Anita Lustrea

This is a weekly release of the spiritual practice Lectio Divina. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts. My email address is [email protected]. Also, feel free to share this podcast on your social media or tell a friend about it. 

If you’d like to support this podcast you can do so through a gift to PayPal using the email address [email protected].

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music, you can learn more about Steve Wick and how to purchase his music on his website.

The post Lectio Divina 76 – Matthew 13:10-17 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

I’m Anita Lustrea and I’m privileged to be a spiritual director. Each time I begin a session, I use a quote or poem or prayer.  As I share one of these with you, see what might catch your attention. Maybe there’s something here for you today.

Today’s poem is titled Living In Passionate Faith by Alla Renée Bozarth.

The post Poem/Prayer 21 – Alla Renée Bozarth appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy‘s Friday rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below

Rumblings. 10.27.23 

1. Let’s keep praying for a just and lasting peace in all the places on our globe where there is war. I’d list them all but it would be too distressing. The hate has to end. It must end. 

And it needs to end in our country. How many legislators have been threatened in our country for just doing their job? Too many. Anti-semitism runs deep here as does Islamophobia. Anti-gay rhetoric is on the rise. Racism is ever present. Anti-immigrant voices are loud and strong.

We’re looking at each other through a biased lens.

“Is it possible for us to see each other the way God sees us instead of through our biases? The truth is that God doesn’t see people the way we do, no matter how much we try to convince ourselves and others that our way is the Creator’s way. In God’s eyes, each and every person is a bearer of [God’s] image. Each is a special creation, each is loved, each is in need of God’s love and forgiveness….” ~ LeRoy Barber

Look into a mirror and say “I am an unrepeatable miracle of God.” Keep saying it until you believe it. 

And then bring to mind those you are at odds with or those you think unkindly about. Remind yourself that they too are a one of a kind miracle of the Creator. 

2.  “While they carried a great burden about gaps of injustice, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela radiated conviction and not condemnation, redemption and not final judgment, embrace and not rejection. The truly prophetic nature of their work in South Africa was pursuing justice with a quality of mercy that shaped a quest for communion with enemies and strangers.” ~ Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice: Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing

They really were prophets. No doubt about it. They spoke truth. That proved to be unsettling to those maintaining the status quo.  But they gained converts. Some say they worked a miracle or two. And they paid a price. They weren’t universally loved.

3. I live in deep red Florida. In my head I refer to myself as part of the non-violent resistance in a MAGA held territory. 

4. When President Biden talks about the crisis at the border he does not vilify those who seek shelter and asylum. He sees them as real people. He doesn’t tell lies about them nor does he call them names. He sees them as having value. I appreciate a leader who sees all people as having worth. 

Our last president didn’t value people in need. Instead, he used them as props to stir up hate. And then he quite easily persuaded others to do likewise. 

I’ll keep standing  with the man who believes that all people are made in the image and likeness of God and hold at arm’s length the man who doesn’t.

I’d urge you to do the same.

 5. It’s pretty clear that we are engaged in a national political brawl that’s pretty much about whether or not authoritarianism is better than democracy. It would be better if it were a conversation instead of a fist fight. But dang, it’s hard to have a conversation with the willfully ignorant and those who distort truth for their own gain.

6. “The big and hidden secret is this: an infinite God seeks and desires intimacy with the human soul. Once we experience such intimacy, only the intimate language of lovers describes the experience for us: mystery, tenderness, singularity, specialness, changing the rules “for me,” nakedness, risk, ecstasy, incessant longing, and also, of course, necessary suffering. This is the mystical vocabulary of the saints.” ~ Richard Rohr

7. “Some people will never like you because your spirit irritates their demons.” ~ Denzel Washington

8. M*A*S*H*  Wisdom

Frank Burns: Well everyone knows “war is hell”.

Hunnicutt: Remember, you heard it here last.

Hawkeye: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.

Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?

Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?

Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.

Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.”

War is filled with the blood of innocents. The sobs we hear emanate from those whose hearts are shattered. If we keep insisting that  ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is the best way forward, don’t be surprised when someone you love shows up blind and toothless. 

