Becky Eldredge's Blog, page 25

Inviting You Deeper: Remaining with Jesus

This week my team member, Charlotte Phillips, continues to share her heart focusing on how to remain with Jesus in prayer as everything is changing. 

To be honest I was still pretty stressed last week. At some point mid-week, I realized my prayer life had been disrupted by this novel virus. I also realized that while I love my husband and children dearly, we had spent almost every moment together since that previous Friday afternoon. Every moment. 

Not only did the introverted side of me need some time alone, I also realized I needed my time alone with God to breathe, to feel God’s loving embrace. As we were getting the kids ready for bed, I told my husband I needed some time alone. I needed my prayer time. He of course had no problem with this and stayed in our bedroom to give me time and space.  

After we completed our nightly family bedtime ritual, I grabbed my Give Us This Day, Bible, and computer (to journal) and went into our living room. For an hour, I left all my worries and concerns about what will happen and spent time with God in prayer. I read the passage from Matthew that I mentioned last week repeatedly. I cried out to God. And at the end of my prayer time a new feeling consumed me – I felt peace. I felt peace knowing we are not in this alone – God is ALWAYS with us.  

The next morning after this powerful prayer experience, I woke up and reality hit again. We were still “homeschooling” and social distancing, and I felt myself going back to the worry, going back to the stress. I closed my eyes and breathed. I remembered we are not alone, and I remembered the deep peace I felt the night before. I didn’t want this peace to leave. I knew I had to figure out a new prayer routine. I knew I needed to make time to go to my inner chapel every day to spend time with God in prayer. So I did. 

Before COVID-19, my prayer time was during lunch on the days all the kids go to school, or after they go to bed on the days they are home. My new prayer routine is every day after lunch, I sit in the rocking chair in the boys’ room while our two-year-old falls asleep. Instead of reading a children’s book, I read the daily readings and reflections from Give Us This Day out loud until he falls asleep, then I continue to spend time with God in prayer.  

Checking Our Prayer Time 

Maybe you are having to figure out a new prayer routine, too. How are you making time for God in prayer each day? Take a minute and notice… has your prayer routine changed due to the impact of COVID-19? Is there anything you need to change/adjust in your prayer routine? Do you need to ask your loved ones for time to be with God? 

Although this is a difficult time for all of us, I encourage you to not lose hope. GOD IS WITH US. With God’s help we will make it through this uncertain time. God is ALWAYS ready to listen to our prayers. Jeremiah 29:12-13 tells us,

When you call me, and come and pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me. 

While our lives may be turned upside down, we can still go to our inner chapel daily and spend time with God. We can find peace in knowing that even though everything around us may be changing, God’s presence in our lives remains the same. 

As the days and weeks of uncertainty continue, let us not be overcome by fear. Let us instead go to God in prayer. Because with God we can overcome our fears. God can give us peace in the uncertainty. Even if you cannot put words to all the emotions and feelings welling up inside, God still hears our prayer, God knows our heart. St. Paul reminds us,  

In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will.” (Romans 8:26-27).   

God knows we are hurting. God knows we are scared. But God is not going to abandon us. We are NOT alone. God is with us. 

Go Deeper?

As you review your prayer life, you might want to re-evaluate your Spiritual Plan. Use the Creating a Spiritual Plan worksheet to help you out. This handout on Creating a Prayer Practice might also be helpful.
Visit my Spiritual Support webpage with links and resources during this unprecedented time of COVID-19.
Follow me on Facebook & Instagram for daily scripture inspiration and for the latest resources!
Please continue to email me resources you are using or coming across so we can continue to compile them and share them for others’ to use.

Join Me, Virtually!

Making Hope Real LIVE Virtual Retreat: March 31 or April 1
With the reality of what we are facing in our lives, what others are facing around us, and what our world is facing together, how can we continue to have hope?
In this live virtual retreat, I’ll show you how to make hope real, even when this season of life feels anything but hopeful.Offered Two Different Times:
Tuesday, March 31 from 9 am – 12:30 pm CT OR Wednesday, April 1, 6 pm – 9:30 pm CT
Featuring guided prayer, three 30-minute talks live from Becky Eldredge, small group discussion, handouts and resources, and time for silent reflection. Just like on my in-person retreats, there will be a mix of presentations and guided prayer via Zoom, and times for silent reflection (away from the computer) with prayer guides and resources. This will be a pay what you are able offering. Read more here about the retreat and why I’m leading it.  Here’s the direct link to register. Please share this with friends! 
Prayer Tool Tuesday – Each Tuesday at 4:30 pm Central via Zoom – Gather with my dear friend Stephanie Clouatre Davis and I this week, March 31st, to break open scripture using a centuries old prayer tool, Lectio Divina.
Wanting a directed retreat? Wanting more prayer support during this time? The retreat directors from the Online Busy Person’s Retreat are happy to extend the invitation of an online busy person’s retreat on your schedule – meeting online with a spiritual director for one hour a day for four-days. If interested, email info@beckyeldredge.com with the four days and timeframe you have available and we will work to match you with a director.

The Inner Chapel: My New Book!

 My new book is coming out April 13. As a sincere “Thank You!” to all of you for your support, my publisher has extended a 30% off code for orders and preorders through August 13. Simply go to Loyolapress.com/innerchapel and use promo code 5207.

Inviting You Deeper: Finding God in the Chaos

This week, my team member, Charlotte Phillips, shares her heart with us in the midst of all the chaos — where is God?

In a moment our lives were turned upside down. A couple weeks ago, I knew the kids *may* be home from school for a week or two. I knew the number of positive coronavirus cases would continue to increase. I knew there could be changes in our day to day activities. But one thing I did not know was the immediate psychological effect this would have on me. Maybe you are feeling the same way? 

