spirituality – Jean P. Kelly, Intentional Path Media

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.

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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” →