Wolfgang Staudt

Although I use spiritual practices originally learned from other faiths, I like Christian blogs best. Some of my favorite blogs are the following:

Christian Mystics–From the welcome: “Welcome to Christian Mystics, the site dedicated to Christian mystics both traditional and contemporary. As you’ll discover, we have a great library of things to investigate, as well as the freshness of a blog for lessons, reflections, rambling thoughts and more. I hope you’ll enjoy the journey! Blessings, Brian Robertson

Biscotti Brain (Thoughts: Twice Baked) From the author, Erin Wilson: “Biscotti remind me so much of how my mind works. Rarely is once-in-the-oven enough for my thoughts. They resurface, triggered by a piece of brilliance composed by someone else, and beg for reshaping… re-baking (rethinking)… and then finally consumption. Some don’t like biscotti. Others, with the patience to dunk in the beverage of their choice (medium black coffee for me), will find something to chew on.”

The Website of Unknowing features the writing of Carl McColman — American Celt, freelance author, aspiring contemplative, student of mysticism, and interfaith-friendly Catholic Christian.

Discombobula Sue says about her site: “I’m a 36 year old female from Melbourne, Australia, trying to make sense of the world, myself, God. Yep, I want to know it all. No wonder I’m discombobulated.”

Dirt Simple The author, Philip Eby, has posted this: “What can’t die is not alive. Food that can’t go bad, isn’t any good. To the extent that a thing is not perfect, it is real. This blog is not what I’d like it to be, but in order to create anything, one must first start with something that is not the thing being created. Welcome to dirtSimple.”

Barefoot toward the light: Barbara, the author, says: “This is a blog for anyone who cares to walk (or dance) beside me on my journey for a while. I imagine themes will arise as the blog takes shape over time, but I do like to muse on spiritual topics, especially as they relate to everyday life — small solitudes, as Mme Delbrel called them. At times, it is my nature to take an eccentric view of things — God’s little smartass, as it were. I hope you can take that in stride.”

Please email me, changemaker.kathy@gmail.com, with your favorite mysticism links.

An extensive collection of who’s who in Western Mysticism is complied by Professor Bruce Janz. This extensive list is divided into the following categories: Pre-Chrisitan mystics, early church Chrisitan mystics, medieval (Catholic and Orthodox) church, non-Catholic Christian mystics (16th-18th century), Jewish mysticism (links for Kabbalah), and Islamic mysticism. Janz has also included an addendum of terms, trends , movements, bibliographies, biographies, and general secondary sources about mysticism.

Another resource for mysticism and mystics, Concentric, has easy to use links to German, Hindu, Christian, Taoist, Jewish, Islamic, Spanish, and English mystics.

The Four Precepts web portal and spiritual search page has many web links. The web portal at this site has links to eco-spirituality, esoteria and theosophy, groups and forums, mystic traditions, popular authors, metafaith spirituality, self-help and psychology, poetic and aesthetic, news and current events, research and reference, and science and philosophy. If you have a site about spirituality, you can add your link to this site.

SpiritSite has several good writers who contribute to the site. Some of them are: Alan Cohen (“God Will Not Desert You”), Dan Joseph (Inspired by Miracles–which summarizes themes from A Course in Miracles), Daniel Goleman, Dr. David Burns, Dr. Deepak Chopra,Kent Nerburn (excerpt from his book, Simple Truths), Peace Pilgrim, Marianne Williamson, Thich Nhat Hahn, Dr. Edmund Bourne, and Byron Katie as well as many others.

Per Ola Wiberg-Powi

When writing about spirituality, I much prefer to write about the fruits of the spirit than the subject of spirituality itself. I believe that each person’s spirituality is totally unique for each of us. Yet however we practice our spirituality, the fruits of the spirit will be reflected in our personality. If there are no fruits revealed, I question if the person is surrendering his/her will and life to the care of a God of his/her understanding.

One of the guiding principles of AA is that each member is taught to “not take someone else’s inventory”. In other words, The AA member is taught to take his/her own “inventory”. In continuing to blame others for our behavior, we are not checking our own motives. So, if we are truly committed to being changed, we begin the long road to self-discovery by learning to keep our side of the road clean. (In a side note to this, I have to confess that my favorite T-shirt of all times was for sale at an AA convention, and the slogan was: “Go ahead and take my inventory because I’ve already taken yours.”)

The fruits of the spirit are the heart of human change by a relationship with the God of his/her experience. From bible-knowledge.com, the fruits are listed:

Here are the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit listed one right after the other in a bullet point format:

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Longsuffering
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-control

Now here is the specific verse from Scripture where these 9 fruits are being given to us by the Lord:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22)

From Spirithome.com--

• Paul Describes the Spirit’s Fruit (with links to specific fruit)
• Other Passages Which Bear Fruit
• What Is the Fruit of the Spirit?
• Reconciliation and Unity
• Recap

Therefore, I want to continue focusing on the uplifting qulities that spirituality produces. 

