SIX ORDER OF THE MUSTARD SEED BOOKS: The Vision and The Vow, Even the Sparrow, OMS Guide, The Lord of the Ring, Punk Monk ,and Sacred Rhythms

 These are all the books I get to read for my Year of Preparation for the Order of the Mustard Seed (OMS). They are not in the order I read them though!

The Vision And The Vow: Re-Discovering Life and Grace by Pete Greig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an absolutely inspiring and refreshing read! The Order of the Mustard Seed SO aligns with my values and priorities. This book made me even happier that I am taking my vows in October! Here is a YouTube Version of the Vision (for you Americans, the cockerel is a rooster).

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EVEN THE SPARROW

I love first-person memoirs, and this one is lovely. Jill is the Global Convener of the Order of the Mustard Seed. She has a valuable story to tell! Five Stars.

ORDER OF THE MUSTARD SEED GUIDE

I love this guide through my Year of Preparation. It has prayer tools and many cool meditations that align with the three aspects of the vow. Lots of typos though, but it isn't a "published" book. 

THE LORD OF THE RING

One of the original members of the modern-day Order of the Mustard Seed flew his plane over to Hernhut, Germany, where the Order of the Mustard Seed began in the 1700s. This is a story about his journey and the journey of the incredible Count von Zinzendorf, an original member of the Order. Find it at The Lord of the Ring - Muddy Pearl

PUNKMONK 

More great inculcating of the OMS DNA! Here is the blurb on it:

Fleeing the compromises of the 4th-century church, the Desert Fathers founded monasticism. In reaction to a Christianity they scarcely recognized, these radicals fled to the Egyptian desert to model a different radical style of discipleship, filled with sacrifice and continual prayer. Who are the new monks, the new punks, the new revolutionaries? The answer lies in an upsurge of the 24-7 monastic communities around the world. Punk Monk combines a narrative journey through the beginnings of the 24-7 Prayer Boiler Rooms with a discussion on the roots of monasticism, particularly its ethos and values, and how it can be applied in the third millennium. Drawing influences from the Franciscans, the Celts, and the Moravian, the book highlights the counter-cultural and revolutionary force of monasticism and asks whether it is time for a new monastic movement. It also takes punk as a contemporary expression of monastic spirit and asks whether a "silent revolution" is coming. 

I also highly recommend this podcast about Apostomonasticism:

Season Three Archives | Order of the Mustard Seed Season 3 Episode 12

SACRED RHYTHMS

This book is much in the tradition of Celebration of Discipline, The Sacred Way, The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, etc. I loved her personal style of writing and her female perspective. This book is really basic but a good start for contemplative rhythms and to have all of us in the Order of the Mustard Seed being on the same page. 

ThIis is an introduction to practices that make for a deeper life with God. She has a nice application at the end of each thing she talks about. 

Motions of the Soul and Enneagram Personality Styles by Clare Loughrige

 

Enneagram Personality Styles: A tool for self-knowledge and transformation by Clare Loughrige
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this book makes a lot more sense if you take the training that goes with it. It was good for review after the course. Here is a link to the Loughrige training: https://ccmonline.org/equip/e

I want to mention that the trainers are fabulous people. Just being in their presence at the training was a real treat. 

Even when going through the training, I wondered how I would apply this in my Spiritual Direction practice. I had already been through a nine-month training cohort in the Enneagram through another group, and I wondered if this training would help me, but I find that I apply it almost every day!

Motions of the Soul: The Enneagram meets Ignatius ©The iEnneagram by Clare Loughrige MMin.

This part of the training connects the Enneagram to Ignatian practices. I loved it combined with the training that I mentioned in the review above. 

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A Judgement in Stone

Carol's Take: I am not big on murder. This is a psychological murder thriller. Man, that woman was messed up! I gave it five stars because the writing is really good, but EWWWWW!

Here is a summary from Goodreads:

What on earth could have provoked a modern day St. Valentine's Day massacre?

