What six hidden women can teach us about Jesus
Who is Jesus to you? What informs and shapes your view of Jesus and his work?
With Andrew Harvey
40 days & 40 nights: A Journey of Prayer and Contemplation
For all of you grieving the loss of someone you love — whether this loss occurred last week, last year, or decades ago — I hope you find some comfort in these words, too. I hope you have the courage to tell the truth about your loved one: the good, the bad, and the complex. And that you don’t break faith with the full spectrum of your feeling, from mourning to dancing.
O God, let us take in the moment of this day of crucifixion, not remembering it in the context of what came after it, but how it left Jesus’ disciples and followers in tragic sadness and heart-wrenched disillusionment.
Can prayers be narcissistic? A great many prayers are in the first person, like the laments in the Psalms. “God help me, rescue me, forgive me, heal me” are typical petitions in the first person. But praying for oneself can become narcissism when concern for oneself supersedes loving our neighbors.
(and everyone else!)
Every so often, I put out a "musing" that is a guide to my writings and videos. It's that time when churches make plans for their program year, so this is a good moment to share links to my materials for worship, study, and spiritual practice. Use freely. All I ask is attribution!
By Neil Douglas-Klotz
Neil Douglas-Klotz offers a radical new translation of the words of Jesus Christ with Prayers of the Cosmos. Reinterpreting the Lord’s Prayer and the Beatitudes from the vantage of Middle Eastern mysticism.
It is easy to get so caught upin the business and troublesof our own lives,
"Praying a New Story" offers a way of seeing and being in the presence of an "everywhere" God" - in all, through all, never absent, always nears.
These are new prayers for a new age. They spark the spiritual imagination back to life and reorient us to a mystical unity with the universe, Spirit, and all of creation.
Morwood goes beyond “devotion and spiritual practice” in "Prayers for Progressive Christians, A New Template". In the first part of the book he summaries the key theological shifts that necessitate changes to liturgical, group and personal prayer. In the second part he demonstrates how these major shifts in theological thinking can be incorporated into a new template for meaningful, contemporary prayer.
We follow the way of Jesus. He opens our hearts To know that our true selves are one with God, who is Love. Jesus saves us from fear, from selfishness, from meaninglessness. He leads us to serve with compassion and act for justice.
We need another language that we can live on earth, to move us further forward, to give the Word new birth; to live the love of Jesus, incarnate through our lives. Aligned with God’s own spirit, the love of God survives.
A new collection of poetry and prayer. Vosper once again gives expression to the beauty and complexity of life in ways that can touch and move us on many levels. Identifying our interconnectedness as a core principle of our common, human journey, Vosper plays with imagery and symbol, weaving us into a whole that lifts and ennobles us all.
Jesus travelled from town to town, healing people who were sick All: Help us to heal broken bodies
From the Festive Worship collection
1. Without an overview of the Bible it is very easy to gain an erroneous impression of what the Bible is all about. 2. Look behind the words to the people.
From the Celebrating Mystery collection
All of us have experienced mental or physical suffering at the hands of other people. But each of us has also brought suffering to others.
Wise and loving God: Sometimes we have come to you like little children with broken toys to be fixed. Many times you have healed our broken hearts and frayed relationships.
A creative dance embodying our need to protect our rivers and our earth. This would be lovely to show during a community gathering.
Pastor: Following the tradition of Jesus, who welcomed children into his community, we celebrate the presence of children within this community of faith and offer them the sacrament of baptism.
From the Celebrating Mystery collection
THEME The path to destruction and the path to new life.
We are an Easter people! We believe that faith can move mountains, and that caterpillars can be transformed into butterflies.
From the Festive Worship collection
The events of Holy Week reveal the complexity of human nature - of how loyalty and treachery, callousness and tenderness can live side by side in people's hearts.
1. I will live in the present moment. I will not obsess about the past or worry about the future. 2. I will cultivate the art of making connections. I will pay attention to how my life is intimately related to all life on the planet. ...
Today, Creator of the Universe, we ask that you open our heart and open our eyes so we can enjoy all of your creations and live in eternal love with you. Help us to see you in everything we perceive with our eyes, with our ears, with our heart, with all our senses. Let us perceive with eyes of love so that we find you wherever we go and see you in everything you create. Let us see you in every cell of our body, in every emotion of our mind, in every dream, in every flower, in every person we meet. You cannot hide from us because you are everywhere, and we are one with you. Let us be aware of this truth.
We rejoice that Jesus led people to discover the sacred in the ordinary: in the crowd, in the lowly, in the everyday life, in human yearnings to be better people, and in being neighbor to one another.
This past year, at my congregation on Cape Cod, we began to celebrate the seasons of the year as part of our affirmation