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Tag Archives: chanting

No Longer Strangers

21 Sunday Apr 2019

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Alleluia, Bill Redfield, chanting, common experience, Easter, morning prayer, movement prayer, presence, silence, strangers, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, virtual retreat

“Today is a day for a new hymn!”

That’s a line from a long ago poem that I read somewhere and liked the sentiment enough to pen my own feeble attempt at poetry as response. A lot of life has passed since then. I have changed, of course, as there is no life without that reality, but the quote seems apt for this Easter morning. One could say that it might fit each day if we were paying attention.

The run-up to the Easter feast has been more than just a calendar notation this year, to be sure. I was more or less able to be present to a “virtual retreat” all week, a genius idea and amazingly successful creation of my friend and colleague, Bill Redfield. There were morning prayer services each day that included silence, chanting, movement prayer to stirring music and short readings, in addition to a reflective session for the evening. There was a “conference” for the day with probing questions as well. All of this had been recorded ahead of time and added to the whole each day on the internet, enabling participants to come to prayer as their schedule allowed, knowing that there were others around the country and the world who were adding to the communal consciousness. It was a different, quite effective way of participation.

The most amazing part of this experience, however, came at 4:00 EDT every afternoon when as many of us as were able clicked onto a ZOOM call where Bill introduced a topic and then sent us to a virtual “breakout room” to share with one or two other participants. The common experience was instant comfort and generally deep sharing with people who will never again be strangers to us. In 15-20 minutes each time we touched into deep topics and feelings about the Holy Week and Easter experience from a Wisdom perspective. There were only 30 to 50 people each day – of the many more participants – whose schedules allowed this miracle, but the sharing was extraordinary and seemed to shout that each of the days was a time for “a new hymn.” The technology is there and as a person who sits on the fringe of the technological age it was a glorious turn-around that I fully embraced.

Last night I worshiped in a church where I sat in the midst of over 100 people I could not name and a few cherished friends but the experience of my retreat created in me the recognition that in that prayer together there were no strangers because of the enthusiasm of our corporate prayer. We were all there for the same purpose and offered our energy and our voices to the conviction that Jesus had risen not only 2000 years ago in a place far away but also in Endicott, NY in our very present experience. If we stay awake, we might just continue to live into that presence each day with our sisters and brothers near and far.

So I shout “Alleluia!” to a world brought closer kinder this Easter Day. Blessings to all!

Rhythm

02 Saturday Dec 2017

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chanting, conscious work, dancing, knowing, openness, present moment, rhythym, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universal peace, wisdom, Wisdom School, wisdom work, worhip

achoppingveggiesAs I try to stay in the present moment this morning, I am aware that today is the last full day of our leadership training event. I can feel myself almost physically leaning forward as at the starting line of a race, even while attempting to be present to my typing. One of the words that we have heard often in the last three days as we process the sessions of our time together is rhythm. The word itself is a rare combination of consonants with only the  y to act as vowel. I hear the singsong “a,e,i,o,u and sometimes y” English lesson of my youth and still wonder why that function is only “sometimes.”

I am glad for the “y” in this word as it made me curious enough to look up the word “vowel” on the internet. In a flurry of words, I learned (or learned again) that a vowel is a sound produced with an open vowel tract where some of the air must escape through the mouth. It is frictionless and continuant. Unlike with consonants, there is no build-up of air pressure along the vocal tract. Also noted is that the vowel forms the peak of a syllable. The word rhythm obviously needs that letter y!

That seems to me a perfect description of the way we have been proceeding through these days. There is a felt sense of openness among the participants and no pressure for anyone to act in any way that is other than authentic, whether we are speaking, chanting or moving around the room in a dance of universal peace. We have been blessed with good weather, the only rain a swift downpour in the middle of Thursday night, that has allowed us to exercise our powers of conscious working together – in rhythm with one another – outside stacking wood or inside chopping vegetables. We have recognized the wisdom in the group in such an organic way that our purpose has already been fulfilled, it seems. The challenge will be to stay in the moment for this last day and a half so as not to miss those moments of pure knowing which are sure to come in our interaction and especially in our worship together. I trust, when we are taking leave of each other tomorrow noon, our sense and perhaps our parting words will be the familiar: “It is finished in beauty.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out Of The Silence

27 Monday Feb 2017

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centering prayer, chanting, chosen, consciousness, God, grace, Hafiz, inner chatter, reflection, retreat, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

afeasttableAfter eight days of virtually no speaking, I am clear about the difficulty of stopping inner chatter – at least for me. I realized somewhere during the past eight days how many thoughts flow through my head (several often at the same time) without my consciousness recognizing each or any of them. I began to wonder when I began to multi-task so much that the practice invaded my inner state as well as my outer daily life. One good place to start a reversal was at meals. Because we did not talk at meals, we just ate. I came to a renewed awareness of the awkwardness of spearing raw carrots or grape tomatoes in a salad as well as the fact that I often switch hands for guiding a spoonful of soup to my mouth. (Being very left-handed, I was taught that it was only proper to eat with one’s right hand, so as a child it was necessarily a conscious practice to do so. Now I know that even very early unconscious habits die hard.)

