Standard Time

Tags

daylight saving time, heart of life, John Philip Newell, light, Praying With the Earth, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, time

Sometime in the night my cell phone pulled back an hour to afford me another hour of sleep. Just like that…done…and now we are on Eastern Standard Time here. It’s a bit of a lesson, sounding like “God said ‘Let there be light and there was light'” — but not really. We have no power over the elements or the “space/time continuum,” as it is called. And most of us won’t be quite as satisfied when it is dark at 5:00EST today, rather than at 6:00 like yesterday. There’s a very long article on Wikipedia today explaining the origin and practice of Daylight Saving Time – as well as the places which have exempted themselves over the years. There is, of course, a legal process to follow in order for a state – or territory of the U.S. – to change or not to change and reasons given for the choice. Still, it remains a bit of a conundrum for me, seeming like it is just one more thing that we complicate to serve our own needs.

I must admit, however, it was very comfortable to lie in bed this morning, dozing in and out and watching the light come…So here’s a prayer for the morning to accept and be grateful for what we’ve been given in this glorious universe!

Light within all light, Soul behind all souls at the breaking of dawn, at the coming of day we wait and watch. Your light within the morning light, Your Soul within the human soul, Your presence beckoning us from the heart of life. In the dawning of this day let us know fresh shinings in our soul. In the growing colours of new beginnings all around us let us know the first lights of our heart. Great Star of the morning, Inner Flame of the universe, let us be a colour in this new dawning. (Praying with the Earth by John Philip Newell)

Oneness

Tags

John Philip Newell, Life Is a Verb, lightning, oneness, solace, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

When things in the world seem dark and dreary and fragmented, we seek encouragement from any source available to us. Today it will be sunshine – if the predicted weather gives us one of those amazing October days. We hang on to “October’s Bright Blue Weather” as we know that winter will surely soon be upon us. As on the outside, so we hope for solace for our inner selves. I find it in the words of John Philip Newell today in Praying with the Earth.

All things are born of you, O God. We carry within us your light and your life. In the mystery of matter and deep in the cells of our souls are your longings for oneness. The oneness of the universe vast and vibrating with the sound of its beginning. The oneness of the earth greening and teeming as a single body. The oneness of the human soul a sacred countenance in infinite form. Grant us your longings for oneness, O God, amidst life’s glorious multiplicities. (p. 28)

Morning Blessing

Tags

grateful, John Philip Newell, love of earth, love of life, love of neighbors, love of self, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning, a short blessing prayer from John Philip Newell as I prepare to go and serve breakfast for a bright, kindly group of women here at the Spiritual Center for the last of our season’s workshops. It is a privilege to be in the presence each weekend of such seekers of a deep spiritual experience and I am grateful as I pray:

May the love of life fill our hearts. May the love of earth bring joy to heaven. May the love of self deepen our souls. May the love of neighbors heal our world. As nations, as peoples, as families this day, may the love of life heal our world.

Monday Morning Stillness

Tags

courage, heart, humility, John Philip Newell, Praying With the Earth, reverence, strong, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, treasure, wait

The lovely book by John Philip Newell entitled Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace is set up in such a way that the reader not only finds – in addition to the prayers for the life of the world – prayers of awareness and blessing twice a day but also quotes from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and the Quran. That sounds like a lot of words but, in fact, it is not. Here are the three Scripture quotes for Monday morning that in their brevity moves one, perhaps, to a deeper, wordless place of peace.

Wait for God. Be strong and let your heart take courage. (Psalm 27: 14)

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)

Remember God deep in your soul with humility and reverence. (Quran – The Heights 7 .205)

Praying with the Earth

Tags

gift, John Philip Newell, love, Peace, Praying With the Earth, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The meteorologists acted as if Hurricane Dorian was finished wreaking havoc when it barreled through North Carolina. Not so! I saw the footage of Nova Scotia’s damage last night and wondered how much longer it could go on. So this morning I am again Praying with the Earth the words of John Philip Newell in hope that the world will soon be righted again.

For the gift of this new day, for waking again from the dreams of the night, for our bodies strengthened and our minds renewed thanks be to you, O God. You are the stillness of the night, You are the genesis of the morning, You are the moistness of new conception. Let there be peace in the human soul. Let there be wakings to new consciousness, let there be tears of love. In the life of the world this day and in our own hearts let there be fresh tears of love. (p. 4)

Prayer for Awareness

Tags

blessings, Dorian, God's presence, John Philip Newell, Praying With the Earth, the first Breath of day, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

As I wait for new information about hurricane Dorian and its slow process of destruction, I pray for God to be with all those affected by this unprecedented event. No, that’s not exactly true. What I am praying for is that those affected will be aware of God’s presence in the midst of the storm. John Philip Newell companions me in the waiting and in the hope of this new day.

It is in the depths of life that we find you/ at the heart of this moment/ at the centre of our soul/ deep in the earth and its eternal stirrings./ You are the Ground of all being/ the Well-Spring of time/ Womb of the earth/ the Seed Force of stars./ And so at the opening of this day/ we wait/ not for blessings from afar/ but for You/ the very soil of our soul/ the early Freshness of morning/ the first Breath of day. (John Philip Newell, Praying with the Earth)

Earth in Crisis

Tags

crisis, disturbing, Earth, earthquakes, Holy One, John Philip Newell, Prayer of Awareness, Praying With the Earth, recycled, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We who live in this blessed region of our vast country watch with concern this week the news of earthquakes in California (Are they the harbinger of “the Big One?”) and flash flooding in the nation’s capital, while at the same time giving thanks for the minor inconveniences that we encounter close to home. “Disturbing” is certainly a word that we might use to describe our feelings about what is happening to the Earth, our home, but we should next be asking how we are complicit in the degradation and what we are doing to counteract it.

