Spirituality

  • Come Back to God During Lent

    Come Back to God During Lent

    February 20, 2024

    Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God, your God. And here’s why: God is kind and merciful. He takes a deep breath, puts up with a lot, This most patient God, extravagant in love, Always ready to cancel catastrophe. Who knows? Maybe he’ll do it now, Maybe he’ll turn around and […]

  • From Ashes to Reflection to Conversion of Heart…

    From Ashes to Reflection to Conversion of Heart…

    February 14, 2024

    From Ashes to Reflection to Conversion of Heart... Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are loved by a merciful God. It reminds us to love our neighbors and all Creation. The entire Lenten Season is the story of the power of love to change our hearts. Christ’s life, death and resurrection give us Hope and […]

  • Cultivating Compassion in Today's World

    Cultivating Compassion in Today's World

    January 16, 2024

    “… A compassionate heart beats freely, supple enough to take in another’s pain, be moved, and respond with acts of kindness, goodwill, healing and justice,” wrote Frank Rogers in Compassion in Practice: The Way of Jesus. (1) Compassion is expressed when people feel the suffering of others and long to alleviate that suffering. But how […]

  • Embodying LOVE

    Embodying LOVE

    December 21, 2023

    King David wanted to make a house for God. In 2 Samuel 7, we hear him, “Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!" It was an overflow of his love and gratitude for calling, blessing, and establishing the Israelites and his kingdom. Naturally, he […]

  • Embodying JOY

    Embodying JOY

    December 15, 2023

    I’ve heard that joy is the most vulnerable emotion. At first, I was incredulous because we yearn for it so much, but as I started paying attention to my ease or difficulty inhabiting joy, I discovered that I can be hesitant to enter in. On a morning walk I was thanking for God for things […]

  • Embodying PEACE

    Embodying PEACE

    December 7, 2023

    Last Saturday, a group gathered to “Embody Advent” at Dominican Center Marywood. Rev. Debbie Eisenbise led participants through prayer practices that use our bodies as a way to prepare the way for the Lord to dwell within us this season. We prayed with arms out and up, heads rising and lowering, standing and kneeling. We […]

  • Advent O Antiphons with Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids

    Advent O Antiphons with Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids

    December 5, 2023

    Join the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids for Advent O Antiphons Evening Prayer from December 17-23 The O Antiphons are short, Scripture-based Advent prayers from the Middle Ages that are part of the prayer of the Church in the Liturgy of the Hours. Each year, the Dominican Sisters~Grand Rapids host this beautiful seven-night experience of […]

  • Embodying HOPE

    Embodying HOPE

    November 27, 2023

    When I ask what hope is, usually the answers revolve around two things: belief and the future. We locate it in the realm of the mind and spirit and, of course, in the not yet of the future. But it is something we experience now. When we pay attention to it, we realize it resides […]

  • Blessing in the Chaos

    Blessing in the Chaos

    November 22, 2023

    Dear Friends, Here at Dominican Center Marywood we lean into the coming days before Advent begins, and recognize the power and necessity of a Holy pause. May you allow for an opening into the quiet spaces of your heart as you make time to rest and reconnect with family, friends and those who give meaning […]

  • Savoring Daily Discoveries of God's Presence

    Savoring Daily Discoveries of God's Presence

    July 11, 2023

    In the fullness of life, there is no shortage of retreat opportunities; we attend professional, marriage, writing and silent retreats. While retreats differ in purpose and practices, participants are generally expected to intentionally step away from life’s regular rhythms for 1-7 days and immerse in a particularly focused topic or activity. Last fall, desiring a […]