On Valentine's Day, four members of the Coverdale family--George, Jacqueline, Melinda and Giles--were murdered in the space of 15 minutes. Their housekeeper, Eunice Parchman, shot them, one by one, in the blue light of a televised performance of Don Giovanni. When Detective Chief Superintendent William Vetch arrests Miss Parchman two weeks later, he discovers a second tragedy: the key to the Valentine's Day massacre hidden within a private humiliation Eunice Parchman has guarded all her life.  A brilliant rendering of character, motive, and the heady discovery of truth, A Judgement in Stone is among Ruth Rendell's finest psychological thrillers.

THREE 1000 Books to Read BOOKS: I Capture the Castle, 2666, Company

 

These are Goodreads summaries of the books that I read. I am SO behind with posting my books, I am cheating!

 
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Listening time: 12 hours and 18 minutes.

In this coming of age story, Dodie Smith introduces the visionary and eccentric character of seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain. The youngest daughter in a family of impoverished artists, it is her imagination and writing that takes us away from the ramshackle old English castle where they live, and towards an intriguing tale of husband-hunting and light-hearted sibling rivalry.

With the arrival of their new landlords, the impossibly handsome and wealthy American brothers, Neil and Simon Cotton, the Mortmains are roused from their stupor and moved to action. Despite developing feelings for the younger of the two brothers, Cassandra's beautiful sister, Rose, plots to marry the eldest heir in a desperate attempt to escape the poverty which surrounds her.

When Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the very first time with the same man as her sister, she explores her mixed emotions through her writing, making this a story which revels in irony and ambiguity.

A deceptively complex and intelligent story, I Capture the Castle is Smith's first published work and one which will undoubtedly and simultaneously make listeners tut, laugh and reminisce.



Carol's Take: This book was absolutely delightful! The narration is wonderful. Watch the movie too. 

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2666

(2666 #1-5)

by 

Roberto Bolaño

 4.15  ·   Rating details ·  35,367 ratings  ·  3,932 reviews

Hailed as Roberto Bolaos highest achievement, 2666 takes place in a fictional town on the U.S.-Mexico border, where hundreds of young factory workers, in the novel as in life, have disappeared. There, among the urban sprawl, a diverse throng of unforgettable characters find their lives intersecting.

Carol's Take: I didn't really like it. I know it is a classic, but it was one dead person after another with detailed descriptions. Why is this a classic?

Meh!

 

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Company 

by 

Samuel Beckett

 3.85  ·   Rating details ·  503 ratings  ·  46 reviews

Considered the crown of Samuel Beckett's Late Period, Company has become a modern classic, an extraordinary blending of thought and memory, with poignant glimpses of childhood, including even the author's birth, juxtaposed with a voice, one and many, examining the situation of one lying on his back in the dark, 'the fable of one fabling of one with you in the dark.'

Freewrite Fifteen

I love that I can set my timer for 15 minutes by my voice. :) This morning has been lovely. George had a 2 am interview with a tech company in England. So I was woken up out of a sound sleep and wondered when he would come back. He was gone a long time. I still need to ask him how it went because when he finally came, I asked, and he gave me a few-word answer before I drifted back off to sleep. I "slept in" until 5:55 this morning as a result! LOL! That would be early for most, but not for me. 

So I decided to skip the 6:30 am OMS Prayer Watch (I will be leading it next Wednesday for three weeks) and luxuriated in Northumbrian Celtic Prayer for the morning and Lectio Divina on the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11. The questions were thought-provoking. Then, since our practice for the month is Breath Prayer in the OMS, I turned to a YouTube I had found on St. Patrick's prayer (since I sing or say the Northumbrian Community version every morning), and it was so lovely. Here are a few of the prayers put out by a church in Ontario, Canada:

Breath Prayer:

https://youtu.be/CfNITYx0bXI  (10 min, Ps 46:10)

https://youtu.be/H52xn1lQvRo  (7 min, St Patrick’s Prayer)

https://youtu.be/ZNse33YYlhg  (9 min, Jesus Wept)

https://youtu.be/EhN983QxuiM  (7 min, Holy Spirit Come)

Tell me what you think.

