Greetings Beloved Friends,

Welcome to the August edition of Whale Spouts! I pray you are finding moments of spiritual rest and renewal right in the middle of all the adventures that summer often brings.

I have been finding a bit of summer spiritual renewal by tending my garden, relaxing in the hammock and re-watching the first three seasons of The Chosen. I must confess that I was wildly skeptical that a television series about the life of Jesus could be anything but horribly cheesy at best or manipulative at worst. However, much to my great surprise, I have found it profoundly meaningful to be able to visualize and imagine a bit of what the daily life of Jesus and his disciples may have been like. This has been a real source of spiritual renewal for me this summer and for that I am deeply grateful.

In the spirit of rest and renewal, I opted to give myself the month of July off from newsletter-writing so that I could focus on retreat preparations and enjoy some time with family. As a result this edition is two month's worth of celebration, information and hopefully inspiration for you to enjoy! :-)

• Spouting Off Blog: Eagle's Wings
• Invitation to the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises
• Praying with Mandalas (ALL NEW!) - Saturday mornings in October
• Advent Mini-Retreat: Praying with Picture Books - December 2
• 3 Day/3 Night Retreat - Celebration & Pics from July
• Gratitude for book donations to support women in prison
• Prayer for the Season: Alzheimer's Journey

Also, if you are looking for an in-person source of spiritual renewal this fall, I encourage you to check out my friend Diane McGregor's October retreat at Lakeside, Ohio, "Celebrating What's Right with Your World." Click here to learn more.

May the remainder of these summer days bring sacred moments of rest and renewal to your weary soul.

With strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Sharon

Sharon Seyfarth Garner, Founder & Director

Belly of the Whale Ministries

sharon@bellyofthewhaleministries.net

SPOUTING OFF BLOG

Eagle's Wings

"They shall mount up with wings as eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

and they shall walk, and not faint."

Isaiah 40: 30-31

Last August, my mother-in-law passed away after several years of a difficult journey through the "long goodbye" of Alzheimer's. A few months prior to her death, I had written a poem about how I saw her much like a majestic eagle - beautiful, fierce, wounded and longing to once again fly free (see the poem below). So, it was a powerful moment when, the day after her death as I was driving my daughter to Boston, an eagle flew so close to our car that we could clearly see the beautiful, bright white feathers of its head.

We each experience grief differently. We pray, cry, laugh and search for ways to remember the ones we have loved and lost. My family seems to have landed on birds as a particular way of remembering those we love. We remember my father-in-law whenever we see a loon. We remember my dad whenever we see a goose. And now, we remember my mother-in-law whenever we see an eagle. These little reminders often seem to come right when we need them.

The evening after my mother-in-law's memorial service (held just this past June), the family gathered out on the deck of the home where we were staying overlooking the Susquehanna River. We were laughing, crying and reminiscing when a bald eagle landed in the tree right in front of us. We watched, speechless, for several minutes until the eagle literally flew off into the sunset (click the image above to see a video of that precious moment).

In our deepest moments of grief, God comforts us and raises us up with wings as eagles. In whatever way you may be grieving today, I pray that you will feel God's presence raising you up on eagle's wings so that you may run and not be weary.

INVITATION TO THE IGNATIAN SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

September 2023 - May 2024

This fall I will again be companioning several individuals through the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises (sometimes referred to as the 19th annotation or retreat in daily life). I have ONE space still available for this 32-week journey of daily prayer (Scripture reading, spiritual practices, journaling) and weekly meetings for spiritual direction.

If you feel the Spirit is nudging you toward this deep dive into spiritual renewal, email me and I would be delighted to talk with you more about it. Pastors can now receive 4 CEUs for this intensive spiritual formation experience. It would be a joy and an honor to share this journey together with you.

UPCOMING RETREATS - SAVE THE DATES

October - Praying with Mandalas

and

December 2 - Advent Mini-Retreat: Praying with Picture Books

Mark your calendars and join me for colorful mandala morning meditations in October and an Advent Mini-Retreat based on children's picture books in December.

Details will be on their way soon!

3 DAY/3 NIGHT RETREAT

Celebrating our JULY 9 - 12, 2023 gathering

I am still feeling the joy of spiritual renewal after the Belly of the Whale retreat last month. We gathered at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Cleveland for 3 days and 3 days of sacred silence guided by the story of Jonah. The prayer mandala pictured here is one that we colored together throughout the retreat and is a beautiful reflection of the collective prayers of our sacred community.

If you want to see more pictures of our sacred time together, you can CLICK HERE or find them (along with pics from past years' retreats) directly on the Belly of the Whale website. Thank you for your prayers as we gathered, prayed and encountered God's presence in this sacred space.

FAITH IN ACTION

Praying with Mandalas in Prison

In June, I shared that I would be leading a 4-week program on Praying with Mandalas with the women at North East Reintegration Center and invited folks to buy a book for a woman in prison.

Thanks to your extraordinary generosity, we were able to give books to each of the over 40 women who participated in the program. The women were deeply touched by your solidarity with them and many of the women colored the mandalas pictured here to express a bit of their gratitude.

Thank you for remembering those who are incarcerated, seeing their humanity, and offering your support through your prayers and gifts.

PRAYER FOR THE SEASON