Vox Veniae Podcast

Cultivating the Common Good

What is our communal interpretation and incarnation of the life of Jesus? Christopher Mack continues our series on Participation by reflecting on how we might navigate enduring hopelessness with our beloved belonging and collective creativity. [1 Corinthians 12:1-3, 27-31 and Jeremiah 32:17]

 

Reflection

1. Is there someplace you have been silent where you can begin praying for wisdom on how to speak out?
2. How might you find your true self by grounding yourself in community ?
3. Where is cruciform love leading you to consider offering your gifts for the common good?

 

Resources

1. Moonage Daydream Director Brett Morgen on Meeting David Bowie and Capturing  the Artist’s Spirit by Luke Hicks
2. Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community by Pádraig Ó Tuama
3. Vox Veniae’s Values 
4. Partnerships
   1. Inside Books Project 
   2. Keep Austin Fed
   3. Ashish Centre 

Work of the People

How does liturgy (“the work of the people”) invite us towards Christ’s embodied vision of the church community? Weylin Lee continues our series on Participation by considering collaboration that is expansive, inclusive, sustainable, and mutual. [1 Corinthians 12:12-26]

 

Reflection

1. What presence and voice can each of us bring to litury?
2. What might sustainable participation look like for us in this season?
3. How might we facilitate mutuality through “the work of the people?”

 

Resources

1. One Church Many Tribes: Following Jesus The Way God Made You by Richard Twiss
2. Vox Veniae’s Values 

Participating with Us

What does it mean to be invited to participate? Gena St. David begins our six week series on Vox’s value of Participation by reflecting on where we have been to imagine a collective future where each of us is essential. [1 Corinthians 12:4-7]

 

Reflection

• What makes you essential to our community?
• What does a covenant of participation mean to you?
• What “common good” is the Spirit inviting Vox to participate in?

 

Resources

• Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo
• Vox Veniae’s Values https://voxveniae.com/values/#.Yx1rfOzMK85

Sacredly Striking

All of our life is participation in the Divine, which means all of our life is in participation with creation & community. Christopher Mack reflects with the psalmist for communal comfort & challenge this Labor Day weekend. [Psalm 139:1-6; 10-18]

 

Reflection

• How does it feel to be fully seen by God and companioned by One who knows you so completely?
• Where are you tempted to play it safe by not moving beyond mimicking others’ brilliance?
• What invitation to collective action is there for you in glimpsing God’s grandiosity?

Resources

• New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton
• Life Abundant by Sallie McFague
• Shoutin’ In The Fire: An American Epistle by Danté Stewart

Facing Our Fears

How does relating with God impact your fear? Gena St. David explores how the focus of our fears often fail to materialize, and how we might navigate the challenges that do emerge. [Hebrews 13]

 

Reflection

• How does your relationship with God impact your fear?
• How are you feeling afraid, and how can you empathize?
• What would you do differently if you felt less afraid?

 

Resource

• Plowshare Prayer by Spencer LaJoyet

Stand Up in Solidarity

On Austin Pride weekend, Christopher Mack looks through the Gospel of Luke’s portrayal of a woman bent down to ponder what it looks like to stand up in solidarity for the marginalized. [Luke 13:10-17]

 

Reflection

• How might you allow your formation in the Divine Womb to shape your identity?
• Where might our habitual patterns and comfort zones be pressing down on the marginalized?
• How might we confront the powers of resentment and rejection with steadfast joy?

 

Resources

Pride 2022 Research & Resources

Books

• “Beatitudes for a Queerer Church” from The Backwater Sermons: Poems by Jay Hulme
• In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey with Scripture by Shannon T.L. Kearns
• Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World  by Henri J.M. Nouwen
• Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
• “Who Said It Was Simple” from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde

Prayer

• A Prayer: We Are Holy. We Are Sacred. We Are Divine. By Rev. Theresa Soto 

Documentary

• My Name Is Pauli Murray

A Contemplative Life

Lauri Raymond reflects on how embracing contemplative prayer opens us to the Love, Wisdom and Wholeness of God that transforms us individually and collectively. [Ephesians 3:14-19]

 

Reflection

1. What is getting in the way of vulnerability and trust?
2. How can I spend more quiet time with God?
3. How can I bring contemplation into my life and relationships?

