Sacred Attention

Just One Moment of Close Attention Can Be a Prayer to God "Does God communicate through the natural world? Through the slug on the compost pile, the leaf on the lawn, the stone tumbled on the beach, the air that feeds my lungs, the dreams that fill my nights? How will I know unless I pay attention?" —from the Introduction Paying attention is rarely easy to do. It requires focus, patience and a willingness to slow down—traits that are hard to come by in this hurry-up world. But close attention to even one small piece of creation, one object, person, routine, image, word or scripture, can become a prayer to God, opening a channel of communication between you and the Divine to allow for deep spiritual growth. In this inspiring guide, you will discover ways to develop a practice of attention as a means of talking—and listening—to God. Framed on the Christian liturgical year and paired with images of the seasons of the earth, each chapter includes an insightful and poignant narrative which illustrates the surprising richness to be found in every attention-getting moment. Following each narrative is a prayer, suggested scripture readings and a specific exercise you can use to develop your own practice of attention as a means to better connect with God. Accessible, humorous and meaningful, these words and practices will lead you further along your path toward discovering a deeper awareness of yourself and your relationship to all that is around you—and within you.

Just One Moment of Close Attention Can Be a Prayer to God "Does God communicate through the natural world? Through the slug on the compost pile, the leaf on the lawn, the stone tumbled on the beach, the air that feeds my lungs, the dreams that fill my nights? How will I know unless I pay attention?" --from the Introduction Paying attention is rarely easy to do. It requires focus, patience and a willingness to slow down--traits that are hard to come by in this hurry-up world. But close attention to even one small piece of creation, one object, person, routine, image, word or scripture, can become a prayer to God, opening a channel of communication between you and the Divine to allow for deep spiritual growth. In this inspiring guide, you will discover ways to develop a practice of attention as a means of talking--and listening--to God. Framed on the Christian liturgical year and paired with images of the seasons of the earth, each chapter includes an insightful and poignant narrative which illustrates the surprising richness to be found in every attention-getting moment. Following each narrative is a prayer, suggested scripture readings and a specific exercise you can use to develop your own practice of attention as a means to better connect with God. Accessible, humorous and meaningful, these words and practices will lead you further along your path toward discovering a deeper awareness of yourself and your relationship to all that is around you--and within you.

Dodson examines the history of traditional religious practices in the Oriente region of contemporary Cuba.

Goddess Wheel of the Year invites each of you to explore the many ways to enrich your spiritual life in ritual celebration of yourself and the Goddess. Learn to match your own developmental, psychological, and spiritual needs with specific Goddess aspects of the Maiden, Mother, Crone and Dark Goddess. Explore ways to celebrate at Solar and Lunar rites, as well as learn how to creatively re-imagine rites of antiquity or develop a unique year of celebration that reflects your own revelation of the Goddess. Whether you are new to the Goddess path or have been a life-long practitioner, you’ll find ample ideas to inspire you and reinvigorate your life.

A powerful and thought-provoking look at "reunions" of all kinds as roads to remembering and re-membering ourselves. "Reunions with people, places, things, and ourselves happen every day around us and within us. Whether to participate or not will always be your choice." --from the Introduction Explore humankind's timeless, universal and deeply spiritual desire to reunite for the sake of healing and wholeness. Whether we wander far from home or reminisce from our favorite armchair, people of all faiths or none whatsoever undertake journeys to remember, restore and re-member the missing pieces of our stories, psyches and souls: Do you occasionally Google a person from your past in hopes of "catching up"? Do you leaf through old address books to try to call someone for the first time in decades? When you visit gravesites or memorials, can you pinpoint what drew you there? Have you felt an urge to revisit your birthplace or travel to your ancestors' homelands? Do you feel compelled to attend an upcoming high school, family or other reunion? If not, why not? Delve deeply into ways that your body, mind and spirit answer the Spirit of Re-union's calls to reconnect with people, places, things and self.

Joseph Butler's Fifteen Sermons (1729) is a classic work of moral philosophy, which remains widely influential. The topics Butler discusses include the role of conscience in human nature, self-love and egoism, compassion, resentment and forgiveness, and love of our neighbour and of God. The text of the enlarged and corrected second edition is here presented together with a selection of Butler's other ethical writings: A Dissertation of the Nature of Virtue, A Sermon Preached Before the House of Lords, and relevant extracts from his correspondence with Samuel Clarke. While this is a readers' edition that avoids cluttering Butler's text with textual variants and intrusive footnotes, it comes complete with scholarly apparatus intended to aid the reader in studying Butlers work in depth. David McNaughton contributes a substantial historical and philosophical introduction that highlights the continuing importance of these works. In addition, there are extensive notes at the end of the volume, including significant textual variants, and full details of Butler's sources and references, as well as short summaries of Butler's predecessors, and a selective bibliography. This will be the definitive resource for anyone interested in Butler's moral philosophy.