Holy Silence

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Holy Week, humility, Peace, silence, simplicity of love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours

As we move into this week that we call “Holy” I have no words of my own so I search Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours for a message leading to silence. I feel that is the way to go in this week as much as possible, giving God the chance to speak. Here is Merton’s prayer:

Keep me, above all things, from sin. But give me the strength that waits upon You in silence and peace. Give me humility in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride which is the heaviest of burdens. And possess my whole heart in the simplicity of love. Occupy my whole life with the one thought and the one desire of love, that I may love for You alone. (p. 55)

On the Cusp of Holy Week

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A Deep Breath of Life, accept, Alan Cohen, flow, Holy Week, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Some time ago I wrote about an approach to Lent that suggested letting go of “do’s and don’ts” in a manner of speaking, and rather focusing on life in the present moment. This morning I read a page in the book, A Deep Breath of Life, that offers a similar—if not matching—message. Maybe it is just the one we need as we prepare to enter Holy Week tomorrow.

It’s a story about monkeys and nuts, and, of course, people trying an experiment. The important item was the container for the nuts—a glass jar with a rim smaller than the base, making the monkeys unable to get to the nuts, if and until they were smart enough to tip the jar on its side instead of struggling to fit their hand into the jar. Jungle lore called that “making use of ease rather than force.”

The lesson offered by the author is stated as follows: “If you are trying to clutch onto something that won’t fit into your life naturally, that’s when you get caught. Accept what shows up, and you are free. Take advantage of the tide of events, and life will support you in ways that you could not manipulate through serious struggle. Build on what is rather than what isn’t and you will be one with life.” (Alan Cohen)

Rather than adding tasks to this coming week to earn the favor of God, why not just notice what comes into view in your life and respond to opportunities to “flow” in ways that you may not have done before. Cohen’s brief concluding prayer says this: Show me how to live. Help me move with energy that I may be free and happy. (I think God would be happy with that as well…)

One Step Closer

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follow Jesus, Holy Week, Lent, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

When we get this close to Holy Week I generally regret that I have not been more diligent in my Lenten practice. This year there is no regret—only longing for a clearer sense of what is truly necessary for a readiness to recognize God’s gifts in the everyday. Whether I am reading the”regular readings” or those chosen especially for parishes celebrating “the scrutinies” there are verses that always pull at my heartstrings — not with guilt but only desire. Listen to my favorite ones:

>I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God and they shall be my people.

>A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. Cast me not out from your presence and your Holy Spirit take not from me.

>Whoever serves me must follow me, says the Lord; and where I am, there also will my servant be.

>I trust in the Lord; my soul trusts in his word. More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the Lord. For with the Lord there is kindness and with him is plenteous redemption.

With the sun this morning I can see the heavy frost on the trees across the river but I have confidence that, by noon, all of that frost will be dissipated and the hills will have taken on a different clarity, that which comes from the sun. I, too, will shine if I renew my trust in the Lord and choose to receive the warmth of God’s love suffusing everything around and within me. (I trust in the Lord; my soul trusts in his word.)

Seeds

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faith, Genesis, growth, Holy Week, Matthew, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It’s amazing how much life there is in seeds. Some are so small they can hardly be seen and it takes trust to even put them in the ground without throwing in a whole fistful. When I was in a gardening phase of my life I wondered what was the reason for the differences among them, including size. Then it occurred to me that even animals and humans start that way and the amazement comes with the exponential growth during the gestation period. That brought me, of course, back to the creation story in Genesis that I love to hear during Holy Week and then forward again to the days in spring when all the flowers and trees begin to bud and then burst into their marvelous diversity. God really was (and remains) very prolific and generous in creating our world.

So what, then, should we make of the parable of the mustard seed in today’s gospel as a sign of the kingdom of heaven? (MT 13:31-35) Something very large and glorious, I suspect. Be sure to look around today, lest you miss the manifestations everywhere.

Transformation

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acceptance, adversity, COVID19, Franklin Roosevelt, Holy Week, self-discipline, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transformation

For the past three days, my housemates and I have chosen to watch the PBS series, The Roosevelts, together as sort of a “dinner theater” event. Although it is a departure from our normal Holy Week schedule, we have found the practice worthwhile for the study of both our national history and human behavior in the relatively recent past. Most compelling was last night’s segment which chronicled the rise of Franklin Roosevelt from the beginning of his participation in the political sphere to his election as President of the United States. It was during this period that he was stricken with polio.

FDR went swiftly from being a rich, strong, entitled man to whom all things came without struggle to becoming a helpless invalid who could do virtually nothing for himself. It was fascinating to see the transformation from a proud, independent, self-assured person who refused to allow anyone to see evidence of his disability to a man who became a champion of others like himself who not only survived but thrived. The transformation began when he opened his home in Warm Springs to polio victims of all ages and found possibility in sharing his lot with them. He came to a deeper understanding of people and grew in a new openness, born of his own struggles and the sharing with those dealing with all manner of distress. It was the era of the Great Depression in our country.

