Speak, Lord!

Tags

Abraham, Joseph, listen, love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I woke up this morning at 5:55 a.m. Five, you may know, is the number of change. I don’t know much about numerology but that strikes me this morning as something that deserves attention, given that the number was repeated three times. For days we have been considering the stories of Abraham and his descendants. It seems that in the entire story there is nothing but love and forgiveness. Fears of reprisals are pushed aside. Joseph has all the evidence he needs to convince him that if he (and we) stay in touch with God and try to respect and accept that the people who are given to us are in our lives for a reason, clues will be given along the way and we will be pleasing to God. All we need to do is to stay awake and offer love as a response to every day in every way that is presented to us.

Therein lies the rub…

Matthew’s Challenges

Tags

disciples, love, love your enemies, Matthew, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Every time I read chapter five of Matthew’s gospel, I feel more and more challenged! The Beatitudes are enough but then there are so many other things added on…. One could spend a lifetime simply in that one chapter! Just take one little section like: I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…. Yikes! I try but have been very short of success in that endeavor, especially as that statement is followed up with questions like: If you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Difficult questions…challenging statements…. Love can certainly get complicated if your desire is to listen to the way of the disciples…. Are you still willing to go along?

Still On Hiatus

Tags

discernment, listen, live, love, prayer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

As I sit in the quiet on another glorious, sunny morning (May is definitely the best month of the year!) I find myself still undecided about the future of my blogging effort. Here is my status this morning, a clue to put in my bag of evidence or a piece of the puzzle, you might say.

We Sisters of St. Joseph have a Community Day or Weekend each year. It’s a sort of homecoming when we all—or as many as possible of us—gather to sing and pray and reflect on some aspect of our life together. And we celebrate (rather boisterously at times) our connection with one another. We have been deprived of this privilege last year and this one because of Covid 19. Last year we did nothing and we felt the lack. This year we decided on a “virtual” event as we have become somewhat adept at gathering in this way and have found that, while not perfect, it is somewhat satisfactory.

Today is our chosen day and I have been asked to participate in the opening prayer. Much of the prayer is taken from our Constitution and my part includes the following:

WE LOVE FREELY. WE LIVE SIMPLY. WE LISTEN ATTENTIVELY.

That sounds exactly like how I should be proceeding in the discernment of what comes next. So, be advised that I am still here, still aware that you are with me on this journey of life and willing to wait for what comes next. Some of you have already given me your suggestions about what you see as a way to move forward with what is important to say in a blog now and why. I am grateful for your support. Stay tuned…

Hoping Against Hope

Tags

Acts of the Apostles, go deeper within, Jesus, John, love, Ordinary Time, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We are moving swiftly toward “Ordinary Time” – the season after Pentecost when we are left to our own devices, when Jesus leaves the earth for good and tests our trust in the Holy Spirit for faith and inspiration. The lectionary readings today are full of “foreshadowing” and are mixed between miracles with St. Paul in prison (Acts16) and Jesus in his disturbing message to the apostles (JN 16) where he says things like: “It is better for you that I go.” I can hear myself responding to that with “NO! You can’t go! What will we do without you? How will we know how to live in this confusing time?”

As I wrote that last part, I was reminded of the commentary on the news last night on MSNBC about all the unbelievable political issues and the violence in the world. So I ask again of Jesus: “How are we to live without your presence?” and I get the same difficult answer: Go deeper. Love as best you can and trust that I am with you. You need to find me in your best selves, in the evidence around you: the light that returns every morning without fail, the burgeoning of springtime, the kindness of strangers…everything that speaks of the good in the world.

Think of the best person you know and consider why that person is “best.” Make a list of all the good things in your life. Watch internet videos of babies interacting with one another…Do anything that shows the goodness in life. And trust in God, hoping against hope that God is, in fact, truly with us. And never stop doing your best to love one another as Christ loves us.

Monday, Monday…

Tags

Acts of the Apostles, grief, loss, love, Meg Wheatley, perseverance, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Here we are in the second week of Easter, moving on (some of us) as if all had been resolved and we have come back to normalcy (as if we could even define what that means.) Christ is alive. We have assurance of that and of what it means from the Acts of the Apostles. (As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness…” Acts 4:30-31) But are we ready to get back to the place we left over a year ago when everything abruptly shut down and a new reality was presented to us? Is it even possible to do that?

In the midst of that musing, I opened Meg Wheatley’s little book, Perseverance, and found the exact word that we need to consider, I think, at this juncture. See if you don’t agree. The word was Grief and the reflection said the following:

If we are able to give ourselves to the loss, to move toward it—rather than recoil in an effort to escape, deny, distract, or obscure—our wounded hearts become full, and out of that fullness we will do things differently, and we will do different things. Our loss, our wound, is precious to us because it can wake us up to love, and to loving action. (Norman Fischer, Zen teacher)

Searching for the Truth

Tags

John, love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth, truth will set us free

I was just reading an article from the news about the absolute blockage in the Senate. I feel it’s my duty to keep up at least a little with the governance in my country. Today it is as if there is absolutely no “give” as the 50/50 split seems impossible to overcome. Then I look down at today’s readings and see that John’s gospel sets a very high standard for decision-making. Jesus says, “if you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

How does a person find “the truth” today? Life is so complicated and there are so many voices giving so many messages. What about this one: “Love and do what you will.” That certainly presupposes good faith on all sides. But can we trust that everyone is acting out of that kind of mindset? How do you decide? So many questions…Where does your answer lie?

