Category: Spirituality
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Lent Week 4: Formed by Prayer
Sometimes as I’m reading through the stories of scripture a line from the stories will touch an ache in me. I find that I’ll hold on to those words for weeks and let them become a prayer. I allow the sacred words to do the hard work of reshaping my unhealthy thoughts. I’ll let the…
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Lent Week 3: Stories of Encounter
For the third week of lent, let’s return to the gospel stories. If you need a refresher of the Ignatian method of reading the gospel with your interior senses, refer back to Lent Week 1. This week let’s focus on the stories of folks who encountered Jesus. Readings for the Third Week of Lent: Day 1:…
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Cultivating Discernment
For Lent Week 2 The word discernment normally appears in our life during times of major life transitions. As I’m entering into my own season of discernment, though, I am realizing that I have misunderstood what discernment actually means. I am learning, particularly through the Ignatian tradition, that discernment is a spiritual practice cultivated over time…
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Lent Week 1: Gospel Stories
One way to engage in the season of lent is to immerse ourselves in the gospel stories. During lent we journey with Jesus to the cross and prepare our hearts for Easter. We do this by reading and reminiscing the stories of Jesus as he interacted with people, engaged in teachings and discussions, and performed…
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Prayers of Repentance
One of the main themes of lent is confession and repentance. In our current church culture we often don’t like to dwell too long on these themes. We are quick to move past them in order to get to grace and forgiveness. Lent invites us to stay a little bit longer in the place of…
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Sacred Spaces – Boyle Heights
When I step into Boyle Heights I am an outsider. I do not fully understand what I am seeing and hearing as I walk around the neighborhood. Last fall I went on a guided tour of Boyle Heights organized by LA Commons and led by urban planner James Rojas. A local informant not only points…
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Taste
I first visited the Jain Center of Southern California in Buena Park to meet someone I needed to interview for a class project. We had made arrangements by email, but I did not expect that on the day I visited the Jain Center they would be hosting a large ecology conference. I had no idea…
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Touch
One of the oldest built sacred spaces in the city of Los Angeles is Our Lady Queen of Angels, but more commonly known as “La Placita.” The early Franciscans established this small chapel and enclosed courtyard, but today it is a symbolic and meaningful sacred space claimed by the Hispanic community. La Placita is a…
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Sight
I did not expect St. Basil’s to be so colorful. I walked in to St. Basil’s from the sidewalks of Wilshire Boulevard. Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles was one of the first streets in the city intentionally built for cars. As someone walking next to the wide lanes my view was grey and sparse, and…
Finding Eden 