The first quality I want to provide links for is creativity. I believe creativity to be the source for being joyful and happy. It is the place where we get to “play” and is the source of “flow” as I understand it to be.

By Wonderlane

One of the best writers who write about Buddhist principles is Pema Chodron. Several of her books include notes she collected from her talks. She took a year sabbatical to go through the large boxes of notes she had saved.

1)  From Shambhala: “Pema is the resident teacher at Gampo Abbey, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the first Tibetan monastery for Westerners and has authored several books, including:

• Always Maintain a Joyful Mind (lojong teachings)
• Practicing Peace in Times of War
• No Time to Lose
• The Pema Chodron Collection (audio)
• Getting Unstuck:Breaking Your Habitual
  Patterns & Encountering Naked Reality (audio)

2)  Quotations by Pema Chodron at the Gaiam Life site include this one:
“You’re the only one who knows when you’re using things to protect yourself and keep your ego together and when you’re opening and letting things fall apart, letting the world come as it is – working with it rather than struggling against it. You’re the only one who knows.”

3)  Pema’s teaching schedule

4)  Her biography

The most important quality I notice in those studying Buddhism is the aura of non-judgment. We in the Western religions seem to have a need to tell others how to live and who to be. Buddhists, whose faith has principles and guidances, focus more on what is going on inside them rather than evaluating others. Compassion is rooted in non-judgment. I am reminded of how many times I’ve seen a Christian preacher looking very stern and preaching fear and screaming at us.

Your wish is my command by alicepopkorn

I know that I can’t trust someone beyond his/her spiritual commitment. If someone has made a total surrender to the  God of his/her understanding, (which of course we generally take back on a daily basis), then I trust them with anything. That doesn’t mean that he/she will always be able to keep my confidences.

I learned early in my recovery that if I was betrayed by someone that God could still make it OK for me. My acceptance of the betrayal eased the way for Him to work with me to trust others.

I recognize my trust level from a song of Steve Winwood’s. The words I identify with are: “When there’s no one left to leave you, and even you can’t quite believe, that’s when nothing can deceive you.”

Ultimately, I know that everyone pretty much decides for himself/herself whatever he/she wants to believe about me. I like that slogan that whatever you think of me is none of my business.

I’ve also learned to accept that people change their minds about me. The dynamics in relationships are fluid and rarely fixed. So if I keep my trust in the God of my understanding, I have nothing to fear about trusting others.

Will my trusted ones betray me? Possibly, but what hurts worse is that I may betray them also. We never reach perfection in this life. But I am getting better.

Some certain posts about trust include the following:

Ask Maddisen–How to Build Strong Trust Muscles

Word of God Speak

The Teacher Has Arrived…..

Should You be a Tour Guide or an Expedition Leader?

Tangled With a Porcupine

Connecting With Your Heart

Lessons From a Blue-Collar Millionaire

Betrayed by the Office Gossip Girl

Desert by Hamed Saber

One of the hardest experiences for believers who rely on God’s guidance–if not the hardest–is the periods when God is silent. Generally I respond to the silence with fear. I think I learned a long time ago that if I panic surely the God of my understanding will “rescue” me from myself. Needless to say, God can’t be manipulated. So, after a period of expending useless energy, I settle down for the long wait.

GotQuestions.org has a great post about recognizing the voice of God. For me, when I’m sure it is God’s guidance leading me, one of the factors with the solution is that everything is worked out and not by me. Because it is hard for me to remember to keep myself in a positive direction, I have typed out a cheat sheet of things to remember when God’s guidance doesn’t seem to be prevalent.

Whosoever.org reminds us to first check our own motives. Is God silent or are we holding on to a particular outcome that may not be the right answer for us?

One of the main things that I remind myself is that God is a God of peace. If I am anxious or upset, I won’t be able to hear God’s whispering or His quiet urgings. Also, as Verla Gillmor suggests, this may be a period when God has taken His hands off our”bike” so that we can learn to ride with less guidance. Verla suggests that we receive four opportunities during these periods: (1) solitude, (2) surrender, (3) scripture memorization, and (4) authenticity and community.

Some more readings about when God is silent:

Sermon: “When God is Silent”

Why are there times when God seems silent/absent in a believer’s life?

When God is silent: How to hear God when He seems far away

When God is silent

What to you do when you can’t hear God?

When God is silent

I don’t think that we can try to attain the awakening of our soul in any other way than by choosing to put ourselves in the presence of the God of our understanding. Many centuries ago, a wonderful monk lived and wrote Practice in the Presence of God.

