Anita Lustrea

Melinda Schmidt

Michelle Van Loon

It’s conversation group on Faith Conversations! Melinda Schmidt, former radio host, and Michelle Van Loon, author and speaker, join me to talk about some interesting topics. What movies or TV series do you watch over and over? We also tackle whether you find it easier or harder to hope as you get older. And then, if you are looking for a gift to get a friend, we have a list for you!

Here are links to the items talked about on the podcast:

• Michelle’s latest book: Translating Your Past

• Christmas 2022 list for women – see below!

Books:

Joyce Rupp – Anchors for the Soul: Daily Wisdom for Inspiration and Guidance

Dr. Jennifer Heisz – Move the Body, Heal the Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

Wellness products:

Love Wellness – Bye Bye Bloat – Digestive Enzymes Supplement, 60 Capsules – Bloating Relief for Women – Helps Reduce Water Retention, Gas Relief & Overall Digestive Health – can also buy at Target, Ulta, Amazon

Nimbus toothbrush – Xtra soft

Jewelry:

TheLeatherKnot – Etsy site: Katie in Tehachapi, CA

Spiritual Practice:

Prayer Beads (often unfamiliar if you didn’t grow up in a Catholic or Anglican faith tradition)

HOW TO PRAY USING PRAYER BEADS

Thoughtful description here (you can start with a beaded necklace or bracelet you already have) and can purchase (but she is on an Etsy sabbatical now) I first got my prayer beads here and they are wood and more masculine.

Purchase here – booklet on how to use. Large Prayer Bead selection starts at $14 and chaplets for on the go or purse start at $12.

Books including: A Bead and a Prayer: A Beginner’s Guide to Protestant Prayer Beads

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

The post Melinda Schmidt & Michelle Van Loon – episode 342 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. 11.11.22.

1. Tuesday was but a skirmish (with a better than anticipated outcome) in the ongoing battle for the heart and soul of our nation. You know that, right?

What ails us won’t be fixed by one election. Our Republic is still facing some deep issues. We’ve lost more than a bit of our moral mojo and our whole way of being political together is problematic at best.

In medical terms, our democracy is sick. 

And it won’t get well until we decide we want to make it well. 

Getting to that point might take some time. Tweets won’t fix what ails us. Reading political satire might help us put our ‘grin on’ but it’s not a solution. Wearing a red baseball cap and attending some half-baked rally isn’t the answer. We begin to find the answer when we start to agree that an answer needs to be found. Will that happen? I think it can but the process is going to be an endurance test for all of us. It will require some meaningful self-examination of our own beliefs and motivations and a willingness to have substantive, meaningful conversations with ‘hard to converse’ with people, some of whom are just flat out mean spirited. 

I’m willing to do the self-examination and I want to be part of the ongoing conversation, using whatever small seed of micro influence I have to make whatever difference I can. Will you join me? 

2. Last week, I listened on the “Pray as You Go” app to the Community of Taizé sing: “Keep me God, for I trust in you. You show me the path of life. With you there is fullness of joy.” 

Amen to that. But how to walk on that path?

I take solace in the notion that God is still with me and though the kingdoms of this world shiver and groan and bow to idols, in the Kingdom of God nothing has been shaken, nothing has changed. The good Lord still shows us “the path of life” and on that path the “fullness of joy” can be found.

3. “Rune of Hospitality

I saw a stranger yestreen;

I put food in the eating place,

drink in the drinking place,

music in the listening place,

and in the name of the Triune

he blessed myself and my house,

my cattle and my dear ones, and the lark said in her song

often, often, often,

goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise,

often, often, often,

goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise.” ~ an old Gaelic Rune, h/t Julian

“Christ in a stranger’s guise.” That’s always a wake up call.

4. “Truth does not mind being questioned and a lie does not like being challenged.” ~ PeacefulMindPeacefulLife

Elena Goeokhova in “A Mountain of Crumbs” wrote: “The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them.”

