Author: revdbeth

I am a retired Episcopal priest after serving over thirty years in Diocese of Texas and a Benedictine Oblate of Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, Indiana. I'm also an eighth generation Texan. My daughter, The Homesick Texan, has moved back home to Texas. My son and his wife live in Bend, Oregon, with my two grandsons who call me Grandma Texas.

Seeing with the Eyes of our Heart

 

As a Benedictine oblate, I am familiar with the instruction to listen with the ears of one’s heart.   When I read the title of Christine Valters Piantner’s new book, Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice, I was very curious.

I’ve taken photographs since receiving my first camera when I was six years old.  Over the years, there have been many times that photographing moments in time have been a kind of prayer.  In Christine’s new book, flesh is put on using photography as a spiritual practice.

Each chapter has both places to ponder and explore.  I started the book during a Lenten retreat, and almost immediately ran into challenges when there was invitation in an early practice of receiving (in contrast to taking) one, and only one, picture each day. I admit that I was not disciplined enough to move beyond receiving only one photo daily of beautiful Tybee Island, Georgia. However, I was more mindful of receiving each picture I took, and reflective of which one would be my photo of the day.  This is the kind of quotidian inspiration Christine’s book encourages–to be more mindful of Christ’s daily presence in our life, and to use our camera to encourage us to stop in time.

 

Since this is a practice of prayer, Christine emphasizes time and again that it is not about how beautiful a photo is or how artistically it is taken.  It is prayer, and so all of our offerings are especially beloved and received by God.

While this book can be used as a whole to create a self-guided retreat for an individual or a group, the bonus is the resource it is for clergy and others who lead communities of faith.  Within each chapter there is a treasure trove of jumping off points of individual exercises that can stand on their own.

Inspired by Eyes of our Heart, during Lent I led a group of girls in a photographic exploration of how they would describe their prayer practice through their hands, and did the same activity with a group of women the next evening. The photos in this blog are from those two contemplative events.

 

This is a book to be savored slowly rather than to be gulped.  It is also a book to which one can return time after time and find a little jewel to move our day from the forgetful to the holy.

As we move into the season of summer when we are especially inspired to use our cameras to remember a moment of beauty and recreation, Eyes of the Heart would be a great companion to journey with us.  My copy is on my Kindle, so it has been an easy traveling anam cara these past four months.  I invite you to join me.

Still covered in grace

And so another WTBG ends.
Worship.
Early morning coffee.
Stories shared.
Many desserts eaten.
Songs sung.  And danced.
Prayers prayed.
Laughter.
Tears.
Hopes.
Disappointments.
Tips and more tips.

Spring beginning to emerge.

Thank you, Sister Mary Luke.  Our pastor and friend.

A Walk of Grace

To celebrate their fiftieth anniversary, the sisters of Our Lady of Grace converted their tennis court into a labyrinth. Walking it each day has been as much a part of my daily prayers as Morning, Noonday, and Evening Praise with the sisters in their chapel.

It’s spring in Indiana, so every day’s walk is different. The first day’s began in drizzle that turned to sunshine by the end of the walk.

On Thursday, it was cold and windy, and I walked all bundled up. I was joined by another prayer walker, and we bowed at one another as we made room for the other to walk by as our path’s crossed.

On Friday it was so warm that I walked without any wrap at all. I walked the labyrinth rather quickly in preparation for a session of healing touch with one of the sisters.

Today is cool and gray, and I’ll need to walk soon to avoid possible rain.

Each step is a prayer; each step is full of grace.

Touched by Grace

In 2003, I became part of a group of 30 women clergy chosen by the Lilly Foundation for a Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Grant. For the next three years, we pastors gathered at Our Lady of Grace Monastery, a Benedictine monastery in Beech Grove, Indiana twice yearly for ten day retreats. Our seventh retreat was in Italy, walking in the steps of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica ( brother and sister). It was life-changing.

We got a follow-up grant for two more retreats at the monastery, and several of us became oblates of Our Lady of Grace, committing to follow a Benedictine rule of life back home. Another 40 women have been part of Women Touched by Grace sequels, and so the joy continues.

Today starts WTBG I’s first reunion. About two-thirds of us will be returning to live in community once again for the next six days.

Prayers with the sisters at 5.45 in their chapel– it’s so very good to be home.