9. “Peace is not just about the absence of conflict; it’s also about the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr. even distinguished between ‘the devil’s peace’ and God’s true peace. A counterfeit peace exists when people are pacified or distracted or so beat up and tired of fighting that all seems calm. But true peace does not exist until there is justice, restoration, forgiveness. Peacemaking doesn’t mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free.” ~ Shane Claiborne, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals 

Please read this. Not once. Not twice. Not three times. Read it until it seeps into the very depth of your  being. 

10. If my Facebook feed is any indication, the #1 problem facing us as a country is self-checkout at big box stores. The already livid posters are even more ticked off because store management has the audacity to think that they even have the right to check receipts at the exit to make sure everything is on the up and up. 

Oh my. Immaturity runs deep in our country. 

The post Mike’s Rumblings – 10-27-23 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is a weekly release of the spiritual practice Lectio Divina. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts. My email address is [email protected]. Also, feel free to share this podcast on your social media or tell a friend about it. 

If you’d like to support this podcast you can do so through a gift to PayPal using the email address [email protected].

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music, you can learn more about Steve Wick and how to purchase his music on his website.

The post Lectio Divina 75 – Matthew 23:1-7 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

I don’t know about you, but life has its ups and downs and somehow we always seem to be in the middle of a transition. How do we mark those transitions? My guest this week, Amy Davis Abdallah, has found something that helps: rituals. We focus on her book, Meaning in the Moment, where she shows why we need rituals to survive and even thrive through various seasons of life. If you want to know how to create your own meaningful rituals, she’s got you covered for that, too. Check out this week’s insightful conversation!

Find Amy F. Davis Abdallah:

• Website

Note: When clicking through on links to products on Amazon, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The post Amy F. Davis Abdallah – episode 374 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

I’m Anita Lustrea and I’m privileged to be a spiritual director. Each time I begin a session, I use a quote or poem or prayer.  As I share one of these with you, see what might catch your attention. Maybe there’s something here for you today.

Today’s offering is On Meeting a Stranger by John O’Donahue.

The post Poem/Prayer 20 – John O’Donahue appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is a weekly release of the spiritual practice Lectio Divina. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts. My email address is [email protected]. Also, feel free to share this podcast on your social media or tell a friend about it. 

If you’d like to support this podcast you can do so through a gift to PayPal using the email address [email protected].

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music, you can learn more about Steve Wick and how to purchase his music on his website.

The post Lectio Divina 74 – Matthew 22:41-46 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

I’m privileged to be a spiritual director. Each time I begin a session, I use a quote or poem or prayer.  As I share one of these with you, see what might catch your attention. Maybe there’s something here for you today. Today’s offering is by Julian of Norwich.

The post Poem/prayer 19 – Julian of Norwich appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy‘s Friday rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below

Rumblings. 10.13.23

1. When I woke up last Saturday I was startled and deeply saddened to learn, as I’m sure you were, that Israel had been viciously attacked by Hamas, a terrorist organization which exerts great influence and power in Gaza. Civilians were targeted, including children. Hostages were taken. Women were raped. Families were separated. Grievous harm was done.

During the week Israel fought back with a vengeance and soon will make a decision about whether or not a massive ground attack in Gaza will be launched.

This war is still writing its gruesome story. For sure, more innocent lives will be lost. Fingers will be pointed, scape goats will be found, the rhetoric will be loud, the pundits will bellow and images of mourning will fill our screens. There is some worry that terrorist allies of Hamas will join the fray, further destabilizing the region. 

In other words, it’s a mess. It is incredibly troubling. 

Let us weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn. 

And let us pray.

Pray for the peacemakers on both sides of the conflict to stand tall, for the hardliners to calm down, and for the groundwork for a just and lasting peace to be established. 

2. President  Biden was careful to distinguish between Hamas and the Palestinians during his speech to the nation.  “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people…. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed with no regard to who pays the price.”

We need to make that distinction too. Hamas is a terror organization, without a conscience, and not everyone in Gaza is a fan.

