Sunshine

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coronavirus, Holy Week, infinite mercy, Jesus, Kathleen Deignan, New Seeds of Contemplation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

It was 6:37 a.m. this morning when I looked up from reading the updated statistics of the cases and deaths from the Coronavirus and saw the sun just below the top of my backyard mountain looking like a supersize flashlight that God had turned on just for me. Now it’s almost 8:00 and I am still sitting with a heavy heart because of the state of our state (NY)—highest statistics for infections and deaths from the virus—and the state of our nation and the world. There is no good news as we march toward Holy Week to consider what seemed to be the end of the amazing ministry of Jesus, the miracle worker.

There is no possibility of looking directly out my window now, however, because the sun is too bright. I can no longer see the mountain and I notice a stirring inside me that is totally contradictory of all that I have been considering since my morning began. It rises like the words of Thomas Merton as I read a random (?) psalm prayer to obliterate the darkness and get me off my chair to face the day.

Love comes out of God and gathers us to God in order to pour itself back into God through all of us and bring us all back to Him on the tide of His own infinite mercy. So we all become doors and windows through which God shines back into His own house. (New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 67, quoted by Kathleen Deignan in Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours, p.153.)

A Little Touch of Merton

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God, infinite mercy, love, New Seeds of Contemplation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

I wrote yesterday in anticipation of the two sessions of our book study. It was the last of five sessions and did not disappoint. Today I sit in gratitude for the growing number of spiritual seekers who find their way to all kinds of groups that assist in the process of deepening understanding of self and meaningful life. This morning I read something written by Thomas Merton more than half a century ago that could have been said of our two wonderful, diverse groups of people who in their sharing and their silences created community in a way that was beautiful to watch. (You may want to read it aloud a couple of times to catch the flow and beauty of meaning.)

Merton wrote: Love comes out of God and gathers us to God in order to pour itself back into God through all of us and bring us all back to God on the tide of God’s own infinite mercy. So we all become doors and windows through which God shines back into His own house. (New Seeds of Contemplation, p.67)

Good Example

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charity, example, gentleness, intellectual freedom, Kathleen Degnan, kindness, love, New Seeds of Contemplation, positive, President George H.W. Bush, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

In the wake of all the events occasioned by the death of President George H.W. Bush, one would hope for the return of a kinder, gentler way of being for the United States of America. The example of this man regarding acceptance of others, positive thinking and charity in all things gave a good feeling to all who watched and listened to the many testimonials and interviews during the week. For me, it all mirrored what I read this morning from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours edited by Kathleen Degnan, offered for the second hour of Friday. 

This is what it means to seek God perfectly, Merton writes. To cultivate an intellectual freedom from the images of created things in order to receive the secret contact of God in obscure love; to love all as myself; to rest in humility and to find peace in withdrawal from conflict and competition; to turn aside from controversy and put away heavy loads of judgment and censorship and criticism and the whole burden of opinions that I have no obligation to carry. 

And then to wait in peace and emptiness and oblivion of all things.                            (New Seeds of Contemplation, pp.44-46, excerpted)

Read Slowly Please!

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God, infinite mercy, love, New Seeds of Contemplation, reflection, shine, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

Here’s a little quote from Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation that needs to be breathed out one clause at a time to give us a whole day of reflection. See where it takes you.

Love comes out of God and gathers us to God in order to pour itself back into God through all of us and bring us all back to Him on the tide of His own infinite mercy.

So we all become doors and windows through which God shines back into His own house. (NSC 67)

 

 

 

 

 

Monday’s Task

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love, New Seeds of Contemplation, obeying, plan, praise God, respect, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, will of God, work

Although I know that Sunday is considered the first day of the week, it is Monday that usually calls me to take stock and ready myself for the work that this week will see done or undone when next Sunday rolls around. Today, after two weeks of many full and fruitful days, I am grateful for the opportunity to have this day not only to make a measured plan but also to begin to plod mindfully along, hoping for some level of achievement by the end of the week. I am not naïve enough to think that all will go as planned – that is not the nature of “real life” in my “neck of the woods” – but just making the plan is a good enough start for me right now. Thomas Merton gives me impetus to put my mind and heart into that task this morning with the following reflection.

The requirements of a work to be done can be understood as the will of God. If I am supposed to hoe a garden or make a table, then I will be obeying God if I am true to the task I am performing. To do the work carefully and well, with love and respect for the nature of my task and with due attention to its purpose, is to unite myself to God’s will in my work. In this way I become God’s instrument.  God works through me…(New Seeds of Contemplation, 19)

Let us put on our sturdy shoes, our work gloves and our loving hearts and get about the work ahead of us, praising God for this day and the days ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Call Today

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actively participate, compassion, destiny, freedom, New Seeds of Contemplation, respect, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, truth, vocation

I return to this reflective task from an extraordinary outpouring of care that included not only family solidarity but also the prayer and compassion of two faith communities – one Roman Catholic and one Presbyterian – who embraced us because of their experience of my cousin, Paul, and his wife, Janice. Celebrating Paul’s earthly existence and his entry into new life in God, I was not surprised by welcome in two Christian denominations; I presumed hospitality at such an event. There was something deeper there, however. It seemed, rather than two, we were experiencing one seamless worship service because of the respect, compassion and real love that was palpable throughout the day.

Last evening I participated in an interfaith prayer service in anticipation of today’s national elections. Although it was held in a Catholic Church, the prayer and reflections were offered equally by a Jewish rabbi (a woman) and two Christian pastors of different denominations. Again I was struck by the deep sense of common purpose of the gathered community.