Yesterday had many blessings, I already wrote about God speaking to me in the shower about handing off an interview I was going to do. Other consolations of the day:

Purple Irises in a big clump on our walk at lunch.

Examen prayer with my British OMS Community at 1 pm where the leader, when there were only a few of us in the Zoom room told us about the "hunky" firefighters who cave into the COVID vaccination center. I laughed that this posh older British woman was talking about hunky firefighters in a prayer watch. 

Two excellent Pilates classes, except my first class could not hear my music. I don't know what I do wrong with the music portion, but it is a bit frustrating, but it was still a good class, and I was able to do the whole thing except for the plank and the calf stretching because I cannot put weight on my left arm. I also did a Ball Class and had no problems, but again, I could not do a plank, push-ups, and swimming on the ball. It went well though! YAY! 

I made a decision to lead those Wednesday prayer watches. I am in a saying no so I can focus mode (I told a directee through the Exercises that I could not postpone to two weeks from today because I had already extended our time an extra two weeks because she was behind. Her priorities have definitely changed from the beginning of doing the Exercises when she took on a Biblical Counseling Course that became the priority over the Exercises. I was just proud of myself for finding a balance between adapting (extending an extra two weeks even though my other directee has been done) and setting a boundary (extending it two more weeks) because God has told me to focus like a laser on the resource development for 1500 people! The Prayer Watches will augment the development of the resources. I can try them out in a group context because I usually do these practices with my directees one-on-one. So that is what made me decide. Plus, I just love my cohort leader, Scott. So he asked me to do it, and I want to bless him. I did decline to do it this morning though because yesterday was a big day. 

George told his workgroup that he was leaving his job of eight years. I think this is a consolation and a reason for celebration. He grew so much through the trial of having a very difficult boss who constantly threatened and abused him. 

Last consolation because my time is up. I am reading The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, and I decided to cancel some shows I had scheduled on the DVR. I had decided to quit the news last October. I spent last night reading The Vision and the Vow, and then we watched A History of Britain together. I don't mind watching things for educational reasons and doing them together. We ate Five Guys burgers (oh my, they are so good) and watched because we are history geeks. 
Now I better go! 

Freewrite Eight Minutes

 

HavenlightYongsung Kim - The Hand of God Painting

I am so excited. I have so much on my plate. It seems that everything is coming in, but I have such a clear view of Jesus' hand reaching out to me and not allowing me to drown. We had a Visio Divina in the Order of the Mustard Seed Prayer Morning Prayer Watch on the picture above. It has been "God's echoes" for me (Barbara F's word this morning in our meditation time) for the last four weeks. "Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water" keeps echoing in my head. Isaiah 42 and "his hand." Oh, it is joyous to depend on him and not sink.

So, I went into the shower with a question about one thing that I had been needing to do, but the deadline I set is not convenient for another person who needs it sooner. So God said, "Have him do it then." 

WOW! I asked him, and he said he would LOVE to do it. This way, he can ask the questions he wants to ask. 

I better go! 

THE CAVE, THE TABLE, THE ROAD, THE FIRE: THE FIRE

Photo by Hernan Pauccara from Pexels

THE FIRE: DISCOVERING A PLACE OF REFINING TRANSFORMATION

"In the promise to be true to Christ (the cave), to be kind to people (the table), and to take the gospel to the nations (the road), we are ultimately transformed and changed (the Refiner's fire)...The fire is the Lordship space...the place of sanctification...where we become truer to Christ, kinder to people, and bolder in mission...We confess there is no truth in us that is true enough, no kindness in us that is kind enough, no witness in us that is Gospel enough" (p. 79).

Dynamin is the Greek word in Acts 1:8 for "power" and where we get the words dynamite and dynamic. This Holy Spirit power is what came down at Pentecost in the form of fire. We have been given that power. 

QUESTIONS FOR THE FIRE:

Are there sinful thoughts, attitudes, words, or actions of which I need to confess?

