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Find your spiritual spa style
Maybe you have predetermined ideas about what prayer is,
and those ideas don’t work for you. Maybe sitting and
silently meditating doesn't fit with your personality.
That's all right; God created each of us with unique
personalities, unique ways of being, unique ways of
meeting God. What works for me will not necessarily work
for you. Some people soak in the presence of God while
walking or hiking. Others spend time with the Holy
Spirit while working with their hands or gazing at an
icon or sitting silently and focusing on their
breathing.
Sometimes it takes a little push to get us started. The
friend who gave me the gift certificate to the spa
helped me see what I was missing. Perhaps we need a
friend (or need to be a friend) who's a prayer partner
or mentor in faith. If you're the one who needs some
spiritual encouragement, be easy on yourself and relax
into it. Soaking in the presence of God might not feel
natural right away. It might take a little time to tune
in to the rhythm of God’s presence.
But the Holy Spirit meets us where we are, just as we
are. God does not expect us to fend for ourselves, but
is always ready to hear us and draw us in when we turn
our hearts toward God. My prayer for you this month is
that God may show you the way into a Holy Spirit spa
that suits the unique child of God that you are and that
you may be refreshed and renewed by God’s presence. What
bliss!
The Rev. Annemarie Burke serves at Mount Tabor
Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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by Audrey Novak Riley
Gather the group for a one-day retreat with the LWT
summer Bible
study, "Act Boldly for Mission" by Kelly Fryer.
Here's how.
Ingredients:
-
A group of women that want to chill out, participate
in Bible study and get refreshed: friends,
co-workers, neighbors, etc.
-
June and July/August issues of LWT. Or
download it free below from the
LWT
web site.
-
a scenic spot, on a lake or in a park to meet. Maybe
someone's condo that has a nice clubhouse with a
patio. Be creative.
-
B.Y.O. Bible
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How to:
Share the work among several women: Ask someone
different to lead each session, ask someone else to lead
a closing devotion (Worship Boldly offers several
possibilities), and ask a few other people to arrange
for healthy and delicious snacks and drinks.
A.M.
Start the morning with prayer or a hymn and a light
breakfast:
coffee, bagels or croissants, and fruit. About 9:30,
gather the group for
the first session, "With the Message of Jesus," in the
June issue.
That'll take about an hour or so, and then it's time for
a break!
Then call the group back together and tackle the second
session, "Like the First Evangelists" in the July/August
issue. When you've finished that, it's time for lunch!
P.M.
After a healthful lunch, call the group back together to
enjoy the
third session, "In the Power of the Holy Spirit." When
the group has
completed that, it's time for a closing devotion.
Welcome people to linger for a little more conversation
before
picking up and heading for home. And as you wave goodbye
until the next time, bask in the joy of sharing
friendship, hospitality, and God's word together in the
beauty of a summer day.
Audrey Novak Riley is associate editor of
Lutheran Woman Today magazine. |
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Visit the
study
page for ideas for discussion and further
reflection.
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The
story of Hannah does not end here. God opens her womb. She does
conceive, and unto her a son is given, and his name is Samuel. When
he is weaned, she brings little Samuel back to the temple at Shiloh
as she had promised. (Can you imagine? Giving your child to the
temple at the age of three?) Hannah consecrates her child to God
with thanksgiving and joy, and with prophetic power.
Her
prayer is a psalm of trust in God’s justice and presence, and it is
a prayer that Mary, mother of another extraordinary child, must have
known, for her Magnificat as recorded in Luke's Gospel echoes
Hannah’s song at Shiloh, recorded in the second chapter of First
Samuel. Hannah is mother of Samuel, and also a mother for all of us
who seek to come before God in deeper, more intense prayer.
Consider
how Hannah prays. She prays in her anger. She prays in her grief.
She prays with unrelenting passion and purpose. She prays with
thanksgiving and joy. She allows herself to share her emotions fully
with God,
whom she trusts to listen and respond. And it’s in the
Temple — literally a place of sanctuary — where she lets it all
loose. Hannah wouldn’t have used our words, of course, but in
essence, she has found a Holy Spirit Spa at that place called
Shiloh.
Our
Scriptures offer very few stories of women as models of the
spiritual life, and so the story of Hannah is a powerful source for
reflection and practice. We do not have to be childless co-wives in
ancient Israel to call forth the same kind of spiritual energy she
had. She brought what she had to that temple.
She truly poured her heart out before God, and yes, Eli thought she
was a fool . . . at first. But when he listened to her explanation,
he knew that there was a powerful connection at work, and he sensed
that God would respond.
What, within each of us, is stirring up
grief, anger, fear? What, within each of us, is bringing us joy,
peace, hope? Like Hannah, let us bring all of it before God in holy
practice, lips moving, bodies responding, hearts pounding, spirits
exulting. Like Hannah, let us welcome a sense of “Holy Spirit Spa”
to inhabit our beings and transform our ways of being God’s women in
the world. Let us go to our sanctuaries, wherever they may be, and
rest…and renew…and respond to God’s call to
each of us.
Elyse Nelson Winger serves as a pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church in
Bloomington, Ill. Before coming to St. John, she served as associate
pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Dearborn, Mich. St. Paul's
worship and community life remain sources of spiritual sanctuary for
her, and she looks forward to growing into that sense of divine
presence and wholeness in her new call. She and husband, Stewart,
are parents of 6 1/2 year old Catherine and 4 1/2 year old Daniel.
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