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. 8.4.2

1. “Trump loves to play the victim card. Don’t fall for it.” ~ Jen Psaki, MSNBC

Totally self-absorbed people aren’t very good at self-critique. When they face inevitable pushbacks, when their schtick isn’t working, when the law is breathing down their neck, and their  backs are against the wall they do what a self-absorbed person often does. They pull out the victim card, start playing the blame game, pointing fingers at everyone but themselves. Instead of owning up to deficiencies and weaknesses, they start playing the role of a victim/martyr. 

Psaki is right. 

Don’t buy what self-absorbed Trump is trying to sell us. 

He’s a  man with a long history of well established patterns of willful sinfulness. He’s not a victim and certainly not a martyr. He’s made his bed and now has to sleep in it. Four history making indictments will make sleeping difficult I’m sure. As well it should. 

I’m praying with the prophet Amos that “Justice will roll down like a river and righteousness like a never ending stream.”

2.  “If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food. It’s a plus for everybody.” ~ Anthony Bourdain

Putting our life into motion, even in small ways, is a good thing. It helps scratch our ‘curiosity’ itch and it forces us to ask questions that we never before thought of. As a bonus we become more interesting. That’s a very good thing. 

3. “Church is too often the riskiest place to be spiritually honest.” ~ Pete Enns

I’m thankful for the churches which prove this wrong. We need more of them.

4. Recently, I was reminded that “Bad politicians are elected by good people who don’t vote.” That’s true. It’s also true that those bad politicians are doing whatever they can to keep good people from voting.

5. “If you work with your hands, sabbath with your mind; if you work with your mind, sabbath with your hands.” ~Abraham Joshua Heschel 

Good advice. Sabbath beckons us to give ourselves a break from all the ordinary patterns of our lives. It invites us to rest, be thankful and to do whatever it is that breathes life into our tired souls.

6.  Florida State Sen. Bobby Powell  recently said: “The full measure of African American history is not a handpicked Rosa Parks here and a Martin Luther King Jr. there. It is the sweeping collection of stories spanning several centuries, the lessons of cruelty and inhumanity interwoven in the determination of a people to live and breathe free. It is as much Florida’s story as the nation’s story, and it needs to be fully told.”

The full story does indeed need to be fully told. It can’t be whitewashed. It can’t be dumbed down. 

7. “Sooner or later, everything falls away.

You, the work you’ve done, your successes,

large and small, your failures, too. Those

moments when you were light, alongside

the times you became one with the night.

The friends, the people you loved

who loved you, those who might have wished

you ill, none of this is forever. All of it is

soon to go, or going, or long gone.

Everything falls away, except the thread

you’ve followed, unknowing, all along.

The thread that strings together all you’ve

been and done, the thread you didn’t know

you were tracking until, toward the end,

you see that the thread is what stays

as everything else falls away.

Follow that thread as far as you can and

you’ll find that it does not end, but weaves

into the unimaginable vastness of life. Your

life never was the solo turn it seemed to be.

It was always part of the great weave of

nature and humanity, an immensity we

come to know only as we follow our own

small threads to the place where they

merge with the boundless whole.

Each of our threads runs its course, then

joins in life together. This magnificent tapestry –

this masterpiece in which we live forever.” ~ Parker J. Palmer

8. “We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.” ~ Wendell Berry

9. You’ve seen the meme. It reads: “You can’t worship the child in the manger while drowning the child at the border.”

Barbara Brown Taylor gives us a good compass heading.  

“The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor… Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.” 

The people at our border, in a biblical sense, are our neighbors.  Many are there because they have no other place  to go. And yes, our immigration system is problematic at best but that’s no excuse for allowing our hearts to grow cold. Nor is it an excuse for us to embolden elected officials who seemingly delight in treating those at our border with cruelty. These refugees are not subhuman people. Like us, they are made in the image and likeness of a very good God. 

It’s important to keep reminding each other that Jesus, Mary and Joseph fled from a tyrant in their homeland and sought refuge in Egypt. Their story is a refugee story. 

