Abundant Blessings

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beatitudes, blessings, care, christians, closeness, comfort, commitment, communion, enduring, faithful, happy, harmony, Matthew, mercy, Pope Francis, protect, renounce, see God, spiritual communion, tenderness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unity, Wisdom network

The weekend just past was for me a time of great blessings. On Friday we welcomed a group of people – mostly new to us – who came for a workshop offered by our friend, Brigitte, here at our home. I met one of our guests, Patty, at the bus station. Patty lives in Manhattan and as we fell into easy conversation, I began to see our small town through her big city eyes. She was very interested in everything. From all reports, everyone at the workshop came and/or left very happy at all they found here. I was on the road, however, by 9:00 Saturday morning.

Saturday was full of joy in Syracuse (80 miles north) at the golden jubilee celebration of one of my companions in community for the past 50 years. By mid-afternoon I was back in the car for a glorious 2 1/2 hour ride to our Motherhouse near Albany where the energy was high. I arrived mid-stream of the annual Commitment Weekend for our lay Associates. I was happy to participate for the first commitment of four women, one of whom is a treasured member of our growing “Wisdom network.” I would think that anyone driving along the New York State Thruway during the weekend would have felt the intensity of loving, spiritual communion reaching from West to East!

Today’s lectionary readings include the gospel from Matthew, chapter 5 where Jesus preaches what we call the Beatitudes, often seen as the rule of life for Christians. Sister Mary Ellen chose this gospel reading for her jubilee celebration on Saturday as a text that has guided her living, but then she spoke of a new set of blessings given by Pope Francis as he celebrated the feast of All Saints last November in Sweden. He said on that occasion that the Beatitudes of Jesus given during the Sermon on the Mount are “the identity card” for the saints but then added that “new situations require new energy and new commitment,” and offered a new set of Beatitudes for modern Christians. Perhaps one or another or all of these will touch your heart and become a way of life and blessing for you.

– Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others and forgive them from their heart.

– Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized and show them their closeness.

– Blessed are those who see God in every person and strive to make others also discover him.

– Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home.

– Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others.

– Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians.

“All these are messengers of God’s mercy and tenderness,” Pope Francis said. I would suggest just one change to his writing. I would suggest that we not stop at praying for Christian unity but rather pray and work for the unity of all people on earth, living in harmony in this, our common home.

Have a blessed day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disciples on the path

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arduous, commitment, disciple, discipline, effort, Finding the On-Ramp to Your Spiritual Path, hard work, Jan Phillips, love, spiritual path, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Quotes from Pendle Hill: Today’s quote comes from Jan Phillips in her book, Finding the On-Ramp to Your Spiritual Path:

“Many people think that the spiritual path is an arduous one that requires a lot of effort and hard work. Actually, the opposite is true. A certain discipline is required, but think of that discipline as coming from the word disciple. It has to do with love and commitment, not punishment.”

Thinking Is NOT Over-rated!

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changing, chatter, clarity, commitment, courage, Holiday, ideas, Meg Wheatley, mindless, New Year's, resolutions, sorrowful, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, think, Turning To One Another, wasted moments, world

It seems strange that today is a holiday. Who ever thinks of January 2nd as special (except those whose birthdays or anniversaries are today)? Perhaps it’s always like that when New Year’s Day falls on Sunday, and maybe I had the same thought seven years ago but I don’t remember. Anyway, today feels like being given an extra ticket to an event and I don’t want to waste it. I haven’t settled on any resolutions for this year yet. All I know is that whatever I say I will do or be, I need to be seriously committed to carry it out. Conditions seem more serious in the world than ever before so I feel a need to be equally serious in my deliberations.

I’ve had a rare stretch of “down time” over the past few weeks – first because of that nasty cold that so many of us have contracted and then with quiet holidays and cold weather. Those conditions have been quite conducive to thinking and reading. Meg Wheatley has what seems an interesting thought for the day regarding this topic and a possible focus for me today. She says:

If we feel we’re changing in ways we don’t like, or seeing things in the world that make us sorrowful, then we need to time to think about this. We need time to think about what we might do and where we might start to change things. We need time to develop clarity and courage. If we want our world to be different, our first act needs to be reclaiming time to think. Nothing will change for the better until we do that. (Turning To One Another, p.99)

What might this mean for me? I think perhaps I will need to let go more deliberately of the mindless chatter inside my head and the wasted moments clicking on celebrity stories that show up on my computer when I’m in the process of reading the headlines. If these two things become disciplines, I might have more time and energy for deeper thinking and the reading that will lead – eventually – to more useful ideas about change in myself and in the world around me. Here’s hoping!

