Paul’s Legacy

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bears, believes, Corinthians, endures, faith, hope, hopes, kind, love, patient, quiet, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

St. Paul is “waxing eloquent” today in what may be his most famous and frequently quoted text of all: 1 COR 12:31-13:13. It is heard it so often at weddings that I sometimes wonder if we don’t just get as far as “Love is patient, love is kind…” and then let the words slide across our consciousness without really penetrating too deeply. Perhaps that’s too harsh a judgment on such an important moment, but I have often heard that “what is seldom is wonderful” and sometimes I know that I perk up and listen better to unfamiliar readings.

On this ordinary Wednesday morning in the middle of September, when all is quiet around me and nothing is stirring outside – even the birds are silent! – I hear Paul once again and am deeply touched by each phrase. May it be so with you also.

Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge, if I have faith so as to move mountains, but I do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over to be burned but do not have love, I gain nothing.

(Before you go on reading, stop for awhile and consider how monumental are those propositions…)

Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrong-doing but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then, face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Living Love

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Entering the Silence, forgive, kind, live, love, loved ones, patient, Paul, Peace, sorrow, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

As is often the case, I woke up today with song lyrics in my head. This time it was a familiar text from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, chosen by countless people for a wedding reading. You know it too, I’ll wager. Love is patient, love is kind, love is ready to forgive, sings Jeannie Cotter with David Haas ready to jump in as the lyrics veer off a bit from Paul. The last line of the chorus summarizes the message beautifully, however, when both sing that in love we choose to live.

I usually wait for a second sign if the song doesn’t go away by the time I sit down and root around inside and outside for a message. As I take stock of the previous day (or, as in this case, two days since I had no internet service yesterday) my theme often becomes perfectly clear. Yesterday was a day of communicating with loved ones – in person or on the phone – who are dealing with issues of deep sorrow. I carry them now and will continue to do so on this day where quiet and inaction is being enforced by the ice and snow outside. As I move through the hours I will take Thomas Merton with me as well to help me stay in the sphere of loving consciousness. Won’t you join me?

Every day love corners me somewhere and surrounds me with peace without having to look very far or very hard or do anything special. (Entering the Silence, p. 196)

 

Purely Personal

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blog, divine Spirit, kind, love, nurture, patient, practice, ready to forgive, spirit, St. Paul, synchronicity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, uplift

This weekend has been all about family for me – and about the love that we hope will last forever for Paul and Gemma who were married on Friday. That was the message that I proclaimed for them, one of the most commonly quoted Scripture passages of St. Paul. It’s the one that tells us all about the qualities of love (kindness, patience, never boastful…) and ends with the certainty that “love never ends.” I would add: if we continue to nurture it. Actually there was a lot of love being spread around the venue then and into yesterday morning at breakfast.

It is a great grace that not only my generation of cousins (the “old guys”) are truly fond of one another. The 16 cousins in the younger generation – all of whom but one attending the event – traveled from near and far and were delighted to be together as well. The eldest, the ‘missing one’ (my godson) was even there by the miracle called FaceTime, so he was included in the “cousins photo” where they all held up their numbers in the birth order over a span of 30 years. Even the fact that Peter now resides in South Korea couldn’t ruin the perfect joy of the night; he was there as surely as the love that conjured him on a telephone screen. And then there were the several babies & little folks who were incredibly happy and well-behaved. It was the kind of experience that lifts the spirit and calls us to be our best selves.

Speaking of things that help us grow, I was surprised to realize that this blog post is number 1,200 for me! It seems uncanny that I have been able to sustain such a practice in the early hours of most days (although not today!) for the better part of four years. What drives me, however, is my desire to do something – no matter how small – to uplift the spirits of good people, some of whom are struggling to make sense of our world. And although I use the prompts of Scripture on many days, in addition to various contemporary writers on others, I am quite often astounded at the message that unfolds. Some call that synchronicity; I believe it is the divine Spirit directing what needs to be said. I sometimes think it might be time to close up my computer and find another path to roam. Days like that are the ones on which someone usually writes or calls to say something like, “Your blog this morning was so helpful for me! Keep them coming.” Then I go back to read it again and find it helpful for me too! It’s all part of the mystery and beauty of how God works.

So if you can keep reading on the days when the result is a bit “ho hum” I guess I’ll keep listening and writing what comes for a while, remembering that love is patient, love is kind…love is always ready to forgive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope for Grumpy People!

