Living In Love

Tags

believe, Corinthians, endure, hope, kind, love, patient, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth

After arriving home about mid-day on Thursday, I was off again the next evening to conduct a 24-hour retreat. Some would call that very poor scheduling but, as it turned out, it was a lovely way to re-enter from the “time-out-of-time” that was Peru. The topic, Living In Love, could have been easily predicted; it is February after all when all the Valentine candy and flowers can hardly be avoided.

We covered a lot of ground and pondered weighty questions in our time together. We watched the roaring fire that kept the frigid air from overtaking our reflections. We talked about food on our breaks (everyone but me an aficionado of organic prep!) and had done the bedroom laundry by mid-afternoon, re-making the beds with as easy a rhythm as on a Saturday at home. Our day was punctuated with readings from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapters 12 & 13, and I smiled just now to find his words echoing again in today’s lectionary.

It occurs to me that our little band of seekers yesterday was a model of what Paul saw as a way to practice love and grow in love in simple yet essential ways. Here is the crux of the lesson that we took home. You will, of course, recognize it. But read it slowly, perhaps aloud, letting it seep into you and, maybe for the umpteenth time, find a home.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude. It does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered. It does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrong-doing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1COR 13)

Paul’s Legacy

Tags

bears, believes, Corinthians, endures, faith, hope, hopes, kind, love, patient, quiet, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

St. Paul is “waxing eloquent” today in what may be his most famous and frequently quoted text of all: 1 COR 12:31-13:13. It is heard it so often at weddings that I sometimes wonder if we don’t just get as far as “Love is patient, love is kind…” and then let the words slide across our consciousness without really penetrating too deeply. Perhaps that’s too harsh a judgment on such an important moment, but I have often heard that “what is seldom is wonderful” and sometimes I know that I perk up and listen better to unfamiliar readings.

On this ordinary Wednesday morning in the middle of September, when all is quiet around me and nothing is stirring outside – even the birds are silent! – I hear Paul once again and am deeply touched by each phrase. May it be so with you also.

Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge, if I have faith so as to move mountains, but I do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over to be burned but do not have love, I gain nothing.

(Before you go on reading, stop for awhile and consider how monumental are those propositions…)

Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrong-doing but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then, face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living Love

Tags

Entering the Silence, forgive, kind, live, love, loved ones, patient, Paul, Peace, sorrow, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

As is often the case, I woke up today with song lyrics in my head. This time it was a familiar text from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, chosen by countless people for a wedding reading. You know it too, I’ll wager. Love is patient, love is kind, love is ready to forgive, sings Jeannie Cotter with David Haas ready to jump in as the lyrics veer off a bit from Paul. The last line of the chorus summarizes the message beautifully, however, when both sing that in love we choose to live.

I usually wait for a second sign if the song doesn’t go away by the time I sit down and root around inside and outside for a message. As I take stock of the previous day (or, as in this case, two days since I had no internet service yesterday) my theme often becomes perfectly clear. Yesterday was a day of communicating with loved ones – in person or on the phone – who are dealing with issues of deep sorrow. I carry them now and will continue to do so on this day where quiet and inaction is being enforced by the ice and snow outside. As I move through the hours I will take Thomas Merton with me as well to help me stay in the sphere of loving consciousness. Won’t you join me?

Every day love corners me somewhere and surrounds me with peace without having to look very far or very hard or do anything special. (Entering the Silence, p. 196)

 

Purely Personal

Tags

blog, divine Spirit, kind, love, nurture, patient, practice, ready to forgive, spirit, St. Paul, synchronicity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, uplift

This weekend has been all about family for me – and about the love that we hope will last forever for Paul and Gemma who were married on Friday. That was the message that I proclaimed for them, one of the most commonly quoted Scripture passages of St. Paul. It’s the one that tells us all about the qualities of love (kindness, patience, never boastful…) and ends with the certainty that “love never ends.” I would add: if we continue to nurture it. Actually there was a lot of love being spread around the venue then and into yesterday morning at breakfast.