Compassion Anyone?

Tags

Becoming Wise, compassion, Krista Tippett, love, Meister Eckhart, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Some days now I can hardly see what to write that is anywhere near relevant to the world, our country, faith or this time of our life. Today I picked up the book that my book group is reading because we meet tomorrow. The book is Becoming Wise by Krista Tippett—not the easiest book to read or to use as a guide, but a really great read! I pulled the scrap of paper that is doubling as a bookmark and found out why it has avoided the trash for so long. I don’t know where it came from or who wrote it but the words written there are surely worth our notice—and our reflection. Take it slowly and savor the message.

Title: Compassion is the expression of love

Love is the inner feeling and compassion is its expression. It doesn’t see the faults of others. It doesn’t see the weaknesses of people. It makes no distinction between good and bad people. Compassion cannot draw a line between two countries, two faiths or two religions. Compassion has no ego; thus there is no fear, lust or passion. Compassion simply forgets and forgives. Compassion is like a passage. Everything passes through it, nothing can stay there. Compassion is love expressed in all its fullness.

That quote puts me in mind of a saying of Meister Eckhart that has hung in my bedroom for years and today seems a fitting conclusion to this reflection. It says: “Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion.”

Awakening

Tags

Acts of the Apostles, awaken, awakening, heal, love, Macrina Wiederkehr, open the door, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

As we seem to crawl toward the beginning of spring on this cloudy morning where snow flurries and a temperature of 25 degrees (F.) persists, I open Macrina Wiederkehr’s text, Seven Sacred Pauses, for some encouragement. She never disappoints. Here is what she tells me for today (beginning with my favorite verse from the Acts of the Apostles!):

O Morning Song of Love, O you in whom we live and move and have our being! We have been asleep too long. Heal the unseeing part of our lives. Lead us to our awakening places. Awaken us to the new light. Open the doors of our hearts, the windows of our souls, the walls of our minds. Awaken us to hope. Awaken us to joy. Awaken us to love. Awaken us to new insights. Make our hearts ready to receive the brightness of your presence. To you we give praise.(p. 61)

Love/Mercy

Tags

Cynthia Bourgeault, God's mercy, Helen Luke, Hosea, love, mercy, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Interesting to the readings this morning are the words love and mercy, used interchangeably from the first lectionary reading to the psalm. In the first reading from the prophet Hosea, (6:6), we read, For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice…Fast on the heels of Hosea—and referencing the same, we have the Psalm whose refrain states four times: It is mercy I desire, not sacrifice. So which is it? Love or mercy that God desires?

As soon as I wrote that question, I was catapulted back to Cynthia Bourgeault’s book, Mystical Hope, chapter two—a brilliant explication given by author Helen Luke and referenced by Cynthia, of the word “mercy.” (I’m sure many of you have heard me explain this before but it bears repeating.) “In her book, Old Age, Helen Luke explains that “the word “mercy” derives from the ancient Etruscan word merc; the words “commerce” and “merchant” share this same root. And so at heart, mercy means some kind of exchange or transaction. It is a connection word…The root meaning of exchange persisted and developed in another context, its meaning deepening through the French merci to a grateful response and kindness of heart, and finally to the compassion and forgiveness, including all our shades of darkness, where we are able to open ourselves to the Mercy”…(Bourgeault, p.23-24)

Although that sounds like love to me, the next page “seals the deal” with the following: So when we think of mercy, we should be thinking first and foremost of a bond, an infallible link of love that holds the created and uncreated realms together. The mercy of God does not come and go, granted to some and refused to others. Why? Because it is unconditional—always there, underlying everything. It is literally the force that holds everything in existence, the gravitational field in which we live and move and have our being. (p. 25)

Sit with that, if you will, and see if it doesn’t call forth a hearty “Thank you” to God.

It’s All About Love

Tags

accepting, Jesus, love, Mark, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Jesus is very clear this morning about the most important of the virtues. It is, of course, love. So much over the centuries has been written—in poems, stories and human interest pieces in newspapers—that we couldn’t miss the importance of love, even if we tried. The answer that Jesus gave when the scribe asked him about the greatest commandment (MK 12:28-34) always presents to me an image of an adult with a child. The adult says things like: “I love you to the moon and back!”—while hugging the child—or hugs the child so tight that the child protests saying, “Stop! I can’t breathe!” There’s also the truth that love springs from inside us, often unbidden, when we least expect it. Love is difficult to explain and more likely to be left with the words, “It’s complicated!” And so it is.

I sometimes ask myself if I truly do love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, especially when I remember that the measure of that love is reflected in how we treat our neighbor as well. What might that mean? Perhaps it’s a question of acceptance. Do I allow every person a place in my heart or is that door closed to some for one reason or another? What are my criteria for letting someone into my life? How willing do I have to be? Do they always have to be pleasing to me or can I also accept faults and failings (maybe like my own…?) We might talk the talk but when push comes to shove how do we walk the walk in the manner of God’s love for us?

So many questions…with answers deeper than words.