Guardian Angels

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angel, attentiveness, comfort, faith, Guardian Angel, love, loving, personal, prayers, protection, safety, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Before I learned any of the prayers that are at the heart of my Church practice, I knew I had protection from heaven each night while I slept because of the simple prayer that helped me close my eyes in trust. You may have learned it too. In a sing-song voice to that matched the rhythm of the words, countless young people repeated night after night:

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this night be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide.

Some of us repeated the prayer upon awakening, grateful for having survived the night and wanting to keep the protection going throughout the day. It was simple. Just one word (changing “night” to “day”) gave us continued peace and safety from harm.

These days there are workshops galore for people whose connection to the spirit realm has endured and deepened into adulthood. There are books written about angels, especially the “big three” archangels: Gabriel, Raphael and Michael, named in Scripture and revered for particular reasons: Michael for protection from evil, Gabriel as a messenger of Good News and Raphael, known for mercy and healing (esp. of Tobias’ blindness in the Book of Tobit). In a simpler and more elemental way, however, people still have confidence in God’s care, often manifested as a belief in a personal Guardian Angel.

This is what we celebrate today: faith in the kind protection of a God whose attentiveness to us is personal and loving. Today might be a day to reflect on those persons in our life who have been “angels” for us in God’s service and to thank God for what we cannot see with our human eyes but still perceive in our experience of comfort, protection and – best of all – love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How’s Your Hearing?

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attentiveness, focus, harden not your hearts, hear God's voice, listen, pay attention, Psalm 95, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The refrain from Psalm 95 reverberates in my ears and in my heart this morning. We read it and sing it from hymnals and it would behoove us to take a moment to ask ourselves, “Am I listening?” As soon as I read it as the psalm refrain this morning (If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts!) The melody began to repeat in my head. Then I got to the verse that said, O, that you would hear his voice! as if the psalmist were pleading urgently for us to pay attention. It made me think that hearing God’s voice isn’t just work on God’s part (to talk to us), but rather a question of our willingness and the recognition that we need to really pay attention in order to hear. Multi-tasking is not helpful here. Sometimes we need to put down the hammer or the book or turn off the television or our iPad and focus!

So today’s a day to turn up our “hearing aids” of attentiveness and listen for the words of love that will soften our hearts and keep us on the path to God’s house.

Growing the Kingdom

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attentiveness, consciousness, delicate balance, God, groundwork, growth, Jesus, letting go, Mark, master gardener, mustard seed, seed, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, surrender, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The question Jesus asks today: To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God? (MK 4:26-34) which he answers with the mustard seed growing into the “largest of plants” is very familiar. He has already spoken at the beginning of the passage about the growth of grain, observable in very clear stages. I always substitute corn for grain because I see it everywhere around me in the early summer and am always amazed at the process. There are lots of ways to speak of growth but the most important thing about the process, I think, is imperceptibility; we don’t know how it happens – it just does if we have done the groundwork. Jesus says that it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of it’s own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

So the question arises: Does the reign of God grow in us the same way? Surely we have to do the “groundwork” of spiritual practice and consciousness of how we are living. Lately though I have begun to notice some changes in myself for which I can’t take credit or blame. I won’t go into the wrinkles that a friend kindly calls “the windstorms of our lives” but I have been surprised in my work by a new sense of confidence and a less judgmental stance than ever before. Once in awhile now I recognize that things which seemed so important when I was younger hold no sway now. Sometimes, it’s other people who tell me I’ve changed and upon reflection I can understand their reasoning.

The moral of this story seems to be once again a delicate balance of consciousness and surrender, an attentiveness to doing the groundwork of planting God’s intention for us deep within while letting go of the need to control the outcome. God is, after all, the master gardener.