Hidden Blessings

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challenges, hidden blessings, Lynn Bauman, psalm 128, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Psalm 128 tells us quite clearly today (in the translation of Lynn Bauman): Your life is filled with hidden blessings which overflow from your hands—the gift of many labors. For it is God, the center of the heart, who prospers life until its end.

We might not feel that this season is full to overflowing with blessings but if we can look more deeply into things and take the long view we might agree with St. Paul. Speaking for myself, if I look at the rhythm of my days, I see that my work has changed significantly during the pandemic. It has become, at the same time, more simple and more challenging. Simpler in the tasks of service to my housemates: trips to the post office and the bank with proper precautions, time at home together praying and even planning and executing new menus for meals which teaches me that the challenges are not as daunting as I thought and the results and benefits of a successful meal are better than I expected.

The more challenging side of life is trying to maintain a work schedule that keeps the Sophia Center going. Challenge is primarily in the realm of technology so I have learned to admit what I can and cannot manage and it becomes easier to ask for help. I am blessed with wonderful women who provide that. The upside of navigating the shifts in how we present and participate is the depth of sharing as well as the fact that participants can attend whether from downtown Binghamton or in the far reaches of Florida or the Northwest USA. Our zoom calls keep digging the roots of our sharing deeper and our recognition of our oneness beating in our hearts.

All in all, I am reminded by Psalm 128 to look for the “hidden blessings” and remember that I will surely find God in the search.

Looking Ahead

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, basket of blessings, cornucopia, garden, heart, hidden balances, paths of God, psalm 128, right relationships, thankfulness, Thanksgiving, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today I am filled with gratitude for all that was experienced during the meeting that I was anticipating yesterday at sunrise (See my previous post). Generosity of heart and spirit flowed throughout our deliberations. Insights shared around our tables of six or seven broadened our perspectives and laughter punctuated the process of coming to the weighty decisions we had to make. In the end thankfulness poured out in a powerful prayer of blessing for those women who will lead us forward into the future. I will bring this remembrance to the table on Thursday as we celebrate our Thanksgiving dinner at our home.

Over the next few days I intend to gather all the experiences of this year in a “basket of blessings” in order to come consciously to the feast of Thanksgiving. I was prompted to this idea by Psalm 128 from today’s lectionary texts as well as from the commentary that followed. Perhaps all of us might benefit from such a practice this week.

Psalm: Blessed are you who walk upon the paths of God. Your life is  filled with hidden blessings which overflow from your hands, the gift of many labors. And blessings like fruit-bearing trees and vines spring forth and flourish from the garden of your house…And all who honor God upon this path shall know a cornucopia of good. For it is God, the center of the heart, who prospers life until its end. So you who hear and pray this prayer, come close and live within the circle of God’s care. And may God’s special peace be yours one generation to another.

Reflection: Think of your heart as an inner courtyard where the garden of God’s life grows. Its fruits are seen in the outer world, but the root and core lies there. Imagine how you might tend this garden maintaining hidden balances and right relationships between all things. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew)

 

 

 

 

Finding the Extraordinary in Life

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, center of the heart, extraordinary, God's path, hidden blessings, psalm 128, reflection, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wisdom

Psalm 128 is rather short, only eight verses but rich in wisdom. After reading three translations, I felt it important to pay attention to two of the lines especially. The entire psalm is about the blessings that come to those who walk upon God’s path, following God’s ways – a rather common theme throughout the book. What first got my attention was the second line of verse one which said that for those who are living that way life is filled with hidden blessings. Later, verse five proclaims that it is God, the center of the heart, who prospers life unto its end. It was upon reading the commentary that I recognized the possible richness of reflection on what was contained in these phrases. See what you think of this call to wake up to the ordinary events of life.

Sources of blessing flow hidden beneath the external surfaces of the world. These we tap as we live out our lives in right-relationship to God and to the world. Often these appear to be mundane and ordinary, but extraordinary is hidden in them. Look at your circumstances. What in the ordinary hides the extraordinary goodness of God? We are asked to see this, to penetrate past the surfaces to the heart.

Notice in verse 5 that it is at the center, the heart, where these realities become clear to us. Can you see from the level of your heart?  (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 331)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hidden Blessings

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, blessing, center of the heart, cornucopia of good, extraordinary, God, hidden blessings, Lynn Bauman, oilve plants, psalm 128, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Psalm 128 is the one that says “your children are like olive plants around your table.” I understood this line much more deeply after a visit to Italy some years ago when I saw olive trees for the first time. I found them a lovely element in the landscape, a gentle presence both light and strong.

Lynn Bauman (Ancient Songs Sung Anew) gives voice in his lyrical translation of this psalm to what he calls “a cornucopia of good” that includes not only familial relationships but “hidden blessings” that flow to those who “walk upon the paths of God.” He speaks of God as “the center of the heart” who prospers all our days.

Bauman’s commentary seemed to me a worthy focus for the day’s reflection. He says: Sources of blessing flow hidden beneath the external surfaces of the world. These we tap as we live out our lives in right-relationship to God and to the world. Often these appear to be mundane and ordinary, but extraordinary is hidden within them. Look at your circumstances. What in the ordinary hides the extraordinary goodness of God? We are asked to see this, to penetrate past the surfaces to the heart. Notice in verse 5 that it is at the center, the heart where these realities become clear to us. Can you see from the level of your heart?  

