Tag: spiritual growth

Martha, Mary, and Benedict invite you to rethink the meaning of hospitality

Scripture tells us to have no anxiety? But how? Learn how St. Benedict’s Rule teaches a stress-free approach to hospitality.

Jean P. Kelly, Faith WriterLeave a comment

BY JEAN P. KELLY

“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.”

The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

“POOR MARTHA, Martha,” I always think when hearing the Luke 10: 38-42. “I’ve been there, sister.”

Continue reading “Martha, Mary, and Benedict invite you to rethink the meaning of hospitality” →

Finding Self-Acceptance in the Music of the Divine

Especially in times of distress, meditating with music unlocks new portals of self-awareness and healing.

Jean P. Kelly, Faith WriterLeave a comment

BY JEAN P. KELLY

BEFORE PULLING my minivan from the driveway of our South Carolina vacation home, I cued up a playlist of post-punk club jams, which were once the soundtrack of my single days. Tunes by New Order, the Clash, and Joy Division helped me recall how long ago I had “danced like no one was watching.” Pounding synths connected my heartbeat to a past pulse of life and creation, just like the “om” mantra of Eastern meditation practice does.

Because music offers gifts that can fill a soul, Spiritual Reading can be practiced using songs, rhythms, and other sounds as “texts.”

Continue reading “Finding Self-Acceptance in the Music of the Divine” →

Make new friends without keeping the old

When friends drop us, even the pragmatic realization that all things have a season—even love—is cold company. But new friends will arrive, green leaves growing in our hearts.

Jean P. Kelly, Faith WriterLeave a comment

By Jean P. Kelly

I WALKED FOR the first time into a multi-day ecumenical faith festival on my own, not knowing a soul and unsure what to expect as a newcomer. Within 15 minutes of arriving, I met a fellow podcaster, then her son, then her brother and by the end of the day I was part of their friends & family group enjoying a musician on stage. Throughout the next three days all were reliable companions, bearing out what I had heard about the authentic hospitality offered annually at the Wild Goose Festival. As one veteran attendee told me “I always make friends I don’t even know I need.”

Just a few days before I drove six hours to North Carolina, a friend of more than 30 years ghosted my invitation to dinner. A voicemail left for another long-time buddy during my return drive likewise went unanswered. That neither was an anomaly, yet I persisted in my attempts to connect, was all the proof needed to affirm how much easier it is to preach detachment than to practice it. My talk at the festival about the importance of establishing boundaries with loved ones, based on my book, Less Helping Them, More Healing You, concluded with a quote from a favorite spiritual teacher, Fr. Anthony DeMello: “When I die to the need for people, then I am right in the desert…. It is solitude, it is aloneness, and the desert begins to flower.”

Continue reading “Make new friends without keeping the old” →

The Transformative Power of Spiritual Reading for Healing and Self-Reflection

Jean P. Kelly, Faith Writer1 Comment

Excerpt from Less Helping Them, More Healing You: The Transcendent Gifts of an Ancient Spiritual Practice, by Jean P. Kelly

AT ONE TIME, I pictured myself in a nursing home of the future where family and friends would complain about my pockets full of notes—shreds of paper with handwritten quotes—stashed there and everywhere in case I forgot good advice. I also imagined an avalanche of books, anthologies, and memoirs bristling with post-its, on a bedside stand, never shelved just in case I needed to find, in doubt-filled moments, an inspirational passage, paragraph, or prayer.

Words of others—especially in books—have always offered solace to me: comfort, companionship, escape, insight, and challenge. So when some ten years ago I learned that reading can be prayer, I was hooked. Ever since discovering the ancient spiritual discipline Lectio Divina, “Spiritual Reading,” I’ve been on an intentional path back to myself, one page at a time.

Continue reading “The Transformative Power of Spiritual Reading for Healing and Self-Reflection” →

When You’ve Done Enough: How to Let Go with Love

We should approach spiritual growth defenseless.

Jean P. Kelly, Faith WriterLeave a comment

We should approach spiritual growth defenseless, says Cistercian monk Michael Casey in his book Strangers to the City, because the gift of salvation very often runs counter to our expectations. “We open ourselves. … We approach our reading as a disciple comes to a master: receptive, docile, willing to be changed.”

I was changed by the book Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality, written by Jesuit priest Anthony DeMello from India , especially the chapter titled “Detachment,” a concept new to me. “Someone brainwashed me into thinking I need his or her love,” DeMello explained, “but I really don’t. I don’t need anybody’s love. ….”

Continue reading “When You’ve Done Enough: How to Let Go with Love” →