On Friday, March 13, just a couple hours before carpool, the Louisiana Governor, John Bel Edwards, made the decision to close all schools for a month. When I heard the news I just sat there stunned. Questions poured through my head…How am I supposed to work with the kids home? What are the older two going to do about schoolwork? How am I going to keep the little two busy while said work and schoolwork are taking place?  

The weekend felt like a blur-going through the motions. Monday morning came and as a desperate attempt to hold onto to some normalcy we went to morning Mass. As we walked into the small chapel there were a lot more people there than my husband or I expected. So, to practice social distancing we stayed in the back. This was just enough of a change that the younger two kids were running around and being loud.  I could feel the loss of control leaving my body as my husband and I attempted to go to Mass while passing our kids back and forth to calm them. Inside, I cried out: 

“I just need this morning to be normal!”  

But my morning was anything but normal. The kids were home. Work priorities had shifted as a result of events being cancelled. I didn’t know how long our life would be this way. Our world is anything but normal right now. We are working from home or being laid off. We are homeschooling our kids and cancelling plans with friends. We cannot go out to eat or go to the gym. We can no longer gather as a community to worship. In just a few days we were completely stripped of our routines. I don’t know about you, but this stripping of our routines, our normalcy, is causing a level of vulnerability I haven’t felt before.  

That morning, control felt as though it was seeping through the spaces between my fingers. I became angry. Nothing went as I thought it would. The next day came and I set my expectations for how the day would go much lower. The end of the day came, and I still felt that anger at the loss of control. I also felt sadness. 

Why did I feel this way? 

I compared this feeling to the days and weeks after my Dad died this fall. While the death of my father was obviously much harder to handle, I finally realized I am grieving the loss of control. I am grieving a sense of normalcy. Maybe you are grieving the loss of normalcy, too? Maybe the loss of control is reminding you of other moments in your life that you lost control?  

At some point mid-week during all the chaos I was able to quiet my mind just long enough to feel God’s presence. As I was cooking dinner, I could feel my entire body tense as I heard crying and screaming from the other room. In that moment I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and remembered one of my favorite parts from Matthew’s gospel, the end of the Sermon on the Mount:  

Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your lifespan? Why are you anxious about clothes?
 

Learn from the way the  wildflowers  grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. 

 

Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. (Matthew 6: 25-34) 

As I continued to prepare dinner I held onto “Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.”  

It became my mantra. Perhaps, it could be yours too? 

This is a scary time. It isn’t easy feeling like we’ve lost control. We are all experiencing a new level of chaos and uncertainty. It is easy to worry. It is easy to let fear creep in. It is easy to feel alone. But even though we are scared we are NOT alone. God is ALWAYS with us. No matter what, God is not going to abandon us.  

Psalms 46 tells us,  

God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in distress. Thus, we do not fear, though earth be shaken and mountains quake to the depths of the sea. Though its waters rage and foam and mountains totter at its surging. God is in its midst; it shall not be shaken; God will help it at break of day. The Lord of hosts is with us. (Psalms 46: 2-4, 6, 8)   

God isn’t going anywhere.   

I invite you to join me in crying out to God. I encourage you to join me in breathing in and embracing God’s unfailing love, God’s unfailing strength. This virus may strip us of our routines, but it does not strip us of God’s love and presence in our lives. We will make it through this trying time. Let us remember we are not alone; God is always with us. 

Resources for Your Personal Prayer and Your Ministry: 

Visit my NEW Spiritual Support webpage with links and resources during this unprecedented time. 
Follow me on Facebook & Instagram for daily scripture inspiration and for the latest resources!
Please continue to email me resources you are using or coming across so we can continue to compile them and share them for others’ to use.

Inviting You Deeper: Belonging to Jesus

Late Friday morning, Chris and I began to get wind that our children’s school was looking to possibly close in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19.   Both of us began to get very ansty as we heard the possibility of this happening.  Our concerns were about how in the world to make the logistics of work and school at home for our children work, but also about the reality of what we are facing right now around the world.  At noon on Friday, the Louisiana governor announced that all public schools were to close until April 13th.  Within an hour, all of the Diocesan Catholic schools followed suit.  

Text messages began to fly around between fellow parents, friends, and family, and it was hard to keep up with them all.  There was a moment Friday evening when I was trying to absorb it all, where I felt like any solid ground I was standing on was shifting.    Within my inner chapel, I felt myself crying out to God to for help and praying for all those already impacted.  

To this day, I am deeply thankful that God brought me a few years ago to the Psalms as part of my daily prayer.  The words rise within me often as words of comfort and hope.  Friday, the words of Psalm 40 welled up within me: 

Surely, I wait for the LORD;

who bends down to me and hears my cry,

Draws me up from the pit of destruction,

out of the muddy clay, 

Sets my feet upon rock,

steadies my steps (Psalm 40: 2-3)

These words poured over me like a healing balm.  The words anchored me and steadied my heart and also my steps the rest of the day.  Reminding me that even as the news is shifting hourly about the impact and spread of the Coronavirus, that we are not alone.  God is with us.   That while the communities we belong to, even our communities of faith, are temporarily pausing gatherings, that we still belong to Jesus.  I am clinging to this promise right now:  We belong to God.  

In the days and weeks ahead, I invite us to continue to make prayer our solid ground.  Let our time with God anchor us and steady our feet.   When we pause and go to our inner chapels, we are not entering an empty silence.  We are entering quiet with Someone who we belong to, who loves us, and who fully sees us.  Let the promise that we are not alone steady our footsteps in the days ahead.  Let us embrace that God is with us and we are not alone.  

May Jesus, the One whom we belong to, steady our steps and show us our ways to respond for the common good for all.  

