A Late Surprise

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emotions, faith, gift, gratitude, joy, loss, marriage, risk, seniors, thankful, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning, a cautionary tale. The lesson: stay always in the present moment. It is all that we ever can depend on.

This morning I will attend a memorial Mass for a man I did not know. He was 80 years old and came into my consciousness when a woman I have been acquainted with for many years, a widow important to our local church community, re-connected with him. They had known each other in their youth – dated even, I believe, – and found very quickly this time that they were so happy together that there was no reason not to commit to each other in marriage. And so they did – about 18 months ago. She said she had never been happier and it clearly showed on her smiling face. Some time in the latter part of 2017, they were told he had cancer.

I don’t know what these last months have been like for her. I can only speculate on the mix of emotions that have played in her every day. Some people would most likely be raging against a God who was seen as a cruel trickster. Others would, no doubt, be thankful for the unexpected and glorious gift of joy shared so late in life. My sense of this faithful, prayerful woman is that gratitude will win out even as the sadness of loss becomes a frequent companion.

I can imagine what our conversation might be about today if we are lucky enough to share a moment before the ritual. I expect that her faith will be evident as always, her gratitude for the family that has pledged to remain present to her will be expressed and that she will have a treasure chest of memories to carry with her into the future. Most of all, I expect that she will be glad for having taken a risk for such a gift from a God whose ways may not be our ways but who sometimes offers amazing opportunities to those awake enough to say “YES!”

 

 

 

 

 

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The Simple Things

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Book of Hours, expectations, hope, loss, renew, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

Sitting here this morning taking inventory of my thoughts and feelings I found only loss. First, I was faced with a message from a friend about her mother’s passing. It was not an unexpected message but monumental, of course, especially for someone who has been a loving caretaker for a long time.  Then I read less serious news of dashed Olympic hopes in skiing and skating. Americans who seemed destined to win by the agreement of the entire world failed miserably and one wonders what role the expectations of everyone had in the results.

Wanting only to accept whatever this day holds, I was encouraged by Thomas Merton whose Book of Hours said it quite succinctly. It will suffice for my prayer on this first Friday of Lent.

Thank God for the hill, the sky, the morning sun, the manna on the ground which every morning renews our lives.

 

 

 

 

 

Job’s TQ (Trust Quotient)

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Blessed be the name of the Lord, Book of Job, challenges, destruction, distress, give, loss, suffering, take, thank God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust in God, unwavering faith

When I read the text of the first reading from the Book of Job this morning (JB 1:6-22) I thought – as  usual – that it sounds like the synopsis of a bad movie. Satan, vying with God, bets that Job won’t be as faithful as he has been if bad things happen to disturb his idyllic life of favor as God’s friend. God disagrees. After he hears all the terrible destruction that his servants come one after another to tell him about, we hear the familiar line that “I came into the world naked and will leave it naked. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Of course Job doesn’t say these words as declarative, emotionless sentences. He does wail and rend his garments…and this is only the first chapter of his test.

While it is clear to me that God does not bargain with evil, even on a sure bet, the Book of Job does make me think. I am always edified in conversations with people who have lost virtually everything in life or who have had horrendous experiences, when they make similar statements to Job’s, attesting to their ongoing faith in God. I wonder sometimes what I would be able to endure of suffering – I who often profess to have lived “a charmed life.” There have been challenges, to be sure, but my supports have been such that I never have cause to complain.

Today I shall think about Job and about all the people I have known who have met and survived incredible distress in unwavering faith – especially those like our Sisters in Japan who survived the atomic bombs of World War II, the man from Aleppo whose whole world was destroyed in seconds – including the loss of his four children and his wife, or all the people I have spoken of during this year who have been victims of weather events, who say when standing in the rubble of their town, “I thank God to be alive.” I don’t think we ever know the strength of our faith until it is tested, but I am urged by these thoughts to practice, in whatever ways I can, for a time when I might feel severely shaken and need to place my trust totally in the God who loves me more than I can imagine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gain and Loss

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attitude, declutter, gain, Jesus, life, losing, loss, Matthew, Philippians, posessions, profit, soul, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth

In today’s gospel we find a paradoxical statement in which Jesus gives his followers the pattern of living that he, himself, has espoused and in the following of which they will find the fullness of life. (MT 16: 24-28) He says: Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. To clarify, he asks the following question: What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his [her] soul?

