To begin this post, I thought I’d offer a quote I came across (again) this week: “Vocatvs atque non vocatvs Deus aderit.” It’s Latin, which I do not speak, but translated into English it is: “Bidden or unbidden, God is present” or “Called or not called, God is always there.” This quote was used by Carl Jung, who said it was popularized from Renaissance scholar Erasmus, who said it was an old Spartan proverb. Ha. So quite a distinguished and varied history. Figuring out what Jung meant by “God” isn’t necessarily think the most important thing to engage with this quote, in my opinion. Instead, just consider the quote itself and how it might have a bearing on your life and on life in general.
Some of the topics and titles I’ve been looking into lately include:
- The Answer to How is Yes: Acting on What Matters by Peter Block — Another “management” related book that takes a different approach from the norm. Rather than asking “How” to do things — how to increase attendance, how to fund a building campaign, etc. — Block suggests asking “Why?” questions. Getting to the deeper why means finding our key “yes,” and the motivation for why we’re doing what we’re doing.
- Books, Articles and Websites on the Sand Creek Massacre — So after visiting the 1864 massacre site in eastern Colorado last fall, I’ve been bitten by the research bug re: the events surrounding the massacre. There are some pretty colorful characters and ideas involved, and I’m considering creating some ways to help them come alive for folks in our day.
- Celtic Daily Prayer — I visited Nether Springs, the (now former) Mother House of the Northumbria Community in England in 2007, and I heartily recommend the community’s morning and evening prayer songs to you! They’re now available via Internet download instead of only on CD, so please check them out.
- The Age of the Spirit: How the Ghost of an Ancient Controversy is Sharing the Church by Phyllis Tickle with Jon M. Sweeney — What do the Great Schism from 1,000 years ago in church history and today’s church have in common? According to Tickle and Sweeney, a resurgence of interest in the Holy Spirit. (Who, by the way, gets left out a lot by Christians making references to God. It’s always “Father, this” or “Jesus that,” which makes me think, “What about the poor Holy Spirit?”)
