Spirit Of All That Lives

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awe, breath, counsel, fear of the Lord, fortitude, gifts, Holy Spirit, knowledge, Pentecost, piety, Prayer Seeds, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding, wisdom, wonder

Today we celebrate the outpouring of the power that we call the Holy Spirit. Every inspiration that leads us deeper into the transformation of our hearts in love is understood as an impulse of this face of God. This Spirit is as elemental as our breath, unseen but known in myriad ways great and small – universal and individual. It is as simple as the intake of my breath at the beauty of the burgeoning flowers in spring or as miraculous as the moment a young woman first holds her newborn child. The Spirit brings many gifts, taught in Christianity (traditionally and then in modern parlance) as wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel (right judgment), fortitude (courage), piety (reverence) and fear of the Lord (Wonder and awe in God’s presence).

Let us be grateful in this celebration as we pray: Spirit of the Universe, Spirit of my heart, I welcome you into my life. Come visit the places within me where Love has yet to find a dwelling place. Breathe within all of my existence with the power of your transforming grace. I open my entire being to you and thank you for the gift of your presence. Amen. (Prayer Seeds, p. 172)

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Saints

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All Saints Day, canonized, Dalai Lama, grace, holiness, hope, Jesus, miracles, piety, Pope Leo XIII, religious practice, Roman Catholic, saint, social justice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today is one of the few days in the Roman Catholic Church that the liturgy of a Sunday is superseded by the celebration of a special feast on the liturgical calendar. Today’s feast of All Saints gives us pause, not only to think about those people throughout history who have been named by the Church as deserving of the title “saint” (those whom the Church has “canonized”) but also to reflect on what it means to be a saint. We often hear people speak of someone who has suffered many trials (e.g. those with many unruly children) as a saint. “That woman is a saint,” they say! In that case it seems that sainthood resides in the person’s ability to show grace under pressure or to endure what might make others lash out and turn to violence. We might hear also, “He’s a saint – in church every morning without fail, never without his rosary…” which tells us that religious practice and personal piety are the means to sainthood. And then there are those who speak out on issues of social justice, demanding that governments care for the less fortunate and those whose dignity is ignored. We have been slow to recognize this category of sainthood (although charity has always been part of the Christian path). Justice workers are sometimes unruly, even going so far as breaking the law in service to what they see as “a higher law” in imitation of Jesus. It was Pope Leo XIII in 1891 who began to articulate what has become the social teaching of the Catholic Church in his encyclical Rerum novarum which spoke of unfair labor practices. Do we see crusaders for justice as saints?

The dictionary has many definitions of sainthood – most of them somehow articulating the quality of holiness. Catholics look for miracles, especially healings and visions – and sometimes have clear evidence of how that has manifested in the lives of the canonized saints. A relatively new development is the growing consciousness of the “sainthood” of people who do not share our own religious beliefs and traditions. Who would argue against the sainthood of the Dalai Lama, for instance, especially if we have been privileged to be in his presence? Saint Paul is responsible for the fact that the title of saint appears in the Scriptures; he addresses everyone to whom he writes as saints! So what does that mean?

We may not all look like saints or fit any standard definition of what sainthood means, but maybe – with the virtue of hope in our pocket – we can continue on the way to God, doing our best to love as Jesus did, and as those people whose example we choose to follow have done, trusting that it is God’s measure we can achieve, becoming one in the great Communion of Saints that knows no human reckoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Cheerful Giver

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catholic, cheerful giver, generous, giving, laughter, lightness of life, pay homage, piety, sanctity, singing, Sirach, smiling, St. Philip Neri, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning’s first reading from the Book of Sirach (35:1-12) sounds like an ad for “sacrificial giving” in church. It is talking about paying homage to the Lord but goes beyond tithing, which ought to be accomplished in a spirit of joy. Expansion of the theme of actual donation is also implied in such language as: in generous spirit…be not sparing of freewill gifts and Give to the Most High as he has given to you, generously, according to your means. Upon reading this I was thrown back to a song that we used to sing during our novitiate days that began: God loves a cheerful giver; give it all you’ve got! (great emphasis on the second part – sort of like a football fight song, gestures and all). Certainly, we were not singing about monetary contributions to the Church but rather the attitude with which we lived our lives.

Serendipitously, today is the feast of St. Philip Neri who lived in the 1500’s, a tumultuous time for the Christian Church. A summary comment from the website http://www.americancatholic.org offers the following:

Many people feel that such an attractive and jocular personality as Philip’s cannot be combined with intense spirituality. Philip’s life melts our rigid, narrow views of piety. His approach to sanctity was truly catholic, all-embracing and accompanied by a good laugh. Philip always wanted his followers to become not less but more human through their striving for holiness.

So, if they’re not already part of your spiritual backpack, it sounds like a good idea today to add smiling, singing and considering those you meet as friends just waiting to be found, with whom the lightness of life can dispel some of the heaviness of the world.

 

 

What Time Is It?

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farming, God, Hosea, injustice, justice, piety, time

Another farming image took my attention this morning. The last few lines in the first reading from Hosea (10:12) sounded so direct and immediate while speaking to the whole of the seasonal process that it was hard to ignore. Sow for yourselves justice, says the prophet, reap the fruit of piety; break up for yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the Lord. Attentiveness to the needs of the world and actions for the same are two sides of the call to justice – a call to which we are all responsible. Piety is sometimes seen as a virtue closed in upon itself, often coupled with the word “personal” so it seems to ignore others in the quest for holiness. But personal piety, it seems to me if we define it as the dictionary does, speaks of reverence and devotion which cannot help but overflow into our relations with others and the world. How can we be reverent toward God, devoted to the work of God, if we are not aware that all is one in God? Thus, piety calls for justice and justice for piety, so that we do not give in to the frustration and anger that come with the recognition of injustice. Hosea seems to be saying, however, that we are to go beyond our present understandings now. Breaking up a new field says to me something like “the harvest is plentiful but laborers are few.” It’s the last line that makes the whole thing seem so urgent. It’s time, people! Get out there (or go in!) and seek the Lord! It’s a new time and we need to be new people. Dig deeper! Ramp up your reverence! It’s time now. It’s time.