The biggest one that I have been dealing with is fear. I have the sin of wanting to be wanted and loved by people. I know that this doesn't seem like a sin to many, but it is my compulsion, and at the heart of it is selfishness and idolatry. People's love has been more important than God's. I had a HUGE breakthrough yesterday as I walked the labyrinth though! I usually go IN RELEASING fear, sin, etc., and I realized that I was no longer afraid. I was no longer struggling with the approval of people. 

Have you been filled with the power of God recently?

I had an overwhelming sense of God's power working through me. Even the point of having to say, "No" to something it was assumed that I would do. It was not in my Circle of Influence. It would have been a nice thing to do, but I have another calling in my life that does not include this. So I said, "No," and I did not have that overwhelming SHAME that I usually feel when I think I might be disappointing people. George noticed it. I noticed it. It was powerful for me. Thank you, GOD!

THE CAVE, THE TABLE, THE ROAD, THE FIRE: THE ROAD

Me On the Road in Avebury, England, 2016

This is the third OMS vow: take the gospel to the nations. "The road calls me to 'set my heart on pilgrimage' (Psalm 84:5), to take the kind of risks which force me to rely upon God's provision and protection" (p. 78).

Photo Credit Bec Brown at www.quotefancy.com 

Martureo is the Greek word for "witness." It is where we get the English word "martyr." "When the Spirit fills the followers of Jesus we begin to embody (give our lives) as witnesses to his resurrection. The Road is both an invitation and a commitment to 'Go'" (p. 78).

Celtic Christian talked about "Christ's call to 'peregrinate' - a perpetual pilgrimage in search of another home" (p. 78). 

QUESTIONS FOR THE ROAD:

Might God be calling me to "go" some place new, either geographically, relationally, or culturally?

The OMS Guide describes this vow as "inherently adventurous." When I answer this question above, I think that he has. We thought we would raise our kids in Southeast Asia, but God had our "place" new to be here in Corvallis. Go figure! We packed up our whole lives here and went to a new place geographically. Then, we were called back home, and I left surrendered but not really having my preference.

Now that our kids are grown, we are looking at options to go back. We don't know how, when, or where but; we are so open. I pray every day for peoples around the world. I prayed this morning for the people in refugee camps in a remote part of South Sudan. 

Is my life predictable or am I allowing the Spirit to blow me in new directions in ways that are disruptive and surprising?

I am allowing the Spirit to blow me in new directions that have been disruptive, but at the same time, it is the vision that God gave me on November 3, 2018. I am in a "new" place relationally. I have met many wonderful people from around the world, and I am helping develop resources on Abiding in Christ. That is a "new" place for me and has caused me to go out of my comfort zone, but I have grown more and more into my role, and I rather like it now. 

I am so surprised at how God caused it all to come about too!

THE CAVE, THE TABLE, THE ROAD, THE FIRE: THE TABLE

Photo by fauxels from Pexels

I am typing out my answers to the questions in the Order of the Mustard Seed Guide. This exercise is based on a talk by Karl Martin, Senior Pastor of Central Church, Edinburgh. 

The second OMS vow is to be 'kind to people.' This is not a solitary way of life. It is a relational, hospitable, generous, and inclusive one. My table therefore represents the space in which I welcome those individuals given by the Lord to love me and to be loved by me, to grow me and to be grown by me. We live this adventure together as family. I am called to make space at my table for the interruption of unexpected guests; those sent to give and receive blessing. Every life echoes with three great sermons: the family I have loved, the friendships I have nurtured, and the words I have spoken. Our words only carry weight if we have participated generously in community. (p. 76-77)

 Koinonia is a Greek word in Acts 2 "having all things in common." It is stewardship over ownership, inclusion over exclusion, and radical community that looks like family. 

QUESTIONS FOR THE TABLE: 

What people is God asking me to gather around my table? Do they know how important they are to me?

I think God is asking me to gather the people in the Seed Community around our table and friends we have known for years. But I also consider our "table" a virtual one as we mentor three young, married couples on a monthly basis. I also gather people in "soul hospitality" through my ministry of spiritual direction. I think most know how important they are. 

