The Perfect Day

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blessings, John, joy, spring, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The rain has finally stopped, the air is fresh and the breeze is invigorating (8:15 AM). It’s the perfect background for John’s gospel – repeated but not annoyingly redundant: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love. Just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”
(Big finish)
“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.”

(Can you feel it – the joy of such a morning? Just stop if you are able. Go outside and feel the earth singing God’s love for you! Sorry for my effusiveness. That’s what spring in the Northeast USA will do to you!)
Blessings on your day.

The Gift of Creation

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care, creation, Creator, favorite, joy, love, psalm 8, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I love Psalm 8, the lectionary gift of today. I know I often say, “That’s one of my favorites!” and really mean it, but this one is really special to me, my most favorite of all. Just listen to these few lines. Repeat them aloud:

Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth! When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place—who are we that you should be mindful of us, that you should care for us? Yet you have made us little less than the angels and crowned us with glory and honor…

If you’ve ever looked out on a star-studded sky or watched a rainbow appear after rain…if you’ve ever seen a field of sunflowers turning toward the sun or smelled a rose in her fullness, you will understand my bow to beauty. If you have watched from a screened-in porch the power of a storm and heard it announce itself in peals of thunder, counting the seconds between it and the lightning to determine your distance from the eye of the storm, you will feel the exhilaration of nature’s power…or if you have stood ankle deep in the ocean or on the edge of a placid lake at sunset, you will know the peace that overtakes you. If you lean down to study an inch worm or watch a grasshopper jump, you may have been able to share a smile with God who is delighting in the creation much more than you, yourself. And then there is the possibility of looking into the eyes of someone who loves you and whom you love, finding there the wonder and deep meaning of the word “love.” Then you may be grateful as I always am when this psalm shows up in prayer, expressing the immensity of the Creator’s love, the One who plays in joy at the amazing diversity of the creation that is ours and offering it to us as gift.

Praise for Creation

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, blessings, creation, Genesis, joy, praise God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning’s lectionary psalm (104) walks in tandem with the Genesis creation reading that precedes it. Having, however, a different purpose, it offers us a reason to pause and reflect—as if looking back on how we’ve appreciated what God has made. Immediately, as the psalmist opens his mouth, praise and purpose come forth: Rise up. my soul, and speak this blessing to your God...What follows is a reminder of the greatness of God’s generosity and how we have or have not appreciated the gift.

Today would be a good day to look up the totality of this song of praise or simply to see and consider how we have appreciated its content in how we have used and/or abused the creation. Look around. (I say this as the sun peeks out from behind the hills to wash us and to melt the snow.) Think more about the creation and how we have helped it manifest (like plantings and the vegetables that are in season) rather than how we have used—and sometimes abused—these natural resources. Make whatever offering of prayer comes to you while thinking on these things and conclude with the final verses of the psalm that speak our praise:

So while I live and have my breath, all this shall be my song. And may the poetry of heart and word I speak rise up as joy to bless the Lord…for we would ever bless you, God, our hearts remembering all you are to us, both now and ever more…Amen and Hallelujah. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 262-3)

Gaudete!

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Advent, gaudete, joy, Kimberly Hope Belcher, rejoice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I am always grateful for my four years of Latin class in high school with Sister Thomas Aquinas. Today, perhaps more than any other, I can hear myself and my comrades greet her as she sweeps into the classroom hoping for us all to jump out of our seats to respond to her greeting of: “Gaudete!” with gusto: “Salve, Soror. Gratias tibi ago!*” She was never disappointed because she was the reason for our joy. Her deep love of learning and of the joy she engendered in us from deep within her was the impetus for our own. This feeling of remembrance is akin to the sensation of what I read this morning entitled Joy Creeping In,** a description that I think apropos of what I am trying to convey today about Advent. Listen and ponder, please.

The joy proper to Advent is a clear-eyed joy. Advent calls us to look directly at the world’s brokenness, to see the plight of the hungry, the poor and the prisoner, and to cry out for the coming of the day of justice and salvation. Listening to the season and the Scriptures (as we have done for the last two weeks), we feel joy creeping in. As we become aware of what the world is not, of what the world ought to be, we begin to rejoice in our knowledge of God: “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it.“

*”Thanks be to God!”

**Kimberly Hope Belcher, Give Us This Day, Liturgical Press, p.136

Torah of the Heart

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, conversation with God, covenant, joy, love, psalm 119, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, worship

Yesterday our Sophia Center gathering for “Lunch With the Psalms” was so deep and meaningful I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to share in the reflections on Psalm 119: 41-48. I invite you to find a friend and have that conversation. If you prefer, call on our Divine Friend and have the conversation with God.

