Kind and Merciful

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, fierce bonding love, kindness, Lynn Bauman, merciful, Psalm 103, swim in mercy, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe

What a great God is ours! Today Psalm 103 assures us of this fact with the refrain: The Lord is kind and merciful. We are told that God crowns us with mercy and compassion and that (in one translation) we swim in mercy as in an endless sea.* That understanding includes the concept of mercy as a fierce bonding love** and assures us that we are constantly blessed with that kind of love from the One who created the universe and all that is in it.

Who could ask for anything more?

*Ancient Songs Sung Anew: The Psalms as Poetry by Lynn Bauman

**Old Age: Journey into Simplicity by Helen Luke

The Body of Christ

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body of Christ, Divine Mercy Sunday, fierce bonding love, resurrection, Symeon, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unconditional love

Today is the “Second Sunday of Easter,” reminding us that the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection is not to be thought of simply as a day but rather as an on-going reality. As I write that I am reminded of the poem by Symeon the New Theologian, a man who lived at the turn of the first millennium (949-1022). He writes: “We awaken in Christ’s body as Christ awakens our bodies, and my poor hand is Christ; He enters my foot and is infinitely me…” – rather startling concepts in a work of 1,000 years ago, but one that gives us pause to consider the importance of what we celebrate as “the mystical body of Christ.”

Today is also designated in the Roman Catholic Church as “Divine Mercy Sunday,” promulgated by Pope St. John Paul II in the year 2000. Although our concept of the mercy of God has historically focused on our human failings and sinfulness, the placement of this feast on the Sunday following the Resurrection calls us to consideration of the “fierce, bonding love” of God for us. (see: Helen Luke, Old Age)

Today, then, let us be grateful for the total, unconditional love of God that is poured out on us each day and the call of that love to be manifested in us as cells in the body of Christ.

Wisdom in Stonington, Maine

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beatitudes, Cynthia Bourgeault, fierce bonding love, harmony, heart-centered living, Jubilee Year of Mercy, Maine, prayer, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom Schools

Once again today, I arise to the feeling that I live a life of privilege. I arrived last evening with two friends at Stonington, Maine where we will spend the entire week at a gathering of “Wisdom seekers” in the company of our teacher, Cynthia Bourgeault, in the place that she calls home. Part of the island community of Deer Isle, it was incorporated as a town in 1897 and has gradually become the number one port in Maine for the value of its fisheries, primarily lobsters.

I am sitting this morning in a sweet little cottage room in an eleven-unit motel, family-owned for generations. The hospitality is as lovely as the room itself and I have already downed my first cup of in-room coffee (with real half-and-half added). The harbor is across the street and each of the two large venues where we will meet are two minutes away from here. I hear that the best coffee in Maine is just down the street and there is a deck at the water’s edge owned by the motel for sitting in the peace of the ocean to drink it all in.

We gathered in the Town Hall last night to greetings and hugs from friends with whom we have shared past Wisdom Schools and others from across the country whose experiences of Cynthia and her teaching have been elsewhere. It was clear that we all share a desire for the depth of wisdom and unity consciousness. Of special note for me was our closing prayer. Into the silence we chanted in harmony a petition prompted by one of the Beatitudes from today’s gospel (MT 5: 1-12) Lord, as you will, Lord as you know, have mercy; have mercy.

In this Jubilee Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis, I am often struck as I was yesterday by the breadth of a term that is sometimes reduced to something like pity. As I have most likely said here before, at its deepest level mercy can be understood as a fierce bonding love that impels us to become God’s presence in the world. That last clause is my own conclusion of what such a love can generate, but how else would such a grace be reciprocated?

As we gather for prayer, for consideration of the themes of heart-centered living, for the conversations that will undoubtedly be deep and meaningful, we offer our presence here for the good of the world – for people everywhere, for all living creatures and in gratitude for the on-going care of the One who motivates us all. I invite your solidarity in prayer and intention with us.