Of Sun and Wind

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blessing, centered heart, inspiration, Macrina Wiederkehr, pandemic, present moment, seven sacred pauses, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The wind has been roaring mightily since late yesterday. The sky is very gray. A few moments ago as I looked up and out my back window I saw what seemed like a capture of the sun by the sky. As I watched (it was only a few seconds) a light appeared over the mountain, delineating the movements and the thrust of the wind. Suddenly the sun appeared in the midst, a small circle of hope seized and muted by the clouds, taken prisoner and being shunted along across the sky. Just as suddenly he was gone, having fallen back into the depths of the wind carrying the entire retinue northward.

This little drama seemed indicative of what the day might hold. The lack of sunlight challenges my desire for moving forward with any worthwhile project. The wind makes me wonder if the earth is keening for us in this pandemic. I turn to Macrina Wiederkehr for a good prayer and find what may be my best companion for the day.

I long to live in the present moment. I want to stop trying to control the hours so that new paths of inspiration are free to unfold within me…Take my scattered thoughts, my fragmented moments. Breathe into them and draw them into your centered heart. Open my eyes that I may see the grace that waits for me in every moment. You are the Source of every moment’s blessing. Teach me to live awake. (Seven Sacred Pauses, p. 83)

The World on Fire

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St. Catherine of Siena, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, visionary

Franciscanmedia.org tells us that today is the feast of Catherine of Siena, one of the “stand-outs” in Church history, especially in the history of women saints. A famous quote attributed to her is worth repeating today: “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” Admittedly we will all do that in our own way, perhaps not as extraordinarily as Catherine did. In 1376, Catherine succeeded in bringing the Pope back to Rome, thus ending the 74-year-long Church schism called the Avignon captivity. A 29-year-old woman. In the 14th century. Extraordinary, yes? One can only agree that Catherine was certainly a visionary who saw God’s will and did what she knew was hers to do.

What is your calling? Can you hear it? More to the point: are you listening?

Zooming Along

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communication, consciousness, gratitude, information, love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, virtual connection, Zoom

Each day now it becomes more apparent to me how much life has changed. As I say that, phrases come flowing forward from the recesses of my brain, like “in the twinkling of an eye.” That one isn’t really accurate because the change has been incremental and continues as the virus has spread but sometimes it seems as if “the rug has been pulled out from under us.” That seems a more accurate assessment because it is about the recognition and/or the acknowledgement of the shifts that has reached each of us in similar (but probably not matching) ways.

For many of us, the greatest change is in the way that we receive and share information. While there are many relatively new platforms for connecting, one that seems simple and therefore quite accessible to many people is ZOOM! I have been personally grateful for this way of virtual connection for about five years now as it allows me to join “nun” meetings in Albany, New York that would otherwise necessitate five hours of driving to and fro. In addition I am now connected with my Sisters and other people all across this country and even sometimes across the world.

While still not as satisfying as a “face-to-face” encounter, technology has facilitated connections that would be impossible without it. Paying attention to that fact reminds me to give thanks for the great minds that have created the programs now available to us. From that consciousness I am led to celebrate those scientists who are working diligently to find new ways to heal us of this pandemic and those who care for our sisters and brothers infected by the virus.

I could spend my days now zooming from one thought stream to another! It does seem that “everybody’s doing it!” What I hope will always be my companion on these journeys is a huge amount of gratitude and love for those I encounter along these virtual pathways. I wish the same for all of us.

Monday, Monday

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Alexander Wollcott, morning prayer, morning ritual, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

Here I am in the kitchen at 6:30 AM, having made the coffee and recognizing that nothing much has changed toward the immediate future. Oh yes, “the curve has flattened” somewhat and there are small businesses that have re-opened. Most people are wearing their masks and are able to gauge a distance of six feet if there are no markings on the sidewalk or the floor of the grocery store – if there is a grocery store with food on the shelves. I find myself singing the old “Mamas & Papas” song, “Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day…”

As I reach for my coffee mug on the small table beside my chair, a small unfamiliar picture frame catches my eye. There’s no picture, just a quote which will have to serve as my impetus to greet the day. It says:

There is no such thing in anyone’s life as an unimportant day. (Alexander Woolcott)

I’ll try to remember that as I go to my virtual morning prayer…and beyond.

Attitude = Gratitude

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attitude, gratitude, light, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, virtual liturgy

I cannot escape this world that I live in, even if I wanted to with my whole self, that is: body, mind and spirit. So here is what seems quite evident to me on this first day of the week. I woke up with the thought that I need to change my attitude toward the present state of the world. I recognized that I have been devolving into a reactive mode with the negative forces (restrictions, political rhetoric, etc.) rising while my normal state of optimism was receding. The miracle of the day is that everything is converging to feed the good on my path.

