Spiritual Labor: Spiritual Life

Spiritual Labor – Spiritual Life

Published by: Deacon Thom and LisBeth Trunzo at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 Thom Trunzo

ISBN: 9781311928979

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Discover other titles by this author at Smashwords.com

Seventh Direction: Reflections of the Gifts of the Spirit

Heaven Can’t Wait: Reflections on Spiritual Living

Meeting Mary and the Mystery of Motherhood

Who Can Save the Pond? (Children’s Book)

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Forward by Donna Marie Jacks, Ontario, Canada

Sometimes, it seems the world has gone mad – life can seem hectic, noisy, confusing, even frightening. Most of us search for clarity and peace.

Thom and Beth Trunzo together, but each in their own unique spirituality, offers new ways of looking at the good and the bad of everyday life. Sharing their spiritual journey, their reflections can affirm our experiences or lead us to fresh insight into the familiar.

For me, the Weekly Reflections captured and presented here I this book calls me to quiet moments to contemplate, ponder, seek and often discover new direction in my journey to a deeper understanding of God’s plan for me.

We are each diverse and yet, all one family on one journey and these reflections are part of the ‘How To’ manual.

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Gratitude and Dedication

We are especially and eternally grateful for our children. To these very excellent people we dedicate this book. To Jennifer who teaches us endurance and that, in God’s own time and when surrounded by family, anything is possible. To Valerie who teaches us to stand firm and strong even when the tide against us seems to be overwhelming. To Kate who continues to teach us the value and dignity of our relative outside the family circle; the poor, the homeless, the disenfranchised, the water and the air. To Sarah who teaches us to that living with compassion as a spiritual person is a holier walk of life than in simply being religious. To Rachel who has the ability to bring joy and laughter into our lives by her very presence. She teaches us that God work is done most perfectly by being generous and joyful. And finally to Joseph who, while his life spanned only a few minutes, continues to strengthen and protect us. He teaches us from the Spirit World that God is always gentle and good.

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Introduction

Some people find God on Sunday or on their Sabbath in a church, synagogue, mosque or cathedral. We often encounter God in these holy places and through the community, liturgies and prayers that take place there. But God is everywhere, and, when we grow in our spirituality, we discover that the Divine is equally present in every event, in every place, in every person we meet and in even the tiniest moments of our lives. This book of 52 reflections is a compilation of the reflections we have written this past year and offered FREE to our Weekly Reflection Group. (www.seventhdirection.com). But here, compiled together, the reader can easily go to pertinent topics to find a meditation that fits the needs of the moment. Many of the following reflections are ways that we personally have encountered the Spirit in the normal routine of our daily lives. Some offerings are more theological in nature. But all are intended to give the reader a prayer tool upon which to help move him or her to finding the Spirit in his or her normal life. At the end of each reflection, we always present a Looking Inward section that holds thoughtful reflection questions.

You may also find this book helpful if you are preparing a spiritual talk or retreat. Any of these reflections can be read to a group and the accompanying Looking Inward questions used to facilitate individual contemplation or group discussions.

As you will see, the topics span a wide range of life experiences from finding God in nature, to spiritual renovation, to working to bring peace into our lives and communities, to forgiveness, to being humble, to prayer forms, to peace and justice, and to seeing life through the eyes of the elderly "Nobody Understands Me."

We hope that you find this book helpful in your own prayer life. Feel free to copy any of the reflections and to share them with your circle of friends. If you would like to have our weekly reflections delivered directly to your e-mail, just sign-up for the Free Weekly Reflections at www.seventhdirection.com Finally, for more topics, please consider checking-out our first book of 52 reflections, Heaven Can’t Wait: Reflections on Spiritual Living

We extend God’s blessings to you as you listen to the Spirit and strive to live in the Spirit.

Thom & Beth Trunzo

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Weak of Peace

Anxiety

As

Be Holy

Being in the Desert

Being Still in Change

Beloved

Could We Start Again, Please?

Doubting

Finding Our True Value

God’s YES

Holding On – Letting Go

Home Is…

Honesty

I Saw a Heron

Is There Really Power in Sacred Places?

Leading Edge of Love

Leaving Home

Leonard Cohen

Like A Child

Listening is a Godly Act

Living in the Darkness

Living in the Gap

Moving

My Aunt Virg

Nobody Understands Me

Old Man – I’m a Lot Like You

Parenting a Parent

Peace is Always a Choice

People in Waiting

Praying

Preparing to Go Home

Quilting

Saved

Service

Someday

Spiritual Renovation

Temptation

The Art of Being Forgiven

The Courage of Philip

The List

The Lost Art of Building Family

The Road

The Saints

The Two Sides of Justice

Two Sides of Labor Day

Walking With – Walking Together

What God Has Joined Together

What Is My GPS?

Where Do I Fit?

Wind Chimes

Working in the Vineyard

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Images

About the Authors

A Weak of Peace

Thom Trunzo

Your Chickens

There are many lessons and truths to be learned when we are attentive to the teachers that surround us. These teachers, each day, fill us with sights and sounds of God’s Wisdom; if only we have the openness to listen!

