There are literally hundreds of thousands of resources linked to Sacred Scripture. These few that are gathered here are simply notes that Encounter the Heart has used and people appear to find them useful.
Healing Power Of Forgiveness
The Encounter Cycle
Pope Francis continually speaks about the need for a ‘culture of encounter’. The Encounter Cycle set out below in the diagram is simply a way of engaging in encounter. The cycle begins in the hills: our quiet, reflective, prayerful times. The hills are our inner spiritual energy nurturing spaces and times. From the hills we choose to engage the crowds just as Jesus did. The busyness of our day is ‘the crowds’. But Jesus comes to this space and speaks with ‘authority’. He has an integrity and authenticity about him. How does he gain this? He chooses to come to each encounter as guest: gently, humbly, slowly, respectfully. In this space he chooses to be deeply present to the innate dignity of the other. From this his heart (and ours) opens in compassion. This journey of encounter leads to profound inner liberation. From this journey we return to our ‘hill’ times to be loved and nurtured.
The Prodigal Son
The notes above focus on the famous story from the Gospel of Luke. The notes break open the significance of this story in the context of the day. The power of this story is that ultimately the journey of the younger son is all of our journeys too. The journey of the older son is all of our journeys too. We are both! For our liberation we are called to the heart of the Father Mother God. We are called to that space of total and unconditional love.
Psalm 139 Paraphrase Br Damien
One of my favourite psalms is Psalm 139. I can remember as a young Brother sitting with the text, “You knit be together in my mother’s womb – for the wonder of myself I now thank you!” This resource is a paraphrase of the psalm. One way to use this resource is to invite a group to sit in silence with the text and then to form a circle and invite people to share one line or phrase that touches their heart.