Category: Flourishing Today

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Advent Silence: Engaging The Season Of Hope

Advent, like all seasons in the church calendar, is an invitation to a journey. We begin our Christian year in waiting. We do not begin with our own frenetic effort or energy . . . Instead, we begin in a place of longing and stillness: “O come, O come, Emmanuel.”

Of all the liturgical seasons, Advent is the most contemplative. Advent is calm and meditative, and it opens us to the infinite scope of life and mortality. It is an invitation to live from a different rhythm than the speed and hustle of secular culture.

What is Advent all about? Built around the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Day, Advent provides us with time for preparation. We seek to prepare for the coming of Jesus—who has come in the past, who continually comes in the present, and who will come in the future. During Advent, we pray with our heart and mind, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.” Along with this prayer of deep longing and yearning, we wait and watch, we remember and repent, we believe and behold. Above all, we seek to stay awake and become aware. Jesus often enters our lives in quiet, hidden, and unexpected ways.

Advent is about learning to wait. It is about not having to know exactly what is coming tomorrow, only that whatever it is, it is of the essence of our spiritual growth and formation in Christ. Every piece of it, some hard, some uplifting, is a sign of the work of God alive in us. We are becoming as we go. We learn in Advent to stay in the present, knowing that only the present well lived can possibly lead us to the fullness of life.

How can we begin to journey into deeper friendship with God during Advent?

Silence is the key. In silence, everything becomes real.

Unless we are silently attentive, we might miss what we are waiting for! This is especially true when we wait for God, who has an unsettling tendency to come in humble, unobtrusive and unexpected ways. ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ God comes in the silence; on the gentle breeze; and, in the flesh, even as a vulnerable little baby in a manger. That is truly a love worth waiting for, especially in silence.

So I wonder what we would discover if, for the Season of Advent, we took five minutes daily or maybe ten, or twenty, to just sit in silence and stillness, waiting and watching. What would the Coming One show us and say to us?

During the four weeks of Advent our role is nothing more than to receive the magnitude of God’s grace, God’s loving invitation, and give our yes in response. It’s to awaken.

Here is Psalm 63.5, a verse that expresses the journey of Advent:

“For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.”

There you have it, in just one verse: waiting, hoping . . . and silence.

Blessed Advent! Come Lord Jesus, Come.

With you on The Journey and The Way,

Rob+

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The Parable of The Talents: Living A Life Of Significance

My Sermon this past Sunday at Church of the Incarnation, expressed my continued reflection on the “Parables of The Future.” The future pulls us and shapes us. In the Christian view, the being of humans is bound up with the future to which we are destined. Ultimately that future is the Consummation of all things, The New Creation, the Second Advent of Christ. 

Weaving together the wisdom of psychology, social science, theology, and spirituality in writing, speaking, and teaching, is the way I endeavor to lift others up as a priest and fellow companion, into the reality of the Trinitarian love of God. It is how I am wired in my preaching and the words I share.  

Integrating head and heart, my time with this parable was drawn to the immeasurable generosity of God in giving us not only life and existence, but entrusting us with “talents,” the responsibility and agency to live a life of significance, and not futility.

The talent, the money, the gift given by the master in the story, is relationship and friendship with God and transfigured human life. 

1. We need to acknowledge the generosity and goodness of God towards us. It’s the question: Why are we here? What is our purpose? What is God’s purpose in our creation, painting us into the canvas of reality? 

We are invited to go on the adventure of life, to be creative, to own and steward our gifting.   Two of the three servants were commended for taking bold and courageous initiative, using their agency to create what God desires  

2. Accountability: Our Lives Matter. The third servant, the one who hid the talent, was wrong about the nature of “The Master.” “‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.”

There is however great risk in living from fear, and from a lack of confidence in the greatness and goodness of God.

3. A Life of Significance is a Faithful Life. The most flourishing way to live is in fidelity and faithfulness to the God who seeks our loving friendship. God indeed is our future.  

In this story, our role is nothing more than to receive the magnitude of this loving invitation and give our yes in response. It’s to awaken. It’s to be faithful..

With you on the Journey and The Way, 

Rob+ 

 

 

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Attentive Living In Christ: The Parable Of The Ten Bridesmaids

I shared this homily today at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Orlando, on this 24th Sunday after Pentecost. My reflection is on the Parable of The Ten Bridesmaids, Matthew 25: 1-13.

A story of entering every day, the reign of God.

A story of the revelation of the heart, the deepest part of who we are and being known by Christ.

It is about the watchfulness and attentiveness of love. Staying awake to your life to the moments of loving, loving God, loving others. Loving  yourself.

Life calls us to a readiness for the Coming of Christ now and at the Second Coming when all will be put to right and made new.  

There is a profound human conviction that ultimately all will be well.