The week was filled with grace in small and great ways. Having thought I was in need of total solitude I realized early on that I would find more benefit in the communal silence which I found in several periods of centering prayer daily, in body awareness and movement sessions, in chanting and chopping vegetables and in daily worship. These practices enhanced the ample personal time for reflection that filled most of the afternoon and shorter spaces in between.

I would love to have taken a survey of the other participants to see if my sense that all the introductory short readings, poems and chants were really chosen just for me. God is funny in that we can all feel that way sometimes – but I was sure of it in this experience. How could everyone feel as “chosen” as I was for the word that was given each time we gathered? On the first morning, the first words I heard were from the mystical poet Hafiz, in a poem that sounded like a personal message for me. I write it in prose form below, just as it was spoken by Allen, God’s messenger, to set the tone for my response all week. See if God would speak to you this way – if God were able to catch your full attention.

This place where you are right now God circled on a map for you. Wherever your eyes and arms and heart can move against the earth and the sky, the Beloved has bowed there. Our Beloved has bowed there, knowing you were coming. The place where you will be in a year, our Beloved is bowing there now, setting the table for the feast, knowing you are coming.

 

 

 

 

 

The Mountain of God

27 Monday Apr 2015

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Benedictine, chanting, dwelling place of God, monastery, monks, psalm 42, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, thirst

SONY DSCOn this morning of “return” to this blogging practice, I feel as if the lectionary choice of Psalm 42 was chosen just for me. As the hind longs for running streams,  the psalmist sings, so my soul longs for you, O God. When shall I go and behold the face of God? Send forth your light and your fidelity; they shall lead me on and bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling place.

I spent the past four days on a high mountain in the hills of California, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, at a Benedictine monastery that was as representative as any place I can imagine of the dwelling place of God. Three times a day our group (12 people) joined the monks to chant the psalms and prayers of the liturgy of the hours, gathered again for Eucharist and twice a day for 90 minutes of deep conversation about our desire and willingness to follow God’s Spirit in the living of our lives. Outside of those times we were in total silence and solitude, taking our meals in our “cells” and basking in the beauty that is God’s glorious work of creation. Speaking of cells, there was no cell phone coverage or internet access on the mountain – only a land phone for emergencies. We were totally in God’s hands and at God’s disposal.

My gratitude for the experience of time on God’s holy mountain is profound. My renewed sense that I can carry “the inner mountain” of God’s presence anywhere I find myself if I am willing to fuel that ability by a consistent practice of silence is the hope with which I come home. I will, I think, make a sign for my bedroom door that I will see as I exit each morning to remind me (lest I forget) that athirst is my soul for God, the living God! (Ps. 42:3a)

Name That Tune

29 Monday Dec 2014

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carols, chanting, Christmas, epiphany, psalm 96, sing to the Lord, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

singtothelordThe Christmas carols have disappeared from radio stations and MUZAK locations around the country, although Church calendars tell us that we still have a long way to go in the Christmas season. On January 10th I’m doing a short presentation on the topic of chanting so I’m beginning to think about breath and tone and vibration and mode – as well as lyrics. And again we wait, in the midst of this week between December 25 and January 1, for something “new” to dawn in us, most likely some resolution that we hope will last longer than a few weeks.

Psalm 96 is a good place to pause for reflection this morning. The psalmist urges us: Sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all you lands. Sing to the Lord; bless God’s name!

If I were to create a new song to the Lord for this coming year, I wonder what title I would give it. Would it be a complex song, one that would necessitate some exercise so I’d have enough breath for each line? Would I foresee a major or minor key in its expression? And what would be its highest note? Do I have any idea of the lyrics at this time or will I have to spend some time in prayer to form my intentions for deep living out of the gift of the year to come? I’ll have about three hours of travel time in my car today – a good opportunity perhaps to tune up and begin to rehearse…

Forgiveness

10 Monday Nov 2014

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Always With You, chanting, forgive me, forgiveness, Ho'oponopono, i love you, i'm sorry, Jan Phillips, Jesus, Luke, music, thank you, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transgressions

hooponoponoI had a lovely drive home yesterday through the majestic Green Mountains of Vermont and the surprisingly still yellow maple stands near Troy, NY. Between periods of silence I  listened to some of my favorite music. One song reminded me of our repetitive chanting from the weekend and then this morning of the gospel text for today where Jesus says, “If your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.” (LK 17)

The song is from Hawaii and is a simple repetition that runs on this CD almost 5 minutes. My guess is that it is meant to be sung for as long as it takes for the practice set out in the lyrics to be interiorized. It says simply I’m sorry. Forgive me. Thank you. I love you. As I began to listen to the song the first time, without reading the jacket for background, I kept waiting for a verse – more words to tell a story. As I listened longer, I began to feel the power of it and by the end I was deeply touched by the complete cycle of what should be the process in every transgression in relationship. In saying that, I am aware that some ruptures are difficult to bear and take longer to rectify, but the point is made – by the song and the gospel – that true sincerity in repentance deserves a response of forgiveness and the circle is not complete until we can say again, “I love you.”

The CD is from Jan Phillips and is called Always With You. You can also find it online as Ho’oponopono. Give it a listen and see if it deepens in you the complete movement of forgiveness.

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