New Vision

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healing, John Lewis, love, New Year, Peace, shine, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Last night, just before midnight, I read the quote that follows here. It made sense to me to send it out today as a call for a new year, a new way to be. It came from a man of extraordinary courage, John Lewis, and I have no words of my own that even come close to what he left us as a challenge. So take a breath, Everyone. Slow down and do not skim over the paragraph that follows. Savor the sentences, repeat each word aloud. Honor John Lewis and all the people who have loved this country and who hold on to what is best in it. Pray for healing for what needs to come alive again and be willing and ready to be a light shining for the world.

Study the path of others…Lean toward the whispers of your heart…Know that the truth always leads to love and the perpetuation of peace. Clothe yourself in the work of love…Hold only to love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won…If you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself. Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America, John Lewis.

Blessings for the New Year!

The First Day

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20/20 vision, beginning, future, gift, goals, hope, New Year, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today is a new day. How is that different from any other day? Well, it’s a new year as well. Someone once said: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life,” and that became a standard for greeting cards and slogans everywhere. When something is that self-evident we need to stop and think why it becomes so popular to say or think. It is, of course, the surface and beginning point of a long and sometimes arduous reflective adventure.

What does your desired future look like? Do you have any idea? Any goals? Would you be dissatisfied if today becomes like yesterday or this year like the last? Are there things you want to or need to change? How will you make it happen? Of what are you certain now and what will make the rest of your life more meaningful? Is there even a need for all these questions ?

This exercise is for myself, of course, and perhaps something on which to spend at least a moment each day, even though today may warrant a deeper dive. May this new beginning be a gift of hope for you as you step into this new year. May clear seeing (20/20 vision) guide you along with sincerity and clarity and may you welcome the joys and challenges of this year with acceptance and gratitude that you still have this new day to open yourself to life!

The Last Day

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accept the challenge, be grateful, be kind to yourself, New Year, pray, reflection, rejoice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, time, year in review

Today is the last day of the year. That is not “new news” to anyone but it does invite reflection. My mother used to tell us not to wish for time to pass more quickly no matter what we were waiting for, because as we got older things – time – would seem to speed up and we would wish it would slow down. She was a wise woman and now I know the truth of her prediction.

Today I hope to take some time to reflect on 2019 asking myself questions about the high points and the low points: what were they and why do I see them that way. I will consider the important happenings and the people who figured most importantly into my days. What have I learned from/during this year? Is there anything left “hanging” that needs to be completed and am I willing/able to complete it?

You have your own questions and memories from the year. In your review, should you wish to “accept the challenge,” be kind to yourself in judging it all. Be grateful for all you have learned about yourself that you wish to take into 2020 (a great image for seeing clearly) and thank God for another chance to begin. Rejoice that you are still alive and smile at the people who cross your path today. Pray for those who need your prayer and smile at God who knows how to answer better than we do. Have a blessed new year…

Full of Grace

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2018, grace, gratitude, John, New Year, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Although it’s almost sunset, I feel a call to say something today in response to the line in today’s reading from John’s gospel that proclaims: “From his fullness we have all received…grace following on grace.”

Having spent two days back and forth from motel to hospital to motel again as well as today at my sister’s home, I have seen – in its fullness – grace in abundance. I have already spoken of the great gift of the surgical nurse of Friday (see 12/29 post) but she was followed by a stream of parking lot attendants, hospitality persons, meal servers, cab drivers, nurses (hospital & home visiting), physical therapists, etc. and I can honestly that each one was part of a grace-filled experience that could otherwise have been fraught with worry and tension.

As we leave 2018 behind, I hope that each of us is able to look back to some event or circumstance during the year that evokes gratitude for what we might describe as a full measure of grace!

Blessing the New Year

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blessing, gracious, kindly, Lord, New Year, Peace, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The first reading in our lectionary this morning contains a perfect blessing for this day of new beginnings. Before I transcribe it here, I have two notes from “last year” to be attended to.

