Click for my new blog. -----I've Moved
The purpose of this blog is to offer suggestions and insights about missional living.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
St. Joseph Abbey
The Pastor's Class enjoyed a recent visit to St. Joseph's Abbey in Covington. For many it was their first visit. The Abbey is worth the drive to see the art of dom Gregory deWit.Monday, March 14, 2011
Let's Journal for Lent
OK, you are reading through the Gospel of Mark-What now? Let's keep a simple journal,below is a sample of what yours might look like.
A Simple Journal Process
Date/Time: March 9,2011
Passage: Mark1:1-1
First Observations/Keywords: Son of God,messenger, repentance,forgiveness,confessing, proclaimed, water, baptize ,Holy Spirit, tempted
Main idea/meaning: John the Baptist was introducing Jesus to the world.
I don’t understand/questions: Why was Jesus baptized? What is the relationship between confession and forgiveness?What was the purpose of the temptation of Jesus?
Right now I believe God wants me to: There is a great need to proclaim the forgiveness of Jesus to our communities.
Prayer: Lord help me to fine the words and the time to tell others who you are in my life and what you can be for them. Let my Lenten quiet times strenghten me for this task.
This is only and sample of what you might want to do. The questions can be used for further study and journaling.
Mark in 40 Days
Here's a good way to have a simple daily time of prayer. The goal is to read and reflect on the gospel of Mark in forty days. I know we are a few days late but it's easy to catch up. Click on the link below and download a copy of the plan.
The Lenten Journey -- Mark in 40 days:
The Lenten Journey -- Mark in 40 days:
Lent is Here
Lent is about mortality and transformation. We begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday with the sign of the cross smeared on our foreheads with ashes as the words are spoken over us, "Dust thou art, and to dust thou wilt return." We begin this season of Lent not only reminded of our death, but also marked for death.
The Lenten journey, with its climax in Holy Week and Good Friday and Easter, is about participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Put somewhat abstractly, this means dying to an old identity—the identity conferred by culture, by tradition, by parents, perhaps—and being born into a new identity—an identity centered in the Spirit of God. It means dying to an old way of being, and being born into a new way of being, a way of being centered once again in God.
You can even die to deadness, and this dying is also oftentimes a daily rhythm in our lives—that daily occurrence that happens to some of us as we remind ourselves of the reality of God in our relationship to God; that reminder that can take us out of ourselves, lift us out of our confinement, take away our feeling of being burdened and weighed down.
That's the first focal point of a life that takes Jesus seriously: that radical centering in the Spirit of God that is at the very center of the Christian life.
Let me share with you a few things you can do to observe Lent .
• Give up something you value, to remind you of what Jesus gave up for you.
• Try to live more simply in all areas of your life: watch less TV, walk instead of driving, observe a quiet period each day.
• Go through your closets and give away clothes that are still in good condition, but that you could do without.
• Clean your home and use spring cleaning to reflect on your spiritual renewal.
• Cook and eat a dish that you always avoid, not necessarily because it repels you but because it is “foreign” and you tend to limit yourself to the familiar.
• Listen to some music you normally can’t “get into.” Wonder if it resonates with something in you, and might not be so bad after all.
• Treat yourself to a meal of rice and tea once a week as a physical sign of concern with the real majority, the hungry world.
• Give up movies or forego some favorite sports events.
• Choose simpler, more healthful meals: less meat, no dessert.
• Do without between meal snacks.
• Give up desserts.
• Eliminate wasteful and expensive habits.
• Drink only water with your meals for one week.
• Eliminate snacking and junk food.
• Give up an hour of TV each day for scripture reading, prayer and reflection.
• Clean house and give unneeded items to charity.
• Give up one big meal a week and donate the money saved to help feed the hungry.
• Serve meat half as often as usual.
• Once or twice a week serve a simple meal that consists of soup or salad, bread, and a beverage.
Over the next several weeks I will be publishing some things that I have written as well copied works that will help you observe Lent as a holy and special season of the Christian year. Check back a few times each week and see what's new on the blog. Your comments are always welcomed.
The Lenten journey, with its climax in Holy Week and Good Friday and Easter, is about participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Put somewhat abstractly, this means dying to an old identity—the identity conferred by culture, by tradition, by parents, perhaps—and being born into a new identity—an identity centered in the Spirit of God. It means dying to an old way of being, and being born into a new way of being, a way of being centered once again in God.Put slightly more concretely, this path of death and resurrection, of radical centering in God, may mean for some of us that we need to die to specific things in our lives—perhaps to a behavior or a pattern of behavior that has become destructive or dysfunctional; perhaps to a relationship that has ended or gone bad; perhaps to an unresolved grief that needs to be let go of; perhaps to a career or job that has either been taken from us or that no longer nourishes us; or perhaps even we need to die to a deadness in our lives.
You can even die to deadness, and this dying is also oftentimes a daily rhythm in our lives—that daily occurrence that happens to some of us as we remind ourselves of the reality of God in our relationship to God; that reminder that can take us out of ourselves, lift us out of our confinement, take away our feeling of being burdened and weighed down.
