Every Tuesday morning from 9 to 9:30 am near the corner of 35th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan, a 40-something female minister stands outside her historic church next to a chalkboard reading "Ask Me For a Blessing." Over the years, passersby of all kinds have stopped to receive one -- believers and unbelievers alike. Hosts Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg interview The Reverend Adrian Dannhauser, a ballerina turned corporate lawyer turned Yale Divinity School student who now serves as priest-in-charge of the Church of the Incarnation, the parish First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once called her own, about her sidewalk ministry and how she helps others draw closer to God.
Adrian is the author of the new book ASK ME FOR A BLESSING: You Know You Need One, which Publishers Weekly called, "a compassionate meditation on the power of blessings....The anecdotes make for captivating miniature character portraits that brim with folk wisdom [and make] for a touching Christian variation on Humans of New York, with humanity and insight to spare."
Especially as we head into the Christmas season, many people feel -- as Dannhauser puts it -- "hungry for spiritual connection to the divine, because intuitively we know that there has to be more than this." This interview covers:
+ meditation and contemplative prayer
+ hearing God's voice
+ sacred spaces
+ drawing closer to God
+ the importance of humility
+ the power of God's Love, and God's desire to be close to us
+ going deeper with God through suffering or prayer, or both
+ deep listening
+ Love Poems from God (one of Adrian's favorite inspirational books)
+ God as Love
+ "Naming the Holy"
+ The Examen (a powerful 5-step nightly prayer devised by St. Ignatius of Loyola)
+ being in friendship with God
+ moments of Grace
+ how God works through other people
+ having "the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the heart to understand"
+ Wednesday at 12:15 pm Prayers for Healing at the Church of the Incarnation (providing anointing with holy oil and the laying on of hands)
+ increasing your faith
+ investing in your relationship with God
"For people of Christian faith, other faiths, or no faith at all, having spiritual conversations, even awkward ones with strangers on the street, can help us face our vulnerability, where we may discover a grace sufficient for all."
--from the book jacket of ASK ME FOR A BLESSING
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