It Was Ever Thus

Tags

change, COVID19, Genesis, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

More and more, I come to think that “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Today’s first reading from Genesis 23-24, is the story of family life as it plays out from generation to generation: parents dying at an advanced age (Sarah at 127 years – we’re getting closer!), trying to assure acceptable mates for their children—who sometimes moved away finding mates at a distance….

It all makes me think of my mother and what a hard time she had moving from Boston to Upstate New York when my father’s job changed. It took her five months to accustom herself to the idea of moving away from her sisters and friends for a land she did not know. She was 45 years old and she had never lived more than 5 miles from her family. Syracuse, New York was 300 miles away. It was 1960 and It turned out to be a wonderful change for my mother. It was the beginning of the era of such movement and my father was a genius who sent her back “home” three times that first year for weekends so she never lost her connections with her “familiars.”

Life in these United States has certainly changed since then. My brother now lives in San Diego, California—3,000 miles away. Although I long for the rare “in-person” visits, I can be almost satisfied when we “zoom” on the weekends with my sister and sister-in-law.

As I reflect on these changes, I consider the shifts in faith practice as well. I have not been to Church in over a year—due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I am a child of my era, after all. Most of us zoom our spiritual practices these days, and the question is whether we will ever return to “in-person” worship. In this world of “artificial intelligence” and impending trips to the moon (!) who can tell whether we will soon out-live Sarah’s 127 years…. What I think I know now is that I will continue to need person-to-person connection going forward. That is the way I find best to encounter God. If I should someday in the future see God “in the flesh,” I presume I will be transformed! Until that day, I shall keep my computer revved up (regardless of my complaints!) and continue to strive for moments of love and peace and joy coming from everything that has meaning in each moment of time.

The Wholeness of Holiness

Tags

collective effort, COVID19, holiness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

As we seem to begin an emergence from the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic here is, perhaps, for some of us, a new view of what holiness means. Think on it:

Christian holiness can no longer be considered a matter purely of individual and isolated acts of virtue. It must also be be seen as a part of a great collective effort for spiritual and cultural renewal in society, to produce conditions in which all can work and enjoy the just fruits of their labor in peace. (Thomas Merton, Life and Holiness, p. 121)

Hiatus

Tags

COVID19, Easter season, hold on, hope, quiet ourselves, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Dear Friends,

This has been a strange Lent into Eastertide. We are still in the season of Covid and in many ways are locked down. That reality seems both physical and spiritual sometimes. How many of us celebrated the rituals of Holy Week in our own living rooms? Happily, the wonders of technology were the gifts that allowed us to see, if not to reach out and touch, those we love and those with whom we share faith.

Are you one of the millions of Americans who have been vaccinated? (I am halfway there, thanks to Pfizer and the brilliance of the scientists who have concocted the vaccine.) We have lost many people during the past several months in our families and communities and yet we hope. The Scriptures for today call us to quiet ourselves and search for the fire in our spirits that will reinvigorate our ability to persevere. Look around outside. See the greening that is happening and the flowers appearing to give us hope. Everything is saying,”Hold on! Hold on!”

I ask you that for this ministry. The Sophia Center continues to be patient and to prepare for a new cycle of spiritual growth. We ask only that you “hold on” with us, choosing perhaps to join in the book studies and/or Lunch with the Psalms until such time as we can meet in person once again. I ask for your prayer as I offer mine to you each day.

Lovingly,
Sister Lois

Short Stories

Tags

beauty support, COVID19, psalm 24, quarantine, reach out, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

When I was younger, trying to explain something to my father, he would often say: “Short stories…” (Which, in his Boston accent sounded like “shot” stories) and meant that he didn’t have much time so he needed to summarize or simplify. That came to me this morning as I looked at the time when I pulled myself out of bed after (blessedly) almost 8 hours of sleep and looked as well at necessary tasks for the day. So here is today’s effort at a meaningful word:

The refrain for Psalm 24 (the psalm in today’s lectionary) calls out: Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face! I can imagine entire communities who have been enduring months of quarantine, fear of the Covid – 19 virus, political unrest (the similarities in so many countries!) and economic distress praying to know the presence of God with us.

Who are the people with whom you can join to find support for that need? Can you come together, physically? virtually? for support? Are you in a place of trust that you can impart to others, the person whose faith is not being tested right now? We need each other. Reach out at least to one person today. Share the truth of your situation – and your care. Amen!

Choose Hope

Tags

Barack Obama, COVID19, do something, hope, pandemic, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today is a day to choose hope. It is a day for us – the Sisters of St Joseph, Albany Province – to join together and try again for a virtual meeting, having had more or less success over the past 8 months to gather on Zoom and Vvoter to exercise our voices in the governance of our community. Because of the Covid pandemic we are not meeting in person, but life must go on so, as we have always done, we find ways to come together to govern ourselves. It is the way of things now and we accept the challenges before us, trusting that we will survive, and more…we know we will thrive and come through this time with confidence in a future not yet known to us but known to God.

From my new favorite resource (see yesterday’s post) I choose a quote from Barack Obama for this day. Won’t you join me in trusting the virtue of hope?

The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.

Strange Thought for the Day

Tags

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.

Hope and Humility

Tags

COVID19, darkness, hope, humility, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I can’t help myself. Today I am shamelessly lifting the introductory words from the blog on the franciscanmedia.org website. It’s entitled as above: Hope and Humility: Our Weapons against COVID – 19. I believe that a very important lesson is encapsulated in the two quoted sentences that follow. I invite your reflection.