Do I need to make more space in my heart and my schedule for interruption and hospitality?

I am laughing at this question because I was SO excited about having a Friday and Saturday with absolutely NO commitments (a rare occurrence), and then a friend texted, "Hey, I am going to be in town. Can I come by and visit on Friday," and another text came in with an invitation to a birthday barbeque on Saturday. Oh well, there goes those two free days. We had my friend for dinner last night, and it was delightful. I always have to find the balance between space in my heart for interruptions and the need to say, "No," to get some special projects done (setting up my podcast interviews, developing abiding resources for my agency, etc.). So there is always a tricky balance for me, but I thought it important to make room for my friend of 43 years! I need to listen to God's will for me. He knows the right balance.

I do miss having more people physically around our table! We have had NINE visitors since January. That is because of COVID, but more and more people seem to be loosening up on this score. One year, I had everyone who came to our home sign our guest book: 300 people! I miss this. 

Have I extended an invitation to any more mature Christian to come sit at my table and challenge my life? Who am I discipling? 

We have been more intentional about having dinner with the Ws. They are more mature, and we are both involved with ministry to people younger than us. So that helps us. I do miss the more mature Christians in my life like Ginny and Lorraine. I also loved having some of the Perspectives speakers staying here overnight. That was wonderful. I want to pray for more mature people to sit here, but many have died. I do try to keep myself challenged through things like the Imago Christi Discovery Event that I am going through right now. I am with more mature peers in my small group (even though I am leading it). (Update: I totally forgot to include my spiritual director, Fran, as a mature believer I meet with monthly!)

Well, who am I discipling? I have a pink sticky on my computer that says, "Eternal Investment." This was an application from a Discovery Bible Study we did with our Seed Community last Sunday on Matthew 6:19-24 about laying up treasures in heaven. This was after (or was it before?) one of the women in the group making a prophetic word over George and me about how much we have poured into so many people, and I looked around the room, and people were nodding, and I realized most of the people in that room were people we have poured into, but I just think of them as just dear family. So I don't think about how much I have poured, but about God pouring into me, and then effortlessly pouring into others. But it has been a 40 year "second-order" calling to companion people in their journey. Now, the more popular thing to call it is spiritual direction, but my first training was in discipling. So, while there are differences between the two, there is also overlap. So I am using the question, "Who am I discipling?" interchangeably with "Who am I companioning?" 

With that sticky "eternal investment" staring me in the face all week, I realized that the list is long of who I am discipling/companioning. The question for me is one of discernment between who is good, better, and best to invest in at this stage. I said, "Yes" to someone last week, but George questioned this. I have a hard time discerning because so many people are in my "Circle of Concern," but fewer people are in my "Circle of Influence" (using Stephen Covey's language here). It is also that "Principle of Selection" that I learned in the Navigators, and a former mentor, Helene Ashker, emphasized to me. I think this person is a leader and in my Circle of Concern, and time will tell if that person should be in my Circle of Influence. I see potential. I do think I am at my limit for who I can meet with, especially while I am teaching Pilates during the school year. 

The whole "TABLE" discussion here is perfectly timed with the discussion in the Imago Christi Discovery Event about Spiritual Formation in community rather than alone. The homework was listening to a talk by Henri Nouwen on Communion, Community, Ministry (I am not sure if I am allowed to share our homework as it might be copyrighted by Imago Christi. So this is an article that summarizes it. There is also a YouTube video that encapsulates it: https://youtu.be/XLNaX7WeSnM ) that totally goes along with all of this. Not new concepts, but it is always great to have them reinforced. 

I love how God confirms things, even to the point of my meditation with the OMS Prayer Watch being in Psalm 133 about brothers dwelling together in unity right before we had our Imago Christi session. 

I think the main thing for me is finding a group that challenges me. E said something a couple of months ago that said as much. Praying about this. 

