Connections

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encounter, friend, gratitude, presence, relationships, spiritual home, St. Barnabas, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Commentary on this feast of St. Barnabas got me thinking today about connections. The Franciscan Media website tells us that Barnabas was “a Jew of Cyprus, as close as anyone outside the Twelve to being a full-fledged apostle.” A close associate of St. Paul, he was the one who introduced Paul to Peter and had a major role in mediating between Paul and the Jewish Christians.

Many, if not most of the people who come to the Spiritual Center in Windsor, come because of a recommendation from a friend. Often, they find a “spiritual home” here and come back eagerly the next summer to see those like-minded people with whom they continue to grow together as they are nurtured in their spiritual development. I see the same happening at the Sophia Center in the many gatherings that draw individuals of varied backgrounds. They come, perhaps, for something that sounds interesting and come back because of the people they they find in the encounter. Some relationships are instantaneous; some grow with time. Occasionally we only see a person once or twice and wonder why we miss their presence, wishing they would return.

I’ve often heard that people are in our lives for a purpose and I believe that to be true. Whether for a “chance” encounter or a lifetime relationship, the connection can be significant, even life-changing sometimes.Today’s commentary notes that in the early Church “all was not peaceful…and even the best of friends can have differences.” Surrender is a facet of any mature relationship and sometimes binds people together in ways that nothing else can.

These musings lead me to a theme for my day which will include at least three opportunities to be grateful for the people in my life – stalwart friends as well as those I do not yet know well. In between I will bless those who have taught me life lessons and have passed from this world. My gratitude list will surely be long at the end of the day…

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.

 

 

 

 

 

First Thoughts

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Beethoven, bird chorus, deer, encounter, my soul longs for you, Ode to Joy, psalm 42, rain, stay awake, streams, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Perhaps because I had left my window open last night, I was awakened early by the wild chorus of birds outside. I was somewhat grateful because I believe I saw the only patch of blue sky for this day where once again rain is predicted – 100%! The sky is gray now and the birds have completed their concert, but I continue to hear strains of Beethoven playing inside with the lyrics of Joyful, joyful we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love. Hearts unfold like flowers before thee, opening to the sun above…

In the stillness outside, the movement inside continues as I turn to the Scriptures where I find the beautifully engaging Psalm 42 urging me on like Beethoven toward a deeper place. As the deer longs for running streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. Athirst is my soul for God, the living God…

And then the question of the day arises from the psalm: When shall I go and behold the face of God? The answer today is quick and clear: At every moment in everyone I encounter – if only I can stay awake! As the clock turns to 7:00AM, I know for certain  my task for the day. And so it begins!

 

 

 

 

 

From Now On

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adultery, condemned, encounter, forgiven, forgiving, humiliation, judge, sinfulness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The gospel for today is the story of the woman caught in adultery. Leaving aside the justice question about the man involved in the incident – while not unaware of the impact it has even today – I am given to comment on the way Jesus puts his attention on the woman. After having said the famous line: Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,” and doing that mysterious writing in the sand, Jesus turns to the woman. He engages her in the most compassionate way by asking, “Woman, where are they?” My guess is that he said that so she would raise her head in order to see that they had all skulked away. She had certainly been bowed to the ground in fear and humiliation. I can see her looking around in amazement as he asks the second question: “Has no one condemned you?” and then – best of all – says, “Neither will I.”

The important thing to note here is that even though Jesus is totally forgiving her, he also requires something because he ends with the charge to “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” What a wonderful moment though! She can be confident that he knows her deeply in ways that before this encounter she would have hidden from everyone she valued in her life. Her job now is to forgive herself as she goes forward because she is just like all others who know that they are not perfect but are trying to be better. And the men that were going to stone her? With luck, they learned not to judge but to take a look at their own sinfulness – in whatever form – and were converted as well. Perhaps we might do the same today, remembering that we too are forgiven.

 

No Matter What…

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bigger picture, encounter, experiences, insights, learn, lessons, pondering wisdom, reflecting, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thessalonians

Of all the lectionary readings today, the one sentence that called out to me was the gospel acclamation. From Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, we hear: In all circumstances, give thanks…Perhaps it is because of these days of pondering wisdom with an extraordinary group of people, reflecting deeply on life and our living of it, that those words seem so clearly the way to proceed. I can’t imagine on my most difficult days stopping to read and assent to that thought. It does, however, make sense to me this morning. I have found, if I really stop to think, that I can learn from everything and everyone that I encounter. Whether the lessons in the experiences are easy or monumentally difficult, there is something helpful to take away from everything if I have eyes to see and ears ready to hear. Sometimes the most important insights come from the most difficult happenings. It is the willingness to see beyond the circumstances themselves to what might be there for me to learn that can help me let go of my personal agenda in order to see what might be a bigger picture.

No examples today. My lessons are mine. All of us have our own. It is for each of us to “fill in the blanks” on this one. Happy delving!

What’s My Line?

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appearances, encounter, God looks into the heart, Jesse, judging others, King David, King Saul, lifelong companion, non-judgmental, occupation, relationship, Samuel, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

When I was young, early in the television “game show” era there was a program called “What’s my line?” where panelists who were blindfolded attempted to guess the occupation of the guest by asking questions that began by eliminating large categories of careers and then became more and more particularized until finally someone (usually) guessed the person’s work. The first reading for today (1 SM 16:1-13) brought this show to mind although it barely seems to have relevance except perhaps in the process of eliminating people for a job rather than the other way around.

God is looking for a replacement for King Saul and tells Samuel to go to the House of Jesse where he will find God’s anointed one. Jesse had seven sons whom he presented to Samuel who thought even as he saw Eliab, the first son to appear, that “surely the Lord’s anointed is here before Him.” But God said to Samuel, “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because he sees the appearance but God looks into the heart.” Samuel must’ve been getting nervous as one by one the seven were rejected by God. Thankfully, when he asked, “Are these all the sons you have?” the answer was yes and, as we know, the youngest, the sheepherder, became the great King David, God’s beloved, from whose line Jesus was born.

Just two days ago I spoke of clothing and how we often judge by appearance. Here it is again. The italicized sentence is good advice for us if we are trying to live a good and godly life. “Looking into the heart” can’t be done in a quick encounter, unless it leads to a deep and meaningful conversation. Usually it takes some time for a relationship to develop, for trust to become the basis for sharing. There are exceptions, times when God surprises us with unexpected people who appear on our path for the first time and who, from that first encounter (which includes that deep and meaningful first conversation), become life-long companions. Our job is to stay alert for the gifts of relationship, whether they seem to come instantaneously or grow incrementally. If we foreclose on possibility without exploration, we always lose.

So blessings on all of us whose desire is to be non-judgmental, who welcome people into our hearts and give them the opportunity to find God’s presence there.