This is a sign of the deepest longings of our heart. Pay attention. Now is the spiritual opportunity to be ready! 

With you on The Journey and The Way,

Rob+

 

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All Saints Sunday: The Capacity To Make God Real

The gift of open doors and invitations to offer my vocation as a retired priest, are a treasure in my stage of life. This was true this past Sunday, having the joy of celebrating All Saints Sunday. The Feast of All Saints has deep meaning for me, having served as Rector of All Saints Parish in Winter Park, Florida for close to 12 years. However, the greatest meaning of this day is the invitation it brings to remember “All The Saints” who have been mentors, teachers, companions, and friends along the way. I would not be who I am without them. Without you!

One of them was +Michael Ramsey, the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. He was one of my professors at Nashotah House Seminary. Here is his definition of the saints:

“A Saint is one who has a capacity to make God real.”

When Jesus came on the scene beginning his public ministry, the first thing he did was to help people understand that the reality of the reign and loving rule of God was available to them. The Kingdom of God was at hand. It was available to anyone who placed their trust in him.

We see this in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount: The Beatitudes. He is teaching who is really well off, who has a good life, a blessed life, the best life, a flourishing life.

As Leon Bloy said: “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”

Thanks for listening and for the Light within you. In Christ we are all God’s Saints.

With you on The Journey and The Way,

Rob+

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For Alex: What God Creates, God Loves Everlastingly

It was my great privilege and honor to give the Burial Homily for Alex Robertson, son of my good friends Randy and Pat Robertson, at All Saints Episcopal Church in Winter Park, FL.  It was there, when I served as Rector, that our paths crossed on the Journey and the Way.

I share these words from the heart with you that you might have a glimpse of the immeasurable gift of Alex’s life. All of us share the same human and existential reality of the challenges of life.

On our earthly Pilgrimage, no life is without pain, suffering, challenging or difficult circumstances. We live in a context that is characterized by heartbreak and heartache. Every one of us sits next to our own pool of tears, the storyline of our suffering in this world.  Life is difficult. Life is hard. It evokes deep desires and longings within us.

Regardless of how we describe it, the fundamental longing of our soul is a longing for love. It is a hunger to love, to be loved, and to move closer to the Source of love. This yearning is the essence of the human spirit; it is the origin of our highest hopes and most noble dreams.

Into our existential reality, has come Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. Out of God’s infinite love, God made us for God’s Self, and sent his beloved son to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to the God and loving father of us all.  

That is why we can have stable confidence and assurance that another kind of life can truly be ours:

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 37-39  

Resurrection Love and Joy runs through it all. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, from the friendship of God, from the life of God in Christ Jesus.

May Alex rest in peace and rise in glory.  

With you on the Journey and The Way, 

Rob+

 

 

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Courage: A Word Of Assurance – A Word of Hope Romans 8:12-25

It takes a great deal of courage to be a human being. Our journey through life as followers of Jesus is lived in the “now and the not yet” of a new unending kind of life. 

We have a transforming friendship with God here and now. There is a deep joy and peace that can be ours. 
 
The paradox is, that there is also a “not yet” to our experience as we are still waiting for the fullness of the coming of the Reign of God.  It is a tension the Apostle Paul helps us to embrace and understand. 

He gives us a word of profound assurance: 
 
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
 
He also gives us a word of enduring hope to face our suffering in and with Christ: 
 

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” 

This is the heart of my reflection today at Emmanuel Episcopal Church.  May it bring wisdom and encouragement as you live the life of the future in the present moment of this day. 

With you on the Journey and The Way, 
 
Rob+

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In Christ: The Truth And Way Of My Being

“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”  Romans 8:2

We are in a sermon series on Romans during the summer at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Orlando. I have had the joy of filling in for the Rector, Jonathan Turtle while he is on vacation.
 
Paul begins Romans 8 with this word: Therefore. 
 
Something consequential for the human race, of immense importance has happened. We have been set free from the powers of sin and death. In Christ, God has acted in Jesus to bring us into   “Another Kind of Life.” 

Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. 

This is the Truth of your Being. It is your ontology, your nature, your identity. You are “In Christ.”  The Truth of your being can now become The Way of your being as you live in the life of the Holy Spirit. 

Paul reveals that we can now have a new mindset. We set our minds on the things of the Spirit, not the things of the Flesh, the broken distorted ways of mere human desire. One leads to life and peace, the other to death and futility. 

May we embrace the gifts and grace of God!
 
As Ignatius of Loyola says:
 
Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening life in me.
 
With you on The Journey and The Way, 

Rob+ 
 

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The Ascension Of Jesus: Everywhere Present And Filling All Things

It was a gift of grace to preach on the Feast of The Ascension. I am grateful to be serving Fr. Jonathan Turtle, Rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, as a Retired Associate  in the parish. I preach occasionally  and hope to share my heart with all of you. 

