Weekend Edition - A Daily Spiritual Seed

Published: Fri, 04/10/15

Webinar: Focusing Practice as a Way to Inner Wisdom and Wholeness

April 23, 2015: 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Presented by Nick Morale
Registration Link

- no registration fee; free-will donation -

Focusing can help us in the following ways:

* Develop a more spacious interiority

* Feel more at home in our bodies

* Transform emotional conflict into nourishing, life-forwarding states of being.

* Reduce emotional reactivity

* Increase discernment with a less judgmental attitude

* Increase insight about the interaction between thinking and emotion

* Build empathy for ourselves and other people as interior spaciousness increases

* Increase joy for our mere existence

* Develop creativity further by learning how to “think at the edge”

In this webinar we will:

* Discuss one or more of the distinctions between mindfulness practice and Focusing

* Begin to explore what the “felt sense” is, and isn’t

* Consider the difference between inner bodily knowing and conceptual knowing

* Discover the power of presence language for easing stress

* Describe Eugene Gendlin’s discovery of Focusing and his student Ann Weiser Cornell’s deepening of this work

* Discuss how Focusing can help inner longing unfold into a more wakeful heart

More information

Book of the Week

It's a God Thing: When Miracles Happen to Everyday People, by Don Jacobson. Vol. 2. W. Publishing Group, 2014.

According to Bob Goff “This book will call friends of Jesus everywhere to look for His capers around the world ! Because God is love and love does!”

Replete with stories of miracles that happened to ordinary people, Jacobson sees these capers of God as “A God Thing”. Why would a young man who wore glasses and contacts, suddenly be deprived of both and not financially able to purchase another set so that he could see and continue with his biblical studies? In his ‘miracle’ story, he was riding with his wife when suddenly he exclaimed, “I think I see something”. Near his car, he saw a pair of glasses which were a perfect fit and which he wore for several years with no problems until he was finally able to buy new glasses. A God Thing!

A team of doctors who had carried out 250 transplants in a year, suddenly were faced with a little boy who needed a transplant, and was to receive it from the boy's little brother which the boy’s mother was carrying in her womb, a baby that turned out to be a perfect match for his older brother. “Our faith was stretched and it today stands firm in our great God,” said the mother.

Miracles that happened to ordinary folks strengthened faith when a six year old made a complete recovery after being under water for seven minutes; a man who was pulled from a truck as it dropped 400 feet was saved; a young girl was saved when a train hit the side of her vehicle; several cancer victims suddenly were told that they were cancer free. These are just some of the stories that increased faith when it became clear that “This is a God thing.” “Our God is a

God of surprises. Be prepared!”

Jacobson’s book contains 58 miracle stories attributed to “This is a God Thing”!

- Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman OP for this review.

Paperback, Kindle, Audio CD

Saint of the Week

St. Benedict Joseph Labre (d. 1783) April 17

Benedict Joseph Labre was truly eccentric, one of God's special little ones. Born in France and the eldest of 18 children, he studied under his uncle, a parish priest. Because of poor health and a lack of suitable academic preparation he was unsuccessful in his attempts to enter the religious life. Then, at 16 years of age, a profound change took place. Benedict lost his desire to study and gave up all thoughts of the priesthood, much to the consternation of his relatives.

He became a pilgrim, traveling from one great shrine to another, living off alms. He wore the rags of a beggar and shared his food with the poor. Filled with the love of God and neighbor, Benedict had special devotion to the Blessed Mother and to the Blessed Sacrament. In Rome, where he lived in the Colosseum for a time, he was called "the poor man of the Forty Hours Devotion" and "the beggar of Rome." The people accepted his ragged appearance better than he did. His excuse to himself was that "our comfort is not in this world."

On the last day of his life, April 16, 1783, Benedict Joseph dragged himself to a church in Rome and prayed there for two hours before he collapsed, dying peacefully in a nearby house. Immediately after his death the people proclaimed him a saint.

He was officially proclaimed a saint by Pope Leo XIII at canonization ceremonies in 1881.

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Stillpoint: Programs in spiritual direction, contemplative prayer.

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Weekend Readings

Saturday
ACTS 4:13-21

PS 118:1, 14-21

MK 16:9-15

Sunday

ACTS 4:32-35

PS 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24

1 JN 5:1-6

JN 20:19-31

Lectionary

Spiritual Guidance

Need a companion for the spiritual journey? Consultations and spiritual direction available.

Find out more

Discussion Board

Topics being discussed at this time include:

The LOL blacklist of Christian spiritual writers.
- Shalom Place Lounge forum.

The "Buddhification" of Christian contemplative spirituality.

- Christian Spirituality Issues forum.

The darkness of desolation and the night of the senses

- Christian Spirituality Issues forum.

And much more . . .

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Theology Note

Transfiguration

Transfiguration refers to the mysterious change that occurred to Jesus on the mount: "Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white," (Matt. 17:1-2). The transfiguration preceded Jesus' time on the cross and may have been the Father's preparatory provision to strengthen Jesus as He prepared to bear the sins of the world.

Christian Apologetics

Joke of the Week

Actual Newspaper Headlines (dont they have editors?)

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case

Survivor of Siamese Twins Joins Parents

Iraqi Head Seeks Arms

Is There a Ring of Debris around Uranus?

Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over

Shot Off Woman's Leg Helps Nicklaus to 66

Enraged Cow Injures Farmer with Ax

Miners Refuse to Work after Death

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

Stolen Painting Found by Tree

Two Soviet Ships Collide, One Dies

Killer Sentenced to Die for Second Time in 10 Years

War Dims Hope for Peace

If Strike isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last a While

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

Man Struck by Lightning Faces Battery Charge

Joke resource site