Resources for Your Personal Prayer and Your Ministry:

Psalms & Scriptures: Psalm 27// “Teach me Your Path, O Lord”Jn 14:27// “Peace I leave you; My peace I give to you.” Psalm 46: 1// God is our refuge and our strength, an ever present help in times of trouble.” Psalm 100// “Know that the LORD is God, he made us, we belong to him, we are his people, the flock he shepherdsHelpful Articles on Prayer during the Pandemic: One of our readers from this community, Reverend Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia wrote a beautiful reflection on Matthew 8 that she shared with me. When we are Stuck” // article I wrote on what to do when in desolation Ways to Pray when we Cannot attend Mass: “No Mass? Practice Spiritual Communion” Tim Muldoon’s articleFather Michael Alello, one of our family’s dear friends, complied a great resource on 6 ways to pray as a family when you cannot attend mass and this prayer for spiritual communion. See the images below to save.

Please continue to email me resources you are using or coming across so we can continue to compile them and share them for others’ to use.

Inviting You Deeper: Resting With Jesus

Our series, Inviting You Deeper, continues today with the call to rest with Jesus. As we walk through the Lenten and Easter seasons, we will unpack the many gifts and promises that come from a relationship with Jesus. This series is based on some of the themes that are in my next book, The Inner Chapel, being released in April. Join my Book Launch Team here! 

A year or so after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, I attended a workshop for ministry colleagues focusing on renewing our spirits after a hard year of ministry.  The facilitator, Sr. Lucy, shared a story that continues to stay with me to this day and is perfectly fitting for our theme this week… Resting with Jesus.    

Sr. Lucy told of a conversation she had with a woman who had been in New Orleans not only during Hurricane Katrina, but in the months afterwards doing pastoral ministry and rebuilding work.  The woman shared with Sr. Lucy how she was having trouble praying.  She shared how she had a mix of feeling completely exhausted and poured out.  Having lost most of her own belongings in the storm as well, she shared with Sr. Lucy how angry she was at God and how overwhelmed she felt at the devastation and loss in not only her life but in everyone’s life.   

Sr. Lucy asked her, “What’s your prayer like right now?”  

The woman replied to her, “All that comes is an image of Jesus sitting in a boat.  I’m sitting with him in it.  I’m too tired to talk.  I feel I cannot do anything, listen or even say anything.  We are just sitting there together.”  

As Sr. Lucy listened to the woman, she affirmed how honest her prayer is and how powerful this image was.  She asked the woman, “Aren’t you simply resting with Jesus?”  She went on to encourage the woman to simply stay there with him in the boat.  Rest with him in the safety of the boat.  You are with me.  He is with you.   

Be Still and Know that I am God 

This image continues to support me in my prayer all these years later, especially when I am feeling exhausted, poured out and tired.   

I don’t know about you, but there are moments in my life when all I can do is get in the boat with Jesus and simply be there.  If I am honest, there are moments when I feel I cannot even get into the boat because of feeling too tired.  Sometimes, when I get into the boat with Jesus words do not come.  Sometimes, I am too tired to hear what he might have to offer me via words.   

Resting with Jesus in the boat reminds me of Psalm 46: 11, “Be Still and Know that I am God.” Sitting in the presence of the One who loves us, knows us, and sees us is sometimes the most powerful prayer we can pray.  That’s the gift of a friendship with Jesus.  He doesn’t require words from us.  He doesn’t demand our prayer be filled with action.  In my experience of prayer, I feel Jesus simply celebrates that we are there. 

Inviting You Deeper Challenge: 

There is a gift in simply resting with Jesus.  Be with him.  Acknowledge he is with you.

Go Deeper:

Read Be Still with Jesus and Never Alone
Make a one-on-one retreat online with a spiritual director during our  Lenten Online Busy Person Retreat , coming up March 16-19. There is still space available! Please consider if you’re being called to join us and take this time to rest with Jesus!
Register for my new online retreat that brings the preached retreat experience to your email with content sent weekly for you to work through individually, on your own schedule, giving you resources to help you find stillness and build a prayer practice, “Overwhelmed No More: 6 Ways to Discover and Live God’s Vision for Your Life”.

The Inner Chapel: MY NEW BOOK!

I cannot imagine carrying this next book, The Inner Chapel, out into the world without your help. I would love for you to join The Inner Chapel Launch Team! Together, let’s birth this book into the world and spread the Good News! Read more about it here or go directly to the sign up page here. Sign up by Thursday, March 12 at Midnight! 
  Pre-order here and watch your email for a special invitation next week to be on my Book Launch Team.
In the Baton Rouge Area? Come celebrate the new book with us! The Inner Chapel Book Launch Party is April 18 at St. Thomas More Parish. Come for the 4:30pm vigil mass and then move to the parish hall for food, celebration, prayer, and book signings. Flyer here. RSVP here.

Inviting you Deeper as We Walk with Christ: 

Lenten Edition of the retreat that comes to you!  March 16-19, 2020: Online Busy Person’s Retreat
March 28, 2020:  Women’s Retreat at St. Rita Parish, Dallas, TX
March 29-31, 2020: Church of the Presentation Parish Mission, New Jersey
April 4, 2020:  Women’s Lenten Day of Reflection, Birmingham, AL
Make plans to join me on an in-person Silent Ignatian retreat for women! Seeking Grace: August 27-30, 2020 at Rosaryville Spirit Life Center with Stephanie Clouatre Davis. More info & register here.
Sign up for my Prayer Team and pledge to pray for the weekly prayer requests posted on my Facebook & Instagram, and for the attendees of upcoming events. Email info@beckyeldredge.com.

