Dear Folks -
Richard Rohr, the person I call my "spiritual teacher" - that's why I
quote him so much - calls the Sermon on the Mount "Jesus' Plan for a
New World." The values of this world are very upside-down from those
of the culture in which we live. So, for at least this week and the
next, we are going to talk about the beliefs and "new laws" of the
world as Jesus saw it.
For starters I want to recommend that you do something, especially if
you want to feel hopeful about our future. Go to the following link
and listen to the story. It will take you less than five minutes and
will touch your heart.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99478226
One of the beliefs that matters is that everybody belongs and that
everybody matters. In our sea of affluence we can forget those who
have so little. I am going to take advantage of the fact that Dr. Don
Thomas, our connection with AIDS work in Malawi, is in town this week.
He and I are going to have a dialogue in Ordinary Life this week about
the current status of the work in Malawi and about how to address the
issue of poverty in a world where three billion people live on less
than two dollars a day and two billion of those have no access the
clean drinking water.
Much love,
Bill Kerley
Click here to Download audio 20090125.mp3
Read moreDear Folks -
This week in the Ordinary Life Talk I gave I tried to explore what it might mean to apply the phrases to ourselves that we are "the salt of the earth and the light of the world." It certainly does not mean that the ego should be inflated by this. The ego must decrease and the Self must increase. The main goal of spiritual work is not so that the ego can 'become something or someone." The main goal is what has to happen so that we can become a transforming influence in the world. The talk closes with the true story of a man playing a violin in a subway in Washington.
Much love,
Bill Kerley
click here to download 20090118.pdf
click here to download 20090118.mp3
Read moreDear Folks -
Did you know that you can subscribe to the podcast of Ordinary Life on
iTunes? Go to this site
http://www.ordinarylife.org/ordinary_life_podcast/
on the page you will find a link to "subscribe to this podcast." I am
so grateful to Richard Wingfield and Susanna Hooper for so faithfully
tending to such matters.
This week in the talk I gave I began with the importance of our asking
open and honest questions. So many of the questions we ask do not fall
into this category. If we do ask such questions, we just never know
where our spiritual work is going to take us. This leads to sharing
the experience I had in Albuquerque attending a conference on the
Enneagram. What I hoped to illustrate is that each of us has a barrier
that can easily keep us from living in the here and now. When we are
present we discover that all we need is to live the abundant life is
already present. The question for spiritual practice is this: are we
here?
Much love,
Bill Kerley
click here to Download 20090111.pdf
click here to Download 20090111.mp3
Read moreDear Folks -
I have asked Mike Butera to start the New Year off for us in Ordinary
Life. Mike is one of the most popular speakers we have been privileged
to have speak for and to us. Here is what he has sent me about what he
plans to say -
NEW YEARS REFLECTIONS OF A PSYCHOTHERAPIST AND FORMER CATHOLIC PRIEST AS
HE TURNS 75 THIS JANUARY
"Essentially my confession will be that all the searching and striving
for happiness and self fulfillment never really did the trick. When it
comes to happiness the secret seems to be closely related to
surrendering in service of others. Or, quite simply, love others in the
disposition of Faith in the Divine."
What a way to begin the year and what a way to continue our exploration
of the "moral obligation to be happy."
Much love,
Bill Kerley
Click here to Download 20090104.mp3
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