3. “Dear Child of God, before we can become God’s partners, we must know what God wants for us. “I have a dream,” God says. “Please help Me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, where there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God’s family, My family.” ~ Desmond Tutu

4. E. B. White watched his wife Katharine planning the planting of bulbs in her garden in the last autumn of her life and later wrote about it:  ‘There was something comical yet touching in her bedraggled appearance …  The small hunched-over figure, her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection.’  There is room for all of us in the resurrection conspiracy, the company of those who plant seeds of hope in dark times of grief or oppression, going about the living of these years until, no one knows quite how, the tender Easter shoots appear. ~ Robert Raines A Time to Live: 

“There is room for all of us in the resurrection conspiracy.” Keep planting. 

5. During times of great trouble, I think of the end times/rapture crowd who look to the heavens and start packing their bags. 

Perhaps, unpacking their bags and getting to work loving and caring for those they want to float away from would be the better thing. 

6. “Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.” ~ Hafiz

Lots of cheap rooms are being occupied by jittery Americans these days. They can afford better but what the heck, why bother? After all, fear kind of feels normal now. Besides, they can still afford the internet. That’s what counts. After all, fear needs feeding. 

But why walk in fear? That’s the million dollar question. 

7.  Quite often I read things that ‘stir’ me. That doesn’t mean I agree with them nor does it mean that I disagree. It means that they grabbed my attention and spoke to me. 

For instance, Rabbi Mara Nathan got my attention.  

“The Torah, the Mishnah, the Talmud, and later rabbinic sources consider the woman’s physical and emotional health before that of the fetus. Until the baby is born, Judaism considers the fetus to be part of the woman’s body. She is never the villain when difficult choices need to be made.” 

Marcus Borg, is a progressive theologian who  got me thinking. 

“The Bible is a human product telling us how our religious ancestors saw things, not how God sees things.” 

I’m still pondering each of these. My inner fundamentalist (I bet you have one too)  keeps track of anything to do with my faith and related subjects.  After reading the Rabbi’s quote related to life issues and Borg’s take on scripture that inner fundy started sounding alarm bells, screaming at me to get my act together and flee such suspect thoughts.

But I can’t do that. 

You see there’s another voice speaking to me. It’s the wee small voice of the Holy Spirit exhorting me to not be afraid and won’t let me just run away. That voice assures me that wrestling with ideas is quite OK. Why? Perhaps it’s because they have something to teach me. 

Pro-life friends may be uncomfortable with me posting the rabbi’s considered opinion. Biblical literalists might be dismayed that I dared post anything by Borg and especially anything that implies that the Bible is more human than divine. 

In their eyes, I’m breaking rank and cutting across the grain of what they thought were our mutually held and deeply revered  convictions. I get that. But their discomfort and judgment can’t stop me from being curious.  I’m not trying to pontificate but to merely say that two authors caught my intention and I found what they were saying to be thoughtful and worthy of some of my time and prayer. And if that gets me kicked out of someone’s club, so be it. 

8.   “The kingdom of God is at hand…What we proclaim is that, in Jesus Christ, a whole new way of ordering things has appeared, that God, in Christ, is drawing all things to himself. The great ordering principles of the world—money, fame, power, sex, pleasure—are overthrown. A new King has come, a new way of organizing life. Love, inclusion, compassion, nonviolence, forgiveness, especially of enemies—this is now the way sanctioned by God.” ~ Bishop Robert Barron

9. “Imagine a faith so empty that you think bringing prayer into schools is following Jesus, but bringing free lunches is not.” ~ Michael Johnson

10.  “Prayer is a request for what is good, offered by the devout of God.  But we do not restrict this request simply to what is stated in words…  We should not express our prayer merely in syllables, but the power of prayer should be expressed in the moral attitude of our soul and in the virtuous actions that extend throughout our life…  This is how you pray continually — not by offering prayer in words, but by joining yourself to God through your whole way of life, so that your life becomes one continuous and uninterrupted prayer.” ~ St. Basil the Great

The post Mike’s Rumblings – 10-13-23 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is a weekly release of the spiritual practice Lectio Divina. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts. My email address is [email protected]. Also, feel free to share this podcast on your social media or tell a friend about it. 

If you’d like to support this podcast you can do so through a gift to PayPal using the email address [email protected].

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music, you can learn more about Steve Wick and how to purchase his music on his website.

The post Lectio Divina 73 – Matthew 9:1-8 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.