Spiritual Adventures In The Snow

Whether you have a need for speed or are drawn toward more lyrical motion, McFee and Foster offer poignant insights on how you can find your peak spiritual life in your favorite snow sport, no matter your skill level.

Turn your recreation in the snow into a spiritual high point! Activities that are exhilarating and fun are not usually thought of as spiritual. But to the contrary, such ventures may well point us to our most profound spiritual connections. For when we are able to come fully into the present moment, turn off the noise in our minds, feel our true essence as complete union of body-mind-spirit, we enter into a kind of other worldly state of ecstasy that we can experience only as a spiritual dimension.from Chapter 1 Debunking the myth that your body has nothing to do with your spiritual life, avid winter sports enthusiasts Dr. Marcia McFee and Rev. Karen Foster demonstrate how spirituality is fed by play and challenge and how your snow-filled adventures can serve as a set of metaphors for seeing lifes ups and downs as part of a sacred rhythm. Whether you have a need for speed or are drawn toward more lyrical motion, McFee and Foster offer poignant insights on how you can find your peak spiritual life in your favorite snow sport, no matter your skill level. Learn how to: Reduce stress and embrace your need for fun Achieve harmonious integration of mind, body, and spirit Trust your bodys inherent wisdom Appreciate the details in nature and everyday life Clear your head and persevere in difficult times Cultivate a sense of community

Spiritual discernment is the traditional name for listening and responding to divine guidance. In this book you will approach decision making as an active participant, a co-creator with God in shaping your life. Drawing on twenty-five years of experience as a psychologist and fifteen years as a spiritual director, Nancy L. Bieber presents three essential aspects of Spirit-led decision making:

The forgotten truths of Celtic Christianity provide a portal into a spiritual way of experiencing the world. The Celtic Christians beheld the world around them and perceived the divine life of God as upholding every aspect of the material universe. Their prayers and poems, their liturgies and theological interpretations give Christians a sense of faith that is confident in a merciful and infinitely creative, healing God. In this introduction to Celtic Christian spirituality, Mary Earle presents primary texts from the Celtic Christian tradition—selections from the works of Pelagius, Eriugena and St. Patrick, as well as prayers and poems from Wales, the Outer Hebrides and Ireland. These essential writings direct humanity to read the "book of creation" as well as the Bible, and call us to remember that “matter matters.” Earle's engaging facing-page commentary explores how faithful Christians and spiritual seekers can take inspiration from this lively tradition’s ways of embodying and living the gospel. Topics include: Creation Daily life and work Incarnation Pilgrimage Blessing Social justice Prayer

Discover Your Unique Gift "Creative aging is a choice.... If we remember that transition always begins with endings, moves on to a wilderness period of testing and trying, and only then do we reach the beginning of something new, then we can embrace this encore period of life with hope and curiosity, remembering always that it is our true nature to be creative, to be always birthing new ways of sharing our planet together." —from the Epilogue In a practical and useful way, Marjory Zoet Bankson explores the spiritual dimensions of retirement and aging. She offers creative ways for you to share your gifts and experience, particularly when retirement leaves you questioning who you are when you are no longer defined by your career. Drawing on stories of people who have reinvented their lives in their older years, Bankson explores the issues you need to address as you move into this generative period of life: Release: Letting go of the vocational identity associated with your career or primary work Resistance: Feeling stuck, stagnant, resisting change Reclaiming: Drawing energy from the past, discovering unused gifts Revelation: Forming a new vision of the future Crossing Point: Moving from stagnation to generativity Risk: Stepping out into the world with new hope Relating: Finding or creating new structures for a new kind of work

Fresh translation and facing-page annotations bring the compelling wisdom of the Hebrew prophets to life. Hundreds of commentaries and dozens of Bible translations make the Hebrew prophets available to modern-day readers, but most often these sources focus on history or apologetics, losing the reader who is searching for spiritual insight. The Hebrew Prophets: Selections Annotated & Explained makes the wisdom of these timeless teachers available to readers with no previous knowledge of the prophets. With fresh, contemporary commentary, Rami Shapiro reveals the central themes covered by all the prophets: moving from ignorance to wisdom, injustice to justice, cruelty to compassion, and despair to joy. This unique look at the Hebrew Prophets sharpens the personal nature of their message and highlights their critique of the spiritual errors we all face in life, challenging readers to correct those errors and experience a life of awakening and joy.

Find hope and renewal in life's natural cycle of ordinary losses and new beginnings. "When we intentionally enter into our everyday walk through small losses, the terrain of larger losses, the valley of the shadow of death, is not totally unknown. It is not completely unfamiliar, alien, terrifying, for we have walked some of this way before with our lesser losses. We can journey through this valley of loss, for journey through it we must. And we can emerge markedly changed, but alive, on the other side." —from the Prologue Going beyond loss as a problem to be resolved, a grief to be worked through, Dr. Nancy Copeland-Payton, a spiritual director and ordained clergywoman, reframes loss from the perspective that our everyday losses help us learn what we need to handle the major losses. Weaving in spiritual and classical themes, personal and scriptural story, Dr. Copeland-Payton shows us that by becoming aware of what our lesser losses have to teach us, the larger losses of our lives become less terrifying. Each chapter includes a spiritual practice and questions for reflection to help you: Mine the hidden depths of painful losses of things and places Traverse the devastating loss of relationships and the heart-wrenching death of people we love. Overcome the steep, dark slopes of loss of beliefs and faith. Venture past our fear of the losses of aging and our own death.

The restless heart and searching mind of this influential early church father can offer spiritual and intellectual companionship for your spiritual journey. Augustine of Hippo (354 430), theologian, priest, and bishop, is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. He is known as much for his long interior struggle that ended with conversion and baptism at age thirty-two as for his influential teachings on human will, original sin and the theology of just war. Cherished as a model for the pursuit of a life of spiritual grace and criticized for his theory of predestination, Augustine is recognized as a living expression of the passion to understand and communicate the deeper meanings of human experience. With fresh translations drawn from Augustine's voluminous writings and probing facing-page commentary, Augustinian scholar Joseph T. Kelley, PhD, provides insight into the mind and heart of this foundational Christian figure. Kelley illustrates how Augustine s keen intellect, rhetorical skill and passionate faith reshaped the theological language and dogmatic debates of early Christianity. He explores the stormy religious arguments and political upheavals of the fifth century, Augustine s controversial teachings on predestination, sexuality and marriage, and the deep undercurrents of Augustine s spiritual quest that still inspire Christians today."