Neither God nor our world is tame: there is an unpredictability woven into reality itself. Facing this truth, the only appropriate response is humility. (Kyle Kramer)

The entire article is worth your time but if you can’t possibly spare 5 or 10 minutes to read it in its entirety, here is the conclusion. (Kudos to Kyle Kramer, author)

It’s hard to let go of the illusion of certainty and safety. But my hope is that this present darkness, which feels so much like an unraveling and breakdown, is actually a birthing process in which God our midwife is bringing us into a new, more beautiful, more blessed way of being.

Life Today

Tags

COVID19, let go, new normal, point of view, reflection, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I have sheer curtains on my bedroom window that faces the East. Yesterday at midday I pulled the right side to close off what was becoming a blinding sunshine. We had been expecting rain but I rarely believe the forecasters these days because even if they are correct to a degree, our rain is often a brief interlude rather than an all-day event. The same can be said of sunshine where we live. We take it when it comes but never count on early reports.

As I sat here earlier this morning to consider what might be a worthwhile topic for today, I noticed the drawn curtain. I could see only half of the scene outside and only half of the breeze was kissing my toes, exposed as they were and perpendicular to the floor in my trusty recliner! I had to get up and open to the full view to get the effect of the large maple in shade, towering over my favorite delicate pear tree to the left. She was shimmering in the breeze and everything seemed then to be in balance.

That whole brief experience – narrow view moving to a wider picture – reminded me of the “glass half-empty or half-full” phrase. I have had over 100 days now to make something of the slower pace of life that the COVID- 19 pandemic has afforded me. I hesitate to judge it without a lot of reflection because I think it is more complicated than just a passing thought can afford it. It may be that today is perfect for making one of those “pros and cons” lists to see what has been helpful, what has been challenging and what has been downright difficult in this spring-to-summer hiatus. If I manage to stay with the reflection long enough, maybe I’ll start working on a way to let go of outcome in case this does become what people are calling our “new normal.”

Waking Up

Tags

adversity, awake, Brian Johnson, COVID19, growth, living in the moment, Optimize, The Practicing Stoic, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Ward Farnsworth

I feel as if I have been in this state of “suspended animation” long enough. If you are floating along (as I have been), waiting for the pandemic to be over, you have perhaps reached the same point as I have. Some would call it like the adage “sink or swim.” The shift began yesterday when quotes from what I was reading in the morning—tidbits from the internet—came crashing through my brain one after another. I resisted because of Mother’s Day but hurriedly wrote some of what I read in a little notebook, in hopes that the energy of the words would keep until today. Some of it is still legible and comprehensible. It began with Brian Johnson’s Optimize.com. He was talking about stoicism. Listen: (from The Practicing Stoic by Ward Farnsworth).

Some adversity is NECESSARY for our growth. Indeed, the aim of the Stoic is something more: to accept reversal without shock and to make it grist for the creation of greater things. Nobody wants hardship in any particular case, but it is a necessary element in the formation of worthy people and worthy achievements that, in the long run, we do want. Stoics seek the value in whatever happens.

I have been hearing similar sentiments expressed in many conversations lately and can point to historical and present events that illustrate it. (Consider the rush to find a vaccine—or several—to match and conquer COVID 19.) It seems that necessity is often truly the mother of invention.

I’m going to spend some time today considering this concept and reality. I hope to shape the beginnings of a plan for living in this “moment” regardless of how long it lasts. Whether the plan is ever activated is not important; the planning itself is a worthy enterprise for now, I trust.

Are you already awake? What are you doing today?

From Day to Day

Tags

COVID19, day night, listen, pay attention, psalm 19, routine, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, time

I met Sister Paula in the kitchen awhile ago and we began musing on this “time out of time” that we are experiencing now. It started simply enough with both of us looking back to the weather systems of our childhood. I am certain (well, not really…) that “April showers bring May flowers” was a true statement then. Now, just past the middle of April, it’s snowing and yet it threatens the daffodils and forsythia and all the already-flowering trees that have been blooming for weeks but will undoubtedly be gone soon if this weather continues.

We moved on to talk about the virus that is taking the lives of so many people. The division in our country and the world about how to deal with it is monumental. This week the divide is about economy vs. possible infection rates. Eventually our question came round to levels of consciousness that play into how to proceed.

Our cat was waiting in my bedroom for my return and, because I was still drinking coffee when I came upstairs, I agreed to share my seat with her for awhile. That made it impossible, of course, to create a blog post. As I sat with her on my lap and did nothing, I thought about what I ought to do today. It’s Saturday but now that doesn’t seem to mean as much as it did two months ago. The routine of the days has become quite different. Some would call it restrictive while others name it full of opportunity. I prefer the latter, having the leisure of sitting quietly with the cat, watching at least one of the many online offerings of conferences by spiritual leaders and/or old movies that I never take the time for, making phone calls…

As I sit here, Psalm 19 runs through my consciousness: Day pours out the word to day and night to night imparts knowledge…Through all the earth their voice resounds and to the ends of the world their message.

It strikes me that these are not empty days; rather we make of them what we will, or simply experience them as they pass. I wonder if my ability to discern will deepen – in the days, during the nights or both. It seems that it’s time now – more than ever – to pay attention, especially to the subtle voices speaking all around and in us.