A Look Back and Ahead

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breathe, deep breath, Macrina Wiederkehr, newness, sacred space, seven sacred pauses, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The sun has been up for quite a while now (8:33 AM) and I’m feeling a hint of what used to be my “regular work schedule.” I would be in an office by now, attending to the work of the week that is beginning. If I think further back, the bell for the first period class would have already rung and we would be on our way to France by now…Those would be the days when I was a teacher of French, of course.

Now life is quite different, especially because of the interruption of the Covid-19 pandemic which has reshaped much of life in the world, especially for people like me whose “work” has become a response to need in the religious congregation of St. Joseph founded in 1650 in France to do “all the works of which women are capable and which benefit the dear neighbor.” (from the Constitution of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet) I never thought much about what that could mean as I moved from high school teaching to parish religious education to diocesan service in the same, to spiritual direction for individuals and groups, to the creation of an entity supporting the work of spiritual growth wherever the need arose. But here I am, waking up each day to a newness, responding to need as I see fit. Today I will spend time on the telephone, listening to and loving at least one person—maybe more—to a realization of how much God loves her, and later ascertaining the value of a certain kind of retreat for a contemplative group in the beautiful state of Vermont.

Days like this call for deep breaths. Actually most days do that now and prayers like those offered by Macrina Wiederkehr in her book, Seven Sacred Pauses, are a necessity throughout the day. Here is one of my favorites:

In you, O God, I live and move and have my being. Morning’s bright beginning has worn away, and I am full of thoughts about the things I must accomplish this day. Remembering how you stole away from the crowd for personal prayer, I take a deep breath. I invited you into the ground of my being. I cannot leave my work right now but I can breathe. Breathe in me anew. I will follow your breath to the depth of my being. I will remember to pause. O Holy One, enter into the sacred space of my life and abide. Amen. (p. 84)

Breathe In, Breathe Out

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breathe, gratitude, new reality, one breath at a time, possibility, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transition

Today is a day to rejoice in the ability of the human spirit to rise to challenge and see what promise there is in each day. We had a day of ceremony yesterday here in the United States of America. It was a day of gratitude for technology and creativity, a day to participate in the unfolding of a new day, a new reality. I sat in our living room all day, unwilling to miss a moment of what was happening in the transition of leadership in government. It had to be simple and we had to intuit the smiles on faces that were masked but that was easy to do because we knew a new day had dawned and the eyes of the country were shining with hope.

President Biden said at one point that he had been asked recently to describe the United States in one word. His answer was: POSSIBILITY. If he had been asked to expand his answer to a sentence, I have no doubt that he might have said, “All things are possible for those who love God.” That’s how I feel today. It’s as if we have hardly been able to breathe lately and now we understand a way forward: one breath at a time.

The End May Be the Beginning

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breathe, darkness, happy, hope, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today I will need a lot of discipline to accomplish the tasks before me. “Why?” you ask. Well, I just unearthed a magazine with 96 pages that I bought some time ago, somewhere that I don’t remember, that cost $14.99, a highly over-priced item, I thought…that I could not pass up. First of all, it’s called (in big, bold, black letters) BREATHE and is subtitled The Well-being Special. It’s unlike anything I have ever encountered for the beauty and breadth of topics and illustrations, truly a work of art! It will surely be nearly, if not totally, impossible to tear myself away for any other activity today more important than devouring…savoring this treasure!

Starting to explore from the back page (Why not?!) I found a list of quotes from all sorts of familiar but diverse sources from Aristotle to J.R.R. Tolkien, gathered under the title: A Triumph of Hope: A selection of thoughtful words to inspire and guide. Although each quote will likely show up in this blog at some point, I choose Tolkien for today when hope from the outside world seems in short supply. The words seem to be exactly what we need to go on.

How could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. (Extract from The Two Towers)

Patience

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be patient, breathe, patience, practice peace, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trials

In this “serving-a-second” world (thanks to the fast food industry) we have become impatient with anything that takes longer to accomplish than we want to wait. I have that inclination when waiting for hamburgers to cook, sometimes to my detriment. Someone I know refuses to wait in a doctor’s office more than a certain number of minutes for the doctor to appear, regardless of how serious a need has occasioned her appointment or the emergency for someone else that has caused the delay.

Sometimes patience is the only way to get through a longer trial, like an illness or a period of waiting for someone to come home from a military deployment far away. If we do not cultivate a willingness to wait in more or less serious situations in our life, our health can be compromised as a result. There are so many methods known to us these days of practicing peace and calm in times of trouble. It’s as simple as watching your breath…but those methods often fail in times of real stress.

Our country is in a difficult moment as we wait for vote count for national elections to be concluded. (It’s already way beyond what we’re used to. Isn’t there a machine that can tally all those votes???) Nail-biting aside, is there anything we can do to speed things along? The answer is only – of course – “Be patient.” Who knows? We may have enough time to breathe or pray ourselves into acceptance of the results by the time the wait is over.

October

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beauty, breathe, poetry, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I thought I could find everything on the internet. What a shock it was to fail in such a simple task as finding a poem on the long-awaited appropriate day for it. Here’s the story.