Inviting You Deeper: Fix Your Eyes on Jesus

Today begins our series called, Inviting You Deeper. As we walk through the Lenten and Easter seasons, we will unpack the many gifts and promises that come from a relationship with Jesus. This series is based on some of the themes that are in my next book, The Inner Chapel, being released in April. We start with the invitation to fix your eyes on Jesus.   

We all need a still point. A place to set and fix our eyes that steadies and calms the turning world around us. Something that grounds and anchors us as the world spins and turns around us. This Lent, I invite us to fix our eyes not on a something but a someone. I invite each of us to fix our eyes on Jesus. As our pastor, Fr. Randy, reminds us often in his homilies, “Jesus is our still-point in our turning world of chaos.”

Much of my work as a spiritual director and retreat facilitator is inviting people to fix their eyes on Jesus so they can be steadily drawn deeper into the life-giving waters of relationships with him. This includes not only fixing our eyes on Jesus but also letting Jesus fix his loving gaze upon us. Over the next few weeks, I invite you to take steps forward in getting to know the One who calls us into relationship and can anchor and still our lives.

A guiding principle in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola is growing “Interior knowledge of the Lord so that we may love him more and follow him more closely.” (#104). Ultimately, what this means is becoming more like Jesus by learning to see like Jesus, hear like Jesus, act like Jesus. It means not only hearing the call to follow Jesus but to also walk with him and be there working with him. As we get to know him, to love him, we learn to follow his way and live the model he lays out for us.

Learning to follow Jesus begins with getting to know the one who calls us into relationship. The way we do this is by contemplating the life of Christ. We do this through praying with the Gospels that reveal the many aspects of Jesus’ life. As Fr. Kevin O’Brien captures in his book the Ignatian Adventure:

When contemplating the Gospels, we are often gifted with memories from our lives that correspond to Jesus’ life. Memories can be gifts because through our prayerful remembering, past hurts may be healed. We come to appreciate how God has been at work in unexpected ways. We gain insight into significant events in our history. (P. 147)

Inviting You Deeper Challenge: 

Lent is a time we often to use for all kinds of new habits and disciplines. This Lent, let us fix our eyes fully on Jesus by daily contemplating his life in the Gospels.

As we pray with the Gospels of Jesus’ life we can reflect on these this questions as we pray with them:

What memories from my life correspond to Jesus’ life?
What memories from our past remembering them were healed through following Jesus’ life?
How did I discover God at work in my own life through remembering Jesus’ life?
What new insights did I gain through the significant events of my life and Jesus’ life?

Resources for Praying with Scripture:

USCCB daily readings
Give Us This Day
Sacred Space by the Irish Jesuits
Pray As You Go by the British Jesuits 

Go Deeper?  

Print this handy one-page guide to Praying with Scripture.
Read Listening for God in Scripture 
Ignatian Contemplation/Imaginative Prayer

Watch this 2 minute video where I narrate the steps of Ignatian Contemplation/Imaginative Prayer.
Read this blog post Ignatius and Me: Ignatian Contemplation.


Lectio Divina

Watch this 2 minute video where I explain the steps of Lectio Divina.
Read this blog series, God With Us in the Word.


Make a one-on-one retreat online with a spiritual director during our Lenten Online Busy Person Retreat, coming up March 16-19.
Register for my new online retreat  that brings the preached retreat experience to your email with content sent weekly for you to work through individually, on your own schedule, giving you resources to help you find stillness and build a prayer practice, “Overwhelmed No More: 6 Ways to Discover and Live God’s Vision for Your Life”.

The Inner Chapel: MY NEW BOOK!

My second book, “The Inner Chapel: Embracing the Promises of God” is coming next month! Pre-order here and watch your email for a special invitation next week to be on my Book Launch Team.
In the Baton Rouge Area? Come celebrate the new book with us! The Inner Chapel Book Launch Party is April 18 at St. Thomas More Parish. Come for the 4:30pm vigil mass and then move to the parish hall for food, celebration, prayer, and book signings. Flyer here. RSVP here.

Inviting you Deeper as We Walk with Christ: 

March 3, 2020: Archdiocese of New Orleans Morning of Reflection
Calling all my South Louisiana Ladies! March 10, 2020:  Women of the Well Lenten Evening of Reflection  “Clearing the Path: Simplifying the Road to Christ” 
Lenten Edition of the retreat that comes to you!  March 16-19, 2020: Online Busy Person’s Retreat
March 28, 2020:  Women’s Retreat at St. Rita Parish, Dallas, TX
March 29-31, 2020: Church of the Presentation Parish Mission, New Jersey
April 4, 2020:  Women’s Lenten Day of Reflection, Birmingham, AL
Make plans to join me on an in-person Silent Ignatian retreat for women! Seeking Grace: August 27-30, 2020 at Rosaryville Spirit Life Center with Stephanie Clouatre Davis. More info & register here.
Sign up for my Prayer Team and pledge to pray for the weekly prayer requests posted on my Facebook & Instagram, and for the attendees of upcoming events. Email info@beckyeldredge.com.

From Screens to Stillness: Unplugging

Today, we end our series called, From Screens to Stillness.  In it, we have looked at the challenges we face today that keep us from silence and contemplative prayer, explored the gift of technology in our spiritual lives, and also ways for us to embrace stillness and silence in this age of screens.  In our final week of our series, Screens to Stillness, we turn to the value of unplugging.   

In my twenty-three years of retreat ministry, I witness the gift of unplugging frequently.  On days of reflection, full weekend silent retreats, and on longer silent five to eight day silent retreats, I watch as people give themselves permission to unplug, to disengage from screens, to get still, and to be silent. The silence and stillness creates a clearing in their lives.  It creates space to not only meet God personally and intimately but also to truly hear God.   