THE CAVE, THE TABLE, THE ROAD, THE FIRE: THE CAVE

Photo by Marius Venter from Pexels

THE CAVE: DISCOVERING A PLACE OF PRAYER AND INTIMACY

 I realize it is easier for me to type things than write them these days. So I am answering questions in my Order of the Mustard Seed Guide. This exercise is based on a talk by Karl Martin, Senior Pastor of Central Church, Edinburgh.

"My cave is the place in which I am able to slow down and turn off the cacophonous noise of this life to hear the voice of God instead" (p. 75, The Order of the Mustard Seed Guide).

Proskartereo - The Greek word used in Acts 2:42 when the early church "devoted" themselves to prayer. It is a very strong word describing "steadfast strength," "intense effort" and the faithful disciplined pursuit of a particular goal.

QUESTIONS FOR THE CAVE:

What form does my cave take? is there a particular place or time in the day in which I particularly seek God?

I always tell people how much I love my CAVE!

Morning

I have the blessing of being a very early riser. So I go to my "kitchen cave" desk. I make my chai tea, light my candle at my desk and have prayer time. Lately, it has started with the Celtic Prayers of the Northumbrian Community. Sometimes that involves dancing to the music they created for this liturgy. I journal and pray through the Scripture meditations for the day. When I get to the "pray for others" part, I pray for my family, the people I am making eternal investments in, and the peoples all over the world through wonderful prayer APPS. Many weekdays I join the 6:30 Prayer Watch with the Order of the Mustard Seed (OMS), and sometimes I go to the 3:30 Prayer Watch!

On Friday mornings I join the Jesuits in Scotland for an hour of contemplative prayer.

Then I go for a prayer walk. I listen to Pray as You Go or Lectio365, but many times I just walk and listen to God as I enjoy his wonderful creation.

On Sunday mornings, I love my Centering Prayer time with the Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA.

Midday

Mornings are my prime time, and I give it to him, but I often go into a short mid-day prayer time with the Northumbrian Community. Often it is while walking and going up to the hospital to walk the labyrinth there.  I release any fears as I go in. I receive God's word to me regarding those fears in the center. I walk out returning to the world. 

Midday Centering Prayer: I connect with several groups in the midday (East Mosely, UK; Jo with OMS, Presbyterians in town)  

Midday Examen: OMS (not every day but many days).

Midday Contemplation: Every other Wednesday with the Jesuits in Britain called Imagine. 

Evening

This is my weakest area. I have learned that I need to pray in the early evening because I get very sleepy after about 8:30! The newer Evening Prayer on the Lectio365 app and the musical version of the Evening and Compline prayers of the Northumbrian Community have been helpful. Sometimes I will go for a walk as the sun sets and listen to these. 

What practical steps might I take to "devote" myself more fully to prayer? 

I have wanted to grow in Centering Prayer for so long, and these groups that I have joined in the last year have been so helpful! I hope to grow in doing it on my own more often, but the accountability has been wonderful. 

I am also wanting to grow more in evening prayer. George and I are doing a "no electricity" evening once a week, and that tends to lend itself to more connection with God and each other in the evening. 

 Every Other Month 

I go to an extended CAVE time by myself, usually at a monastery. I have been going away since I was 19 years old. I am very thankful for my mentors who instilled this in me. This is a handout I give all people interested in having a Day in Prayer. There is a simpler one put out by the 24-7 people too.

I was going to write about all four, but I am breaking this up over the next four days! See you tomorrow for THE TABLE.  

Freewrite Tuesday

 

From: Pray For The World... Pictures, Photos, and Images for Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter (lovethispic.com)

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. 

There is a holy hush as Tuesdays are my day to pray from 7-8am for the world. Actually, I pray every day for the world as part of my time with God, but this is my extended time, and at the end, the sweet sense of God's presence is here, and I wanted to do a Freewrite to capture it.

So many people in poverty and in the path of violent extremism. So many people are oppressed by overpowering governments. So many women are trapped because of overpowering men. I went all over the world today, and I know I cannot go there, but I can certainly lift them up in prayer. 

