The Divine Exchange

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consciousness, Cynthia Bourgeault, divine exchange, encounter, giving, great exchange, Guerillas of Grace, receiving, soul to soul, Ted Loder, Thank You For Each Moment, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Sometimes it’s difficult to express the depth of meaning in seemingly ordinary events that make up the flow of our lives. Reflecting on the past few days, I could describe two such happenings in sentences like the following:

1. “We had an extraordinary group of girls (ages 10 to 17) and their teachers here at the Spiritual Center this week. They came from Florida to have an experience of life different from their norm and were going from here to New York City before returning home.”
2. “Our Wisdom Practices Circle met yesterday and the sharing was extremely rich.”

What’s missing in both of these examples is the energy of the sharing that can only come in the encounter – soul to soul, we might say. It happened on Wednesday evening when the girls performed part of their dance and poetry recital from the school year. Moreover, their enthusiasm overflowed in every moment of their visit; their joy and interest in everything they saw or heard and shared was intense.

Although it was quieter in our Practices group, the depth was palpable yesterday as we pondered a text entitled “Thank You for Each Moment” written by Ted Loder in his book Guerillas of Grace. It was a powerful poem as was our reflection following the reading and the silences that punctuated the sharing.

As I sit here pondering the effect of these experiences, I am reminded of the teaching of Cynthia Bourgeault on the divine exchange and grateful to understand the experience “from the inside” more today than ever before. In a summary of her work on this concept Cynthia writes the following:

…In the great exchange of giving and receiving, we are fed by and feed other realms outside our earthly reality. We come to see the relationship among the visible and invisible realms not as a ladder of hierarchical steps to climb and escape lower states of being, but as an inter-abiding round dance of self-giving love. As we allow ourselves to participate in the freely flowing exchange of Divine creativity, love is made manifest. Moreover, we humans, as the embodiment of consciousness, are responsible for making that Divine love manifest in this time/space realm. [We] learn how, in following Jesus’ way, we release our essential Self as we help fulfill the deep yearning of the Divine. (The Contemplative Society at http://www.contemplative.org)

My thanks to the “Diamond Mind” girls and their teachers as to my companions in the quest for wisdom for the gift of their presence and example to me.

 

 

 

 

 

Coexistence

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divine exchange, divisiveness, Flood, God's presence, Huston, Jan Phillips, Julian of Norwich, mysticism, No Ordinary Time, positive energy, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust, willingness, wisdom

Sometime in the recent past I became aware that real distress and pure joy can exist in me at the same moment. Yesterday I knew it at an even deeper level, not just as a theory in my mind but a felt sense in my heart. While carrying the devastation and suffering of the people in Texas to work with me, I was also aware of a growing excitement for what would be the culmination of our very fertile conversations sparked by the book, No Ordinary Time. I wasn’t happy that the series was over but rather immensely thankful for the growing trust and willingness of group members to share themselves as they recounted their experiences of the book.

Thirteen of us sat in circle at the noon hour and seven in the evening. As we listened, pondered and then added our own wisdom to what had been offered, I felt a melding of the heaviness of the floods and the buoyancy overflowing in me simply because of the presence of such extraordinary women around me. We were talking about the chapter entitled Mysticism and Oneness. Agreeing with the definition that mysticism is an unmediated experience of God’s presence, we shared snippets of our lives that proved the truth of our own simple mystical experiences. Interspersed with moments of recognition among us were references to the tragedy of the hurricane and the horror of the divisiveness that characterizes our country right now. At several junctures we noted our responsibility to raise the level of positive energy in whatever way we can in order that balance might be achieved. And then we were silent for a time.

In the end we moved around the circle in turn, taking the hands and looking into the eyes of each of these sisters of ours saying fervently, I honor the holiness in you. A simple sentence, growing in us over three months, that was indeed an expression of the oneness we had come to feel. And as I took my turn hearing and saying those words to each and all with total honesty, I held the wonder of this “divine exchange” as well as the pain of the world in the solidarity of our hands and knew the hope of Julian of Norwich, that all shall be well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In All Things

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divine exchange, grateful heart, James, Jesus, Lent, Luke, Peter, possibility, psalm 27, retreat, sacred place, sacrifice, Simon Peter, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Transfiguration of Christ

From 7:00PM on Friday evening until 7:00PM yesterday I was privileged to share a 24-hour retreat experience with four spiritual seekers, women who came to enter into silence in order to pray and then to share reflections on the Scriptures dealing with the women in the life of Jesus, women who accompanied him to the cross and finally to resurrection. It was an extraordinarily meaningful time and we left with some new insights and a new appreciation of the value of really delving deeply into each word and possible meaning in the Scripture texts. We learned also (perhaps not for the first time) of the value of conversation as together we mirrored the practice of Mary, the mother of Jesus who “pondered all these things in her heart.”

Today will be a different kind of day and yet analogous as we welcome a group of Sisters and lay Associates to our home for an afternoon of meetings about important issues in our present and future life together. I expect less silence but just as much thoughtful sharing and the enthusiasm that comes from women whose purpose is to extend the great love of God to the world.

Today’s gospel is Luke’s rendition of the Transfiguration of Christ (LK 9:28-36) which must have seriously impacted the lives of Peter, James and John, the disciples who witnessed this moment with Jesus on the mountain. I have come to believe that we are all transfigured by the experiences that we have, alone sometimes but also in communion with one another, if we open ourselves to possibility. The season of Lent is always a time for more constant awareness of this fact and of the necessity of being an active participant in this “divine exchange.” Psalm 27 speaks today of this reality as the psalmist sings:

…And in this sacred place I give my being back to you, and everything as sacrifice; and there I offer you in song a grateful heart and a voice filled up with praise and prayer. O hear this voice of mine that calls to you. Take pity on my soul and answer back, I pray. Instantly and deep within my heart I hear your voice. You say: “Seek out my face in everything.” And from my heart, I answer back to you, “Your face, and you alone, I seek, my God.” (Ps. 27: 8-10)