Check Your Hearing

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compassionate, Ezekiel, listen, open our hearts, pay attention, sharing, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding

There it is again: Ez 18:31 – today as the verse before the gospel. “…make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit,” he says. We just heard (and I wrote) those words four days ago for your consideration. When I see things repeated that quickly in the lectionary, I always take note. So today I say: Pay attention if you didn’t before! We are likely at a crossroad—or on the verge of something. We are being called maybe to a new moment of maturity. It seems as if it’s a call to creativity. Soon everything may be allowed to go back to the way things were…but is that even possible? Might we have learned something about suffering? Perhaps about death that comes “like a thief in the night,” as the Scriptures say? Are we called to be more compassionate now because we share in the loss of a half a million people? Can we enter into the sadness of one another without getting swallowed up by their grief? Rather are we called to a posture of sharing—understanding, perhaps, like never before?

So much has changed. Are we ready to open our hearts just an inch? Can you hear the beating of the heart of someone new today? Perhaps it is your ears that must be engaged. Think about it.

Paul as Cheerleader

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compassionate, Ephesians, imitators of God, kindness, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I often think of a truth that I heard long ago from someone far back in memory and I bless the person who brought it to me like so many gifts from forgotten sources – the angels given to us for guidance in life…This gift, like a 100-watt light bulb, revealed that it is not at the beginning of life that we are expected to be perfect. Rather we are here to learn and wake up as we go so that by the end of life we might have come to understand what it was we were here to be and do. That was a big relief to me since I had early taken to heart the adage: “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” and imagined that there was a time frame (like “today!”) appended to it.

There’s a lot of “wiggle room” in that recognition: a lot less guilt for mistakes and even for the occasional tantrum! It’s our effort that God is looking for, I believe. And that’s why I appreciate some of St. Paul’s best advice, as in his letters to the burgeoning Christian communities. Today, for example, Paul calls us brothers and sisters and urges us down through the ages to “be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us…” (EPH 4) Paul is sometimes very directive in his words to an audience but sometimes (as in the above quote) he is like a kind cheerleader, remembering his own lessons earlier in life, and motivating us to remember who and whose we are.

Perfectly Me!

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be perfect, be whole, compassionate, Jesus, Matthew, perfection, The Beatitudes, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Chapter five of Matthew’s Gospel starts with Jesus going up a hill, sitting down and giving a brilliant teaching that we call “The Beatitudes.” The lessons do not stop with the last “Blessed be…” however; there’s much more in that chapter to be ingested.

The last line of today’s teaching is one that we have attempted to find a more kindly or reasonable translation to explain. “Be perfect,” says Jesus, “as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We’ve tried on many synonyms to dress that line in a more realistic way. “Be compassionate,” we say (my personal favorite) or “Be whole.” You may have found your own translations that make it possible to hear and live without cringing at the seeming impossibility of coming close to what Jesus was proposing.

This morning, as I began to ruminate on it once again, I heard inside my head: “Be a perfect Lois…” That was a total surprise but it now seems to me the closest to what Jesus was asking. It isn’t a question of becoming like anyone else here on earth in order to achieve the “perfection” of God (“for God?). We just need to be the best of ourselves — loving and forgiving and accepting ourselves, being and giving the best of ourselves from our waking to our sleeping. I’m fairly certain God rejoices in that every day.

That may be just the thing for a Lenten practice, starting on this coming Wednesday!

Who Are We To Be?

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be the light, compassionate, Ephesians, imitators of God, kind, love, massacre, murder, pray, St. Paul, Thanksgiving, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Tree of Life Synagogue

I’m happy this morning for a tiny bit of good news: The Boston Red Sox won the World Series last night! (Sorry, I was born and half-raised in Newton, a suburb of Boston, and it’s generally impossible to get that heritage out of a girl!) I consider, however, as I revel in that news, how complex we are – able to entertain that kind of celebratory feeling at the same time as sensing such anguish for the people of Pittsburgh who are suffering the heinous crime of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre. One hardly knows how to hold it all, especially because the murder of those innocent people follows on the heels of two other incidents of senseless killing in the same week. Things seem to be devolving into a deeper darkness with each day’s news. The questions now come from a place of near-frozenness: When and where does this stop? What will it take to cause a course change?

My answers all seem theoretical but the only option. Gather together. Love the people you know with a mighty love and the people you are just meeting in the same way. Be the light that you wish to see in the world. Do small things in a big way, fueled by compassion…

I read it all this morning in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians – exhortation from 2,000 years ago and still relevant! Brothers and sisters: be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you…Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love…Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among holy ones, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving…Live as children of light.

May it be so in our day. Let us pray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One More Time, Please!

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compassionate, deep message, Jesus, language, Mark, misunderstanding, teacher, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understand

Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be a concrete thinker. Simile, metaphor, analogy and other figures of speech can trip you up if you think people are talking on one level and they are really somewhere else. When Jesus spoke this morning about “the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod” (Mk 8:14-21), the disciples were worried because they only had one loaf of bread with them in their boat. Not exactly his point. The flurry of questions that followed (seven in all) reveal how frustrated Jesus became with their misunderstanding.

I have sympathy for everyone in this scene. Jesus was unlike anyone the people had ever known. They were simple (not to say stupid) people who were drawn to the light emanating from the person of Jesus but his language spoke a deeper message than even their rabbis offered! It wasn’t their fault! But it must’ve been very hard for Jesus as well, to speak their language when he was trying to make them understand by using examples from their lives – farming, fishing, baking, etc.

There are so many moments in my life now when I can stop in the midst of a frustrating situation and hear Jesus saying, “Do you still not understand?” You would think I would have learned certain patterns by now, certain behaviors that work (or don’t) in certain situations…but I still catch myself wondering how I could be so dense! I guess the progress can be seen in the fact that I actually do catch myself and see the lesson on occasion! It’s those moments that hold the possibility of self-forgiveness and gratitude for so compassionate a teacher as Jesus who will keep on teaching regardless of how many times he needs to explain!