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affectionate, cheerful, Daughters of Charity, kind, moments of grace, poor, repulsive, St. Vincent de Paul, struggle, temperament, tender, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Vincentian priests

Two things about St. Vincent de Paul’s life (1580-1660) were surprising to me as I read his brief biography at http://www.franciscanmedia.org this morning. First I learned that he had no burning zeal for the poor early in his life. As a matter of fact, he “became a priest whose ambition was to have a comfortable life.” Called to hear the confession of a dying servant of the Countess de Gondi, his life began to change. The Countess had convinced her husband to give a large amount of money to help the poor in their area and she finally persuaded Vincent to be in charge of the effort. It was then that he found his true calling, caring for the less fortunate, becoming founder of the Vincentian order of priests and spiritual father to the Daughters of Charity, led by Louise de Marillac.

The second comment of Fr. Don Miller in the biography was even more startling as we usually think of our saints as models of good behavior. Fr. Miller writes that Vincent was by temperament a very irascible person – even his friends admitted it. He said that, except for the grace of God, he would have been “hard and repulsive, rough and cross” but he became tender and affectionate, sensitive to others’ needs. So it seems there is hope for all of us who struggle to be kind and cheerful!

Perhaps the morale of this story is that “it’s never over till it’s over.” Experiences in life can take us places we never imagined going and we can be changed in ways we never thought possible. So we can all take heart and be on the alert for moments of grace that might be offered to us at any time!

Speaking of Love

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blessing, Corinthians, depth of love, endure, hope, kind, love, Love never fails, patient, Paul, rejoice, spiritual journey, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’ve been waiting for the lectionary reading of 1COR 13 – St. Paul’s famous and familiar “hymn to love” because no matter how many times I hear it – especially at weddings – it always makes an impact. The long form of the reading this morning is 1 COR 12:31 – 13:13 and every line is worth a look. I went to the part about the qualities of love and noticed for the first time that Paul defines love more by what it is not than what it is. He begins and ends with strong statements about what love is but in between it’s as if he sees a stripping away of behaviors in order to get to the depth of love. This section merits a hearing, (i.e. reading it aloud) with time to savor each line and reflect on what we are growing out of and into on our spiritual journey. It is St. Paul at his most eloquent and I offer it to you as a blessing for today.

Love is patient; love is kind. It is not jealous or pompous. It is not inflated or rude. Love does not seek its own interests; it is not quick tempered. Love does not brood over injuries; it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Conversion

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Acts of the Apostles, Christianity, conversion, Corinthians, endures, kind, love, patient, St. Paul, the slow work of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth, walk with God

St. Paul was, by all accounts, a passionate and zealous man, both before and after his conversion to Christ. That dramatic moment, chronicled in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 9, seems fitting and perhaps necessary for one so focused on his mission in life. His whole life journey changed in a blinding (literally) flash of light and a voice that he recognized as divine. Interestingly, the story goes that his companions saw the light but did not hear the voice. For that reason, perhaps, and for all that followed that coincided with the instructions given to Paul, it was easier for the witnesses to comprehend the total turnaround in his behavior. The comment that concludes the short biography of Paul on the americancatholic.org website this morning speaks of Paul’s style of writing as “rabbinical” and sometimes difficult to understand at its depth, but that in it we find so many beautiful jewels that have become part of the everyday coin in our Christian language. The quote they chose to illustrate this fact is certainly one of the most familiar and bears repeating as we consider the contribution of Paul to the spread of Christianity.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interest, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things…(1COR 13:4-7)

For most of us conversion is a daily thing, perhaps punctuated with brief moments of insight that keep us moving along our spiritual path. While we sometimes long for  more visible and dramatic events to transform us, the value of a steady, day-to-day walk with God cannot be underestimated. Moreover, the example of those who live Paul’s defining words of love in all they do can remind us of the beauty of each life and can help us to humbly embrace our own as “the slow work of God.”

