The Day After

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connections, gathering, harmony, Peace, relationships, similarities, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Over the past few days there has been much attention paid to the weather. Huge storms all across the United States have taken first place on the nightly news and are second only to the numbers of people who are traveling during this “Thanksgiving weekend.” It occurred to me to stop and think about the impact of this holiday which is not, in itself, religious or of directly patriotic origin. It has grown to include commemoration in houses of worship as a natural way of gathering to give thanks and parades usually include groups of military service people and/or their equipment. At its heart, however, Thanksgiving is about connections – millions of people traveling across the country or down the street to share a meal. It’s even fine to stay in one’s home as long as there are invitees and a turkey or some other special meal that says, “Thank you for our lives together.”

Millions of people take risks to travel to be with loved ones. (Note the pile-ups on snow-packed highways during the past few days.) Organizations offer free meals to those who have no one to share with or for those who live in a state of poverty too restrictive for such a feast. New relationships begin or are solidified over cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie…and (usually) turkey or tofurkey, of course. It’s about eating together, being nourished in ways that can rekindle family ties, reconcile friendships or spark attention to similarities of beliefs or interests. Many things can happen at Thanksgiving.

Best of all, we remember and experience gratitude, the foundational reason for the first Thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims and their neighbors after their first harvest in the New World in October of 1621. It lasted for three days and was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims, according to attendee, Edward Winslow. May the good feelings of yesterday remain and relationships endure so that the heart of our country may be ever more open and restored to peace and harmony.

Profound Gratitude

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blessings, dinner, feast, Thanksgiving, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today is Thanksgiving. I have been so blessed in my life that it’s sometimes difficult to express the gratitude I hold in my heart for all of it. The most sacred blessing of all is coming to the belief that God loves me unconditionally. No matter what happens I have that conviction and it is my prayer today that others will come to know that truth as well. The message from Brother Luke Ditewig of the Society of St. John the Evangelist says it well today.

You are invited to the feast. It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from or who your family is or what you’ve done or what you’ve not done. It doesn’t matter how you’re dressed or how you speak or who you love. There’s a place for you. Dinner is ready. (ssje.org)

May you know God’s choicest blessings today!

Potential Saints

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compassion, decisions, potential, saint, Saint Francesco Antonio Fasani, saints, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Recognized (canonized) saints all used to be well-known by their heroic, holy lives. I’m happier now to hear about saints I’ve never encountered because it seems more possible to imitate them simply by living a good life. Today’s entry in the Franciscan Media’s litany is a good example and the reflection about Saint Francesco Antonio Fasani points up what I mean. Don’t get me wrong. I’m always happy to celebrate people like Pope St. John XXIII or St. Joseph, but it’s good to remember there’s potential in all of us as long as our goal is not recognition but rather sincerity and deep love. Here’s how the short biography of Francesco reads.

Eventually we become what we choose. If we choose stinginess, we become stingy. If we choose compassion, we become compassionate. The holiness of Francesco Antonio Fasani resulted from his many small decisions to cooperate with God’s grace.

Yes, there was a short listing of his life’s works and how he accomplished them but the above paragraph was, for me, a telling conclusion. It seems self-evident that becoming a saint – if only in an “unsung” category – is possible for all of us. That fact could change everything about our striving, don’t you think? It really could be just our attitude and motivation about “the little things in life.” And that, my friends, puts us all in the running for sainthood!

Natural Beauty

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awake, beauty, dawn, God, gratitude, sunset, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Yesterday I was driving home at sunset which seemed to me a ridiculously early time for it to happen. I noted the time as 4:20PM and then realized that we are less than a month away from the winter solstice! “How can that be?!” I thought. Those people who told me years ago that time goes more quickly as you age were certainly correct! It’s all about perception, however, as the atomic clock is still chugging along with just seconds of loss or gain over the years. But I digress – sort of.

I can never get enough of the color and design of the sunset on Route 81 as I drive south coming home. That’s where I get the longest view because as my car climbs the hills and dips down into the valleys it’s like playing “Hide and Seek” with the sky. (It is New York State, after all!) So yesterday, I watched this golden panorama sink and then rise for at least 30 miles, shifting slightly all the while but continuing to delight me as I consistently worked at keeping my eyes on the road.

