Unconditional Acceptance

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acceptance, enemies, forgiveness, Jesus, Lent, love your enemies, Matthew, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Beginning with yesterday’s readings, the Lenten path grows more challenging. Not only are we to “make for ourselves a new heart and a new spirit” (yesterday’s challenge). Today calls us to reach out even further when we encounter others — especially those others whom we would never wish to meet. Here it is from the mouth of Jesus:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for He makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. (MT 5: 43 –>)

Who are your enemies? Even if it is likely that there may be little chance of you ever meeting an enemy face to face, can you really say there is no one on earth that you could not welcome into the circle of your embrace? How might you move toward acceptance? And, with steadfast love of God, might you hope to come someday to the forgiveness that bespeaks the love of God for all creatures?

A New Moment

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a new heart, a new spirit, consciousness, Lent, Psalm 130, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I sit here wondering if I need to recant my words of yesterday about asking for help from other people in our journey of life. It’s today’s gospel acclamation that stopped me. I had just read the verses of one of my favorite Lenten psalms, savoring the best line that acclaims: “My soul waits for the Lord more than sentinels wait for the dawn.” (PS 130) I was even amazed as I looked out my bedroom window to see the sun totally up and blazing already, underscoring the fact that my waiting for God’s action in my day is true and ongoing…Then I read the following:

Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, says the Lord, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.

That slammed into my brain with a force that wiped out every other thought…for about 30 seconds, and then the questions started flooding in. “Wait a minute,” I said. “I thought that was God’s job! Haven’t I always read that God would make a clean heart in me, washing away all my sins?” (etc.) And then: “How does that score with yesterday’s post about letting people help me?” (Sigh…)

The answer seems to be my willingness to suspend my ordinary way of thinking and move to a different kind of consciousness where all is one and God is all in all. I would like to simplify by using images like all the ingredients that go into a cake to make the one cake delicious…but that seems to cheapen the experience somehow. So I will leave it there and hold the mystery of the moment in the knowing of something that became clear in this graced morning in the sunshine.

Small Things

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do small things with great love, Easter, Lent, Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

A good reminder today in this early stage of Lent comes from today’s “Saint of the Day” page of the franciscanmedia.org website. Like St. Theresa of Lisieux, known as “the Little Flower,” St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows contracted tuberculosis and died at the young age of 24 years. Like her, he had a burning desire to enter a religious community from childhood and, as Mother Teresa would say, “to do small things with great love.” Rather than planning a rigorous program of Lenten practices – and perhaps falling short in the long run – we might do better to follow the wise counsel of these saints.

Blessings on your conscious effort as we walk this path toward Easter.

Beginning Again

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Ash Wednesday, Lent, Scripture, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

So it begins…six weeks of traveling toward Jerusalem with Jesus. It seems that we just celebrated the welcome of “the baby Jesus” into the world – and so we have. Our attention to the seasons of our faith ought to keep up with the speed of what seems an accelerate passage of time, but really the calendar is still the same. It’s just that the acceleration of change in this world and our consciousness has increased. Science can barely keep up so it isn’t so strange that we have difficulty doing so.

The readings for today have many encouraging words for how to move through the season of Lent. Here are my favorites that simply call us to attention to our own lives and actions while asking God for help. Think on these things.

>A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.

>Brothers and sisters, we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you, be reconciled to God!

>If today you hear his voice, Harden not your hearts.

>When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.

>(My personal favorite) Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart…Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord. For gracious and merciful is he…even now!

Mardi Gras

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abstention, Ash Wednesday, fasting, Lent, Mardi Gras, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transformation

New Orleans is a great city to visit. The best thing about it, in my opinion, is the music. My best memory of the only time I visited “The Big Easy” is sitting on the curb in the French Quarter (because there was no possibility of squeezing one more person inside) listening to the best jazz music possible where the instruments themselves speak a language of life in all its joys and trials. I wouldn’t want to be there today, however, as it is Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”) and a million guests are expected in the French Quarter for today’s celebrations.

I did some “surfing” this morning to see if I could find anything about the real meaning of this day when revelers follow the dictum of “eat, drink and be merry…” but there isn’t much attention given to the “morning after” where the revelry ends and the meaning lies.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent, when Christians traditionally turn their attention to fasting and prayer, good deeds and sacrifice in order to reflect on the sufferings of Jesus in the lead-up to Easter. These days the strictures of the season have been relaxed. Rules of “fasting and abstention” from meat apply only to two days instead of every Friday and meal size restriction isn’t generally talked about any more. Giving up candy for Lent doesn’t seem as relevant; doing good deeds has become more the norm. Maturity seems to hold sway these days in our Lenten living.

The goal of any Lenten practice should not end with the celebration of Easter. Transformation is (and always has been) the goal. We pray and reflect more deeply during this season to follow the example of Jesus, loving more universally, living more honestly and giving more generously of ourselves.

Would that these weeks of practice would be so powerful that we would never “go back” but always move to deeper and broader living in God. It is possible. Why not make that the goal this year?

Sunrise

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expectation, Lent, Pope Francis, prayer, Robert Moynihan, sunrise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Here comes the sun in all its blinding radiance, fairly shouting “Awake! Awake!” with the promise that it is indeed spring. I hear the energy in the birds and wish I could join in the song but I made the mistake of reading today’s headlines before the sun appeared. It seems that every day there is something new to add to the list of issues and/or events to mourn. Then I think that it is still Lent after all and that life goes on as it will.

