May 13, 2016
What's Happening This Week at SpiritualityandPractice.com
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Editor's Pick
While waiting for his wife Jane to join him for lunch, Robert Alter observes his mind. He enjoys noticing what tricks it is up to -- desire, envy, impatience, and more -- as it churns out a continuous succession of thoughts. Self-observation is often a first step in spiritual practices.
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Practices
Like the old hymn goes, "Sometimes I feel discouraged, and think my work's in vain. But then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again." Enjoy this abundance of ideas for celebrating the Spirit's ongoing presence.
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E-Courses
No, you didn't miss your chance! We are extending our offer of 20% off all of our on-demand e-courses.
Use this case-sensitive coupon code at checkout: Mother
In your Shopping Cart, be sure to click "apply" and look for the price to drop before you click "checkout."
Although this offer ends next Friday, please remember that on-demand e-cou
rses have a "forever" shelf life. You can avail yourself of this sale today and take the e-course when the time is right. Click here to view your choices:
On-Demand E-Courses
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Films
Directed by Terence Davies
This remarkable drama, set in rural Scotland just before World War I, delves into familial strife, the central place of the natural world in the lives of those close to the land, and the implacable devastation that comes through chauvinism and war.
Reminder:
Last Days in the Desert -- an immersive spiritual drama in which God speaks to Jesus through the world, his experiences, a family, and a Demon -- opens May 13!
More Films: A Monster with a Thousand Heads, Captain America: Civil War, Mothers and Daughters, The Professor: Tai Chi's Journey West
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DVDs
Directed by Tom Harper
This sumptuous and exhilarating new miniseries by the BBC does justice to Leo Tolstoy's epic novel set during the Napoleonic wars. The top-drawer cast draws us deep into matters of love and loss, destiny, the search for meaning, and the moral value of forgiveness.
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Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Frisky as a band of mustangs, five orphaned sisters rejoice in their summer break from school . . . until they get locked in their house, expected to prepare for arranged marriages. Then the story of their vibrant quest for freedom begins in earnest.
More DVDs: Where to Invade Next, Creative Control, Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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Books
Circle of Grace
By Jan Richardson
This paperback carries us through the seasons of the Christian church year, attuning us to the invisible circle of grace that enfolds us in every moment.
More Books: The Silo Effect, Faith on the Road, Overplayed
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Children's Books
By Amy Welborn (author) and Ann Kissane Englehart (illustrator)
A boring family vacation gets transformed for two cousins not only by the visually stunning landscapes of St. Francis's life but also by the inner qualities of peace, humility, and love which shine through their discoveries about this beloved saint.
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Quotes
By Darren Polito
"Creativity means making something for the soul out of every experience," writes Thomas Moore. This gallery of ideas for living fully will help you do exactly that.
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Blogs
By Frederic Brussat
We all know what it is like to be animated by "an impossible dream," like Don Quixote, but only a few of us have the energy, bravery and single-mindedness to carry it out.
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Traditions
Dip into a well of forgiveness, love, wisdom, humor, and the soul-building processes of doubt and discernment through these books, television shows, and teachers from the Christian Anglican tradition.
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From Our Wisdom Archive
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spiritual memoirs are medicine for us, especially in hard times when old habits, mindsets, and ways of acting no longer serve to connect us with the Source of Life. Here you will find a month's worth of book reviews and excerpts from a variety of spiritual paths and religions.
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A Thought to Carry with You
Following a spiritual path fills us with a natural courtesy and joy, but it is not a kind of "pleasant tense" in which everything we say and do has to be cheerful, polite, and exceedingly glad. If anything, the spiritual life -- with its call to refine our character and attune it to something higher -- tends to be more demanding and confusing than going unconsciously with the mainstream flow.
Even so, conformists as well as questers will know what one of our friends meant when he quipped: "When you're about to be born, you get a choice of what kind of life you want. Hard? Harder? Or hardest?" Wrestling with the things we need to learn in life is simply human. As the 15th-century Indian poet Kabir observes in Robert Bly's version of one of his poems, "We are all struggling; none of us has gone far. Let your arrogance go, and look around inside."
See if it helps the "daily sense of failure" go away, as you remember that we're in this boat together and that "the universe is shot through in all parts by a single sort of love."
Blessings,
Your Spirituality & Practice Team
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Patricia Campbell Carlson
Darren Polito
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