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: “It’s Normal to Hurt”—Rom. 12:15  Healing: “It’s Possible to Hope”—Gen. 50:20  Reconciling: “It’s Horrible to Sin, but Wonderful to Be Forgiven”—Rom. 5:20  Guiding: “It’s Supernatural to Mature”— Phil. 3:10

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).

Whet Your Appetite

Sustaining Modeled by Perpetua

The Purpose of Perpetua’s Perpetual Resistance  “Written expressly for God’s honor and human encouragement.”

Practicing Candor  “I was terrified because never before had I experienced such darkness.”

Offering Comfort  “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.’”  Co-Fortitude: Shared Sorrow Is Endurable Sorrow

Climbing in the Casket  “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 those who hurt for her!  Incarnational Suffering!

Learning together from Our Great Cloud of Female Witnesses 1. Perpetua modeled the essence of biblical empathy: experiencing another person’s pain as if it is your own. a. Who lives this kind of as if life for you? b. In what relationships can you apply as if empathy? How will you do it? c. Who fortifies your faith by sharing your sorrows? 2. Think about a situation where you are suffering for your faith or being mistreated by an overpowering person. a. Like Perpetua, how can you candidly face your fears and express your internal and external suffering? b. What would it take for you, in the midst of your personal suffering, to empathize with and console others?

Healing Shared by Perpetua and Felicitas

The Portrait of Spiritual Friendship  “Her friends were equally sad at the thought of abandoning such a good friend to travel alone on the same road to hope.”  It Takes a Community…with Spiritual Eyes  Eternal Hope Provides an Eternal Perspective

The Perspective of Spiritual Friendship Exhorting the People  “They were exhorting the people, reminding them to remember the judgment of God.”  Cling to Our Image of God’s Holy Love

The Perspective of Spiritual Friendship Celebrating the Empty Tomb  “The day of their victory dawned, and with joyful countenance they marched from the prison arena as though on their way to heaven. If there was any trembling, it was from joy, not fear.”  Weave in the Truth: We Are More Than Conquerors!

The Perspective of Spiritual Friendship Experiencing the Closeness of Christ  “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.”  Cling to Our Image of Who We Are in Christ

The Perspective of Spiritual Friendship Resisting Stubbornly to the End  “But that noble woman, stubbornly resisted even to the end.”

The Perspective of Spiritual Friendship Modeling As If Encouragement  “Perpetua was singing victory Psalms as if already crushing the head of the Egyptian.”  See Life with Faith Eyes

Learning together from Our Great Cloud of Female Witnesses 1. Rate your own level of “perpetual persistence”: a. With 10 being “trusting God to the very end regardless of the obstacles,” and with 1 being “giving up at the least sign of resistance” what is your “rating”? b. What principles from Perpetua can you apply to increase your persistence barometer? 2. Perpetua and her spiritual friends modeled traveling together on the road to hope. a. Think about a dark path that you are facing in your life. How can you invite others to help you to find the road to hope? Who will you invite to journey with you? b. Who do you know that needs you to travel with them toward hope? How will you journey with them?

Reconciling Practiced by Nonna

Confronting Out of Concern for Heart Change: Embodying Fervent Piety  “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...”

Confronting Out of Concern for Heart Change: Embodying Fervent 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).

 “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.” Confronting Out of Concern for Heart Change: Embodying Fervent Piety

 “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.” Confronting Out of Concern for Heart Change: Embodying Fervent Piety

 “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.” Promising to God

Enjoying Faith in a Generous God  “None was as confident of things present as she of things hoped for, from her experience of the generosity of God.”

Learning together from Our Great Cloud of Female Witnesses 1. Reflecting on Nonna’s witness to her unsaved husband, what applications can you make in your reconciling witness to unsaved family members and friends. 2. Nonna did not take a back seat to anyone in providing reconciling (and guiding) to her husband and her son. What might this suggest about the role of women in one- to-one mentoring of family members? What might this suggest about your mentoring role? 3. To what degree do you, like Nonna, confidently trust and experience the generous goodness of God (Hebrews 11:6)? What would it look like for your trust to grow?

Guiding Passed on by Macrina the Elder: Stirring Up the Gift of God  “What is pertinent here is that the family recognized the women to be the guides directing them all to their spiritual ends.”

Guiding Passed on by Macrina the Elder: Stirring Up the Gift of God  “She formed and molded me, still a child, to the doctrines of piety” (Basil of his Grandmother, Macrina the Elder).

Emmelia Passing the Torch of Truth  “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).

Macrina the Younger: Practicing in Holy Studies  “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 1. Macrina the Elder “balanced” truth and life (doctrine and application) in her guiding spiritual direction. Do you tend more toward the doctrine side or more toward application? Why? How can you better integrate the two, as Paul did with Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16? 2. What can you learn about Deuteronomy 6 parental mentoring from Emmelia’s mentoring of her daughter? 3. What can you learn about discipleship and the 2 Timothy 2:2 process from Macrina’s mentoring of her brother Peter (and the entire family’s mentoring model)?

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