Sacred Friendships Listening to the Voices of Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors Hebrews 12:1-3 So Great a Cloud of Witnesses

Addressing the Elephant in the Room

Co-Authors

Co-Editors

A Voice for the Voiceless

Searching for Buried Treasure: The Forgotten Arts

A Bunch of Dead White Guys!

A Cloud of Female Witnesses!

Hebrews 12:1-3—Cloud 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.”

Following the Ancient Paths Helping Hurting and Hardened People Can Feel Like a Maze!

Ever Feel a Little Lost?

Some Signs Are More Helpful Than Others

Some Sign Are More Helpful Than Others

Some Signs Are More Helpful Than Others

Some Sign Are More Helpful Than Others

Need Some Directions?

Following 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 6:16). Ask for the Ancient Paths

Finding Buried Treasure: Changeless Truth for Changing Times

Our Treasure Map: Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding ♥ Sustaining: “Hurt” ♥ Healing: “Hope” ♥ Reconciling: “Horrible/Wonderful” ♥ Guiding: “Mature”

Susanna Wesley’s 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).

Our Historical Treasure Map: Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding ♥ Sustaining: “It’s Normal to Hurt” ♥ Healing: “It’s Possible to Hope” ♥ Reconciling: “It’s Horrible to Sin, but Wonderful to Be Forgiven” ♥ Guiding: “It’s Supernatural to Mature”

Whet Your Appetite

Sustaining Modeled by Perpetua

♥ “Written expressly for God’s honor and human’s encouragement.” ♥ “I was terrified because never before had I experienced such darkness.” ♥ “I was very upset because of my father’s 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.’”

Sustaining Modeled by Perpetua ♥ “My father’s 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, Perpetua’s greatest pain was her ache for others who hurt for her!

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.”

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.”

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.”

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 mother’s reconciling of his Father).

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.”

Reconciling Practiced by Nonna ♥ “This good shepherd was the result of his wife’s prayers and guidance, and it was from her that he learned his ideal of a good shepherd’s life.”

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.”

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.”

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).

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 Emmelia’s mentoring of her daughter Macrina the Younger).

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 lad—father, teacher, tutor, mother, giver of all good advice” (Gregory of Nyssa concerning Macrina the Younger’s discipleship of her younger brother Peter).

Learning together from Our Great Cloud of Female Witnesses

Sacred Friendships Listening to the Voices of Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors Hebrews 12:1-3 So Great a Cloud of Witnesses