For the last 15 years, or so, I’ve been taking prayer walks at Derby Reach and Houston Trailhead near Fort Langley, and in a lot of other places throughout BC and Washington. During this time period I have increasingly felt an internal tug to learn to pray. In response, I have taken courses with Renovare (Richard Foster), Contemplative Outreach (Thomas Keating), The Center for Action and Contemplation (Richard Rohr), and SoulStream (Jeff and Steve Imbach and their wonderful team of friends). I am currently finishing up a two year course on the Art of Spiritual Direction with SoulStream that has a focus on teaching people to be spiritual directors and learning to integrate contemplative prayer in their everyday lives. I am also in community with SoulStream and a local Langley church.

All of this has only served to enhance my own walks in the woods and learning to pray outdoors. Lately, I have had a few requests from people who would like to join me on my walks, so I am sending out this invitation to go on a facilitated prayer walk in Houston Trailhead.

Contact Rod: E-mail – rodjanz@hotmail.com

Discipline is the other side of discipleship. Discipleship without discipline is like waiting to run in the marathon without ever practicing. Discipline without discipleship is like always practicing for the marathon but never participating. It is important, however, to realize that discipline in the spiritual life is not the same as discipline in sports. Discipline in sports is the concentrated effort to master the body so that it can obey the mind better. Discipline in the spiritual life is the concentrated effort to create the space and time where God can become our master and where we can respond freely to God’s guidance.

Thus, discipline is the creation of boundaries that keep time and space open for God. Solitude requires discipline, worship requires discipline, caring for others requires discipline. They all ask us to set apart a time and a place where God’s gracious presence can be acknowledged and responded to.

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These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen’s Bread for the Journey.

Visit HenriNouwen.org for more inspiration!

My dad does his morning devotions with a little book like the one they were reading, and he often sends them to his four kids. When I take the time to prayerfully read what he e-mails us, and I connect with it in that mysterious, but now familiar way, I have to admit, it has a God affect on my day.

Another way to say it is: this type of good old fashioned devotional grounds me in God’s presence and helps to inform my day. It helps me to fulfill Saint James’ plea for faith and action in an inside out sort of way, which is one of the things all of us who follow Jesus are hoping for, isn’t it? I know many of us have had this experience where I read a passage of scripture and then that same day I have a chance to apply it. Maybe, I have the opportunity to comfort someone with it, or give hope, or make a personal decision, or take a stand when tempted or opposed.

See what a beautiful thing this is? Inevitably, I experience more joy, more love, and more life when I read scripture, or our one of my various devotionals, and I allow it to sink in and then cooperate with God and apply it during the day.

Allowing it to SINK IN has to be one of the keys to all this type of devotional discipline, doesn’t it? In Colossians 3:15 it says “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…” The word “Let” means to “allow” the peace of Christ to rule in my heart. I could also say it means to “dip into” the peace of Christ, like a bucket being lowered and then dipped into the water at the bottom of a deep well. I LOVE this way of saying it, “dip into” the peace of Christ!

Maybe this is what I saw in one brief moment with the couple in the car next to me yesterday. I had the privilege of seeing someone else “dipping into”" the well at a stop light in the middle of Surrey, and the beauty, and the wonder of it all drew me in, and allowed me to take a dip too.

- Rod

Letting go is also one of the ways I can “pray continually,” and all of life becomes prayer. This is an element of being poor in spirit, and, of course, it’s all a gift, not something to be striven for.

Like usual, Richard Rohr says it way better than I ever could, so enjoy!…

From Richard Rohr http://www.cacradicalgrace.org:

LETTING GO

Question of the day:
What is God asking me to surrender?

Risk all for love, Jesus tells us, even your own life. Give that to me and let me save it. The healthy religious person is the one who allows God to save.

If this is the ideal Christian attitude toward God, then Mary is the ideal Christian of the Gospels. She sums up in herself the attitude of the poor one whom God is able to save. She is deeply aware of her own emptiness without God (Luke 1:52). She longs for the fulfillment of God’s promise (1:54); she has left her self open, available for God’s work (1:45, 49). And when the call comes, she makes a full personal surrender: “Let it be!” (1:38).

from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 322, day 333

Current mantra: Let go…let God

Question of the day – When do I most feel I’m inside God’s love?

“The deepest level of communication is communion. When we know and love someone we are simply happy to be near them. We feel power and energy passing between us. That is the power of prayer. That is what we must do to bask in the sunshine of God’s love. The word to us is, “Don’t just do something; stand there!”

To receive the love of God is to recognize it is all around us, above us and beneath us; speaking to us through every person, every flower, every trial and situation. Stop knocking on the door: You’re already inside!”

from The Great Themes of Scripture, p.383

Current mantra – I know and believe the love God has for me

“He’s using normal language that everybody can understand – not highfalutin theology, not highfalutin philosophy. Just look at things as they are and see what’s real and see what’s unreal.”

Richard Rohr
from the CAC webcast, Nov. 8, 2008:
What is The Emerging Church?

Thus, we must pray without ceasing so that we can become truly whole and holy.

Henri Noewen

Let’s break out of our isolation and realize that Someone who dwells in the center of our beings wants to listen with love to all that occupies and preoccupies our minds.

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen’s Bread for the Journey.

Christmas Day in my favorite spot. I’m so fortunate to have a place like this, only moments from my home. I had to walk through knee deep snow to get here today. Accept for a few ducks and a couple of ravens that hang out in this area, the silence was palpable. Makes it very easy to worship and feel the connection. Merry Christmas!