There has been a commercial on television lately about Rothy’s shoes, made out of recycled plastic. A person twists a plastic water bottle in her hands and it turns into a shoe and then there are all sorts of pictures of shoes. I couldn’t imagine that the message they were conveying was actually about plastic becoming wearable shoes so – of course – I went on the internet to do some research and, believe me, whoever had the idea certainly did their homework. Not only shoes but now clothing is being made from the huge amount of plastic that we discard each day. Statistics are mind-boggling as are the concepts of what can be done with what we throw away.

The lack of concern for the earth is monumental and shame should be our only reaction as we see pictures of the debris being scooped up from the oceans and littering our highways. I am somewhat calmed by the efforts of creative people like the Rothy’s company leaders but the earthquakes this week have (pardon the word) shaken me awake and hopefully have done the same for many people.

I know that much work has to be done and I can only hope I will enter the realm of the active reformers, doing my part in conscious and responsible citizenship. This morning, however, I have decided it might also be time to use John Philip Newell’s book, Praying with the Earth, as a consciousness-raising tool for my morning and/or night prayer. Today’s offering includes the following Prayer of Awareness. (I write it as a stream with few stops to accentuate the urgency of its message to the Holy One.)

It is in the depths of life that we find you at the heart of this moment at the centre of our soul deep in the earth and its eternal stirrings. You are the Ground of all being the Well-Spring of time Womb of the earth the Seed-force of stars. And so at the opening of this day we wait not for blessings from afar but for You the very Soul of our soul the early Freshness of morning the first Breath of day. (p. 18)

It’s About Forgiveness

Tags

deliver us from evil, forgive, forgiveness, John Philip Newell, Matthew, The Lord's Prayer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

What does one say about the prayer that Jesus himself taught that has lasted and been learned universally since? I don’t even remember learning the Lord’s Prayer – the Our Father. It has just always been a part of me, albeit not always followed to the letter. It seems sometimes that the most difficult part is the line that says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive…”

I noticed this morning that the gospel didn’t end with the hope of being delivered from evil. There was an addendum of sorts (MT 5:15) that puts a fine point on the forgiveness issue, as if Jesus is saying, “Did you get that? Did you hear what I said? Let me be really clear about this.” It seems that if we don’t forgive others, God will perhaps withhold forgiveness from us. (If you forgive others their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.) That was rather astonishing to me, given my perception of God’s love and grace. It struck me this morning as a deeper way to live the gospel – a sure way to share in bringing light to the world.

I had decided that most likely everyone who reads what I write would find those thoughts rather overstated, like something that we already knew and wouldn’t find it necessary to be reminded of…so I picked up John Philip Newell’s book, Praying with the Earth, in search of something more thought provoking. I found the prayer for Thursday morning (today) to say the following:

We wake to the forgiveness of a new day. We wake to the freedom to begin again. We wake to the mercy of the sun’s redeeming light, always new, always gift, always blessing. We wake to the forgiveness this new day. (p. 34)

Why am I not surprised? From the shock of thinking that I won’t be forgiven if I fail to forgive sometimes, I find myself reassured that I can always start over – every day – to try again. That doesn’t let me off the hook but it certainly helps me to forgive myself for my failure – which then gives the impetus to try again. So God is still the God who forgives me but that forgiveness is not a free pass to heaven. I am responsible to live always from a heart steeped in forgiveness of others as my very own self. Really and truly…every time.

Glory Days

Tags

blessings, communion, gladness, gratitude, humble, John Philip Newell, Mother Earth, Peace, Praying With the Earth, resilience, spring, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today promises to be the kind of day that makes me glad to live in New York State. The birds are singing, the sun is already doing its best to get us to 72 degrees Fahrenheit, the grass couldn’t be greener or more like a grand outdoor carpet while the flowers and flowering trees are stunning in their natural beauty. The grand unfolding of nature seems such an organic process that I tend to forget all that Mother Earth has been through over the past months: hurricanes, torrential rains, frozen rivers and lakes, destructive winds…

Picking up branches on our land yesterday and noticing the new configurations of those places damaged by the winter winds and water makes me grateful for their resilience. The silence as I walked and bent and cleared debris called me to a deeper place of communion with all that is natural to us and often missed in our busyness. I am grateful for the words of John Philip Newell to express my heart sense this morning:

May the deep blessings of earth be with us. May the fathomless soundings of seas surge in our soul. May the boundless stretches of the universe echo in our depths to open us to wonder, to strengthen us for love, to humble us with gratitude, that we may find ourselves in one another, that we may lose ourselves in gladness, that we may give ourselves to peace. (Praying with the Earth, p.20)

Tending the Fire

Tags

Celtic Benediction, Easter, fire, healing, John Philip Newell, Octave of Easter, soul, strength, sun, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

“Wednesday within the Octave of Easter” That’s what today is called in Church circles. It feels very much like “Ordinary Time” to me today. There is my list of tasks to accomplish, sitting on the right arm of my chair to assure my attention to their completion. How is it that we keep the fire of Easter alive through each hour? I think of all sorts of adages that speak of that effort: Steady as she goes! One step at a time. Fake it till you make it. (I always hope it won’t come to that one!)

What about this short prayer from John Philip Newell?

O Sun behind all suns, O Soul within all souls, grant me the grace of the dawn’s glory. Grant me the strength of the sun’s rays, that I may be well in my own soul and part of the world’s healing this day…that I may be well in my own soul and part of the world’s healing this day. (Celtic Benediction, p.41)