FRIDAY FAVORITES FOR PRAYER AND WRITING

Posted on by Lisa Deam

It’s time for Friday Favorites! Find prayer, hope, healing — and encouragement to keep writing and creating no matter your circumstances — in this week’s collection of posts and podcasts.

Wishing you all God’s blessings,

Lisa and Prasanta

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A Litany of Healing for a Time of COVID via Christine Sine (a prayer for healing during this time of suffering)

My Porch Is My Pilgrimage via James Laurence (a poem for shelter-in-place pilgrims)

Whatever Tomb You’re In via Tammy Perlmutter (although all may seem lost, your rescue is already in play)

Making Christians Great Again via Leslie Leyland Fields (“This leader is like no other. He bent like a slave to wash His people’s feet. He chose our lashes instead of His power…”)

Susanna Clarke on Piranesi, Illness, and Faith via Church Times (in this podcast episode, listen to Clarke talk about her novels and her struggles towards faith)

Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Relying on Perfect Conditions to Write via Cassandra Lipp (how to write when your circumstances change, you’re too busy, and so on and so on…)

FRIDAY FAVORITES FOR PRAYER AND WRITING

Posted on by Lisa Deam

Welcome, friends, to Friday Favorites. The world seems a bit different this week, doesn’t it? There is fear and anxiety over the rapidly emerging public health crisis. There is disappointment as events are cancelled and loneliness creeps in. There is concern for the most vulnerable in our society.

This week, Prasanta Verma and I offer prayers and posts to help us in these troubled times. The first four links below concern the Coronavirus and our spiritual response to it. We also have a post on holding on to hope and a beautiful resource for Lent.

Keep prayer, hope, and beauty in your lives this week and always.

Love from Lisa and Prasanta

***

 

A Coronavirus Prayer via Kerry Weber (a prayer for this time)

Social Distancing with Jesus via Michelle Van Loon (finding comfort and courage in a time of concern)

The Spiritual Practice of Social Distancing via Charlotte Donlon (social distancing to protect the vulnerable among us)

The Surprising Gift of Cancelling Plans and Staying Home via Lesley Sebek Miller (with forced stillness and quarantines, we have the opportunity for quality time and creativity . . . what will you do with this gift?)

Are You Tending a Deep Hope? via April Yamasaki (when you’re tending a deep hope yet not seeing results)

The Lent Project via Biola University (daily Scripture reading, artwork, poem, and devotional–beautifully done)

BOOK OF THE MONTH: HILDEGARD OF BINGEN: A SPIRITUAL READER

Posted on by Lisa Deam

Week Two: Hope for the Church

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Yesterday (Sept. 17) was the Feast Day of Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), the Benedictine nun, abbess, and writer. All this month, we’re looking at a selection of her written works — Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader (collected and translated by Carmen Acevedo Butcher).

In her theological text, the Scivias, Hildegard records a series of visions she received. I find her apocalyptic visions especially striking. They seem incredibly relevant for our time, when many people voice concerns about the future of Christianity and the Church. Listen to Hildegard’s diagnosis:

Today, the Catholic faith dithers, on a global scale. The Gospel limps its way around the world. The early Church Fathers (who wrote so well) are ignored. People are apathetic. They refuse to read and taste the nourishment in the Scriptures . . .

Does this diagnosis sound familiar? If so, take hope! Despite the dire state of affairs of the Church, its future is assured. In Hildegard’s vision, the voice of heaven says:

Everything on earth is hurrying to its end. The world’s troubles and its many disasters tell you this. But my Son’s bride, the Church, will never ever be destroyed, no matter how many times she’s assaulted. At the end of time she’ll be stronger, more beautiful, more magnificent than ever before. She’ll enjoy the sweet embraces of her Beloved. That’s what the vision you just saw means.

Hildegard ends this vision in her own words:

Then I looked to the East and saw the One-who-shines-so-bright-that-I-can-never-see-Him-clearly, but I was able to see that up close to His breast, He was holding something that looked like a dirty lump, the size of a human heart, decorated around the edge with gems and pearls. This is our gentle Father hugging humanity to Himself. That’s why no one can reject anyone—because the Son of the Father is God incarnate who Himself accepted the human form.

Read more.

For reflection:

Hildegard week 2