Invitation

Tags

apostles, excuses, fishers of men, following, fulfillment, Jesus, the kingdom of God is at hand, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The temperature outside could be construed as NOTHING. It reads 0 degrees F. Not too hot. Not too cold…just a perfect place to start building a day. (How ridiculous a mis-reading! One could easily get frostbite if not bundled up from head to toe.) The bluejays on the deck are already hard at work tap, tap, tapping away at the suet cakes. How they survive the day without broken beaks and roaring headaches is a mystery to me! Let me start again…

This time I could use the temperature outside as an excuse for inaction. It looks like a beautiful day outside. The sky is blue and the sun is shining…but it’s so cold as to make it impossible to move from my chair: a day to lament arthritic limbs and a headache at least serious enough for some over-the-counter drug…Excuses abound…

There is, however, a tiny beating sound inside of me that indicates discomfort with inertia. I can hardly hear the sound but I know there is more to this life than this chair and my rocking…rocking. I wonder if perhaps this is a moment like it was the day Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment: The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe…” It is Mark who is recounting this day when Jesus passed by the Sea of Galilee and seeing Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea, he said to them, Come after me and I will make you fishers of men. (MK 1) They left their nets that day and became the first apostles, following Jesus to the end. No more sitting around looking out the window, wishing it was warmer outside. No more watching the birds and wondering about their headaches, just getting out of their chairs and getting to work—following that voice that is the best invitation ever offered.

Unadulterated

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Cynthia Bourgeault, fulfillment, image of God, joy, Kathleen Deignan, love, Peace, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, The Wisdom Jesus, Thomas Merton, Thomas Merton A Book of Hours

In searching for something today to express the heart of our book study conversations yesterday of Cynthia Bourgeault’s magnificent text, The Wisdom Jesus, I found the best answer in Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan (ed.) Much of what Merton says is more a felt sense than a gathering of intellectual content. I can only affirm this morning’s find with a resounding “Thank you!” while listening to the beat of my heart.

To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.

If, therefore, I do anything or think anything or say anything or know anything that is not purely for the love of God, it cannot give me peace, or rest, or fulfillment, or joy.

To find love, I must enter into the sanctuary where it is hidden, which is the mystery of God. (New Seeds of Contemplation, 60-61)

Where Wisdom Lives

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balance, Benedictine, calendar, fulfillment, heart, intention, psalm 90, spirituality, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, time, time management, wisdom

The beginning of a new week is always a good time to take a breath and see what lies ahead. That task presupposes a look at the calendar to be sure we have noted all the “goings-on” and the preparation necessary for each event. I’m reminded of that practice by the first line from this morning’s psalm that prays: Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. (PS 90:12) The first clause of that sentence sounds like the necessity of knowing what day and date it is (something that escapes me sometimes lately) but the second clause adds a goal to the “numbering.” It implies good time management but also good choices about how we are spending the time that we have.

Benedictine spirituality runs on a time schedule that is based on a balanced day of activities and rest. A good exercise to illustrate this is to draw a circle and divide it into four equal quadrants entitled prayer alone, prayer together, work alone and work together – and then fill it in with everything you do by yourself and with other people. Rest/leisure is included as “work alone” and should not be ignored. It’s good, especially if one is just beginning to look for this balance, to draw two circles for the day labeled Start and End to check at the end of the day to see whether intention and fulfillment merge. I find it a good way to test procrastination tendencies as well as workaholism. And as the psalm seems to suggest, wisdom is found in the middle path.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of Work and Workers

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acceptance, attitude, character, dignity, fulfillment, Good Shepherd, happiness, John, love, pay, rich inner life, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, work, workers

There’s a passage in the “Good Shepherd” gospel from today’s lectionary (JN 10: 12-13) that has me thinking about the power of intention. It says the following: “A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.”

I have always been blessed with fulfilling work that I have, therefore, done motivated by love – of the people I encounter and the work itself. In that way, I understand the shepherd who “knows” his sheep, able to tell one from another and willing to do whatever it takes to keep them safe. But I am thinking this morning about people who work in jobs that are onerous, yet necessary to allow even a subsistence lifestyle. I presume it would take a very strong will to be able to be happy in such a situation. It would necessitate digging deep to find a purpose for getting up in the morning. It has been said that “Happiness is an inside job.” Thus, there must be something deeper than the work itself to motivate the worker.

As I write, I recognize that this truth is universal and is definitely an aspect of one’s character and attitude. Think about the clerks in a store that you frequent. Two people who are paid the same salary may be quite different in the way they greet you or work the checkout counter. It’s the same for heads of large corporations. So while I would like to see a more equitable pay scale and better conditions for workers, I come to the conclusion that if one has a rich inner life anything can be a blessing if it moves us toward acceptance and even love.

Let us pray today for an appreciation of the dignity of work and all workers as we examine our own attitudes toward what is our own work in the world. Let our intention be the building up of community in whatever we do and what we achieve, not for our own glory but for the good of all and the praise of God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

O Emmanuel, Come!

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Acts of the Apostles, Advent, Christmas, fulfillment, God with us, Jesus Christ, O Come O Come Emanuel, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

One might call the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” the theme song of Advent since it is sung throughout the season of Advent in almost any Christian Church. Perhaps not everyone knows all seven verses or that the lyrics come from these symbolic titles we have been considering for the past week. Today, however, we are in familiar territory. Many of us know that Emmanuel means “God with us.”