I take these experiences into this monumentally important day and carry as well the words of Thomas Merton whose reflections seem fitting for this moment.

 Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny. This means to say that we should not passively exist, but actively participate in His creative freedom, in our own lives, and in the lives of others by choosing the truth. (New Seeds of Contemplation, 32-33, excerpted)

Finding Ourselves

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God, identity, inner room, Kathleen Deignan, masks, Matthew, New Seeds of Contemplation, point vierge, praayer, salvation, secret, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

It happened again this morning! I read the gospel passage that instructs us on how to go about praying so as not to be swayed by the desire for approval. (MT 6:1-6, 16-18) It tells us to go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. That reminded me of Thomas Merton’s reference to what he calls the point vierge, that space in us that no one (even we ourselves) can access – only God can. I knew the quote originally found in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander appeared also in Kathleen Deignan’s book Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours, so I pulled the book as I did yesterday with Macrina Wiederkehr. Again I found what I didn’t know I was to read. This time the book jacket flap gave it to me. It wasn’t what I was looking for but it certainly was what answered my need for coherence of thought. Merton was talking about vocation, our identity in God, and among other things, he says this:

…we are even called to share with God the work of creating the truth of our identity. We can evade this responsibility by playing with masks, and this pleases us because it can appear at times to be a free and creative way of living. It is quite easy, it seems, to please everyone. But in the long run the cost and the sorrow come very high. To work out our own identity in God, which the Bible calls “working out our salvation,” is a labor that requires sacrifice and anguish, risk and many tears. It demands close attention to reality at every moment, and great fidelity to God as He reveals Himself, obscurely, in the mystery of each new situation.

We do not know clearly beforehand what the result of this work will be. The secret of my full identity is hidden in God. God alone can make me who I am, or rather who I will be when at last I fully begin to be. But unless I desire this identity and work to find it with God and in God, the work will never be done. The way of doing it is a secret I can learn from no one else but God. There is no way of attaining to the secret without faith. But contemplation is the greater and more precious gift, for it enables me to see and understand the work that God wants done. (New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 32-33, excerpted)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of Creation Sings!

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Book of Hours, creation, diversity, holiness, inscape, nature, New Seeds of Contemplation, saints, sanctity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, wonder of creation

Today is my last day in California. The work of our committee is complete for now; today I will be at the beach with my brother and sister-in-law – a rare blessing! Tomorrow I will repeat my airy trek across the country, but in reverse, and I presume I will again marvel at God’s grandeur. Everywhere I look, here or from the plane or upon my return to New York State I am aware of the diversity and wonder of creation. As I opened my computer this morning there was an image of Pope Francis and an advertisement for his encyclical, On Care for Our Common Home, about the environment. All of the above prompts me to quote in its entirety a piece from Thomas Merton’s book, New Seeds of Contemplation, that just happens to appear as a Monday morning reflection in his Book of Hours.

The forms and individual characters of living and growing things, of inanimate beings, of animals and flowers and all nature, constitute their holiness in the sight of God. Their inscape is their sanctity. It is the imprint of His wisdom and His reality in them. The special clumsy beauty of this particular colt on this day in this field under these clouds is a holiness consecrated to God by His own creative wisdom and it declares the glory of God. The pale flowers of the dogwood outside this window are saints. The little yellow flowers that nobody notices on the edge of the road are saints looking up into the face of God. This leaf has its own texture and its own pattern of veins and its own holy shape, and the bass and trout hiding in the deep pools of the river are canonized by their beauty and their strength. The lakes hidden among the hills are saints, and the sea too is a saint who praises God without interruption in her majestic dance. The great, gashed, half-naked mountain is another of God’s saints. There is no other like him. He is alone in his own character; nothing else in the world ever did or ever will imitate God in quite the same way. That is his sanctity. But what about you? What about me?

(I will not have an opportunity to post tomorrow but, God willing, will be back to it on Wednesday.)

Weather

Tags

climate change, freedom, God, love, New Seeds of Contemplation, seeds, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, weather

These days we seem to talk about the weather more and more – not just with a passing comment about like or dislike but with a real concern for the wild shifts and storms that we cannot categorize as normal for a certain season. It is unnerving to watch reports of damage caused by weather conditions in our own country and beyond. We lament the changes and have begun to wake up to the possibility that humanity has not been the best caretaker of the earth, especially in the recent past. This morning a reflection from Thomas Merton’s book, New Seeds of Contemplation, put a frame around our relationship with nature that, were we to interiorize it, might help us to be more responsible about our choices and thus aid in restoring a balance with the natural world.

It is God that warms me in the sun and God’s love that sends the cold rain. It is God’s love that feeds me in the bread I eat and God that feeds me also by hunger and fasting. It is the love of God that sends the winter days when I am cold and sick, and the hot summer when I labor and my clothes are full of sweat: but it is God who breathes on me with light winds off the river and in the breezes out of the wood. God’s love spreads the shade of the sycamore over my head. It is God’s love that speaks to me in the birds and streams; but also behind the clamor of the city God speaks to me in his judgments, and all these things are seeds sent to me from God’s will. If these seeds would take root in my liberty, and if God’s will would grow from my freedom, I would become the love that God is, and my harvest would be God’s glory and my own joy. And I would grow together with thousands and millions of other freedoms into the gold of one huge field praising God, loaded with increase, loaded with wheat.