Here is a short video clip. The full sermon is an audio recording below. 

May your life journey continue to be radiant with the gifts of God who like the rays of the sun brings his love and grace to us day by day. Jesus is everywhere present and filling all things. 

With you on The Journey and The Way, 

Rob+

 

 

 

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I Choose What Deepens God’s Life In Me

Ignatius of Loyola

What is the basic direction and orientation of a truly human life? When St. Ignatius of Loyola had written his Spiritual Exercises, he added a short preface, a skeletal summary of the inner journey to be made through his Exercises. Later commentators called this preface ‘The First Principle and Foundation’. It has been compared to a small-scale map of a very long journey.

Dallas Willard (who encouraged me to open myself to The Spiritual Exercises) once wrote: “If you . . . make necessary adjustments to the content . . . you will see that the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius offer in substance . . . a curriculum, a course in training, for life on the rock. And that is why, century after century, they have exercised incredible power over all who open themselves to them as disciples of Jesus.”

While first encountered over thirty-five years ago, I currently am completing a nine month “retreat in daily life” praying and making the Spiritual Exercises at this stage of my journey. Ignatian spirituality is about finding God in our lived experience and allowing God to transform that experience, through his Spirit, for ourselves and for the whole human family.

I created a musical reflection of “The First Principle and Foundation” using a paraphrase by Fr. David Fleming S.J.  I find these words help orient and ground me as they reveal the meaning, aim, and purpose of life. I aspire to live this way, knowing it is only by God’s grace and God’s compassion.

“Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to the deepening of God’s life in me.”

With you on The Journey and the Way,

Rob+

P.S. If you are looking for a good book to learn more, I recommend:  Seeking God: Finding Another Kind of Life with St. Ignatius and Dallas Willard,  by Trevor Hudson.

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Ash Wednesday and The Season of Lent: Being With God

“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

Beginnings and Endings. It is your ending and my ending that mark the beginning of this new season and that we remember on Ash Wednesday.

The reality of our ending is always before us. This past January I turned 70, a milestone moment of my journey of life. I am seeking many more. Yet, I am much closer to my ending than I am my beginning. Everyone of us, if life is kind, reaches this awareness sooner or later.

That this life does not last forever does not diminish life’s value, it gives it value. The temporality of life means that this one moment, this now, is priceless. There will never be another moment like this one.

“These days are golden, they must not slip away.” – Dougie MacLean

The question that this day is asking, is about your life before death. What do you want to do with your life? How do you want to live? Do you have life before death? How is it with your soul?

At the heart of the Ash Wednesday Liturgy, I find the way to continued grace and engagement with the gifts of life through these words from the Gospel reading, words of transforming wisdom from Jesus.

These are words of Jesus’ vision of fully human life, from the Sermon on the Mount. Scholars have pointed to this passage over the centuries as Jesus’ primary directive to his followers to pray contemplatively, beyond words or thoughts or feelings, as the way to connect with, attune to, and be transformed by Divine Presence:

“But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:5-6

Prayer. We are always beginners. Prayer is simply the medium through which we communicate and commune with God. The practice of prayer is learning to set aside dedicated time to intentionally be with God, in order to become like him and partner with God in the world.

Lent invites us to practice living from a Contemplative Center. Life is like a breath. We must be able to live in an easy rhythm between give and take. If we cannot learn to live and breathe in this rhythm, we will place ourselves in grave danger. —David Steindl-Rast,

The ultimate aim is not to “pray more” or “pray better.” It’s what ancient Christians called union with God. As Julian of Norwich said long ago, “The whole reason why we pray is to be united into the vision and contemplation of him to whom we pray.” It’s to live each day more and more aware of and deeply connected to our Father; to be transformed into the likeness of his Son, Jesus; and to be filled with the fullness of his Spirit, to do what he made you to do in the world.

May I invite you to consider the words of Jesus that call us not only to speaking prayer, but wordless prayer?

For me, Wordless Prayer, Centering Prayer, has been a very treasured friend in practicing my engagement with God. Start slowly. Five minutes daily. Then increase to ten minutes daily. From there you will find your sweet spot, maybe twenty minutes once or twice a day.

Find silence. Be still. De-noise. Deepen your awareness in daily life. Resist reacting from a defensive, over-attached, or fear-driven fight/flight posture. If we want to change at a fundamental level, if we want to rid ourselves of the unconscious psychological baggage that often triggers us and gets in our way of living, we have to actually engage in a practice of being in silence and solitude with God.

Practice contemplative prayer this Lent! 

If you would like to see a full written reflection and prayer guide for contemplative prayer, click this link to my Substack Post: Substack Post and Prayer Guide

Come, Holy Spirit, And show us our Father, Our life source, Our longing, Our home.

With you on The Journey and The Way,

Rob+

 

 

 

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