential to a
holy life as believing and doing the right things."
"Mellowness also implies that we are flexible and forgiving,
willing to put aside our preconceived ideas or plans,
willing to reconsider, willing to let love be the compass
that directs our relationships and our lives. Such a heart is
a heart that has allowed God's love to enter it and change
its behavior." "The Gospel clearly teaches that God calls
us, not just as individuals, but as a community and that
how we relate to each other is just as essential as how we
relate to God." "The gathered worshiping Church, devout
reception of the sacraments, the variety of small faith-sharing
groups, individual relationships of spiritual care:
all these are essential part of our Christian journeys." "To
what extent does my life emphasize a value in being part
of community?" What are the "components that are missing
from my own spiritual practice?"
Review of Session Five – Incarnation – Christ in Us
"We are the Body of Christ. In us and through us God
physically continues to walk the face of the earth – just as
Jesus did. At the Ascension, Jesus left the earth, but the
Body of Christ remains. We are the Body of Christ - We
are God's Incarnational presence." "As Jesus' presence
was a healing and reconciling one, so must ours be." "¨
we are asked to extend this same powerful healing to others.
It is not our own limited power we call on to do this,
but the power of divine love that flows through us. We
are asked to give flesh to – to incarnate – God's healing
presence." "¨we are asked to speak and act, as would
Jesus among others through the power of God."
"Community is essential to Christianity and thus to Christian
spirituality. We are called to discipleship not merely
alone but as a group." "As disciples, we are to form our
flesh, to be transformed from the inside by God's healing
and reconciliation, so that we can give a human face to
divine love in our actions with others. St. Teresa of Avila
understood well that she had to act in the place of God by
grace. "Neither age nor obstacles that she faced in her
work, could deter her from the work to which she felt
called – to be Christ's body in the world." The words of
her prayer provide a powerful reflection, "Christ has no
body now but mine." How does this realization influence
my relationships and actions?
Review of Session Six – The Paschal Mystery
The Death of our Youth: "As we move from childhood
and adolescence to young adulthood, we need
to give up infantile ways, to take responsibility for
ourselves and our world." The Death of our Wholeness:
"God invites us to 'let go' and to 'ascend so we
can receive a new spirit, not one that denies our violation
or wounds, but one that has gathered up our
hard-won wisdom and live now a new life." The
Death of Our Dreams: "It is a paschal process that
frees us to enter courageously and joyfully – like the
disciples breathing I the Spirit of Pentecost – into
what our lives have become; to savor the sometimes
simple delight we might miss if we are mired in resentment,
bitterness, and regret. There is always an
offer of new hope and God-grounded dream." The
Death of Our Honeymoons: "¨the glow of any beginning,
as wonderful as it is, does not last. Our lives
change¨" The Death of Our Ideas about Church
and God: One of the great tasks of spirituality is to
simultaneously hang on to the beautiful vision we are
offered, all the while struggling with the imperfect
realization of the vision in our Church. Each of these
ordinary deaths, ¨ is an invitation to enter into the
Paschal Mystery." "We must let our deaths bless us."
"They are the prelude to new life and a new spirit, to
the life of Easter and Pentecost."
"What new life have I received from the letting go
and dying to something?"
Questions about this process can be directed to
Vicki Bornstien at
415-435-1122.
Longing for the Holy