This morning I had the opposite phenomenon to watch as dark turned to deep magenta – just a hint at first and then brighter and glorious behind the tree outside my window. Just for a moment and then it was gone, swallowed up in the light of day. It would have been so easy to miss this brief miracle. Just another five minutes of sleepiness…

The psalmist calls, “Awake! Awake! I will wake the dawn!” I know how that feels and am also bowed in gratitude for the slowness of every sunset. How kind of our God to have created such beauty – so many trees and birds and sunrises and sunsets…and you and me in the midst of it all!

The Kindness of Strangers

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extraordinary, gratitude, Inspiring America, kindness, neighborly, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We finally had our first real snow yesterday. By that I mean that there was an accumulation of about six inches and we had to shovel our driveway in order to go anywhere by car. It was beautiful as it arrived – the kind that makes a person look out the window humming “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…” even if snow isn’t in your top ten weather events. It only lasted until about noon and the reverie was over then too because the temperature was hovering around 32F. degrees. That made the snow very heavy to remove!

Two of us were shoving and splashing away – one at each end of what seemed a longer driveway than I remembered (because it was really too slushy for a snowblower or any mechanical device that we own) when the most astounding thing happened! An unfamiliar car slowed as it was nearing me close to the road. I was just about to step out of the way when a young man jumped out from the driver’s seat and his wife rolled down the window with a smile. He took my shovel and began throwing snow in the most methodical way about four times faster than my best effort. I went to the car and talked to his wife who said they were on their way home from shopping and agreed that he should stop and take over my job. We introduced ourselves and visited while he shoveled.

I turn to the NBC Nightly news most evenings on my iPad where I just look at the headlines and watch the segments that are truly informational- not sensational – and look for the last segment that is called “Inspiring America.” It’s always good news about an “ordinary” person who does something extraordinary just because of seeing a need. Some of the good deeds are astounding and some just good neighborly things to do to help. I would have liked to send a report to Lester Holt for a winter segment last night as our new friends provided just the kind of feeling that his news stories engender but they were gone in a flash taking only my gratitude and renewed sense of the kindness of strangers with them.

P.S. A shout-out to Betsy who had just arrived for a week-long retreat here. She – our much younger sister – had picked up a shovel as soon as she had said her hellos to the Sisters. As grateful as I was to her, I’m sure that she was also to our willing new neighbors. And a good time was had by all…

City of the Heart

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adore, Ancient Songs Sung Anew, city of God, heart, holy name, Kingdom, Peace, Psalm 122, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today I looked to my favorite translation of the Psalms for inspiration.* Sometimes it only takes a word and sometimes more is demanded in order to find in print or in my own mind or heart something worthwhile to say.

Psalm 122 speaks of Jerusalem as the seat of God’s kingdom. Unfortunately, this “city of peace” has been and remains a city of tension and a seat of struggle – sometimes open warfare – rather than a place that all people of faith can happily call their own. This morning, however, I found a second alternate translation that made it possible to see Jerusalem as a place for us all, as “an interior reality” where commentary names it “a reality of the heart that …has the opportunity to extend itself throughout the physical and temporal world.”

Why not try this? Consider your heart as the “City of God” and read the following with that consciousness. You are the city of God, the pulsing heart, the center of this place of peace. Read it aloud.

With joy I arose and went into your house when called to the worship of your name. I entered and now stand singing with all those gathered to worship and adore you. Your holy name becomes for us a blessed city, a place of peace that draws us deeper in where people of every tongue and race rise up before the presence of your face to know and love the God of peace as one. So in this hallowed space and ground, your judgment and your rule of love, becomes for us a kingdom. And may that kingdom come, your peace be done over all the the earth, we pray. Within the inner walls of heart and soul, and on the outer towers of human being, may peace descend, and be for everyone a fortress and a keep where nothing evil enters in. And this we pray now for the good of all, for all who are your house, your dwelling place forever. (*Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 318)

The Gift of Frost

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breathe, Earth, forgiveness, heal the world, heaven, John Philip Newell, land, love, love of life, love of neighbors, Peace, prayer, Praying With the Earth, self, souls, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

7:40AM. There’s something about the drop to just beyond freezing temperatures outside (26 F.) that silences me as if the earth put a finger to her lips saying, “Shh…Pay attention. Don’t move from where you sit. Just drink in the moment!” I would love to open my window and breathe in the freshness but I’m afraid that would be just a little too extreme for such an exercise right now. So I sit ensconced in the comfort of the chair that is slowly molding itself to my body, feeling the air around me. It’s cold enough to make me know I have made the right decision but warm enough to give thanks for the heat that rises from downstairs and allows me to concentrate on the prayer for Saturday morning in John Philip Newell’s book, Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace. Won’t you join me?