Acceptance of self and others is writ large throughout this series, both by those in this dynasty who learned the life lessons and those who did not. Adversity was a teacher for those who stepped up to the challenges they faced for their own good and the benefit of others. (Franklin’s wife, Eleanor, has already begun to shine by episode three and is clearly one of the winners in the willingness to go out of herself for others.)

Perhaps it is a stretch to compare our time to theirs but there are moments when the connection seems clear to me and it is the consciousness of what is possible and acceptance of what is not that will determine the outcome of this crisis of COVID-19 that we are now experiencing. And in what may seem a huge leap, may I quote St. Paul who reminds us that Jesus “did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at but rather emptied himself…”

May we contemplate the power and possibility of transformation during these next three days in a way that will open us to deeper understanding, stronger self-discipline and the great love of God in light.

This Is the Day

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coronavirus, Holy Week, Palm Sunday, rejoice, ritual, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, This is the day the Lord has made.

“This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it.”

This line is for me like the “ticker tape” message on the New York Times Building in Times Square, NYC, this morning. It keeps running through my consciousness, calling me to attention. What’s the message?

It is Sunday. It is a Sunday of high ritual; we call it Palm Sunday. (Lots of people are sitting at home weaving crosses of palm fronds right now.) This Palm Sunday will be a challenge for religious people everywhere who are devoted to the rituals that we Christians call “Holy Week” because we have been told to stay home from Church to protect ourselves and one another from the pandemic (COVID-19) that is now ravaging the entire world.

Obedience is more difficult when you cannot see with your eyes the reason for the directive, i.e. in this case: “STAY HOME.” Spring is here. We have a proliferation of daffodils in our yard. The weeping willow trees have that light yellow-green haze that precedes the leafing out of other trees. Today promises to be warm enough for a light coat, and by next Sunday what we used to call “Easter finery.” We can’t see the reason for letting go of everything that we are told is necessary to our well-being, but we know now that it is a matter of life or death.

Reflection on this situation that we cannot see or touch but only know by its effects is perhaps a way to move from outside to inside, from action to intention, and then from head to heart. Take the case of the practicing Catholic who waits for this week to prepare each year for the rituals that end in the glorious feast of Easter. The moments of distress and horror as s/he walks with Jesus through trial, suffering (physical and mental) and ultimately death will be swallowed up in the glory of resurrection. How is all that possible this year?

Can we be satisfied — if we are lucky enough to have live-streamed services — to watch it all on television? If that is not available, can we read the relevant chapters in the Scriptures and put ourselves energetically into the scenes of the week? Can we move through the days in a silence of the heart, a spiritual communion, connecting ourselves to all of our brothers and sisters who are suffering across the world.

This is the day — as is every day — that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice that we are called to deeper understanding of the God who calls us. And may we rejoice in that knowledge that we belong to this God and to one another in a deeper way than ever before — a deeper way of the heart.

Sunshine

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coronavirus, Holy Week, infinite mercy, Jesus, Kathleen Deignan, New Seeds of Contemplation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

It was 6:37 a.m. this morning when I looked up from reading the updated statistics of the cases and deaths from the Coronavirus and saw the sun just below the top of my backyard mountain looking like a supersize flashlight that God had turned on just for me. Now it’s almost 8:00 and I am still sitting with a heavy heart because of the state of our state (NY)—highest statistics for infections and deaths from the virus—and the state of our nation and the world. There is no good news as we march toward Holy Week to consider what seemed to be the end of the amazing ministry of Jesus, the miracle worker.

There is no possibility of looking directly out my window now, however, because the sun is too bright. I can no longer see the mountain and I notice a stirring inside me that is totally contradictory of all that I have been considering since my morning began. It rises like the words of Thomas Merton as I read a random (?) psalm prayer to obliterate the darkness and get me off my chair to face the day.

Love comes out of God and gathers us to God in order to pour itself back into God through all of us and bring us all back to Him on the tide of His own infinite mercy. So we all become doors and windows through which God shines back into His own house. (New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 67, quoted by Kathleen Deignan in Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours, p.153.)

Standing With Each Other

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courage, helpless, Holy Week, lament, loss, Notre Dame, Our Lady of Guadalupe, pain, pray, presence, suffering, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning as I read the psalm of the day (69) on the USCCB website I was reminded of the prayer service that we prepared in December for the feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, a prayer of lamentation for the caravan of migrants streaming toward the southern border of the United States. Bereft and sorrowful because of great loss, God’s people are searching for comfort and consolation in the present in the same manner as has been true throughout the ages. This seeking, I realize, can be an inner or outer experience – or both – and I find it again appropriately expressed in the paragraph below that was an introductory reflection for our prayer service in December.