I know the value of this personally as I annually make an 7-8 day silent retreat.  The stillness within does not always come quickly as I enter the retreat, especially if I am entering the retreat after a very busy season or a season of attachment to too many screens.  It might take me two to three days before the silence and stillness really embrace me and wrap me in a way that creates stillness within.  Eventually it comes, though, and just like I witness happen to other people, I am able to enter a clearing within my inner chapel... a time to deeply listen to God and to be filled by all that God seeks to pour into me.   

What this time of unplugging does for me is hard to articulate into words.  Those days of silence to intimately be with God change my life and carry me through my year until I retreat away again.  The time to unplug is something that my husband understands as well.  He, too, makes a silent retreat every year, normally a three to five day one.  I see the change in him when he returns, as he does me.  I witness the transformation that happens in him like I do in my retreat work.  God radically meets us in the silence and that encounter changes us.   

If we are honest, I don’t feel we should be surprised at the value of retreating away to give ourselves the gift of unplugged time with God.  Jesus models it over and over again in scripture.  We see him taking time away from the crowds, from ministry, and from the noise to go and be with God.  He retreats into silence in the desert for forty days.  He climbs mountains to pray.  We see him gain clarity when he comes down from the mountain.  A clear focus of his mission, renewed.  One mountain climb into the stillness he is transfigured.  He crosses the sea to find time to be with God.   

Jesus let prayer, time to be still, and one-on-one time with God anchor his life.  Short increments of stillness and silence and longer ones helped him sustain his calls in life.   

It’s a gift I wish everyone would give themselves.  Time away to simply be with God.  Perhaps, it means putting down the screen to unplug for a few minutes each day of stillness and silence in your inner chapel to be with God.  Perhaps, it’s using one of the gifts of the screen that we talked about last week to be fed and nourished in your stillness.  Maybe even, its unplugging for a whole day, weekend, or week.  Whatever way you are being called to be still and know God, I urge you to embrace it.  The stillness and silence with God will transform your entire life.   

Reflect:

In what way am I being called to be still and know God? Am I being called to go on a retreat or day of reflection? Is it a call to decrease my screen time to go to my inner chapel? Is it a call to use some of the prayer supports that screens can provide to lead me to stillness? How can I embrace these invitations and move from screens to stillness?

Go Deeper?  

If you’d like to go on a retreat, here’s a list of the Jesuit Retreat Centers in the United States
Check out Becky’s speaking & retreat list to attend an in person retreat with Becky
Make a one-on-one retreat online with a spiritual director during our Lenten Online Busy Person Retreat, coming up March 16-19.
Register for my new online retreat  that brings the preached retreat experience to your email with content sent weekly for you to work through individually, on your own schedule, giving you resources to help you find stillness and build a prayer practice, “Overwhelmed No More: 6 Ways to Discover and Live God’s Vision for Your Life”.

Inviting you Deeper as We Walk with Christ: 

I’ll be at RECongress in Los Angeles!! February 21-23, 2020. I am thrilled to be part of the presentation, Start with Jesus, in the Arena and the workshop, The Gift of the Inner Chapel.
Calling all my Southern Louisiana ladies! March 10, 2020:  Women of the Well Lenten Evening of Reflection  “Clearing the Path: Simplifying the Road to Christ”
Online Busy Person’s Retreat: This special Lenten edition is coming March 16-19, 2020.
My second book, “The Inner Chapel: Embracing the Promises of God” is coming in April! Pre-order here and watch your email for a special invitation in the next few weeks to be on my Book Launch Team.
Sign up for my Prayer Team and pledge to pray for the weekly prayer requests posted on my Facebook & Instagram, and for the attendees of upcoming events. Email info@beckyeldredge.com.

From Screens to Stillness: Screens as Support to Stillness

We continue our series called, From Screens to Stillness.  In it, we will look at the challenges we face today that keep us from silence and contemplative prayer, we will explore the gift of technology in our spiritual lives, and also ways for us to embrace stillness and silence in this age of screens. We’ve looked at the challenges of screens in our life and the practice of contemplative prayer, and move today to screens as a support in our stillness. 

While the screens in our lives can leave us overly attached, distracted, lacking creativity, and tired, they can also be wonderful tools to helping us embrace stillness in our lives.  This week let’s look at how screens can support stillness and contemplative prayer in our lives.   

There are many ways that technology has made it easier to have prayer aides readily available for us to use in our “on the go lives”.  Our phones hold the ability to give us access to music, to guided prayer reflections, to written prayer reflections, spiritual books, podcasts and so much more.  On retreats and in my spiritual direction ministry, I often share some of my favorite online tools that can support our prayer lives.   

Music:

One of my favorite things about my phone is the ability to have all kinds of music at my fingertips.  This makes traveling for retreat ministry easier. Do you remember the days of hauling CD players and CDs?  It also means that I have access to favorite songs that ground me, inspire me, and strengthen me.  My car ride around town for errands or carpooling my children can become times of prayer and praise, letting the music I listen to match where God and life has me at the moment.  Perhaps, I’m celebrating a moment of clarity and feeling full of life.  Music I listen to can fill my car and echo and strengthen those graces within me.  Maybe it’s a song of comfort I need or a song to help me anchor into a promise of God.  

Music can not only fill my car, but it can be part of my daily prayer time in the morning as well.  Sometimes when I feel very distracted in prayer, I will grab my phone and quietly play a song to help prayerfully still me in the early morning.

Here are some of my favorites in Spotify playlists. I think you do need a Spotify account to view/listen to these, but it is free. 

