Dear LIS Friend,
As a student of Pilates, I’ve learned time and again how important it is to strengthen my core so that my muscles perform with coordinated stability. However, there have been occasions where I’ve forgotten to engage my core muscles when performing activities and my back has paid for it. Just like core muscles, we sometimes overlook giving purposeful attention to the movements of our hearts.
At this time of year, working out to get in shape is often a popular resolution. But what if we looked at working out to get our souls in shape the way St. Paul urges the Colossians? What if we made a conscious effort to “put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” with one another? How would our workplace relationships fair if we worked at strengthening our resolve to give our hearts space to move in a more harmonious way? How would our relatives and those with whom we live, react if we exercised forgiveness?
Working out core muscles strengthens the body to move in harmony. As Christians, we are being called to work out the love of God in any relationship we find ourselves to live in harmony. Workout love, workout kindness, workout forgiveness. My prayer is that this new year will be one where we each can be more attentive to the stirrings of our hearts. God’s design is that we “put on love above all else” so that peace can be realized among us.
This January, LIS is offering several opportunities for you to work out your soul.
This Saturday
is a great opportunity to engage the whole family in some soul strengthening as we screen and discuss the movie
Ratatouille
. For those in ministry life we encourage you to consider our 3-week course on
Ignatian Leadership which begins January 7th
. Catholic Bible Institute, History of Christian Spirituality and our Spring Film Series are all excellent ways for us to get our souls in shape during the new year. For more information on all of these opportunities, please continue reading below.
Finally, please SAVE THE DATE
for our annual fundraiser,
Hearts on Fire
which will be held on
Sunday, May 3, 2020
. We’ll be honoring Dr. Ann Holmquist with the Hearts on Fire Award and Fr. Monty Williams, SJ with the Writer’s Award in Spirituality. If you feel called to be a part of the planning committee, please contact me at 714-997-9587 x105.
Peace and Blessings,
Lori Stanley
Executive Director
