SUNDAY LECTURE | Walking With Thomas Merton

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for August 25, 2024

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Dear Ones -

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Wow! What a wonderful day for Ordinary Life this past Sunday.

Barbara Robberson did an outstanding job with her presentation on “Walking With Thomas Merton.” She said, among other things, that the life of the soul is not knowledge but love and quoted Jim Finley, an authority on Merton, as saying that one of the most important questions for spiritual practice is asking, “Can I join God in knowing who God knows me to be?” One of our goals in doing spiritual work is to see the world through God’s eyes and then act accordingly. If you would like to view or download a copy of the prayer Barbara’s reflection was based on, click here. Thank you Barbara!

To download or listen to today’s talk, use the audio player below.

If you would like to watch the video of today’s class, use the YouTube video link below.

Then, in the afternoon we had the rare and wonderful opportunity to hear virtuoso Rob Landes at the piano. Rob was entertaining and informative. As I looked around the room all I saw were smiles. It was just great.

The registration for our time with Dr. Jacqui Lewis is now “live.” She will be giving the sermon at both services on Sunday, September 22nd. The two of us will be dialoguing during the Ordinary Life hour. Then, she will be doing a program from one to three on Sunday afternoon. There is a registration fee for that. If you elect to live-stream, you will be sent a link shortly before the program begins. Her topic is -

Fierce Love and Toxic Politics

Our podcast, “In Between,” can be accessed through the Ordinary Life web site.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

WEEKLY PODCAST | In Between.165

“Weekly” is a misnomer right now. We haven’t uploaded a podcast in a while. I guess I can just chalk it up to “summer.”

So here we are, trying to find our groove again, and Bill’s ending comment is, “Have you ever had to diagram a sentence?” His point is, “Can you find the subject/verb agreement in this podcast?” You tell us! We tugged on quite a few threads, and in my non-linear brain, they all connect somehow.

I will say this: when Bill asked, “What’s lighting you up these days?” I was feeling kind of meh, kind of uninspired. But every single time I finish a conversation with this man, I am not uninspired. Pick one of the threads and follow it. Google it all the way down. Buy a new book about it or draw a picture.

Here are a few topics to consider:

  1. Ramon Panikkar

  2. Constantine

  3. Lady Anne Conway

  4. Disc Galaxies vs. Spiral Galaxies

  5. Bill’s real age

  6. Hermeneutics

  7. George Bush’s paintings

  8. Elephants

Now, write a short story that includes all these themes, and you will be on track with our podcast! We aim to get back on track with our podcasts and hope you will join us!



SUNDAY LECTURE | Putting Away Childish Things

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for August 18, 2024

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Dear Ones -

I really want to encourage you to make room in your schedule to come and hear renown pianist Rob Landes this coming Sunday afternoon at four o’clock. Rob’s accomplishments are considerable. He is widely known as a pianist, organist, harpist, arranger, conductor and published composer. He made his “debut” on the Art Linkletter program at age four. He has done musical arrangements for Liza Minnelli and Marilyn Maye. He conducted the Count Basie Orchestra and the Buddy Rich Band in concert with Marilyn Maye in one of Rich’e last concerts. In short: he is a talent not to be missed. I promise you, you are in for a real treat when you come to hear Rob play this Sunday at four. The concert will be in Fondren Hall in the Jones Building on St. Paul’s Campus.

As for this week in Ordinary Life: In the process of “growing up” each of us heard three phrases at one time or the other. They are: grow up, wake up, clean up. These words can be used as a summary for what spiritual work is all about What I offered this will is an elaboration on this.

That’s a very brief summary of this week’s time in Ordinary Life.

The audio/video versions of the talk has some differences from the text I spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and links to the audio and video version of the talk using the links below.

The registration for our time with Dr. Jacqui Lewis should go “live” this week. She will be giving the sermon at both services on Sunday, September 22nd. The two of us will be dialoguing during the Ordinary Life hour. Then, she will be doing a program from one to three on Sunday afternoon. There is a registration fee for that. If you elect to live-stream, you will be sent a link shortly before the program begins. Her topic is -

Fierce Love and Toxic Politics

Our podcast, “In Between,” can be accessed through the Ordinary Life web site.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

To view or download the text of the talk, click here.

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

In order to download or just listen to today’s talk, use the audio player link below.

SUNDAY LECTURE | The Purpose and Process of Spiritual Practice

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for August 11, 2024

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Dear Ones -

The registration for our time with Dr. Jacqui Lewis should go “live” this week. She will be giving the sermon at both services on Sunday, September 22nd. The two of us will be dialoguing during the Ordinary Life hour. Then, she will be doing a program from one to three on Sunday afternoon. There is a registration fee for that. If you elect to live-stream, you will be sent a link shortly before the program begins. Her topic is -

Fierce Love and Toxic Politics

Also, pianist Rob Landes will be giving a benefit concert on Sunday afternoon at four o’clock, August 25.

This week in Ordinary Life spiritual director Brooke Summers-Perry offered a most intriguing approach to a “daily spiritual practice.” There is no text available for her talk but the video and presentation slides are available on the Ordinary Life website. I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from what she had to say. Those of you who heard/saw her will want to check out the slides she used for going deeper into this practice. I called it

Letting the Word Read You

That’s a very brief summary of this week’s time in Ordinary Life.

Our podcast, “In Between,” can be accessed through the Ordinary Life web site.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

To download or listen to the audio recording of today’s talk, use the audio player link below.

To watch the video of today’s talk, use the YouTube link below