Let Your Light Shine

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Jesus, light, Matthew, shine, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today’s gospel reading presents a monumental challenge to us. (Mt. 5: 13-16) It begins with a compliment that one could consider as a “hook” (as in: “Be careful not to get hooked into something you can’t do”) but when we hear Jesus say: “You are the salt of the earth!”, it’s hard not to get puffed up and think we can do anything. It’s the same when we hear: “You are the light of the world!” The difficulty comes with reading the second part of each of those declarations of Jesus. Look back and see if you don’t feel deflated occasionally when you’re having a bad day and you hear about salt losing its taste or light set under a bushel basket unable to be seen…

I suggest we look at both of the full statements as the words of a cheerleader instead. “Come on!” Jesus says. “You can do it! Shine! You are such a brilliant light! Just keep going! Keep trying! Be the light you want to see in the world! Shine! Shine! Shine!”

And Then the Blazing Sun…

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apostles, blinded by the light, Jesus, light, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transfiguration

It was 7:43 EDT this morning when I saw the outline of the sun through the trees on our back hill. I don’t know whether to call it a mountain or not. It seems very high and I don’t know what it would take to scale it—or how to get around it and where I would be if I found myself on the other side. I often think about that but go no further than my thoughts because if I asked someone and got an answer of how to get around it, the mystery would be gone and I would not know what to do without the wonder of it all. This way, the way of not knowing, was swallowed up this morning in a blaze of glory as the full sun moved into focus and became the only light. The brilliance was all I could see and the shining was all that was left. Normally I (and others) would pull a curtain to minimize the light—but I have no curtain hanging there now as I’m in the midst of shifting elements of my bedroom. (And really, why would I ever want to miss anything happening outside?) I could have moved my chair but that would call for more shifting and still the light might obscure everything.

So I just sat until the sun had moved past the perimeter of the window (knowing, of course, that it is I who was moving as the earth moves around the sun). It was a metaphor, to be sure, and I have often been “blinded” by the sun. Today, however, I sat and consciously experienced what was happening as I sat surrounded by darkness. The shimmering brilliance was all that I could see and it was difficult to stay in it—in the way we are told not to look directly at the sun without special glasses during an eclipse. I thought about all the places in Scripture that speak of apparitions: the Transfiguration of Christ on the mountain, for example, where Peter, James and John were blinded by the light and when they looked up, they saw “only Jesus.” Can I say I am changed by this experience of light? Will I remember how nothing else was visible but darkness in the presence of that light? Who can say what awaits…maybe if I ask about or try to scale the mountain. What might I learn to see then?

Dawning Light

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J. Philip Newell, light, morning praise, pray, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

6:39AM: The snow of the past 48 hours has finally stopped and we will see temperatures above 40 degrees today (perhaps). It is a day, then, for morning praise. I choose J. Philip Newell for my prayer partner:

For the first showings of the morning light and the emerging outline of the day, thanks be to You, O God. For earth’s colors drawn forth by the sun, it’s brilliance piercing clouds of darkness and shimmering through the leaves and flowing waters, thanks be to You. Show me this day amidst life’s dark streaks of wrong and suffering the light that endures in every person. Dispel the confusions that cling close to my soul, that I may see with eyes washed by Your grace, that I may see myself and all people with eyes cleansed by the freshness of the new day’s light. (Celtic Benediction, p. 40)

Newell then suggests that we pray for the coming day and for the life of the world. I suggest we try for a rising of hope in that prayer. We need it!

Light in the Darkness…If

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afflicted, guide, hungry, Isaiah, light, plenty, strength, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I have been delighting in a website called Tinybeans which keeps me up to date with the growth and progress of a friend’s baby. Today was the saga of his introduction to carrots and it didn’t go well. John made it perfectly clear that he was not going to eat those orange things, regardless of the efforts of both his parents to encourage it. It is fascinating to see how babies react to tastes. (I, for one, found carrots in the top three vegetables and still do!) At this point, John does not have language to refuse – only facial clues – no matter how his parents coax him. Later on, perhaps, they will cajole or demand compliance when encouraging acceptable behavior, or will make “deals” with him in the traditional “if/then” process: “If you eat your vegetables, then you can have dessert…” but for now, he wins.

It may be stretch, but John made me think of this morning’s reading from the prophet Isaiah. (58: 9b ->). The stakes are much higher in what Isaiah is proposing, however, and the promises are quite tempting. Listen to yourself reading it aloud:

Thus says the Lord: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech, if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted, then light shall rise for you in the darkness and the gloom shall become for you like midday. Then the Lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.

Can you feel the light rising in you? If not, try turning off all the lights in the room you’re in and stand in the dark for a moment or two. Then turn all the lights on at once and see what you can see. And thank God for all the promises you have been given.

