A Sunlit Absence by Fr Martin Laird – Part Three No. 50

We GET to go through it. The obstacles are doorways.

First, we avoid silence because we are addicted to noise and rush, addicted to our self-importance, our genius ideas, powerful emotions, and valiant actions. Then we abandon silence because we are horrified by what we discover is really going on inside of ourselves. The only way forward is to have compassion for ourselves in the midst of our struggle. Father Martin Laird explains that, "The thoughts and feelings, which were previously the most distracting obstacles to inner peace, are now seen to be vehicles to it."

As the children's book reads, "We can't go over it! We can't go under it! Oh no! We've got to go through it! In fact, we get to go through it. There is no other way but to go through our obstacles into the still presence of God

This third installment of our journey through A Sunlit Absence by Fr Marin Laird continues in chapter one. Chapter one is a summary of Laird's previous book, Entering the Silent Land. The intention here is to offer a substantial definition of contemplation as well as offering some practical descriptions of how contemplation is practiced. Bless you for continuing on this journey. May you be blessed even in the midst of this covid pandemic. Subscribe to this podcast to stay updated when new episodes, classes, and retreats are made available www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe

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A Sunlit Absence by Fr Martin Laird – Part Two No. 49

Part two of a journey of guided prayer, reading, and commentary through A Sunlit Absence by Fr Martin Laird. Buy your own copy of the book and read more in-depth on your own or access the journey through this transformative book with the podcast. A new episode will be offered every second or third day. Questions and comments are welcome. Email josh at invitationpodcast dot org. If you have not already subscribed, please join the journey www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe Peace of Christ to you during this quarantine wilderness..

Watch a video invitation to this new series

A Sunlit Absence by Fr Martin Laird – Introduction Part One No. 48

One sentiment offered on social media this past week went something like this: “let's not return to normal. Normal wasn't working. If we try to return to normal, we won't have learned the costly lesson." This is the truth of all transformation. COVID 19 is just a very severe, collective opportunity for us to move beyond "normal."

This episode no. 48 is the first of a new series of reading, studying, and praying through Fr Martin Laird’s book A Sunlit Absence. Fr Laird helps us reform a consciousness that can embrace the transformation that is at hand. You are invited to buy the book to follow along in your own reading or to simply listen and pray with the podcast.

If you have not subscribed yet to the podcast, please join the journey www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe 

And also, please consider inviting someone to the Invitation. Let someone know about the goodness of going deeper with God with the Invitation Podcast. Peace of Christ to you during this troubling time wherever you are in the world.

Pray with Psalm 19:14, Nathan Foster NEW No. 47

This episode turned out to be two meditations, connected to each other but each worth separate listens. First, Josh walks through some questions for us to consider regarding our experience of being in quarantine. How free are you to accept the trauma of this crisis and to talk to God about your suffering?

Then, at around 12 mins in, the episode moves on to Nathan Foster of Renovare guiding a prayer through Psalm 19:14, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, my Rock and Redeemer." This is an invaluable prayer to direct our hearts and mind while we are in the midst of this pandemic.

May you be blessed in your prayer. Please subscribe to this podcast and share it with someone! www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe

Pray with Psalm 131, Nathan Foster re-release No. 46

It's hard to sit still in the midst of confinement and suffering. You are not alone in your struggle.

This episode is a re-release of guided prayer through Psalm 131 by Nathan Foster from 2018. We will also be posting a meditation on Psalm 19:14 he also offered in 2018 but was never released. More prayer resources to come soon!

Re-Release Retreat #5 Lament: To Cleanse Your Spiritual Eyes no. 45

In the midst of our current crisis, I'm re-releasing a guided meditation on Ecclesiastes chapter 3 originally released on Dec 2, 2017.

One-third of the Psalms are psalms of lament, yet most of us recoil from speaking honestly with God about our questions, anger, pain, and disappointment. Surely this is a time where we especially need the sacred space of lament. We need to give ourselves and each other permission to speak to God freely and honestly. The peace of Christ to you during this crisis.

Please subscribe to the Invitation so that we can keep you updated about new episodes, retreats, classes, and other events. www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe

Lacy Finn Borgo on Chanting the Psalms Conversation #11 No. 44

In the midst of this bizarre, unsettling spread of covid-19, we invite you to continue on your Lenten journey with this episode on chanting the Psalms. Here in episode no. 44, Josh has a discussion with Lacy Finn Borgo of Good Dirt Ministries and Renovare about how singing the Psalms can get this holy, prayer book of the Scriptures into our bodies. What a great help for us always and especially as we face our current trials, to have the vocabulary of the Psalms deep inside of us to help us speak honestly with God!

