If in the end

Share In a way, this is a fundamental practice. Center yourself and then reach outward to the natural world in the small area around you, far beyond the things you can physically see. Extend your awareness from the tiniest microorganism to the rabbit in their burrow to the plants of the underbrush to the bees buzzing by to the soil itself and the water it holds. Take your time, sensing the many, many layers of being around you. Sense how they work together in one enormously complex ecosystem. See if you can go from perceiving each individual be...

Share REMEMBERYou are human. Judgments are not the problem; they are normal and natural. It’s what you think, say, or do next that really matters…. Ask yourself, will what I think, say, or do nextbe Helpful or Harmful?Everyone is valuable and deserves to be acknowledgedwithout judgment, including you.Love closes all the space that judgments create.Every day and in every way ... Be the LOVE. To Practice:Notice your judgments, and then choose a helpful, healing, and loving response as your next thought, word, or action. —ShaRon Rea in How to Heal...

Share I feel you, Lord, and I know how unworthy I am. You know it, too, yet you go on calling me. I hear your voice today as I pray with the blind man. You’re calling me, Lord. You’re calling me to go further into the mystery of God. I hear the call, and I ask for the grace to answer. —Macrina Wiederkehr in Open Wide My Heart

Share And so dearest God, source of my life, I tremble a little at what I am asking for when I pray for wisdom. But I want it all the same. I am asking you, God, for a breath of your power, a ray of your glory, a reflection of your eternal light, the likeness of your goodness, the purity of your movement and activity. To say it even few words, I am asking for you. —Macrina Wiederkehr in Open Wide My Heart

Share May you be given the power for your hidden self to grow strong so that Christ may live in your heart and, rooted in his love, you will be able to grasp the very depths until you are filled with the utter fullness of God. —Macrina Wiederkehr in Open Wide My Heart

Share God, lean toward me; keep your eye on me. I want you for a counselor. I want to trust you. As Psalm 32 proclaims in verse 10, “steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.” I want love to surround me; it sounds like heaven.” —Macrina Wiederkehr in Open Wide My Heart

Share Do a “trust fall” onto your bed. You could sit up straight, with your feet dangling off the side of the bed, and let yourself flop back. Your prayer of trust could be this flopping motion. —Jennifer Grant in Sing, Wrestle, Spin

Share Bounce a basketball. Bounce it over and over. Every time the ball hits the pavement or sidewalk, say (out loud or silently) the name of someone you care about or someone you are willing to forgive. You can repeat the same name, over and over. —Jennifer Grant in Sing, Wrestle, Spin

Share Ours is a terrestrial body. Like the big Earth is pulled toward the sun, the small earth of the body is pulled toward this planet, and while our journey is not an orbit, it is a grounding. Let your awareness settle into the place where your seat, legs, and/or feet rest against the cushion or chair you are sitting on. With curiosity, explore this feeling of pressure and groundedness, where your body contacts the earth, floor, chair, or cushion. When your mind becomes restless or preoccupied, let your body’s groundedness draw your mind back...

Share This book is born out of a conversation begun between the Gen-Z climate activist, Greta Thunberg, and the world’s most popular living religious leader, H.H. the Dalai Lama, who is about to turn eighty-eight. “A Buddhist lama and a climate activist walk in a Zoom…” the story begins, showing that it is possible to speak with humor and hope when addressing the most serious crisis we all face: climate change. Author Susan Bauer-Wu — an organizational leader, clinical scientist, former professor at the University of Virginia, and mindfulness t...

Share May today there be peace within.May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.May you be content knowing you are a child of God.Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love.It is there for each and every one of us. —Teresa of Avila in Sing, Wrestle, Spin by Jennifer Grant

Share May I be generous.May I cultivate integrity and respect.May I be patient and see clearly the suffering of others.May I be energetic, steadfast, and wholehearted.May I cultivate a calm and inclusive mind and heart so I can compassionately serve all beings.May I nurture wisdom and impart the benefit of any insight I may have to others. To Practice: Offer all of the above as a meditation prayer or practice with just one of them, "letting it soak into [your] marrow." —Joan Halifax in Standing at the Edge

Share “We are all one in love…. When I look at myself as an individual, I see that I am nothing. It is only in unity with my fellow spiritual seekers that I am anything at all. It is this foundation of unity that will save humanity…. God is all that is good. God has created all that is made. God loves all that [God] has created. And so anyone who, in loving God, loves all his fellow creatures … loves all that is. All those who are on the spiritual path contain the whole of creation, and the Creator. That is because God is inside us, and inside ...

Share Sit still, without an agenda, eyes closed, hands in your lap. Breathe in God’s love, and breathe out love. Be present, open, awake, clinging to nothing, rejecting nothing. Any thought or feeling arises and passes away. God is the infinity of all arising and passing away. Give yourself over to love alone, with deep sincerity, in least resistance to being overtaken by God’s oneness with us. —James Finley in The Inner Work of Age by Connie Zweig

Share Please stop and reflect on one question at a time. These contemplative questions may move your attention into unfamiliar, even uncomfortable territory, so you may find yourself resisting or distracting your mind. You may feel restless or agitated. Simply take a deep breath and return to the question, let it simmer, and see what arises. This is your private space, so no one else needs to know what comes up. You can make notes in your journal and return to any question at a later time…. If one of the questions … seems particularly rich for ...

Share This practice from Ram Dass helps us move our identification from the mind and the senses to identify with pure awareness [emptiness, God, Self, the Divine, Higher Power, or any other term that, for you, refers to the ultimate reality]. We can do it as beginners or as advanced practitioners. First, remove potential distractions and sit comfortably. Take a few deep breaths in and out. As you breathe, practice moving your attention into your belly as it rises and falls. Notice that as you do this your mind grows quieter. Now you can begin: ...

Share Find the entire text of the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem “The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe” online and pray with it in a contemplative way, akin to lectio divina where you listen for a word or phrase that shimmers, let that word or phrase unfold in your imagination, and then listen for an invitation. Conclude by resting into the silence for a while. The early desert monks would try to pray continually by aligning words with their breathing. The most common prayer of the time was “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinne...

Share Each time you cross a doorway in the days to come, pause and ask Mary to bless your vision, so that you see, with [Thomas] Merton, that the Gate of Heaven is indeed everywhere. This can become a daily practice of cultivating a new way of seeing the world so that everything is illuminated and the doorway to God is revealed in all its forms. What are the thresholds and wild edges you are being called to in your own life? What are the places you are being invited to journey to beyond the comfort of your usual ways of being? Is there a dream ...

Share Get a pencil and paper and find a comfortable spot. Take a few breaths and let yourself feel the seat of your chair. Think about a recurring upset or conflict you have. Write down your Long-Standing, Recurrent, Painful Patterns (LRPP: long-standing patterns of relating to difficulties -- patterns of reactivity that create pain) in one or two sentences. What is it about? Bring to mind an image that illustrates or represents your LRPP. This could be an animal or plant. See yourself in relationship to this creature. How far away are you? Nex...