Lament is a tool that God’s people use to navigate pain and suffering. Lament is a vital prayer for the people of God because it enables them to petition for God to help deliver them from distress, suffering and pain. Lament prayer is designed to persuade God to act on the sufferer’s behalf. Lament is often most effective as a communal activity. Reading and reflection are intended to express empathy for people suffering as a result of great loss.

Today the flames that devastated the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris have died out but the reality of the loss as seen in the photos rends our hearts. As was true at our prayer service, I believe that the spontaneous gathering of thousands in the Paris streets – inhabitants and visitors alike – who stood and wept, prayed and sang as the cathedral burned must have felt the power of community in that excruciatingly helpless moment.

On this middle day of Holy Week, I wonder if Jesus felt the lament of the few faithful ones who remained with him at the cross. Can we feel the reality of his suffering as present in the world today and enter in a true and visceral way to stand with those who deserve our presence and courage?

Joining Forces

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bonding together, Holy Week, Jesus, light of the world, Palm Sunday, Passion, spiritual mystery, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today is Passion/Palm Sunday, when across the world people turn inward to consider the events of this cataclysmic week in the life of Jesus. Before beginning to consider what to write this morning, I “surfed” a bit on the internet where everything called me to consciousness of the enormity of the weeklong event that is just beginning.

I have always had difficulty considering the swiftness of change in the events from the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to the crucifixion. Lately, however, with all the violence in the world that seems to erupt sometimes from nowhere, I have come to recognize the vagaries of human behavior and to accept that kind of bubbling up of change in emotional reaction in crowds. This year I have a sense of something shifting in myself and elsewhere in a different direction. The number of groups and organizations that are arising across the world for good purpose is increasing and the messages of such entities seem to be more and more similar, thus creating recognition, if not yet bonding together, for the benefit of the world both spiritually and materially (which at a certain level cannot remain separate).

For Christians it is the following of Jesus that moves us toward our neighbor in spreading light in the world. There is no better time to consider this truth and our part in it than this week. One of my stops this morning on the worldwide web was the site of The Episcopal Society of St. John the Evangelist where a quote from one of their recently deceased monks, Br. Eldridge Pendleton, captured my sense of what is afoot. He said the following:

Make no mistake about it. The events of Holy Week and Easter are not merely annual reenactments of the tragic events of the life of an important historical personage. This is spiritual mystery on its deepest and most cosmic scale.

May we all open ourselves to the power of this week and move toward oneness for redemption of the world.

Easter…and Beyond

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aloneness, Easter, faith journey, hear, Holy Week, light, Matthew, prayer, Seder, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We have arrived. “It is the first day”, the saying goes, “of the rest of our lives.” It is the first day of April, the month when we expect great flowerings – in our weather, our gardens and, hopefully, our life. We have survived the winter, some with great stress and destruction, and though it seems to be hanging on, we need to remember that the resistance of Mother Earth can be as strong as our own when it comes to change.

I just went back and read each of my posts for the past week. It was a different kind of Holy Week for me. I wait each year to dive into the meaningful rituals that put me in touch with the life and death of Jesus like no other moment in the year has the power to achieve. I have done that at home this year, having spent much of the winter in respiratory distress and not willing to give or bring home the germs so universally prevalent in the crowds of worshippers during this season. Oh yes, and by Palm Sunday, I had contracted a serious cold and sinus infection that sealed my decision to walk the way of the week at home. It was a surrender that was difficult but, in the end, meaningful.

Going to one’s room and closing the door is a well-known directive offered by Jesus in the gospel of Matthew (6:6) as a significant way to pray. He promised that the God to whom we “pray in secret” in that silence and aloneness will hear and reward the prayer. I can say that this has happened in flashes of insight during the week, coming to a deeper sense of what it must have been like for Jesus and how the events can influence my willingness to live more directly in the manner of Jesus. The most significant learning from the week, however, has been the recognition of the importance of community for spiritual support.

Each year on Holy Thursday, my local community celebrates a Seder meal, commemorating the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples and in solidarity with the worldwide Jewish community celebrating the Passover. We eat the ritual foods and recount the history of the Hebrews in the same manner as our Jewish neighbors. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem and give thanks for the providence of God that has kept us safe in the past year.

As we concluded the Seder this year, and as I have reflected today on the entire week, I recognize the significance to my faith journey of the presence of companions. While I am able to meditate in private on the articles of faith and the events that inform our practice, it is the energy shared in the rituals as well as the experience of the rituals themselves by the gathered community that is at the heart of it all. I can sing alone and hear my voice proclaim a gospel text alone, but the light of the Easter candle burns brightly only as the light is passed from person to person so that it illuminates the whole room.

I will carry my portion of the light, hopefully as it has been made brighter by this insight, back into the community of the faithful in the coming days. Writing that, I remember a quote from long ago that seems apropos for my metaphor and a good image of possibility. Simple but profound, it declares: Easter people everywhere, shining Jesus love!

Happy, blessed Easter to all of us.