Experience Solitude

It’s true: Solitude, silence, and stillness help us connect to God. But God doesn’t intend that we take such spiritual riches and keep them to ourselves or hoard them away. Instead, the genius of the Franciscan approach is its balance between quiet meditation and activity in the world. Intimacy with God becomes a prelude to intimacy with and service to others.


I have found that the discipline of solitude brings three important beliefs:
- You know yourself better.
- You know God better.
- You know your purpose better.

Excerpt from The Lesson of St. Francis by John Michael Talbot

If you are ever in seek of such solitude.  Consider attending the Franciscan Hermitage Experience.  It is a 4 day retreat spent is solitude in the spirit of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi.  A perfect opportunity to know God better, yourself, and your purpose better.  Click here for more info.

Persevere with St. Francis

"Happy will they be who will persevere in the things they have begun."

~St. Francis of Assisi~

 Reflect on what this quote means in your life today.  Are there relationships you have neglected?  Are there projects and crafts laying around your home unfinished?  Did you call the dentist back?  Is there yard work that needs to be done?  Are there prayers you've been meaning to say?

Please take the opportunity today,  take one step closer to happiness,  and complete a task that may be difficult for you.  Ask St. Francis to guide you in your effort!

Life's a Banquet

By: Laura Engle For the past three years my spiritual directors and pastors have asked me a version of the following question during Lent: From what are you fasting and on what are you feasting? Author, poet and pastor William Arthur Ward offers the following suggestions: Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude. Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism. Fast from discouragements; feast on hope. Paradox is a friend of the spiritual seeker. So often we find, to the surprise of our busy, linear minds that two opposite things can be true at the same time. In the paradox of the fast that is actually a feast we may find that, to quote the character Auntie Mame, “Life’s a banquet.”

As Christians, we are taught that we can find hugely vibrant, potent hope in the smallest things. This has sometimes been called “mustard seed faith” because of Jesus’ words, “if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you.” It is a kind of law of inverse proportions.

At a minimum, religious teachers in many traditions tell us that times of fasting make our experiences of our feasts all the better. For as our Proverbs teach: “He who is full loathes honey, but for the hungry every bitter thing is sweet” (Prov. 27A:7). It is a matter of perspective. The feast of Easter is the ultimate experience of this truth for Christians.

We must be careful, however, that our notions of fasting are not left to the realm of food only, as means of self-punishment, piousness, duty and deprivation, because to do so cuts us off from the “go- spell”, the good news! Returning to that canny theologian Mame, the entire quote is, “Life’s a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!” Whoa. Could it be that when we get caught up in our “to do’s” and, let’s face it, daily struggle to be humans, in certain ways we are starving to death? How do we get in on this banquet? Mame’s prescription was to receive it, celebrate it and enjoy it.

I saw a card in a gift shop recently that had a picture of a Buddhist monk, seated in meditation on a rocky cliff. Behind him the sun blazed in a brilliant blue sky. The inscription in the card read, “Nothing to do. Nowhere to go.” As I let myself drop down momentarily into the imagined experience of nothingness, it felt as if the blueness of the sky, the breezes in the canyon, the radiant stillness of the sun were all suddenly right there for me to enjoy.

Speaking personally, the invitation to simultaneously “fast from and feast on” life reframes the entire practice of fasting. It is the gift that Saint Francis holds before us in his well-loved Canticle of Brother Sun in which the Poverello or the poor one, as he was known, finds in his experience of self-emptying his place on earth in kinship with all created things, even the elements. “Praised be you, My Lord, through Brother Wind and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather through which you give sustenance to Your creatures.”

In a simple and yet ultimate way, this way of being, a way that “fasts from (fill in the blank) and “feasts on” brings us home to the planet, ourselves, our community and our Creator.

“And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Gen: 1:31)

I Have A Dream- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. -I Have A Dream Speech-
“Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

The Spirit of Giving

by Lynn McFarland

Monday December 6 was the Feast Day of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was the bishop of Myra, near the Mediterranean Sea, in the 4th Century. He was born into the wealthy merchant class and his family enjoyed many riches along their journey. Nicholas, however, was taught from a young age that being generous to others and giving of oneself was the greatest wealth of all. He would throw bags of gold into the windows of towns’ people who were poor or who had lost their life’s wages when their businesses failed; never did he let them know his identity.