Included in this episode is a recording of a Fuller Seminary, DMin in spiritual direction cohort chanting on September 27, 2017. Audio of the full-length of their chanting of Psalms 67, 25 & 26 led by Lacy is available at www.invitationpodcast.org/downloads

The book Josh mentions in this episode is The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk.

Also, please check out Lacy’s new book: Spiritual Conversations with Children: Listening to God Together. It is an encouraging, inspiring, and practically helpful way for us to nurture faith in our children and is sure to become a lifegiving resource to parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and anyone ministering to children.

Thanks for listening and joining The Invitation on a journey deeper into the life and love of God. It is an honor to create with you time and space for God. Please subscribe to the Invitation and stay updated on new releases as well as the classes and retreats offered by the Invitation. www.invitationpodcast.org/subscribe

If the Invitation has been fruitful in your life, please share the podcast with a friend, consider a one-time donation, or become a sustaining donor by visiting www.invitationpodcast.org/donations Peace of Christ to you!

Lenten Liturgy & Conversation w/ AJ Westendorp No. 43

We had intended to release an episode on chanting the Psalms next with Lacy Finn Borgo, but this liturgy led by Maple Avenue Ministries member, AJ Westendorp was too good not to sneak in and share with you.

AJ is a former college football player, a Guatemala missionary and is now on staff with Escape Ministries in Holland, MI as well as employed at a local juvenile detention center. Finally, AJ also is a volunteer who joins Josh in the prison prayer practices on Saturdays in Muskegon, MI. Before offering the Lenten liturgy, Josh shares some of his conversation with AJ to help you get to know AJ and to explore the reason why spending time with and befriending “the least of these” is at the core of the Gospel and why it’s a practice we would recommend to you for you journey through Lent.

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6)

We also encourage you to go back and listen to episode 39, Josh’s conversation with the Rev. Dr. Denise Kingdom Grier, Josh and AJ’s pastor. By listening to bother episodes you will discover the similarities between Advent and Lent as a time of preparation with an emphasis on God’s love of the poor.

The opening reading of this liturgy is from Roddy Hamilton of the Church of Scotland.

The liturgy begins at 12 mins into the episode.

Please consider subscribing to the invitationpodcast.org

Your financial contributions help us create this spiritual formation resource for you. Please consider making a donation today at invitationpodcast.org/donations 

Thanks for listening!

Josh

Conversation #10 David Taylor No. 42

In episode 42 David Taylor, assistant professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary shares from his forthcoming book, Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life. David is one of the many people who have befriended and inspired Josh over the span of many years. Here Josh and David focus on praying the Psalms in a way that will get inside of our bodies, to transform and heal us to become whole. 

Deeper Living Space Intro Eph 2 & Matt 6 No. 41

This long-format retreat is an audio adaptation of an expanded version Invitation's prayer guide, "40 Ways to Spend 5-Minutes with God." Here just follows a lectio divina style structure using Ephesians 2 and Matthew 6 offering reflections, questions as prompts for prayer, and extended sections of original meditative music to help you explore the depths of prayer.

The original prayer guide, “40 Ways to Spend 5-Minutes with God” can be found at https://www.invitationpodcast.org/downloads The expanded, short prayer book version of the prayer guide is titled Deeper Living Space and is a work in progress. The music in this episode is created by Josh and many of his former Hope College Students as well as some friends from Oklahoma City. See below. Artwork is a creative interpretation of the Invitation logo by Samantha Kadzban. 

Please subscribe, share the podcast with others, and consider helping us financially: https://www.invitationpodcast.org/donations Thanks for listening!

Musicians:
Jared DeMeester
Josh Holicki
Travis Kingma
Alex Mouw
Zach Pedigo
Dustin Ragland
Michael Reynolds
Nate Roberts
Wayne Titus

Chuck DeGroat & Sr Diane Zerfas - Contemplative Spirituality in the Local Church No. 40

This is the second in a new collaborative series with the Dominican Center on the role of contemplative spirituality and spiritual direction in the context of the local church. In this public conversation hosted by the Dominican Center on Nov 13, 2019, Josh is joined by Sr Diane Zerfas and Dr Chuck DeGroat. When many are reporting the decline in church attendance, should we be alarmed? How are the signs of the times inspiring a return to deeper prayer practices? What are some specific things local churches can do to help us go deeper? These questions and more are discussed with the questions and contributions of those who gathered that day.