That's the first focal point of a life that takes Jesus seriously: that radical centering in the Spirit of God that is at the very center of the Christian life.
—Dr. Marcus Borg
Let me share with you a few things you can do to observe Lent .
• Give up something you value, to remind you of what Jesus gave up for you.
• Try to live more simply in all areas of your life: watch less TV, walk instead of driving, observe a quiet period each day.
• Go through your closets and give away clothes that are still in good condition, but that you could do without.
• Clean your home and use spring cleaning to reflect on your spiritual renewal.
• Cook and eat a dish that you always avoid, not necessarily because it repels you but because it is “foreign” and you tend to limit yourself to the familiar.
• Listen to some music you normally can’t “get into.” Wonder if it resonates with something in you, and might not be so bad after all.
• Treat yourself to a meal of rice and tea once a week as a physical sign of concern with the real majority, the hungry world.
• Give up movies or forego some favorite sports events.
• Choose simpler, more healthful meals: less meat, no dessert.
• Do without between meal snacks.
• Give up desserts.
• Eliminate wasteful and expensive habits.
• Drink only water with your meals for one week.
• Eliminate snacking and junk food.
• Give up an hour of TV each day for scripture reading, prayer and reflection.
• Clean house and give unneeded items to charity.
• Give up one big meal a week and donate the money saved to help feed the hungry.
• Serve meat half as often as usual.
• Once or twice a week serve a simple meal that consists of soup or salad, bread, and a beverage.
Over the next several weeks I will be publishing some things that I have written as well copied works that will help you observe Lent as a holy and special season of the Christian year. Check back a few times each week and see what's new on the blog. Your comments are always welcomed.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Home for Christmas
Friday December 24
Psalm 90
For most of my adult life, I have lived in other people’s houses. As a clergy family, our idea of home has never been a house, because that changes. Our ideas of personalizing a house have never been an option, because there have always been rules and committees, warnings about what to plant, and the challenges of decorating around “Methodist tan.” Our parsonages have ranged from a mobile home to a stunning, enormous 100-year-old house.
The concept of home for my family is probably different than most other families. When our son left for Iraq I told him I was sad that while he was deployed he could not picture a place to which he could come back “home.” I will never forget this words back to me. “ Dan’t worry mom, where you and Daddy are, whatever church he is serving-that will be home. It is impossible to separate the two.” By the time, our granddaughter was three years old, Nana and Papa had live at four different addresses. For our family, houses are of little importance and are never home.
The ancient Hebrews’ history included slavery in Egypt, decades of wandering in the Sinai desert, and exile in Babylon. So often, they were not in their own land. So often, they longed for home. The writer of the Psalm assured these Hebrews that across the years, no matter where they slept, God had loved and preserved them. He was their home.
Home is a refuge, a place to go for love with no limits. We are safe at home. At home, we are without pretense. Home is a place of hope and encouragement. When life beats down on us, when we face one problem after another, hurt after hurt, unrelenting pain or constant fear – home is our refuge. When others seem so unmerciful or when the years pile up with terrifying swiftness – home is our safe harbor. There we can rest under God’s shadow. We can live in the shade of His grace. We can dwell in His peace and protection. God is “home.”
Over all these years, I have begun to believe that God is my home, or as the psalmist put it, “God is my dwelling place.” When Jesus came into this world at Bethlehem, He left his home in heaven. God lived as a man to show us the way to go home. He came to insure us an eternal dwelling place that would be our refuge forever. His birth, His life, His death, and His resurrection where all about giving us this dwelling place. Whenever we are with God, now or in eternity, we are home. It is impossible to separate the two.
Reflection - Meditate on the times when God has been your dwelling place as you have journeyed through life.
Monica Boudreaux
Psalm 90
For most of my adult life, I have lived in other people’s houses. As a clergy family, our idea of home has never been a house, because that changes. Our ideas of personalizing a house have never been an option, because there have always been rules and committees, warnings about what to plant, and the challenges of decorating around “Methodist tan.” Our parsonages have ranged from a mobile home to a stunning, enormous 100-year-old house.
The concept of home for my family is probably different than most other families. When our son left for Iraq I told him I was sad that while he was deployed he could not picture a place to which he could come back “home.” I will never forget this words back to me. “ Dan’t worry mom, where you and Daddy are, whatever church he is serving-that will be home. It is impossible to separate the two.” By the time, our granddaughter was three years old, Nana and Papa had live at four different addresses. For our family, houses are of little importance and are never home.
The ancient Hebrews’ history included slavery in Egypt, decades of wandering in the Sinai desert, and exile in Babylon. So often, they were not in their own land. So often, they longed for home. The writer of the Psalm assured these Hebrews that across the years, no matter where they slept, God had loved and preserved them. He was their home.