Synonyms

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alternative Beatitudes, benevolent, benign, clement, compassionate, forbearing, forgiving, generous, gracious, humane, humanitarian, indulgent, Jesus, kind, lenient, liberal, Luke, magnanimous, merciful, mercy, mild, softhearted, sympathetic, tenderhearted, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tolerant

In this morning’s gospel passage, (LK 6:36-38) Jesus concludes what is sometimes seen as Luke’s “alternative Beatitudes” teaching with a number of qualities/behaviors necessary to the spiritual life. Among his directives is listed “Be merciful.” Over the centuries, mercy has come to be reduced to the concept of pity, as in “Be merciful to us, Lord, for we have sinned.” Interestingly, as I perused the dictionary of synonyms this morning, of twenty similar adjectives only pitying was in less bold print than the others. So as we think of how God wishes us to treat one another today, let us consider that our actions should be forgiving, compassionate, clement, forbearing, lenient, humane, mild, kind, softhearted, tenderhearted, gracious, sympathetic, humanitarian, liberal, tolerant, indulgent, generous, magnanimous, benign, benevolent and, as the dictionary says, “More.”

Good Example

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kind, Lord, merciful, Psalm 145, slow to anger, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning I read that “the Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is good to all and compassionate to all his works” (Ps. 145: 8-9). Upon reflection I thought: What if everyone took the example in that truth and treated everyone and everything the way God does?

I’m sure that is enough for today. I plan to keep that thought with me as I take the long and beautiful drive home, grateful for the time spent with family and open to what this new season holds of work, play and encounter.

Who’s the Prodigal?

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heal, joy, kind, Lord, merciful, mercy, parable, pardon, prodigal son, Psalm 103, responsibility, selfishness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today’s gospel is one of the most familiar of the Christian Scriptures. Named the  parable of the Prodigal Son it has, over the past few decades, been the subject of much study and deeper interpretation. For instance, one of the more memorable moments for me on the subject was that in conversation about the older son a friend said, “All along the father was thinking that he stayed out of love, but in the end it seemed that his real, deep-down motivation was duty or obligation – which saddened and shocked the father when it became obvious.” That has given me a lot to think about from time to time. More recently I have heard the parable called “The Prodigal Father” and, after considerable confusion, I decided to look up the definition of “prodigal” to try to settle my mind and the interpretation. What I found was two basic definitions.

1. Wasteful, extravagant, spendthrift, reckless, imprudent…

2. Generous, lavish, liberal, unstinting, unsparing…

I find it interesting that the two are closely related and that it is possible that the father’s prodigality with his sons was the basis for the younger son’s action with only a tip of the scales toward selfishness and a lack of a sense of responsibility – or youthful immaturity – that turned the whole thing bad. I think of that as I read Psalm 103 this morning. The refrain sings, “The Lord is kind and merciful” – something that must’ve spurred the son to return to such a father. Continuing the analogy, the verse holds out hope and describes what actually happened when the son came home. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. He pardons all your iniquities and heals all your ills. He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with kindness and compassion. The son was ready to throw himself on his father’s good nature, aware that he would at least be treated with a measure of mercy. Clearly, the father’s joy at his return was unexpected. It would be a wonderful thing if we could remember that moment as well as the words of the psalm when we are asking God for forgiveness.

There is one more thing, however, that the psalm teaches and that I was alluding to when I mentioned youthful immaturity and a sense of responsibility.  There is an imperative that precedes the listing of the ways in which we are forgiven – something we must remember. We must be willing to recognize God’s goodness to us and not forget God’s faithfulness. God is always there to forgive our imprudent or reckless behavior but a “thank you” is always in order for the generous, lavish “welcome home” that we are given.

What You See Is What You Get

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actions, authentic self, good, Jesus, kind, Matthew, motivations, shakespeare, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Let’s face it; we all want at one time or another to be seen in a good light by others. Doing good deeds or being kind comes quite naturally to some people. Some of us have to work at it – at least sometimes. Being grumpy can be a by-product of many things: bad news, our job, being in physical pain or just the weather…but those are the days it’s better if we can stay home and curl up under the covers until the sun comes out again for us.

Today’s gospel is a call to look at ourselves and our motivations. Jesus actually speaks about this more than once in Matthew’s gospel. He does not mince words; his meaning is clear and calls for real honesty in response. He’s talking today, as often happens, about “the scribes and the Pharisees” and tells his disciples not to follow their example because “all their works are performed to be seen.” I feel a little twinge when I read that sentence so that tells me to look at my behaviors today, to be aware of what I’m doing and saying and why, doing my best to be sure that all my actions flow from my authentic self rather than from what I think others expect me to be, do and say. As a guide, I take a quote from Shakespeare that has been with me for years:

This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man. (Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 3)