'Brother' Tagged Posts

'Brother' Tagged Posts

Lenten Reflection: Emptiness

Love the emptiness. If you do not have space in your soul – if you keep yourself filled on food or constant activity or ever-new ideas– your desire will be blunted or even perverted. We have been created with the gift of desire, to long for, to anticipate. – Br. Curtis Almquist Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/g4cwj-BZgS0 Question for Reflection: Where might life be waiting to…

Lenten Reflection: Suffering

It was not because Jesus was oblivious to pain that enabled him to undergo such cruelty. It was because he knew the depth of human grief and loss and despair. And he knew that, because he loved. – Br. James Koester Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/yekhlcwk4S4 Question for Reflection: Will you ask God to transform your suffering into greater love? Comments: We welcome your comments on…

Lenten Reflection: Revelation

Take up these symbols of the new life: towel and basin and water. Let them be for you a sign of your love for him and your gratitude for all that he has done for you. Let them be for you a pledge of your commitment to serve – not out of duty, but out of love; not to obtain a reward, but to imitate the One who freely and willingly laid down his life for you. Let them be…

Lenten Reflection: Paradox

There is something about our suffering in life – what we would not have chosen but cannot avoid – when we say “yes” to God, when we show ourselves ready to bear our suffering before God, that opens the door for transformation, for consecration. There is something about facing the dark night that allows us to see the dawning of joy. – Br. Curtis Almquist Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click…

Lenten Reflection: Experience

We lift our hearts to God in whatever state they are in. If our hearts are happy, we lift them to the Lord. If our hearts are broken or heavy with grief, we lift them to the Lord. If our hearts are anxious or afraid, we lift them to the Lord. We “come as we are” to this place. – Br. Mark Brown Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to…

Lenten Reflection: Compassion

During this week, these last days of our Lord’s life, we try to enter imaginatively into the story of Christ’s passion, to try, each one of us, to feel the weight of the cross, to understand a little of the immensity of God’s sacrifice for us, and the immensity of God’s love for us. – Br. Geoffrey Tristram Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/rZYe9JkKo7o Question for Reflection:…

Lenten Reflection: Vulnerability

What is it that makes you vulnerable? In our lifetimes, we don’t lose our spiritual vulnerability. We wouldn’t want to lose it. How we come to know God, how God breaks through to us, is probably through something that is broken in our lives. – Br. Curtis Almquist Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/0IICHyeFetM Question for Reflection: How will you share your vulnerability with Jesus today? Comments:…

Lenten Reflection: Grace

Temptation becomes an instrument of God’s grace when it causes us to acknowledge our helplessness, when it prompts us to look for God’s help, when it puts us in places where we realize our need for a Savior. – Br. David Vryhof Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/3h4eIAvUC0M Question for Reflection: Can you invite God’s grace into the places of contradiction and darkness within you? Comments: We…

Lenten Reflection: Repentance

As Jesus said over and over again, if you sin and repent and try to live a new life, you will be saved. This is a manifestation of that same loving fatherhood of God repeated over and over throughout the Psalms and the writings of the Prophets, and throughout the whole of the New Testament. – Br. David Allen Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/WjJv3ZUh-1Q Question for…

Lenten Reflection: Relationship

Christianity demands community. It is through our relationship with others we hear God’s word and understand God’s call. – Br. Eldridge Pendleton Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/yl9CWHdgonM Question for Reflection: What might your relationships with other people reveal about new ways of being in relationship with God? Comments: We welcome your comments on this video series. Click here to share thoughts. from Brother, Give Us A…

Lenten Reflection: Discipline

Spiritual discipline has more to do with a posture of attentive learning rather than a posture of retentive fixation on some form or formula. I think showing up is a very important spiritual discipline. – Br. Curtis Almquist Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/rcAO9QgXpJk Question for Reflection: How will you keep faithful to your discipline of prayer, even in the dry times? Comments: We welcome your comments…

Lenten Reflection: Transformation

Healing is not the same as recovery. Often when I was a parish priest, I witnessed a sick person’s life transformed by the loving prayers and support of family and friends, an experience of deep healing for them. But they didn’t always ‘recover’ their physical health. – Br. Geoffrey Tristram Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/8ey1o2ekeCE Question for Reflection: Will you pray for God’s transformation in your…

Lenten Reflection: Praise

The Psalms are full of emotional honesty and transparency—even the truth about our ugliest impulses. Rage, resentment, violent retribution, even the cursing of others: it’s all there in the Psalms. If we pray with this kind of honesty, and live with this kind of truth telling, we approach the presence of light and life. Truth telling leads us toward fuller life. – Br. Mark Brown Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click…

Lenten Reflection: Judgment

I think we eternally matter to God insofar as God longs to be united with all that God creates. That is the nature of God: a God of union and communion. – Br. Curtis Almquist Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/ii-ywKOITRQ Question for Reflection: Can you invite judgment from God in prayer today? Comments: We welcome your comments on this video series. Click here to share thoughts.…

Lenten Reflection: Failure

When we know that God knows everything about us and loves us, then we can face those areas of our lives of which we are ashamed – our sins, our weaknesses and failures, our tendency to hurt others and to turn away from God. We can face these things honestly because we know that God knows. And in spite of knowing all these things, God’s love for us persists. – Br. David Vryhof Society of Saint John the Evangelist To…

Lenten Reflection: Enemies

My failure to love my enemy can give me insight into my enemy’s failure to love me. Acknowledging my own failure, I can begin to have compassion on the failure of others. We can, in a sense, recognize something of ourselves in the “enemy.” – Br. Mark Brown Society of Saint John the Evangelist To Read More, Click Here Video not displaying? Click here to view: http://youtu.be/D3QF77tWohU Question for Reflection: How might the enemies in your life belong there, for…