Vox Veniae Podcast

As we near the beginning of Lent, Gideon Tsang invites us to consider what we hope for in our maturity and transformation [2 Cor 3:12-18].

Reflection

What are your hopes for Lent?

Who allows you to be fully who you are when you are with them and what does that feel like?

Resources

Book: A Hidden Wholeness (Parker Palmer)

Video: Jim Carrey - What it All Means

Video: Yayoi Kusama - Infinity Mirrors

MWG: Discussion Guide

Spiritual Practice

List the characters you’ve played.  How did the characters begin? Which characters are you ready to let go of?

Consider fasting.  How does this restriction lead to freedom?  How does this reconnect me to myself and God?

Dominique DuBois Gilliard explores the history and foundation of mass incarceration. And, reflects on how Christians can pursue justice that restores and reconciles. [Acts 16:16-40]

Reflection

What is our relationship to the good news when it comes at a cost to our ability to offer participation?

How can you take a step in using your privilege to hold systems and structures accountable that dehumanize others?

Kelly Cutbirth reflects on how it’s easy to lose heart and our connection with who we really are, and invites us to look at what it means to turn our hearts towards God and reconnect. [Jeremiah 17]

Reflection

How are we hiding our hearts from ourselves, God, and each other?

When was the last time your heart felt nourished by someone?

Spiritual Practice

How am I hiding my heart from myself, God, and my community?

When was the last time someone gave you the gift of nourishing? Remember what that felt like. What did they do?

How might you offer that to someone this week?

Chris Morton encourages us to look at the nets we are caught in and to consider the nets we can weave together of love and abundance. [Luke 5]

Reflection

What net are you caught in?

What net do you want to be caught up in?

How can we weave a net together?

Resources

MWG: Discussion Guide

Jason Minnix invites us to acknowledge our need for love and how receiving it helps us to see others as they are. [1 Cor 13]

Reflection

What am I being invited to receive today?

What younger places in me need love this week?

Spiritual Practice

Acknowledge our Need and Receive:Name an area where you get stuck in your thought world, an emotionally raw place and/or a bodily addiction.

Confess your need for God’s help, for grace today.

Receive acceptance.

Listen for and receive the words of love you most need today.

As we celebrate and give thanks for our new home, Gideon Tsang invites us to consider how we are all an indispensable part of Christ’s body, both in our strengths and weaknesses. [1 Cor 12]

Reflection

How can you remind yourself this week that your being is pre-approved?

What does it look like to embrace your limitations in order to participate in collaboration?

Resources

Book: The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and the Others in Your Life (Helen Palmer)

Homily Slides: Our Body As Christ’s Body

Spiritual Practice

Pick a body part as a reminder of your pre-approval this week.

Try entering a conversation from or about weakness.

Jason Minnix reflects on the deep and little welcome that creates spaces of belonging and hospitality [John 2:1-11].

Reflection

What does receiving welcome look like for me today?

How am I being invited to engage in small welcomes?

Resources

Video: Spider-Man Into the Spider Verse

 

 

Spiritual Practice

Welcome someone to Vox in the next couple weeks.

Host your expectations.  a. Consider an area of disappointment right now.
  b. Welcome any emotions here (grief, sadness, etc)
  c. Am I getting too overwhelmed? Take a 1/2 step back.  d4. Have I pulled too far back and need to re-engage a little? Take a 1/2 step in.  How can we live in the tension of what we hoped for and what is, together?

Virginia Cumberbatch and Gideon Tsang dialogue around what it would be like to see our city of Austin as a beloved community [Luke 3:15-17, 21-22].

Reflection

How can we continue to ask questions about our city with intention and humility?

How can we enter spaces of discomfort to form connection?

As we continue the Advent season, we’re invited to explore the Scriptures through the contemplative practice of Lectio Divina [Luke 1:46-55].

Reflection

What words or phrases stood out to you from this passage? Why?

How does this text speak to you in your current situation and environment?

What is the text calling you to do or become this week? (How do I need to live in light of this scripture?)

As we prepare for the new year, Jason Minnix explores what we put on in our lives and how we can be dressed in the essence of God [Colossians 3:12-17].

Reflection

What have I received that I need to let go of?

What small part of God's essence would I like to receive and extend in the year to come?

Resources

Podcast: On Being (Walter Brueggemann)

 

Spiritual Practice

Putting On a Little Bit.

Grow quiet and take a couple deep breaths

Listen for one bit that really resonates with you.

Take your word and breath it in. Let it fill your whole body as a gift from God.

Let Go of having to manage any of it on your own.


Set an intention to receive this once a week in the year ahead.