Tag Archives: spirituality

Gospel Reflection for December 2, 2018, 1st Sunday of Advent

29 Nov

Gospel Reflection for December 2, 2018, 1st Sunday of Advent

Sunday Readings: Jeremiah 33.14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3.12-4.2; Luke 21.25-28, 34-36

“Stay watchful, praying for strength to escape what will happen and to stand before the Son of Man.” – Luke 21.36

Advent begins the Church year with a gospel that fairly froths with frightful images. The gospel reminds us that no matter how threatening personal or world events, we live from beginning to end in the embrace of God. In our experience of being alive, we find God within us. In turning to one another and bridging our separate selves, we find God among us. In experiencing our human limits, we find we have heart and hope for mystery—God beyond us. The God of our beginning is the God of all we will become.

Whether we see Jesus’ coming again as a threat or a fulfillment, the gospel challenges us to stay watchful and pray for strength. In living consciously, attentive to people and life within and around us, we will find God already with us.

What gives you hope this Advent? 

If you enjoy this Gospel Reflection, please visit the Sunday By Sunday page to order a subscription or request a free sample. Start a small bible study. Be a leader.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Online Retreat!

9 Nov

Pray with the women of the gospel.

We have a new retreat for you, based on Sister Joan’s new book, Holy Women, Full of Grace. We hope these four sessions with gospel women will be an occasion for you to bless your own life in Christ and unite you in prayer with women and girls around the world. You can view the whole table of contents for Holy Women at goodgroundpress.com. Please feel free to share this retreat with others. Click here to begin.

Visit goodgroundpress.com to see more of our Advent Resources.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Holy Women, Full of Grace

7 Nov

Women were always there with Jesus. Holy Women, Full of Grace invites you to pray with Jesus’ mother, the generous widow, Jairus’s daughter, and many other gospel women, names and unnamed. An ideal gift. Only $8!

View the Table of Contents.

View the Introduction.

View a sample chapter.

Click here to order online or call Good Ground Press at 800-232-5533.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Happy Feast of St. Francis!

4 Oct

We hope you enjoy this poem of Galway Kinnell, “Saint Francis and the Sow”.

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

Make this a St. Francis Day with Living Like Francis Today. Six faith-sharing sessions on Franciscan spirituality. Each session begins and ends with simple prayers from scripture or from the writing of St. Francis. Reflection questions invite groups to apply the themes to their lives.

Visit goodgroundpress.com to order online or call Lacy at 800-232-5533 to place your order.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Prayer is an invitation

12 Sep

Who is being summoned in this Robert Francis poem?

Summons

Keep me going to sleep too soon
Or if I go to sleep too soon
Come wake me up. Come any hour
Of night. Come whistling up the road.
Stomp on the porch. Pound on the door.
Make me get out of bed and come
And let you in and light a light.
Tell me the northern lights are on
And make me look. Or tell me clouds
Are doing something to the moon
They never did before, and show me.
See that I see. Talk to me till
I’m half as wide awake as you
And start to dress wondering why
I ever went to bed at all.
Tell me the walking is superb.
Not only tell me but persuade me.
You know I’m not too hard persuaded.

Let us persuade you to take some time for your spirit as we begin autumn. Go to goodgroundpress.com and look at our online retreats. Scroll through the Quick Links at the right of the home page until you find them. Or let Holy Women, Full of Grace guide your prayer, or Living Like Francis Today grace your days. Perhaps our prayer for the day can be your daily bread. Let us keep one another in our hearts these days.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The Gospel of Mark At Your Fingertips

7 Jun

If you are a Sunday by Sunday subscriber, you will notice we start reading from Mark’s Gospel again this coming Sunday. You can enhance your understanding of how the weekly excerpts we hear at Sunday Eucharist fit into the overall themes of Mark with Sister Joan’s easy-to-read book.

The 11 short chapters of Sister Joan’s book make it ideal for Bible study groups or for individuals. The emphasis on Mark’s uniqueness among the four Gospel writers are helpful for homilists.

