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A Bit Like Jesus - Healing and Compassion
A Bit Like Jesus - Healing and Compassion
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion Healing and compassionAs they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. There were two blind men sitting by the roadside. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!’ The crowd sternly ordered them to b…
A Bit Like Jesus - Preface
A Bit Like Jesus - Preface
by SPCK - Robin Gill
Preface The picture on the cover by the Indian artist Jyoti Sahi captures wonderfully well what this short Lent Book is struggling to achieve. I bought the original collage on a visit to his ashram near Bangalore. He depicts the Parable of the Sower. Yet it is an Indian Jesus who…
GOD's rich Pattern - Taking up the challenge
GOD's rich Pattern - Taking up the challenge
by SPCK - Dr Lin Berwick
Taking up the challenge I had spent much of my childhood in the company of my parents, who were working for spastic children (now better known as people with cerebral palsy). Their aim, as one of the first parent groups, later to be known as SCOPE, was initially to raise money fo…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - A Shawl
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - A Shawl
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
In many spiritual traditions people have covered their heads in prayer. Medieval monks had hooded robes. To be under the hood helped them to turn inward, to have custody of their eyes and ears. It encouraged them to keep their curiosity in check, to not wonder about another’s way…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - A Bowl
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - A Bowl
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
An empty bowl is a wonderful symbol of openness. It will teach us to be receptive, to allow our hearts and spirits to align with God’s desire for us. Using a bowl or a cup as a prayer object can, over time, help us recognize that we ourselves are vessels for God. When our inner b…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - A Table
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - A Table
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
A table can be so many things—from a desk to an altar. It is around the table that we gather for meals. At the table we study, play games, sort the mail, pay bills, and do so much of what is needed for a household. Tables are often cluttered. In a rush we pile them high, be they …
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - A Candle
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - A Candle
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
Candlelight has all the associations of the past when, with a fire, it was the only source of light. Lighting a candle is different than lighting an electric lamp. A candle is a living, flickering light. It can easily be blown out. As we watch a candle burn we see the wax diminis…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Introduction
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Introduction
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
For many years now I have written about spirituality in the every-day. It is the every-day in which we live. Being human we often long for something more transcendent than the ordinary, but then we quite often miss that which is numinous and extraordinary right under our noses. S…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving Our Opportunities
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving Our Opportunities
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
We have preconceived ideas of what we consider opportunities. Unless an opening comes in a recognizable way, we might miss it or be afraid to take a chance. So much keeps us unduly cautious—like fear of failure or a sense of our ineptitude. Lack of imagination or the inability to…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving Our Relationships
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving Our Relationships
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
We are often not aware how full of expectations our relationships are—that we should be considered, understood, and done right by. Unstated rules, for the conduct of ourselves or another, lie like land mines on the path of our connections. The conditioned sense of one’s rights, o…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving Our Daily Round
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving Our Daily Round
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
If we count up the hours we make beds, wash dishes, run the vacuum or the lawn mower, pay bills, shop for groceries and cook, we will realize that we have spent not just days, but months and years in these activities. Every day we have a choice to just get through our daily round…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving Our Challenges
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving Our Challenges
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
Trusting God with all of our life means also to be able to trust the difficulties that come our way. Challenges and bitter sufferings can be gifts as well. To open to them is a profound act of humility. When the door slams and our hopes are dashed, when our health fails, a loved …
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving The Gift Of Our Being
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving The Gift Of Our Being
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
The mind divides, categorizes, analyses, and defines. Our souls open, wonder, suffer, and love. To receive the gift of being we must let go of the ways we define and give names to who we are. We cannot receive the gift of our being unless we suspend our own self-conceptions and d…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving Our Daily Bread
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving Our Daily Bread
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
In a day we may say thank you ten to twenty times as easily as we say hello or goodbye. But to truly receive and give thanks for our daily bread we must give more than words; we must recognize how many are the givers. Countless hands have been at work for us to have what is on ou…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Receiving
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
The world, our lives, our daily bread, our loved ones, our opportunities, our challenges and difficulties—all are gifts. Even the innate capacity to receive is a gift. There is not a single moment in life in which we are not given something. We can begin to notice this; we can in…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Staircase
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Staircase
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
Most days we use the stairs of our homes without a thought about their possible meaning beyond enabling us to climb. And often we don’t even think about that obvious use. Yet stairs and ladders have always been powerful spiritual images. Humans have forever wanted to transcend th…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Door
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Door
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
We enter our dwellings through a door. When the door closes we are within the protection of our home. Yet we do not always want to be enclosed and protected. We also want to let the world in, to crack the door, to set it ajar, to invite that which is new into the trusted and fami…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Floor