A State of Grace

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desire to please, Eckhart Tolle, grace, life, lightness, present moment, resistance, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

After reading over what I wrote on Saturday and lived through yesterday that provided me no time to write, I am convinced that I am finally coming closer to understanding how to BE in the face of this existence we call LIFE. I have known for a long time that I am not in charge of my life but only responsible to respond to it as it unfolds. I can do that with resistance or acceptance, tightening or loosening my hold on it as I go. Tightening only gives me pain as muscles are not flexed but stiffened. Allowing what comes to wash over me with openness and deep breathing is a better stance. Conveniently—and no longer surprising to me—I find Eckhart Tolle’s “Present Moment Reminder” today quite apropos. He says:

To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way good or bad.

Earth Day at 50

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Earth, Earth Day, life, Mother Earth, psalm 8, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

On this 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, I could sit all day today looking at photos and videos from NASA or taking photos myself outside my house where forsythia like ours could light up the world with their brilliant yellow! I could take a short walk outside once every hour to feel the exhilaration of fresh air as I stepped out the door. I could take a break to praise God for the loveliness of the world each time the wind outside caught the sun peeking out and then running across my bedroom floor. I could (and plan to) transplant the beautiful cuttings of my Prayer Plant (That is her real name; look it up!) that I have been nurturing along for awhile or attend to my Christmas cactus that deserves a more spacious home.

In the midst of a serious crisis, it is always good to stop and remember what is still good about this life on Earth. Today, if we can do nothing more, we should at least give thanks for and to the Earth, our home. Raise your arms or at least your eyes to the expanse of Her. Bend your body in a bow or at least a nod to the wonder of Her. Sing a song or at least call to mind a line of praise – (Psalm 8, for example) in thanks to the One who made Her.

Celebrate Earth and then make a new or renewed commitment to care for her because She is, indeed, Mother to us all.

Coming Around Again

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consciousness, cycles, journey, journey of life, life, Sisters of St. Joseph, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding

While searching this morning for a bill I need to pay within the next few days, I came across something I wrote in 1986 to welcome three new members to the novitiate of our Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph. I didn’t remember the content and was somewhat surprised when I read the talk because I found it all together pertinent to the present moment. Truth be told, it would probably be relevant to most of our days. Here is the second paragraph of the document.

One comforting thing about the journey of life is that it is a cyclic one: we have more than just one chance at things. We praise from the rising to the setting of the sun and the next day we rise to praise again. There are days on which the sun seems slow to come up, and those on which we fear the sunset will never come, but if we have awakened to the meaning of life, we begin to see the journey not as a monotonous cycle but rather as a spiral wherein each day is a new opportunity to achieve new heights of consciousness of what the journey is all about.

We have great opportunities during this hiatus from our normal activities. Perhaps we might spend some time today spiraling up to a new and deeper understanding (or at least an inkling) of the meaning of our life journey.

Of Life And Death

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death, Ladislau Boros, life, light, obituaries, psalm 27, salvation, The Mystery of Death, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom School

For some reason today I turned my morning ritual upside down and began by reading the local obituaries at the beginning rather than at the end of my usual routine. That meant that the lectionary readings came later and led to this moment of reflection – an interesting interpolation that turned into what now seems like a unified whole. There was great variety in those obituaries, particularly of the life spans of the deceased. I often pause when I come across people in their early 70s now and wondered this morning when I read about the life of a woman who was 83 whether I would still be reading such things a dozen years from now.

That may sound rather morbid but it really is not. It’s a practice that first lets me know if there are any cards to send or funerals I ought to attend and secondly, to consider the deeper questions of life and death for at least a few minutes. I suppose it has something to do today with the fact that I was reading my notes yesterday from a Wisdom School based on the book, The Mystery of Death, by Ladislaus Boros. There are lots of meaningful quotes in that book, but that’s for another day. Today I am taken by the theme of light, shining out from each of the readings. Here is my favorite, from Psalm 27:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?”

One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life…Wait for the Lord with courage, be stouthearted and wait for the the Lord.”

A New Day

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John Philip Newell, life, light, oneness, Praying With the Earth, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today we take a breath. Some return to work. For some it is enough to put away gifts received and put out the trash, saying goodbye to loved ones and checking the calendar to keep appointments straight. Regardless of the events of yesterday and how we celebrated Christmas (or not at all), the tumult of the holiday fades today as we return to “normal life.” We might well use the Wednesday morning prayer from John Philip Newell to guide us along into renewed awareness that we can be somehow changed for the better each day, whether a grand holiday or a stitch in ordinary time.

