by Erica Palmisano | Jun 24, 2018
A message from the series “Finding Our Way.” Every one of us is on a spiritual journey, whether we know it or not. Throughout our lives, we make choices, have relationships, and form habits that will either draw us closer to our loving creator or nudge us further away. How do we know we are on the right path? How can we know God’s will for us? Where do we belong in God’s story? How can we find meaning and purpose in our lives? Such questions call for deep discernment, seeking the Holy Spirit in all things so that we can walk closely with Jesus and avoid being distracted or confused.
During this three-week series, we will look to beloved author, priest, and teacher Henri Nouwen to guide our conversations. His book Spiritual Direction will serve as a framework to help us “overcome our deafness and resistance… and hear God’s voice even when it calls us to unknown places.” Nouwen will lead us on a quest to recognize divine direction from within and increasingly see God in the world around us. We encourage you to buy a copy of the book so that you can go deeper as we explore three practices for discernment:
Through reflection and contemplative prayer, we learn to find God in our hearts and see our true selves through God’s eyes
Through meditative reading of scripture and other spiritual writings, we develop an “inner ear” that recognizes God in all things
Through community, past and present, we are better able to see clearly and connect our daily stories with the great story of God’s love and presence
by Erica Palmisano | Jun 17, 2018
A message from the series “Finding Our Way.” Every one of us is on a spiritual journey, whether we know it or not. Throughout our lives, we make choices, have relationships, and form habits that will either draw us closer to our loving creator or nudge us further away. How do we know we are on the right path? How can we know God’s will for us? Where do we belong in God’s story? How can we find meaning and purpose in our lives? Such questions call for deep discernment, seeking the Holy Spirit in all things so that we can walk closely with Jesus and avoid being distracted or confused.
During this three-week series, we will look to beloved author, priest, and teacher Henri Nouwen to guide our conversations. His book Spiritual Direction will serve as a framework to help us “overcome our deafness and resistance… and hear God’s voice even when it calls us to unknown places.” Nouwen will lead us on a quest to recognize divine direction from within and increasingly see God in the world around us. We encourage you to buy a copy of the book so that you can go deeper as we explore three practices for discernment:
Through reflection and contemplative prayer, we learn to find God in our hearts and see our true selves through God’s eyes
Through meditative reading of scripture and other spiritual writings, we develop an “inner ear” that recognizes God in all things
Through community, past and present, we are better able to see clearly and connect our daily stories with the great story of God’s love and presence
by Erica Palmisano | Jun 10, 2018
A message from the series “Finding Our Way.” Every one of us is on a spiritual journey, whether we know it or not. Throughout our lives, we make choices, have relationships, and form habits that will either draw us closer to our loving creator or nudge us further away. How do we know we are on the right path? How can we know God’s will for us? Where do we belong in God’s story? How can we find meaning and purpose in our lives? Such questions call for deep discernment, seeking the Holy Spirit in all things so that we can walk closely with Jesus and avoid being distracted or confused.
During this three-week series, we will look to beloved author, priest, and teacher Henri Nouwen to guide our conversations. His book Spiritual Direction will serve as a framework to help us “overcome our deafness and resistance… and hear God’s voice even when it calls us to unknown places.” Nouwen will lead us on a quest to recognize divine direction from within and increasingly see God in the world around us. We encourage you to buy a copy of the book so that you can go deeper as we explore three practices for discernment:
Through reflection and contemplative prayer, we learn to find God in our hearts and see our true selves through God’s eyes
Through meditative reading of scripture and other spiritual writings, we develop an “inner ear” that recognizes God in all things
Through community, past and present, we are better able to see clearly and connect our daily stories with the great story of God’s love and presence
by Erica Palmisano | Jun 3, 2018
Brian McLaren, founding pastor of Cedar Ridge, encourages us to continue moving forward in love, peace, and faith.
by Erica Palmisano | May 27, 2018
A message from the series “When Words Are Not Enough.” For most of us who go to church, worship is a given: it is what we do at church on a Sunday. We may have all experienced different norms of worship in various traditions but, whatever form it takes, worship is a familiar and established part of our spiritual experience. But we also feel some discomfort with worship. Why does God need so much adulation and affirmation? Does God demand it, and if so why? What are the consequences of not worshipping? Unconditional exaltation, glorification and homage are what humans have paid to monarchs, suzerains, overlords and idols of all kinds for millennia in order to stay in their good books. It has a smack of tyranny and superstition about it. Is that what God is like? Is this why we worship?
TheMagnificat (Mary’s song of worship in Luke 1:46-55) gives a very different way of seeing worship. God is worshipped not as One who needs appeasement but as Love itself, who comes alongside the lowly and down-trodden rather than needing to be elevated to a place of power. Worship is a return to the reality that Love is the greatest; not fear, insecurity or competition for attention. Worship is a human recalibration to the reality of our oneness with God and with one another. As Paul tells us in Romans 12, we worship with our whole lives in every aspect of life. Worship is a renewal of our minds; a new way of seeing in which we discover that God is Love. God is here for us, here for everyone—here for the weak, the poor, the lost and confused. So we embrace as our own those who are least like us, we humbly defer to others, we forgive unceasingly with broken hearts, and find that this is worship.