Kitchen conversations at “coffee hour” just now were all about the spiritual lessons of yesterday given free of charge on the internet by spiritual leaders of East and West. Today’s lectionary readings at usccb.org were like stepping stones into light. Then more gifts from bloggers followed and I am now set to join a virtual congregation of Mass-goers at my favorite local Church to touch back into my heritage of beautiful Catholic ritual where approximately 300 believers will join with the exquisite singing voices of Pat and Jan and to listen to the wisdom of Father Charles whose presence as presider is a gift in itself. Additionally, every time I participate in this virtual Sunday liturgy, it seems that the seven necessary participants are joined by others. The resonance and volume seem to indicate many more participants in the church when in reality we are elsewhere but joining in spirit.

How can I not be grateful for this day, this opportunity to live in light – even in the face of what appears to be opposition? I am convinced of the call to shake off “the deeds of darkness” and bathe in the Light. Might you find ways to join in this attitude of gratitude today?

Memory

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gospels, Mark, memories, St. Mark, stories, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It’s fascinating to think about how we know what we know about the life of Jesus from those who lived in the first century CE (Christian Era), because all four were written long after the sojourn of Jesus on earth. I’m thinking about this because in the biographical information about Mark, who wrote the first and shortest of the four gospels and upon whom the authors of Matthew and Luke are said to have depended in their own writings, we find only this to situate him: (? – c. April 25, 68) Only his death date is noted.

Mark was not one of the twelve apostles but must have either known Jesus personally (evidence is not clear) or been very deeply touched by the stories about Jesus from those who did have personal experiences of him. I think about a group of people sitting around a campfire, remembering Jesus, having been inspired by him and sharing the stories that prompted them to give their lives to the search to know this Jesus the Christ more deeply.

I think about my own growth in faith and the stories that I love about Jesus. They are mostly the stories like the healings, especially of young people whose parents were bereft and upon whom Jesus took pity, or of Mary Magdalene whom Jesus loved. When he saw her in the garden weeping over his death, he needed only to say her name for her to know he was alive. Compassion is the basis of the stories I love, stories of the care of Jesus for others, like the feeding of the five thousand or of his friends on the beach after his resurrection…

My gratitude for the memories of those who shared stories and then wrote the gospels (community memories, to be sure) reminds me that we, too, have stories to tell – of family, community and our own personal lives that are worthy of sharing in hopes that what is of value will be kept in love for those who come after us.

One Thing I Ask

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God's presence, lessons, meditation, psalm 27, self-compassion, stay home, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

For a long time I have wished for more time with less to do. I was reminded of that this morning when I read Psalm 27 which sang out:

One thing I ask of the Lord, this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate God’s temple.”

It’s ironic really because since the second week of March — 46 days to be exact – I have been without a schedule and without restriction except to “STAY HOME” (as directed by our government) but have yet to dedicate time in any regular way to the contemplation of the “loveliness of the Lord.” I have participated in a virtual retreat by Zoom and have begun again the group book study that was interrupted mid-course last month…but that just happened this week and only takes 3 hours out of 24…

As I think of it, another irony is that the topic of the virtual retreat for this week is “Self-Compassion” and I wonder why I might be feeling guilty at this moment. I sit in my recliner and look at my meditation mat just three feet away, wondering why I am not sitting there right now and what it will take to finally move from recognition of lassitude to the discipline of meditation once again.

There are many lessons in this “season-out-of-time,” as I have come to call it. In conversations lately (zoom and telephone only!) I have been grateful to hear that I am not alone in what is probably a mild case of depression if not just an adjustment to life during a situation I have never before encountered.

As I think of it, I have not lost the sense of God’s presence always with me so perhaps attention to that fact is a way to achieve the same result as happens in a scheduled meditation session. That’s something to watch as I go forward…but I think today will lend itself to a scheduled “date” with God on my mat, because during this attempt to explain myself to myself, I am feeling a deeper longing for just such an event!