1. Some have questions about the title of yesterday’s entry that shows up for you as four numbers that have no reference to anything in the writing. As I often do not know the title until the post is written, I need to be careful to remember not to post until the title comes to me because the moment I post, all those who receive the message by e-mail receive it. There is no going back with those readers; only those who check the website find the edited entry. The title I chose was “Holy Family” but my computer had already chosen the numerical title when I realized I had forgotten to name the post. Thanks for asking about it.

2. I want to thank those of you who responded to our plea for donations during the recent campaign. This is the first time that we have included a specific outreach to our blog readers and it was gratifying to me that you responded. In addition to friends of many years, I was delighted to receive checks/PayPal notifications from readers whom I have never met – in person or otherwise. Please note that it’s never too late to donate, and be assured of our appreciation for all the ways in which you support the blog and the Sophia Center.

Now for the blessing we offer you from God and from us as we begin this new chapter in our lives:

“The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!” (NUM 6:24-26)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy Family

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brother, connected, family, Holy Family, New Year, nuclear family, one family, one world, sister, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today, the feast of the Holy Family, I am flooded with memories and gratitude for the blessings of my youth. The luxury of growing up with an intact nuclear family as well as the proximity of cousins galore is somewhat more rare these days and something to be treasured. In some wonderful, seemingly organic way, those of us who are now the “elders” seem deeply connected to the younger generation of our family. Although scattered around our country and even the far reaches of the world, on the infrequent occasions when we are together, delight is as palpable as the genetics that we share.

I know that I am privileged far beyond the boundaries of what money can buy and I wish such love as exists in my family for all people. Such love does not imply lack of struggle but rather a willingness to acknowledge our imperfections as well as the bonds that hold us together. And in our time we are faced with a new sense of what family can mean as people research their ancestry and submit their DNA to testing, learning whom they ought to be calling “sister” an “brother” in a wider sense than we could have imagined.

Let us, then, on this threshold day of a new year, recognize that we are all connected, and let us resolve to hold the possibility of “one world, one family” as our goal for the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

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bless, Book of Numbers, faith, forward, gracious, kindly, Lord, New Year, Peace, shine, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

As we wake to a new year, I can share no better words than those of the Book of Numbers (Ch. 6) from today’s lectionary texts as a blessing for going forward in faith.

The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Year of Blessing

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blessing, God, light, mercy, Moses, New Year, psalm 67, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

For the last few days, I’ve been ending emails and phone calls with the phrase, “Happy New Year!” and have been receiving that wish as often as I offer it. We actually do that quite often in our culture. Merry Christmas! Happy holidays! (the more inclusive, non-specific, politically correct choice), Happy birthday! Bon voyage! Vaya con Dios…You get the idea.

The psalm refrain for this morning (Ps. 67:2a) brought this custom of what we generally call “best wishes” into the realm of “blessings” and started me on the way to a New Year’s resolution. May God bless us in His mercy, it said. A great wish, a prayer even, that we might utter in supplication every morning. Taking a look back at the first reading from the Book of Numbers (6:22-27), I found an even broader possibility. Moses was getting a lesson from God on how to bless the Israelites: Say to them, God tells Moses, The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!

I thought upon hearing that how empowering the instruction was. It became the job of Moses, not just God, to impart a blessing to the people. (We Catholics hear that one sometimes as the dismissal from the Mass.) Down through the ages songs of blessing have been sung, creative prayer services have included blessings on those gathered and, perhaps most intimately, parents have blessed their children each night before they sleep with words, a hand on their heads, the sign of the cross on their foreheads or a sweet kiss that adds a message of love to the blessing.

I think I’ll resolve to make every day a day of blessing this year, making sure that someone in my world (our world) receives from me a word of hope, of solidarity or, best of all, of love. So let it begin here:

May this year of 2016 be new every day for all of us, offering us the opportunity to begin again to be the best we can be while accepting that God loves us just the way we are!