Sacred Scripture, Cherished Words

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be content, generous heart, Hebrews, hospitality, Luke, psalm 27, refuge, Scriptures, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Sometimes when I read the Bible verses for the day it’s difficult to choose what to comment on because what was written in the Scriptures centuries ago is so apt and/or uplifting for the very day that we are living. Today there is much to ponder. I have chosen the most precious to me. See if you don’t agree.

1. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. (HEB 13)
2. Be content with what you have for He has said, I will never forsake you, or abandon you. Thus we may say with confidence: The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me? (HEB 13)
3. The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom shall I be afraid? (PS 27)
4. Blessed are those who have kept the Word with a generous heart, and yield a harvest through perseverance. Alleluia! (LK 8)

Go Deeper for Your Answer

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light, psalm 27, refuge, salvation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today, another direct question, this time from Psalm 27, right from the beginning (verse 1): a question not to be taken lightly. Thus it will likely take some time to consider what you might include in your answer of things/events/people that cause fear to well up in you.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?

Waiting for the Spirit

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Ascension, grace, let go of fear, Pentecost, psalm 27, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust, weakness

It’s always a wonder when the weather outside reflects a state of soul, like a birthday gift that one has longed for but is not sure of receiving. That may seem like a great stretch as leaving the state of soul to the vagaries of the weather seems a bit shallow, but a glorious spring day can certainly lift one’s spirits and add hope to the daily routine.

Psalm 27 gave me that lift just now as the birds announced a lovely Sunday. This interim time from the feast of the Ascension of Christ to Pentecost is a perfect opportunity to reflect on possibility as we consider what is to come: the recognition of God’s Spirit lighting up the world. This “novena” of waiting is building the power of the Spirit in each of us and all of us, allowing us to respond to the call to be the light that we need to see us through the present—a difficult moment, to be sure—into whatever blessed future awaits us if we are willing to find the strength to persevere and create it.

The psalmist sings out: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom should I be afraid? Though the enemy should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise up against me, even then will I trust. One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the loveliness of the Lord.

Can we spend this moment—this week of grace—gathering our willingness and trusting our ability to let go of fear and any weakness that clings to us, recognizing that God is indeed doing something new, readying us to step into a future that calls us together for the life of the world?

May it be so at Pentecost.

One Thing I Ask

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God's presence, lessons, meditation, psalm 27, self-compassion, stay home, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

For a long time I have wished for more time with less to do. I was reminded of that this morning when I read Psalm 27 which sang out:

One thing I ask of the Lord, this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate God’s temple.”

It’s ironic really because since the second week of March — 46 days to be exact – I have been without a schedule and without restriction except to “STAY HOME” (as directed by our government) but have yet to dedicate time in any regular way to the contemplation of the “loveliness of the Lord.” I have participated in a virtual retreat by Zoom and have begun again the group book study that was interrupted mid-course last month…but that just happened this week and only takes 3 hours out of 24…

As I think of it, another irony is that the topic of the virtual retreat for this week is “Self-Compassion” and I wonder why I might be feeling guilty at this moment. I sit in my recliner and look at my meditation mat just three feet away, wondering why I am not sitting there right now and what it will take to finally move from recognition of lassitude to the discipline of meditation once again.

There are many lessons in this “season-out-of-time,” as I have come to call it. In conversations lately (zoom and telephone only!) I have been grateful to hear that I am not alone in what is probably a mild case of depression if not just an adjustment to life during a situation I have never before encountered.

As I think of it, I have not lost the sense of God’s presence always with me so perhaps attention to that fact is a way to achieve the same result as happens in a scheduled meditation session. That’s something to watch as I go forward…but I think today will lend itself to a scheduled “date” with God on my mat, because during this attempt to explain myself to myself, I am feeling a deeper longing for just such an event!

