“We do not have to retreat to the desert or join a monastery to find this path of deepened intimacy with God. We each can choose this inner work of discerning what we hold onto and what we release at every season of our lives. We each have the choice to make.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent
What choices can you make to begin a path of deepened intimacy with God?
To register for the self-study companion retreat to the book with extra resources and guidance click here.
Peace is not a document that gets signed and then filed away. Peace is built day by day! And peace is crafted; it is the work of our hands; it is built up by the way we live our lives. — Against War: Building a Culture of Peace, p. 83
“There’s this beautiful connection between our own, creative fire and the fire of the Divine that burns within each one of us — that fire of compassion, the fire of kindness and love that we bring to the world.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea & Stone: A Creative, Online, Self-Study Retreat with the Elements
How does the fire of the Divine burn within you? How does it intersect with your creative fire?
The spiritual life means that the Spirit of Love is given to us so that we can live with that Spirit within us. With that Spirit in us, we are able to recognize the same Spirit in the world. The Spirit blows where it wants, so the Spirit is everywhere. It’s in the people who are dying, people with AIDS, people who are broken, and people with disabilities.
To watch for Christ in the world is to see that the spirit within us recognizes the Spirit among us so that the spirit speaks to Spirit, heart speaks to Heart, love speaks to Love. To watch for Christ is to be attentive to the presence of Christ in the world and in our heart. It’s not a kind of emotional or intellectual gymnastics. If we carry God in our hearts, we see God in the world. — The Road to Peace
Verse of the day
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
– Philippians 4:1
Voice of the day
Our struggle is practical. It’s high and holy, but it’s right down here on earthly ground. So let’s fight the good fight of faith. Let’s do what we have to do, and know why we’re fighting the battle.
– Rev. Dr. Prathia Hall
Prayer of the day
God, we are your hands and feet in this world. Let the site of our works become as distinct as holy ground.
“We might say that viriditas is God’s love, energizing the world, making it living and fruitful. Nothing exists without viriditas because nothing exists without God loving it and wanting it to exist.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal
How does it feel to read that you exist through God’s loving and through God’s wanting you to exist?
To register for the self-study, companion retreat to the book with extra resources and guidance, click here.
Verse of the day
And let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”
– John 7:38
Voice of the day
If the drought hits tonight / Do not fear because you and I / We are like water, like water / Made to survive
– Alicia Keys, “Hallelujah/Like Water”
Prayer of the day
Fill us from the fount of living water so that we may have the will to move forward as one.
Verse of the day
And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness.
– 2 Timothy 2:24-25
Voice of the day
Rage is the impulse toward justice. But if we stay in rage, if we don’t let it move through us and out of us, then what happens is we become unable to recognize when we are the ones who are doing harm.
– Kai Cheng Thom
Prayer of the day
Ever-Present Help, guide us to redirect our anger, which is so capable of wounding, toward transformative repair instead.
Celebrating St. Columcille’s Feast Day:
“[Columcille] traveled with twelve other monks to cross the sea in a coracle and landed on a small island off the coast of Scotland, now known as Iona. It was here that he began his new work, and Iona became a center of pilgrimage for Celtic Christianity.”
—Abbey of the Arts, Dancing Monk Feast Days: Reflections, Creative Invitations, and Prayers
What spiritual foundations are you called to lay down?
Verse of the day
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
– 1 Corinthians 3:16
Voice of the day
O green vigour of the hand of God, in which God has planted a vineyard, it shines in the heights like a stately column, You are glorious in your preparation for God.
– St. Hildegard of Bingen
Prayer of the day
God who is the vine, remind us, your branches, that your Spirit resides in our bodies. Let us grow in how we can best reflect your love and mercy.
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