Songs I listened to while writing The Inner Chapel 
Prayer Music
Retreat Music

Apps:  

There are tons of apps we can download on our phone that offer guided reflections either by audio or written word.  I suggest this often to people as tools to bring into their daily prayer.  It enables us to commit to a daily prayer time when we always have our prayer method and prayer material with us.  Here are some to get your started:

Re-Imagining the Examen –  30 guided examens 
Sacred Space by the Irish Jesuits – Daily scripture reflections 
JesuitPrayer – Daily readings and scriptures reflections 
3 minute retreat by Loyola Press – A short reflection  
Pray As You Go by the British Jesuits 
Laudate’ on Google Play and Apple 
iBreviary  
Give Us This Day – my favorite print scripture reflection also gives you an app subscription when you purchase it  

Podcasts:   

While I am not a big podcast fan, I know so many people who use this gift to deepen their spiritual lives and relationship with God through listening to others’ faith stories and such. 

Here are a few recommended by friends that are guided prayer or reflection-focused as opposed to talk show/interview style:  

The Examen with Fr. James Martin, SJ – A new 18-minute episode added each Sunday with a short reflection and a guided examen.
Pray As You Go – This podcast from the British Jesuits is almost daily- only one post for the weekend- offering music and a reflection on a scripture from that week’s readings.
God in All Things – From my friend and colleague Andy Otto, SJ, offering Ignatian reflections.
Contemplative at Home – Guided meditative prayer based in Ignatian Spirituality

Spiritual Direction:  

A surprising gift of screens in my own life and also in my ministry is the ability to meet with people for spiritual direction via video conference.  At times in my life, I’ve met my own spiritual director this way as well.  I am finding more and more people do not have access to a spiritual director in their area.  I am steadily embracing the gift of screens to accompany people deeper in their walk with Christ.  People who once were not able to meet with a director because of their life circumstances or not having anyone close by now have access to one. The spiritual director can walk with someone and help them develop daily disciplines of prayer and stillness.   

We just recently had our January Online Busy Person’s Retreat.  Screens allowed the spiritual directors to accompany people for four days in a row using screens. Mark your calendars! The Lenten Online Busy Person’s Retreat is coming up March 16-19, 2020.

Online Retreat:  

I’m learning, too that several people have interest in using screens to make an online retreat.  Besides the Online Busy Person’s Retreat, I recently created the six-week self-guided retreat called Overwhelmed No More.  While I had some hesitation to answering this call from God, we are quickly seeing the value in offering an online format.  Yet again, screens helping us move to stillness, silence, and closer in our walk with God.     

Reflect:

Do I use screens to invite me deeper in my walk with Christ?  What ways could I use screens to support my call to contemplative prayer, silence, and stillness?

Go Deeper?  

Let me guide you in audio prayer reflections on my Soundcloud channel.
Get more audio prayer tools from the British Jesuits here.
Want more music? Here’s a Marian Playlist and a You Will Be Comforted playlist both made by my friend and big-picture co-worker Kathy Powell.
Register for my new online retreat that brings the preached retreat experience to your email with content sent weekly for you to work through individually, on your own schedule, giving you resources to help you find stillness and build a prayer practice, “Overwhelmed No More: 6 Ways to Discover and Live God’s Vision for Your Life”.

Inviting you Deeper as We Walk with Christ: 

I’ll be at RECongress in Los Angeles!! February 21-23, 2020. I am thrilled to be part of the presentation, Start with Jesus, in the Arena and the workshop, The Gift of the Inner Chapel.
Calling all my Southern Louisiana ladies! March 10, 2020:  Women of the Well Lenten Evening of Reflection  “Clearing the Path: Simplifying the Road to Christ”
Online Busy Person’s Retreat: This special Lenten edition is coming March 16-19, 2020.
Sign up for my Prayer Team and pledge to pray for the weekly prayer requests posted on my Facebook & Instagram, and for the attendees of upcoming events. Email info@beckyeldredge.com.

From Screens to Stillness: Embracing Silence & Stillness in the Day-to-Day

Today we continue our series called, From Screens to Stillness.  In it, we will look at the challenges we face today that keep us from silence and contemplative prayer, we will explore the gift of technology in our spiritual lives, and also ways for us to embrace stillness and silence in this age of screens. Last week, we took a look at the challenge of screens in our life.  This week, let’s look at the practices of contemplative prayer that I feel help us today.   

I was at a Catholic conference recently where a speaker was talking about the value of contemplative practices.  Drawing on his experience as a counselor, he was offering us ways to be still and be silent.  There was one thing missing from his talk.  The silence and stillness of contemplative prayer has one distinguishing characteristic from other meditation practices such as the mindfulness we read about in business literature or counseling literature.   

Contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition is about being still and silent with someone – God.  We do not enter silence, stillness and solitude alone.  We go to be with someone. When we pause and enter our inner chapels, we are going to spend time with someone who created us, who loves us, who calls us into relationship, who offers us infinite mercy, who we belong to, who companions us in our suffering, and who sends us forth to use our gifts.  

Contemplative prayer is prayer that pauses us to be still and silent and with God.  It reminds me of the beautiful Psalm 46:11 “Be still and know that I am God.”  There are a multitude of contemplative prayer tools that helps us be still and be with God.   

The gift of contemplative prayer is a way for us to live in the world with screens.  Screens are not going anywhere anytime soon.  They sometimes become like “idols” or “gods’ for us.  Just like St. Ignatius speaks of in the First Principle and Foundation, we must learn how to hold this gift in balance and allow it to help us deepen our relationship with God. So how do we do that?  

