Conversion: That “Still Small Voice Inside”

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Exodus, God does not disappoint, John, metanoia, Romans, the elect, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Here we are, already at the middle of Lent, the the first of three weekends when we are offered two sets of readings from the lectionary, giving us special messages in case we are in the company of someone(s) experiencing a “metanoia,” a turning—in a very public and visible way—a turning toward deeper relationship/commitment to God. The liturgies that call for special messages for “the elect”—those people speaking with their lives as they stand before us in the Church—are for all of us really, to recommit to our faith. You can hear the call in the readings, specially chosen for this day. The Psalm rings out (hopefully in song!) If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts! The Israelites had been grumbling about God to Moses (“Is the Lord in our midst or not?” (Ex. 17:3-7) We hear the answer in Paul’s letter to the Romans (5: 1-2, 6-8) which speaks of the hope that we must have in the God who does not disappoint “because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” We have the proof of that reality in the people who are throwing in their lot with us. All over the world on this day they will stand to be counted in their intention to join us as they and we listen to the story of the Samaritan woman who recognizes Jesus as the one God has sent as “Messiah.” It is a wonderful story from the Gospel of John (4: 5-42), best acted out rather than read, I think, and if we truly enter in, the conversion of the “elect” will be ours as well.

These are the days when ritual is at its best. Even if we are still hampered by the Coronavirus and can only enter in virtually, it is worth the effort to put yourself in the stories and feel the moments of transformation when God’s voice cannot be eluded because something in us knows that we must listen to the holy longing calling us to step up and hear what God is offering. May we join in prayer with those offering themselves today in a new and deeper way, and may we be similarly moved ourselves to accept the gift that is our “Yes!” to the love of God that surpasses all understanding.

Metanoia

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, I call your name, John Foley, Lynn Bauman, metanoia, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Turn To Me, turn toward God

In Lynn Bauman’s book on the psalms, Ancient Songs Sung Anew, the commentary speaks of the concept of metanoia, one of my favorite terms for reconciliation or turning around. In a more exact rendering, it is Greek for “after or beyond the mind or thought.” It suggests a change of mind or heart, a spiritual conversion or even a re-formation. There is (of course!) a song by the Saint Louis Jesuits that speaks well of that process, with God saying: ‘Turn to me, O, turn and be saved,” says the Lord, “For I am God. There is no other, none beside me. I call your name.” It’s that last part that always makes me stand to sing it and move my body slowly to the music in a circle while almost stationary (just tiny movements of my feet) that takes me in the opposite direction to where I was facing.

Hearing God’s call is always a motivator but we need to be still and attentive to hear the voice. It helps to use our bodies to listen. Try it. (Song on YouTube “Turn To Me,” by John Foley) Be sure to listen to the verses…Try it. You may like it.

Exhortation

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heart, metanoia, peaceful world, september 11, The Hidden Ground of Love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

As I remember the shocking attack on our country that was perpetrated on 9/11/2001, I turn to Thomas Merton for a word and find it immediately. It is not soothing but calls me to step up to responsibility. And you?

“The real job is to lay the groundwork for a deep change of heart on the part of the whole nation so that one day it can really go through the metanoia we need for a peaceful world.” (The Hidden Ground of Love, p. 92)

A Tiny Step Forward

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change of heart, Doug Jones, election, metanoia, peaceful world, The Hidden Ground of Love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

I am relieved this morning at the news that Doug Jones has prevailed in the special election over Roy Moore in Alabama. It is not about Republican and Democrat for me but about the persons themselves and their beliefs. Although Moore continues to contest the results I feel confident that the outcome will show a better result for the country.

After the sense of relief in that message, I turned to Thomas Merton who, over 50 years ago said the following in the book The Hidden Ground of Love:

The real job is to lay the groundwork for a deep change of heart on the part of the whole nation so that one day it can really go through the metanoia* we need for a peaceful world. (* “a transformative change of heart”)

May it be so in our time!

 

 

 

 

 

Feeding the Hungry

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enough, feeding, food, handout, Jesus, John the Baptist, loaves and fishes, Matthew, metanoia, needs of the world, peaceable kingdom, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There is a line from Matthew’s gospel in the story called variously “the loaves and the fishes” or “the feeding of the five thousand” (CH 14) that always goes straight to my heart. It appears today and catches me as usual. It is late in a day that began with Jesus trying to escape the crowds to grieve the death of John the Baptist. Failing that, Jesus responds to the needs in what has turned into a long and likely tiring session of healing people. The narrative picks up with the apostles saying to Jesus that he ought to send the people away because it’s late and there’s no availability of food to buy in the deserted place where they are. They will need to go to one of the villages nearby to buy food. There is no need for them to go away, Jesus says. Give them something to eat yourselves. The gospel continues with the miracle of feeding the whole crowd on five loaves and two small fish.

