Shepherding?

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belief, faith, Good Shepherd, guiding, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I smiled as I was reading the daily devotional “Living Faith” this morning. Today’s reflection was written by the very popular Joyce Rupp, author of many spiritual books and an often sought-after speaker and leader of retreats. When commenting on today’s well-known gospel about the “good Shepherd,” Sister Joyce said the following: “That line (The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.) is comforting, but I sometimes wonder if I believe it.”

WHAT??? The great Joyce Rupp is doubting God’s guidance? How can that be?? Well, no. As it turns out, she isn’t doubting God’s goodness and kindness at all. She is just admitting to the kind of busyness and lack of attention that we all experience at times, when we just swim along without a thought to the path we’re on. Sometimes things then go awry and we – if we’re lucky – are shaken into attention again, ready to jump back onto the path of the Shepherd who is always willing to lead and guide us. In conclusion, Sister Joyce says the following:

Abiding faith is about believing every day, no matter what happens, that God has my back leading and guiding me even when things don’t turn out to my satisfaction.

Good news, and a good reminder to turn our attention consciously to the path we’re on each day…maybe as we rise from sleep and take that first step of the day.

Where’s the Fire?

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belief, Elijah, faith, Kings, prophets, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Sometimes I muse on what it would have been like to have lived in the pre-Christian era when access to God was (it seems, anyway) much more direct. Some of the stories are quite fantastic and one wonders if belief in God would have been easier then because of a different kind of presence. Take today’s first reading for example (1 KGS 18: 20-39), when there was a contest of prophets going on. Elijah was the sole surviving prophet representing the Lord, God of Israel, while there were 450 prophets representing Baal. Luckily for the Israelites there was not going to be a military engagement to settle the question of whose God was Lord. You may remember that the matter was settled with a burnt offering. The Baals prepared their fire and spent an entire morning calling on their god with all manner of pleading and activity but nothing happened. When it was Elijah’s turn, he proceeded through a complicated but reasonable ritual of preparation, giving directions to the gathered community for their part in the preparation. When it was the time for offering sacrifice, Elijah stepped forward saying (Can you imagine the scene?): Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all things by your command. Answer me, LORD! that this people may know that you, LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to their senses…”

Imagine what it would be like to see the fire that burst forth, consuming the burnt offering, wood, stones and dust as well as all the water in the trench they had dug around the altar of sacrifice. It must have been stunningly convincing…I sometimes long for that kind of force, what likely seems to us a “magic moment,” but it seems that evolution has taught us and brought us a different, perhaps more humanized path—the way of the heart, we might say.

Today we are called to follow a path that leads us to an inner experience of the God we know as Love. Belief in this God is sometimes revealed to us in a “still, small voice,” a knowing that we say “cannot be taught but only caught,” spreading somewhat like Elijah’s fire, but without the visible display. Sometimes we just have to believe the evidence we see in the beauty of the universe in which we live, the good works and generosity of the people we meet and the witness of those whose belief and actions inspire us to become better persons. Although the pyrotechnics would seem an easier way to faith, I’m happy to live now when faith is engendered from the inside and is a personal choice every day but lasts a lifetime.

Praying for Strength

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A Prayer for Strength, belief, change, courage, fortify, insurmountable, Joyce Rupp, love, Prayer Seeds, provider, purpose, serenity, strength, suffer, support, sustain, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust, worries

I went to sleep last night in my safe and warm bedroom with images from the internet news of cars and trucks smashing into utility poles and one another on icy roads in South Carolina and Georgia. Weather gone wild has stranded thousands in airports and shelters and the only happy people are the children who are playing in the snow that has closed their schools. It is a trying time in our country – for this and many other reasons.

Having no words of my own today, I turn to Joyce Rupp, a wonderful spiritual guide who always seems to have something helpful to say. I am never disappointed by whatever book of hers that comes into my hands. She has a way of comforting and challenging me at the same time. Here is part of “A Prayer for Strength” from her book Prayer Seeds.

Provider of Purpose, Firm Foundation, Enduring Love, support my determination to give the best of myself to others. Fortify the forgiveness you have placed and nurtured in my heart. Sustain a solid belief that I can get through what appears insurmountable. Bolster my efforts to be a person who reaches out to those who suffer. Foster greater trust in you when worries and anxieties attempt to prevail. Impart the courage I need to change what appears to be unchangeable. In you I find sufficient strength, abounding love, and secure serenity. (p.56)

 

 

 

 

 

Pray Always

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attacks, belief, faith, France, God, Paris, pray always, refugees, terror, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning I opened the website where I find the daily readings (www.usccb.org) with a heavy heart, wondering if I could say anything of worth after last night’s deadly ISIS attack in Paris. The first line of the gospel said this: Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. (LK 18:1).

There can be no better answer and it calls me to remember constantly our brothers and sisters, not only in Paris, but all over the world where refugees are fleeing for their lives, people are mourning their loved ones killed in terrorist attacks and war continues to be waged in so many quarters. I am one of the lucky ones – surrounded this week by people whose purpose of prayer and deepening in God is palpable, so I invite all who read this to join us in gathering the light and sending it out to all those in need, believing that God is faithful and that love can, indeed, conquer all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing and Believing

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belief, believe, doubt, Jesus, John, Messiah, resurrection, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas the apostle

Today is the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle. He’s the one with the bad reputation, the one reported to have refused to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus because he wasn’t present when Jesus walked (literally) through the door that first time when all the others were gathered. He needed more. He said he wouldn’t believe unless he saw and touched the wounds of Jesus. We shouldn’t be so quick to judge Thomas though. After all, the whole thing was pretty astonishing and he was the only one not there. If I were in their company, still thinking that Jesus was a totally human “messiah” (anointed one) whose mission was to restore the throne of David (literally), the concept of resurrection would have been foreign enough to make me demand a little proof, I think. The others were terrified when he arrived that night so why do we think that any of them, having missed the visit, wouldn’t have needed more in order to believe that Jesus was, in fact, alive?

The last line of today’s gospel passage (JN 20:29) is for us. It says, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” That’s us he’s talking about. To be fair, however, it’s a little easier to hold a belief that almost two billion people worldwide support than it would have been for those alive in the time of Jesus. Sometimes I’m content with my situation but there are moments when everything in me would like to be back walking those roads with him, able to reach out and touch him, listen to him, feel the energy of God jumping from him to me. The best I can do every morning is to quiet myself and will to be in his presence, knowing that the possibility of his touch at the core of my being is always there. If only I can be that present myself…