Check Your Hearing

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compassionate, Ezekiel, listen, open our hearts, pay attention, sharing, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding

There it is again: Ez 18:31 – today as the verse before the gospel. “…make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit,” he says. We just heard (and I wrote) those words four days ago for your consideration. When I see things repeated that quickly in the lectionary, I always take note. So today I say: Pay attention if you didn’t before! We are likely at a crossroad—or on the verge of something. We are being called maybe to a new moment of maturity. It seems as if it’s a call to creativity. Soon everything may be allowed to go back to the way things were…but is that even possible? Might we have learned something about suffering? Perhaps about death that comes “like a thief in the night,” as the Scriptures say? Are we called to be more compassionate now because we share in the loss of a half a million people? Can we enter into the sadness of one another without getting swallowed up by their grief? Rather are we called to a posture of sharing—understanding, perhaps, like never before?

So much has changed. Are we ready to open our hearts just an inch? Can you hear the beating of the heart of someone new today? Perhaps it is your ears that must be engaged. Think about it.

No Words of My Own

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care, heart, inspiration, Joyce Rupp, love, open our hearts, Peace, Prayer Seeds, respect, solace, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, words, worthy

Sometimes it’s necessary to count on the words of others for inspiration or solace. That’s one of the primary reasons for my frequent references to biblical texts or modern inspirational writers at this season when bad news seems to vie with inclement weather to wipe out most, if not all, spiritual energy. Joyce Rupp is my “saving grace” this morning with the conclusion to a prayer service for peace in her book, Prayer Seeds. May it be a motivator for you as well.

Peace-Bringer, create in me a heart filled with the kind of love that reflects your own. Send this love to those I care about and respect. Open my mind to those I want to reject. Open my heart to those I prefer to avoid. Open my eyes to see beyond the surface of individuals and recognize your presence in each one. May my thoughts, words and deeds be devoid of violence in any form. Soften whatever is hardened in my heart so that I bring your peace wherever I go. Remind me often that I, too, am in need of this love and worthy to receive it. (p. 53)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hiatus

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betrayals, blessings, Celtic Treasures, encounters, faithful, heal, J. Philip Newell, open our hearts, speak, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the whole of life

I am going to be away from home this week and am unsure now of internet availability as well as scheduled events. I will return home next Sunday hoping to resume this daily practice on Monday. I leave with hope of a peaceful week for us all and a prayer of J. Philip Newell to accompany our days.

You speak to us in all things, O God, in the rising of the sun and its setting, in dreams of the night and the encounters of day. Let us know you in the whole of life, in both the blessings and the betrayals of our lives. Heal our hurts and open our hearts that as families and nations we may be faithful to one another. (Celtic Treasures, p. 50)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Love

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bad news, big love, curious, engaged, example, humanity, Hurricane Matthew, listen, love, Meg Wheatley, open our hearts, pain, pray, quiet, reality of pain, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Turning To One Another, world

I am probably going to sound like a broken record today but in the face of all the “bad news” that greeted me when I turned on my computer this morning, I can’t help it. It would be easy to stay frozen in my rocking chair and figuratively “bury my head in the sand” knowing all the devastation of hurricane Matthew thus far in the Caribbean and anticipating “his” arrival in the United States or reading so many e-mails asking prayers for loved ones diagnosed with terminal diseases. I won’t even begin to talk about politics and the state of our nation! For solace I turned to Meg Wheatley. She quoted Sharon Salzberg’s concise dictum that I believe could solve everything if we could just intuit the depth of meaning in it and choose to embrace it fully. Salzberg says:

Only love is big enough to hold all the pain in this world.

She doesn’t say that love is big enough to minimize the pain or eradicate the pain or (God forbid) help us ignore the pain. She calls us to see that only in recognizing and being willing to embrace the reality of pain in our lives and in the larger world in solidarity with each other will we be able to endure. Meg Wheatley then adds, I think of a gesture of love as anything we do that helps others discover their humanity. Any act where we turn to one another. Open our hearts. Extend ourselves. Listen. Any time we’re patient. Curious. Quiet. Engaged…I feel we become more fully human through our generosity, when we extend to another rather than withdraw into ourselves. (Turning to One Another, p. 138)

It’s okay to start small. Read the news. Pray for one situation, one person to get better. Make a phone call to use your voice for good. Show up when it counts. Be a good example to a teenager. Get used to practicing until “big love” is the only way you can imagine living, even though it is not the easiest way to live.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just One

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all may be as one, heart-meld, Jesus, John, mind-meld, one, open our hearts, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unconditional love, union, visionary seeing, Wisdom Schools

We have a chant that we sing sometimes at our Wisdom Schools, especially when we are speaking about “visionary seeing” and although it’s better when sung, you will get the idea by just reading it. It says: You the one, one in all. Say “I am; I am you.” It’s very easy to sing – simple words, simple tune – but far from easy to grasp.

The deepest prayer of Jesus as he was departing this world (JN 17) pleaded with God: “Holy Father, I pray that all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they also may be in us…I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one…” As I was trying just now in writing those words to find a way to comment on it, I thought of Mr. Spock from Star Trek and the concept of a “mind-meld.” But the oneness Jesus is so earnestly desiring is not a simple mind-meld. Closer to the reality, I think, would be the concept of a “heart-meld.” How is it that we could come to be so united that it would be clear to all those who observe us that we are one with God? I believe the proof would be in the quality of our love, our unconditional love for one another and for all of creation. I slipped in that word unconditional because that is, I think, the key to everything. We often put conditions on our willingness: “I’ll be nice to her if she’s nice to me…” That doesn’t even get us in the door of “unconditional.”

We can only conjecture about the oneness quotient of the love Jesus had for God and the union it brought into being, but it would be a worthy subject for reflection on this Sunday. How might we open our hearts – even one step today – toward oneness? That’s probably all we’re asked – and that is certainly enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

God Is Good All the Time

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compassion, God is love, goodness of God, kindness, open our hearts, psalm 25, teach me your ways, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

This morning I’m playing “catch-up” because yesterday I was participating in an overnight retreat where the internet was not available to me. What I would have chosen we actually did discuss and I find it a suitable introductory prayer for today – as perhaps any day. The gospel acclamation for yesterday pleaded, “Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son.”

Today I am drawn again to the direct address of the psalmist. Punctuated by the refrain: Teach me your ways, O Lord, Psalm 25 has an interesting nuance in its reasoning and instruction to God. Remember that your compassion, O Lord, and your love are from of old. In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, O Lord. (vs. 6-7) As if God needed help to remember or encouragement to teach, the psalmist seems to cajole by mentioning some of God’s significant virtues. My interest lies in the last phrase. The psalmist does not ask anything because of any goodness in humanity but because of the goodness of God. I might ask for a remembrance from God by listing all the good things I have tried to do. (It’s sometimes hard to remember we don’t have to “earn” everything.) But, when prompted, I know that the God I trust cannot wait to shower us with love, kindness, compassion…simply because God is love, kindness, compassion, goodness. It is God’s very being that is at play here, a fact that the psalmist seems to know well. Today, then, as I try to live God’s ways I will open my heart to that goodness, knowing that God is cheering me on to an understanding that it’s not about success but rather about a receptivity that will take me all the way home.