Contents:
- Weekend Scripture Readings
- Spiritual Guidance Resources
- Shalom Place Premium Groups
- Discussion Board highlights
- Affiliate Web Sites
- Book of the Week
- Saint of the Week
- Web Site of the Week
- Joke of the Week


Weekend Readings
     http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/

Saturday:   Ex 24:3-8;   Ps 50:1b-2, 5-6, 14-15;   Mt 13:24-30
Sunday:   Gn 18:20-32;   Ps 138:1-3, 6-8;   Col 2:12-14;   Lk 11:1-13

R.    (3a)    Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.

I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.

Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called you answered me;
you built up strength within me.

The LORD is exalted, yet the lowly he sees,
and the proud he knows from afar.
Though I walk amid distress, you preserve me;
against the anger of my enemies you raise your hand.

Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.

- - - 

Spiritual Guidance Resources
Need a companion for the spiritual journey? We have several wonderful people like David Rothstein (pictured, here) ready to help, using email and telephone conferences to bridge the miles.

- Now providing -

Consultations: this option is best for short-term guidance pertaining to a specific issue.

Spiritual Direction: ongoing relationship with a spiritual director to become more attuned to God's presence in all of life.

See http://shalomplace.com/direction/

- - -

Shalom Place Premium Groups
- Life-long learning and study and spiritual growth.

Groups now open include the following:
A. Psychological Types and Spirituality
B. The Way of Christian Spirituality
C. Freedom from Codependency
D. Christian Spirituality Resources
E. Wonderfully Made . . . (Christian metaphysics)
F. Growing in Christ
G. Communities in Transition (Spiral Dynamics)
H. Discerning God's Will
I. Dark Night of the Soul
J. Silence, Solitude and Sabbath
K. Alpha Group -- includes all the above and all to come for only $65.00.
- see http://shalomplace.org/groups.html for more info.

- - -

Shalom Place Discussion Board
- Discussions this past week featured the following topics:

Iraq: three scenarios - Religion and Culture forum.
More on archetypes: who needs them? - Lounge forum.

- see http://shalomplace.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php to read these topics -

- - - 

Affliliate Web Sites
- please give them a visit

SeeScapes. Picturing the deeper dimensions of our spirituality.
Carry the Light CD: Piano Meditations for the Hopeful Heart
Stillpoint: Programs in spiritual direction, contemplative prayer.
Solitude and Streets: an emerging faith community.
Family Life Training and Counseling Center: an online Bible college/seminary
The Ark: Providing a variety of scripture and lectionary study resources.
Contemplative Ministries of the Pacific Northwest: Teaching and support on contemplative practice
Contemplative Outreach of St. Louis
Inner Explorations: a vast array of spirituality resources for the mature Christian.
Heartland Center for Spirituality (sponsoring Internet workshops year-round).
Emanuella House of Prayer: a place for prayer and silence in British Columbia
Kyrie Places of Pilgrimmage and Renewal.
Contemplative Rudder: "In the midst of Consecrated Silence' atmospherics ... a Rudder!
Holy Trinity: Old Catholic Orthodox Church.  Corpus Christi, TX
Temenos Catholic Worker: support for homeless youth in Polk Street neighborhood, San Francisco
   
Reach hundreds of people who have a similar interest in Christian spirituality.  Simply publish a link to Daily Spiritual Seed-- http://shalomplace.com/seed --on a prominent place on your web site and we will reciprocate with a weekly link to your site in the newsletter.  Contact the Editor when you're ready to begin.

Mv Life with the Saints, by James Martin S.J. Loyola press, 2006.
- http://tinyurl.com/3cfnju

This is not the ordinary run-of-the-mill book of the saints, but it is the story of Father Martin's journey with certain saints. He tells how he met them, how they influenced his life, even how he dismissed them in his earlier life but came to later know that they were "for real." He tells the readers in delightful incidents what prompted him to turn to such holy people and how each one led him to a new living out of the devotion that is typical of church people who follow the Gospel.

Martin says that when steeped in pride, he turned to Merton; in sickness, he called on the Little Flower; in times when he took life too seriously, he petitioned the happy Pope John XIII; when he needed courage, he went to Joan of Arc; when he was cold, he turned to the compaSSionate Aloysius Gonzaga; and when he believed his case was hopeless, he called on St. Jude, patron of hopeless cases.

Other holy ones who guided Father Martin include Pedro Arrupe, Mother Teresa, Bernadette, Dorothy Day, Simon Peter, Thomas Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, Mary and Joseph of the Holy Family. Martin takes his readers to a little French town called Lourdes; to a quiet retreat center in New England; to the gritty housing projects in Chicago; to the slums of Nariobi; and to a gorgeous Baroque church in Rome. In many of these places he ministered as a young Jesuit in preparation for ordination.

- Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman, O.P.  for this review.

Make the Christian Spirituality Bookstore your starting point for online shopping at Amazon.com.  You can buy books, cds, videotapes, software, appliances and many other products at discount prices.  As Amazon.com affiliate, we are paid a small fee for purchases originating from our web site.  Every little bit helps!
http://shalomplace.com/books/index.html


Saint of the Week

- July 31st. St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Born at Loyola in the Basque country on Northern Spain in 1491, he served as a soldier until wounded in the siege of Pamplona in 1521. Having not previously taken his faith seriously, he came to his love of God during his convalescence, when he was given a Life of Christ and the Saints to read. He spent a year in prayerful penance at Manresa, close to the famous Catalan abbey of Montserrat, and then embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  He studied at several Spanish universities and finally in Paris, where he discerned that he had the gift of helping those in spiritual trouble. He was joined by six others (including St. Francis Xavier) who were to be the core of the Jesuits. They undertook his famous 'Spiritual Exercises', which he had begun to form during his time as a hermit, were ordained, an offered themselves to the Pope to serve in any way he desired. They bound themselves by vows taken before the crucifix of St. Brigid in the Basilica of St.Paul-outside-the-Walls, Rome. Such were the origins of the Jesuits, priests of a religious Order living in community, devoted to education and spiritual direction, but - unusually for the time - exempt from the communal singing of the Divine Office, so as to leave themselves free to follow their particular responsibilities. . .  St. Ignatius himself died in 1556 and was canonised in 1622.

- - -

Web Site of the Week

The Revealer
- http://www.therevealer.org/

The Revealer, run out of New York University's Center for Religion and Media, describes itself as a "daily review of religion and the press." Though a big part of its mission is to review how religion is portrayed in the media, it's a great place to start for the latest--and often obscure--religion news, as well as excellent links to a wide range of religion news resources and other blogs.  

- - -

Joke of the Week

One Sunday a priest announced he was passing out minature crosses made of palm leaves. "Put this cross in the room where your family argues most," he advised. "When you look at it, the cross will remind you that God is watching."

When the parishoners were leaving church, a woman walked up to the priest, shook his hand and said, "I'll take five."