31 Short Spiritual Practices: Getting (re)started in a daily spirituality of gratitude and contentment

By Rob Fennell

Spirituality is one of the great hungers of the human heart. When we nurture it with good spiritual food, it sustains and cheers us. This beautiful book offers a simple guide to everyday spiritual practice, accompanied by charming and striking photos. It will delight, calm, and inspire you on your spiritual jour

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert C. Fennell
• Release date: Apr 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781777239411

Rob Fennell

Rob Fennell is Academic Dean and Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Atlantic School of Theology, and an ordained minister of The United Church of Canada.

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31 Short Spiritual Practices:

Getting (re)started in a daily spirituality

of gratitude and contentment

Rob Fennell

Foreword by

Cláudio Carvalhaes, PhD

31 SHORT SPIRITUAL PRACTICES: Getting (re)started in a daily spirituality of gratitude and contentment

Copyright © 2021 Robert C. Fennell

Halifax, Nova Scotia

ISBN: 978–1-7772394-1-1 (e-book)

ISBN: 978-1-7772394-2-8 (print edition)

All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the author, with the exception of short passages cited in criticism or review.

The moral rights of the author have been asserted. The copyright of the title and contents of this work is registered with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, 50 Victoria St, Gatineau, QC. Photos used by permission.

https://rfennell8.wixsite.com/rcfennell

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

How to Use this Book

The 31 Practices

Part 1: Times

1  at the start of the day

2  at midday

3  before a meeting

4  before a meal

5  after a meal

6  evening: doing the dishes

7  as you head for bed

8  laundry day

9  at the end of the week

10 after a hard day

11 during the holidays

Part 2: Places

12 outdoors, among trees or seeds

13 at work

14 walking down stairs

15 in the rain

16 in the yard or garden

17 among children

18 in the car or on the bus

19 while swimming

20 outside on a warm day

21 under the stars

Part 3: In Everyday Life

22 opening the palm

23 sitting quietly

24 enjoying a colour

25 in the company of a friend or partner or family member

26 holding someone in the light

27 stretching, with gratitude

28 on a sunny day (or windy, or foggy, or…)

29 while catching up on the news

30 while reading

31 a prayer in our hands

Afterword: A Personal Confession

Acknowledgements

Photo Credits

About the Author

FOREWORD

In Brazil, a family usually goes to the super-market once a month for their food. Rice, beans, cereal, butter, eggs, juice, and so on. During the week you buy groceries at a nearby street market where you can get all of your vegetables and fruits. And every day, you go to the padaria, a bakery where you get your daily bread and milk.

I remember a pastor, a friend of mine from São Paulo, once telling me a story about his daughter. They had just returned from the monthly visit to the supermarket. When he opened the car trunk, the little girl said, Daddy, can we pray for the food now?

And her daddy said, Why now?

And she replied, Because then we don’t need to pray every time we eat. We say thank you just once.

While this precious girl is truly smart, we all need continual nods and touches, reminders of the gifts of life we have, so that we can grow in wonder and gratitude daily. There is a reason that religions often have a set of daily activities to help us survive and thrive.

But if we are honest, many of us feel like we don’t have time for anything. We can barely do what we need to do. To pause with anything new during the day