Watching the liars before and now after the midterms has been quite sobering. They lie so well. They are so adept in their deceit. They spew untruth without batting an eye and with no sense of remorse. Some believe fervently in these lies and liars, swearing they are anointed by the Lord God. That my friends, is a delusional and hellish point of view.

5. “I want neither a blood and guts religion that would make Clint Eastwood, not Jesus, our hero, nor a speculative religion that would imprison the Gospel in the halls of academia, nor a noisy, feel-good religion that is a naked appeal to emotion. I long for passion, intelligence, and compassion in a Church without ostentation, gently beckoning to the world to come and enjoy the peace and unity we possess because of the Spirit in our midst.” ~ Brennan Manning

Manning wrote “The Ragamuffin Gospel” which I think is an essential read for anyone looking for an expression of authentic faith. 

6. “By the way, Liz (Cheney) and I are not courageous. There’s no strength in this. We’re just surrounded by cowards…” ~ Adam Kinzinger

“It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose illusion and error.” Thomas Paine

The illusion and errors supercharge the worst instincts of the easily fooled. And even cowards. if they band together, will find ways to do despicable things.

By the way, Kinsinger and Cheney are courageous. They stood tall when they could have shrunk. And they withstood a red wave of hate, insults and threats. 

7. “Contemplative activist and Episcopal priest Adam Bucko believes that contemplation is a universal call that prepares us to seek and do justice: …It has to start with a commitment to a practice of prayer and adopting a way of life that can help me grow and nourish my spiritual life, including building community, so that I may become God’s hands and feet and microphone for healing and justice.

Bucko shares several steps for those beginning a path of contemplative action:

First commit to engaging with the world from a place of prayer, and not ideology …

Second, commit to doing the work of coming to terms with your social location and how it relates to systemic racism, poverty, militarism, ecological devastation, and some of the distorted moral narratives that are so prevalent. Are there privileges you need to acknowledge or let go of? Are there commitments you need to reevaluate? 

Third, remember that talking about justice is not the same as doing justice, so simplify your life and commit to ethical living … practice works of mercy, making sure that your hands are touching the hands of someone who is suffering, [and] include Mother Earth in that as well.” ~ Center for Action and Contemplation 

One of the great questions is “How then shall I live my life?” Prayer, involvement with others, and living justly and ethically gives us a great starting point for a life of maximum impact.

8. “No matter how you vote, you are welcome in our church. I just ask that you would commit to see politics thru Jesus & not Jesus thru your politics; that you would be curious about why your brothers & sisters see things differently. And that you would live humble, prayerful lives. ~ Rich Villodas, Pastor NewLife Fellowship in Elmhurst-Queens NY 

Here’s what I like. Welcoming. Open arms. Christ centered. Curiosity is valued. An emphasis on humble, prayerful lives. A challenge/request – to see Jesus first. Politics through the lens of Jesus, not Jesus through the lens of politics. 

9. A friend of mine remarked that “there’s no exemption” for anyone that keeps them from experiencing the impact of the cultural battles that surround us. There’s no place to run. No place to hide. I agree. Either we face what is before us and figure out how to redemptively live in the midst of it or cave into its pressures and passively accept whatever comes our way. 

10. My picture and yours is on Jesus’s refrigerator door. He sees us. He might shake his head at times in bewilderment but he never makes a move to take that photo down. This image brings me great comfort. 

The post Mike’s Rumblings – 11-11-22 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 25 – John 10:1-10 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

Audrey Elledge

Elizabeth Moore

During the global pandemic two gifted women in NYC connected to write meaningful liturgies for their church. What began as an exercise in helping their local church community give voice to the feelings of pain and longing in their city as it became ground zero for this frightening pandemic, grew into a book that we could all appreciate and immerse ourselves in. Liturgies for Hope: Sixty Prayers for the Highs, the Lows, and Everything in Between, gives voice to where we have been and where we are going as we move forward and away from the early pandemic days.