It is a great grace that not only my generation of cousins (the “old guys”) are truly fond of one another. The 16 cousins in the younger generation – all of whom but one attending the event – traveled from near and far and were delighted to be together as well. The eldest, the ‘missing one’ (my godson) was even there by the miracle called FaceTime, so he was included in the “cousins photo” where they all held up their numbers in the birth order over a span of 30 years. Even the fact that Peter now resides in South Korea couldn’t ruin the perfect joy of the night; he was there as surely as the love that conjured him on a telephone screen. And then there were the several babies & little folks who were incredibly happy and well-behaved. It was the kind of experience that lifts the spirit and calls us to be our best selves.

Speaking of things that help us grow, I was surprised to realize that this blog post is number 1,200 for me! It seems uncanny that I have been able to sustain such a practice in the early hours of most days (although not today!) for the better part of four years. What drives me, however, is my desire to do something – no matter how small – to uplift the spirits of good people, some of whom are struggling to make sense of our world. And although I use the prompts of Scripture on many days, in addition to various contemporary writers on others, I am quite often astounded at the message that unfolds. Some call that synchronicity; I believe it is the divine Spirit directing what needs to be said. I sometimes think it might be time to close up my computer and find another path to roam. Days like that are the ones on which someone usually writes or calls to say something like, “Your blog this morning was so helpful for me! Keep them coming.” Then I go back to read it again and find it helpful for me too! It’s all part of the mystery and beauty of how God works.

So if you can keep reading on the days when the result is a bit “ho hum” I guess I’ll keep listening and writing what comes for a while, remembering that love is patient, love is kind…love is always ready to forgive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rilke’s Wisdom

Tags

answers, intention, Letters to a Young Poet, live, patient, perspective, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke's Book of Hours, Sunday, the Lord's Day, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unfinished business, unsolved

It has become my practice every morning to consider each day a clean slate for my living. Of course there are on-going concerns or projects and I have my lists of “unfinished business” from the previous day (or week or month…) but my intention is to look at everything from the perspective of this day and leave yesterday to the history books. Even more important does that intention become on Sundays for two reasons. It is, after all, the first day of the week, the beginning of a new cycle of events. Additionally it is for Christians the Lord’s Day, the day of Resurrection, thereby giving impetus to thoughts of God and my own sense of hope for myself and the world.

My desire to catapult myself from sleep into newness this morning led me to Rilke’s Book of Hours. As I leafed through the pages, out fell a small sheet of notebook paper that I’ve kept for almost 50 years. A little yellowed by the years, it is otherwise in good shape, having been passed from one book to another from time to time. On it my friend Jan had printed a famous quote from Rilke’s work, Letters to a Young Poet, that was probably encouragement for me during a moment of uncertainty in the novitiate. It was the first time I had encountered Rilke and that text but it has stayed with me and been shared countless times with others. I am fairly certain I have even shared it here. Sometimes, though, repetition is good for the soul – and even the mind. Such is the case for me this morning so I offer it as a new beginning for a new week. May we all be blessed in our seeking!

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers that cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will gladly, without even noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where Is Your Heart?

Tags

Abraham, courage, faith, God, heart, Hebrews, Luke, patient, psalm 33, salvation history, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, treasure, wait, wisdom

Today’s lectionary texts offer a quick summary of what has been called salvation history, beginning with the Israelites who “with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith…have courage.” (WIS 18:6-9) Both this reading and the second are primarily a commentary on the faith and hope of Abraham whose journey of life took a serious turn when he was facing old age and God told him to leave his home and move to a land God would show him. He could have stayed home…but he didn’t. Sometimes we have to wait for God’s call as Psalm 33 tells us. (Our soul waits for the Lord who is our help and our shield. May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you.)

