Happy Wednesday, friends!
Spring is in the air, isn’t it? Birds are chirping, the sun is shining, rain showers are beginning to fall and signs of green-life are surfacing from those dormant places of winter.
Spring brings a sense of hope, expectation, and anticipation for what will be. But the season also ushers with it an opportunity for renewal.
Regardless of what season of life you’re in, or what circumstances you find yourself navigating, there is always something new awaiting to emerge. Can you see it?
This month we invite you to consider the role renewal plays on the deepening work of your spiritual journey.
As you sit with the following prompts and print off the below illustration for your own personal soulwork, take a few moments today to also consider this phrase: “to make like new.”
Is there an invitation in these words for you?
-With Joy
A Pause to Practice
Visio Divina is an ancient way of Christian prayer in which space is created to listen and pay attention to the Holy at work by entering into a sacred image. This form of praxis is an invitation into the S.A.C.R.E.D. art of seeing, and the art below is this month’s featured offering for your time of reflection.
-
Step 1 – Stillness: Find a comfortable place of quiet. Take a few deep breaths. Invite God’s presence.
-
Step 2 – Acknowledge: Gaze gently over the entire image, allowing yourself to notice as many details as you can – shapes, colors, lighting, foreground, background, and symbols.
-
Step 3 – Center: Notice what captures your attention, what your eyes are drawn to, or where your thoughts linger. Notice what inspires you, and perhaps what you might also be avoiding.
-
Step 4 – Reflect: Meditate on any part of the image that has captured you. How might God be speaking to you through this? What might the message and meaning be? Is there an invitation in this for you?
-
Step 5 – Express: Find words or a prayer of your heart to articulate the thoughts, emotions, memories, or desires that have awakened. Give voice to the insights you’ve gained.
-
Step 6 – Dwell: Savor this sacred time. Rest in simple silence. Linger in the holiness of this space and place of practice.
Click here for a high-res / full-print version of this art.
A Passage to Ponder
“God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!”
A Poem to Pray
“I give thanks for arriving safely in a new dawn — for the gift of eyes to see the world, the gift of mind to feel at home in my life, the waves of possibility breaking on the shore of dawn, the harvest of the past that awaits my hunger, and all the furtherings this new day will bring.”
To Bless the Space Between Us, “On Waking,” by John O’Donohue
-
If you would like to share this issue of PAUSE – via text, social media, or email – just copy and paste this link: https://joyover.com/pause/april-5-2023
-
Click here for previous month’s art offerings