He taught me, centuries later, that all I had to do was practice presenting myself to my God. I didn’t have to do anything else but put myself in a place where the God of my understanding could communicate with me.

Prayer is when I communicate with my God and meditation is the practice of listening to God. Although I have tried many times to maintain the principles of meditation to my life, I have never been able to do meditation in the recommended ways.

Instead I set aside time several times a day to “check in” with Him. When I present myself to God for His answers, I come in a spirit of peace and quiet. I rarely “hear” anything. Instead I sense directions or guidances from Him. If my direction is God’s will for my life, the going will be easy. If I am trying to force something to happen, I will become stressed about it.

The difficulty is in getting out of God’s way. If I think that I know exactly the direction of God’s guidance, I have learned that it is probably my ego answering me. Another way that I use to understand God’s direction is to not do anything to force the outcome. I do the footwork and leave the outcome to Him. This is especially hard when all that maybe needed is a phone call.

If I don’t receive some kind of guidance, I realize that the answer may not be no, but rather may be later. This letting go releases great energy and feelings of belonging. “Let go and let God.”

How do you know that someone–regardless of age–is spiritual? Certainly not because they say they are. The best evaluation is to see the fruits of the Spirit manifested by them. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, kindness, self-control, patience, faithfulness, goodness, longsuffering and gentleness as listed in Galatians 5:22-23.

Wikipedia identifies mindfulness as “the practice whereby a person is intentionally aware of his or her thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmental”. Although my faith is based in Jesus Christ, I am thankful that He has given me the gift of openness to explore and implement practices from other faiths.
In 1976, when I began implementing breathing exercise with meditation practices, I immediately knew that finding my center and focusing on my breath in and breath out enabled calm and peace to flow through my body. Being human, I learned in a moment what has taken a lifetime to implement. Transcendental meditation has been found to decrease heart rate and blood pressure because the mind-body connection prospers when one experiences peace and calm.

I don’t do book reviews. Instead, I give the book title, the author, the ISBN number and a link to Amazon to buy it. I also include excerpts from the book chosen so that a reader can decide if this book is a good match for him/her.

Callings: Finding and Following An Authentic Life

Gregg Levoy

ISBN 0-609-80370-0

Amazon link

From the introduction:

“In many traditions, calls—in the form of sounds—precede prayer, rites of initation, spiritual healings, and major life events. The purpose of calls is to summon adherents away from their daily grinds to a new level of awareness, into a sacred frame of mind, into communication with that which is bigger than themselves. The calls may come from bull-roarers, trumpets, rattles, wooden clackers, songs, and bells.”

(Calls may also be “still messages and/or thoughts, songs, etc.)

“Primarily this force announces the need for change, and the response for which calls is an awakening of some kind. A call is only a monologue. A return call, a response, creates a dialogue. Our own unfolding requires that we be in constant dialogue with whatever is calling us. The call and one’s reponse to it are also a central metaphor for the spiritual life.”

“They may be calls to do something (become self-employed, go back to school, leave or start a relationship, move to the country, change careers, have a child) or calls to be something (more creative, less judgmental, more loving, less fearful). They may be calls toward something or away from something; calls to change something, review our commitment to it, or come back to it in anentirely new way; calls toward whatever we’ve dared and double-dared ourselves to do for as long as we can remember.”

“Saying yes to the calls tend to place you on a path that half of yourself thinks doesn’t make a bit of sense, but the other half knows that your life won’t make sense without.”

“We find that we must act on this imperative despite temptations—to back down and run for cover—that will divide even the most grimly resolve against themselves. We must persist with the sort of hope about which playwright and former Czechoslavakian president Vaclav Havel spoke when he said, “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

The main body of the book is divided into 5 sections:

1) Part 1 The call to attention

2) Part 2 Receiving calls

3) Part 3 Invoking calls

4) Part 4 Saying no to calls

5) Part 5 Saying yes to calls

An excerpt from Saying Yes to Calls:

“Much of the pain associated with callings comes from avoiding them, from not surrendering to them. However much sacrifice may be involved, much of the pain we feel in surrendering to callings actually comes from our anticipation of the pain and not from the actual capitulation. Once we do surrender, we often feel a sense of great relief, and just as often we are bewildered about why we didn’t do it years ago.”

“We mistakenly equate surrender with defeat and sacrifice with annihilation. We bring to our renunciations the same oanic and anxiety—“Oh God, I can’t give that up”—that we often bring to our deliberations about intimacy, the fears of beng devoured and overpowered, of giving our lives away. Granted, parts of us are broken into smithereens in the process of following our calls and experience real compromise and real suffering, but this is not defeat any more than a flower suffers defeat by going to seed. Futhermore, say theologian Frederich Buechner, “What’s lost is nothing to what’s found, and all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarely fill a cup.”