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Dawning Light

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Christ, confluence, darkness, light, light bearer, light of Christ, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The word confluence comes to mind today as I sit to gather my thoughts. Often there are too many to harness into anything even remotely reasonable or logical but the need to do so is sometimes so important! At such times, I feel that letting anything go might be like losing a diamond. So I sit here winnowing…

Light and darkness are great words for this week and the SSJE brothers say it best, I think, in their “word” for today. Listen: There are so many people now shrouded in darkness. Be a light-bearer. Pray that the light of Christ be mirrored in your countenance: through your prayer, voice, writing and giving. Don’t hide the light. Let it shine! (Br. Curtis Almquist, Society of St. John the Evangelist)

Interestingly, having simply shared that energetic expression, I am now calmed and the need for more has dissolved. I’m sure (as a woman in labor is sure that the contractions will return) that the need for some more precise explication of what I’m feeling may emerge before the dawn of Friday. So I wish you good light in and around you today and hope for tomorrow. May it be so for us all!

Go Deeper for Your Answer

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light, psalm 27, refuge, salvation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today, another direct question, this time from Psalm 27, right from the beginning (verse 1): a question not to be taken lightly. Thus it will likely take some time to consider what you might include in your answer of things/events/people that cause fear to well up in you.

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?

Snippets

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convictions, keep watch, light, Matthew, messages, Philippians, psalm 141, reflection, shine, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Kitchen conversation this morning yielded an important lesson. Sister Paula picked up one of the devotional pamphlets from the table next to her and began to read a reflection. Set a guard over my mouth, Lord, it read. Keep watch over the door of my lips. (Ps. 141) A worthy prayer, we all agreed.

Messages are everywhere of how we should be in this world, especially in the USA in the run-up to our national elections. Psalm 141 could follow us around all day, finishing as the light disappears toward evening with the following verse: May my prayer come before you like incense, the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice…

As if that isn’t enough, the gospel acclamation for today fairly shouts: Shine like lights in the world as you hold on to the word of life. (PHIL 2) So as the Pharisees go off and plot how they might entrap Jesus in speech (MT. 22), we ought to remember these words and those of Paul that tell us how we were chosen. “For the gospel did not come to us in word alone but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.”

Have a meaningful day!

Sunday Morning

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Celtic Benediction, glow of life, John Philip Newell, light, seeing, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Geese are squawking on the river beyond our land as morning breaks. Not just a new day but a new week is dawning and hope begins to rise in my heart. It is as if we might be returning to a sense of normalcy. As soon as the silence is overcome by human activity, I know that the morning news will bring a different feeling to the day, but just for now I am grateful for the sense of possibility that helps me remember the goodness in life.

John Philip Newell is my guide as I step into this day. Here is his prayer.

I watch this morning for the light that the darkness has not overcome. I watch for the fire that was in the beginning and that burns still in the brilliance of the rising sun. I watch for the glow of life that gleams in the growing earth and glistens in sea and sky. I watch for your light, O God, in the eyes of every living creature and in the ever-living flame of my own soul. If the grace of seeing were mine this day I would glimpse you in all that lives. Grant me the grace of seeing this day. Grant me the grace of seeing. (Celtic Benediction, p.2)

On the Second Day of May

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creation, light, pandemic, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, wholeness

Today feels like what Thomas Merton might describe as “the first day of Creation.” I feel the warmth of a sun that is already shining so bright and full through my window that I am unable to see my computer screen. I need to lean toward the south to shade the brilliance enough to type. It is glorious in both heat and light and leads me to shout silently to God that “this is what May is supposed to be like!” In my mind I am already out picking up branches that were victims of the wind these last three days. I can already imagine that by sunset there will be tiny leaves on branches everywhere—a gift from the mixture of sun and rain…just how things are supposed to be.

It’s difficult on a morning like this to remember words like pandemic. The reality slowly seeps in but at the same time I begin to wonder if there isn’t a way—or more than one way—to see a wholeness in what seems an overwhelming dissonance. Would I be able (or even willing to try) to maintain the lightness of being produced by the sun’s warmth and the consequent burgeoning of life in creation today while holding the reality of death and dying that is all around? It would seem an impossible task but I sense a worthy challenge in it for myself today.

Attitude = Gratitude

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attitude, gratitude, light, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, virtual liturgy

I cannot escape this world that I live in, even if I wanted to with my whole self, that is: body, mind and spirit. So here is what seems quite evident to me on this first day of the week. I woke up with the thought that I need to change my attitude toward the present state of the world. I recognized that I have been devolving into a reactive mode with the negative forces (restrictions, political rhetoric, etc.) rising while my normal state of optimism was receding. The miracle of the day is that everything is converging to feed the good on my path.

Kitchen conversations at “coffee hour” just now were all about the spiritual lessons of yesterday given free of charge on the internet by spiritual leaders of East and West. Today’s lectionary readings at usccb.org were like stepping stones into light. Then more gifts from bloggers followed and I am now set to join a virtual congregation of Mass-goers at my favorite local Church to touch back into my heritage of beautiful Catholic ritual where approximately 300 believers will join with the exquisite singing voices of Pat and Jan and to listen to the wisdom of Father Charles whose presence as presider is a gift in itself. Additionally, every time I participate in this virtual Sunday liturgy, it seems that the seven necessary participants are joined by others. The resonance and volume seem to indicate many more participants in the church when in reality we are elsewhere but joining in spirit.

How can I not be grateful for this day, this opportunity to live in light – even in the face of what appears to be opposition? I am convinced of the call to shake off “the deeds of darkness” and bathe in the Light. Might you find ways to join in this attitude of gratitude today?