Audrey Elledge works at SparkNotes and is the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Prize and the Virginia Beall Ball Prize. Elizabeth Moore, born and raised in Louisiana, transplanted to New York where she works at engine Random House. Both serve on the creative team of their church, Church of the City New York. I know you will enjoy this conversation and be encouraged by it.

Find Audrey Elledge in the following places:

• Twitter

Find Elizabeth Moore 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 Audrey Elledge & Elizabeth Moore – episode 341 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. 11.4.22 

1. “We should probably stop putting people who are preparing for the rapture in charge of anything.” Liam Neeson 

Rapture theology actually looks forward, in kind of a freaky and disconcerting way, to the world becoming a hot mess and then the rise of an authoritarian leader who steps in to create his own warped version of order. When that happens ‘rapturists’ believe they’ll be whisked away from it all. They won’t have to deal with the ensuing chaos. Instead, they can just watch it unfold from their easy chair in Heaven. 

Honestly, that’s hard for me to wrap my arms around. Bottom line is that when things get ‘ugly’ there’s a whole lot of folks who are pretty excited about what they think is their imminent ‘beam me up Scotty” moment. And they’re not thinking at all about their role in creating the ‘ugly’. 

2. Esteemed journalist Bob Woodward said:  “Trump put the Presidency into a moral free fall.”

That pretty much says it all. He was able to do it because his personal life has been in a moral free fall for a long, long time. It’s the habit of his life. 

The sad thing is that he’s been enabled to keep falling by a healthy contingent of religious people (primarily evangelicals) who believe he’s God’s provision for what’s ailing us.

Thus, instead of speaking truth to power, his enablers decided being close to power is a better gig. But they will be sorely disappointed for they are serving a narcissist who demands to be treated as royalty but desires only the accountability reserved for a new born child.

History is not going to treat any of this well. 

3. On the Camino de Santiago a pilgrim encountered these words: “Yo estoy aqui, yo estoy aqui ahora,” or “I am here, I am here now.”

To be present to the present moment simplifies life. In truth, it’s all we can count on. 

4. “Give to the Most High as he has given to you, and as generously as you can afford.” ~ Ecclesiastes

To do this is to remind ourselves that “God is good all the time.” And as we share in that goodness, we are asked to give generously of our time, treasure and talents. 

5. “Don’t tell someone you love them and then vote for someone who will hurt them.” Don’t know who said this but I’m on the same page. 

Did you know that almost every single member of one of our political parties voted against lowering prescription drug costs, tackling climate change, common sense gun laws, repairing the tax system, and lowering health care costs? Did you know that the dismantling of Social Security is on their mind? And yet, they still tell us they care. They don’t. They’ve sold themselves to the highest bidder. 

6. It’s sinful what we continue to do to the Dreamers. There’s still no pathway to citizenship for these young adults who migrated here as children. Their grace period is coming to a close soon. Why do we think ‘keeping them in limbo’ is still a sane and God honoring policy? 

My guess is that certain powerful people are still appalled by the parents of Dreamers who actually believed the hype about America, who believed that America actually saw “comforting the afflicted” as a virtue and that pathways to citizenship could be found. 

So, our country will keep punishing the victims, using them as pawns in some crazy game of gotcha for as long as we can because that’s what we do these days. And if they need to be forced back to a homeland that doesn’t want them – so be it.

Lord have mercy on us. 

7. “Martin Luther King Jr. defined agape love as willingness to serve without the desire for reciprocation, willingness to suffer without the desire for retaliation, and willingness to reconcile without the desire for domination.” ~ Richard Rohr

We miss it – this agape love- because we think everything is transactional. If we don’t get something back in return, we’ve been taught that it has no value. That’s so shallow but it’s the reality for many. 