And the price is right — only $10.00. Click here to read the Table of Contents and a sample chapter. Order at goodgroundpress.com or call 800-232-5533.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Finding God

6 Feb

Our 2018 Lenten retreat comes to you from Sister Eleanor Lincoln and Sister Catherine Litecky, both Sisters of St. Joseph who created dozens of online retreats for friends of Good Ground Press. This 8-part retreat—Finding God—was one of the last ones Eleanor and Catherine did for us. We give it to you here as our gift this Lent. God bless your seeking and your discoveries. Click here to begin the retreat.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Poem of the Week

11 Aug

August 15 is the summer feast of Mary.

Read this poem aloud to bring back to your heart all the ways we have learned to praise the Mother of God and our mother.

Lines for a Feast of Our Lady
by Alice Smith, CSJ

What shall be added to your praises?
The lip-worn, love-worn, heart-worn phrases
centuries out of choir and cell
and field and vineyard praise you well.
Like bells over the spinning earth
hour upon hour they tell your worth.
You are the Mother of Delight.
Over the sea you are the bright
star shining.  You are the ivory tower,
the ark of gold, the immortal flower
blossoming on a mortal root,
the good tree bringing forth good fruit.
You are the cloud raining the Just One.
Fair as the moon and bright as the sun,
out of the desert light of day
terrible as an army in array,
you come—the Gate of Heaven to heaven’s gate.
What can be added to your state?
The vast, uncountable choir of voices
down aisles of centuries rejoices;
in endless litany proclaims
the fertile flowering of your names.
Hell will not thank you nor death raise
its voice.  Only the living praise.
Then shed your grace upon the mind
that we here in these deeps may find
the words we seek, that like a vine
with strong roots in the soul may shine
the litany that climbs and grows
upon the lattice of the Rose.

View our religion programs at goodgroundpress.com.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Poem of the Week

21 Jul

The Stems of Flowers are the Pillars of the World
by Ellen Murphy, CSJ

Tempered by weather
welded by sun rays and metallic rain
the stems of flowers rise, poised,
erect as pillars they hold the world up.

Light-power, stronger than stone or steel
channels through leaf-scrolls
along each live green column
direct to its capital flower
joining the sky.

Each inevitable design
is a tenuous reminder
of the pillar of inner worlds: fidelity.
How it grows erect from a heart’s rectitude,
the seed selecting elements for growing
true to its form
draws cell  by cell to its quality,
color, texture,
reaches its height.

Indispensable for the holding up of the world
as stems of flowers, the heart’s fidelity.
The delicate stems of bluebells, true to themselves
are pillars of the universe, as you are,
as the rose and the gladiola,
lilac-bole, apple tree, oak and sequoia,
their protein strength gently holding
the world to its height, to its life-sheltering.

 

Living Like Francis Today is a short-faith-sharing book of Francis’ spirituality. Get a copy and find others to reflect with you on how to live his values today. View a sample chapter. $4.95. Order online or call Good Ground Press at 800-232-5533 to place your order.

 

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Gospel Reflection for June 4, 2017, Pentecost

2 Jun

Photo via Flicker user Lawrence OP

Scripture Readings: Acts 2.1-11; 1 Corinthians 12.3-7, 12-13; John 20.19-23

This weekend the Church celebrates Pentecost, the climax of the Easter season and the birthday of the Christian community. In Acts, Luke describes 120 disciples awaiting the Holy Spirit. They have no cell phones for messaging, no practiced words for public speaking, no organizational flow chart. They have only their lived experience of Jesus out of which to weave a new community.  These disciples learned by accompanying Jesus, learned by his doing, found hope in his teaching, and awakened to the promise and purpose of his resurrection. At Pentecost the Spirit sets them on fire to live and spread the good news Jesus is. Crowds from around the Mediterranean hear Peter’s first fiery sermon in their own language.

Our world today challenges us to live the gospel globally as well as locally. We of the third millennium have seen Earth from space. We can phone home from almost anywhere on the planet. Evolution tells us we are part of one great cosmic whole. Our mission seems clear: love one another, heal, forgive. Feed the hungry, welcome the stranger. Weave common bonds.

Around what does your tongue catch fire in your daily conversations? Who do you hear speaking in your own language?

If you enjoy this Gospel Reflection,
please visit the Sunday By Sunday page
to order a subscription or request a free sample.
Start a small bible study. Be a leader.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries

%d bloggers like this: