God In All Things

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blessings, drink, eternal life, fire, flame, God, love, Nikos Kazantzakis, spiritual growth, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, water

Today in churches and schools far and wide there will be infrequent guests lining up for blessings. It is the feast of St. Francis, of course, who loved all of creation but chose to possess nothing in order that he could be totally dependent on God. My favorite story about Francis may not be factual and it is not the one of the sweet stories of his relationship with the birds and the beasts (although those are also compelling). It comes from a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis entitled  simply Saint Francis, in which the narrator, Brother Leo, says something like the following:

Once I asked him, “Brother Francis, how does God reveal himself to you when you are alone in the night?” He answered, “Like a glass of cool water,” Brother Leo. “God is like a glass of water?” I asked. “Why, yes,” he replied. “We take and drink it and we are satisfied unto eternal life.” But some years later, when he was simply a lump of skin and bones, Brother Francis called me to him and whispered: “God is a conflagration, Brother Leo. He burns and we burn with him!”

I know there are a few incorrect words in that telling of the story but I have to go searching for my copy of the book to be more precise. The point is made, however, if we consider the process of spiritual growth in Francis as he struggled to do everything for God and to spread the message of God’s all-consuming love with all those he encountered.

Fire is a mighty image for that love: beautiful – for those of us who wish to sit by a fireplace and watch wood flicker into life and then burn uproariously with energy and color – but totally consuming if we consider the result for the wood. That was the fire that ignited Francis to become all flame and calls to us, perhaps, to that same willingness, that unstinting love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tending the Fire

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dance, enlighten, flame, Joyce Rupp, love, opportunities, Pentecost, Prayer Seeds, share, spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the spiritual center

Today we will have a meeting of the Sophia Center Advisory Board. It will be our semi-annual look back on where we have been since autumn to see how we think we’ve served the purpose for which we exist. It comes at the precise moment of gearing up for our new season at home – the Spiritual Center where I live – where we offer mostly weekend events during the six months of summer into fall. It’s a fortuitous dance of “changing partners” as the year unfolds. The purpose is the same: to afford opportunities for people who come to us seeking to touch more deeply into the spirit that keeps them on the path of their highest good with companions that share the journey with them.

It seems significant to me that this transition is coinciding this year with the feast of Pentecost. As we prepare at home for a sort of new beginning this weekend, an outpouring of what is always an exciting manifestation of Spirit, I will sit this afternoon in the small band who will share what we have known in similar, if not matching, Spirit-led experiences over the past several months at the Sophia Center.

Joyce Rupp has a prayer that reminds me of the need to remain constant in the desire to serve for the good of the world – even as our small corner of it has an effect on the whole. Pray it with me if you will for renewal of heart and hope.

Flame of Love, Enkindler of Hearts, enlighten my mind to recognize where my love has grown dim. Spark renewed desire in my heart to give myself ever more completely to your service. Beam your grace through my being so I respond freely. May the fruits of your love be harvested through me. I will share them generously. Amen. (Prayer Seeds, p.174)

 

 

 

 

 

Light Up the World!

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Advent, candle, Christ, Desert Fathers and Mothers, flame, hearts, light, meditate, monastics, Sophia House, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Paris, – lighting candles in notre dame cathedral… Calgary, Alberta Canada. Photographer Carlos Amat, http://www.carlosamat.ca

Last night I attended a lovely evening of reflection with a small study group held at Sophia House, our “satellite office” in Endicott, NY. The presenter forgot her matches so I foraged around the house and in the adjacent building and found nothing that could help us light the candle that was to be the centerpiece of our prayer table. Sensing the importance of the symbol, I was grateful to meet up with the janitor who led me to his office where he had not one but three long-nosed lighters. He gifted me with one which now will stay in my office for just such events.

As we travel through this season of Advent, lighting a new candle each week in church and/or at home, praying for the light of Christ to burn in our hearts, I am often reminded of a familiar story from those first monastics, the Desert Fathers and Mothers who understood our responsibility to become that light for the world that we say we desire.

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can, I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace, and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” The old man stood up and stretched his hands toward heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame!”

So as we prepare for Christmas, in the midst of all that we do, why not have as our intention to increase our desire for God so that we do, indeed, become all flame?