8. “The poor tell us who we are. The prophets tell us who we can be. So we hide the poor and kill the prophets.” ~ Phillip Berrigan, SJ

Why is our world so afraid of embracing and being taught by the poor and so dismissive of the prophetic voices calling us to be faithful to our truest, most authentic self – the self God envisioned for us from the beginning?

9. “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” ~ Alvin Toffler

They’re stuck in a world that no longer exists, lacking the skills and knowledge to navigate through this time and space effectively. Love the essence of what “learn, unlearn, and relearn” represents. 

10. Within hours of Elon Musk taking control of Twitter there was a 500% increase in the use of the ‘n’ word on that site. Surprised? I’m not. Concerned? Terrified might be a better word. It’s not just Musk either. There’s a cast of characters on the radical right who lack character, wisdom  and boundaries. Somehow, someway their followers don’t mind a bit. It gives me the shivers.

The post Mike’s Rumblings – 11-04-22 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 24 – Ephesians 4:25-32 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

Bette Dickinson

Joanna Harader

I love the season of Advent! If you like to use an advent devotional to companion you through this season, I have two wonderful options for you. This week on Faith Conversations I talk with Bette Dickinson, author of Making Room in Advent: 25 Devotions for a Season of Wonder, as well as Joanna Harader, author of Expecting Emmanuel: Eight Women Who Prepared the Way. On the podcast you’ll get to hear their heart and get to know them as authors, and in the case of Bette, as an artist too. Two extremely thoughtful women who bring us along on the advent journey through art, thoughtful questions, and spiritual practices. I, personally, am going to use both devotionals this advent season. I highly encourage you to pick at least one and invite a friend to do the same as you read and discuss your way through this upcoming season of the Church calendar.

Find Bette Dickinson in the following places:

• Website

Find Joanna Harader in the following places:

• Website

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

The post Bette Dickinson & Joanna Harader – episode 340 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. 10.28.22 

1. Late Tuesday night I prayed. I told God that I was afraid of the rise of authoritarianism across the globe and especially in our country. I asked the Lord to guide me as I dealt with that fear. Throughout scripture we’re admonished to ‘fear not’. That’s a habit worth cultivating. 

2. “No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.” ~ Mark Twain

I’m working hard to not be one of them. Some might argue I should try harder. 

I am reminded that perhaps living more intentionally into promises I made to the Lord several years ago is my pathway to staying sane in a world going crazy – buying into one idiotic notion after another. They are:

3. “Do not be too quick to condemn those who no longer believe in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and selfishness that have chilled their faith.” ~ Thomas Merton

Ouch. This is worth using as an Examen, an essential spiritual exercise that allows us to take stock of our lives – where we fall short and where we don’t. Am I cold, greedy, settling for mediocrity, materialistic, or selfish? If the answer is yes I will not be in a position to represent Jesus very well. 

4. The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” ~ Albert Einstein

Apathy is a horrible thing isn’t it?  

Teddy Roosevelt rocked it back in the day (thus the lack of inclusive language). Who are you in this very challenging address? 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

For sure, I don’t want to be a “cold and timid soul.”  In the coldness and timidity, apathy takes root. If that ever happens to me please let me know. You have my permission to whack me upside the head.

5. “It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy. Embrace the joyous task we have been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours because, for all our outward differences, we in fact all share the same proud type, the most important office in a democracy,  CITIZEN.”  ~ Barack Obama, Midterms 2018 

Vote. Vote wisely and prayerfully. 

6. “The most interesting people to watch right now are Republicans who are trying to decide whether they submit to “the truth of power” or “the power of truth.” The most impressive ones are those who suffer real costs for choosing bedrock truth over Trumpian power.” ~ Introducing Christian Ethics, David Gushee

This is well stated. It’s downright scary, isn’t it, to see so many candidates choosing power over truth. If they are ever elected will we ever be able to trust them? I’ll be honest. There’s no way I’d trust them. Not for a minute. Trust happens when you can count on the character of someone being rock solid. If they’ve sold their character to the highest bidder they have nothing solid to build upon.