10. “During our work and other activities, even during our reading and writing, no matter how spiritual, and, I emphasize, even during our external devotions and vocal prayers, we must 

stop for a brief moment, as often as we can, to love God deep in our heart …even though this is brief and in secret…

Ultimately, we can offer God no greater evidence of our faithfulness than by frequently detaching and turning from all things created so we can enjoy the Creator for a single moment…” ~ Brother Lawrence

All day, every day, the sacrament of the present moment, is calling our name.

The post Mike’s Rumblings – 08-04-23 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 63 – Acts 16:11-15 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.

The post Poem/Prayer 9 – Hafiz 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. 7.28.23

1. Author Jon Pavlovitz tweeted: “I don’t think I can travel to Florida anymore because the time difference is too much. It’s 1860 there.”

The most anti-woke state in America still can’t figure out how to honorably teach kids the truth about our nation’s history. 

“Victoria McQueen, 17, of Tallahassee, Florida, was looking forward to taking AP African American Studies her senior year. She said that when she heard the class was rejected by the DeSantis administration, she felt defeated. “It just hurts me, especially as a young African American female, that 400 years later they’re still trying to sweep the history of African Americans under the rug after all they did,” the rising senior said. “The way that America has broken African Americans and people of color in general, broken them down from top to bottom, not giving them the credit they deserve behind the scenes and in front of the camera − it just hurts to know that even in the classroom they can’t be acknowledged.”

Doesn’t the DeSantis crowd have better things to do? I know for sure there is a rather severe property insurance problem that needs his attention. And affordable housing in Florida is hard to come by. No, they don’t have the time for that. Why fix what’s  broken when there’s still a book to be banned, or a history that needs a little tweaking so white people can still  feel good about themselves?

2. Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard had this to say about 2nd place finisher Tadej Pogacar.  “I really have a lot of respect for Tadej. In my opinion he’s the best bike rider in the world. He’s such a complete rider and in my opinion he’s the best rider out of everyone when you see the whole picture.”

Told about Vingegaard’s complimentary remarks, Pogacar replied: “He’s also one of the best. As a rider, as a guy, he’s super good. I also have a lot of respect for him. He’s a class above in this Tour de France.”

These two rivals are fierce competitors and good human beings. Each has won two Tour de France yellow jerseys. Each has placed second. Both have a few more years of cycling left in them. Vingegaard, from Denmark is 26 and Pogacar, from Slovenia is 24. That’s good news for the sport.

3. “See the Super Patriot. Hear him preach how he loves his country. Hear him preach how he hates liberals  and moderates, and intellectuals, activists and pacifists and minority groups and aliens and unions and teenagers and the very rich and the very poor and the people with foreign sounding names. Now you know what a super-patriot is. He’s someone who loves his country and hates 93% of the people who live in it.” ~ MAD Magazine, 1969

What was, still is. Who knew Mad Magazine was prophetic?

4. Speaking of insanity, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, if you haven’t heard, flashed nude pictures of Hunter Biden, in a congressional hearing.

A satirist who goes by the name Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian responded by saying:  “I find that I am unable to lower my expectations fast enough to keep up with Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

In MAGA world it’s seemingly a mad dash race to the bottom of a cesspool and Rep. Greene is doing her darndest to be the first one there. But she’s got a lot of competition.  

Issac Asimov once said: “When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.” 

5. The USA Women’s World Cup squad has 9 seasoned veterans and 14 players who are brand new. The oldest is 38 and the youngest 18. This story by NY Times writer Juliet Macur gives us a nice little window into team dynamics.

“The story seemed like one Alex Morgan might tell around a campfire.

Back in the day, the 34-year-old Morgan likes to begin, when players like her needed to find their way to their soccer games, they used something called MapQuest. It wasn’t an app on your smartphone, the kind with a reassuring voice that announced each turn and flashed a digital dot to show your location.

