Category: Uncategorized

Mercy Street will meet this Saturday, September 1st at 5:30pm at Lakeland Community Church in Lee’s Summit.  Child care will be provided.

This Saturday marks the start of a new month and thus a new step focus.  For the month of September we will be focusing on Step 12:

Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

And the biblical comparison:

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.  But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.  – Galatians 6:1

RESOURCES

The transcript of the prayer of examen video that was shown last Saturday has been added to the Resources page under the section for Prayers.  You may also find it by clicking here.

Emotional Sobriety – a free audio teaching by Richard Rohr

Richard Rohr invites us toward an authentic, full sobriety that includes body, mind and heart.  When “happiness” eludes us, – as eventually it always will – we have an opportunity to examine our programmed responses and choose a different path.  You may access this free 80-minute audio teaching here on the Center for Action and Contemplation website

UPCOMING EVENTS

September 8th – Silent Saturday.  Check in at 9:00am, with silence from 9:15am to 11:30am.  There will be five 20 minute periods of centering prayer with breaks in between.  Held at Sanctuary of Hope.  More information here.

September 10 – November 12 – Exploring the Enneagram Master Class @ Jacob’s Well.  Mondays from 7:00 – 8:30pm.  Taught by Jim Gum.

October 5 – 6 – The Enneagram and Contemplative Spirituality @ Avila University.  Taught by Chris and Phileena Heuertz.  Register here.

If you would like to receive these weekly updates via e-mail, please enter your e-mail address in the subscribe section at the bottom of this page (or the home page).  Your information will always be kept confidential.

Mercy Street will meet this Saturday, August 25th at 5:30pm at Lakeland Community Church in Lee’s Summit.  Childcare will be provided.

At Mercy Street we highlight one of the twelve steps each month, beginning with Step One each October.  In August we are focusing on Step Eleven.  You do not have to be on Step Eleven to attend meetings this month.  No matter where you are on your journey, you are welcome.  There is always something to learn and take away.

A few new things have been added to the website this week.  On the Resources page, a Prayers section has been added.  The Serenity Prayer is now posted as well as the Visual Benediction that was shown last Saturday.

Also the Twelve Steps and their biblical comparison from the NIV version have been added.  This is the most common version that we use at our meetings.

UPCOMING EVENTS

August 25th – The National Eating Disorders Awareness (“NEDA”) walk will take place from 8-10am.  More information here.

September 8th – Silent Saturday.  Check-in at 9:00 am, with silence from 9:15 to 11:30am. There will be five 20-minute periods of centering prayer with breaks in between.  Held at Sanctuary of Hope.  More information here.

September 10th – November 12th – Exploring the Enneagram Master Class @ Jacob’s Well.  Mondays 7:00 – 8:30pm for 10 weeks.  

As always if you have questions please e-mail mercystreetkc (at) gmail.com.  Your information will always be kept confidential.

Mercy Street will meet this Saturday, August 18th at 5:30pm at Lakeland Community Church in Lee’s Summit.  We will continue with Step 11.  If you need childcare, please e-mail mercystreetkc (at) gmail.com or comment below.

RESOURCE OF THE WEEK

This week’s resource is the app Insight Timer.  This is a free app that offers thousands of meditations of all types.  There are guided meditations, simple music or nature sounds.  Check it out – it’s free!

UPCOMING EVENTS

August 24-25 – Enneagram workshop with Suzanne Stabile at Community Christian Church.  Link to register here.

August 25th – The National Eating Disorders Awareness (“NEDA”) walk will take place from 8-10am.  More information here.

September 8 – Silent Saturday.  Check-in at 9:00 am, with silence from 9:15 to 11:30am. There will be five 20-minute periods of centering prayer with breaks in between.  Held at Sanctuary of Hope.  More information here.

If you have questions please contact mercystreetkc (at) gmail.com. Your information will always be kept confidential.