7. “God speaks to us through the people who speak to us about the things of God.” ~  Henri Nouwen

Who are your people? They are the ones who show up for you consistently and show you how much they love you. They are the ones who ask you the hard questions and then give you the space to work it out with God. They are the ones who pray for you and never let you go.

8. Y’all realize that you’re more than the worst thing you’ve ever done, right? Sometimes, we give the memories of our sin way too much power, dwelling on them to the point of emotional exhaustion. We end up tearing ourselves down.

Those memories, however, can also beckon us to repentance and then confession which can morph into transformation. We can then become, as Nouwen phrased it. “wounded healers.” 

In the battle between becoming a wounded healer vs wallowing in self condemnation there’s a pretty clear choice I think. But it’s a choice that might take a while to work itself out. 

9. “At a 1960 lunch counter sit-in protesting segregation in Arlington, Virginia, Quaker peace activist David Hartsough discovered God’s power in the power of nonviolence: 

“Love your enemies . . . do good to those who hate you.” 

I was meditating on those words when I heard a voice behind me say, “Get out of this store in two seconds, or I’m going to stab this through your heart.” I glanced behind me at a man with the most terrible look of hatred I had ever seen. His eyes blazed, his jaw quivered, and his shaking hand held a switchblade—about half an inch from my heart. . . .

I turned around and tried my best to smile. Looking him in the eye, I said to him, “Friend, do what you believe is right, and I will still try to love you.” Both his jaw and his hand dropped. Miraculously, he turned away and walked out of the store.

That was the most powerful experience of my twenty years of life. It confirmed my belief in the power of love, the power of goodness, the power of God working through us to overcome hatred and violence. I had a profound sense that nonviolence really works. At that moment, nonviolence became much more than a philosophical idea or a tactic that had once made a difference in Gandhi’s India. It became the way I wanted to relate to other human beings, a way of life, a way of working for change.

My response had touched something in my accuser. He had seen me as an enemy. But through my response, I believe I became a human being to him. The humanity in each of us touched.” ~ Center for Action and Contemplation

I needed to read this. There’s a way to do things and violence isn’t the answer. I’ve known that for a long time but sometimes forget. In a world where “arming up”  is considered to be of utmost importance, the path of non-violence beckons us. 

10. I met a woman last week named Sheila and discovered she led her first civil rights protest in third grade. In the sixties, there was a bank in Sarasota that refused to allow Black children to participate in their “Christmas Club” savings program. She organized classmates and her neighborhood to stand against this injustice. They won. She has never quit speaking truth to power. 

And us?

It’s been suggested by more than a few people that perhaps “we are too full of privilege to care about justice.”

Let me offer a ‘for instance’.

Anti-Semitic and Racial taunts and actions are on the increase. This too is a Justice issue. Where do you stand? Is your voice being raised? Are you demanding accountability from elected leaders? Are you too caught up in your ‘privilege’ to do what you know needs to be done? If you are not acquainted with anyone of color or a Jew does it even register that these things are happening? 

The post Mike’s Rumblings – 10-28-22 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 23 – John 7:37-39 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

Do the stresses and anxieties of life sometimes make you feel as if you can’t breathe? Or maybe you find it difficult to pray when worry and fear are overwhelming your mind. Jennifer Tucker joins me on this episode of Faith Conversations to talk about Breath As Prayer. In her new book by that title, she helps us calm our anxiety, focus our mind and renew our soul. Not only is the book beautiful because Jennifer is an illustrator, lettering artist and graphic designer, but she is a thoughtful author who leads us through the beautiful spiritual practice of breath prayer. I hope, besides listening to our conversation, you’ll check out her book and follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

Here is where you can connect with Jennifer Tucker:

• Website

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

The post Jennifer Tucker – episode 339 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.