This is a site where you can share faith and spirituality with women and men who long to expand their horizons and move more deeply into the wide spiritual dimensions of life. It’s written with the same edgy content that characterised Tarella Spirituality, but simpler to navigate and more tablet and smart phone friendly. You can still reread favourites on www.tarellaspirituality.com
I welcome comments and suggestions. You can reach me at judith@judithscully.com.au
How have you kept track of your 2024 days – on a frig calendar, on your phone or ipad, or like me in a day -by -day diary or journal?
My 2024 diary was quite handsome, not very big, with a cover that is reminiscent of a medieval manuscript and a toning marker ribbon, as well as a dinky little fold in the back cover just right for storing reminder cards for the doctor, my current hairdresser, the car mechanic and other essential services.
The dates and times, the names, the abbreviations in my diary, are shorthand for the stories they hold. 11am coffee with Teresa was way more than coffee. It was a safe place to talk about the concerns we have for our adult children. Chiropractic appointments eased my arthritic joints and wriggly spine, reminding me of God’s physical healing in another’s hands. There are due dates for bills, wrapped in a silent prayer of gratitude that there is enough money to cover whatever is owing. A cryptic single word, Sydney, spoke of a long-anticipated trip that didn’t live up to expectations. It was like Emmaus all over again, “I had hoped, but . . . “ The older I get the more often those words could fill in the spaces in my diary.
Words from the Edge is 7 years old now. During those years I have dared to write about everyday things, to explore them at a deeper level, to move into their heart. As the only experience I can talk about with any validity is my own, I write as a woman, an Australian, a parent, a lay person and a Catholic. I want my readers to recognise something of their own story, to glimpse the God-speak it holds.
There’s an old story that goes like this; A God searcher said to a wise man, “I have travelled a great distance to listen to the Master but I find his words quite ordinary.” And the wise man (or was it a woman) said, ”Don’t listen to his words. Listen to his essage.” Maybe you are asking the same question. “How does one do that?” the response was, “Take hold of a sentence that he says. Shake it well till all the words drop off. What is left will set your heart on fire.”
Now it might be a while since you read the Bible or heard a Jesus story. Every few weeks this year Words from the Edge 2025 will revisit a few words or a nearly forgotten story from the New Testament, looking at it from the perspective of what’s happening in our everyday life and the wider world, right now. If your Scripture memory dates back to school days, you might get a surprise at how relevant Jesus can be in 2025.
As 2024 comes to an end I want to say thank you to all who have read my words this year, passed them on to others and agreed with, or sometimes questioned them. I greatly appreciate your responses.
Like you, my year has had its share of joys and woes, challenges and unforgettable bits, and for all of it I say, “Thank you God.”
As 2025 unfolds may the mystery that is God enfold you,
the wisdom of God touch into your own,
the wonder that is God be always at your fingertips
and the love of God flow through the ordinary of your days.
Judith (Judith@judithscully.com.au)
This week I received a Hi Judith message that said, “We’ve loved being your website partner for the last 7 years. Here’s to the next 7”, their courteous reminder that my annual WordPress fee was due. It has also reminded me that I’ve been standing on the Edge for many weeks, without writing a word.
The number seven plays a big part n everyday life, from Sunday through to Saturday and the seven colours of the rainbow, always a show stopper as they arch across the sky. Grass Grows by Itself, by Melbourne writer Elizabeth Cain, introduced me to the energy that ‘gathers and intensifies in seven centres in the human body’, known as Chakras. And if you ever had music lessons you’ll remember that the number seven forms the basis of Western music scales. Then there’s that wonderful sentence in the opening chapters of the Bible; “On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day after all his work of creating”.
References to the number seven are not particular to Judaism and Christianity. The number seven has spiritual significance for religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Catholics and some other Christian denominations have actions, or rituals known as sacraments, seven of which, Baptism, Eucharist, Reconciliation (or Confession or Penance), the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony, have a birth to death personal relationship with God’s love, healing, forgiveness, nourishment and strengthening .
My life is back-dropped by my Catholic upbringing and for many years I assumed that spirituality was a one-size-fits-all, practices involving religious pictures, feast days and repetitive and formal prayer cycles. As I’ve aged I’ve come to understand that Christian spirituality actually flourishes in pockets of space. Those in-between gaps -watching the jug boil, waiting at the traffic lights or taking the dog for a walk. God is in the gaps, patiently waiting to visit with us, giving us the opportunity to scratch beneath the surface of our reality and see what wisdom or riches lie there.
Saying “I am spiritual is an affirmation, whether we name it Karma or the Universe, Yahweh, Giai, Lord God or dear God, we are touching into God. It’s recognisable when you are overtaken by an experience that goes beyond the mundane and hints at the inexplicable. Words from the Edge is my now- and- again wordy dip into the relationship we all have with God, something we recognise a as spirituality.
Writing things down is the way I find my way to God. Words from the Edge is not about religion, however important religion may be to the development of spirituality, but it’s about what’s happening in the world, questions that beg for answers, about everyday life and issues that have emerged in my life, and perhaps even in yours. Joan Chittister says that “we can only become spiritual adults when we go beyond the answers, beyond the fear of uncertainty, to that great encompassing mystery of life that is God.”
Write back to me if you feel the urge to respond, or when Words from the Edge has given you something to talk about but no one to talk to, consider sharing it on-line with a friend – or a group.
Peace be with you, wherever you may be.
Judith Judith@judithscully.com.au
Words From The Edge 