The Face In the Mirror

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Black Friday, defend, face, God, healing, mirror, prayer, psalm 84, smile, Thanksgiving, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Psalm 84 is a wonderful reminder of God’s care. It’s the one that tells us that even a swallow finds a home in God’s house. Today as I was reading one of my favorite translations of the psalm, I was stopped at verses 7 and 8. Here’s what they said:

Lord God of everything that is, God of my heart, listen to this humble prayer. Defend me now by simply looking at my face. Your look will be for me a healing oil that covers all.

Reading that, I thought of two things I have often heard from a friend whose motivational workshops often included two things, one a statement and the other a question. People need to get in touch with their faces, she says. I used to think of that on the rare occasions when I preached at liturgy. Looking out on the sea of faces in front of me, I was often tempted to shout out, “WAKE UP!” or “SMILE!” (We are very serious or sometimes readying ourselves for the “same old same old” there.) Her question was more direct. When you get up in the morning and look in the mirror to comb your hair or while brushing your teeth, she asks, how many of you smile and say, “What a woman (or guy)!” The audience usually laughs (I know; I’ve tried it.) and then she asks why that sounds funny. We really need to do a better job accepting the image of ourselves that we see in the mirror. We should try to look as if it were God looking back at us. If that is scary, then it’s time to re-read psalm 84 aloud to ourselves and re-assess our image of God.

We just celebrated Thanksgiving and I wonder how many of our reasons for giving thanks included gratitude for ourselves – for who we have become and are becoming. Black Friday is in full-swing by now. Maybe we should buy a little willingness to accept the joy of God’s face looking back at us from the mirror.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pilgrimage

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being with God, pilgrimage, psalm 84, refreshment, rest, retreat, soul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, yearning

 

Psalm 84 speaks of the loveliness of God’s dwelling and our desire to find and join God there. Yearning always arises in me when I hear or read the words that are so familiar. My heart and my flesh cry out for God, the Living God…Even the sparrow finds a home, your altars, O God…My response is always a wish to have the day to hide “in the shadow of God’s wing” in pure being with God. That is certainly a flight of fancy because I know myself and even if I did have a whole day with nothing pressing to do, I probably wouldn’t be able to be quiet and attentive. Only if I go on a retreat, a dedicated time and place that others share but spend in silence, am I more likely to allow myself to bask in God’s presence.

In a commentary that I read this morning, the author speaks of this as one of the “pilgrimage psalms” – which fits my reflection above. He talks about the tradition, common in many religious traditions, of “going on pilgrimage” and speaks of the possibility of both an outer and an inner pilgrimage. Of the former he says: Have you ever felt the need, or made such a pilgrimage yourself? This may simply have been in the form of returning to a wonderful spot on earth where you had previously found rest and refreshment of soul. It is important to find such places. In fact, “mini pilgrimages” can be made to places of sanctuary and retreat throughout the weeks and months of our lives. He then turns to the image of an inner pilgrimage saying: The outer pilgrimage often reflects something far deeper, an inner journey across the desert landscape of the soul to find the face of God.

And so I consider those concepts this morning, knowing that if I had the possibility of teleportation I would be sitting at the ocean writing these words, as the ocean is always a place of peace and sanctuary for me. Absent that, however, I will sit on my mat and conjure the beauty of a deserted beach, attempt to feel the salty spray and dive into meditation, hoping for some moments of serenity in God’s presence.

Where will your pilgrimage take you today?

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Dwelling Place

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birdfeeding, birds, care, God, Lord, loving care, psalm 84, sparrow, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Lately I’ve been watching the birds on our deck; we sometimes have breakfast together. This is the season of big bags of birdseed in the kitchen and suet cakes hanging on a pole outside – necessary in the winter and safer for us to offer the birds who haven’t migrated because the bears are hibernating now. It’s amazing to notice the varieties of coloration, size and shape of our visitors, especially the different woodpeckers who hack away at the suet with a vehemence that would surely give me a headache. Clearly the word is out there that this is the best place to get a good meal because they grace us with their presence every day. From the tiniest finch and titmouse to the graceful flocks of mourning doves they know they’ll find a welcome here.

I smile this morning at Psalm 84, one of my favorites, in part because of the birds. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord! My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord…Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest in which she puts her young…Blessed are they who dwell in your house! Continually they praise You. Even in the winter when berries and other delicacies are hard to find, when the trees are stripped of their leaves and the wind makes flying a challenge, the birds find crevices and bird houses and the dried grasses for shelter. Such is the care offered the birds by humans and their land. So tender and loving is the care of our God for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Feed the Birds

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birdfeeder, birds, praise, psalm 84, snow, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We’ve been blessed for the last few years with new visitors to our bird feeders, including bluebirds, flickers and an amazingly vibrant scarlet tanager. Lately there has been a large gathering of our familiar mourning doves around the sliding glass door to our deck, looking like a women’s study group at the obligatory coffee break. Seed is scattered regularly around the deck in winter to calm the human anxiety of birds’ ability to find nourishment as the snow deepens. It is here, as the psalm refrain proclaims this morning, that “God lives among his people.”

I love Psalm 84 for its inclusive vision of the reign of God where “all creatures great and small” are welcome and cared for. As the snow continues to fall gently this morning a beautiful image seems quite apt for me: Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest in which she puts her young…Blessed are they who dwell in your house! Continually they praise you! I’m tempted to snuggle back under my bedclothes and listen to the birds, joining them in their morning song.

Going to God’s House

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dwelling, God's house, higher purpose, joy, pilgrim's path, psalm 84, sparrow, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The beautiful psalm 84 speaks to yearning hearts of the possibility of resting with God in God’s own “house.” How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts, sings the psalmist this morning. My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. It doesn’t matter who we are because even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest in which she puts her young. Another translation continues, Anyone who lives near you is filled with higher purpose and fuller joy. And then a question: What else is there but to go on praising you?

The psalm goes on to speak of the pilgrim’s path that, even in the desert, continues to give joy if we draw our strength from God at each step. It is that sense of a safe place – a place to nest – that motivates me. It calls up courage that is found inside even when the outer world is rocked with conflict; it soothes the soul and keeps one moving forward, joyfully praising all the way home.