Of Life And Death

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death, Ladislau Boros, life, light, obituaries, psalm 27, salvation, The Mystery of Death, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom School

For some reason today I turned my morning ritual upside down and began by reading the local obituaries at the beginning rather than at the end of my usual routine. That meant that the lectionary readings came later and led to this moment of reflection – an interesting interpolation that turned into what now seems like a unified whole. There was great variety in those obituaries, particularly of the life spans of the deceased. I often pause when I come across people in their early 70s now and wondered this morning when I read about the life of a woman who was 83 whether I would still be reading such things a dozen years from now.

That may sound rather morbid but it really is not. It’s a practice that first lets me know if there are any cards to send or funerals I ought to attend and secondly, to consider the deeper questions of life and death for at least a few minutes. I suppose it has something to do today with the fact that I was reading my notes yesterday from a Wisdom School based on the book, The Mystery of Death, by Ladislaus Boros. There are lots of meaningful quotes in that book, but that’s for another day. Today I am taken by the theme of light, shining out from each of the readings. Here is my favorite, from Psalm 27:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?”

One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life…Wait for the Lord with courage, be stouthearted and wait for the the Lord.”

Word into Silence

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Bible Quran, courage, heart, humility reverence, John Philip Newell, Matthew, Praying With the Earth, psalm 27, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wait

In his book, Praying with the Earth, John Philip Newell punctuates prayers  of different kinds with quotes from the Bible and the Quran. I found a strong pull this morning toward a silence prompted by those “one-liners.” I thought the experience was worth sharing;

>Wait for God. Be strong and let your heart take courage. (Psalm 27:14)

>Where your treasure is there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)   

>Remember God deep in your soul with humility and reverence. (Quran – The Heights 7. 205)

It’s About Being

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Alan Cohen, chant, Darlene Franz, God's face, heart, inner awakening, light, peace of God, presence, psalm 27, seek, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transform the world, transformation

There’s a line in the Psalm response of today’s lectionary that got me singing – internally, of course, since I haven’t been awake long enough to trust my outer voice! What I heard inside my head was Darlene Franz’s chant, a call and response that says Seek my face in all things. Your face, O Lord, I will seek.  (cf. PS 27, vs. 10) Although it’s usually annoying to have a tune running just below the surface one’s mind for days, I think I would welcome this one since it reminds me where I should be putting my attention. I was encouraged by that train of thought when I read Alan Cohen’s ‘daily word’ in which he offered the following paragraph.

To walk with the peace of God in your heart is to transform the world by your presence. When love is your keynote, there is nothing in particular you need to do; your gift is your being. Many people seek to change the world by getting everyone to join their religion or organization, use their product, agree with their philosophy, or replicate their experience. But real transformation does not come from manipulating people or events; it proceeds naturally from inner awakening and then living in the light.

May our footsteps today seek to awaken us to the light of God’s face.

 

 

 

 

 

Gatherings Large and Small

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courage, fear, psalm 27, salvation, stouthearted, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unifying light, wait for the Lord, womens march

In the past 48 hours we have seen in person, on television, the internet or in newspapers a number of very large gatherings of committed people. Some participants simply support the democratic process of the transfer of political power in the United States but the majority were present on Friday and yesterday to raise their voices for or against our new president. We remain a deeply divided country in this way.

Yesterday I was privileged to spend my time with eleven women committed to their spiritual growth, regardless of their political leanings. They chose to come to our event at Genesis Retreat and Conference Center in Westfield, Massachusetts where our exploration centered around “The Wisdom Way of Knowing.” Our goal was consciousness and how we can move toward unity of heart and practice.

I was reminded of this experience by today’s the first reading and the gospel where Jesus repeated Isaiah’s words that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. And between those two voices Paul chimed in with words to the Corinthians with his usual vigor: I urge you that there be no divisions among you! But it is in Psalm 27 that I clearly saw a method of movement toward this unifying light. The psalmist declares:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom should I be afraid? One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek, to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Wait for the Lord with courage. Be stouthearted and wait for the Lord.

