It’s About Being

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Alan Cohen, chant, Darlene Franz, God's face, heart, inner awakening, light, peace of God, presence, psalm 27, seek, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transform the world, transformation

There’s a line in the Psalm response of today’s lectionary that got me singing – internally, of course, since I haven’t been awake long enough to trust my outer voice! What I heard inside my head was Darlene Franz’s chant, a call and response that says Seek my face in all things. Your face, O Lord, I will seek.  (cf. PS 27, vs. 10) Although it’s usually annoying to have a tune running just below the surface one’s mind for days, I think I would welcome this one since it reminds me where I should be putting my attention. I was encouraged by that train of thought when I read Alan Cohen’s ‘daily word’ in which he offered the following paragraph.

To walk with the peace of God in your heart is to transform the world by your presence. When love is your keynote, there is nothing in particular you need to do; your gift is your being. Many people seek to change the world by getting everyone to join their religion or organization, use their product, agree with their philosophy, or replicate their experience. But real transformation does not come from manipulating people or events; it proceeds naturally from inner awakening and then living in the light.

May our footsteps today seek to awaken us to the light of God’s face.

 

 

 

 

 

The Fullness of Earth, of God and Us

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contemporary chant, Cynthia Bourgeault, Darlene Franz, goodness, psalm 33, the earth is full, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom Schools

Darlene Franz: Listen to her chant HERE.

As soon as I read today’s psalm response to the lectionary readings, my inner voice began singing a short, repetitious, contemporary chant based on Psalm 33, written by Darlene Franz, a very talented musician from the Pacific Northwest who graces Cynthia Bourgeault’s “Wisdom Schools” with her presence and helps us to go deeper in prayer and inner knowing as we sing. Darlene has a website on which she speaks of the genesis of each of 23 chants and then sings them for the listener (wisdomchant.bandcamp.com). Darlene’s chant based on Ps. 33:5 comes from the  chapter (“The Fecundity of God”) in John Philip Newell’s book, The Book of Creation: An Introduction to Celtic Spirituality which offers the following:

Breathing in and out to repetitions of this phrase while contemplating the goodness of the earth outside of us – “the One who dwells at the heart of all life” – and the goodness within – as you feel your body expanding, be aware of the goodness that you are opening up to from the depths of your being. It is planted in you and can be sensed like the fragrance of the earth’s goodness.

Darlene’s chant, which always evokes for me images of fields full of food and flowers, offers these words repeated over and over until Newell’s practice flourishes in song. The earth is full, full of Your goodness. The earth is full, full of You. Your goodness fills the whole earth. Darlene says: “May this chant assist you to dwell in the goodness of your own earth, this planetary earth we share, and the ‘world without end.’ Amen.” I invite you to visit her website, learn the chant and then approach the world with new eyes today, full of goodness.