Tag: reading

Intro to the Anamchara Fellowship Community!

Featured ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment
I’m so excited for this journey! I have just joined the Anamchara Fellowship as a seeker for Aspirancy. Anamchara is a religious order of disbursed people from all walks of life canonically recognized by the Episcopal Church at large. It is for people who wish to continue their spiritual journey in a community. Together we pray the same prays each day and meet each night over zoom (the community is all over the US and the world) for evening prayers. The community uses the Northumbria Community book of Celtic Daily Prayer, every prayer in the book is so beautiful and flowing with green, rich Life. Each individual is committed to a certain Rule of Life which usually involves intentional prayer, recreation (exercise, art, music, whatever you love, etc.), meditation, and what I would call ‘gazing’ at God in all Creation—which is, at its heart, the Celtic way. I felt after doing eight months of my discernment course with the diocese that joining a monastic community was what I was called to do right now and bringing a piece of it, hopefully, back to the parishioners of my parish to benefit not just me, but all.

My book Detroit’s Lost Poletown—sold out already?!!

Featured ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ 2 Comments
My book released yesterday and it’s already sold out online at Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon! This came as a shock to me, but a lot of people told me they preordered it. I hope its success will continue, and it pays honorable homage to the neighborhood and the people impacted by its razing. Thank you to all who preordered the book and plan to get it from their local bookshop! 💕

General Crack by George Preedy

Featured ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment
Not the most romantic title, but so far I’m enjoying this piece of fiction by George Preedy (actually a pen name for British Author, Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long Campbell). I haven’t read anything in a while that I looked forward to at the end of the day, so this has been such a pleasure. To think it has been in my collection for years and I never touched it! What other beautiful stories are hiding on my bookshelves? 🤔

Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians

~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:18-19)

I’m so glad I am ending my year-long Bible sessions with a letter from Paul. His work is such a pleasure to read, so beautiful and profound. I like Paul’s verse on hope, that we are called to it. Hope is a powerful feeling. It can take us from the depths of despair if we don’t have any to total elation if it is restored to us. Isn’t having Hope then like having God? Is God hope itself in addition to many other beautiful and good things? And along with the hope God gives we must carry gratitude. I think the two are inseparable. When we lay our hope in God’s hands, therefore surrendering our will, we make ourselves vulnerable and equally indebted to God when God delivers us from despair. Thanks be to God!

Thank you for staying with me through this journey of the Bible! Check out my story every day as I post my past posts of the books if you’d like a concentrated look or follow #fridaybiblepost!

The book of Habakkuk

~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to tread on the heights.” (Habakkuk 3:19)

Habakkuk awaits the ruin of the unjust Babylonians. He complains twice to God that he wishes God would act now and “destroy” them. There are a couple of points here. First, as we all probably know, God doesn’t work on human time. God’s time is a mystery, but I CAN tell you that when I recite my prayers very slow, they feel much different than when I say them at a “normal” speed. I think when we slow down, something perhaps we’re not used to, it surprises our Spirit and we can then easily sense the difference. Like the intellect is finally giving way to the heart—and that is a special feeling. Second, sometimes the ruin of something allows for the growth of something better, we just have to be patient and eliminate ALL of our worldly expectations and allow God to move us through the fire.

The book of Micah

~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)

Now here’s something…WE, our bodies, hearts, and minds are Israel. Now, read it to reference yourself: “…though you (you the reader) are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me (Christ) one who will be ruler over Israel…” In other words, out of each person who seeks Christ—the beautiful qualities He represents, love, charity, grace, mercy, etc., for those who seek to be these things, Christ will be born in them—and something very old, from ancient times, perhaps the purity of God’s first creation? If we could ever strive to be that pure! Free of malice and deceit, not only against others but against ourselves. There is something very organic in Christ, very real and that is why we call Him Truth. And Truth is always pure. Though we are small, we can do great things if we abide in Truth.

The book of Hosea

~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment

“It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them, I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.” (Hosea 11:3-4)

When I read this the first time I was struck by this image of God as feminine and motherly. It is so easy to forget to thank God for the little things, even the people God sends to us to help us in our times of need, even words spoken by strangers that keep us in deep thought all day. We forget that even the simplest favors were done for us out of Love by God and sometimes through others. Just like our mothers, parents, guardians, and friends who do things for us simply out of their great love.…And the things we have done for others out of love. One thing I do in secret is remove all obstacles (dog bones, pillows, blankets, toys) out of my husband’s path before I go to bed, so he doesn’t trip in the dark when he gets up (usually very early). When I told him this (no longer a secret) he laughed and made the joke that I’m like Charlie in the show ‘Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ who secretly protects ‘the waitress’ because of his great (hilariously obsessive) love for her. I thought that was funny.

Who are you secretly helping and who do you think is secretly helping you? Do you think God is working through them/you? How can we show our gratitude for these secret favors of Love?

The book of 1 & 2 Thessalonians

~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this, is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” –(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

This first letter from Paul to the Thessalonians was misinterpreted. So he wrote a second letter (2 Thessalonians) to urge them to quit their idleness and get to work as some in the church had heard Paul’s first message and stopped working just to wait for the Lord’s second coming. They had become a burden to their church because the church had begun to support them. It is the same when the angels told the disciples to stop gazing at the sky when Jesus was lifted to heaven (Acts 1:11). They needed to take Christ with them everywhere they went as they worked and as they played. Study and prayer in solitude is an excellent way to center yourself in God, but then we must take God with us out into the world. And when we are out mingling with people, we learn a lot of lessons, more lessons, about ourselves especially, than if we were studying scripture alone all the time. It is one of the reasons group Bible study can be good, people learn more from others than from themselves. Who knows, you may be the eyes that group needs to see a verse interpreted in a different light.

The Showings of Julian of Norwich, review!!!

~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment
Such a wonderful read! I shared this once before, but I finished it a couple weeks ago, so I wanted to share it again! The Showings of Julian of Norwich is a collection of the sixteen visions of Christ a young woman received on her deathbed. Miraculously she survived her illness and spent the remainder of her life in a convent writing the visions down. We do not know her real name as she kept herself out of her writings almost completely. We only call her Julian of Norwich because she is associated that way with St. Julian’s church in Norwich, England.
I think these showings could easily be a study or a meditation. There was so much articulated, and because they are so otherworldly, each chapter deserves much thought and prayerful contemplation.