Holy Family

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brother, connected, family, Holy Family, New Year, nuclear family, one family, one world, sister, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today, the feast of the Holy Family, I am flooded with memories and gratitude for the blessings of my youth. The luxury of growing up with an intact nuclear family as well as the proximity of cousins galore is somewhat more rare these days and something to be treasured. In some wonderful, seemingly organic way, those of us who are now the “elders” seem deeply connected to the younger generation of our family. Although scattered around our country and even the far reaches of the world, on the infrequent occasions when we are together, delight is as palpable as the genetics that we share.

I know that I am privileged far beyond the boundaries of what money can buy and I wish such love as exists in my family for all people. Such love does not imply lack of struggle but rather a willingness to acknowledge our imperfections as well as the bonds that hold us together. And in our time we are faced with a new sense of what family can mean as people research their ancestry and submit their DNA to testing, learning whom they ought to be calling “sister” an “brother” in a wider sense than we could have imagined.

Let us, then, on this threshold day of a new year, recognize that we are all connected, and let us resolve to hold the possibility of “one world, one family” as our goal for the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Eve of the Eve

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bless, compassionate, Hearts on Fire, Jesuit John Morris, New Year's, praise, psalm 96, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I come late to this task this morning. Perhaps it was the cold that kept me sleeping until the shocking hour of just before eight o’clock! The temperature continues to hover around zero degrees and warnings of frostbite because of wind still make the national news. I feel rather stuck here in my chair with the only thought being that of the impending turn of the calendar. Today is not the last day of the year; that reality dawns with tomorrow but seems all around me now in shadow. Psalm 96 calls me to praise but I feel like a person on a diving board who isn’t sure of how to swim in the water that awaits me.

There seems to be nothing to do but to throw the responsibility for it all back to God and pray in the words of Jesuit John Morris hoping that will suffice as remote preparation for the coming new year.

Mighty God, Father of all, Compassionate God, Mother of all, bless every person I have met, every face I have seen, every voice I have heard, especially those most dear; bless every city, town and street that I have known, bless every sight I have seen, every sound I have heard, every object I have touched. In some mysterious way these have all fashioned my life; all that I am, I have received. Great God, bless the world. (Hearts on Fire, p.152)

 

 

 

 

 

Works of Which Women Are Capable

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capable, Congregation of the Great Love of God, discernment, diverse, needs, religious community, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, strong women, teaching, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, visiting, voices, women, women religious

INTRO: As I opened to the Catholic Bishops’ website this morning to find the lectionary readings for today I began to sing because the heading was “The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas.” I expect that you, too, are immediately singing now: “…my true love gave to me five golden rings.” That may be a little hokey but even a little more far-fetched perhaps is my follow-on thought that five golden rings might signify a 50th anniversary, the year that I have just completed as a Sister of St. Joseph. (Sorry, it’s actually how my mind works!) I was recently asked to talk about what that means so at the risk of posting the longest message you will ever have from me, see what follows here if you are interested.

Women religious have been living for hundreds of years by looking deeply into the eyes of the dear neighbor and seeing the radiance and love of Christ reflected there. To be that love in the world is the reason the Sisters of St. Joseph came to be.

It began with six women sitting in a kitchen discussing the world situation – the immediate world of 17^th century France, that is. They saw the poverty and tension visible in the lives of the people of their town, Le Puy en Velay, and decided they had to act. They chose to divide the city up according to need and then went out to meet those needs, visiting prisons and teaching young women to make lace so they would have a way other than prostitution of earning money to feed their children. The Holy Spirit was surely guiding these ministries and continued to do so when the first call came from the United States for Sisters.

In 1836, another small group of six women sailed for St. Louis to teach the deaf and the Native Americans in the surrounding area. In the 180 years since then that the Sisters of St. Joseph have ministered in the United States, times have changed significantly as have the needs of the world. After nearly two centuries of ministry in this country, first building and serving in schools and hospitals, Sisters have now returned to the Spirit of our founding mothers whose vision was to do all the works of which women are capable and which will benefit the dear neighbor. “All the works of which women are capable”…That’s everything, right? We now still serve in schools on every level from daycare/pre-school to universities. We are nurses and healthcare providers of every kind but also artists and spiritual directors, house parents for the disabled or the homeless, musicians, lawyers, officers of organizations, and those whose primary ministry is prayer. We are strong women, not bowed by adversity, who make their voices heard for justice. We are also kind women, peaceful and caring of the poor, and caring as well for this beautiful world in which we live.

We are diverse lovers of God. Oh, yes! We are diverse! In becoming the Congregation of the Great Love of God, (a moniker that we often call on to define ourselves at our best), we have come to understand that diversity does not mean division but rather gives the possibility for growth at every turn so that we can grow together for the good of the world. Religious life is an awesome call, but it is just that: a call. And it is a mystery.