When we were in elementary school – called grammar school back then – we had to memorize poems. Some were of historical importance, some famous works of literature. I was always ahead of the curve in the learning because the syllabus did not change much from year to year and my sister was two grades ahead of me in school. We used to lie in bed at night, Paula practicing her poem of the week and I listening and learning, because she already knew mine. Some were more exciting than others.

We can still recite much of Barbara Frietchie, a 60-verse poem by John Greenleaf Whittier that offered a not-so-authentic window into Maryland history. How it stirred our patriotism with its Civil War theme and vivid images! (Read an amusing commentary, “Barbara Frietchie: Who Really Waved that Flag?” on the internet).

William Cullen Bryant’s, To A Waterfowl is lost to me in all his “thy’s” and “those’s,” as is Ode to a Grecian Urn, but the poem I love the most comes back on this date each year, if only with the first two verses, like an old friend coming to visit on its birthday. And today the weather is a perfect welcome for October’s Bright Blue Weather:

The goldenrod is yellow, the leaves are turning brown. The trees in apple orchard with fruit are bending down…

I’ll have to call my sister to fill in what the internet has not provided. Hopefully, between us we can remember it all. If not I have just to walk outside, look around and breathe in the beauty…

Strange Thought for the Day

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A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen, breathe, COVID19, ending, flow, normal, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

A common question these days for many of us is: “When will this be over?” or “When will we get back to normal?” Everyone knows what we’re talking about. People are busy making masks and scouting stores for much needed cleaning products and trying not to talk politics. The surprising thing for me is how little of what I plan to do is achieved in a day. Especially now that the temperatures outside are so stifling, there seems little energy for all the cleaning projects around the house or the phone calls that have fallen by the wayside. The answer to my first question seems to be the same each day: Nobody knows when or if there is an ending point to this “season” that we’re experiencing.

While I hesitate to do so, I want to share a short paragraph that Alan Cohen wrote long before we ever heard the term COVID-19. I do so because of the frustration hidden in every day when I come to the evening annoyed by my failed attempts to get anything done. It has given me this morning a chance to hit the re-start button on the day and a determination to be where I am rather than where I would choose to be. I hope you are similarly blessed by his wisdom when trying to see it as valid even now.

Trust that you have enough time to do everything that needs to be done. Love does not worry or force: it flows. Relax into what is happening, and the peace you enjoy will be accompanied by the clarity and efficiency you gain. (A Deep Breath of Life)

I never would have ascribed those thoughts to what we are experiencing now but, having read them earlier, I have begun to feel their relevance. Just breathe into the thoughts and see if you are able to see the value in it at all.

In and Out

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beauty, breathe, nature, Sabbath, silence, stillness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There are so many people and organizations giving advice daily on television, podcasts and all manner of “advice columns.” I sometimes feel a need to add my voice from my tiny corner of the world but often lately I sense more of a need to just sit quietly and let the silence speak. Nature seems complicit in this feeling this morning and gives me a nudge saying, “Yes, that’s it. Any thoughts you have are unnecessary today. Just listen. That’s what “sabbath” is all about.”

I can be confident in that feeling because here’s what has happened in less than the last hour. Knowing that I had a late start to the morning because of a late start to sleeping last night, I got my coffee and began my sojourn through my regular prompts—Scripture, USCCB notations, Franciscan media, the SSJE Brothers… and had trouble accessing the above mentioned pages or staying on the page when it finally showed up. As I surfed I realized it was getting darker outside and I still had nothing to offer. Suddenly there was a great, yet silent, cloudburst washing the trees with no wind, just a steady, torrential downpour that gave way to a sparkling sunshine and birdsong within minutes of the rain’s conclusion.

Why would I think I need to add to that happening? The silence fills the world with Sabbath beauty and stillness is God’s gift to my soul. May you be similarly blessed with the simple necessity of breathing into the day: in and out…in and out…no distress…only breath…in and out…in and out.

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.

The Flow of Life

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breath, breathe, change, flow, letting go, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today I’m sitting in the quiet, reflecting on the flow of life and how important it is not to upset that flow any more than is necessary if we are to continue to travel on an even keel. It is not generally our doing if schedules get changed or events get shifted around. We in the Northeast are at a moment in the year when the weather plays a big part in everyday plans. A big snowstorm cancels lots of things as does a death in family or friendship circles. We can fret and moan over the inconvenience of rescheduling, or take a breath and look for alternatives.

The best thing to do (and this takes a lot of practice) is to breathe in the change and then let go the distress. Sounds easy…breathing in and breathing out, right? We do that automatically. (I’m watching my breath as I type.) I have come to know the value of letting go for equanimity in daily life as well as for spiritual growth and I would recommend it – especially as we move into our biggest and most important holiday season. Not as easy as it sounds, I know!

Practice makes perfect…give it a try!

Ice Cream on a Cold Morning

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breathe, enjoy, inhale, pause, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, This Is The Life

As I clicked my way through my normal check of websites for inspiration this morning, my eye fell on an advertisement for a book offered by Franciscan Media. The book is called This Is the Life. Although it was attractive to me because of the picture of an ice cream cone on the book jacket, it was the tag line accompanying the image that caught my attention. See what you think.

Before we succumb to someday, let us inhale this day.

That one will give me pause, slow me down and keep me breathing!