For more information on the: www.dominicancenter.com
For Chuck’s private practice, teaching, retreats, and video courses :  www.chuckdegroat.net 
and be sure to subscribe to the Invitation Podcast as well!

The next Public Conversation on the role of contemplative spirituality and spiritual direction in the context of the local church will be on February 18 2:30-4:00pm with author, director, and retreat leader Sharon Garlough Brown, and AJ Sherrill, lead pastor of Mars Hill Church.

Starting in late February, I will also be facilitating an ongoing workshop for pastors and lay leaders who are looking for creative way to introduce their worshipping communities to contemplative practices. We are calling the series of classes, “Contemplative Prayer and Spiritual Practices in the Local Church Workshop.”

Vulnerability & Poverty, An Advent Meditation w/ Rev. Dr. Denise Kingdom Grier no. 39

I had promised to release the public conversation with Chuck DeGroat and Sr Diane Zerfas next, but after listening to my pastor’s sermon on the first Sunday of Advent, I had to put together this episode!

Advent is a season many churched Christians are relatively numb to. We struggle to enter into the deeper richness of longing and waiting. In this episode, we move from the Rev. Dr. Denise Kingdom Grier's sermon on the first Sunday of Advent to a follow-up conversation on becoming poor as we wait with expectation and eagerness for the coming of our King!

I pray this mediation helps you in your longing and waiting for our coming King!

Peace of Christ & BIG love to you,
Josh

An Update & Meditation w/ the Desert Fathers: The Podcast is Returning! no. 38

This update episode is way overdue. I miss you, so I'm finally reaching out to get you caught up on all that's been happening with the Invitation. At the end of this update, I offer a brief meditation on a timely word from The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, specifically a conversation between John the Dwarf and Abba Poemen (pictured above).

It's Giving Tuesday! I would sincerely appreciate your financial support. You can find a place to offer donations at this link.

There is so much new content coming your way soon!

Much Love to you and yours!

Josh

Ruth Haley Barton at the Dominican Center Part II No. 37

This Part II of my conversation with Ruth Haley Barton is the Q & A session. Most of those who ventured out on that snowy night in January 2019 were in positions of leadership of churches or nonprofits. The core question of our whole conversation that began in Part I is fleshed out in more detail: how do we translate contemplative, transformative spirituality for our respective organizations and communities?

I offer a guided meditation after the recorded conversation that has two sections. The first section is a meditation on your desire: how badly you want more of God and what is the next step for you in your journey. The second section is for those who are seemingly adrift having had to go outside the safety of your community to find God in solitude.

This conversation with Ruth is made possible by the Dominican Center, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, MI. As a result of the positive feedback on the last episode, No. 36 with Ruth, the Dominican Center and the Invitation are continuing with more collaborations with four more similar public events for the Fall of 2019 and Winter/Spring of 2020. If you would like to recommend a teacher, author, spiritual director, and practitioner to be featured in one of these events, please send me an email: josh@invitationpodcast.org

Thanks for listening and being involved!

Peace & Love of Christ to you!

Josh

Ruth Haley Barton at the Dominican Center Part I No. 36

Do you have a longing for deeper things than your church and other regular sources of spiritual nourishment are able to help you with? The Holy Spirit can lead us to places of solitude away from what is familiar, structured, and safe. This is so we can learn a new kind of dependence on God in a place of solitude that the church even in its most robust and healthy forms can understand.

Spiritually hungry, desperate seekers throughout the history of the church have turned to the ancient vocabulary of contemplation and mysticism. The Invitation seeks to make bridges for these deeper, transformative resources to move into the church. This is a service of translation, finding ways to make the vocabulary of transformation accessible and approachable.

Author, teacher, spiritual director, and retreat leader Ruth Haley Barton is a leader in this work of translation. I had the joy and encouragement to sit with Ruth in an extended, public conversation at the Dominican Center last January. This is Part One of two episodes where I share this conversation with you.

This episode also marks the beginning of a new collaboration between the Invitation and the Dominican Center, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, MI. Our shared hope is to offer you a series of similar conversations with lead authors, teacher, and practitioners.

