May your Lenten season be blessed… Here’s a gift for you:
(click on image to enlarge)
More quotes and images to ponder coming your way, one per day during Lent…
Until next time, Amen!
Coming your way…Lenten messages!
Lent begins tomorrow, and I’ve been working on creating images with quotations to nurture our Lenten journeys together. I will be posting them here, and also on my public Facebook page called Spiritual Drawing Board by Julie McCarty .
I hope you will find these images to be nourishing food for the Lenten journey and something positive and/or meaningful you can share in social media with your friends.
I will also be posting the images here so you can receive all of them in your e-mail (you have signed up to “follow” this blog in your e-mail haven’t you?). If you follow on Facebook, make sure you visit Spiritual Drawing Board page often or you won’t see all the posts. (The current delivery rate of posts on public FB pages is only about 2%.)
Whatever plans you have for Lent, may the good Lord bless you. Let’s pray for each other during this special time of preparation for the celebration of Easter.
Until next time, Amen!
Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging
Today’s guest post is from spiritual director Sam Rahberg:
After I finish a good read and before I tuck it away on the shelf, I like to spend some time summarizing what was most important to me. I use the author’s own words, varied only slightly, and follow the themes that speak most strongly to me at this time. The example below remains a summary and serves only as my own interpretation, so I take responsibility for any deviation from the author’s original intent. Even so, may it be a helpful reflection for others and an encouragement to read a fine book in its entirety.
Abba’s Child:
The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging
(a book by Brennan Manning, an interpretive synopsis by Sam Rahberg)
Jesus’ relentless tenderness
invades the citadel
of your self.
Pause to reclaim your core
identity as Abba’s child.
Inner Imposter must be called
out of hiding, accepted, embraced.
God’s choice of you
constitutes your worth.
Dignity as Abba’s child—
your most coherent sense of self.
The denial, displacement, and
repression of feelings
thwarts self-intimacy.
Daily we are being
reshaped into the image of Christ.
Recovery of passion—
recovery of your true
self as beloved.
Become inner-directed
rather than outer-determined.
Let the Great Rabbi hold you
silently against his heart.
Manning, Brennan. Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002.
Sam Rahberg is the Director of the Benedictine Center and a spiritual director. Sam has experience in parish education and administration and holds a master’s degree in theology from Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota.
Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on Easter Prays / Easter Praise! blog and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.
Do not fear — Joshua 1:9
I’ve been enjoying mixing bible verses or quotations with my own photos, using a computer program. Here’s a little gift I made for you today:
(click on photo to enlarge)
Until next time, Amen!
What I did this summer
You have made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting. . . .
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
(from Psalm 104: 19, 24)
When I was growing up, “What I did this summer” was the standard theme for writing assignments when we returned to school. Since this summer, I haven’t been blogging here, so I thought I’d fill you in on what I’ve been doing.
Minnesotans love to be outdoors in the summer (especially after this past winter!), and I am no exception. The summer here is filled with all the outdoor work on the home and garden that you can’t do the rest of the year. More importantly, we Minnesotans just like to enjoy being outside in the summer. So I spent lots of time nurturing my vegetable garden, taking long walks to practice nature photography, and enjoying time with summer visitors from out of state.
(click on photos to enlarge)
In September, my husband Terry and I spent two weeks exploring Manitoba, Canada and Thunder Bay, Ontario. We enjoyed hiking and practicing photography in the wheat fields, zoo, Riding Mountain National Park, and Whiteshell Provincial Park. I hope to write more about that enjoyable and soul-nourishing trip sometime in the future.
One of the highlights of this summer was digging deeper into my volunteer coordinator role of another blog called “Easter Prays / Easter Praise!” This reflection blog is a joint effort of many people from our church, Easter Lutheran. I’m so blessed with what others are sharing: personal reflections, original prayers, tips on praying and spiritual practices, and stories of God’s work in our everyday lives.
This week, Terry brought in the last of our garden: carrots. (Carrots can survive longer into the fall, as they are protected deep in the ground.) With the turning over of the garden soil, my mind turns indoors and inwards, in anticipation of winter… to the writer side of me… and the newly developing artist studio in my basement…and all the potential those reflective, creative activities hold. My mind also returns to this blog and the plan to post reflections more frequently again
So, as the last few leaves scurry across our lawn, I wish you a happy November (the beginning of autumn, perhaps, for some of you), filled with every blessing from above.
Until next time, Amen!
Nature, creativity, and Creator God
I hope all of you are enjoying summer this year. Here’s a photo I took of a monarch butterfly who kept flitting around the sandy beach. I had fun adding the quote about Creator God.
