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Tag Archives: miraculous

Celebrating the Moon

31 Wednesday Jan 2018

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blue moon, eclipse, grateful, miraculous, moon, mystical, scientific, super moon, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe

asuperbluebloodmoonI would guess that people in Los Angeles who made the trip to Griffith Observatory this morning to see (exactly one hour ago – 3:48AM Pacific time) the moment of total eclipse of the moon are beginning to make their way home by now. Why would someone make that trek in the middle of the night just to see the moon? Well, maybe because it wasn’t just the full moon but rather a “Super Blue Blood Moon!” What does that mean? A blue moon is a rather frequent experience: the second full moon in the same month of the year. What makes it “super” is the fact that it reaches its closest position to earth, thus making it appear larger and brighter in the sky than normal. The “blood” designation comes from the fact that there is a red tinted shadow across the face of the moon due to the rays of sunlight passing through earth’s atmosphere as the moon falls into earth’s shadow. To add to all those necessary conditions for this phenomenon is the weather. Chances were good for a clear night in Alaska, Hawaii and California. I’m sure the resulting pictures will be glorious – and bountiful, especially since this is the first time this phenomenon was visible in North America since 1866!

It makes me happy to think that it is not only astronomers who get excited about these events. The way that the universe works is truly miraculous and we ought to be grateful for those scientists who are able in our time to define for us not only the “what” but the “why.” The Griffith Observatory director got into the spirit of the event in a wonderfully whimsical way, dressing up like a wizard and banging pots and pans outside the observatory while the crowd watched the eclipse. He was re-enacting a ritual from ancient Babylon in response to a populace that believed they had to scare away a mysterious creature that was swallowing the moon.

Director Ed Krupp seems to understand both the scientific and mystical elements of such an experience as noted in his statement to the press. “It’s one thing,” he remarked, “to learn about this event in a book and another to see it for yourself.” I wish him all the best and hope he keeps on banging his pots all day long!

 

 

 

 

 

Say What You Mean…If Possible

29 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by thesophiacenterforspirituality in Uncategorized

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Gerard Manley Hopkins, grandeur of God, hearts, holy, miraculous, Peace, ritual, sides, spiritual growth, spirituality, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unity of being

apinkskyThis afternoon I am scheduled to be guest speaker to a Women’s Group of about 15 to 20 people. In discussing a topic, the contact person said the members are always interested in information about resources in the community and that perhaps I ought to talk about our spirituality center. In writing up a “blurb” about the proposed topic, I titled it The Spiritual Side of Life. I’ve been thinking about it off and on for the past month and have had some difficulty settling on how to frame the topic. I realized yesterday that my thesis sentence would have to be something about the fact that there are no sides! Spiritual is who and what we are, spiritual beings in physical form, “made in the image and likeness of God.”

Certainly there are rituals that we call holy – and people as well. (We name them saints.) But as Gerard Manley Hopkins so famously said in the second half of the 19th century: The world is charged with the grandeur of God! We can find that reality looking at a flower or a sunset – as I did yesterday while driving to an evening service of prayer. I felt as “spiritual” in my car observing the glorious pink and golden sky with the soft blue background as I did chanting softly the words of a plea for God to come and fill our hearts with your peace…

If each of us would stop occasionally throughout the day, listening and/or looking for the grandeur of God in our surroundings or in the words being shared by the person in front of us, we would know that there is no separation between the physical world and the spiritual. And, actually, the place to start is with ourselves. How often do you marvel about the miraculous workings of all systems of the human body! How does one separate breathing from the beating of the heart? Body and spirit are truly one and nothing is profane except as the mind denigrates it.

Although I am not able to sufficiently explain my thesis about “no sides” – rather a unity of being – I am convinced now that the women I meet today will be able to share lots of experiences that prove the truth of it. In that certainty, I can go forward into this day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strong Roots

19 Monday Dec 2016

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blessing, Jesse, Jesus, King David, lift your mind, Magnificat, Maranta, Messiah, miraculous, O Antiphons, prayer plant, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, worship

amarantaThere are days when, if I stop to think about it, the capacities of the internet for understanding what I’m looking for are quite astounding. I had little hope of finding the answer to the rightful name of my “prayer plant” when I went searching this morning, but there it was, almost immediately – the name with a picture so I would know it was the one I was looking for: Maranta leuconeura. There was even a short video to illustrate the miraculous nature and reason why this plant got its “nickname.” Every night while I’m sleeping my friend, Maranta, is deep in prayer. All her leaves are raised to a vertical position, just as some of us raise our arms to heaven in worship, singing. In the morning, if I rise before dawn, I catch her in her concluding prayer and am reminded that it is now my turn to lift my mind and heart to God during the day as she lowers her arms. (A caution: The video never captures the fullness of her stretch as I do.)

It was so surprising when I found the description of my plant; I had never searched before, thinking the name I had was just made up by someone who didn’t know the real name and coined what seemed appropriate because of function. I learned how extraordinary my Maranta was when I read that these plants are rarely grown inside! She has been with me in my bedroom for at least a decade, a gift of one leaf on a stem in a tiny earthen pot for my birthday one year. I have thought several times that her days were numbered but I learned today that this is a seasonal happening. The best thing of all (next to the consistent prayer life that I have been taught) is her willingness to share herself. I have separated and given away shoots over the years, gifts of prayer for birthdays and other special events to at least seven people, with little or no distress to the main plant.

The miraculous nature of this plant is certainly worthy of a place in this blog but why today? Of course (she says, assuming everyone would know!), it’s because of the O Antiphons. At Vespers (the evening prayer of the Church liturgy) on each of the seven days before the celebration of Christmas, a different prophetic title attributed to Christ introduces the Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise. Today we remember the lineage of Jesus. Jesse was the father of King David. The prophets had foretold that the Messiah would be of the house and family of David and born in Bethlehem. Thus, today’s antiphon this evening will be: O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the people, to you the nations will make their prayer: Come and deliver us, and delay no longer. So in addition to considering my family lineage and our religious lineage, I think about the strong roots of my Maranta and how she has grown and been transplanted in different homes – perhaps to some I don’t even know – as those I have gifted pass on the gift. From a tiny root has come great beauty and instruction in prayer. What a blessing!

The Many Are One

24 Sunday Jan 2016

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beauty, body of Christ, Corinthians, folk mass, function, gifts, harmony, miraculous, physical body, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, united in God

Group of business people assembling jigsaw puzzle and represent team support and help concept

Group of business people assembling jigsaw puzzle and represent team support and help concept

Today’s second reading from the lectionary (1 COR 12:12-30) is the one that uses the analogy of the human body when speaking of “the body of Christ.” I think of the familiar “folk Mass” hymn that we used to sing often when I was teaching school and playing guitar that still shows up in a more refined iteration in church some Sundays (probably today!). The refrain says that we are many parts; we are all one body and the gifts we have, we are given to share. May the Spirit of Love make us one indeed: one the love that we share, one our hope in despair, one the cross that we bear…The verses sing of joys as well as pain and how everything works better if we are all united in God.

I was thinking a little more elementally when that song popped up. My question was: Picturing the whole physical body, if you were only one part, which part would you be?

While you’re reflecting on your answer and considering all the possible responses (no jumping to conclusions, please – or dismissal of the question!) my suggestion is that you bless each part of your body as miraculous as it arises to your mind. Then when you know who you are, remember Paul’s caution that if an ear should say, “because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be…?

How wonderful the world would be if each of us could accept the gifts and function of all of us as the harmony and beauty that animates us in this vast and marvelous created universe!

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