One evening, a businessman who had lost everything waited to see if another bag of gold would fall through his window as it had the year before, when it did, he raced outside to catch this angel, only to recognize him as Nicholas, the wealthy merchant. “Why did you give us this gold?” asked the man. “Because you needed it” answered Nicholas. “But why didn’t you let us know who you were?” asked the man. Nicholas said in reply, “it is good to give and have only God know about it.”
In this season of commercialism, it is hard to have the heart of St. Nicholas. To give away our riches solely because someone else needs them more than we do; it’s a very rare and powerful position to be in when we live the old adage to ‘give from the heart’. It sounds like a cliché, and it is because by the very definition of the word cliché, this old phrase has been overused to the point that it has lost its meaning.

When was the last time you made a monetary donation without expecting a receipt for tax purposes? When was the last time you were given a gift without knowing who it came from? It is lovely to be recognized for our philanthropic endeavors, it makes us feel good that when we have the means to give, we usually do, and other’s perception of us is that we are kind-hearted and generous people, they think we may even believe in something bigger than ourselves; a worthy cause. Our gifts make a difference and everyone knows about them as our names are printed in Annual Reports, on plaques and walls, by invitations to more events etc. Rarely do we give anonymously as St. Nicholas did; we want people to know our identity. This is not to say it’s selfish to be thanked by others, many times we want people to know we have given, not to increase our ego, but so they know where to come if they need help in the future, our gifts are something they can count on and they do make a true difference in the lives of other people.

During this season of Advent, consider giving without reward or recognition. Drop blankets off to the homeless, donate to Goodwill and don’t ask for a receipt, buy your neighbor cookies and leave them on their front porch in secrecy, give teddy bears to a local children’s hospital or school supplies to a school; but do all of these things with the heart of St. Nicholas!

St. Nicholas lives on in our modern day Santa Claus, the idea that people will receive gifts from Santa without seeing him is a widely accepted concept. Of course Santa comes down the chimney, toys are made by elves and reindeer fly all around the world in one night; magical! More importantly, let’s focus on the fact that being Santa for someone else requires that we be invisible. Give without being seen or known, this is the real gift of the Christmas Season.

In the spirit of St. Nicholas, be present to others, give without reward and recognize that when God is the only one who knows you’re giving, you are ‘giving from the heart’!

Are You Passionately Living

By: Lynn McFarland

Confucius said, “wherever you go, go with all your heart.” It may sound like a catch phrase or redundant message, but it’s not. I was listening to an audio CD that arrived via Success Magazine when I heard an incredible interview with the founders of Invisible Children (A non-profit that works with war affected children in East Africa). In that conversation they relay the following message; “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, do what makes you come alive, because that’s what the world needs.” This speaks to passion and heart! The world needs more people who are passionate about something. How does this tie into Confucius’ advice?

We all fill up our allotted 24 hours each day working, playing, praying and running ourselves ragged. But, what part of our 24 hours is spent being passionate about what we’re doing? Do we live to unload the dishwasher every night? Are we ecstatic about the next load of laundry or traffic jam we need to sit in? Do we express gratitude sitting at our kids’ soccer games in the freezing rain and cold? What about being with someone we love, is that where our passion lies?

I like to think I live my passion every day, but I don’t. I’m not always contemplative and aware of where my heart is going at any given minute. I get lazy, complacent and say to myself; “Someday I will be great! Someday I will get my new business off the ground, lose the weight, spend less money etc.” Then I remind myself of the advice Dad gave me, “Someday is not a day of the week Lynn.” Be concrete, set goals and make things happen.

I know, easier said than done when we are bogged down with life. The quote from Confucius is obviously a metaphor. He’s not speaking about our physical heart; of course we take that with us wherever we go. Rather, he is speaking to what fuels our passion in life. Whatever that passion is for you, feed it with your whole heart. The world needs more people who are willing to replace mediocrity for excellence in whatever they choose to do!

“Time does not change us, it unfolds us.” Mark Frisch

Allow yourself some time to unfold by practicing what you are passionate about.

Let’s start the conversation…what is your passion?

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