A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
- blogcast from http://dailyspiritualseed.blogspot.com (comments option open)
Contents:
- Book/Resource of the Week
- Weekend Readings
- Spiritual Guidance
- Saint of the Week
- Affiliate Web Sites
- Theology Note of the Week
- Discussion Board
- Joke of the Week
- Advertising and Archives
- Subscribe/Unsubscribe links. Attributions.
- - -
Book/Resource of the Week
A Travel Guide to Heaven, by Anthony DeStefano. Doubleday, 2006.
- http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385509898/?tag=christianspiritu
This is about all you ever wanted to know about that place of beauty,
excitement, challenges, fun, and pure delight, namely HEAVEN. The
author provides Scripture quotations to substantiate his thoughts about
celebrating all the way to Heaven and thereafter. He contends that
heaven is more than fluttering angel wings, harps, and haloes. DeStefano
draws on a great sense of logic, fun, and adventure to produce this
book of hope and promise.You may not believe every word that DeStefano writes but you will draw inspiration from the journey he describes. In his flight plan he offers a welcome and describes the luxury accommodations suited for one’s new body. He tells about the fellow travelers who will be one’s next door neighbors in the great beyond. The author bids his readers reflect on the “eterni-ness “ of everyones’s stay.
Not to neglect those who have left behind beloved pets, dogs, cats, and caterpillars, he assures them that their pets will be easily available and so much fun. He does include angels in this book, showing how they will be excellent tour guides, so that every candidate will feel at home right from the start.
One of DeStefano’s great concerns is about what we will be doing in this magnificent place for all eternity. Will boredom soon set in? “Rest in peace” is commonly prayed for the deceased, but the author says that is very misunderstood. Peace means freedom from anxiety from stress, from suffering. Peace does not mean inactivity; it means being effectively active. One can achieve great accomplishments, the author says, but achieve these with ease and without stress. He sees heaven as a place where all our desires for accomplishment on earth can easily be effective.
The highlight of the trip will assuredly be MEETING GOD, and contemplating God forever in a vacation that never ends.
You can believe it or not. The author hopes you will enjoy his book and have fun with what he describes with so much enthusiasm.
(Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman OP for this review.)
Weekend Readings
- http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
Saturday
1 KGS 12:26-32; 13:33-34
PS 106:6-7, 19-22
MK 8:1-10
Sunday
SIR 15:15-20
PS 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
1 COR 2:6-10
MT 5:17-37
Spiritual Guidance
- http://shalomplace.com/direction
Need a companion for the spiritual journey?
Consultations and spiritual direction available.
Saint of the Week
- http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saintofday/default.aspx
Seven Founders of the Servite Order (13th C.), February 17
Can
you imagine seven prominent men of Boston or Denver banding together,
leaving their homes and professions, and going into solitude for a life
directly given to God? That is what happened in the cultured and
prosperous city of Florence in the middle of the 13th century. The city
was torn with political strife as well as the heresy of the Cathari, who
believed that physical reality was inherently evil. Morals were low and
religion seemed meaningless.
In 1240 seven noblemen of Florence mutually decided to withdraw from the city to a solitary place for prayer and direct service of God. Their initial difficulty was providing for their dependents, since two were still married and two were widowers.
Their aim was to lead a life of penance and prayer, but they soon found themselves disturbed by constant visitors from Florence. They next withdrew to the deserted slopes of Monte Senario.
In 1244, under the direction of St. Peter of Verona, O.P., this small group adopted a religious habit similar to the Dominican habit, choosing to live under the Rule of St. Augustine and adopting the name of the Servants of Mary. The new Order took a form more like that of the mendicant friars than that of the older monastic Orders.
Members of the community came to the United States from Austria in 1852 and settled in New York and later in Philadelphia. The two American provinces developed from the foundation made by Father Austin Morini in 1870 in Wisconsin.
Community members combined monastic life and active ministry. In the monastery, they led a life of prayer, work and silence while in the active apostolate they engaged in parochial work, teaching, preaching and other ministerial activities.
Affliate Web Sites
- Please give them a visit
Inner Explorations: a vast array of spirituality resources for the mature Christian.
- http://innerexplorations.com
SeeScapes: picturing the deeper dimensions of our spirituality.
- http://www.seescapes.com/
Heartland Center for Spirituality: sponsoring Internet workshops year-round.
- http://heartlandspirituality.org/
Emanuella House of Prayer: a place for prayer and silence in British Columbia.
- http://emmanuellahouse.shawwebspace.ca/
Kyrie Places of Pilgrimmage and Renewal
- http://www.kyrie.com/places/index.htm
Temenos Catholic Worker: support for homeless youth in Polk Street neighborhood, San Francisco.
- http://www.temenos.org/
The Sanctuary Foundation for Prayer: resources for spiritual growth.
- http://fromholyground.org/index.htm
Philothea.net: promoting the love of God as expressed in The First Great Commandment
- http://philothea.net/
Hearts on Fire: a blog to spark inspiration, thought, wonder, laughter and prayer.
- http://heartsonfire33.wordpress.com/
Stillpoint: Programs in spiritual direction, contemplative prayer.
- http://www.stillpointnashville.org/
The Ark: Providing a variety of scripture and lectionary study resources.
- http://theark1.com/
Contemplative Ministries of the Pacific Northwest: Teaching and support on contemplative practice.
- http://www.prayeroftheheart.com/
Shalom Place: Resources on Christian spiritual living.
- http://shalomplace.com/
Reach hundreds of people who have a similar interest in Christian spirituality. Simply publish a link to Daily Spiritual Seed-- http://heartlandspirituality.org/dailyseed.html --on a prominent place on your web site and we will reciprocate with a weekly link to your site in the newsletter. Contact the Editor when you're ready to begin.
Theology Note of the Week
- http://carm.org/s
Sadducee
A group of religious leaders in the Jewish religion from the second century B.C. to the first century A.D. In Hebrew their names mean "the righteous ones." They were smaller in size than the group of the Pharisees. The Sadducees were generally of the upper class, often in a priestly line, and the Pharisees in the middle class, usually merchants and tradesmen. The Sadducees accepted only the Torah, the first five books of the old Testament, as authoritative. They held rigidly to the old Testament law and denying the life after death, reward and punishment after death, the resurrection, and the existence of angels and demons. They controlled the temple and its services and were unpopular with the majority of the Jewish population.
Discussion Board
- http://shalomplace.org/eve/forums
Topics being discussed at this time include:
Richard Rohr's 9 stages of spiritual development
- Christian Spirituality Issues forum
"The Rising Tide of Silence," by Thomas Keating
- Book and Movie Reviews forum
Snippets from the Hard Copy (on universal reconciliation)
- Recommended Resources forum
Apophatic Christian spirituality
- Christian Spirituality Issues forum
Effects of eliminating salt, sugar, wheat and dairy
- Health and Wellness forum
Joke of the Week
- http://www.pacprod.com/jokes.pl
The race
Two natural gas company service personnel, a senior training supervisor and a young trainee, were out checking meters in a suburban neighborhood. They parked their truck at the end of an alley and worked their way to the other end.
At the last house, a woman looking out her kitchen window watched the two men as they checked her gas meter. When they finished, the senior supervisor, proud of his physical condition, challenged his younger co-worker to a foot race back to their truck.
As they approached the truck, they realized that the woman from the last house they checked was huffing and puffing right behind them. They stopped and asked her what was wrong.
Gasping for breath, she replied, "When I saw two gas men running as hard as you two were, I figured I'd better run, too!"
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Amazon Gift Cards: Good for any occasion.
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00067L6TQ/?tag=christianspiritu
- - - -
Please support this ministry with a tax-deductible donation.
- http://heartlandspirituality.org/support.html
_________________________________________________
* Web Archive: http://www.aweber.com/z/article/?dailyseed
* RSS: http://www.aweber.com/z/rss/?dailyseed
* To subscribe by email: http://heartlandspirituality.org/dailyseed.html
* Blog subscription (includes comment options): http://dailyspiritualseed.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment