A Communal Call for Prayer: Prayer for the Overwhelmed

Rev. James Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, best-selling author, and editor-at-large of America magazine. Father Jim, as he graciously lets us call him, joins Jenn Giles Kemper to explore why he believes prayer is, well, for everyone. In this warm and welcoming episode, Father Jim and Jenn discuss Ignatian spirituality, the power of imagination in our prayers, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and how contemplation and action go hand-in-hand. Father Jim also shares how, in his words, “God is making us more loving in prayer.”On this episode of Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper, Father James Martin dives into:What motivated him to explore prayer now in his writingWhat our longings to pray tell us about who we are and who God isHow prayer can help us stay rooted in God in chaotic timesWhy the Examen can be a helpful practice for us allWhy imagination plays an important role in what we pray — and how — we prayAbout the guest: Rev. James Martin, SJ, is the best-selling author of Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone, Jesus: A Pilgrimage, and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. Father Martin is a prolific writer in the national media sphere, including in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He has appeared on all the major radio and television networks, including NPR’s Fresh Air and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In 2017, Pope Francis appointed him to be a Consultor for the Vatican's Secretariat for Communication.Reflection point: In this episode, Father Jim says, “The voice of God is the voice of hope. The voice of despair is not the voice of God.” How does this speak to your soul? Where might the Spirit be leading you into reflection on this idea?Links:Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone (Father Jim’s new book!)America Magazine (where Father Jim is Editor at Large)Fr. James Martin on FacebookAbout Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper: Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper explores faith where it hits the pavement of work, relationships, creativity, and real life. Inspired by Jenn’s curiosity and faith (and her work as a minister and spiritual director) we’re crafting a show to help you meaningfully explore your own life with Christ — and ultimately lead you to become more wholly human and more fully faithful. On Tuesdays, join us for a conversation with folks whose words, work, and witness have shaped our team’s understanding of God and practice of faith. (Plus, we’re featuring lots of good music, prompts for your reflection and practice, and plenty of invitations into a community of kindred spirits!)Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. We appreciate your ratings and reviews, too.

Experienced spiritual director and award-winning author Dr. Barbara Peacock joins Jenn to share the compelling, beautiful ways in which African American women and men throughout history have approached soul care, prayer, and spiritual direction. Dr. Peacock also gives a glimpse into how a great cloud of witnesses has shaped her vocation and personal to ministry. Dr. Peacock and Jenn discuss the power of sabbath in our walk toward wholeness, the necessity of lament in our lives, and the gift of reflecting on our personal spiritual autobiographies. On this episode of Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper, Dr. Peacock:Explores how spiritual disciplines are woven into African American culture and lived out in the rich heritage of its faith community.Provides examples of Black Christians who have shaped her faith.Shares about how growing up on a farm rooted in her in a contemplative tradition.Reflects on the significance of watching her grandmother pray.Reads a stirring excerpt from her book Soul Care in African American Practice.About the guest: Dr. Peacock is a preacher, teacher, and spiritual director. She holds a Doctorate of Ministry from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary with a dissertation emphasis on spiritual direction and soul care. She lives in North Carolina with her husband. Her latest book, Soul Care in African American Practice, received the 2021 Christianity Today Award of Merit for Spiritual Formation.We’re proud to carry her book in our spiritual formation bookshop.Reflection point: Dr. Peacock teaches classes about writing spiritual autobiographies. As you’ve reflected on this episode, consider why it’s important to connect the dots of God’s presence in your life. As Jenn asked Dr. Peacock, can you recall a time when you felt deeply aware of your calling and vocation?Dr. Barbara PeacockSoul Care in African American PracticeSoul Care in African American Practice WorkbookAbout Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper: Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper explores faith where it hits the pavement of work, relationships, creativity, and real life. Inspired by Jenn’s curiosity and faith (and her work as a minister and spiritual director) we’re crafting a show to help you meaningfully explore your own life with Christ — and ultimately lead you to become more wholly human and more fully faithful. On Tuesdays, join us for a conversation with folks whose words, work, and witness have shaped our team’s understanding of God and practice of faith. (Plus, we’re featuring lots of good music, prompts for your reflection and practice, and plenty of invitations into a community of kindred spirits!)Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. We appreciate your ratings and reviews, too.

