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Sacred Friendships

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rest for your souls' (Jeremiah 6:16). Ask for the Ancient Paths. Finding Buried Treasure: ... attentions, estrangements, and above all by her own character with ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Sacred Friendships


1
Sacred Friendships Listening to the Voices of
Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors
Hebrews 121-3 So Great a Cloud of Witnesses
2
Addressing the Elephant in the Room
3
Co-Authors
4
Co-Editors
5
A Voice for the Voiceless
6
Searching for Buried Treasure The Forgotten Arts
7
A Bunch of Dead White Guys!
8
A Cloud of Female Witnesses!
9
Hebrews 121-3Cloud of Witnesses
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a
great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off
everything that hinders us and the sin that so
easily entangles us, and let us run with
perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us
fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of
our faith, who for the joy set before him endured
the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him
who endured such opposition from sinful men, so
that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
10
Following the Ancient Paths
Helping Hurting and Hardened People Can Feel Like
a Maze!
11
Ever Feel a Little Lost?
12
Ever Feel a Little Lost?
13
Some Signs Are More Helpful Than Others
14
Some Signs Are More Helpful Than Others
15
Some Sign Are More Helpful Than Others
16
Some Signs Are More Helpful Than Others
17
Some Sign Are More Helpful Than Others
18
Need Some Directions?
19
Need Some Directions?
20
Following the Ancient Paths
21
Ask for the Ancient Paths
  • Ask for the ancient paths,
  • ask where the good way is,
  • and walk in it, and you will find
  • rest for your souls
  • (Jeremiah 616).

22
Finding Buried Treasure Changeless Truth for
Changing Times
23
Our Treasure Map Sustaining, Healing,
Reconciling, and Guiding
  • Sustaining Hurt
  • Healing Hope
  • Reconciling
  • Horrible/Wonderful
  • Guiding Mature

24
Susanna Wesleys Treasure Map Sustaining,
Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding
We are to be instructed, because we are ignorant
guiding and healed, because we are sick
healing and disciplined, because so apt to
wander and go astray reconciling and succored
and supported, because we are so often tempted
sustaining (Susanna Wesley).
25
Our Historical Treasure Map Sustaining,
Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding
  • Sustaining Its Normal to Hurt
  • Healing Its Possible to Hope
  • Reconciling Its Horrible to Sin, but
  • Wonderful to Be Forgiven
  • Guiding Its Supernatural to Mature

26
Whet Your Appetite
27
Sustaining Modeled by Perpetua
28
Sustaining Modeled by Perpetua
  • Written expressly for Gods honor and humans
    encouragement.
  • I was terrified because never before had I
    experienced such darkness.
  • I was very upset because of my fathers
    condition. I tried to comfort him saying,
    Whatever God wants at this tribunal will happen,
    for remember that our power comes not from
    ourselves but from God.

29
Sustaining Modeled by Perpetua
  • My fathers injury hurt me as much as if I
    myself had been beaten. And I grieved because of
    his pathetic old age.
  • I consoled my brother and asked that they care
    for my son. I suffered intensely because I sensed
    their agony on my account.
  • Incredibly, Perpetuas greatest pain was her
    ache for others who hurt for her!

30
Healing Shared by Perpetua and Felicitas
  • Her friends were equally sad at the thought of
    abandoning such a good friend to travel alone on
    the same road to hope.
  • They were exhorting the people, warning them to
    remember the judgment of God.

31
Healing Shared by Perpetua and Felicitas
  • The day of their victory dawned, and with
    joyful countenances they marched from the prison
    arena as though on their way to heaven. If there
    was any trembling, it was from joy, not fear.
  • Perpetua followed with a quick step as a true
    spouse of Christ, the darling of God, her
    brightly flashing eyes quelling the gaze of the
    crowd.

32
Healing Shared by Perpetua and Felicitas
  • But that noble woman stubbornly resisted even
    to the end.
  • Perpetua was singing victory Psalms as if
    already crushing the head of the Egyptian.

33
Reconciling Practiced by Nonna
34
Reconciling Practiced by Nonna
  • She fell before God night and day, entreating
    for the salvation of her head with fasting and
    tears, and devoting herself to her husband, and
    influencing him in many ways by means of
    reproaches, admonitions, attentions,
    estrangements, and above all by her own character
    with its fervor for piety, by which the soul is
    prevailed upon and softened, and willingly
    submits to virtuous pressure (Gregory Nazianzus
    of his mothers reconciling of his Father).

35
Reconciling Practiced by Nonna
  • But she was given to God to my father not only,
    as is less wonderful, as his assistant, but even
    his leader, drawing him on by her influence in
    deed and word to the highest excellence . . . In
    regard to piety even offering herself as his
    teacher.

36
Reconciling Practiced by Nonna
  • This good shepherd was the result of his wifes
    prayers and guidance, and it was from her that he
    learned his ideal of a good shepherds life.

37
Reconciling Practiced by Nonna
  • It was on her part a great undertaking to
    promise me to God before my birth, with no fear
    of the future, and to dedicate me immediately
    after I was born.

38
Reconciling Practiced by Nonna
  • None was as confident of things present as she
    of things hoped for, from her experience of the
    generosity of God.

39
Guiding Passed on by Macrina the Elder
  • What is pertinent here is that the family
    recognized the women to be the guides directing
    them all to their spiritual ends.
  • She formed and molded me, still a child, to the
    doctrines of piety (Basil of his grandmother,
    Macrina the Elder).

40
Guiding Passed on by Emmelia
  • When she rose from bed or engaged in household
    duties, or rested, or partook of food, or retired
    from the table, when she went to bed or rose in
    the night for prayer, the Psalter was her
    constant companion and these were the subject of
    her training of her daughter (Gregory of Nyssa
    concerning Emmelias mentoring of her daughter
    Macrina the Younger).

41
Guiding Passed on by Macrina the Younger
  • She took him soon after birth and reared him
    herself and educated him on a lofty system of
    training, practicing him from infancy in his holy
    studies and became all things to the ladfather,
    teacher, tutor, mother, giver of all good advice
    (Gregory of Nyssa concerning Macrina the
    Youngers discipleship of her younger brother
    Peter).

42
Learning together from Our Great Cloud of Female
Witnesses
43
Sacred Friendships Listening to the Voices of
Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors
Hebrews 121-3 So Great a Cloud of Witnesses
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