A New Day

Tags

community, connectedness, Joan Chittister, love, reconcile, spark, spiritual journey, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the spiritual center, transformation, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, Wisdom School

Last evening we began our first “Wisdom School” of 2017 here at the Spiritual Center. It is different from past events in that at least half of the people came as strangers to us. Usually at least one of the three team leaders has met everyone. It was a wonderful gathering with lots of willingness on everyone’s part to participate. When we left the room two hours later to spend the night and early morning in silence, we were no longer strangers but companions on a search for deeper meaning. The next three days promise great blessings for the group. Even in this short time there is hope that we will begin in some small way to experience the truth of Joan Chittister’s words to me this morning. She writes:

In community we work out our connectedness to God, to one and other, and to ourselves…In human relationships I learn how to soften my hard spots and how to reconcile and how to care for someone else besides myself. In human relationships I learn that theory is no substitute for love. It is easy to talk about the love of God; it is another thing to practice it…Alone, I am what I am, but in community I have the chance to become everything that I can be. (Wisdom Distilled from the Daily p. 48-49)

I am not saying that major transformation will be achieved during this short sojourn together, but if my hunch is correct, something in each of us will be sparked into being and if we fan the flame, we will find ourselves a few steps further along on the spiritual journey. May it be so for each of us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two or Three

Tags

blessings, difficult situation, gratitude, grievances, hurts, intention toward good, Jesus, Matthew, power of prayer, prayer request, reconcile, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There’s an interesting juxtaposition in this morning’s gospel (MT 18:15-20). It’s good advice at the beginning where Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone…”(emphasis mine). He goes on to state a process of how to proceed if that doesn’t bring resolution but just that line set me to thinking about how much easier it seems to talk to others about our grievances than to engage directly with the cause of the distress.

At the end of the gospel Jesus is talking about another kind of encounter. “If two or three of you agree about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” Someone called our house last week asking for prayers for her 14 week-old grandson and her mother, both of whom need heart surgery. I got the call and she told me that, years ago, when her son had been in a terrible accident from which doctors had told her he would likely not recover, our Sister Elizabeth had told her she would pray for him and ask all the Sisters to do the same. Her son recovered with only a slight disability so she has great faith in our prayer. I drove yesterday to the Boston area where my sister will undergo hip replacement surgery tomorrow. There are people all over the Northeast and beyond who will be praying for success and speedy recovery for her.

It seems that these two examples of encounter are really about an intention toward the good. Willingness to reconcile with someone always trumps the result of complaint about another’s actions. Willingness to believe in the power of prayer is similarly effective. The intimacy of having an honest conversation about our hurts or of sharing our need for help in a difficult situation is always worth the effort it takes to ask and even the asking can be its own reward.

So here I am, asking for your prayer for tomorrow as well as your indulgence over the next few days when I am not sure I will be in a position to blog. Be assured, however, that I am confident in the prayer that accompanies us and the surgeon and that I will spread the word of success as soon as it is available to me. Gratitude and blessings to all around the world!