All things come from you, O God, and to you we return. All things merge in your great river of life and into you we vanish again. At the beginning of this day we wake not as separate streams but as countless currents in a single flow, the flow of this day’s dawning, the flow of this day’s delight, the flow of this day’s sorrows, your flow, O God, in the twistings and turnings of this new day.

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. (Praying With the Earth, p. 26, 28)

The Element of Surprise

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anxiety, life, Rainer Maria Rilke, sadness, surprising, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The days seem to be getting shorter and the nights longer now but it’s really just an illusion since the calendar still promises 24 hours (give or take a few seconds). It’s really just the light that has changed or diminished and it’s sometimes harder to keep our inner light switched on. I read a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke this morning that is somewhat comforting as I yawn my way into the morning, remembering how rich in events yesterday was and hoping for the same on this grayish, chilly day.

You mustn’t be frightened if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall.

Perhaps today will be as surprising as any other…Why not?

Short Stories

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feed my lambs, feed my sheep, Gospel, Jesus, John, legacy, life, love one another, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

One of the phrases I remember hearing rather often from my father when one or another family member would be explaining something in a long or roundabout way is “Short stories” (Which sounded like “Shot stories” in his Boston accent). It was a familiar way to tell us to get to the point and was generally rather effective.

One would wish the opposite of that directive after reading the conclusion of today’s gospel. It says: “There are also many things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think that the whole world would contain the book that would be written.” (JN 21:25) How I wish that the gospel writers had given us more of Jesus! I say that and then think of how much more I could do with what is written in those very pages. And I could, if I wished, fill a whole building with the commentaries that have been written over the centuries.

What really is the point? My short answer today is my desire to understand more deeply what Jesus was talking about and witnessing to his legacy to us. Next I think that in trying so hard to “get to the bottom” of his meanings I could easily be buried in the mountains of commentary that exists. Then I realize that I could spend a lifetime ruminating on a very few sentences. Take these for example:

1. Love one another as I have loved you.
2. Feed my lambs; feed my sheep.
3. I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.

Short stories, indeed…

Suscipe

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grace, gratitude, life, liverty, love, memory, nature, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Suscipe, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transformation, understanding, will

The transformation happening in nature in this most lovely of months (in my opinion at least, for those who reside in the Northeast of the USA) is so visible we cannot ignore its manifestation. Would that the inner transition of our hearts matched that of the natural world. I think we would do well to listen to the silent call of the flowering trees, the energetic growth of the grasses, the music of the running streams…new – or renewed – life everywhere!

As I wrote the above paragraph the morning sun came softly forward from the misty sky and begged attention at my window. My response to all that calls me this morning is a favorite prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola (in Latin, Suscipe) in gratitude for all that is given.

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, O Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me.

Fervent Prayers

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earth's children, John Philip Newell, life, love, love of the Earth, peace of God, prayer, Praying With the Earth, strengthen, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I picked up John Philip Newell’s book, Praying with the Earth, just now and found two prayers for Saturday morning that seemed helpful. The first was entitled Prayer for the Life of the World and the second was a Prayer of Blessing. I imagined a great gathering of people praying the prayers together and the peace of God flowing through the earth bringing peace. May it be so in our time.

1. To the home of peace, to the field of love, to the land where forgiveness and right relationship meet we look, O God, with longing for earth’s children, with compassion for the creatures, with hearts breaking for the nations and people we love. Open us to visions we have never known, strengthen us for self-givings we have never made, delight us with a oneness we could never have imagined that we may truly be born of You as makers of peace.
2. 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 neighbor heal our world. As nations, as peoples, as families this day may the love of life heal our world. (p. 52)

The Choice

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choose life, Deuteronomy, life, Moses, risk, Sister Helen Kelley, ten commandments, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today Moses takes the podium with a clear choice for the people. (DEUT 30: 15-20) “Today I set before you,” he says, “life and prosperity, death and doom.” Who wouldn’t choose the first option? Oh, but there are conditions: obeying the commandments, statutes and decrees he sets down, walking in God’s ways rather than adoring their other gods… Not so simple when I start reflecting on the everyday experience of my living…(What “other gods” are still pulling me in the wrong direction? I ask myself.)

Moses is persistent, repeating his charge again and urging them toward the correct choice, saying, “Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him…” (Sounds like a choice that would be hard to resist, but then I think of the habits that are so persistent, especially in the down, difficult days of winter…)

A more evocative version of the challenge, perhaps, came to me long ago from Sister Helen Kelley, whose name remains anonymous to me but whose words always return when I listen to the speech of Moses in Deuteronomy.

Choose life, only that and always, and at whatever risk. To let life leak out, to let is wear away by the mere passage of time, to withhold giving it and spreading it is to choose nothing. (See berkana.org)