Oct 7th and 14th notes from the Spiritual Life Class

Oct 7 Notes
What is it at the center of your life? Carefully examine where you spend your attention, your time. Look at your appointment book,our daily schedule… this is what receives your care and attention – and by definition your love.”
Wayne Muller p. 65 in Habits of the Heart


We wait in the quiet for some centering moment that will redefine, reshape, and refocus our lives.”
Howard Thurman quoted on p. 73 Habits….

The two disciples whom Jesus joined on the road to Emmaus recognized him in the breaking of the bread. What is a more common, ordinary gesture than breaking bread? It may be the most human of all human gestures: a gesture of hospitality, friendship, care, and the desire to be together. Taking a loaf of bread, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it to those seated around the table signifies unity, community, and peace. When Jesus does this he does the most ordinary as well as the most extraordinary. It is the most human as well as the most divine gesture.
The great mystery is that this daily and most human gesture is the way we recognize the presence of Christ among us. God becomes most present when we are most human.
Henri Nouwen

If you doze off, don't give it a second thought. A child in the arms
of a parent drops off to sleep occasionally, but the parent isn't disturbed
by that as long as the child is happily resting there and opens its eyes
once in a while.
--Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart



A room devoted to silence honors and invites the unknown, the untamed, the wild, the shy, the unfathomable — that which rarely has a chance to surface within us.
— Gunilla Norris in Sharing Silence


It is a commonplace of the spiritual masters that the deepest part of the soul likes to go slow, since it seeks to savor rather than to accomplish; it wants to rest in and contemplate the good rather than to hurry off to another place.
— Robert Barron in Heaven in Stone and Glass

I am a place where God's love turns up in this world.
— M. Basil Pennington in Listening


It only takes a moment for God to enrich you.
— Thomas Keating in Open Mind, Open Heart



GOD OF THE GOOD NEWS,
in the fullness of my life,
empty me of distractions.
Still my busyness.
Quiet my chatter.
Sing your song of grace to me
until the tune rings
in the core of my being
and my life resonates
with your good news.
- Alive Now
From page 36 of Alive Now, November/December 2000, quoted from Upper Room website

LOVE IS THE CAPACITY TO SEE both the good and evil in people but to love the good; to see both the excellent and mediocre but to encourage the excellent; to see the wellness and the sickness and to strengthen the wellness. Before all else, love is the capacity to see everyone and everything as interconnected, “held together” in one cosmic embrace.
- Robert Corin Morris; Provocative Grace: The Challenge in Jesus’ Words
From page 31 (see Upper Room website)


The Purposes of Christian Spiritual practices
1)Paying Attention to God
2)The formation of Christian identity and character
3) Nourishment
4)Compassion and Justice
5) Living “the way”
Marcus Borg The Heart of Christianity
p.189 HarperCollins
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Oct 14 NOTES
SIMPLICITY

The question for us is always 'how can we turn information into transformation?' How can we use the sacred texts to lead people into new places with God, with life, with themselves?"
Richard Rohr


All the truly deep people have at the core of their being the genius to be simple or to know how to seek simplicity – Martin E. Marty

WHEN WE BEGIN TO LIVE a spirituality of simplicity,
our primary concern ceases to be success and becomes faithfulness.
We are called to live with integrity, to express the truth as we perceive it, and to trust in God’s ability to use what we offer.
- Elizabeth J. Canham
Heart Whispers
From Heart Whispers: Benedictine Wisdom for Today by Elizabeth J. Canham. Copyright © 1999

Simplicity is giving yourself the freedom to pursue that indestructible impulse to do good in the world, to go toward the best.
Robert Smith quote on p. 87 Habits

Simplicity means saying "no" to some things so we can say "yes" to others; making room in life for the things that really matter

The spiritual discipline of simplicity means singleness of purpose toward God. Kierkegaard said, 'Purity of heart is to will one thing,' and by that he meant it is to will the good, which is God. Simplicity is not first a lifestyle. It is an inward spiritual reality that results in an outward life-style. (Richard Foster)

Frivolous consumption corrupts the soul away from…service to God and injures neighbors as well.
Dallas Willard quoted by Marjorie Thompson in Soul feast . P.73


St Augustine once said that God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them. If our hands are full, they are fullof the things to whioch we are addicted. And not only our hands, but alos our hearts, minds and attention are clogged with addiction. Our addictions fill up the spaces within us, spaces where grace might flow… The spiritual significance of addiction is not just that we lose freedom through attachment to things, (But) that we try to fulfill our longing for God through objects of attachment
Gerald May quoted by Marjorie Thompson p. 76 Soul Feast

All Forms of spiritual discipline help us to make more space for God in our lives.
Marjorie Thompson p. 80 Soul Feast

Simplicity, like all virtues,
is valuable because it is useful. I have come to understand that making life simple does for our minds what getting in shape does for our bodies. It makes us feel mor ein control, more centered, more effective,…I have found that simplicity is an indispensable ally in giving ordinary life extraordinary meaning. R Smith in Habits p. 89

‘Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be.
And when we find ourselves in the place just right
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed
To turn, turn will be our delight
‘Till by turning, turning we come ’round right.