First, we need to set up a practice of daily contemplative prayer.  Anyone who has heard me speak knows that I herald the practice of daily intentional prayer. It starts with three main things:  

 A daily time of prayer 
A set place for prayer  
Making your place of prayer a sacred space  

Each of us can find a daily time to pause and be with God.  The routine of it being in the same place each day helps our bodies and minds know it is time to turn off, to disengage from the pace of “screens” and to slow mind and body down.  The simple reminders in your place of prayer that remind you what you are there to do is how we can turn a normal place into a sacred space.  This includes simple items that make you excited to get to the prayer place and time.  Perhaps a picture of loved ones, a cross, your bible, a special image of faith.   

Once the foundational pieces are in place, its time to move to discerning our prayer method, the way we will be with God.  There are a multitude of prayer practices that help us embrace the gift of silence and being with God.  Here are a few examples:  

The Examen – a prayerful review of your day with God  
Imaginative Prayer or Ignatian contemplation – placing yourself within the scripture scene  
Rosary – the repetitive praying of the Hail Mary’s in silence and allowing yourself moments to pause between decades  
Adoration – going to a chapel and embracing the gift of silence and being phsycially present with God in the body of Christ  

There are many more!   

What I have learned through the years of praying as our world and pace has gotten busier is that contemplative prayer helps me combat the busyness.  It allows my body, my spirit, and my mind to realign.  I have come to discover the promises of God through contemplative prayer.  The silence is anything but deafening.  It is a silence that holds the promise of relationship, of unconditional love, of mercy, and of companionship.  It is silence with God.   

Contemplative prayer helps me check my attachment to screens in my life.  It invites me to pay attention to the times I am letting what’s on my phone rule the moment of my life instead of the people or the work in front of me.  The time with God guides my actions, my words and my day.   

St. Claire of Assisi is known to have said, “What we contemplate, we become.”  What is it we want to become?  My guess is most of us don’t want to continue to become the overly attached to our phones, distracted and tired humans.  We want to feel alive, loved, energetic, and connected in a meaningful way.   

Reflect:

I invite you this week, to put down your screens, to pause in contemplative prayer to simply be with God.  For when we contemplate God and the promises of God, we bring what we contemplate out in the world around us.  

Go Deeper?  

Download Creating a Prayer Practice to guide you in intentionally setting aside quiet time with God.
Read more about the Examen in my blog series on this flexible prayer tool.
Let me guide you in using the prayer tool of Imaginative Prayer/Ignatian Contemplation through audio reflections. 
Register for my new online retreat that brings the preached retreat experience to your email with content sent weekly for you to work through individually, on your own schedule, giving you resources to help you find stillness and build a prayer practice, “Overwhelmed No More: 6 Ways to Discover and Live God’s Vision for Your Life”.

Inviting you Deeper as We Walk with Christ: 

I’ll be in sunny Scottsdale, AZ February 8-10 with St. Patrick Catholic Church’s Home Field Advantage Adult Faith Formation Conference, a day of reflection, and an evening of reflection with the St. Patrick’s community.
RECongress in Los Angeles!! February 21-23, 2020. I am thrilled to be part of the presentation, Start with Jesus, in the Arena and the workshop, The Gift of the Inner Chapel.
Calling all my Southern Louisiana ladies! March 10, 2020:  Women of the Well Lenten Evening of Reflection  “Clearing the Path: Simplifying the Road to Christ”
Sign up for my Prayer Team and pledge to pray for the weekly prayer requests posted on my Facebook & Instagram, and for the attendees of upcoming events. Email info@beckyeldredge.com.

From Screens to Stillness: Challenge of the Screens

Today we begin a new series called, From Screens to Stillness.  In it, we will look at the challenges we face today that keep us from silence and contemplative prayer, we will explore the gift of technology in our spiritual lives, and also ways for us to embrace stillness and silence in this age of screens. Today we start with the challenge of screens. 

Our world drastically changed on January 9, 2007.  What happened on this date?  Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, stood at a press conference and announced that Apple had reinvented the phone.  He said it had software for everything, the world’s best media player, the world’s best telephone, and the world’s best way to get on the web, and in addition to that, it had a camera.    

Just a few months prior to this announcement in January 2007, Facebook opened its doors to all above the age of thirteen in September 2006.  Later in 2007, Twitter began.  Google launched the Android phone in 2007 as well.  Amazon came out with the Kindle.  Mobile traffic drastically increased 100,000% from 2007 to 2014.  

So much changed in a short amount of time about how we communicate, how we interact, and how we go about building relationships.  An article I read once in Forbes magazine stated that on average we get 121 emails a day, and we check our phones every twelve minutes.  That’s over 80 times a day! The article said that for every interruption it takes us fifteen minutes to refocus.  Our brains are exhausted from continually pulling in and out of focus all day.   

For the last two years I’ve asked people at retreats, “How many of you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep?”  I am always shocked to see that almost 75% of the hands in the room go up.  Maybe this resonates with you?  

I know as a mom of three this resonates with me.  There are nights when I have not paused during the day, that I struggle to shut my brain off in order to rest.  Other nights, I wake up in the middle of the night with my mind racing.  It is challenging to keep up with the constant interruptions that come from apps, emails, and texts that come from my children’s school, activities, and fellow parents.   

While there is a gift to technology, the advent of the handheld screen is impacting our bodies, our health, our creativity, our mental health, and so much more.  As I follow business literature I am seeing more and more being written about the value of pausing, of silence, and of being still.  Every time I read a new book or article about this, I chuckle.  The “medicine” they are offering people is the tried and true contemplative prayer practices our Christian faith has lauded for hundreds of years.  It’s the medicine people taught me these past two decades, and I passionately want to share with others. I believe people are longing to live a different way and to have tools to help them combat the busyness and embrace the gift of stillness and silence.   

So how do we move from screens to stillness?  How can we embrace the gift of contemplative prayer in today’s world? How can the screens also help us embrace silence and stillness?  That’s what this series is about!   