Please visit www.dominicancenter.com for more information, and make sure you subscribe to the Invitation Podcast at www.invitationpodcast.org

A BRIEF INVITATION MINISTRY UPDATE

Spring is here and that means I’ve been outside all week swinging a hammer on the new building that will be the home for the Invitation. You may have followed the info blitz last fall as I worked the Kickstarter campaign to raise capital funds? Things have been much quieter from me since December because its implementation time! The wonderful result of that Kickstarter adventure has lead to this current season of literal building as well as infrastructure building (getting the business of the nonprofit afloat).

We will get back to creating and sharing more regular podcast content once the building is done. I especially have more news to share about the prison prayer practices!!!

This building is proving to be much more difficult that I could have imagined. Maybe if I knew in advance, I wouldn’t have stepped out on this crazy faith journey. I continue to be encouraged that God is leading more people to the Invitation revealing himself to them in transformative ways. Please pray for the Invitation and consider a financial contribution to sustain our work.

Peace & Love of Christ to you!

Josh

Retreat #7 Sharon Garlough Brown, Mark 1:35-38 No. 35

This winter has been intense, the church is struggling, our politics are a mess.

In episode 31 with Jonathan Wilson Hargrove, I suggest that prayer is deeply connected to our politics. I’ll leave you to work out those things for now. I am committing to small amounts of daily news and larger amounts of prayer for my neighbors near and far.

In terms of the church: I’m watching pastors resign their positions on a local level and reeling from the recent conviction of a high-ranking cardinal in the Catholic Church. I vividly understand the real discouragement with organized religion, yet even still I dare to hope. The Invitation exists to serve the church, to build up the body of Christ.

At home we’ve struggled here to get much of anything done with sickness and kids home from school on snow days. We have often feel trapped and then of course we easily get on each other’s nerves and angry with each other.

There are many things that could keep us from prayer. There are many things that could harden our hearts and close our hearts.

 How do you keep your heart connected to God’s warmth when the cold days are long and cruel? How do you hear the Good News when our public conversations are full of so much bad news?

Praying in the prison is my greatest subversive act of hope in our culture of despair. Prayer is rebellion against the status quo. I am buoyed with the goodness of finding love and patience, wisdom and kindness in the darkness of a prison.

Offering you prayer resources through the Invitation is another subversive act. I find great comfort and delight knowing that my practice of spiritual direction offered through the Invitation Podcast is invigorated by the movements of the Holy Spirit in a prison, and that this goodness is able to somehow reaching you wherever you are spread across the world.

I just looked. The Invitation has listeners in Austria, South Africa, Puerto Rico, and Peru among other places. It’s a small group, but the Spirit can do much with our small things.

This episode is a long-form retreat from our dear friend, retreat leader, spiritual director, and author, Sharon Garlough Brown. Conversation #3, episode No. 7 is a conversation with Sharon. This time she helps us consider the spiritual disciplines that Jesus practiced by walking us through Mark 1:35-38 in prayer and meditation. 

I pray that this audio retreat will help you live into and practice your own subversive acts of hope and joy. I pray there will be ripple effects of goodness and light all around you today.

Peace of Christ,

Josh

Awakening Series #1: What Can a Sixteen-Year-Old Teach Us? No. 34

The only other space besides the prison where I have regularly been excited to discover the Holy Spirit is a summer camp. 

I didn't think I'd last long as the director of discipleship for the Awakening. It's a worship arts week in the for high school students. I've been going deeper into contemplative prayer in a prison. I thought maybe I'd offer a few years at the Awakening and then focus more on the prison and the Invitation, but I've been surprised and humbled.

In fact, these teenagers have something to teach me, and to teach you.

I don't go into the prison to bring Jesus to the men there. I go to the prison as a spiritual director to join with the men to discover Jesus who is already among them. Likewise, with these high school students of the Awakening. Jesus is already vibrant within them.

This is the introductory episode in a new collaboration with The Awakening. In this episode I practice something like group spiritual direction to discern with the students how Jesus is with them by asking: what is the unique gift you have to offer us as a teenager right now, today?

The word we focused on was vulnerability.

Here in this introductory episode to a new series of collaborations with the Invitation I offer you a chance to join into our discernment and to see what the Spirit might show you.

More information about the Awakening can be found HERE.

Don’t forget our public, spiritual conversation with Ruth Haley Barton at the Dominican Center, January 23. LINK HERE.   

