Last year I got an ebook edition of Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (edited by Shane Claiborne and others). I skipped around in it, read some and was impressed and pleased. This year I decided to read the office … Continue reading
The past several weeks we have been thinking about the balance between the passive and the active in our lives. With that lens in mind I invite you to spend time meditating on Psalm 23. When I recently came to … Continue reading
As I have continued to think about passivity (and activity) in our Christian walk and practices, I remembered some words of Dallas Willard I shared many months ago on “abstinence and engagement.” He identifies the disciplines of abstinence as solitude, … Continue reading
For the past two weeks, first from Evelyn Underhill and then from Eugene Peterson, we have heard about a certain kind of passivity in the Christian walk. Today, let’s listen to Dallas Willard, “[Disciplines are] activities we engage in that are within … Continue reading
This paragraph from Evelyn Underhill recently was delivered into my email inbox, “There is no need for peculiar conditions in order to grow in the spiritual life, for the pressure of God’s Spirit is present everywhere and at all times. Our environment … Continue reading
Dallas Willard sees no replacement for Christians coming together to share their lives, “In fellowship we engage in common activities of worship, study, prayer, celebration, and service with other disciples…. Personalities united can contain more of God and sustain the … Continue reading
Last Wednesday Dallas Willard passed away. Over the past week there have many posts on the internet about Willard and what his writings, lectures and friendship have meant to so many. (If you would like to read some of these … Continue reading
This past Monday as I looked over the many lenten readings in my email (maybe too many, but that is a discussion for another day) one especially caught my attention, “Forced Spirituality.” The writer begins with an account of a … Continue reading
A few weeks ago the mailings that come from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation were concerned with silence. One of the mailings contained the following – “The simplest spiritual discipline is some degree of solitude and silence. But … Continue reading
Our class was reading some more articles on prayer this week and one article provoked some questions for me about spiritual practices/disciplines. How do we judge the value of a practice? Do practices have to be “fruitful” for us to … Continue reading
