This year I will be going to a daycare for the elderly to start a Bible group. One of my spirituality group works there as a social worker and asked me to do this. Fortunately, another of my spirituality group has offered to drive me and I have asked her to help me with this new group. We will be meeting the second Tuesday of each month. I am really happy to be able to do this. It is in Mountain View so a good half hour from Oakwood. I went yesterday with all the paperwork required and explored the facility. I will have a quiet room for the Bible group.
Now, I suspect I mentioned the book, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life by Joan Chittister, some weeks ago. It was published last year by Random House.
In her Introduction, Joan tells us that her book will invite reflection. She says, "To live a mature spiritual life requires that we choose the virtues that will ground our hearts, stretch our vision, and give new energy to our hopes." She also stresses that we can refuse to be drawn into the chaos of our world. Without going to a monastery, we can be contemplative in the midst of our hectic world.
I guess the book is a call to all of us to slow down and pray. Our world needs prayer, our prayer, my prayer. We are all responsible and need to find a rhythm in our own life that resembles the monastic life of prayer, work, rest and relaxation. I guess I am looking at this in my own life as I can get caught up in reading emails instead of writing to those I really want to be in contact with; I can find time to play Words with Friends or Scrabble on my I-pad and not exercise; I can read and do read each day and lose track of time. As you can see, I am examining my own life and invite each of you to do the same. God waits for us to be the center of our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment