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20/20 vision, beginning, future, gift, goals, hope, New Year, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
Today is a new day. How is that different from any other day? Well, it’s a new year as well. Someone once said: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life,” and that became a standard for greeting cards and slogans everywhere. When something is that self-evident we need to stop and think why it becomes so popular to say or think. It is, of course, the surface and beginning point of a long and sometimes arduous reflective adventure.
What does your desired future look like? Do you have any idea? Any goals? Would you be dissatisfied if today becomes like yesterday or this year like the last? Are there things you want to or need to change? How will you make it happen? Of what are you certain now and what will make the rest of your life more meaningful? Is there even a need for all these questions ?
This exercise is for myself, of course, and perhaps something on which to spend at least a moment each day, even though today may warrant a deeper dive. May this new beginning be a gift of hope for you as you step into this new year. May clear seeing (20/20 vision) guide you along with sincerity and clarity and may you welcome the joys and challenges of this year with acceptance and gratitude that you still have this new day to open yourself to life!
Late yesterday just after I had arrived at the party marking the 85th birthday of my friend, Florence, the skies opened and gave a torrential drink of water to the parched earth. Just before I left an hour later to return to the retreat I was hosting at home, the rain stopped. Sometimes things just happen that way. Had I been home without a group of people wrapping up an afternoon of deep reflection, I would have loved to go outside and let myself be washed by the cooling water falling from the sky, as I symbolically felt the sensation of having all things being made new. I opted instead for the reasonable option of staying dry.
6:03AM: It’s impossible to stay asleep with all the different birds that are announcing morning outside! I suppose it’s my fault for leaving my bedroom window open all night, but how could I resist? Spring is finally bursting everywhere and it is glorious! It was definitely worth waiting for, although the delay throughout all of April made me wonder if it would ever happen! I celebrate May as the most beautiful month of the year because new life is visible everywhere outside and, as a result, is rising up inside as spontaneous hope. Listen to how Joyce Rupp describes it:
This morning, a cautionary tale. The lesson: stay always in the present moment. It is all that we ever can depend on.
The waiting is over. Prepared or not we acknowledge that Christ comes today to each of us and all of us, calling our hearts to a love that is as divine as it is human, drawing us forth in the humility of one born like us while at the same time offering us riches beyond our comprehension, if only we agree to pour ourselves out in generosity of spirit. The paradox is that this gift to the Christ can be given in the smallest of ways: each day a smile or a kind word to someone starving for affection, ten minutes of silence to heal a noisy world or…name your own offering of light. Every gift is acceptable to the Christ. Now it is He who is waiting for us. Let us rejoice and give thanks!
Last night as I was getting into bed the wind came up with a suddenness and ferocity that made me wonder if there was a storm to follow. It seemed to abate quickly though and did not disturb my sleep as sometimes happens. All seemed very quiet this morning as I woke saying, “not yet please,” grateful for the luxury of a slow start to the day with no perceptible weather event outside. I was mistaken, however, about the wind. While not singing, it seems eager to dance in the tall, straight maple tree just across the yard.
Today we note an interesting juxtaposition of feast days in the Roman Catholic Church. While yesterday we celebrated St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order of priests (the Society of Jesus), today we note the founder of the Redemptorists (The Congregation of the Holy Redeemer), St. Alphonsus Ligouri. Taken together, these two religious orders have influenced the Church for over 5 and 3 centuries respectively in similar if not matching ways. The Jesuits are known, as we saw yesterday, for their leadership in education and the study of Scripture as the basis for theological research and deepening in the spiritual life. Today we hear of Alphonsus, himself a brilliant scholar who received a doctorate in both canon and civil law by acclamation at the age of 16 (!) who gave up the practice of law for apostolic activity. He was ordained a priest and concentrated his pastoral efforts on popular parish missions, hearing confessions, and forming Christian groups. (
I was a little surprised in this second week of the Easter season to read that today’s second reading was Mark’s version of the gospel for the feast of the Ascension of Christ into heaven. Then I realized the date; March 25th is the feast of St. Mark, Evangelist. Knowing that, I read again the advice that Jesus gave to his disciples before leaving them “in charge” to carry on his mission. Simply stated, his advice was three-fold: humble yourselves, be sober and vigilant, remain firm. Each of those imperatives takes discipline, certainly, and we can expect some false steps along our way to perfection.