Want to build a better brain? Ramp up your spiritual practice, says Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania. Meditation and prayer can improve your physical, intellectual, and emotional well-being and may even slow the brain's aging process.

Read the rest of this article by David Ian Miller in the San Francisco Chronicle about how one's view of God affects the brain. Click here.

Sacred Is the Call: The Transformational Work of Spiritual Direction Programs for Personal and Professional Growth is now available in Korean. Presented by Mercy Center, a leading spiritual direction program in the U.S., this handbook addresses how spiritual direction leaders can present key topics and also provides wise guidance for individual seekers. Contributors include such luminaries as Mary Ann Scofield, RSM, Jim Neafsey, and Don Bisson. Topics include contemplative listening, discernment, sexuality, and others. Each contribution features reflection questions and suggestions for further reading.

On the Walking the Rite Way blog from England, Ken O. writes about his experience of the Holy Fire Ceremonies in Jerusalem in 1988:

 

 

I came down to find the church packed with people. There was a real sense of carnival singing, dancing, drum-beating. Each one present carrying bunches of candles, often in carrier bags to be brought back home and distributed to friends and neighbours alike. When the official chant began a deep silence descended on the crowd. The Patriarchs entered the Tomb and the door of the tomb was closed. Everyone stretched out their hands, full of candles, towards the tomb of Christ. The silence was pregnant with expectation and profoundly moving – one of those extended moments which lasted, in reality for three or four minutes, but stretched into eternity and like Jacob’s ladder of old moved between heaven and earth. Then the door of the tomb opened and the Greek Patriarch emerged with a lighted torch and the words CHRIST IS RISEN. Words taken up by the whole group shouting Christ is Risen. The light passed to runners who circled the church three times, everyone trying to stop them to have their own candles lit – and within moments the interior of the church which was in darkness became bright with the light of Christ. Eventually the doors of the Holy Sepulchre were opened and the light entered the square. The shout went up even higher ‘Christ is Risen’.

To read the entire post, click here.

Thank you Rabbi Shawn Zevit who reminds us to be thankful of the sun today, Wednesday, April 8, in a special way as Passover begins. Here’s more from Newsday:

As observant Jews prepare for the beginning of the eight-day Passover celebration tonight, some will pause this morning to recite the least frequently spoken prayer in Judaism. It is a ritual that comes around only once every 28 years, one that commemorates the sun's return to the place in the firmament where, according to the Book of Genesis, God created it on the fourth day.

This year's confluence of Passover and the sun's commemoration is particularly rare - marking only the 12th occurrence in the 5,769-year-old Jewish calendar.

"There is something special about celebrating the beginning of the Jewish people coming out of Egypt and the Wednesday of the sun's creation," said Rabbi Anchelle Perl, of Congregation Beth Shalom Chabad, in Mineola.

To read more

And more from Rabbi Zevit who prayed with the sunrise from Ohio, USA today:

“We had about 70 or more people join us in the dark at 6:30am in snow-covered Cleveland, the clouds were there, and just at 6:58am, the local time for the actual blessing moment, the clouds lifted in the horizon to reveal a bright orange/yellow swatch of sun- the first time in 3 days anyone had seen it here- it was fantastic and now the skies are clear! May this continue to be the way we move through the dark into the light, embracing the dark with the light.”

For more resources about this special Jewish year

A fool sees not the same tree

that a wise man sees.

                          -- William Blake

Happy April Fool’s Day!

Did you know that being a fool for God is what brands us as spiritual directors? We are foolish enough to ask repeatedly,
“Where is God in this situation?”
“What is the sacred aspect of what is happening?”
“From a spiritual perspective, what’s going on?”
We are so foolish that even when we cannot easily see God, we keep looking for God’s fingerprints.

When the people we companion suffer from illness, lose their jobs, or find they are suddenly homeless – even when they don’t see how God could possibly be in their state of affairs – we don’t give up. We foolishly trust that God is present. Blindly sometimes, we compassionately encourage the people we companion to keep feeling around in the dark. Or to start sniffing around until they whiff God’s scent. We foolishly believe God’s presence will be palpable, knowable, and recognizable – if only a fleeting glimpse or scant scent. With foolish patience and sacred searching, we dare our spiritual companions to keep their eyes and hearts open for a peek at grace. With foolhardy ears, we keep listening.

Not only does this foolishness brand us as spiritual directors, it binds us. Together we foolishly trust that seeking God makes a difference not only in our own lives, but also in the lives of the people we serve. Boldly we believe that being fools for God contributes to peace and justice in our world, not only among people, but also for all creation. Humbly and gratefully we admit that God is in charge and worthy of our trust. How foolish is that!  

Liz Ellmann, MDiv