A Winding Road

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comfort, God, God acts, God speaks, God's voice, Joyce Rupp, praise, pray, psalm 16, Stephen Mitchell, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Feeling a need for inspiration I pulled out the book, Prayer Seeds, by Joyce Rupp this morning. I wanted to hear and see something that would speak of hope or certainty to some deep place in my heart with the hope that it would do the same for others. I read a lot of Sister Joyce’s prayers, all lovely and appropriate for many occasions or seasons. This is, however, a season that we might call “out-of-time” so I needed to look further. At the top of page 167, there was a quote from Stephen Mitchell’s translation of selected psalms. It read:

Unnamable God, I feel you with me at every moment. You are my food, my drink, my sunlight and the air I breathe. (Psalm 16)

This could have been enough, I suppose, but then I thought, “What about people who are not feeling God at every moment these days?” so I found a selection of Mitchell’s psalm translations at another place on the internet. I feel a need to write two of them here as sort of a stream of consciousness: in on-going sentences rather than the traditional psalmody form, as if the speaker were walking a path while thinking/speaking. I don’t know why that seems important but I hope Stephen Mitchell would forgive this diversion from his work. It is my best offering for today.

God acts within every moment and creates the world with each breath. God speaks from the center of the universe, in the silence beyond all thought. Mightier than the crash of a thunderstorm, mightier than the roar of the sea, is God’s voice silently speaking in the depths of a listening heart. (Psalm 93)

Even in the midst of great pain, Lord, I praise you for that which is. I will not refuse this grief or close myself to this anguish. Let shallow people pray for ease: “Comfort us; shield us from sorrow.” I pray for whatever you send me, and I ask to receive it as your gift. You have put a joy in my heart greater than all the world’s riches. I lie down trusting the darkness, for I know that even now you are here. (Psalm 4)

Earth Day at 50

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Earth, Earth Day, life, Mother Earth, psalm 8, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

On this 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, I could sit all day today looking at photos and videos from NASA or taking photos myself outside my house where forsythia like ours could light up the world with their brilliant yellow! I could take a short walk outside once every hour to feel the exhilaration of fresh air as I stepped out the door. I could take a break to praise God for the loveliness of the world each time the wind outside caught the sun peeking out and then running across my bedroom floor. I could (and plan to) transplant the beautiful cuttings of my Prayer Plant (That is her real name; look it up!) that I have been nurturing along for awhile or attend to my Christmas cactus that deserves a more spacious home.

In the midst of a serious crisis, it is always good to stop and remember what is still good about this life on Earth. Today, if we can do nothing more, we should at least give thanks for and to the Earth, our home. Raise your arms or at least your eyes to the expanse of Her. Bend your body in a bow or at least a nod to the wonder of Her. Sing a song or at least call to mind a line of praise – (Psalm 8, for example) in thanks to the One who made Her.

Celebrate Earth and then make a new or renewed commitment to care for her because She is, indeed, Mother to us all.

One Heart and One Mind

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Acts of the Apostles, common good, community, consciousness, counterintuitive, difficulty, freedoms, generosity, one heart and one mind, step up, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I felt a wave of sadness as I read the lectionary texts this morning. It began with the first line of the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (4:32-37).

The community of believers was of one heart and one mind, and no one claimed that any of their possessions were their own, but they held everything in common.

Immediately images flashed across the screen of my mind, videos from yesterday’s news of demonstrations in Pennsylvania against the closure of all gathering places in the state: factories, offices, restaurants, beaches – everywhere that people might congregate. They were not peaceful demonstrations but angry protests against what people saw as government attempting to take away the freedoms on which our country was founded. I was appalled to see the majority of those gathered without masks in close crowds and automatic rifles at the sides of some people who were waving American flags as well.

Where is the sense of the common good in those pictures? I live in New York State, three miles from the border from Pennsylvania and 175 miles from that state capital – as the crow flies and from where the wind blows. We have been diligent to assure no spread of COVID-19 and all of our efforts may be undone by yesterday’s activities, actually taking place in many cities across the country.

As I write this I am conflicted because I am also aware of the difficulties facing people who have lost their jobs and who have received no financial help from the government thus far. I understand the frustration that builds every day because of the restrictions placed on us – of travel, of visiting loved ones, of wondering how long we will have enough food to eat. And then I begin to think of the generosity of nurses and doctors and bus drivers and first responders of all kinds who put themselves in danger each day to preserve life and the common good in service to those in need.

It is a sad and frustrating and unsettling time – not just in our country this time but in the whole world. It will take a mighty effort for us to wake up, to step up to a higher plane of consciousness, equal to the challenges we face now, especially those that call us to greater care for life than for anything else.

Are we equal to the challenge? It is not something we can do alone. It is counterintuitive that now we are told to stay away from others – at least 6 feet way. Can we survive this without physically connecting, starved of hugs as we are? It will take a monumental effort to move toward “one heart and one mind” in this complex world of ours. But it is the only world we have.

We will survive together or we will not survive at all. How do you propose that we “step up?”