Then my eye falls on the cover of Robert Moynihan’s book about Pope Francis that in bold letters entreats the world: “PRAY FOR ME!” (the first words of his papacy.) In that humble moment the Pope reinforced the fact that life is a jumble of strength and weakness, easy and difficult, happy and sad. In so doing he also let us know that we are all in this together and we can – if we truly make the effort – overcome the darkness that exists all around us.

So I face the sun and make an inventory of the day ahead, slowly feeling the rising of expectation within me. It will be a good day, I trust, because of the Pope, the people I will encounter, the conversations we will have, the prayer we will share, and the sun which will continue to rise in my heart.

Body Blessing for Lent

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bodies, companionship, dyads, God, heart, Joyce Rupp, Lent, mindfulness, non-judgment, prayer, Prayer Seeds, service, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Joyce Rupp is a very gifted spiritual writer and retreat leader. When I worked for my diocese in the Office of Faith Formation she was the “go to” person for many of our prayer services because the prayers in her many books touched hearts so powerfully. This morning I picked up her book, Prayer Seeds, (p.88) and found a service meant to be prayed in dyads. I thought, however, that it might be a good idea for each of us to use it personally as a reminder that our bodies function as vehicles for God’s grace. So instead of blessing another person while touching the place named on the body, why not engage our own eyes, hands, etc. in a movement toward mindfulness each day of Lent as we speak the words – preferably aloud.

Forehead: May the Gospel teachings about non-judgment resound in my thoughts of others.

Ears: May I listen closely to how God invites me to grow spiritually during this Lenten season.

Eyes: May I slow down and look more intently order to find God’s movement in my life.

Shoulders: May I carry my cross of difficulties with courage, trusting God’s strength to uphold me.

Hands: May my service be so intertwined with God that this love overflows from my heart.

Heart: May I keep turning my heart toward God and allow this love to be reflected in the way I live my life.

Feet: May I welcome God’s companionship and guidance as I travel the path of life.

Are You Ready?

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, kindness, Lent, psalm 50, thankfulness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Suddenly, it seems, we stand on the threshold of Lent. Who has had time to prepare? I realize I am speaking for myself here. Between planning for travel, re-orienting from different time zones and calculating what the weather will be like tomorrow or next week even if I’m not leaving town, I could easily say I am not ready for the upcoming 40 days. And yet I have only to look at Psalm 50, the psalm response in the lectionary readings for today, that states clearly a pattern for correct practice, a way of living that does not change but only deepens with determination and desire.

The psalmist speaks for God and says, This is what I want from you. Offer me a grateful heart. Fulfill the vows that you have made…I’ve made my case, here’s what I want, a sacrifice of thankfulness in all that honors me. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew: the Psalms as Poetry, p.125)

It seems to me that the world is desperately in need of kindness and positive behavior so that a Lent during which we live in right relationship, not only with God but with our neighbor, is the perfect choice. (How could we love one without the other?) And it is clearly a choice. We cannot honor God and leave our neighbor in the lurch. It will be necessary, I think, to remind ourselves of the practice of inclusive love several times a day – maybe when we look at our watch or phone with the question, “What time is it?” Maybe it will be enough for some to rise with the sun and offer the day in praise and good works to God as the light returns. You know yourself. Do it your way.

But just one more necessary component: do it all, in whatever way, with a smile.

Postscript

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Advent, authenticity, charity, courage, faith, forgiveness, honesty, humility, Joyce Rupp, kindness, Lent, loyalty, mercy, patience, Prayer Seeds, qualities, reflection, respect, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding

As travelers begin homeward journeys after celebrating Thanksgiving and those of us who enjoyed blessed companionship at home find ways to re-prepare turkey and “fixins,” Joyce Rupp offers a prayer. It is only one paragraph but holds a wealth of reflection should we accept the invitation of the 13 qualities that could take us far down a road of spiritual growth. Practicing one a week for 13 weeks would take us to the cusp of Lent. One a month, if the starting line was December 2, would span 2019 in fine style as a response to the holiday we have just observed. Why not write each one on a post-it note or index card and display it on the refrigerator or the inside of the exit door to your home and watch for how it affects things during its turn as your practice? What can we lose? What will we most certainly gain?

Sower of Seeds, you have placed in our hearts the potential for many gifts of your love to grow and ripen. Charity, authenticity, mercy, honesty, humility, forgiveness, loyalty, patience, understanding, courage, kindness, faith, respect, and other qualities reflective of your goodness dwell in our interior fields and garden…(Prayer Seeds, p. 181)

Clinging to Hope

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alive, beginnings, Celtic Treasure, Christ, Easter, faith, Holy Week, hope, Jesus, John Philip Newell, Lent, love, new life, promise, solace, sorrow, stay the course, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, turmoil

For so many people I have encountered in so many places recently, life seems to be a continual walk in the dark. For Christians who are following the path of Lent, walking with Jesus ever closer to the events of what we call Holy Week, the heaviness of these days can be an opportunity even as we find our energy sapped by news of a world in deep turmoil. Another school shooting yesterday, panic in Austin, Texas over serial bomb explosions, wildly destructive coastal storms and personal tragedies or disappointments leave us wondering when and how it will all end. Will Easter bring us solace and the promise of new life?

Today it is a prayer from John Philip Newell’s book, Celtic Treasure, that calls me to consciousness. May it be a reminder and an encouragement for us to “stay the course” in hope, clinging to the transformative power of faith and love.

You are within and among us, O Christ, as the one who is alive for ever. In the sorrows and sufferings of our lives you are with us as the one who holds the keys of new beginnings. There is no ending in the world, there is no fear in our lives, there is no despair in our hearts, that your living presence cannot unlock. You are within and among us, O Christ, as the one who is alive for ever. (p. 214)