Good Advice

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Colossians, compassion, kindness, humility, gentlenesspatience,, family, Holy Family, John, Lectionary, Luke, psalm 128, psalm 84, Sirach, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today it seems as if those who determined the cycle of readings for the lectionary could not make up their minds. There are occasionally two choices for one of the readings on a Sunday, often a longer and a shorter version of the gospel. Today, however, we have two choices from the Hebrew Scriptures for the first reading (SIR 3:2-6, 12-14 or 1 SM 1:20-28), two Psalm responses (PS 128: 1-5 or PS 84:2-10), three choices for the second reading (COL 3:12-21 or the shorter COL 3:12-17 as well as 1 JN 3:1-2, 21-24), two gospel acclamations (COL 3:15-16 or ACTS 16:14) but only one gospel, about the finding of the child Jesus in the temple when he is 12 years old (LK 2:41-52).

Today, as always on the Sunday following the celebration of Christmas, the Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary and Joseph). That certainly makes sense as a recognition that Jesus was born not only for the entire world but also into a family. I wonder, though, if perhaps there wasn’t some thought given when the cycle of the Church year was set up liturgically to the fact that Christmas is a gathering time for families and it might be a good idea to have some advice given in church as to how to be and act as families. I can attest to that as an effective rationale (in a rather playful way) from the many Christmases that my siblings and I leaned forward shooting knowing glances at my father as the lector proclaimed, “Husbands, love your wives,” and at my brother when hearing, “My son, take care of your father when he is old…” It was all light-hearted posturing, as all of us consider ourselves lucky to have been blessed with our family, but this morning it got me thinking when I saw all the reading choices. “Family” has become a word that today describes myriad gatherings of individuals, not always what in the 1950s in the USA was considered the norm: two parents, two children (a boy and a girl) and a dog – a gross misrepresentation even then. Diversity reigns now more than ever. (I often speak of my Polish family, my Italian family – both love-based “adoptions” of long-standing – and my Sisters of St. Joseph family as well as my Irish family of origin.) No matter our ways of bonding I think Paul’s letter to the Colossians wins the day today for good advice to all for the way we should consider and treat one another.

Brothers and sisters: Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If one has a grievance against another, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also do. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds the rest together. Christ’s peace must reign in your hearts since as members of one body, you were called to this peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ, rich as it is, dwell in you, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish each other, singing psalms and hymns and inspired songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Coming to Fruition

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blessings, center of the heart, flourish, garden, growing, hidden blessings, nature, path of God, Peace, psalm 128, retreat, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Yesterday was a perfect day for outside work – sunny and cloudy at intervals, not too hot but warm enough…a day to marvel at the changing faces in the flower gardens (e.g. from irises to lilies) and to be grateful. I was amazed as I rode along mowing how much the grass is still growing in a week’s time. Usually by this late in June it has slowed down a bit. Local vegetables are appearing in the markets and the corn continues to out-distance all expectations and looks like we will be seeing tassels soon. I think of the people who will come to our retreat center this weekend and those who joined us last weekend in New Hampshire and I know that the growing energy is an “inside job” as well. Psalm 128 is a great reminder of all these blessings and a fitting prayer of praise this morning, I believe. I have read three translations. Here is my favorite:

Blessed are you who walk upon the paths of God. Your life is filled with hidden blessings which overflow from your hands, the gift of many labors. And blessings like fruit-bearing trees and vines spring forth and flourish from the garden of your house; your spouse and children are its yield. And all who honor God upon this path shall know a cornucopia of good. For it is God, the center of the heart, who prospers life until its end. So you who hear and pray this prayer, come close and live within the circle of God’s care. And may God’s special peace be yours, one generation to another.

 

Busy?

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blessings, busy, holidays, honor God, Paul, Peace, psalm 128, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thessalonians

One of the most frequent comments I hear these days is how quickly time is passing. We wonder if it’s just because we’re getting older that it seems so – but younger people are saying it too. Perhaps it’s because we’re so busy and it seems time is being stolen from us by our over-active lives. (There was a website in my in-box this morning offering workshops on how to be less busy as well as “keeping your eye on the path.” – common themes lately.) The Christmas rush is already in high gear, mixed with groaning about the “warp speed” approach of Thanksgiving and potential travel glitches. Even writing this brings a feeling of urgency, although I plan to stay home and relax through both of those holiday events; the whirlwind is just everywhere in and around our days.

All this blathering on my part arose from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians this morning (1 THESS 5:1-6) He’s talking about “the day of the Lord” overtaking people who aren’t alert “like a thief in the night.” The beginning of the reading says, however: Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you…presupposing that they’ll be ready for whatever comes. It seems a bit of a warning not to get caught up in our busyness. He says at the end of the reading, Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.

Going back to that website, I was thinking that rather than abdicating my responsibility (and my financial resources) to someone to find out how to be less busy, maybe I should just sit down, take a breath and make a list of priorities about the next six weeks so that I can then spend a little time thinking of the deeper meaning of these “times and seasons” that are upon us. While I’m waking up to this activity, finding peace and focus for the task, I might choose to read my favorite translation of the psalm for today (128) that gives a vision of what it’s all really about.

Blessed are you who walk upon the paths of God. Your life is filled with many hidden blessings, which overflow as from your hands, the gift of many labors. And blessings like fruit-bearing trees and vines spring forth and flourish from the garden of your house; your spouse and children are its yield. And all who honor God upon this path shall know a cornucopia of good. For it is God, the center of the heart, who prospers life until its end. So you who hear and pray this prayer, come close and live within the circle of God’s care, and may God’s special peace be yours, one generation to another.