To the home of peace, to the field of love, to the land where forgiveness and right relationship meet we look, O God, with longing for earth’s children, with compassion for the creatures, with hearts breaking for the nations and people we love. Open us to visions we have never known, strengthen us for self-givings we have never made, delights with a oneness we could never have imagined, that we may truly be born of You makers of peace.

May the love of life fill our hearts. May the love of earth bring joy to heaven. May the love of self deepen our souls. May the love of neighbor heal our world. As nations, as peoples, as families this day may the love of life heal our world.

Music Lessons

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holy hour, joy, persevere, remembrance, singing, St. Cecelia, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today we sit in the midst of a distressing “moment” in our country’s history (only the fourth incidence of a presidential impeachment inquiry) while also remembering the tragic event of the presidential assassination in 1963. Today is also the feast of St. Cecilia, patron of musicians. Many people would say I am stretching a bit to throw St. Cecilia into that mix but I would beg to differ.

At our “holy hour” last week from the Sophia Center, we celebrated those who step up to serve in difficult times like natural disasters or mass shootings, those whose lives are dedicated to services like the military or as first responders and people who quietly “do good” each day. The most moving moment for me and for many others was at the invitation to stand and sing all four verses of America the Beautiful with our voices being the only musical instrumentation. It was a stirring – one could easily say “emotional” – event that could never have been as meaningful as a spoken recitation of the lyrics would have been. It was a reminder both of the beauty and history of our country and the strength of character of those who have made the country great.

We need music. We need concerts and “singalongs” and hymns in religious services both joyful and those filled with sorrow. Music helps us to express emotions that are deeper than words. Today might be a good day to find some music in our personal “favorites” file and allow ourselves the emotions of remembrance, sadness or despair, pleading for peace, hope for resolution or seeking God’s grace to persevere. See what you can find and listen with your heart. Feel better and give thanks.

A Little Touch of Merton

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God, infinite mercy, love, New Seeds of Contemplation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

I wrote yesterday in anticipation of the two sessions of our book study. It was the last of five sessions and did not disappoint. Today I sit in gratitude for the growing number of spiritual seekers who find their way to all kinds of groups that assist in the process of deepening understanding of self and meaningful life. This morning I read something written by Thomas Merton more than half a century ago that could have been said of our two wonderful, diverse groups of people who in their sharing and their silences created community in a way that was beautiful to watch. (You may want to read it aloud a couple of times to catch the flow and beauty of meaning.)

Merton wrote: Love comes out of God and gathers us to God in order to pour itself back into God through all of us and bring us all back to God on the tide of God’s own infinite mercy. So we all become doors and windows through which God shines back into His own house. (New Seeds of Contemplation, p.67)

The Wisdom Jesus

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Brian Johnson, Cynthia Bourgeault, mindfulness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, The Wisdom Jesus, words matter

One of the websites that shows up daily in my email is Brian Johnson’s “Optimize.” I don’t know how it first came to me but I used to systematically delete it each day along with all the ads that appear. Now I scan it because sometimes I find clues to good reflection topics and notes from a person I have come to see as a very energetic cheerleader. Today there was one line that caught my eye as I prepared for the events of the day. The topic was “Science Says Words Matter.” The advice at the end of his presentation was as follows.

“See if you can bring a little more mindfulness to the words you use today.”

Nothing wildly creative or vastly different. Just a reminder that is valuable no matter what day it is. For me today it will be my companion during two sessions of a book study. They’re our last meetings where we will discuss The Wisdom Jesus by Cynthia Bourgeault. I am having hard time letting go of this one because of the level of deep sharing that we have experienced during our exploration. Of course it is due to Cynthia’s extraordinary insight and writing skill but the grace with which participants have responded brings the book (and Jesus, I might add) to life in a wonderful way.

So I offer two things this morning. 1. Take Brian Johnson’s advice for the day, and 2. Give The Wisdom Jesus a try. Cynthia’s work is not for those unwilling to dig deep and re-read sometimes, but this is one that may respond to your need for a deeper understanding of (as Cynthia would say) “just what Jesus was up to” here on earth.