Home is a refuge, a place to go for love with no limits. We are safe at home. At home, we are without pretense. Home is a place of hope and encouragement. When life beats down on us, when we face one problem after another, hurt after hurt, unrelenting pain or constant fear – home is our refuge. When others seem so unmerciful or when the years pile up with terrifying swiftness – home is our safe harbor. There we can rest under God’s shadow. We can live in the shade of His grace. We can dwell in His peace and protection. God is “home.”
Over all these years, I have begun to believe that God is my home, or as the psalmist put it, “God is my dwelling place.” When Jesus came into this world at Bethlehem, He left his home in heaven. God lived as a man to show us the way to go home. He came to insure us an eternal dwelling place that would be our refuge forever. His birth, His life, His death, and His resurrection where all about giving us this dwelling place. Whenever we are with God, now or in eternity, we are home. It is impossible to separate the two.
Reflection - Meditate on the times when God has been your dwelling place as you have journeyed through life.
Monica Boudreaux
My Soul Shook
Thursday, December 23
Luke 2: 41-52
It was dark with only a small fire for light and warmth. Suddenly an intense brightness, a light such as we had never seen, a light that could never be produced from a fire or oil lamp flooded our field. An angel stepped out of the blinding light. I have never been so terrified. But the angel spoke words of reassurance to us and then the promise of Good News. The Angel instructed us to go look for a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a feeding trough! This baby was the Messiah, the Savior. The sky was suddenly filled with a multitude of heavenly beings singing a holy hymn of joy.
Still partly blinded by the light and recovering from fear on trembling legs, we were led by a sense of holy presence to a barn behind an inn. He was lying in an ordinary crude manger filled with fresh hay. I saw Him – MY SOUL SHOOK! Aaron, the shepherd.
It was the day after Passover. The crowds were leaving Jerusalem, traveling back to their homes. The Temple was nearly empty after the hectic days of the annual pilgrimage. I am a doctor of the law and on that day, I made my way over to meet with my colleagues for the discussion of the day’s questions. I was surprised to see in their midst a small boy. All of us were amazed at the depth of his understanding of the intricacies of the law. For him, the law was more than rules; it was a matter of heart. He led us to see Yahweh’s purpose. With all our combined years of study, our insights paled in the light of his knowledge. For those hours, the law lived.
After three days of conversation with this remarkable boy, his parents showed up in a panic. His mother reprimanded him for worrying them so. His response has never left me. He said to her, “Why are you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
I saw the impact of his words on his mother’s face. She knew. I began to wonder – His Father? Could he be? As He looked back, He walked away. I saw Him – MY SOUL SHOOK! Saul, Temple Rabbi
The Scripture tells us of many others who saw the Christ, recognized Him, and felt their souls shake – the magi, Anna, Simeon, Paul the Apostle, the centurion at the crucifixion, Cleopas on the road to Emmaus. Today, when we see Christ with spiritual eyes, recognize Him in our heart; sense His real presence – our souls shake!
Reflection – When did you feel your Soul Shake because you saw Christ?
Monica Boudreaux
Luke 2: 41-52
It was dark with only a small fire for light and warmth. Suddenly an intense brightness, a light such as we had never seen, a light that could never be produced from a fire or oil lamp flooded our field. An angel stepped out of the blinding light. I have never been so terrified. But the angel spoke words of reassurance to us and then the promise of Good News. The Angel instructed us to go look for a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a feeding trough! This baby was the Messiah, the Savior. The sky was suddenly filled with a multitude of heavenly beings singing a holy hymn of joy.
Still partly blinded by the light and recovering from fear on trembling legs, we were led by a sense of holy presence to a barn behind an inn. He was lying in an ordinary crude manger filled with fresh hay. I saw Him – MY SOUL SHOOK! Aaron, the shepherd.
It was the day after Passover. The crowds were leaving Jerusalem, traveling back to their homes. The Temple was nearly empty after the hectic days of the annual pilgrimage. I am a doctor of the law and on that day, I made my way over to meet with my colleagues for the discussion of the day’s questions. I was surprised to see in their midst a small boy. All of us were amazed at the depth of his understanding of the intricacies of the law. For him, the law was more than rules; it was a matter of heart. He led us to see Yahweh’s purpose. With all our combined years of study, our insights paled in the light of his knowledge. For those hours, the law lived.
After three days of conversation with this remarkable boy, his parents showed up in a panic. His mother reprimanded him for worrying them so. His response has never left me. He said to her, “Why are you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
I saw the impact of his words on his mother’s face. She knew. I began to wonder – His Father? Could he be? As He looked back, He walked away. I saw Him – MY SOUL SHOOK! Saul, Temple Rabbi
The Scripture tells us of many others who saw the Christ, recognized Him, and felt their souls shake – the magi, Anna, Simeon, Paul the Apostle, the centurion at the crucifixion, Cleopas on the road to Emmaus. Today, when we see Christ with spiritual eyes, recognize Him in our heart; sense His real presence – our souls shake!
Reflection – When did you feel your Soul Shake because you saw Christ?
Monica Boudreaux
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