SUNDAY LECTURE | In the Bleak Midwinter

December 22, 2024 Bill Kerley

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for De member 22, 2024

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Dear Ones -

Hard to believe that this week was our last time to meet this year. The year has flown by.

Some of the finest “religious theater” is held during the Advent/Christmas season at St. Paul’s. The music has been just astoundingly wonderful. I marvel at the skill of our organ scholar, Emily Amos. Of course, the St. Paul’s choir is outstanding. So, I encourage you, if you are in the Houston area to take advantage of one of the Christmas Eve services at St. Paul’s this year. They will be at noon, four, six, and eight o’clock. These services, especially the four and six o’clock, are usually very well attended; so, come early. If the church parking lots are full, use the Fine Arts garage. It will be free for this.

As for this week in Ordinary Life, I completed the teaching I had begun last week about unlearning and unknowing. There are three major roadblocks on walking the way we are undertaking. They are: having a daily spiritual practice, unlearning, and unknowing. We grow up being taught “what to see.” Wise and useful spirituality seeks to teach us “how to see.” It is in having a practice, unlearning, and unknowing that we experience the “hope-certainty” that loving-kindness is our truth and our destiny. In the teaching I also highly recommend the movie Conclave and use a couple of examples from it to illustrate the teaching.

That’s a brief summary of this teaching for this week in Ordinary Life.

The audio/video versions of the talk has some differences from the text I spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and links to the audio and video version of the talk using the links below.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

To read or download the text of the talk, click here.

To view or download the presentation slides, click here.

To view or download the announcement slides, click here.

In order to listen to or to download the audio recording of today’s talk, please use the audio player below.

In order to watch the video of today’s talk, use the YouTube player below.

SUNDAY LECTURE | Unlearning and Unknowing

December 15, 2024 Bill Kerley

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for De member 15, 2024

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Dear Ones -

First, the Ordinary Life Christmas party is this Friday night. See the Ordinary Life website for details. click here.

Second, Jan Phillips who was with us in January 2023, has a new book out. It would make a wonderful Christmas gift for yourself or someone else. Though it won’t be available until mid-January, you can order it now on Amazon. I’ve been privileged to see the first hundred pages and it is a treasure trove of quotes, musings, and amazing photographs. It is titled “Stop Seeking, Start Finding: A Book of Hours for Spiritual Evolutionaries.” I’ve ordered my copy. click here.

As for this week’s teaching, I called it

Unlearning and Unknowing

There are two ways to deal with any position one takes, including a religious one: the way of explanation or the way of exploration. I am teaching the way of exploration. There is no one true faith or path into the heart of Sacred Mystery. There is only the way of compassion and justice. We will likely have to unlearn things in order to get to the truth that the things we learned were trying to teach when they were first formulated. The teaching ends with a comparison of the birth narratives in Matthew and Like.

That’s a brief summary.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to read or download the text version of the talk, click here.

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

In order to listen to or download the audio recording of today’s talk, please use the audio player below.

In order to watch the video recording of today’s talk, please use the YouTube player link below.

SUNDAY LECTURE | Mary Had a Baby

December 8, 2024 Bill Kerley

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for December 8, 2024

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Dear Ones -

We begin the journey of “Walking the Way” with the birth stories told about Jesus. And, more specifically, with the stories created about Mary. In order to undertake the journey we are on I believe we must be:

open, be willing to conceive of the new, be willing to go through pregnancy, and to give birth.

These are some of the things we can appreciate and appropriate from these stories.

Dr. Holly Hudley led us through each of these four areas and ended with a powerful poem. By the way, the time began by our singing a duet together. The session ended with a quote from. mystic Meister Eckhart: What good is it that Christ was born 2,000 years ago if He is not born now in your heart?

That’s a brief summary. Information about how to find the full text and video are below.

The audio/video versions of the talk has some significant differences from the text we spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and links to the audio and video version of the talk using the links below.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to read or download the text version of the talk, click here.

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

In order to listen to or download the audio recording of today’s talk, please use the audio player link below.

In order to watch the video of today’s talk, use the link below.

SUNDAY LECTURE | An Invitation To Walk The Way

December 1, 2024 Bill Kerley

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for De member 1, 2024

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Dear Ones -

This week I introduced a new theme I will be following in my teaching for the foreseeable future. It is

Walking the Way

I have taken the idea for this from lines found in a book of theology by Sara Grant. The lines are: “It isn’t the way because Jesus walked it. Jesus walked it because it is the way.” Sara Grant’s pivotal work is about a non dual-approach that invites the reader to reflect on the universality of spiritual truth while remaining rooted in their own tradition.

It is my intention to dig deeply into the Jesus narratives to find out what these stories meant for those who first heard them and their relevance for us. We began this week with reflections on the birth stories of Jesus. Everyone in most cultures knows something about the stories of Christmas. They touch something deep within us - our yearning for peace and hope for a “better world.” What, however, were the stories created to convey? What did they mean for those who first heard them? How can they contribute to our “walking the way.”

That’s a brief summary. Information about how to find the full text and video are below.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!