 

 

 

 

 

The Eve of the Eve

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bless, compassionate, Hearts on Fire, Jesuit John Morris, New Year's, praise, psalm 96, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I come late to this task this morning. Perhaps it was the cold that kept me sleeping until the shocking hour of just before eight o’clock! The temperature continues to hover around zero degrees and warnings of frostbite because of wind still make the national news. I feel rather stuck here in my chair with the only thought being that of the impending turn of the calendar. Today is not the last day of the year; that reality dawns with tomorrow but seems all around me now in shadow. Psalm 96 calls me to praise but I feel like a person on a diving board who isn’t sure of how to swim in the water that awaits me.

There seems to be nothing to do but to throw the responsibility for it all back to God and pray in the words of Jesuit John Morris hoping that will suffice as remote preparation for the coming new year.

Mighty God, Father of all, Compassionate God, Mother of all, bless every person I have met, every face I have seen, every voice I have heard, especially those most dear; bless every city, town and street that I have known, bless every sight I have seen, every sound I have heard, every object I have touched. In some mysterious way these have all fashioned my life; all that I am, I have received. Great God, bless the world. (Hearts on Fire, p.152)

 

 

 

 

 

A Clean Start

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beginning, bless, compassionate, God, God Bless the World, gratitude, Hearts on Fire, John J. Morris SJ, nature, start afresh, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tour, world

There was a very quick thunderstorm this morning at 5:30 outside my window: torrential rain and one blast of thunder and lightning. It was as if nature was washing away everything and readying the day to start afresh with life. It’s a perfect beginning for my day. All major events of my year (at least those I’m aware of) are finished, so it seems everything will be “back to normal” now, if such a thing truly exists! On my slow trek home yesterday through lovely terrain and many traffic slowdowns (not to mention a stop during the eclipse) I listened to a couple of “homemade” CD playlists that took me on a tour of earlier times in my life. It was a sweet remembering and an exercise in gratitude that tied the weekend up in a perfect conclusion.

Here’s a prayer from the Jesuit book, Hearts on Fire, that seems fitting to me for this morning – and maybe for every morning. It’s called God Bless the World.

Mighty God, Father of all, Compassionate God, Mother of all, bless every person I have met, every face I have seen, every voice I have heard, especially those most dear; bless every city, town and street that I have known, bless every sight I have seen, every sound I have heard, every object I have touched. In some mysterious way these have all fashioned my life, all that I am, I have received. Great God, bless the world.     (John J. Morris, SJ, p. 152)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joining Forces

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compassionate, conscious living, fun, Jan Phillips, laughter, light, mindfulness, mysteries, No Ordinary Time, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today at the Sophia Center for Spirituality we begin a five-part series on Mindfulness. It is an attempt to help everyone who comes find ways to go deeper in conscious living, offering practices to help them on their spiritual journey. In a section of her 6:00 Monday text in No Ordinary Time, Jan Phillips writes the following that I think is a great beginning for this effort:

When I think of people I know who are lights in the world, I think of my friends who are fun-loving, imaginative, in love with the lives they are creating day by day. They are the ones who laugh a lot, sing a lot, cry freely, hug tenderly. They talk about themselves, not others. They are spellbound at life’s mysteries. They are the ones with more questions than answers. If they are striving for anything, it is to be free of illusion, one with What Is. Their actions are connected to their values. They are their thoughts, their words, their feelings. They are the light they believe themselves to be. (p. 16)

Then Jan asks two questions that seem fitting for our search for this inner light. See if you are able to answer them for yourselves as a guide for the day: How have you learned to be compassionate with yourself so you can better love others? What new things are you discovering about who you are and why you do things? (p. 16)

If you live within range of our Center, you may want to join us to continue the exploration. If not, won’t you consider being mindful of us and in that way adding to the energy of light that we put into the world today?

 

 

 

 

 

Diamonds

Tags

compassionate, diamonds, gracious, kindness, mercifulslow to anger, Psalm 145, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wisdom, words of wisdom

One of the Sisters with whom I live often speaks of what she calls the “diamonds” she remembers from all we were taught in the novitiate or that some great (and usually humble) person has told her by which she tries to live. These sayings, or words of wisdom, have been deeply incorporated in her as a great benefit both to her and to all those she encounters. I was reminded of that this morning as I read the first lines from today’s Psalm response in our lectionary. It seems to me that I could do no better in any effort to mirror God’s ways in my life than the testimony given by the psalmist in those two short sentences. It is more than enough, I think, for today.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works. (Ps. 145: 8)

 

 

 

 

 

Facing the Storm

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awake, aware, bad news, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, compassionate, fix, help another soul, light one candle, mend, safe, small things, stay calm, storm, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, world problems

The lead story on all of the TV networks last night was the impending storm all up and down the east coast of our country. Already death and destruction could be seen coming across from the west and over the weekend it seems inevitable that a “one-two punch” will wreak havoc on the rest of us. That just adds to all the other bad news of politics and terror attacks that make one wonder when all these storms in our lives will abate.

The Society of the Christophers is famous for the saying, “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” I read an analogous quote from author Clarissa Pinkola Estes this morning that gave me permission once more not to set my sights on saving the whole world. (Sometimes in our frustrations we need reminders.) She says:

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely.

So blessings today on all those who serve good hot soup to those in shelters, to first responders who leave the comfort of their homes to rescue victims of fire and flood, and to those who stretch out their arms to assuage distress by offering hugs to those in need. Stay safe out there, everyone. Stay awake and aware. Stay compassionate and stay calm. Stay ready to serve.