And if you are a church leader of any kind, you are invited to join the Invitation's 3rd Annual Contemplative Prayer Retreat Feb 11 & 12 here in Holland, MI.

Be sure to subscribe to the Invitation at www.invitationpodcast.org 

Love & Peace,

Josh

Dying to Comfort Vs Dying of Comfort: A Journey to the Prison - Micah Matthews No. 33

Micah Matthews recently finished and MFA in fiction at Warren Wilson. This episode is his audio essay where he describes his visits to the prison with Josh. These visits cause Micah to reflect on the spiritual good of going outside of his comfort.

Without permission to take microphones and cameras into the prison, this essay is the next best way for you to come inside to taste and see the movements of the Holy Spirit in a prison.

The Invitation is in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to cover our capital budget. Please consider contributing financially so that we can create more creative spiritual formation content like this for you. tinyurl.com/y9gqmnha 

Please subscribe to the Invitation Podcast to stay in the loop with all the new content as it becomes available.

Thanks for joining this journey with us!

Much Love & Peace to you!

Josh

Update: A Hasidic Tale & Giving Tuesday! No. 32

In this update episode, a Hasidic tale from Abraham Joshua Heschel helps us understand the Spirit's invitation to find the treasure right here in front of ourselves, right at home.

We are on the eve of #GivingTuesday. If you haven't had a chance to watch our Kickstarter video, please do.

Here's a link: tinyurl.com/y9gqmnhaA 

We hope you can catch onto the larger vision of what the Invitation is up to as a nonprofit connecting the prison to the local church parish through spiritual direction and this podcast. If you have means, please support the Kickstarter campaign as it raises money to fund our capital budget, money that will help us efficiently and creatively offer you spiritual formation resources on a more consistent basis.

Share the Invitation with your people, and pray for us on this crazy journey of trusting God. Peace & Love of Jesus to you!

The picture of this episode is the home of what we are calling 'Cloudstreet' as it is under snowy construction. Cloudstreet will be the hub of our practice of spiritual direction, a retreat space, and a production space!!!

Big hugs and LOVE!

Josh

Conversation #10 Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove No. 31

Who wants to talk politics & prayer?

This conversation with Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove will lead you into a Spirit-filled wilderness of hope in the midst of our political wasteland.

Yes, trusting Jesus with our politics will be difficult and intimidating. We should offer more than any party-line assent. Opening ourselves to engage in this kind of learning curve and conversation will require courage and patience. This wilderness journey will bring us to exhaustion and then likely to our knees, to repentance, and then finally to Hope.

Here in this wilderness we must especially learn to wait on the Lord in quietness and trust. He alone is our salvation and help.

However, there are several voices in our country pushing back on this call to prayer. "No thanks," they say. "We don't need your thoughts and prayers. We need new legislation and we need your action!"

““It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.””

— C.S. Lewis

This response is fair if its in response to small prayers. C.S. Lewis famously argues in his sermon, “The Weight of Glory” that our desires are not too strong but too weak. We are far too easily pleased.

In a similar way our politics are not too strong but too weak. Our neighbors do need our thoughts and prayers if we are engaging God’s love in a transformative way. They need us to be so thoroughly changed by our thoughts and prayers that we might become agents of justice and righteousness in our neighborhoods and cities.

In this episode I offer you a hearty introduction to this conversation by encouraging you to enter into this wilderness desert for the sake of loving God with your strength for the sake of righteousness, which is justice. This episode is a challenging invitation for you to bring your politics under the Lordship of Jesus no matter your political leanings and affiliations.

Can we trust the Spirit to lead us into the wilderness, to brave this political storm growing our faith to believe yes, everything is going to be alright?

Truly truly! Verily verily! Amen amen!

Let it be so!

Love,

Josh

---

Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove and Shane Claiborne edited the prayerbook Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. Each day’s prayer is concluded with this:

“May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.”

— originally from the Celtic book of Prayer

"Jonathan is a moral prophet and spiritual physician for our time. In this timely book, with the precision of a heart surgeon, he exposes the sickness that has long-plagued American Christianity and infected our society and politics, revealing that none of us is untouched by the disease. With the credibility of his life lived in solidarity with systemically oppressed people, he resounds a clarion call to reform the way in which we live the gospel. This is a must-read for all Christians in America. You will be humbled, enlightened, and motivated to heal the ailing heart of our country and recover its soul." 

-Philenna Heuertz

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