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Tag Archives: focus

The Power of Attention

05 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by thesophiacenterforspirituality in Uncategorized

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faith, focus, goal, Jesus, Matthew, Peter, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

Today’s gospel is a lesson in trust and focus: trusting in ourselves and God at the same time as getting the task done. It’s one of the familiar scenes of the apostles in a boat (MT 14: 22-36) and is clearly a test for them as Jesus is not with them. Rather, he has sent them ahead while he goes away – as is his custom – to refuel spiritually on a mountain alone.

Everything is fine until a serious wind comes up and rocks the boat so much that it is in danger of capsizing. Enter Jesus walking on the water toward them creating a double reason for distress: the possibility that they’re seeing a ghost as well as the danger of drowning. Jesus tells them not to be afraid. “It is I,” he says, and Peter tests the vision by challenging Jesus to have him walk to meet him in the water. Jesus obliges by the simple command: “Come!” Peter, ever the impetuous one, climbs out of the boat and is walking until he realizes that he is, in fact, walking on top of the water – an impossible thing to do. So, of course he starts to sink. As we expect, Jesus catches him, saves him and then remonstrates with him for his lack of faith.

Peter would have been fine if he had just kept walking…if he didn’t lose focus on his goal which was getting to Jesus. Losing focus and allowing our fear of failure – sometimes by over-thinking things – to be the actual cause of the failure comes from a lack of trust in ourselves as well as in God.

I’m much more willing to put my trust in God than in myself sometimes. Reflecting on this passage today, however, makes me more conscious that the two efforts are really one if we are living a life of faith. God and I have to be working together in everything. My focus needs to be that of the Spirit of God within me. If not, I will surely stumble and could even drown. So it appears today that the lesson is vigilance: staying awake is a must every day.

(N.B. Ironic that I wrote about paying attention on this date and then commented on the wrong readings! It never pays to skip a day of your chosen practice! It makes the message even more important. VIGILANCE!)

Starting Again

05 Wednesday Jul 2017

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A Way Without Words, divine, focus, forced union, grace, improve, interior silence, Marsha Sinetar, regular life, spiritual life, St. Augustine, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

ameditatorEvery time there is a holiday or some out-of-the-ordinary event, I find myself taking a deep breath at its conclusion and feel as if new vistas are opening to which attention ought to be given. It’s not as radical as it seems – as in “Whew! That’s over! Now what?” – but rather as if there was something holding the calendar back until it was completed and now “regular life” is resuming for awhile. I felt that way this morning as I moved from the sound of Fourth of July fireworks while drifting off to sleep last night to the familiar sounds of birdsong awakening me and bringing the plan for the day into focus.

I’m not sure that this next is a seamless “fit” with the above paragraph but I read something this morning that was a reminder to be about growth in the spiritual life, specifically about how it is or is not “achieved.” It caught my attention and I felt it wanting to be shared.

As we progress, we realize that forced union with the divine is impossible and that we will not reach enlightenment by checking off a lengthy “to do” list. We do not scrub, wash and launder our way into God’s presence in order to merit transformation. We are hindered by too much concern to “improve,” or to have this or that experience…

As we become receptive to our own interior silence and to the nuances and gifts of grace, we sense that growth into God is inevitable and that this union has always existed. St. Augustine, speaking to God, said, “You were with me, and I was not with you.” Nor would we desire [God] if we were not wanted first. (A Way Without Words by Marsha Sinetar, p. 65)

 

 

 

 

 

Do You Love Me?

02 Friday Jun 2017

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focus, Jesus, John, Lectionary, love, mowing the grass, Peter, practice, prayer, serendipitous, spiritual practice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, work

amowerSometimes my thoughts have a strange way of coming together. Often two or more unrelated things give me a basis for conclusion that make me scratch my head and say, “Where did that come from?” Today is one of those days – a serendipitous collision of a passing thought with the morning lectionary reading that may or may not “work” in the world outside my mind. Here goes:

On my coffee run to the kitchen this morning the few words I heard exchanged were about the lovely morning weather. The sun was full up and shining on all things green (before 7:00 am!). As I left the kitchen I heard a remark about how beautiful the new-mown grass looked and I felt the same, satisfied with the hours I spent yesterday preparing it for the group of retreatants arriving today. As I sat in my chair and prepared to write, it struck me that mowing the grass on our 11-acre property has become a spiritual practice for me. I speak about it as my leisure because it gives me a chance to be outside in nature with all the color and diversity, the scents on the breeze, the small animals scampering away at the roar of the mower’s approach. It takes focus, however, to get the job done well. I am not free just to ride around without paying attention to the pattern I’m creating. Staying with the line of what has just been cut is essential to a neat and complete result. If my mind wanders into something I see – a new wildflower perhaps – I lose my line and have a wobbly patch that needs to be corrected. Paying attention does not mean I can’t enjoy the ride, but it does mean I need to stay awake and alert.

The gospel for today (JN 21:15-19) contains that famous and often pondered over exchange between Jesus and Peter where Jesus asks Peter three times: “Do you love me?” with Peter seeming more frustrated with each repetition. By the third time he is so frustrated that he blurts out, “You know everything! You know that I love you!” whereupon Jesus tells him just a bit about what the future might look like and why Peter might want to remember the love he has proclaimed so vehemently for Jesus when events call for that measure of love.

What came to me as I read that was the repetition and the necessity of keeping the mind focused – in this case, on what the heart knows. If I forget where I am in the mowing, it all goes awry. If Peter lost the certainty and depth of his love for Jesus (and that of Jesus for him) for even a moment in the toughest times to follow, he might have lost heart. As it was, all reports are that he endured everything that came to him as privilege because of his inner certainty of Christ with him all the time.

If we practice every day – whether in prayer, relationship or mowing the lawn – it may be that we are more able when the tests come. When God asks me in the many moments of the daily routine, “Do you love me?” my answer may be all I need at some future time to stand up to the challenge of love where life or death is the result of my response.

2.7 Seconds

09 Tuesday Aug 2016

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competitors, dedication, doing, every sport is a head sport, focus, meditation, Olympics, spiritual practice, sync, talking, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

adiversI’m thinking this morning about something I heard last night while watching the Olympic men’s synchronized diving competition. One of the commentators mentioned that the dive just completed had taken 2.7 seconds to execute. Yes, that dive from a height of 30 meters that included at least two – or probably three – somersaults and maybe a twist before reaching and knifing through the water head first in a vertical position that caused very little splash took less than three seconds. Oh, and it was done by two men whose movements mirrored one another nearly – if not totally – perfectly.

As I reflect on all the things that could possibly happen to throw the two men “out of sync” during those 2.7 seconds, I wonder at their determination and willingness to continue to practice that dive over and over again, sometimes for years, to win a medal at the Olympics. Most of the competitors are young and some of them are reduced to tears whether they find they have won or lost, because of their work, of course, but also because of their dedication to their sport and the support of those who have cheered them on over the years. I learned a long time ago that “every sport is a head sport” because if the competitor’s mind is not engaged and focused before, during and after the event, there is no chance that her/his body will cooperate at the crucial moment.

Thinking about this causes me to wonder why I spend more time talking about the need for more mindful spiritual practice on the part of people who understand the benefit of such activity both personally and for the raising of world consciousness to higher good than I spend on actually doing the practices. What a wake-up call! I bow this morning to the athletes as I move to my mat for meditation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How’s Your Hearing?

03 Thursday Mar 2016

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attentiveness, focus, harden not your hearts, hear God's voice, listen, pay attention, Psalm 95, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

aatentiveThe refrain from Psalm 95 reverberates in my ears and in my heart this morning. We read it and sing it from hymnals and it would behoove us to take a moment to ask ourselves, “Am I listening?” As soon as I read it as the psalm refrain this morning (If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts!) The melody began to repeat in my head. Then I got to the verse that said, O, that you would hear his voice! as if the psalmist were pleading urgently for us to pay attention. It made me think that hearing God’s voice isn’t just work on God’s part (to talk to us), but rather a question of our willingness and the recognition that we need to really pay attention in order to hear. Multi-tasking is not helpful here. Sometimes we need to put down the hammer or the book or turn off the television or our iPad and focus!

So today’s a day to turn up our “hearing aids” of attentiveness and listen for the words of love that will soften our hearts and keep us on the path to God’s house.

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