It was a website, Morgan said, that generated a map and a list of step-by-step directions, which you had to print out on actual paper. Sometimes it fell to preteen kids like Morgan to read out the turns while a parent drove.

“That was such a hard time,” the United States defender Naomi Girma, 23, recalled telling Morgan after hearing the story recently, feigning sympathy. “And Morgan, she was like, ‘You don’t even know.’”

Sports are often about gaps: talent gaps, experience gaps, compensation gaps. And in the weeks and months before the Women’s World Cup that began on Thursday in Australia and New Zealand, the players on the U.S. national women’s soccer team have found an unlikely bond in jokes, jabs and stories related to what may be their most notable feature: a generation gap.”

Go USWNT women’s national team.

6. The gospel is less about how to get into the Kingdom of Heaven after you die, and more about how to live in the Kingdom  of Heaven before you die.” ~ Dallas Willard

It’s a reminder to “not be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good.”  

7. “In the time, perhaps an hour or so, between her encounter with the Risen Christ at the Tomb and when she shared the news of the Resurrection with the other disciples, Mary Magdalene was, in a sense, the church on earth. Because only to her had been revealed the full Paschal Mystery, of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Any discussion of women’s roles in the church must begin with these two facts: It was to a woman, not a man, to whom the Risen Christ first chose to appear. And it was a woman who, for a time, was the sole carrier, and proclaimer, of the Good News of the Resurrection.” ~ James Martin SJ quoting Sister Peggy Beaudette, SC.

8. “In the early Christian Scriptures, the message of Jesus seems to have been heard in great part by people on the bottom. Those who are outside or at the edges of the system understand Jesus, while those who are inside or at the center are the ones who crucify him.” ~ Richard Rohr

These days, the outsiders and the edge dwellers are the ones speaking most profoundly to my heart and soul. The die hard insiders, not so much. It’s pretty clear that too many of them are busy living fearfully and legalistically in a world that no longer exists. 

9. “And another regrettable thing about death 

is the ceasing of your own brand of magic, 

which took a whole life to develop and market  –

the quips, the witticisms, the slant adjusted to a few, 

those loved ones nearest the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears, 

their tears confused with their diamond earrings, 

their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat, 

their response and your performance twinned.

The jokes over the phone. 

The memories packed in the rapid-access file. 

The whole act.

Who will do it again? 

That’s it: no one;

imitators and descendants aren’t the same.” ~ John Updike

The psalmist reminds us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” There’s no one else like you. Truly, you are an unrepeatable miracle of God. Walk humbly into the fullness of your identity.

10. “My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear.” ~ Anne Lamott

“…a series of staggers… one safe place to another …moving across the swamp of doubt and fear.” I get it. It’s honest. She keeps things real.

The post Mike’s Rumblings – 07-28-23 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 62 – Acts 13:4-12 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

I hope you’ll enjoy this follow-up conversation with Melinda about some of the themes from the podcast conversation we had with Marla Taviano the previous week. We talked about what a deeply formed life might look like as well as the importance of knowing self and having emotional health. Would love to have you weigh in on the conversation. Email me at [email protected]. Here are the books we mentioned on the podcast:

Follow Melinda on Facebook and Instagram:

The post Melinda Schmidt – Episode 368 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.

The post Poem/Prayer 8 – Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer 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.

The post Mike’s Rumblings – 07-21-23 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 61 – Psalm 63:1-5 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

Marla Taviano is a friend who has undergone a significant faith shift. Her story is a difficult one. She is a wonderful writer and in recent years has released two books of poetry. The first titled, unbelieve: poems on the journey to becoming a heretic and jaded: a poetic reckoning with white evangelical christianity. Both books tell the story of her journey as well as possibly give words to other’s journeys. She tells a bit of her story and why she has landed where she has……or has she really landed? Check out the podcast if you want to be thoughtfully provoked.

Find Marla in the following places:

• Facebook

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

The post Marla Taviano & Melinda Schmidt – episode 367 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.