World-renowned artist Makoto Fujimura, author of “Art + Faith: A Theology of Making,” draws from his deep well of reflections on creativity and the spiritual aspects of “making” in this poetic, inviting conversation with Jenn Giles Kemper. Experienced in the Japanese art of Kintsugi (mending broken ceramic with lacquer and gold to create something new) Makoto (Mako) talks with Jenn about what he’s learned about the very nature of our Maker God through this process of being “not only restored, but made new.”On this episode of Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper, Mako explores:Why art is an outpouring of God’s graceHow the trauma of living near Ground Zero on Sept, 11, 2001 has been reflected in all of our lives during the 2020-21 global pandemicThe generativity of humanityHow art asks more questions than it answersHis journey in Christ through different denominations and traditionsHow art is a gift but not a commodity, and how that reflects God’s graceAbout the guest: Makoto Fujimura, an artist, arts advocate, writer, and speaker, is the founder of the International Arts Movement and the Fujimura Institute, and co-founder of the Kintsugi Academy. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey and is a leading contemporary artist whose “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of the New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time”.Mako’s art has been featured widely in galleries and museums around the world, and is collected by notable collections including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Huntington Library, and the Tikotin Museum in Israel. He is one of the first artists to paint live on stage at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall as part of an ongoing collaboration with composer and percussionist, Susie Ibarra.We’re proud to carry his books Culture Care and Art + Faith in our spiritual formation bookshop.Reflection point: In Art + Faith, Mako writes that “To be effective messengers of hope we must trust our inner voice, our intuition that speaks into the vast wastelands of our time.” When is a time you have not trusted your inner voice? What was at stake? And in the episode, Jenn mentions that Mako says that the book of Psalms, God’s poetry, gives us an ecosystem of metaphors and a garden of words to describe the thriving offered to us in the New Creation. What would it look like for you to spend some time in a Psalm this week? What might God have to tell you through the Psalm you read, as it relates to new creation?Links:Art + Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto FujimuraMakoto FujimuraCulture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life by Makoto FujimuraAbout Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper: Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper explores faith where it hits the pavement of work, relationships, creativity, and real life. Inspired by Jenn’s curiosity and faith (and her work as a minister and spiritual director) we’re crafting a show to help you meaningfully explore your own life with Christ — and ultimately lead you to become more wholly human and more fully faithful. On Tuesdays, join us for a conversation with folks whose words, work, and witness have shaped our team’s understanding of God and practice of faith. (Plus, we’re featuring lots of good music, prompts for your reflection and practice, and plenty of invitations into a community of kindred spirits!)Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

What becomes of the brokenhearted? Pandemic-tide rages on. Our hearts are battered and bruised. Some of us have lost jobs. Others of us have lost loved ones. We wonder when we will get to share meals with neighbors again and worship together like we used to. We wonder if—and when—racial and economic injustices will be restored, redeemed, and reconciled. We ache for healing to come in our communities and families, in our churches and our very souls.Throughout these six weeks of prayer, we hope to have offered a soft place to land, a tiny reprieve to help you feel a little less alone. We’ve prayed for our overwhelm and our loneliness, for our fears and our exhaustion, for our hopes, and now, our sorrows. Producer and writer Kayla Craig is our guide in this final episode of this six-week series on prayer.To receive these prayers and reflections in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter at sacredordinarydays.com.Each week, you’ll receive:A personal prayer written for you by our Sacred Ordinary Days teamScripture to meditate onAn audio prayer to stream from our podcastQuotes and featured liturgies from a diverse group of Christian writersTools for your prayer practiceReflection points for the journeyTo meditate on:The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. // Psalm 34:18 (NLT)He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. // Psalm 147:3-4 (NRSV)All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too. // 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (The Message)To reflect on: What is most heavy on your heart today? What might that say about your hopes and values? How might God be inviting you to walk alongside someone else as they grieve? What does it tangibly look like to weep with those who weep?

What is hope to you? Something that gets you through the day? Or something elusive that feels just out of touch? In this fifth week of Sacred Ordinary Days communal prayer, Kayla Craig, liturgist-in-residence and podcast producer at Sacred Ordinary Days, hosts this time of reflection and prayer to help you on your journey of becoming more wholly human, more fully faithful.P.S. Did you miss last week’s prayer for the fearful? You can find it here. We invite you to join us for companionship and guidance as we seek to meet God in new ways with humility, grace, and mercy. Our time together will lead us right up to Ash Wednesday with a posture of reflection and hope in Christ. May this time together transform us to be more wholly human, more fully faithful.To receive these prayers and reflections in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter at sacredordinarydays.com.Each week, you’ll receive:A personal prayer written for you by our Sacred Ordinary Days teamScripture to meditate onAn audio prayer to stream from our podcastQuotes and featured liturgies from a diverse group of Christian writersTools for your prayer practiceReflection points for the journeyTo meditate on:Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. // Hebrews 10:23 (NLT)Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope! // Romans 15:13b (The Message)You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word. //  Psalm 119:114 (NIV)To reflect on: What is something (big or small) giving you hope today? What is one change you could make this week to tune your heart to hope? Poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “Hope is the thing with feathers.” What does that mean to you?

Naming our fears doesn’t make us weak—it makes us brave. Join us as we pray for the fears that so easily entangle us. How do we discern when our fear is our God-given intuition, protecting us? And how do we discern when it’s a lie taking root in our hearts, wrapping around us like a weed to prevent us from walking the path of love God intends for us? In this fourth week of Sacred Ordinary Days communal prayer, Kayla Craig, liturgist-in-residence and podcast producer at Sacred Ordinary Days, hosts this time of reflection and prayer to help you on your journey of becoming more wholly human, more fully faithful.P.S. Did you miss last week’s prayer for the exhausted? You can find it here. We invite you to join us for companionship and guidance as we seek to meet God in new ways with humility, grace, and mercy. Our time together will lead us right up to Ash Wednesday with a posture of reflection and hope in Christ. May this time together transform us to be more wholly human, more fully faithful.To receive these prayers and reflections in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter  at sacredordinarydays.com.Each week, you’ll receive:A personal prayer written for you by our Sacred Ordinary Days teamScripture to meditate onAn audio prayer to stream from our podcastQuotes and featured liturgies from a diverse group of Christian writersTools for your prayer practiceReflection points for the journeyTo meditate on:There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. // 1 John 4:18-19 (NIV)God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love. We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. // 1 John 4:18-19 (The Message)To reflect on: What is one fear you have been holding onto this week? What might naming that fear have to teach you?

Beloved, when was the last time you rested? Like, truly shut everything down and simply...breathed? Sabbath can often feel like an admirable—but unrealistic—sentiment for our very full, very ordinary lives of taking out the trash, meeting the work deadlines, and scrambling to make (or order in) dinner.You’re a parent? Your kids need you. You’re on-call? Your workplace needs you. The list goes on, and if we're being honest, rest is often elusive to us. If not me, who? If not now, when? We hold these questions close to our chests, white-knuckling our way through another day. It’s noble, maybe. But it’s also misguided.In this third week of communal prayer, we’re praying for restoration and renewal over our weary bodies, minds, and souls.Kayla Craig, liturgist-in-residence and podcast producer at Sacred Ordinary Days, hosts this time of reflection and prayer.We also hear an excerpt written by Cole Arthur Riley of @blackliturgies.P.S. Did you miss last week’s prayer for the lonely? You can find it here. We invite you to join us for companionship and guidance as we seek to meet God in new ways with humility, grace, and mercy. Our time together will lead us right up to Ash Wednesday with a posture of reflection and hope in Christ. May this time together transform us to be more wholly human, more fully faithful.To receive these prayers and reflections in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter  at sacredordinarydays.com.Each week, you’ll receive:A personal prayer written for you by our Sacred Ordinary Days teamScripture to meditate onAn audio prayer to stream from our podcastQuotes and featured liturgies from a diverse group of Christian writersTools for your prayer practiceReflection points for the journey