Most Sisters today would be able to speak about their call to some extent, but at the heart of things, definition is impossible. Why, for example, of the 45 young women in 1966 who were discerning their role in life, did five of us who entered the Sisters of St. Joseph move to the novitiate, take temporary vows, all the while continuing to discern the rightness of the call, and then take the step of professing lifelong dedication to God. Why us? If asked we might have to say: “It’s a mystery.” And it is God’s grace that has allowed it to unfold.

Today the life of a woman religious seems not so dissimilar from that of other women and in some ways that is quite true. We are indistinguishable these days from other women in our dress, our activities – and we work alongside other women and men in any number of professional roles. There are also many women I know who are not Consecrated Religious whom I consider much holier than I, although it is useless to judge that. Though the outer framework of our lives seems much like that of others, however, there is a significant difference. There are many women and men who cherish their faith and our religious rituals and whose love of God and prayer life are extraordinary, and yet the fullness of their lives does not abide in a religious community. Some of us, however, after an extended period of discernment come to the conclusion that religious life is, as one writer has expressed it, “the native country of their soul and nothing else can finally satisfy them.” I believe I can say with certainty that after fifty years of living the life, we would most assuredly agree with that statement.

 

A Cry Heard in Ramah

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children, Herod, jeremiah, massacre, Matthew, parents, prophecy, Ramah, sorrow, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, violence

Today is not a happy remembrance in the calendar of Church feasts. It is the commemoration of “the Holy Innocents,” the victims of Herod’s massacre of all the baby boys under two years old. Herod was determined to eliminate the possibility that someone – a “new-born” king (Jesus) – would usurp his power. Since he had no idea of where that child might be found, his rage prompted the terrible deed that left so many mothers bereft. It was a fruitless gesture, as violence always is, because Jesus and his parents were well on their way to Egypt when the massacre occurred.

This violence is replicated in our time whenever war and senseless killing happens around the world. I see in my mind’s eye faces of Syrian children in the bombed-out buildings in Aleppo. Closer to home are the images of Sandy Hook just five years ago this month. Although murder is always difficult to endure, the tragedy always seems more horrific when innocent children are killed almost before their lives have begun.

I am praying for parents today, especially for mothers who have lost a child for any reason or no reason at all. For those whose children die because of senseless violence, drug abuse, war, starvation, traffic or other accidents, suicide…so many causes that leave a gaping hole in the hearts of those left behind.

The poignant message of today’s gospel, which Matthew (MT 2:18) saw as
the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy, calls for our prayer for the sorrowing today. We cannot ignore the pain of his words that speak to the cry heard in our own day around the world: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wise Words from Eleanor

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A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen, Eleanor Roosevelt, give, happiness, routine, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I feel as if today is the day to take a deep breath and “get back to business.” Routine is a thing of the past these days but there are things that can be routinized like prayer, sleep patterns, and food intake. Since those activities are often disrupted at holiday time, it takes a bit of effort to get back to normal. A quote from Eleanor Roosevelt in Alan Cohen’s daily reflection (A Deep Breath of Life) will help, I think. Maybe it will offer you an opportunity as well.

Do whatever comes your way to do as well as you can. Think as little as possible about yourself and as much as possible about other people…put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A New Calendar

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calendar, Jesus, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We have to be quite agile at this time of the year as we read the Scriptures, able to jog back and forth between the texts that chronicle events in the “infancy narratives” and those that speak of the “public life” of Jesus. Today, one day after we read stories of the shepherds and angels singing and adoring at the manger, we hear about St. Stephen, chosen by the apostles to serve the widows and orphans in the fast-growing community of Christ’s disciples. Two days from now we will be back in Matthew’s gospel hearing about all the babies that Herod ordered killed so he would be assured that Jesus, the newborn king, would not be around to usurp his title and power.

These juxtaposed texts seem to be a good example of how Scripture calls us to suspend our logical thinking about the events of our heritage in order to enter the realm of the “here and now” and the “not yet.” While we are actually able to tell the story of Jesus in a linear fashion, regardless of the non-linearity of the above examples, we have to hold all the pieces of his incarnation that can only be grasped by faith in order to get the whole picture, and, truth be told, it can never be fully understood from a human perspective. We need to catch deeper meanings from the actions and words of Jesus in the gospels, delving into the underlying messages with openness to mystery.

We could say that if Christmas is just a marking of the entrance of Jesus into time, an event 2,000 years distant from us, it is difficult to see the cataclysmic relevance that we give to the event. As we come to understand more and more deeply that our own “incarnation” is connected to the Christ event, however, it begins to make more sense. We talk about Christ being “born in us” at Christmas. As we develop the capacity to live more and more in the Spirit that Christ promised as remaining with us, the need for explanation is subsumed into a new reality where the only “calendar” is love.

This is not something that we grasp on the first try. It is a message for a lifetime: “the way, the truth and the life” that Jesus came to know about himself and which must be realized in us one day – one step – at a time. This is the renewal that Christmas offers us and the work of the vision starts again today.

 

 

 

 

 

The Promised One Has Come. Rejoice!