For the sake of the covenant we keep between us, Lord, let your love descend and hold me fast. And let your word be that which speaks to all who taunt and follow after me. Allow my mouth to utter words of truth, this Torah of the heart, which I shall trust and keep forever. And then in freedom I will walk upon your path and know these precepts are yours alone. I’ll speak them as an overwhelming power to all the rulers of the earth and unashamed. I’ll bind them to my heart with deepest joy. For I love and worship all you love, my Lord; I meditate upon this inner bread. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 303)

I strongly suggest reading the text aloud as the words shimmer with a beauty that is deeper than words and approached only by heart-language heard in our own voice.

Seesaw

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joy, kindness, pity, psalm 90, refuge, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The psalm from today’s lectionary readings (PS 90) reads like a letter to God from someone who understands well the lifetime of earth’s inhabitants. And actually, if read in its entirety, it seems like a seesaw, each end going up and down in turn…

The psalm refrain, repeated every 2 or 3 verses, offers hope to readers, reminding us that in every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge…while peppered throughout the verses are pleadings for God’s favor as it seems we have yet to learn God’s ways. We hear: Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain wisdom of heart. And then, surprisingly, I think, something that speaks clearly to our present situation, Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants! But then again, the hope…

Fill us at daybreak with your kindness, that we may shout with joy and gladness all our days. And may the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours; prosper the work of our hands for us! We breathe in our trust…in every age.

Out of the Mud

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face of God, joy, Macrina Wiederkehr, pessimism, reawaken, seven sacred pauses, sinking, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Here we go again…a new month…..Can we look forward with any sort of optimism, even while predictions of disease become more and more dire? I ask myself that question and then consider the alternative. What would be the result of giving in to pessimism? As I consider that, a stunning image comes to me: a huge line of people sinking into mud – all wearing masks now but continuing to sink – hands at their sides – silently sinking. No one is helping another. No one is speaking to anyone else. Just sinking.

I am appalled at this image. As quickly as it appears to me, it disappears. I will not let this sinking be my truth. I reach for Macrina Wiederkehr’s book, sevensacredpauses and determine to keep one or the other of the quotes I find in mind throughout the day. They will be my lifeline to pull me out of the mud. Listen to the voices:

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by infinite expectation of the dawn. (Henry David Thoreau)

Joy is God in the marrow of our bones. (Eugenia Price)

Joy is the echo of God’s life in you. (Dom Marmion)

To God belongs the East and the West; and wherever you turn, there is the face of God. (The Qur’an, Surah 2)

Music Lessons

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holy hour, joy, persevere, remembrance, singing, St. Cecelia, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today we sit in the midst of a distressing “moment” in our country’s history (only the fourth incidence of a presidential impeachment inquiry) while also remembering the tragic event of the presidential assassination in 1963. Today is also the feast of St. Cecilia, patron of musicians. Many people would say I am stretching a bit to throw St. Cecilia into that mix but I would beg to differ.

At our “holy hour” last week from the Sophia Center, we celebrated those who step up to serve in difficult times like natural disasters or mass shootings, those whose lives are dedicated to services like the military or as first responders and people who quietly “do good” each day. The most moving moment for me and for many others was at the invitation to stand and sing all four verses of America the Beautiful with our voices being the only musical instrumentation. It was a stirring – one could easily say “emotional” – event that could never have been as meaningful as a spoken recitation of the lyrics would have been. It was a reminder both of the beauty and history of our country and the strength of character of those who have made the country great.

We need music. We need concerts and “singalongs” and hymns in religious services both joyful and those filled with sorrow. Music helps us to express emotions that are deeper than words. Today might be a good day to find some music in our personal “favorites” file and allow ourselves the emotions of remembrance, sadness or despair, pleading for peace, hope for resolution or seeking God’s grace to persevere. See what you can find and listen with your heart. Feel better and give thanks.

Blessing of the Day

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blessing, comfort, God's grace, grateful, joy, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tranquility

After an amazingly good night of uninterrupted sleep and fortified with my first cup of coffee of the day, I go forward into a large gathering of Sisters of St. Joseph. It a sort of “homecoming” that we have each October as close as possible to the remembrance of our founding date. I found a blessing that we used this summer at the larger, whole Congregation meeting that (with a few changes) seems appropriate for this day, not only for us but for all of God’s people.

O God of all Goodness, whose infinite wisdom has brought us to this time and place in our history, we ask you to bless us today. May our lives be blessed with the fullness of God’s grace, the deep challenge of Christ and the wisdom and wonder of Spirit. May the coming days be tranquil, grateful and filled with the joy and comfort of God.

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)