It Remains to Be Seen

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Advent, commit, commitment, grace, intention, Isaiah, Lectionary, Mark Divine, Scriptures, seek God, St. Louis Jesuits, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, The Way of the Seal, urgency

This morning my reading of the day’s lectionary texts catapulted me back over thirty years into a reverie of liturgical music by the prolific St. Louis Jesuits. These amazing singer/songwriters brought the Scriptures alive with music that is still standard in Catholic churches and other Christian denominations to this day. (Check out YouTube for samples!) Today it was the gospel acclamation that started it all. Seek the Lord while he may be found! declared Isaiah 55:6. Call to him while he is still near! It sounded so urgent – so NOW! (although I must confess to adding the exclamation points myself.) I went then to YouTube to hear again the almost staccato delivery of those words that constitute the entire refrain of the song, building to the news of the three verses that: 1) Today is the day…to turn to the Lord, 2) As high as the sky…are the ways of the Lord, and 3) His words, his ways…lead us to life. Maybe you have to hear it to understand my enthusiasm (so feel free to Google “Seek the Lord” or go to YouTube) but that’s only part one of my morning pondering.

Having been “under the weather,” as they say, for nearly a week (much better now but still less than energetic), I have had a fair amount of time to assess things. I’m looking (albeit briefly) at time management, reorganization of my bedroom (because of spending so much time here), future commitments…lots of things. With the words of the song ringing in my heart, I moved to my computer to write something like what appears in the paragraph above. For some reason I clicked instead on my email account which I always avoid until the blog post is complete for fear of becoming entangled in what can be an entire day’s work. I was aware of going there and proceeded curiously, thinking there might be a reason for the diversion. I was not disappointed as what met my eye was the title of a “daily word” that I received from where and whom I do not know. It said, “How’s Your Commitment?” These are some of the thoughts that followed:

Certainty is a powerful energetic force essential for breaking inertia and developing momentum. The seed of certainty is found in commitment, a one-way street…Take a cue from Yoda, who forcefully mentors Luke: “Do or do not; there is no try!” You must commit with everything you have; otherwise say “no” or “not now.” (from The Way of the Seal by Mark Divine)

So…is there really a way that all this fits together? It seems so to me. How is it that I will choose to attend to the urgency that is growing within me to seek the Lord? I never think there will be a day that the Lord is not near or that grace is not accessible to me, but maybe it is the level of commitment in each moment that needs some energetic infusion in me – a worthy reflection for the season of Advent. Perhaps if the intention takes hold I will know some sort of new birth by Christmas. I can only hope…to commit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transfiguration

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commitment, conversion, Elijah, James, John, Luke, metanoia, Moses, Peter, profess vows, Sisters of St. Joseph, spiritual path, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transfiguration, transformation

Today’s gospel (LK 9:28-36) tells of an experience that was truly “mind-blowing ” for Peter, James and John, the three apostles that Jesus took with him when he “went up the mountain to pray.” Usually Jesus took those treks alone but on this day he allowed the three to see more deeply what could happen when he was in deep communion with God. He was, the story goes, “transfigured before them…his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.” If that was not enough of a shock, they also saw Moses and Elijah conversing with him.

One wonders why Jesus chose to expose his friends to this experience. Perhaps they were ready for the next step in their own transformation. It was a scene that they didn’t understand and they didn’t tell anyone about it but they certainly were changed by that day.

Sometimes on a spiritual path we can also have experiences of divine presence that we don’t understand. They may not be as dramatic as that day on the mountain was. It may just be as simple as a felt sense of peace, or an insight that we recognize as not coming from ourselves…yet we are changed. We know something that we did not know before and it gives us motivation to seek a deeper knowing. Sometimes it is strong enough to call the experience a “conversion” or “metanoia” and it leads to serious commitment on our part.

This day is very special to the Sisters of St. Joseph in my community. It is the day on which we professed our vows as religious. Although a peak experience, I would guess that for most of us our “transfiguration” was not instantaneous or sustained. But it was a step. What had begun in different ways for each of us: an organic growing desire from childhood, a comment from a parish priest, a dream or a vision – the notion of religious life came to us (sometimes not so welcome!) and remained. And it is a commitment, just like that of any other vocation in life, that must be nurtured by the ways in which we are called to grow and become the person we were born to be. So today I celebrate my own vocation and the support of all the women who have been example to me of what religious life has been and continues to be for the world. And I pray for a future that will see a flowering of new ways for the transformation of the world.