I have been distressed with seeing and hearing about all the violence and aggression in the world. There is one part of me that thinks that it has always been this way. It seems more common because of perhaps two reasons. First, we humans have developed methods of killing that are more destructive. So one act of violence can now mean multiple, if not hundreds of people are casualties. Second, the news media is instant so that nearly every event is delivered right into our living rooms, radios and cell phones real-time.

Humans are supposed to be on the top of the creation chain, but our actions seem more in line with much of the animal kingdom, perhaps worse, because most of the non-human animals kill only for food or self-preservation. We seem to kill for less noble ideals such as hate, power, dominance, and of course greed.

We have hummingbirds living in the woods around our house. We have two feeders hanging and we often watch them buzz around. Each year, there is always one male bird that becomes ruthless in defending BOTH feeders. He perches himself on the highest branch of the tree near the feeders, defending his position. Territorial, for sure, but he is relentless in attacking all other hummingbirds trying to get to the feeder, male and female alike. All this violence over a food supply greater than he could ever consume! But one difference is that the dominant bird never KILLS; he merely defends by chasing away.

We have chickens, all hens, and we have learned a lot about how sayings like, Pecking Order and Acting like a bunch of old hens originated. Every batch of chickens that we get produces a dominant hen that Rules the Roost by attacking the weakest. Likewise, there is ALWAYS one poor hen who feels the brunt of the aggression. She is tormented almost constantly, pecked ruthlessly by the dominant hen and a few of her followers. We have seen them so aggressive against the one that they pull-out nearly all of her feathers and actively keep her from the feeders. She walks around all day clucking and trying to avoid the others. Life must be a living hell for her.

There seems to be the haves and the have-nots indigenous to the animal world. Generally, the haves seem to possess some innate desire to dominate the weak, to horde food, to impose their will. They attack and hurt and even kill their own whether there is excess food or space or not.

This just seems a lot like human behavior. From early childhood, siblings attempt to control the others. Bullies exist from kindergarten through high school and, truly, beyond. I thought that we were supposed to use our intellect to reason, feel compassion, and change our basic aggressive animalistic instincts to finding paths of peace. But we have not progressed much. I can even make a case that we have regressed, since we seem to have a thirst for more and greater weapons measured in degree of destruction and body counts.

We have become masters of blame as well, justifying our own actions with reasons why the others deserve our wrath. We allow thousands of years of hate to flourish and are not even sure why we feel as we do because, in the end, we were simply taught that our side is good and their side is bad. We have leaders who make proclamations, impose sanctions and policies that dictate power. We have bishops who perch high in their cathedrals, pastors and ministers who sit in their chairs of authority who proclaim the law with little or no regard for the pain of those in need. We have corporate managers and leaders who seem to love their power and measure it by how repressive they can make life for their employees or by how ruthlessly they can treat their competition. We seem to be much more like hummingbirds and chickens than we might want to consider or imagine.

This week, we are calling for a Weak of Peace. That is not a typo, but rather a challenge, an invitation to understanding how it feels to be weak and dominated, powerless and vulnerable. We cannot understand hunger when we are constantly full. We do not appreciate having until we do not have. But the weak are all around. We do not have to go to a war zone or an inner city neighborhood or search the alleys for the homeless. The weak and vulnerable are in our own homes, schools, workplaces, and churches. I suggest starting in our homes and places we frequent. Look! See! Feel! Speak-up when we see or experience someone being hurt. Put down our own weapons of sarcasm and anger. Listen with kindness then speak with honesty. Understand before we judge. Empathize instead of criticize. Learn to be strong by being weak. Enter into this Weak of Peace.

Looking Inward

I will start by taking time to look inside with honesty to discover my own shortcomings, identifying behavior, words or other things that cause others pain or allow them to feel oppressed.

I will walk this week with eyes more open to seeing the weak and trying to empathize with them.

If I see someone who is suffering injustice, I will stand with them.

Table of Contents

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Anxiety

Beth Trunzo

Caring For Aging Parents

It’s been almost a year since I retired. I remember thinking at the time how nice it would be to be able to get up whenever I wanted and drink coffee on the deck while I did Morning Prayer with Thom. I looked forward to calm days full of gardening, chicken tending, baking, long loving days with Thom and staying in touch with family and friends. For the most part things did start out that way. My morning prayer always included gratitude for all the many blessings in my life. Unfortunately that was the calm before the storm and over time I found myself dealing with health issues and life issues. In addition to my health issues, there were other medical issues that impacted my father-in-law, my brother-in-law, my daughter and several good friends. As I watched the news every night I became overwhelmed by the pain that exists everywhere. I continued my prayer, praying for more and more people in more and more places as time went on. I was spending so much time praying for other people in pain, that I stopped praying my prayer of gratitude. All of the pain and problems that encompassed me caused me to feel a tremendous amount of anxiety. Unfortunately the way I dealt with that was to use my husband Thom as a scapegoat. I would allow myself to be distant, critical and snippy with him. Not that I received any relief from that but it was the way I dealt with my feelings. I am truly blessed and grateful to have a husband who allows me to act out my negative feelings and still stands with me in love and solidarity. And then today I woke up and realized that yet again I needed to get back to my center, back to the Spirit who dwells within me and that I needed to listen for the voice of God guiding me to know how I am called to be healed in my own soul and be a wounded healer for those in my life who are dealing with pain.

Once again, as I have learned and re-learned, I