Dear Middleway Urban Monastery friends,
A song many of us learned as children has been on my mind all day. Whether I was preparing meals, mowing, or any other of the typical weekend chores, the words -- all three verses of them -- kept floating through my mind.
Maybe some of these phrases are known to you, too: "I sing a song of the saints of God..." or "and there's not any reason, no not the least ... "
If the song now lingers in your mind for hours, that's not a bad thing.
The gist of this song is that history has given us scores of Saints with a capital S, but there are also lots of modern day saints with a lower case s. The song tells us, "there's not any reason, no not the least" why we all can't be a saint -- you know, a kind, virtuous, patient person trying to live in God's example.
But there's another reason this song came to my mind this week. I was thinking of the spiritual directors who are leading the way for the development of Middleway Urban Monastery. And one is a doctor and one is a priest, one is college prof and one is an IT whiz. No kidding.
These people volunteer hours each week to provide prayer times, meditations, devotions and book club gatherings. They keep you at the forefront, always trying to think of ways to help you have space for hope, peace and comfort as you explore ways of experiencing God's love.
The saints of God are folks like these, and, God helping, we can be one too.
Read about what's going on at Middleway below. Make a note to check out our Facebook group page or website.
Book club to ponder The Magnificent Defeat for March
Member Kathy Ritter is leading a discussion of the March book, "The Magnificent Defeat" by Frederick Buechner. This week, the discussion will be from the second section, The Triumph of Love, including The Tiger, Follow Me, The Me in Thee, and the first chapter of part Three, The Mystery and Miracle of Grace, entitled The Breath of Life. We gather on Tuesday, March 23, at 7 p.m. Central time. The group is open to all. Here's how to join:
Meeting ID: 862 8991 8385 Passcode: 164675
or call in 1 346 248 7799
We will finish this book on March 30. So go ahead and get the April book and plan to gather with us each Tuesday.
Other books chosen for coming months:
April - Soul Making: The Desert Way of Spirituality by Alan Jones
May - Streams of Living Water by Richard Foster
How to Visit Middleway Urban Monastery
Ready to dig a little deeper spiritually? We're here for you.
You're a "member" if you are receiving this newsletter. Come and see what the monastery has for you online. When you enter our URL, facebook.com/groups/TheMiddlewayUrbanMonastery, it is like opening the door of a physical building, and you will find all that is offered there.
Likewise, you can come to our website and explore the offerings, including links to our Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts, if you like those formats and want to follow.
If you know others who would like to "join," ask them to subscribe to our weekly newsletter by going to https://www.middlewayurbanmonastery.org/contact and entering their email address at the Subscribe button on the lower right.
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