Lent 2019

30 Days to a Vibrant Spirituality Online Retreat Week 3 - March 25-29 Reflection and Discussion Think about… …what was the most important, interesting or valuable thing(s) you've learned this week? …how has it -- or could it -- change how you pray, think and act? …how do you think what you've learned might contribute to a "more vibrant" spiritual life for you? Share your thoughts… …click on "Comments" below to share your thoughts and insights with other retreat participants.

30 Days to a Vibrant Spirituality Online Retreat Day 17 - March 29 We’re Only Human    Let’s be real. We all know that none of us is good enough always to do what bears witness to Jesus. So don’t promise it. Never promise what you can’t do; it is discouraging. Pretty soon you will just forget all about it. When you are dealing with God, don’t ask, “What should I do?” (ideal). Ask instead, “What could I do?” (realistic).    If you promise something you actually can do, and can do so easily that you will never have a reason not to, you will be able to keep that promise. Then every time you do what you promised, you will feel encouraged. You are succeeding. You are living up to your word. God is happy with you and you are happy with yourself. You are getting somewhere.    Jesus knows what not to expect of us. All he asks is forward motion. Promise to keep asking what bears witness to him, and the first thing you know, he will have you actually...

30 Days to a Vibrant Spirituality Online Retreat Day 16 - March 28 Daring to Be Different    The third step you need to take in order to grow into the fullness of life is to dedicate yourself to making constant changes in your lifestyle. What you are really doing in this third step is accepting the mission of Jesus. Getting involved in it. Making it your mission. The bottom line of this nut and bolt is a simple choice: to keep making changes in the way you live.    This isn’t just “change for the sake of change,” although Blessed John Henry Newman said,“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” It is change for a very specific purpose: to bear witness to Jesus Christ, and to his resurrection, by making his divine life visible in you in your words and actions, in your lifestyle. This means living in such a way that what you say and do cannot be explained unless the risen Jesus is alive and acting in you.    This mig...

30 Days to a Vibrant Spirituality Online Retreat Day 15 -March 27 Jesus, Our Partner    When we meditate, the goal is to let Jesus be an active partner with us as we go about the process of creating ourselves by choices. We let him give input. We hear what he thinks about things we are planning to do. Or about things we are doing without ever thinking about them. We learn from him new ways of seeing things that would never have occurred to us, new ways of doing things. When we drink with him, he serves us “new wine.” It is exciting. Intoxicating. But only if our goal is to do something. There is nothing more useless than a thought we never act on.    Through meditation we want to let God’s words “abide” in us. As Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).    To meditate is to let God write his words on our hearts, and then to express what is in our hearts...

30 Days to a Vibrant Spirituality Online Retreat Day 14 - March 26 The Nuts and Bolts of Meditation    There is nothing hard about meditating. You just follow the “three R’s”— Remembering, Reflecting, Responding.    Remembering can also be reading. Writings are just recorded memories. The first step in meditating on the gospel is to call to mind, by reading or remembering, something that Jesus said or did. Confront it. Look at it. Don’t let it just go in one ear and out the other. Take it seriously.    Reflecting is the way we take it seriously. We think about what the words mean, and especially about what they mean for us. This isn’t hard.    Responding is the most important step. Everything you do when you meditate is meant to lead you to decisions.    You can always find an answer if you think small enough. If you read what Jesus says, reflect on it (with or without getting any great thoughts), and respond in so...