Reflect:  

This week, I invite you to simply notice the impact of screens in your day-to-day life.  Do a pulse check.    

Are you having trouble falling asleep at night?  Staying asleep?  
Do you find your brain tired?  
Do you struggle with creativity or focus?  
How are you seeing screens impact your life positively?  What about negatively?  
When was the last time you were truly still and silent?  

Go Deeper?  

Register for my new online retreat that brings the preached retreat experience to your email with content sent weekly for you to work through individually, on your own schedule, giving you resources to help you find stillness and build a prayer practice, “Overwhelmed No More: 6 Ways to Discover and Live God’s Vision for Your Life”. 
Read Breathing in the Silence and Silence, Stillness, and Need for Retreat

Inviting you Deeper as We Walk with Christ: 

Will you be at Mid-Atlantic Congress?  Join me January 30-February 1 in Baltimore, MD for my workshop on Making Room for God in the Busyness.
I’ll be in sunny Scottsdale, AZ February 8-10 with St. Patrick Catholic Church’s Home Field Advantage Adult Faith Formation Conference.
RECongress in Los Angeles!! February 21-23, 2020. I am thrilled to be part of the presentation, Start with Jesus, in the Arena and the workshop, The Gift of the Inner Chapel.
Calling all my Southern Louisiana ladies! March 10, 2020:  Women of the Well Lenten Evening of Reflection  “Clearing the Path: Simplifying the Road to Christ”
Sign up for my Prayer Team and pledge to pray for the weekly prayer requests posted on my Facebook & Instagram, and for the attendees of upcoming events. Email info@beckyeldredge.com.

Living In Hope: The Epiphany

Advent and Christmas are my favorite seasons of the year.  They capture the very reason I hope in the first place. For the next 6 weeks of Advent and Christmas Retreat, we will be Living in Hope!  Each week, we will focus on one person or persons who helps us live in hope through reflection questions, suggested action, and prayer — including the text of the Sunday readings for easy access.

**Registration for the Online Busy Person’s Retreat, January 27-30, is OPEN NOW! This is the personalized, one-on-one retreat that comes to you and fits into your busy life! Register here! 

WEEK 6: The Epiphany

Happy Epiphany!  It’s hard to believe we are at the end of the Christmas season.  I hope that the graces of the season take deep root in your life.

Let’s start with–what does epiphany mean?  It means a sudden and profound understanding of something.  In the realm of our Christian faith, the feast of the epiphany refers to the ways Christ made himself known to the world.  While we celebrate the Epiphany on January 6th most often with the story of the Magi, there are three components to this feast day: 

1.  Jesus revealing himself to the Magi 
2.  Jesus’ Baptism 
3.  Jesus’ first miracle at the Wedding of Cana

All three of these events revealed something about Jesus to the world.  This week, though, our companions will be the three wise men, and we will look at what they teach us about living with hope. 

Reflection:

1.  What is the star you are following in life?  Are you following the light that leads you to Christ?  Or are you following a different “star”?

2.  What makes you radiant with joy and hope? 

3.  How did Jesus make himself known to you?  How is he revealing himself to you now? 

4.  What gifts to you have that you want to offer Jesus during this Jubilee Year of Mercy and the new year? 

Action:  Offering Our Gifts

The three wise men brought Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Each of us have unique God-given gifts.  These gifts come in the form of concrete items such as our home, our money, our jobs, our family.  We are each also given unique talents that are to be used to spread God’s message of hope and mercy.  

What gifts do you and how can you offer them to God this year? 

What talents do you have and how can you offer them to God this year? 

Let’s all use our gifts in 2020 to announce the good news of God’s mercy and love for us.  This is how we live in hope- spreading the joy of the light of the world, Jesus, by offering our gifts to others!

Praying with the Word of God:

The below Readings are from the Sunday Readings for the Epiphany of the Lord. Pick one reading each day for prayer. Throughout the week, repeat the scriptures that capture your attention.

If you would like to pray with the daily readings this week in addition to the Sunday readings, the USCCB posts them daily here.

When praying with scripture, I invite you to try the prayer methods of Lectio Divina or Ignatian Contemplation. Here’s a one-page guide to Praying with Scripture and a handy Lectio Divina prayer card. 

The Epiphany of the Lord
Lectionary: 20

Reading 1: Isaiah 60:1-6

Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem!  Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines,
and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.

Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 72: 1-2,7-8,10-11,12-13

R. (cf. 11)  Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

 



Reading 2: Ephesians 3:2-3a,5-6

Brothers and sisters:
You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace
that was given to me for your benefit,
namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel.”
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
“Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage.”
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way. 

Go Deeper?  

Annual Examen, Creating a Spiritual Plan and more resources from Becky for your new year available here. 
Registration for the Online Busy Person’s Retreat, January 27-30, is OPEN NOW! This is the personalized, one-on-one retreat that comes to you and fits into your busy life! Register here! This retreat brings an individually directed retreat to you with one-on-one spiritual direction via online video-conference.
Register for my new online retreat that walks you through questions of discernment to joy, peace and clarity. “Overwhelmed No More: 6 Ways to Discover and Live God’s Vision for Your Life” brings the preached retreat experience to wherever you are with content sent weekly for you to work through individually, on your own schedule.
Christmas Resources from Creighton Online Ministries.

Inviting you Deeper as We Walk with Christ: 

Calling Ministry Leaders: Check out my Advent Ministry Resources Newsletter.
January 9-11: Go! Gulf Coast Faith Formation Conference
January 27-30: Online Busy Person’s Retreat
Sign up for my Prayer Team and pledge to pray for the weekly prayer requests posted on my Facebook & Instagram, and for the attendees of upcoming events. Email info@beckyeldredge.com.