What a concept! What an astounding theological truth! Do we really believe that God is, in fact, in our midst? This is the central Christian message: that God “is not far from any one of us.” It is in Jesus, the Christ who has come and is always coming to us, that “we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:16-34) He does not come with fanfare and there is often little notice paid, but come he will to us who long for his presence. So let us be prepared.

And let us pray: “Come, the fulfillment of every longing, like the child’s wildest Christmas dream realized. Alert us to your quiet, attune us to your silences, show us your hidden ways. Emmanuel, come!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wait For It…

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faith mustard seed, fulfillment, Habakkuk, hear, Luke, Psalm 95, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Timothy, vision

All of the lectionary readings today urge us to recognize the gift of faith that is already in us and the courage we need in order to develop and maintain steadfastness in that faith. When the apostles say to Jesus, Lord, increase our faith, Jesus offers what we can only call hyperbole as a response, saying: If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea” and it would obey you. (LK 17:5-10) I wonder – because of such a strong retort on the part of Jesus – if this isn’t one of the moments of his frustration with the lack of comprehension of his message in those he has chosen to follow him.

St. Paul sounds a bit more placid but just as clear in his exhortation to Timothy: Beloved, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. God did not give you a spirit of cowardice but rather of power, love and self-control. (2TM 1:6-8, 13-14) Those three qualities would go far to stir up our faith if we practiced them consciously each day, remembering also the advice of Psalm 95:8: If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.

All of this advice and urging to faith will surely coalesce in us if we remember the promise of the prophet – a long-ago message that may give hope in our world today where we are always looking for the “quick fix” to our problems and difficult situations. I quote it last so that it will remain as first of what we might ponder today.

The vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. (HAB 2:2-4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

O Emmanuel, Come!

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child, Christmas, families, fulfillment, gathering, God, Hebrews, joy to the world, longing, Messiah, O Antiphons, O Come O Come Emanuel, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, waiting

Today there seems a greater intensity in the call of the O Antiphon. It is the last one, the end of the Advent season, since tomorrow we shall keep vigil for the birth of the Messiah. Into the musical corner of my mind this morning as I read the antiphon came the tune and words: “Come thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free.” I don’t remember much of that hymn but I think the important idea is that the waiting had been centuries long for the Hebrews, yet they kept an expectant hope alive. I’ve had several conversations in the past week about the sad state of the world and the reasons to lament. On the other hand I hear on the news that travel in the United States, especially tomorrow and on the weekend, will set records because of low gas prices and good weather, at least in the Northeast. That means that families will gather in whatever way they can (some just by phone or computer) to celebrate, however they do, the holiday of Christmas. I choose to believe that the love that is shared during this season does have a positive effect on the world.

Expectations vary today, to be sure, as we approach the very day of Christmas. May it be a fulfillment of our longing, a little or a lot, for personal peace, for more light in the world, for reconciliation…all wrapped in recognition of the child who became and continues to become God with us.

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expected of nations and their Savior. Come and save us, O Lord our God!

O Emmanuel, you are God-with-us and the savior of all nations. Come, save us and make of us your own joy to the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Profound Repose

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act without motion, center, deepest activities, everywhere, fulfillment, Kathleen Deignan, loneliness, nowhere, profound repose, standing still, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, travelling, vision

“This is a country whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.
You do not find it by traveling but by standing still.
Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin.
It is here that you discover act without motion,
labor that is profound repose,
vision in obscurity,
and, beyond all desire,
a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity.”

~ Thomas Merton
(from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

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Advent, Book of Malachi, dawn, Emmanuel, expectation, fulfillment, lift up your heads, midnight, O Antiphons, Paul, Romans, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, waiting

Today ends the season of waiting for the advent of Christ. We have been singing, “O come, O come, Emmanuel!” for nearly a month now and the seven titles from the O Antiphons culminate in this calling forth of the One whom they/we recognize as “God with us.” All of the readings today strain forward to his coming. Malachi (3:1-4) foretells that suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. The psalm refrain tells us to lift up your heads and see! as the psalmist pleads: Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me! Finally we hear the gospel story of the birth of John the Baptist who runs before Jesus, preparing the way for him.

I say it’s over when today is only the 23rd. We celebrate Christmas on the 25th. One could characterize this waiting period as having two parts: remote and proximate preparation. All through Advent we have been calling on God to open our hearts to the reality of Christ’s presence in our midst (remote preparation). Tomorrow we spend the day, as Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “on tiptoe” (proximate preparation) – in conscious attention for the fulfillment of the covenant promise. I have always loved the verse from the Book of Wisdom that says, “When all things were silent and night was in the midst of her course, your all-powerful Word, O God, leapt from heaven…” There is a silence at midnight that is unparalleled and conducive of great wonders, usually experienced by our inner selves. That is why our religious tradition gathers us at midnight, or thereabouts, to welcome Emmanuel in a ritual that speaks of light in the darkness and peace for all on earth.

So my goal is to begin to feel, by dawn tomorrow, the shift from conscious waiting to ardent expectation, and to spend tomorrow – no matter what activities claim me – readying myself for that moment when Christ leaps into my heart in a new and fuller way, perhaps in the night. Hyperbole? Maybe…but who of us knows what gifts have been prepared for us and when they will be given? I think it’s worth the wager to be there when it happens.