In this episode Josh Banner continues the Awakening’s collaboration with the Invitation Podcast as we further explore our focus question: what does a 16-year-old have to teach the church? Here, Josh borrows from a conversation he recently had with Kenda Creasy Dean, the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture at Princeton Seminary, to encourage parents and teens to share their true stories of faith with each other. We hope and pray especially in the midst of Covid-19 this episode #5 will help you to slow down, to be more intentionally present to your family, and to learn with and from each other.

The full unedited, un-produced conversation with Kenda is available for you to listen to.

It’s been too long. I apologize for disappearing. Doing quarantine for a year with young children is not easy. It’s been difficult to get anything done, yet there has been much goodness for the Invitation even in 2020-2021 that I want to share with you.

In this episode I offer good news about this years three cohorts of the School of Prayer, our new spiritual direction practicum, the School of Contemplative Listening, the first annual Invitation Family Camp, the forthcoming episodes, and our summer book club. But first, a mediation for Good Friday, a reading from Fr John Beher’s genius Becoming Human: Meditations on Christian Anthropology in Word and Image.

We can only recognize Jesus through the cross, through his death. Ironically, our life comes through our death, our rising in and through and beyond this world! Fr Beher helps us understand that to be truly human in to die.

Registration for the SOCL is open. We’ll have registration for the SOP and the Family Camp open in the next week.

I hope you and yours are well. Don’t be shy. It’d be great to hear from you!

In November of 2018 Josh sat down for a long-awaited conversation with David Dark, professor of Religion and the Arts at Belmont University. This conversation offers us a bit of sanity as Josh and David consider questions of faith, formation, and politics. In fact, no matter what happens with our election on Nov 3 and the following week, listening to David Dark will help you "slow the tape" and consider the value of a "righteous culture" that has the capacity to ask questions with a deep attentiveness. Josh offers a lengthy introduction offering updates on the Invitation School of Prayer as well as announcing some other exciting news. If you want to skip directly to the conversation with David, move to around the 19:30 mark to begin. If you've not already subscribed to the Invitation Podcast, please visithttps://www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe Thanks for listening! Peace of Christ to you!

Continuing on with Fr Laird's wonderful text A Sunlit Absence, the second book of his three book series on contemplative prayer. Please be sure to subscribe to keep up with the Invitation Podcast, its retreats, and classes www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe

This is an update as we transition from summer to the fall. Work with Fr Laird's A Sunlit Absence will resume soon. In the between weeks, Josh is working to recruit and set up the School of Prayer in in-person and perhaps also in distance learning formats. Much of this episode is focused on a guided prayer through questions of racism. We begin with a selection of readings from the first two chapters of Dr King's collection of sermons, Strength to Love. Then Josh presents an essay he recently wrote as a produced prayer meditation on white supremacy. The essay can be found on the Invitation website. Information about the School of Prayer along with video updates can be found:https://www.invitationpodcast.org/school-of-prayer Thanks for listening! Be blessed even in the midst of this difficult time!

Part XI of marks our journey halfway through Fr Martin Laird's A Sunlit Absence. This episode is the third movement with chapter four. We've spent more time with chapter four because it is the most difficult. If you are having difficulty getting your heart and mind wrapped around chapter four, you are not alone. Press on ahead if and when you sense the goodness of the Holy Spirit drawing. Do not force or fake your way. Read and practice your prayer. Practice your prayer and then come back to pray. All worship and prayer is a continual, ever-deepening rehearsal of the Gospel. As Fr Laird shares Teresa of Avila's words with us: "It is all about love melting into love." If you sense a further drawing into this love and would like some help and guidance this fall, consider The Invitation School of Prayer: https://www.invitationpodcast.org/school-of-prayer

Part X of our journey through Fr Martin Laird's A Sunlit Absence puts us squarely in the middle of the book. This is the second of three treatments of chapter four of the book. As we wade deeper into these waters, Josh wants to give listeners participating more freedom to not only stop listening and working through the book but to even perhaps take a break from the Invitation Podcast altogether. The awkward, strange, and even painful discovery is that as we move closer to God we are invited into more and more sacrifice, more death of self, more shifting of our priorities, and surprisingly more bewilderment. During the time of covid-19, anti-racism protests, and a presidential race we need to find ways to be careful and patient with ourselves. Further commitment to spiritual discipline can anchor us, yet we cannot strive or force ourselves along the way. Sacrifice always needs to be a response to cooperate with and deepen our love of God. If we attempt to earn God's love through contemplative prayer in a spirit of striving, we will drown. For those who sense the Holy Spirit's leading to go further into the discipline of prayer yet who would like further guidance along the way, please consider the Invitation School of Prayer launching this September with online resources for your growth: www.invitationpodcast.org/school-of-prayer Also, make sure to subscribe: www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe

In the context of covid-19, the Invitation has been focusing on A Sunlit Absence, the second of a three-book series on contemplative prayer by Fr Martin Laird. This episode is Part I of two parts comprising an 1.5 hour conversation that Fr Laird so graciously shared with us. Here Josh opens with a brief, guided prayer. Fr Laird shares some opening thoughts about contemplation in the context of all suffering we are experiencing throughout the world. Then we are able to interact with two questions from Invitation Podcast listeners who joined in to our zoom conversation. The next episode, No 60, will be Part X of our journey through A Sunlit Absence. Shortly after Part II of this conversation of Q&A with Fr Laird will be available to you. Thanks for listening and continuing the journey. Subscribe to the invitation to stay updated about new episodes, classes, and retreats available from the Invitation: https://www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe

Part IX of our journey through Fr Martin Laird's A Sunlit Absence takes us into chapter four which is also titled, "A Sunlit Absence." This is the thickest and most challenging chapter of the book, so before diving into chapter four Josh spends ample time reviewing what is contemplation and why we are bothering with it especially in our present, painful time of pandemic and political strife. The pursuit of contemplative practice is at times bewildering and challenging, but with patience and persistence we will gain the reward of God's presence and friendship.

A Reformed Pastor and Catholic Theologian Walk Into a Bar…. No. This isn’t the lead into a joke. These two friends didn’t walk into a bar, they sat in my office in August 2018 to talk about contemplative prayer, the Lord’s prayer, catechism, and theological orthodoxy. As a pause from our series through Fr Martin Laird’s A Sunlit Absence, Pastor Dominic Palacios and Dr Jared Ortiz speak candidly about the tensions within the church to engage the deeper levels of transformation available in contemplative spirituality. The greatest gift these two men offer is a way of sharing what they have in common in Jesus Christ rather than focusing on what makes them different. In the context of our very divided society and its culture wars, this conversation displays that there is peace, love, hope, growth, unity, fellowship still possible even today! Please subscribe to the Invitation Podcast to stay informed about the new episode, retreats, and classes we offer: https://www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe