Health from the Inside

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Book of Acts, healings, intuitives, miracles, modalities, openness, Peter, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, visions

The Book of Acts that follows the four gospels is full of miraculous stories – of visions and healings that sound impossible to us who live in a world where concrete evidence and witnesses must accompany everything. This morning’s lesson from Acts concerns Peter’s vision of all kinds of animals that God was commanding Peter to slaughter and eat. Peter demurred saying he would not do so because “nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” (ACTS 11:1-18) The response came quickly that “what God has made clean, you are not to call profane.” Following that directive cost Peter a lot because it contradicted Jewish law, but his steadfast obedience was essential to the growth of Christianity.

We live in a time when inspiration is calling from many quarters for us to go deeper than logic to find answers to great questions. We are being asked (rather like Peter) to broaden our capacity for what we have eschewed in the past on religious or cultural grounds. Just as Peter was directed to go beyond a religious law that separated Jew from Gentile, so too are we coming to understand that the embrace of people of other faiths does not weaken our own beliefs but strengthens them and allows acceptance of persons in the process. Furthermore a renewed openness to alternative healing methods rather than what we call “traditional” modalities in health care has opened up the possibility of a more holistic view of life. While we marvel at the advances in science – miraculous in themselves, to be sure – we can benefit from the benefits of energy work and complementary therapies for wellness that can co-exist with our visits to the doctor. Moreover, a consciousness of medical intuitives and other spiritual practitioners can teach us that it is not enough to be aware of bodily concerns. We need to heed the totality of body, mind and spirit in our quest for wellness and trust our capacity for participation in our own healing process. All this leads me to question myself:

How willing am I to be healthy? When will I get serious about maintaining a healthy diet and exercise regime? How willing am I to listen to those who offer new ideas about modalities that can help me to live fully in body, mind and spirit? Do I accept and welcome everyone I meet? How do my attitudes play into my personal health plan?

Big questions…and extraordinary possibility ahead if I am willing to attend to the answers.

 

 

 

 

 

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Everyday Miracles

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A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen, awareness, consciousness, creative mind, human, intelligent force, life, loving heart, miracles, perfection, planets, prayer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe

Here is an interesting thought for pondering that brings my awareness to the importance of how I look at life. I invite you to suspend judgment and just read the words, then see if you can agree with the concept. If not, spend some time assessing your objections and ask yourself what it would take to adjust your attitude.

The universe was designed to work and in spite of appearances, it does. All of life, from the tiniest amoeba to the trillions of stars, planets and galaxies, operates with clockwork precision. Surely there is an intelligent force with an unfathomably creative mind and loving heart behind such magnificent perfection! (Alan Cohen – A Deep Breath of Life)

What are the most amazing miracles that you observe in life? For me it’s the incredible cooperation of systems in the human body and the way the planets keep moving without colliding. Or it could be the way that the change of seasons is so vibrant in my neighborhood or the prayer plant in front of my window whose leaves move from a horizontal position in the day to verticality at night so I can sleep knowing that there is, in fact, a creature lifting up prayer in my stead throughout the night. I could go on (big surprise, right?) but each of us must choose what it is that stuns us into consciousness of the amazing universe given to us even in our darkest days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Words from a Samurai Warrior

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awareness, benevolence, character, divine power, friend, home, honesty, Hurricane Maria, inner strength, lost everything, Meg Wheatley, mindfulness, miracles, parents, perseverance, right action, Samurai, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Thinking about the situation of those in the path today of Hurricane Maria, people who will be blasted for the second time in two weeks by devastation, I picked up Meg Wheatley’s book, Perseverance, since there is nothing I can say of any relevance on my own. What I found was a quote from a 14th century Japanese Samurai Warrior. It was not what I was looking for but did make me think. What if it seemed I had lost everything? I mused. What would be left that would make me refuse to lie down and die? The answer focused on inner strength and so I repeat it here as a hope for those whose lives seem empty at this moment and a way to consider hope when all outer hope is gone.

• I have no parents: I make the heavens and earth my parents.
• I have no home: I make awareness my home.
• I have no divine power: I make honesty my divine power.
• I have no means: I make understanding my means.
• I have no magic secrets: I make character my magic secrets.
• I have no miracles: I make right action my miracles.
• I have no friends: I make my mind my friend.
• I have no enemy: I make carelessness my enemy.
• I have no armor: I make benevolence and righteousness my armor.

Think on these things and then, perhaps, create your own list of your inner strengths.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Did Jesus Do?

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acceptance, hear, Hearts on Fire, image, imitate Christ, impressed, Jesuit, John the Baptist, looking, meet, miracles, Pedro Arrupe, taught, teach, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understand, welcome, willingness

Today takes it’s cue somewhat from yesterday’s entry. In the book of Jesuit prayers entitled Hearts on Fire, there is a prayer written by Pedro Arrupe, who was the beloved Superior General (world leader) of the Society of Jesus for 18 years (1965-1983) -a long term of office for anyone! His prayer gives a clue of how to bring the Scriptures alive in our daily journey, helping us to take our cue from Christ’s interaction with all sorts of people as he opened himself to all who crossed his path.

Teach me your way of looking at people: as you glanced at Peter after his denial, as you penetrated the heart of the rich young man and the hearts of your disciples. I would like to meet you as you really are, since your image changes with whom you come into contact.

Remember John the Baptist’s first meeting with you? And the centurion’s feeling of unworthiness? And the amazement of all those who saw miracles and other wonders? How you impressed your disciples, the rabble in the Garden of Olives, Pilate and his wife and the centurion at the foot of the cross…

I would like to hear and be impressed by your manner of speaking, listening, for example, to your discourse in the synagogue in Capharnaum (Capernaum), or the Sermon on the Mount where your audience felt you “taught as one who has authority.” (p.89-90)

What would it be like to imitate Christ’s words and actions in all our encounters? Would we come to better understand how to love our neighbors (whoever they might be) as ourselves? Perhaps a visit to all the above examples in the life of Jesus would give us some clues to the requisite qualities of welcome, willingness and acceptance necessary to him in the different situations and personalities he met on his way.

 

 

 

 

 

Greater Things

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do greater things, extraordinary things, farewell discourse, greater good, healer, Inspiring America, Jesus, John, Lectionary, Luke, miracles, NBC Nightly News, ordinary people, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There is a line in John’s gospel, showing up in the lectionary readings for today, that I would wager most of us would claim as impossible to believe. Jesus is in the early stages of his “farewell discourse” and trying to impress upon those closest to him that they really will be able to carry on without him because he will remain close to them in Spirit. In JN 14:12 we hear the following promise: Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and will do greater ones than these…

Let’s think about this for a moment…How could we even think of doing greater things than Jesus?! Well…take the fact that there are millions more people around now than in the time of Jesus. Most of them are within our reach because of air travel and the internet. These inventions have expanded communication far beyond what could have been possible in the first century of Christianity. And Jesus was a healer. Think of the advances of modern medicine that allow “the blind to see, the lame to walk…” and even new hearts – physical ones – can prolong a person’s life. Keep thinking and you may come up with something you are, or have been, a part of that could never have happened in the far distant past.

Jesus didn’t say, “You will be greater than I am.” What he said was: “You will do greater things than I do.” That allows us to dream big while still keeping our humility intact, always knowing that our abilities and talents ultimately come from God and not from us, but through us – with our consent and participation. The thing that redeems the Nightly News on NBC for me is the last segment that began on Monday nights but now seems to happen more frequently – maybe because we need it more – called Inspiring America. It tells the stories of ordinary people who are doing what began as simple things that have grown to extraordinary works – many of them coming from young people. Take for example the 7 year-old boy who asked his mother why someone was standing on the corner with a sign that said, “Will work for food.” When he heard that there are many poor, often hungry people in our country he started an organization of people his age that now feeds hundreds – maybe thousands of people. When asked if parents help in his organization, he says, “Of course. They help with our taxes and stuff. And they help with deliveries. We can’t drive: I’m only 14!”

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things cannot help but become extraordinary disciples. The one common element in almost all of these stories is relationship. First, of course, there is a recognition of a need that most often includes people in need. Next there is the sense that “I can’t do it alone” so (especially with children) there is the request for others to join in the effort. And then, miracles can happen. It’s like when Jesus wanted to feed the 5,000 people but said instead to his disciples, “You give them something to eat yourselves.” (LK 9:13) And so they did!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recognize Your Potential!

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compassion, faith, freedom, healing, Henri Nouwen, ills, joy, justice, miracles, political, poor, psalm 146, social, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, turbulence, wounded healers

At this mid-point in the season of Advent, we are reminded by Psalm 146 of the enormity God’s power to heal our ills and, if we are willing, our potential for participation in healing the world. I am not speaking here of the “miracles of modern medicine” – which are, of course, extraordinary. The psalm focuses on deeper issues in our lives and includes political and social ills that need healing as well. One translation expresses it as follows.

For the downtrodden, God is justice, for the hungry, God is food. For those in prison, God is freedom; all our blindness God can cure. God’s compassion flows to the broken-hearted and seeks out those whose ways are just, for God loves the stranger in our midst and holds the widows and the orphans close. God delights in overthrowing evil. The reign of God shall know no end; it spans the generations. Hallelujah! (vs. 6-9)

I often think, when reading messages like this, of our Sisters who have served in very poor countries in times of turbulence – like Central America in the 1980’s – and how they often spoke of the deep joy of the people in the midst of their troubles. It was faith in God and the strength of their communities that allowed joy to be the stronghold of their lives. Thus, they became what spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen, called “wounded healers” to one another. This morning’s commentary asks how we are or can become the same. How can I – how can you – participate in the healing of our world today?

 

 

 

 

 

All Saints

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All Saints Day, canonized, Dalai Lama, grace, holiness, hope, Jesus, miracles, piety, Pope Leo XIII, religious practice, Roman Catholic, saint, social justice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today is one of the few days in the Roman Catholic Church that the liturgy of a Sunday is superseded by the celebration of a special feast on the liturgical calendar. Today’s feast of All Saints gives us pause, not only to think about those people throughout history who have been named by the Church as deserving of the title “saint” (those whom the Church has “canonized”) but also to reflect on what it means to be a saint. We often hear people speak of someone who has suffered many trials (e.g. those with many unruly children) as a saint. “That woman is a saint,” they say! In that case it seems that sainthood resides in the person’s ability to show grace under pressure or to endure what might make others lash out and turn to violence. We might hear also, “He’s a saint – in church every morning without fail, never without his rosary…” which tells us that religious practice and personal piety are the means to sainthood. And then there are those who speak out on issues of social justice, demanding that governments care for the less fortunate and those whose dignity is ignored. We have been slow to recognize this category of sainthood (although charity has always been part of the Christian path). Justice workers are sometimes unruly, even going so far as breaking the law in service to what they see as “a higher law” in imitation of Jesus. It was Pope Leo XIII in 1891 who began to articulate what has become the social teaching of the Catholic Church in his encyclical Rerum novarum which spoke of unfair labor practices. Do we see crusaders for justice as saints?

The dictionary has many definitions of sainthood – most of them somehow articulating the quality of holiness. Catholics look for miracles, especially healings and visions – and sometimes have clear evidence of how that has manifested in the lives of the canonized saints. A relatively new development is the growing consciousness of the “sainthood” of people who do not share our own religious beliefs and traditions. Who would argue against the sainthood of the Dalai Lama, for instance, especially if we have been privileged to be in his presence? Saint Paul is responsible for the fact that the title of saint appears in the Scriptures; he addresses everyone to whom he writes as saints! So what does that mean?

We may not all look like saints or fit any standard definition of what sainthood means, but maybe – with the virtue of hope in our pocket – we can continue on the way to God, doing our best to love as Jesus did, and as those people whose example we choose to follow have done, trusting that it is God’s measure we can achieve, becoming one in the great Communion of Saints that knows no human reckoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Difficult Grace

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confession, cures, forgiveness, Jesus, miracles, mystics, Padre Pio, St. Pio, stigmata, suffering, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today on the US Catholic Bishops’ website, I saw the name of the saint being celebrated today. I must’ve been still half-asleep because I was thinking it was some obscure person from long, long ago. I decided to look up St. Pio of Pietrelcina to see if there was anything interesting about him. In doing so, I saw the dates marking the span of his life (1887-1968) and realized all at once that he was the beloved Padre Pio, known the world over for his holiness, his tirelessness in hearing confessions and his suffering – both physical and psychological. An Italian Franciscan friar, baptized with the name Francesco, he modeled the life of his patron, St. Francis, even to the point of having a vision of Jesus (9/20/1918) during which he received the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus, in his hands, feet and side. Twice over the ensuing 13 years, the authenticity of the stigmata was questioned and Pio (his religious name) was not permitted to celebrate Mass publicly or hear confessions. He did not question or complain and these decisions were subsequently reversed. His life was spent in the confessional, forgiving penitents in the name of God, and in concern for the physically ill and suffering people who came to him. Many cures were credited to his intercession. By his urging a 350-bed hospital was built and was called “House for the Alleviation of Suffering.” He died on September 23, 1968 and was named a saint of the Church on June 16, 2002.

Visionaries and stigmatics are not commonly known in our day; we more easily accept those like St. Francis and Catherine of Siena, saints who lived centuries ago. Detractors and the curious were many in the life of Padre Pio in the last century where reason and ability to explain unusual events was (and continues to be for most) the order of the day. Now, when science and spirituality are beginning to speak the same language in tentative ways, it is to our advantage to suspend judgment of how certain things happen and live with the evidence of that they have happened in order to expand our consciousness of how God and the universe conspire for the good of all.

In the Midst of Little Miracles

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buds, Earth, fresh air, garden, gardening, joy, miracles, psalm 100, soil, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning my intention is to get outside early to work in my garden patch a bit and then to “play pick-up-sticks” gathering all the branches strewn all over the land by winter and early spring winds. That way I’ll be able to mow the lawn unhampered this afternoon when the temperature rises above normal, making the effort of this morning’s tasks prohibitive. One has to plan WITH the earth for greatest efficiency – as she can be capricious and always wins the spontaneity game. But how I love the days when I am able to be outside in the midst of little miracles: the feeling of the fresh air, the scent of newly turned soil, the bursting of buds! Today I will sing with the psalmist as I walk out the door: “O, lands of the earth, fill up with joy, and overflow in the service of your God. Come before the holy presence, singing…” (Ps. 100:1)

Miracles Abound

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Acts of the Apostles, Easter, Gaza, Isaiah, Jerusalem, miracles, Philip, spirit, Spirit of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The book of the Acts of the Apostles, which is read in the Easter season, is filled with the enthusiastic ministry of those who either had experienced Jesus or had caught the Spirit from those who had been with him. This morning there is a fantastical story – one of many in the book – which mimics that of the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the Crucifixion of Jesus when he appeared to them and explained the Scriptures and then disappeared when “they recognized him in the breaking of the bread.” In this story (ACTS 8:26-40), the apostle Philip is traveling in the desert on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza when an angel of the Lord tells him to catch up to a chariot in which rides a court official from Ethiopia. The official is reading the book of Isaiah about the “suffering servant.” Philip does what he is told, stops the chariot and asks the man if he understands what he’s reading. His answer is a good question: “How can I unless someone instructs me,” whereupon Philip opens the meaning of the Scriptures to him, referencing Jesus and what happened to him. The rest of the story includes the Ethiopian asking for baptism. Philip fulfills the request since they happen to be passing some water, and Philip then is “snatched away” by the angel of the Lord, leaving the man to tell the story just as he did back in Jerusalem.

Jesus had promised his disciples that they would be able to do as he had done – “and more besides” – and we have only to suspend our rational, judgmental, 21st century thinking to get in touch with the power of faith that fairly jumps from every page of the book of Acts. Today I am reminded of the second side of the coin necessary for the miracles written about to be effected. Not only is the power of the Spirit present in the “instrument” of God, but the one who is to be healed or converted must believe that it is possible. That’s why I like the question of the Ethiopian this morning. He needs to understand what is being offered to him and then to accept the offer because his heart has been touched.

I am in California this morning, getting ready to attend a four-day “think tank” with students of “the wisdom way” and a group of wealthy people who are committed to responsible use of their resources. They have called us to the Camaldoli Benedictine Monastery at Big Sur to reflect on the intersection of wisdom and money and how that might impact their decisions about projects to undertake because their “heart-knowing” will be engaged. Surely we will need to deepen our mutual understanding of what we each bring to the table in order to move toward this heart-knowledge for our mutual benefit. I am confident that the Spirit of God is living and active in our day, just as it was in the first century CE and I am hopeful that in the silence that wraps around and informs the monastery we will hear God’s message to us.

One thing about the monastery that will be helpful for the conference but not for communication is that there is no internet or cell service there. So there will be no blogging here after today until Monday morning. Perhaps a good substitute is to read sections of The Acts of the Apostles each day!