Things are not always clear on the spiritual journey. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us of this by saying: Faith is the realization of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Speaking of Abraham’s faith the letter chronicles his story and how God worked through him because of his faith. (HEB 11:1-2, 8-10) But none of these words are just about Abraham. It is for us also to wait for the Lord in hope. Today is a reflection on our own sense of what faith calls out from us. Sometimes it isn’t easy to be patient with ourselves or what some have called “the slow work of God.” But we look to Jesus who is the model for such trust who gives good advice for the posture we ought to take when he says: Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who wait for their master’s return from a wedding. (LK 12: 34-48) Are we willing to wait for the clarity that sometimes only comes toward the end of our lives? Can we look back from the vantage point of today and see patterns of God’s love and the deepening of our faith and hope? For me, the most significant line in all of today’s Scripture selections comes from Jesus when he says: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

May we all search our hearts today for the treasure of faith and hope that abides there – sometimes too deep to access, sometimes right before our eyes, but always, always there – waiting in the light of our God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of Love

Tags

blessing, Corinthians, depth of love, endure, hope, kind, love, Love never fails, patient, Paul, rejoice, spiritual journey, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’ve been waiting for the lectionary reading of 1COR 13 – St. Paul’s famous and familiar “hymn to love” because no matter how many times I hear it – especially at weddings – it always makes an impact. The long form of the reading this morning is 1 COR 12:31 – 13:13 and every line is worth a look. I went to the part about the qualities of love and noticed for the first time that Paul defines love more by what it is not than what it is. He begins and ends with strong statements about what love is but in between it’s as if he sees a stripping away of behaviors in order to get to the depth of love. This section merits a hearing, (i.e. reading it aloud) with time to savor each line and reflect on what we are growing out of and into on our spiritual journey. It is St. Paul at his most eloquent and I offer it to you as a blessing for today.

Love is patient; love is kind. It is not jealous or pompous. It is not inflated or rude. Love does not seek its own interests; it is not quick tempered. Love does not brood over injuries; it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Conversion

Tags

Acts of the Apostles, Christianity, conversion, Corinthians, endures, kind, love, patient, St. Paul, the slow work of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth, walk with God

St. Paul was, by all accounts, a passionate and zealous man, both before and after his conversion to Christ. That dramatic moment, chronicled in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 9, seems fitting and perhaps necessary for one so focused on his mission in life. His whole life journey changed in a blinding (literally) flash of light and a voice that he recognized as divine. Interestingly, the story goes that his companions saw the light but did not hear the voice. For that reason, perhaps, and for all that followed that coincided with the instructions given to Paul, it was easier for the witnesses to comprehend the total turnaround in his behavior. The comment that concludes the short biography of Paul on the americancatholic.org website this morning speaks of Paul’s style of writing as “rabbinical” and sometimes difficult to understand at its depth, but that in it we find so many beautiful jewels that have become part of the everyday coin in our Christian language. The quote they chose to illustrate this fact is certainly one of the most familiar and bears repeating as we consider the contribution of Paul to the spread of Christianity.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interest, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things…(1COR 13:4-7)

For most of us conversion is a daily thing, perhaps punctuated with brief moments of insight that keep us moving along our spiritual path. While we sometimes long for  more visible and dramatic events to transform us, the value of a steady, day-to-day walk with God cannot be underestimated. Moreover, the example of those who live Paul’s defining words of love in all they do can remind us of the beauty of each life and can help us to humbly embrace our own as “the slow work of God.”

Be Patient

Tags

Canaanite woman, Israelites, Jesus, keep faith, live the questions, love the questions, Matthew, Numbers, patient, Rainer Maria Rilke, struggle, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning’s readings are about struggle, first of the Israelites in the desert who are convinced that God brought them out of Egypt to die because their situation was discontinuous from the miracle of their escape through the Red Sea. (NM 13 & 14) The Canaanite woman in the gospel presents an opposite view. An outsider, she was willing to approach and then challenge the negative response of Jesus to her cry for help, such that in the end her request was granted. (MT 15:21-28)

Sometimes it’s hard to keep faith when things are difficult and there seems no end to struggle in sight. As often happens for me when I am looking for a “way out” or something that will keep me going, I opened a book this morning to find a quote by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke in his Letters to a Young Poet. It speaks of what I know as successful process as I look back on the life I’ve lived so far, and seems appropriate advice in times of struggle.

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…Do not seek the answers that cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will gladly, without even noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.