Sacred Friendships

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Sacred Friendships Listening to the Voices of
Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors
Hebrews 121-3 So Great a Cloud of Witnesses
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Addressing the Elephant in the Room
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Co-Authors
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Co-Editors
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A Voice for the Voiceless
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Searching for Buried Treasure The Forgotten Arts
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A Bunch of Dead White Guys!
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A Cloud of Female Witnesses!
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Hebrews 121-3Cloud 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.
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Following the Ancient Paths
Helping Hurting and Hardened People Can Feel Like
a Maze!
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Ever Feel a Little Lost?
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Ever Feel a Little Lost?
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Some Signs Are More Helpful Than Others
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Some Signs Are More Helpful Than Others
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Some Sign Are More Helpful Than Others
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Some Signs Are More Helpful Than Others
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Some Sign Are More Helpful Than Others
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Need Some Directions?
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Need Some Directions?
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Following the Ancient Paths
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Ask for 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 616).

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Finding Buried Treasure Changeless Truth for
Changing Times
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Our Treasure Map Sustaining, Healing,
Reconciling, and Guiding

• Sustaining Its Normal
• to HurtRom. 1215
• Healing Its Possible to
• HopeGen. 5020
• Reconciling Its Horrible
• to Sin, but Wonderful to
• Be ForgivenRom. 520
• Guiding Its
• Supernatural to Mature
• Phil. 310

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Susanna Wesleys 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).
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Whet Your Appetite
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Sustaining Modeled by Perpetua
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The Purpose of Perpetuas Perpetual Resistance

• Written expressly for Gods honor
• and human encouragement.

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Practicing Candor

• I was terrified because never before
• had I experienced such darkness.

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Offering Comfort

• I was very upset because of my fathers
  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

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Climbing in the Casket

• My fathers 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, Perpetuas greatest pain was her
  ache for those who hurt for her!
• Incarnational Suffering!

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Learning together from Our Great Cloud of Female
Witnesses

• Perpetua modeled the essence of biblical
  empathy
• experiencing another persons 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?

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Healing Shared by Perpetua and Felicitas
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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 Communitywith Spiritual Eyes
• Eternal Hope Provides an Eternal Perspective

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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 Gods Holy Love

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The Perspective of Spiritual Friendship Celebratin
g 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!

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The Perspective of Spiritual Friendship Experienci
ng 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

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The Perspective of Spiritual Friendship Resisting
Stubbornly to the End

• But that noble woman,
• stubbornly resisted even to the end.

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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

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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?
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Reconciling Practiced by Nonna
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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 . . .

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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 mothers reconciling of his father).

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Confronting Out of Concern for Heart Change
Embodying Fervent Piety

• 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.

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Confronting Out of Concern for Heart Change
Embodying Fervent Piety

• This good shepherd was the result of his wifes
  prayers and guidance, and it was from her that he
  learned his ideal of a good shepherds life.

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Promising to God

• 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.

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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.

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Learning together from Our Great Cloud of Female
Witnesses
1. Reflecting on Nonnas 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 116)? What would it look like for your
trust to grow?
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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.

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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).

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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 Emmelias mentoring of her daughter
  Macrina the Younger).

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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 ladfather,
  teacher, tutor, mother, giver of all good advice
  (Gregory of Nyssa concerning
• Macrina the Youngers discipleship of
• her younger brother Peter).

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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 416? 2. What can you learn about
Deuteronomy 6 parental mentoring from
Emmelias mentoring of her daughter? 3. What can
you learn about discipleship and the 2 Timothy
22 process from Macrinas mentoring of her
brother Peter (and the entire familys
mentoring model)?
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Sacred Friendships Listening to the Voices of
Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors
Hebrews 121-3 So Great a Cloud of Witnesses