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Christ, generosity, gift, give thanks, humility, love, rejoice, spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The waiting is over. Prepared or not we acknowledge that Christ comes today to each of us and all of us, calling our hearts to a love that is as divine as it is human, drawing us forth in the humility of one born like us while at the same time offering us riches beyond our comprehension, if only we agree to pour ourselves out in generosity of spirit. The paradox is that this gift to the Christ can be given in the smallest of ways: each day a smile or a kind word to someone starving for affection, ten minutes of silence to heal a noisy world or…name your own offering of light. Every gift is acceptable to the Christ. Now it is He who is waiting for us. Let us rejoice and give thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

Not Quite Yet…

Tags

Advent, breathe, Christmas, faithfulness, Peace, stillness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today we have a strange confluence of Church events. This morning we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent when we normally prepare to wait a little longer for the celebration of the Incarnation. We have, however, by liturgical rules and the calendar, run out of days before December 24th – Christmas Eve – which ushers in what is never a moveable feast: Christmas Day! So perhaps we are brought up short in our spiritual preparation and need to step back to assess our readiness.

For me, this is a moment of “Stop the world; I want to get off!” as I can already hear the preparations in full swing downstairs. As I look at lectionary readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, I hear again and again the promise of God’s faithfulness and know that these reminders will remain and even be strengthened during the Christmas season when the appearance of the Christ as a tiny child is the evidence. I need now to find moments of inner stillness in this day of heightened expectation, to stop and breathe into the great mystery of love that is unfolding in the silence.

Can we stay in the waiting while on the verge of the bursting forth? Only as we breathe the peace that we long for. Breathe now…just breathe…

 

 

 

 

 

O Emmanuel, Come!

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Acts of the Apostles, Advent, Christmas, fulfillment, God with us, Jesus Christ, O Come O Come Emanuel, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

One might call the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” the theme song of Advent since it is sung throughout the season of Advent in almost any Christian Church. Perhaps not everyone knows all seven verses or that the lyrics come from these symbolic titles we have been considering for the past week. Today, however, we are in familiar territory. Many of us know that Emmanuel means “God with us.”

What a concept! What an astounding theological truth! Do we really believe that God is, in fact, in our midst? This is the central Christian message: that God “is not far from any one of us.” It is in Jesus, the Christ who has come and is always coming to us, that “we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:16-34) He does not come with fanfare and there is often little notice paid, but come he will to us who long for his presence. So let us be prepared.

And let us pray: “Come, the fulfillment of every longing, like the child’s wildest Christmas dream realized. Alert us to your quiet, attune us to your silences, show us your hidden ways. Emmanuel, come!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

O King of All Nations, Come!

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contemplative prayer, Dalai Lama, deepest center, heart, hope, joy, king, King of All the Nations, O Antiphons, Peace, Pope Francis, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Keating, Thomas Merton, unity

It seems beyond human capacity that a world of several billion persons could come together under one ruler. There are so many countervailing factors. Just think about the diversity of languages or food choices, religious beliefs and so much more. That said, I think of efforts being made in spiritual circles to appreciate the values and practices of others that are birthing new hope for finding commonality that will lead at least to peaceful co-existence.

I think of Thomas Merton who, in addition to his correspondence with many spiritual writers and thinkers, traveled 50 years ago to Asia to address a conference of religious leaders on issues of peace. Had his untimely death not ended his brilliant and enthusiastic work, who knows what understanding might have come from it. Even now, Merton scholars continue to plumb the depths of his work, although lacking the essential quality of his person as inspiration.

Benedictine monk, Thomas Keating, tells of his experience as abbot in the Spencer, Massachusetts monastery in the early 1970s when many young people began to knock on the door asking, “Is this the Buddhist place?” Keating directed them to a building not far away on the same road. Finally, he and his colleagues, Fathers William Meninger and Basil Pennington, asked themselves: “What have they got that we haven’t got?” and went to visit the temple. There they found prayer not dissimilar to the monastic practice described by Thomas Merton in his book Contemplative Prayer as “a return to the heart…finding one’s deepest center, awakening the profound depths of our being.” From that beginning was born the Christian movement called Contemplative Outreach which now boasts hundreds of thousands of practitioners the world over.

So this “King of All the Nations” clearly cannot rule in a political sphere but only in the hearts of each person who longs for justice and the peace that comes from loving acceptance of diversity. Will we ever get there? The intimations are present in people like Pope Francis, for example, and the Dalai Lama. It remains for us to find the will to follow. I saved a column I found as the millennium was turning that spoke of possibility in the following words. Let us heed their message today.

“Some may not like the image of king but kingship evokes deep-felt longing. The antiphon points to a world better than any government we have known up till now, an order that recognizes no differences except to exalt the lowliest. And who knows? This millennium might bring that stunning reversal. So we pray: Come, one who draws us beyond our disputes, who silences our complaints in your great good order. Bring us the vital joy of diversity, the secure peace of unity. In you our plea is not contradictory, our hope is not disappointed.”