Does Fear Keep Us From Heaven?

Title: Does Fear Keep Us From Heaven?

How might fear keep us from experiencing heaven here and now? David Wallace examines how our commonly held fears impact our spirituality. [Luke 12:32-40]

What’s God Like?

God’s Love gets on eye level with us and God’s Liberation lifts up the marginalized. Christopher Mack shares how Hosea pictures God as a loving caregiver who we can mirror in our own life through steadfast solidarity and working for the common good. [Hosea 11:1-11]

 

Reflection

• How might you reflect on who you are called to be in the world and who we as a faith community are called to be?
• Is there an invitation for you to act as you consider God bending down in Love and lifting you up in solidarity?

Learning How to Ask

Praying can be an act of naming that invites us into creative responses of redistributive justice. Gina Bastone-Trevino wrestles with the Lord's Prayer and a familiar parable in ways that stretch  us during times of crisis. [Luke 11:1-10]

Reflection

• What surprising strangeness can you find in re-reading the Lord’s prayer?
• What desire do you need to name to God, and what creativity do you find in this practice of naming?
• Where is God calling you to pray for redistribution and justice?

 

Resources

• Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community by Pádraig Ó Tuama: 
  • “Prayer is words and shape and art around desperation, and delight and disappointment and desire. Prayer can be the art that helps you name your desire. And even if the desire is only named, well, naming is a good thing, surely. Naming is what God did, the Jews tell us, and the world unfolded. Or perhaps naming is what the Jews did, and God unfolded. Either way, I’m thankful. Naming things is part of the creative impulse. Naming the deep desires of our heart is a good thing, even if those desires are never satisfied.”

 

• New Zealand Anglican Lord’s Prayer | He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa  
  • https://newzeal.salvationarmy.org.nz/church-community/women/resource/god-our-father-and-mother-free-printable-%C2%A0new-zealand-anglican-lords-prayer

Making the Invisible Visible

If we understand Jesus as making the invisible, visible, then how might that reshape our faith and lived experience? Gena St. David invites us into a conversation about how the incarnation impacts our own bodies and upsets patterns of retribution. [Colossians 1:15-20]

Reflection

• What impact does reflecting on the incarnation have on your body?
• What qualities of God are reflected in Jesus?
• What’s the story about God we’re telling through our relationship with one another?

 

Plummeting in God’s Love

Title: Plummeting in God's Love

This week’s Old Testament reading talks about setting a plumb line as a measurement against an unjust nation. Nicolas Acosta explores living a life rooted in prayer as a plumb line to anchor us in a chaotic world. [Amos 7:1-7]

Reflection

• How can  I find little moments to sink into God's love live this week?
• How might God’s love anchor us in place amid the chaos of the world?

Resources

• The Prayer of Examen: 
  • https://voxveniae.com/the-prayer-of-examen/#.YsyMkOzML6Z

What Gods We Trust

In a world enamored with violent power over others, ensuring security for only some, Christopher Mack shares an alternative empire defying wisdom from those on the margins. [2 Kings 5:1-14]

Reflection

• Where might you glimpse God in the surprises, setbacks, and ordinary moments of your life?
• How might you listen to the wisdom of the marginalized this week?
• How can you mirror Jesus’ relationship to power and the powerless?

 

Resources

• Poem: Start Close In by David Whyte
  • https://newstoryhub.com/2018/01/start-close-in-david-whyte/
• Visual Art: Stars and Bars  by Hank Willis Thomas 
  • https://www.artsy.net/artwork/hank-willis-thomas-stars-and-bars
• Prayer: The Romero Prayer  by Bishop Ken Untener
  • http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/romero-prayer

The Face of Nonviolence

In a time of upheaval and in a culture of violence, Gena St.David guides us to consider how our spiritual community might become known for its immunity to violence through acts of creative confrontation, surprising defiance, and disruptive humor.  [Luke 9:51-58].