St. Paul speaks in the Letter to the Philippians of the great willingness of Jesus to surrender everything to teach us what is important, that is, the primacy of love. He writes: Have among yourselves the same attitude that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather he emptied himself…(Phil. 2:6-11) Later in that letter, Paul affirms that teaching/example of Christ in his own life by saying: I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things…(3:17)

So how might we interpret these words in today’s world? Especially in the cultures of the developed nations of our time it is difficult to let go of striving and of possessions to find interior peace – even when we assent intellectually to the value of such surrender. But more and more frequently I hear people speak of their need to “de-clutter” not only their closets (as I am doing with some success!) but also their lives which are so busy that there is little or no room for silence and communion with the Divine.

The point of Jesus and Paul was made simply and clearly for us at the end of the 20th century by Jesuit spiritual teacher, Anthony De Mello, who wrote: “How would spirituality help a man of the world like me?” asked the businessman. “It will help you to have more,” said the master. “How?” “By teaching you to desire less.” A paradox surely but one that can be proven truthful by those who have removed themselves from the “race to the top” in search of deeper meaning. We have many examples of how this works – from billionaires like Warren Buffett, whose countenance shines with the happiness of one who understands the value of “sharing the wealth” to people like the man in the news yesterday who walks the streets with his hair-cutting tools serving the homeless by shaving and cutting their hair for free.

It is the freedom that comes from this “losing” that is the “gain.” Not tied to riches or status or anything at all, we are free to serve whenever and wherever we are called. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to know this truth – but we can all start somewhere to “let go and let God” work in us. Every day is a new beginning and, for me, this one has just begun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Person’s Contribution

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devastation, disaster, Flood, forest fire, guiding word, loss, love, pain, save the world, Sisters of St. Joseph, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the spiritual center, truth

This morning I’ve been searching unsuccessfully in all my favorite sources for a way to express what I can only describe as the pain of the world – but not a universal pain. There is that, but the sadness/distress that washes over me now is closer to home, residing in Albany, New York, West Virginia and California. It is about fire and flood, the fire appearing on east and west coasts and the floods devastating so many lives in between. “We’ve lost everything” is the refrain from those whose homes are reduced to ash as well as people – young and old – who slog through mud still waiting for word of loved ones who may have been swept away by angry streams or rivers. One cannot help but weep for their pain. At the same time there are images of store and restaurant owners who open their larders to feed the people in their towns who have nothing. Groups form to shovel mud and fold donated clothes for the needy while others come to pray their grief and that of their neighbors.

I have watched news for months that tells of the devastation of a half-mile wide tornado or huge ice storm, but nothing has touched me as deeply as the past three days. Why is that? Are the losses greater or is it rather (or in addition) that a wider spaciousness for compassion is opening in me? Have the two brief reflections on mercy in which I participated during the last week sparked this response? Perhaps the energy shared at this weekend’s workshop here at the Spiritual Center, Windsor has had its effect on mine.

As I sit bathed in the beauty of a fresh breeze and peaceful greening outside, I hear inside a familiar guiding word from the founding documents of my religious community: The Sister of St. Joseph moves always toward profound love of God and love of neighbor, from whom she does not separate herself…Perhaps I am coming to understand that oneness in a deeper way now. I wonder, then, what is the call of that truth? “More love,” I hear in response. “So much love!” How that call will manifest remains to be seen but I know it does not happen in isolation. It is only together that we can, energetically at least, save the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dancing with the Stars

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Bindi Irwin, Dancing with the Stars, gifts, hope, joy of life, loss, persevere, psalm 131, quiet, rejoice, soul, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Last night I commented that the reason I like watching the television show Dancing with the Stars (besides the dancing) is that the celebrity participants seem, for the most part, like “real people” who are excited about learning a skill and appreciative of the camaraderie of the experience. Personalities emerge, of course, for better or for worse, but at this point in the 21st season, I find it all delightful. One of the stand-outs is Bindi Irwin, the daughter of Australian environmentalist Steve Irwin who died in 2006 from a stingray barb injury. Bindi was 8 years old. In addition to her talent as a dancer (whose partner is the amazing, 5-time winner Derek Hough) Bindi exudes the joy of life at every moment. She is authentically bubbly in spite of the devastating loss of her father that remains, and now even in the midst of the pain and injury during practice. She claims that complaining is never useful.

I thought St. Paul would have appreciated Bindi and I hear echoes of her comments in today’s Psalm 131. Paul says, “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them…if one contributes, in generosity; if one is over others, with diligence; if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be sincere…Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.” (ROM 12:5-16) Psalm 131 seems a humble response to Paul’s exhortation: O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor are my eyes haughty; I busy not myself with great things, nor with things too sublime for me. Nay, rather I have stilled and quieted my soul like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap, so is my soul within me… Good advice from the great ones of old and the example of a lovely young lady.