I have a confession to make. Social media has had multiple, random videos of people who are color blind getting special glasses that allow them to see colors for the first time. They usually come wrapped as a gift, a surprise, and the unsuspecting recipient is cautious, sceptical and then, the magic happens. They place the glasses on and start to see colors they have never seen before.  They are overwhelmed, absolutely undone. I watch the videos at least twice and I cry every time. There is something so tender about seeing the wonder of a person’s new vision and that sacred moment being captured. I get equally overwhelmed of videos of deaf babies hearing their parents voice for the first time after receiving cochlear implants. It is visceral, the joy comes from a deep place.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine the wonder? I think we all can. I think we were all created for such new eyes and new ears.  Part of me, if I’m honest, might even feel a tinge of melancholy. It is as if I’ve longed for such a moment (and in moment, I mean light switch/fast) where some type of radical transformation happens. Maybe, if I sit with this a little longer, I’m reminded that I, too, have new eyes and new ears, and these videos spark a deep remembrance of that fact.

I will tell you though, that my new technicolor vision and exquisite hearing have not been instantaneous. Someone dear to me described recovery like a slow unfolding. Like they had been folded over and over and were so tightly bound, and recovery began the process of unfolding, crease by crease. Yes. Slowly. New eyes, new ears.

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to renew our conscious contact with God, praying only for His will for us and the power to carry it out. Contemplative prayer and meditation are a crucial part of that unfolding. A different type of prayer than I was taught in Christian discipleship  (the A.C.T.S. acronym and others) I’ve come to realize that most of my life, my prayers were simply verbalizations of my own anxieties and wishes. My prayers were me simply playing God and telling him what to do, what needed to be done, who needed changing and how. It is painful to say it, but oh, how true.

My recovery journey has been an unfolding. God’s non-intrusive way of giving me new eyes and new ears. It isn’t quick, like putting on new glasses, but I am more aware of my newness every moment that  I’m more present. And that awareness is deepened by my time in meditation and contemplative prayer. I see it in my recovery friends also. Suddenly, I’m aware that they are not the same person they were when they walked through the door, months or years before. Their newness, my newness, is cause for deep joy.

Mercy Street will meet this Saturday, August 11th at 5:30pm at Lakeland Community Church.  We will continue with Step 11.  Childcare will be provided.

UPCOMING EVENTS

August 11 – Silent Saturday at Sanctuary of Hope.  Check in at 9:00 am.  Silence from 9:15 – 11:30am.  There will be five 20 minute periods of centering prayer with breaks in between.  Suggested donation is $10.  For more information click here.

August 24-25 – Enneagram workshop with Suzanne Stabile at Community Christian Church.  Link to register here.

August 25th – The National Eating Disorders Awareness (“NEDA”) walk will take place from 8-10am.  More information here.

Breathing Underwater: A Spiritual Study of the Twelve Steps
The Center for Action and Contemplation will be hosting an online course based on Richard Rohr’s book, Breathing Underwater.  Registration closes on August 14, 2018.  The course runs from August 22 – October 17.  Cost is $120.  Fore more detailed information, click the link above.

If you have questions please contact mercystreetkc (at) gmail.com  Your information will always be kept confidential.

Mercy Street will meet this Saturday, August 4th at 5:30pm at Lakeland Community Church in Lee’s Summit.  Childcare will be provided.

This meeting marks the start of a new month and a new step focus.  For the month of August we will focus on Step Eleven.

Step 11 – Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for our knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

The Biblical comparison for Step Eleven from the NIV translation:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.  Colossians 3:16

Upcoming Events

August 11 – Silent Saturday at Sanctuary of Hope.  Check in at 9:00 am.  Silence from 9:15 – 11:30am.  There will be five 20 minute periods of centering prayer with breaks in between.  Suggested donation is $10.  For more information click here.

August 24-25 – Enneagram workshop with Suzanne Stabile at Community Christian Church.  Link to register here.

August 25th – The National Eating Disorders Awareness (“NEDA”) walk will take place from 8-10am.  More information here.

Resource Highlights

This week’s resource is the daily meditation from the National Association for Christian Recovery (“NACR”).  You can sign up to receive a daily e-mail with a short reading and mediation here.