Greetings Beloved Friends,

Welcome to June and the gift of long days full of light! I cherish the changing seasons and the way my prayer life changes along with them... cool fall afternoons in the hammock, dark winter mornings by candlelight, drippy spring days full of birdsong, and now early summer mornings in my garden watching the miracle of God's creation growing right before my eyes!

We are shifting into a new liturgical season as well. We are now in Ordinary Time (often associated with the color green) which is the season of the church calendar that falls outside of the more well known observations of Advent/Christmas/Epiphany and Lent/Easter/Pentecost.

I used to find the marking of "ordinary time' to be a bit perplexing. Why would we make a point of observing something that is just, well, ordinary? Yet I have grown to understand just how important it is to intentionally look for the extraordinary sacred that dwells right in the middle of our ordinary days. It is all too easy to forget this simple yet profound reality as we race through the chaos and beauty of our daily lives.

Ordinary Time is an invitation to remember that God is with me. Every. Single. Ordinary. Day.

I pray you will find ways to see the extraordinary sacred that is woven right into the middle of your ordinary days. Perhaps this newsletter will provide a few resources to help you do so...

• Spouting Off Blog: Thinning Lettuce
• Buy a Book for a Woman in Prison
• Summer Spiritual Renewal Retreat - REGISTRATION DEADLINE is June 9th
• Invitation to the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises

May the light-filled blessings of these summer days open your eyes to God's presence right in the middle of this season of "ordinary time."

With strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Sharon

Sharon Seyfarth Garner, Director

Belly of the Whale Ministries

sharon@bellyofthewhaleministries.net

SPOUTING OFF BLOG

Thinning Lettuce

"I am the true vine, and my Abba is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. So have I loved you. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." John 15: 1-2, 11-12 (excerpts)

The garden is my happy place. It is only a small plot in front of our house, but I could get lost there for hours, hands in the dirt, poking seeds into the newly tilled soil, watering, weeding, and watching God's glorious creation at work. Already, last year's swiss chard has come back to life and the lettuce we planted earlier this spring is thriving. Last night's dinner of chard/feta frittata and spring greens had my heart - and stomach - leaping with joy!

This morning, my garden task was thinning lettuce. If I were to leave all of the lettuce bunched up together, there wouldn't be enough room for each plant to grow. Thinning the lettuce is what allows the plants that remain to thrive.

You know, Jesus even talked about the need to thin lettuce... well, kind of! He talked about God as a gardener who prunes branches that bear no fruit so that ultimately they can bear more fruit. Interestingly, Jesus followed his comments about thinning/pruning with a clearly worded reminder of the commandment to love each other.

The juxtaposition of these two lessons - pruning and loving - may at first seem unexpected. However, I believe the partnership of pruning and loving actually feels deeply significant. In order to truly love our neighbor as ourself, we may need to prune back a whole host of unhelpful habits that have crowded into our lives. Habits such as rushing to judgement, demeaning those with whom we disagree, joking at someone else's expense, assuming our way is the only way or even simply over-scheduling our days. Pruning back some of these harmful habits can create critical space for love to thrive.

What harmful habits might be keeping you from loving your neighbor as yourself? Perhaps if we dare to thin out our proverbial lettuce patch we can all more fully thrive as equally beloved children of God?

FAITH IN ACTION

Praying with Mandalas in Prison

Last month, I wrote about the four-week program on Praying with Mandalas that I was going to share with the women at North East Reintegration Center.

We gathered for our first session last week and I optimistically brought along 20 books that I assumed would be more than enough. Well, you know what happens when you assume! I am pleased to share that we had the wonderful challenge of running out of books when 22 women showed up!

I assume that there will be a few new women attending next Monday evening for our second session and I would love to have about 10 more books to give out as needed. If you are able to help cover the cost of a book ($10 each), I would be so grateful. Just click on the link below and you can make a donation via Venmo or Paypal.

For those of you who have already given so generously,

thank you, thank you, thank you!

And to those who feel moved to give now,

thank you, thank you, thank you!

Your generosity and solidarity are a tremendous gift!

SUMMER SPIRITUAL RENEWAL RETREAT

Registration Deadline June 9

INVITATION TO THE IGNATIAN SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

September 2023 - May 2024

For those of you who like to plan ahead, I wanted to let you know now that this fall I will again be offering the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises Retreat in Daily Life (sometimes referred to as the 19th annotation retreat). I have space to accompany 5 individuals on this 32-week journey of daily prayer (Scripture reading, spiritual practices, journaling) and weekly meetings for spiritual direction.

I have found that beginning the Spiritual Exercises in September works well because the flow of the scripture readings lines up beautifully with the liturgical seasons of Christmas and Easter. Spaces typically fill quickly, so let me know sooner rather than later if you are interested. Pastors can receive 4 CEUs for their participation in this intensive spiritual formation experience.

I don’t think it is an over-exaggeration to say that the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises radically renewed my personal relationship with Jesus and clarified my call to embody God’s love in every layer of my life. Click here to watch a 20 minute video of me sharing a bit about my own experience with the Spiritual Exercises as part of an interview.

If you feel the Spirit is nudging you toward this deep dive into spiritual renewal through the lens of the life of Christ, I would be delighted to talk with you more about it.  Please email me if you would like to learn more about the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. It would be a joy and an honor to share this journey together with you.