 

Reflection

1. What have we been taught about Jesus’ nonviolence?
2. How does a passive understanding of “turn the other cheek” serve the oppressor?
3. Where might we utilize creativity, surprise, and humor to interrupt patterns of violence?

 

Lamentations: An Act of Love and Liberation

On Juneteenth, Virginia Cumberbatch invites us into practices of acknowledgement, confession, and lament on our collective journey of liberation  [Romans 5:1-5].

 

Reflection

1. What might the church need to acknowledge before sojourning on its journey of reconciliation and justice?
2. How might we individually and corporately consider lamenting racial injustice and collective harm?
3. How can you lean into God’s definition of righteousness and justice (Romans 5:1) to inform your communal practice ?

Bearing the Unbearable

This Trinity Sunday, Christopher Mack offers questions for reconsidering how the Triune Life of God invites us to strengthen our spirituality and our goodness toward others.  [John 16:12-15].

 

Reflection

1. As you prepare to approach the Table, where do you need grace to bear the seemingly unbearable?
2. Where might God’s Triune Life guide you to trust your inner authority and discernment?
3. How do you see Spirit advocating on behalf of those who suffer oppression and injustice today?

 

Resources

1. Book: Why Did Jesus, Moses, The Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a Multi-faith World by Brian McLaren
2. Art: The Life of Christ by Keith Haring

• • https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/altarpiece-the-life-of-christ-keith-haring/4gGyrQoV9HnbCw?hl=en

 

Yes, You

On Pentecost Sunday, Kimberly Culbertson invites us to lean in and listen for Spirit’s divine ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ over our lives.  [Acts 2:1-11].

 

Practices

• Invite the Holy Spirit into moments of disorientation, and in doing so, receive peace that only God can offer
• Ask the Holy Spirit to help us see clearly
• Ask the Spirit how you are discounting yourself, and step out in faith

 

Reflection

1. In moments of disorientation, can you turn toward the Spirit and receive peace?
2. Where might God be looking to help us see and hear one another more clearly?
3. How might God be releasing you from frantically ranking your significance, and instead invite you to trust that you are enough?

Resources

1. Poem: Keep Yourself at the  Beginning of the Beginning by Hannah Emerson
   • https://onbeing.org/programs/hannah-emerson-keep-yourself-at-the-beginning-of-the-beginning/
     
2.  Book: The Brain and The Spirit: Unlocking the Transformative Potential of the Story of the Christ by Gena St. David
   • https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-brain-and-the-spirit-gena-st-david/1140496719

What Did Jesus Think He Was Doing in Giving Us the Holy Spirit?

As we build towards pentecost with the life of the Risen One in our midst, James Alison invites us to see our lives as a place of God’s indwelling and revealing.  [John 14:23-29].

 

Reflection

1. What do you make of the difference between appearing “to” someone and appearing “within” them?
2. What do you make of Jesus’ going and his coming being the same thing?
3. How do you understand the peace of his parting?

Joining the Song of Triune Love

Christopher Mack imagines Jesus’ prayer for our active participation in God’s Love and call to work alongside those struggling, afraid, and forgotten. [John 17:20-26].

 

Reflection

1. What is it like to imagine Jesus’ praying for you?
2. Where do you or your world feel fragmented? How might you open yourself to God’s Love and Oneness?
3. How might you move yourself to the song of Triune Love?

Praying and Seeing

Each of us is not seeing something about God, and this fifth Sunday of Eastertide, Gena St. David invites us to shift our perspective to glimpse something unexpected.  [Acts 11:2-12].

 

Reflection

1. If we’re not seeing something clearly, then how will God let us know?
2. What new prayer practice do you want to try this week?
3. Toward whom is the Spirit moving you?

 

Practice

1. Open Hearted Prayer: If I’m seeing things wrong, let me know.
2. Question for the week: Who are we still seeing wrong?