It has been a while since I typed here because I fractured the radial neck of my left arm. It was hard for me to turn my palm down all the way (and hard at first because it was in a splint). The doctor said it was fine to continue to work on my range of motion both up and down, bending at the elbow, and palms up and palms down. So I have much more range of motion overall. Typing this is not painful, whereas last week it was. Sweet young people prayed for healing on Sunday, and there was a definite increase in the ROM. Thankful. 

Today I am to teach Pilates from 2-4 pm, but I think I am going to move my usual video up to today (usually I run this video Week 7, but I am not ready to lead a Ball class yet).

Speaking of teaching Pilates. I had one student from 2018 who contacted me saying that I changed her whole attitude toward exercising. Since she graduated, she has published a book and has a life/health coaching business, and she links them to my Pilates videos. Every time there is a click, I get a commission! I got my first check yesterday. WHO KNEW? So surreal.

I would love to continue to type, but I have a spiritual direction appointment in nine minutes and I still need to dress for the occasion.

TTFN. No time to proofread for me. 

Tuesday Freewrite - A New Day Dawns

I cannot believe it has been 18 days since my last freewrite. My writing side comes out more in a balanced life. I haven't necessarily been totally out of wack and unbalanced, but I have not been manifesting my more creative side lately. In this stream of consciousness kind of writing (see HERE for a definition of a freewrite) I realize how "grounded" writing the Bible Book Club from 2008-2013 kept me! I wrote EVERY DAY. Sometimes those posts would take 2-3 hours to write, but I loved it! Although it did make me unbalanced in my body as I sat WAY more than your average bear. So I don't write as much now because I am intentional about bodywork by teaching my Pilates class for four hours every week. I loved those times, and I still have all those pages of writing (3000+ in MS Word). 

Today, I loved the application in the Lent Retreat on Pray as You Go:

The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday can feel like empty space, but it is precisely in this empty space that the miracle of transformation happens and new energy is released, like a butterfly from a chrysalis. Try bringing any places of emptiness in your own life consciously into the light of the Holy Spirit. These places are your Holy Saturdays where transformation begins.

Make a note in your journal of any moments this week when you have glimpsed the power of resurrection. As you look into the mirror of prayer, try expressing what you see, either in words or pictures. Notice especially anything that takes you by surprise or overturns your expectations. 

This week we might ask for the grace to see our circumstances through the eyes of love, to recognize the light of resurrection already dawning in our lives and our world, and to have the courage to cross the other side of the boat and be open to God's surprised where we least expect them. 

I loved this devotional written by Margaret Silf, and I hope to add it to my manual through the Spiritual Exercises. I have her book Inner Compass, and it is on my "to read" list. 

Speaking of "to read" lists. I am finishing up the last book for the Book Babes. It took me a long time to get into, but I have liked it in the long run as it is through the eyes of a clinical psychologist, and I find many parallels to my own practice of spiritual direction. I realize that spiritual direction is NOT therapy, but they do overlap in terms of listening and reflecting, etc. So, it has been insightful for me in many ways. I am on the last 55 pages. I am not sure I will continue with the Babes. It is a tremendous outlay of time to read 10 books every year. I gave myself the freedom not to read three of them because they held no interest for me when they were selected, and I just do not have the time to read books I know will not be interesting to me. I did give one of them that I thought I would not like, and I did not. So I am going with my first gut instinct. All that to say is that most of the ones I read were not ones that inspired anything in my life. I want books that inspire me toward growth rather than just feed me with more information. So, I am considering being even more ruthless in which ones I will read next year. I am glad I have cleared my plate of this list so I can read books like Silf's. Formation books are more of what I crave. I also crave classics because they feed my formation. 

Today is:

6:30 Morning Watch with OMS

7-8 24-7 Prayer 

9-10 Directee 

10-2 Work on my Spiritual Formation Timeline for Imago Christi Discovery 

2-4 Pilates I and II teaching

4:30-5:30 Directee

The timer has gone off. TTFN.