Join us in our second week of prayer as we pray for the lonely. And really, when we’re doing that? We’re praying for all of us. In our human limitation, it’s difficult to fathom that the God of all things does not leave or forsake us, even in the moments we feel most desperately alone.Maybe you’ve felt misunderstood and all alone as you reflect on the church tradition you grew up in. Maybe you’ve felt politically lonely. Emotionally misunderstood. Spiritually isolated. Professionally adrift. Loneliness takes many forms, but at its core, it’s one of the most universal human experiences. (Ironic, isn’t it, that we so easily believe no one else could possibly understand?)In this bonus  episode, Sacred Ordinary Days producer and liturgist Kayla Craig reads a small meditation, some scripture, a prayer from a Celtic prayer book, and a new prayer for the lonely she has written for our community of kindreds.P.S. Did you miss last week’s prayer for the overwhelmed? You can find it here. We invite you to join us for companionship and guidance as we seek to meet God in new ways with humility, grace, and mercy. Our time together will lead us right up to Ash Wednesday with a posture of reflection and hope in Christ. May this time together transform us to be more wholly human, more fully faithful.To receive these prayers and reflections in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter  at sacredordinarydays.com.Each week, you’ll receive:A personal prayer written for you by our Sacred Ordinary Days teamScripture to meditate onAn audio prayer to stream from our podcastQuotes and featured liturgies from a diverse group of Christian writersTools for your prayer practiceReflection points for the journey

For the next six weeks, we’re inviting you into an intentional time of prayer with a series of bonus episodes. No perfect words or serene locales necessary. We’re praying from our glorious, unglamorous ordinary spaces — and in doing so — accepting the invitation to waltz with the Maker who delights in our very being.We’re still working on podcast interviews, but we believe this time of prayer together is so important that for the next six weeks, you’ll find audio versions of the prayers on our podcast to ensure these messages are accessible, even if the only way you can pray is with a little gentle guided listening when the news-cycle feels overwhelming.We’re writing prayers from our spaghetti-sauce splattered kitchen tables. We’re writing prayers (seeking to be) aware of our baggage and our blind spots. We’re writing with our wholly human hearts, because, well, we can’t not. We'll also point to and celebrate prayers from voices from marginalized and minimized communities.Are you as wrung-out as we are? Would you like to join us for six weeks of prayer?We invite you to join us for companionship and guidance as we seek to meet God in new ways with humility, grace, and mercy. Our time together will lead us right up to Ash Wednesday with a posture of reflection and hope in Christ.May this time together transform us to be more wholly human, more fully faithful.To receive these prayers and reflections in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter  at sacredordinarydays.com.Each week, you’ll receive:A personal prayer written for you by our Sacred Ordinary Days teamScripture to meditate onAn audio prayer to stream from our podcastQuotes and featured liturgies from a diverse group of Christian writersTools for your prayer practiceReflection points for the journey

Listen to the unedited conversation between Tsh Oxenreider and Jenn Giles Kemper, available now! On Thursdays following a newly-released interview episode, we’re releasing the long-form conversation. We hope it feels like you are sitting in a chair at the table with us.As we were producing our latest episode, On Journeying: Travel, Traditions, and Turning to the Psalms with Tsh Oxenreider, we realized something: There’s SO much that falls on the cutting room floor. As you’ll hear in this conversation with Tsh, she and Jenn both dove much deeper into Tsh’s cross-cultural living experiences, her work as a guide on Literary London trips, and her discernment process as she has walked unexpected paths in her vocation.You’ll hear more of what made Tsh feel lost at sea on her faith journey — and how the liturgical year brought her back to God in new ways. Jenn and Tsh talk about mental health, explore Advent and Christmastide in new and ancient ways, and Tsh reveals some personal insight into her decision to close her popular blog at the end of 2020.For the shorter, produced version with narration from Jenn: Listen to On Journeying: Travel, Traditions, and Turning to the Psalms with Tsh Oxenreider. In that episode, we pull the threads of what it is to embrace the shadow and light of the advent season, and Jenn offers a prayer and a reflection question, too.Shadow & Light by Tsh Oxenreider2021 Liturgical Year Daily Sacred Ordinary Days PlannerWaiting on the Word: A Poem a Day for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany by Malcolm GuiteAll Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle BossWhite Taper Candles from GoodLightSpotify Playlist: Advent with Sacred Ordinary DaysTsh OxenreiderAbout Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper: Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper explores faith where it hits the pavement of work, relationships, creativity, and real life. Inspired by Jenn’s curiosity and faith (and her work as a minister and spiritual director) we’re crafting a show to help you meaningfully explore your own life with Christ — and ultimately lead you to become more wholly human and more fully faithful. On Tuesdays, join us for a conversation with folks whose words, work, and witness have shaped our team’s understanding of God and practice of faith. (Plus, we’re featuring lots of good music, prompts for your reflection and practice, and plenty of invitations into a community of kindred spirits!)Listen on  Apple Podcasts  or  Spotify.