One More Day…

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deep breath, extra day, gift, holy season, leap year, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

“Thirty days has September…” If you learned that entire device to know how many days are in each month, maybe you’re like me — uncomfortable with it because it gets to: “Save February with 28 till leap year comes with 29…” at which point I was always lost because the rhythm and the rhyme went somewhere that I couldn’t follow!! Regardless of inability to correctly remember what was supposed to help, I am always aware of the brevity of February!

Today is that every-four-year-gift of an extra day and I am grateful for this “Leap Year” gift. It’s embarrassing to say but somehow I “leapfrogged” from Wednesday when I proposed attentiveness to Lenten practice to today without a thought about the six weeks of Lent!

How kind of the universe and the calendar to give me this extra time to get going! If you have been busy like me, won’t you join me in a deep breath and a deep dive into this holy season? I’ll meet you and Jesus in the desert tomorrow morning…

Good News

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body of Christ, Brother Curtis Almquist, Christ, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

In a newly begun daily message, the Society of St. John the Evangelist has, I think, really “hit the mark.” The message is simple, clear and totally on point so I share it in gratitude for what I hope to remember throughout this day and beyond. See if you agree.

We’re the best that Jesus has got, we all in whom — so we say and pray–Jesus lives. We become what we have received: the body of Christ. Then we go and be that in the world that God so loves. (Br. Curtis Almquist, ssje)

Small Things

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do small things with great love, Easter, Lent, Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

A good reminder today in this early stage of Lent comes from today’s “Saint of the Day” page of the franciscanmedia.org website. Like St. Theresa of Lisieux, known as “the Little Flower,” St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows contracted tuberculosis and died at the young age of 24 years. Like her, he had a burning desire to enter a religious community from childhood and, as Mother Teresa would say, “to do small things with great love.” Rather than planning a rigorous program of Lenten practices – and perhaps falling short in the long run – we might do better to follow the wise counsel of these saints.

Blessings on your conscious effort as we walk this path toward Easter.

Beginning Again

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Ash Wednesday, Lent, Scripture, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

So it begins…six weeks of traveling toward Jerusalem with Jesus. It seems that we just celebrated the welcome of “the baby Jesus” into the world – and so we have. Our attention to the seasons of our faith ought to keep up with the speed of what seems an accelerate passage of time, but really the calendar is still the same. It’s just that the acceleration of change in this world and our consciousness has increased. Science can barely keep up so it isn’t so strange that we have difficulty doing so.

The readings for today have many encouraging words for how to move through the season of Lent. Here are my favorites that simply call us to attention to our own lives and actions while asking God for help. Think on these things.

>A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.

>Brothers and sisters, we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you, be reconciled to God!

>If today you hear his voice, Harden not your hearts.

>When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.

>(My personal favorite) Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart…Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord. For gracious and merciful is he…even now!

Mardi Gras

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abstention, Ash Wednesday, fasting, Lent, Mardi Gras, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transformation

New Orleans is a great city to visit. The best thing about it, in my opinion, is the music. My best memory of the only time I visited “The Big Easy” is sitting on the curb in the French Quarter (because there was no possibility of squeezing one more person inside) listening to the best jazz music possible where the instruments themselves speak a language of life in all its joys and trials. I wouldn’t want to be there today, however, as it is Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”) and a million guests are expected in the French Quarter for today’s celebrations.

I did some “surfing” this morning to see if I could find anything about the real meaning of this day when revelers follow the dictum of “eat, drink and be merry…” but there isn’t much attention given to the “morning after” where the revelry ends and the meaning lies.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent, when Christians traditionally turn their attention to fasting and prayer, good deeds and sacrifice in order to reflect on the sufferings of Jesus in the lead-up to Easter. These days the strictures of the season have been relaxed. Rules of “fasting and abstention” from meat apply only to two days instead of every Friday and meal size restriction isn’t generally talked about any more. Giving up candy for Lent doesn’t seem as relevant; doing good deeds has become more the norm. Maturity seems to hold sway these days in our Lenten living.

The goal of any Lenten practice should not end with the celebration of Easter. Transformation is (and always has been) the goal. We pray and reflect more deeply during this season to follow the example of Jesus, loving more universally, living more honestly and giving more generously of ourselves.

Would that these weeks of practice would be so powerful that we would never “go back” but always move to deeper and broader living in God. It is possible. Why not make that the goal this year?

Eileen

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conversation with God, gratitude, heaven, life and death, rest in peace, sadness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’ve been sitting for some time now trying to concentrate on this almost daily task. It seems impossible after reading the news of my friend, Eileen Peters. She passed on the day before yesterday to what will certainly be a glorious reward for her life here on earth. Her fidelity to her husband Dave, her seven grown children and many “grands” — the last being born a day before she left us — had prepared her for the welcome that must have greeted her. I can imagine her lively conversation with God; she was used to that while here. I can see her walking right in and making herself comfortable in her new surroundings. It was always hard to keep up with her on a hike so I presume she is settled by now.

It was Dave’s weekly blog about the process of her illness over the past year that allows this feeling of lightheartedness in me. So many images of connection with Eileen fill my mind that there is no room yet for the sadness that will surely come as we gather to pray together in gratitude for her. The recounting of her courage and willingness grounded in the love that surrounded and sustained her was so vivid with gratitude that it is impossible not to understand something deeper about life and death and new life that I have not known before.