With these thoughts I begin this new season of our collective life in these United States in the hope that we will move forward with respect and determination to be of good will and openness to all that we encounter. May God bless us all!

Darkness and Light

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bounty, courage, darkness, fear, grace, home, Isaiah, light, love, presence, psalm 27, sacred place, salvation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wait for the Lord

For the first time in over a week, I awoke this morning in darkness. It was 5:50AM and although it was only the light on my phone that allowed me that information, sleep had already fled and it seemed I was being called to pay attention. So here I am awash in thoughts of light and darkness, blindness and sight. Isaiah 29 promises today that out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see while Psalm 27 hurls into the dark a declaration in answer to – perhaps – our own question: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The psalmist goes on in confidence attesting to the belief that he shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living and urging us to wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted and wait for the Lord. Matthew’s Jesus cures two blind men and I begin to wonder why he warned them (sternly, the story says) to see that no one knows about this – a directive that they totally ignore. Perhaps there is some deep value here about holding things in our hearts.

So what is it that I am to see today and how will I come to know the happening? I needn’t work to produce the dawn; it comes of its own accord (as it now has while I’ve been writing). I couldn’t make it happen anyway. All I can do, it seems, is notice: see it and know a truth about the ways of time and light. Sensing all that, I turn back to a lovely translation of Psalm 27 that matches the desire that woke me and moves me forward today.

There’s only this one thing I ask of you, one thing for which I care, that your own dwelling place becomes a home for me; each day, each night, I shelter there. For in that place I see the brilliance and the beauty of your face; all this, enough for me, is temple, mountain, highest ground, and there I come to seek and know your grace, your love. For in these troubled times I come to you to find a place to hide away, your light a tent that covers all. Your presence is the highest pinnacle of rock on which to stand, beyond this storm. For there you raise my head and lift my eyes to you above my enemies round about and unafraid. And in this sacred place I give my being back to you… (Ps. 27:4-8a – with apologies to Lynn Bauman for my formatting)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Longing for the Lord

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Elijah, encounters, Kings, listen, message, messages from God, psalm 27, seeking, speak, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wait in stillness, whisper

The lyrics of a favorite wisdom school chant go like this: Speak through the earthquake, the wind and the fire…ohhh, still small voice of Love. The story on which it’s based is familiar (from 1 KGS 19: 9-16). It begins with a frequent introduction to a prophetic text: “The word of the Lord came to him…” with a specific message that would make almost anyone run to be at the promised site where “the Lord will be passing by.” The question engendered by that line is whether or not “almost anyone” would be able to perceive the presence of the Lord since it was not even close to the way anyone would expect. The Lord does not appear in any extraordinary way – strong wind, earthquake or fire – but rather in a ‘tiny whispering sound” – a breeze, most likely.

I think we often dismiss messages from God because they come wrapped in ordinary conversation or thoughts during the day and because we don’t consider ourselves able or worthy of receiving such communications from God. I remind myself of that some days when my blog posts turn out quite different from the way they began and surprise me with the content. It’s nothing earth–shattering but I believe that in some way God has more of a hand in the message than I expect. Other times I hear something in the text of the day’s reading that fairly shouts out something I have never noticed before or something that validates an experience I have just had in interactions with other people. Being in a situation like what is happening here in Maine where almost 100 people are gathered to “seek the Lord while He may be found” provides fertile soil for that kind of happening. I actually felt God’s question to Elijah this morning when God said, “Elijah, why are you here?” It stopped me cold until I realized that Elijah’s answer was mine as well. “I have been most zealous for the Lord,” he said. I found more confirmation from Psalm 27 that followed. “I long to see your face, O Lord!”

Elijah’s situation and mission were very different from and more difficult than mine but the prompt for a response was clear and did its work. I will go through the day reflecting on the question of why I’m here and what I will take away from the experience. But I will not seek clear and bombastic messages from God. I will just wait in stillness for something to arise and/or be attentive to the “chance” encounters of the day as the potential for seeing that God’s face is everywhere!