How often the needs of the world seem that impossible to fulfill! And it is true that we cannot achieve such a goal alone. It will take a monumental – miraculous even – metanoia (conversion) to get our world on track toward the “peaceable kingdom” where all are fed and cared for. My question for today, however, is this: how shall we be until that possibility comes into view? Whom and how am I being asked to feed today? Am I awake to the people who need a kind word or a sandwich to help them through the day? Is it enough that I go through the day mindful of those for whom I have promised to pray? There wasn’t much to go on when Jesus started that “handout” but the result, worked through his helpers, fed them all.

Can we believe that what we have to give is enough?

 

 

 

 

 

Transfiguration

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commitment, conversion, Elijah, James, John, Luke, metanoia, Moses, Peter, profess vows, Sisters of St. Joseph, spiritual path, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transfiguration, transformation

Today’s gospel (LK 9:28-36) tells of an experience that was truly “mind-blowing ” for Peter, James and John, the three apostles that Jesus took with him when he “went up the mountain to pray.” Usually Jesus took those treks alone but on this day he allowed the three to see more deeply what could happen when he was in deep communion with God. He was, the story goes, “transfigured before them…his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.” If that was not enough of a shock, they also saw Moses and Elijah conversing with him.

One wonders why Jesus chose to expose his friends to this experience. Perhaps they were ready for the next step in their own transformation. It was a scene that they didn’t understand and they didn’t tell anyone about it but they certainly were changed by that day.

Sometimes on a spiritual path we can also have experiences of divine presence that we don’t understand. They may not be as dramatic as that day on the mountain was. It may just be as simple as a felt sense of peace, or an insight that we recognize as not coming from ourselves…yet we are changed. We know something that we did not know before and it gives us motivation to seek a deeper knowing. Sometimes it is strong enough to call the experience a “conversion” or “metanoia” and it leads to serious commitment on our part.

This day is very special to the Sisters of St. Joseph in my community. It is the day on which we professed our vows as religious. Although a peak experience, I would guess that for most of us our “transfiguration” was not instantaneous or sustained. But it was a step. What had begun in different ways for each of us: an organic growing desire from childhood, a comment from a parish priest, a dream or a vision – the notion of religious life came to us (sometimes not so welcome!) and remained. And it is a commitment, just like that of any other vocation in life, that must be nurtured by the ways in which we are called to grow and become the person we were born to be. So today I celebrate my own vocation and the support of all the women who have been example to me of what religious life has been and continues to be for the world. And I pray for a future that will see a flowering of new ways for the transformation of the world.

Prepare the Way!

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Bernie Sanders, consequences, European Union, harbinger, Jesus, John the Baptist, kenosis, metanoia, prepare the way, ramifications, repentance, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tumult, unity consciousness

The first thing I saw as my computer came on line this morning was the headline about the result of Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. That showed up on the same screen with a headline quote of Bernie Sanders for people in the US to “beat the establishment.” It seems that the way of doing things not only in our country, where the expectation that Sanders would have graciously bowed out by now, and in Europe, where the economic ramifications will be epic, are changing incontrovertibly with consequences that cannot possibly be predicted in the present. Add to that the “sit-in” in our House of Representatives this week and we cannot possibly ignore the tumult that is upon us and growing in the world.

Ironically, today the Church celebrates the feast dedicated to John the Baptist, the harbinger of change whose mission was to prepare the way for the appearance of Jesus in the world. John’s call was to repentance toward a new way of life. Often stopping at a consciousness of sin for which one asks forgiveness, we forget the full meaning of metanoia – a synonym for repentance – that calls for a complete turning of one’s life around, going in a totally different direction. Although John’s way to this new life (renunciation/abstention from anything liable to lead one to sin) was different from that of Jesus (kenosis/welcoming everything but letting it all go, pouring himself out in love) their goal was the same. One might say they were both focused on “unity consciousness” – moving toward God’s will in this world in service to the whole.

In this time of tumult, politically and spiritually, may we pray and work for a turning that will open the eyes of people to see that diversity need not mean division, that peace is possible and that moving toward in our turning is the only way to come together for the good of all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Midweek Merton

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deep change of heart, metanoia, Peace, peaceful world, political distress, soften our hearts, terror, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, welcoming

In the face of all that has happened in the world in the last 24 hours of terror and political distress, just one sentence from Thomas Merton – out of much that he says to me this morning – suffices to focus my energy and resolve for the inner and outer tasks of this new day.

The real job is to lay the groundwork for a deep change of heart on the part of the whole nation so that one day it can really go through the metanoia we need for a peaceful world. (The Hidden Ground of Love, p. 92)

In the many years since Merton wrote these words, technology has brought us in touch nearly instantaneously to the whole world. As a result we must not only see and contribute to the groundwork of peace in our own country but also to soften our hearts for that goal of a peaceful world in more informed, expansive and conscious ways than were possible in Merton’s day. Welcoming those who live across the street and across the world is incumbent upon us in our thoughts, our discourse and our lives of prayer if true peace is to be achieved.