I have no doubt that she rests in peace now and I give thanks for lessons learned and friendship shared. Amen.

Perfectly Me!

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be perfect, be whole, compassionate, Jesus, Matthew, perfection, The Beatitudes, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Chapter five of Matthew’s Gospel starts with Jesus going up a hill, sitting down and giving a brilliant teaching that we call “The Beatitudes.” The lessons do not stop with the last “Blessed be…” however; there’s much more in that chapter to be ingested.

The last line of today’s teaching is one that we have attempted to find a more kindly or reasonable translation to explain. “Be perfect,” says Jesus, “as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We’ve tried on many synonyms to dress that line in a more realistic way. “Be compassionate,” we say (my personal favorite) or “Be whole.” You may have found your own translations that make it possible to hear and live without cringing at the seeming impossibility of coming close to what Jesus was proposing.

This morning, as I began to ruminate on it once again, I heard inside my head: “Be a perfect Lois…” That was a total surprise but it now seems to me the closest to what Jesus was asking. It isn’t a question of becoming like anyone else here on earth in order to achieve the “perfection” of God (“for God?). We just need to be the best of ourselves — loving and forgiving and accepting ourselves, being and giving the best of ourselves from our waking to our sleeping. I’m fairly certain God rejoices in that every day.

That may be just the thing for a Lenten practice, starting on this coming Wednesday!

The Chair of Peter

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Catholic Church, Pope Francis, the Chair of Peter, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today’s feast in the Roman Catholic Church is a deeply symbolic one. We celebrate not a person but a symbol. It’s the feast of “the Chair of Peter.” It doesn’t mean we are reminded of a piece of furniture, beautiful as it may be, and not really even the name of the one person that it is named for, St. Peter. Rather, the Chair of Peter stands for the individuals – some holy and some less so – who have occupied the position of leader in Christendom (and later Catholicism) throughout the centuries since the designation of Peter by Jesus as the leader of his “flock” (and, by extension, those who lead dioceses around the world).

As I was reading again about the significance of this feast which spans over 2,000 years, I thought about that symbolism and the importance of prepositions in definitions. What I mean is the difference of over and for in this case. The Chair of Peter is a symbol of the authority of the leader of the universal Catholic Church, i.e. Pope Francis at present. He is quite clear in his understanding, it seems, that his authority is for church members around the world rather than over all of us. It is for our benefit that he speaks and for the good of the world as teacher that he proclaims.

As is always the case, his leadership is too progressive for some and too traditional for others. What is clear, however, is his humility and his joyful love for people. So leaving personality and politics aside for a moment, today we – and others who appreciate longevity – can celebrate that the Catholic Church has endured for two millennia because of and sometimes in spite of the person who sits in the Chair of Peter.

Debate

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enemy, forgiveness, friend, grace, gratitude, John Philip Newell, mercy, Praying With the Earth, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Everything is quiet this morning. I woke up to a morning with no wind, no rain, no snow – and no cars racing down the road. I was grateful for all that after the tumultuous debate of democratic candidates for President of the United States last night. Most bothersome was the disregard for time limits as people continued to talk while others were chiming in with their opinions and disagreements until it became what I imagine the Tower of Babel was like. I presume this will continue now until the primary races are over and there is a named nominee. And then there will be the more contentious period of run-up to the general election. It will not be a pretty process, but unavoidable for committed citizens. While we don’t need to listen to everything, staying above the fray and listening to nothing is not the way to participate in our democracy so I am grateful for moments like this one and guides like John Philip Newell who grounds me in simplicity with his morning prayers. Won’t you join me today?

We wake to the forgiveness of a new day. We wake to the freedom to begin again. We wake to the mercy of the sun’s redeeming light. Always new, always gift, always blessing. We wake to the forgiveness of this new day.

May our enemy become our friend, O God, that we may share earth’s goodness. May our enemy become our friend, O God, that our children may meet and marry. May our enemy become our friend, O God, that we may remember our shared birth in you. May we grow in grace, may we grow in gratitude, may we grow in wisdom, that our enemy may become our friend. (Praying with the Earth – A Prayerbook for Peace, p. 36)

Jewels on a Page

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balanced life, beauty, discipline, quotations, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Yesterday I picked up one of many small notepads on which I make lists and jot down things I need to remember. It’s become almost a full-time job to keep track of everything as life seems to move so rapidly — or is it just that I’m moving more slowly? Regardless of the answer to that question, I love the “jewels” I sometimes find written on pages that I have forgotten but find impossible to let go. On the page in question I had written two brief quotes on the remaining top half of said page. I needed a clean page to note the information I was to get on a phone call already in progress but rather than discarding the previous message, I saved it for later, after my phone call. A very wise decision!

I have no memory of writing the following two quotes but am happy now that I saved them as they seem to me to speak of a wonderful way to live a balanced life encompassed by both the poetic and the mundane, namely: in beauty and discipline. See if you agree.

Beauty is that which glistens on the edges of our yearnings and lives into the depth of things. (Embracing a Beautiful God by Patricia Adams Farmer)

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments and that bridge must be crossed each day. (Brian Johnson, http://www.optimize.me)