Love-hate by _abhi-1

One of the many wonderful benefits from using WordPress is the broken links report. For years, I have been ignorant of how to fix my broken links because I don’t write code. But now, for all my WordPress blogs, I can see the broken links for that blog and go right in and either fix it or eliminate it.

The extreme importance that God puts on the fruits of the spirit is emphased in bible-knowledge.com,

When God the Father purposely isolates and spells out 9 specific qualities that will be coming direct from His Holy Spirit – He is really letting you know the extreme importance of these 9 specific fruits.

These 9 fruits are major fruits and qualities that are coming direct from God Himself – and every Christian should do the best they can to work with the Holy Spirit in getting all 9 of these fruits worked into his or her personality.

Continuing your study of the fruits at this site:

“I’ll first start off by bullet pointing each of these 9 specific fruits so that you can have all nine of them isolated at the top of this article. I will then give you the Scripture verse where these 9 fruits are coming from, and then do a brief commentary on each one of these fruits so you can fully understand what each one of these fruits are all about and how they can dramatically change the quality of your life and your state of well-being if you are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to start to work all 9 of these fruits into your mind, soul and personality.”

A study of the fruit of the spirit of faithfulness is from discipleshiptools.org.

A Christian family that creates their life around their faith is savethephillipsfamily. Unfortunately, I only found her husband’s name several times, Tobe, but failed to find an “about the author” so I will call her Mrs. Phillips. She may have a broken link as I couldn’t access the history for the site. But she is an amazing author and has started a study of the fruits of the spirit. These lessons she shares with her children.

“I started the first lesson by discussing fruit with my children, talking about what fruits they like and what makes those particular fruits so incredibly delicious to their little tummies. We discussed what good things fruits do for our bodies (i.e. providing nourishment, helping sustain energy..BTW, I don’t think I used the word “sustain” with my 2 and 4 year old, giving our bodies vitamins) and why it is important to eat them.”

Church of Our Lady by Wolfgang Staudt

In yesterday’s post “Finding What You Love”, I used questions by Robert Longman who has created an amazing resource at Spirit Home. In the sitemap the following topics are listed:

1.  Site Stuff

2.  On the Holy Spirit

3.  On the Bible

4.  On Prayer

5.  Topics

6.  On Spiritual Disciplines

7.  On Holiness

8.  Word Meanings Pages

9.  On Church Holidays and Seasons

10.  Advent/Christmas/Epiphany Devotionals

11.  Words About the Bible

12.  Churchly Words

13.  Lent/Holy Week/Easter Devotionals

14.  On Churchly Matters

15.  History Lessons

16.  On the Paranormal

17.  Replies to your emails

One of my favorite topics is “On the Holy Spirit”. The links there are to: who the Spirit is; the Spirit’s work; the Spirit’s gifts; expectation; the Spirit’s gifts; spiritual fruit; specific gifts; gifts shown;  prophecy; is there sill prophecy, faith; and pneumatology.

From expectation (What Did You Expect?):

“One of the things spiritually-alive people most talk about is a sense of expectation. They have a sense that God will act, and will let people be aware of the continuing divine involvement in their lives.”

“Henri Nouwen (in Out of Solitude, p.59) likened it to getting a letter from someone you love: it brightens up even the most boring day. God’s ‘love letters’ are being delivered daily, hourly, often moment by moment. Part of living in the Spirit is to trust that God will deliver these ‘letters’. No wonder people who live in the Spirit feel so refreshed; is there anything as refreshing as that?”

I went to AA after Thanksgiving 1976. Two months later, I checked into a home for alcoholic women in the town I lived in–Jacksonville, Fl. The home was not attached to anything like mental health but the founder, Mary Brinkman, believed in Jesus Christ. We prayed on our knees morning and evening. I had a radical conversion in that home. So here I was–2 months sober, born-again, female, high-bottom, and a lady.

But AA was my only choice available to me for recovery. Needless to say, I didn’t have much support there. But I kept going back and eventually I took the 13th step–giving up support groups as the only way to live. That was years later after I had clinical depression for 2 years. When I had clinical depression, I was 10 years sober–sponsoring 13 people but no one in AA said why don’t you seek professional help. I guess I looked too well. But I did notice that persons with long-time sobriety were committing suicide. I didn’t want to do that anymore than I wanted to drink.

I deeply believe that there is no recovery without a spiritual experience. Many people have a gradual awakening which can take years. During that time, s/he becomes gentler, kinder, more thoughtful, more relaxed, etc. These qualities are the fruit of the Spirit. When I see these qualities, I know that God is working in that person. In fact, the fruits of the Spirit are the only indicators of someone’s recovery that I use.