Creativity often benefits from a playful attitude. In order to be creative, one has to let go of the critical self (writers call this “inner critic”), at least in the beginning, lest the new creation be crushed even before it’s out of the cocoon. It often helps to approach a new project with the spirit of childhood play.
I wonder if God would have created us, if his divine mind was filled with worries and fearful “what ifs” … What if they sin too much? What if the humans hate me? What if they hurt each other–or kill each other? What if NO ONE returns to the Garden of Eden (heaven) to be with me?
The creative energy just doesn’t flow with this sort of thinking. If God had been tangled up in nervous “what-ifs,” we might not even EXIST at all.
When I say this, of course, I’m really preaching to myself. In order to be creative, one has to silence the inner critic–at least in the initial stages. The inner critic can suggest improvements later, when it is time to edit or improve the work in progress.
May God bless you with a creative and re-creating summer…May your inner critic take a vacation so you can create something beautiful–be it sermons, recipes, vacations, work projects, art, photos, or simple messages on greeting cards. . . And may all you plan and create be filled with the wisdom, love, and Spirit of the Ultimate Creator.
Until next time, Amen!
(For more spiritual nuggets, visit Spiritual Drawing Board on Facebook.)
Preparing for Pentecost
I’ve been writing more and more often on my public Facebook page, called “Spiritual Drawing Board by Julie McCarty.” I see it as a vehicle for spreading the gospel message of Christ in an ecumenical, friendly way–and learning from others, as well. The experience of writing in that little space is teaching me how to write more succinctly.
Another thing I’m discovering in using Facebook is the joy of combining words with images. Both are forms of communication, and I did not realize just how much I enjoy expressing myself through combining the two.
So today I’m sharing here what I posted on that FB page, a prayer that arose in me this morning, as I was thinking about Pentecost. Many Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Sunday Feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter (this year, June 8). Traditionally, some Christians prayed everyday to the Holy Spirit for nine days ahead of the feast. This practice was a kind of devotion and spiritual way of preparing for the celebration of God’s Spirit with and within us.
Here’s the post… Do enjoy and if you are comfortable, pray along…
Thinking about upcoming feast of Pentecost,
the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Join me in prayer? ...
O God,
I believe your Holy Spirit is within me, but please
help me not to “close” the door to your loving presence.
May my heart (soul) expand more and more within,
fretting less about myself
and allowing your Holy Spirit to live and move and act
more fully within my life each day.
Give me open ears, that I might hear You,
open mind, that I might think more clearly about You,
and open heart, that I might love You
and all your beloved people
more fully each day.
This I ask in the love of Christ,
and in the communion of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
Good Friday–Remembering Christ’s immense love
Christians observe Good Friday today.
I find myself pondering what tremendous love God has for each one of us, and all of us together, one gigantic family of humanity.
Whether your life is full of joy now or weighed down with sadness, grief, or loneliness, I totally believe that God loves you, just as you are. God’s compassion and mercy is held out, as a gift, to all of humanity, to every single human, and that includes YOU.
You and I may not “feel” this love at all times (it’s only natural!). However, that love radiates out to us, nonetheless. If I care about you so much, I totally believe that God cares about you much, much more… immensely, infinitely more!
My words are few today. What can I say when all falls silent, hushed before the immense beauty and mystery of God’s love for you, for me, for all of us?
Until next time, Amen!
Jesus is the Light of the World
Hope the Lenten season is going well for all of you.
Here is an image I created this morning:
Would you join me in prayer?
Dear Jesus,
You came into the world
to bring us the light of wisdom and compassion
and give us abundant life, that is,
the life of your Spirit.
Drive out all that is impure in us,
and transform us,
a little more each day
into your image and likeness.
May we become vessels of light
to all those around us,
especially those who are hurting or feel alone.
This we ask in your holy name,
and in the communion of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
Good Hair Day– Mary’s painting to feed hungry children
This original painting, called “Good Hair Day,” was recently created by 9-year-old Mary K., a young person I know who attends our church, Easter Lutheran.
It’s called “Good Hair Day,” and Mary has decided she wants to help feed starving children by selling prints of her work, which is approx. 13 x 19 inches.
The prints are $10 and Mary is donating the money to Feed My Starving Children. I know this family and this offer is legitimate. I am so happy to see a young painter create something so lovely and use the experience to help those in need.
If you would like to purchase prints, you can find more information on the April 8th post on “Sara’s Blog” at http://kotrbapianostudio.blogspot.com/
Until next time, Amen!
Spiritual Drawing Board 