14 Thursday Dec 2017
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Although St. John of the Cross, whose feast we celebrate today, was a prolific writer who “waxed eloquent” in his theological texts and mystical poetry, I thought the following sentence was enough for our reflection for the day. I hope you agree.
In the first place it should be known that if a person is seeking God, the Beloved is seeking that person much more.
14 Saturday Oct 2017
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Alan Cohen, circle of humanity, God, morning, pray, prayer, priority, reflection, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
Alan Cohen begins his morning reflection for today with an anonymous, well-known adage that says: Anyone who is too busy to pray is too busy. He ends with a prayer that addresses God directly and with a similarly clear message. I think this “twinning” of thoughts is appropriate and sufficient for today. I call us each to offer this prayer and in so doing to connect us to this circle of humanity for the good of all.
You are my first priority. Knowing you makes all the difference in my life and my world. Knowing you is knowing myself. Be with me today, that I may be with you always.
10 Sunday Sep 2017
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Since I need to be ready by 7:00AM to make breakfast for our energetic group of workshop participants this morning, I hoped there would be a brief message in today’s lectionary readings that would serve as a worthy point of reflection for the day. I found not one, but two – so take your pick or choose them both since joined together they provide both a goal and a promise!
Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another. (ROM 13:8)
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. (MT 18:20)
26 Saturday Aug 2017
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action, Book of Hours, Christopher Pramuk, Creator, God, Hagia Sophia, Holy Wisdom, hope, humility, joy, Kathleen Deignan, purity, reflection, silence, sweetness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, wholeness
Although Saturday can be a day to catch up on all sorts of mundane tasks and chores, occasionally I savor the opportunity for a bit of leisurely delving into reflection on something found in one of the many alluring books on my shelves. This morning I returned to Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours, noting that I had not visited with him – or mentioned him here – for quite some time. Rather than quotes from his various texts, Saturday’s entries in Kathleen Deignan’s book of Merton’s writings are all parts of his amazing prose poem, Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom).
In a commentary on this text of Merton, Christopher Pramuk, a professor of theology and spirituality at Xavier University, writes the following:
For years I have been haunted by Merton’s prose poem “Hagia Sophia.” The poem seems at once to multiply and silence all questions about God. Rather than succumbing to tired theological categories and preconceptions, it breaks them wide open, making old things new, daring us to imagine and hope again.
See if you agree. (I just quote his beginning here. I believe it is enough for one day.)
There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. This mysterious Unity and Integrity is Wisdom, the Mother of all, Natura naturans. There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is the fount of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being, welcoming me tenderly, saluting me with indescribable humility. This is at once my own being, my own nature, and the Gift of my Creator’s thought and Art within me, speaking as Hagia Sophia, speaking as my sister, Wisdom.
(I recommend reading this slowly and often, aloud if possible, to catch and feel the beauty and meaning.)
08 Thursday Jun 2017
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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)
06 Saturday May 2017
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bread of life, gratitude, John, leave, Lectionary, psalm 116, reflection, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
There are two significant questions in the lectionary readings for today. One would have been enough for a day’s worth of reflection (or more) but it seems only right not to choose between them. The first measures our “gratitude quotient” – perhaps for days when things are going our way, but not necessarily if we are in the habit of deep reflection. The second concerns the depth and content of our faith. I offer both in hopes that they may come to be seen as two components of unified whole.
08 Wednesday Mar 2017
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cleanse, forgive, gladness, Holy Spirit, justice, Lent, light, love, mercy, Nan Merrill, Peace, psalm 51, Psalms for Praying, reflection, repentance, saving grace, strength, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, weakness, wisdom of the heart
During the season of Lent it is not unusual to see part or all of Psalm 51 show up as the response to the first reading in our lectionary. It is the season when repentance for our faults is traditionally front and center and God’s mercy is a constant call. Psalm 51 is uniquely suited to those themes and appears again today for our consideration.
In keeping with yesterday’s reflection on the necessity of really listening with openness to the thoughts of others, I decided to look at what Nan Merrill’s translation added to the meaning of this psalm. Her book, Psalms for Praying, emerged from the deep reflection of silence and is decidedly softer than the traditional psalmody. I find a few of the nuances fresh and helpful for my own prayer and offer her words in prose form this morning which I hear as one side of a conversation with God from a person whose desire for right relationship is boundless.
Have mercy on me, O Gracious One, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant kindness forgive me where my thoughts and deeds have hurt others. Lead me in the paths of justice, guide my steps on paths of peace! Teach me that I may know my weaknesses, the shortcomings that bind me, the unloving ways that separate me, that keep me from recognizing your life in me; for I keep company with fear and dwell in the house of ignorance. Yet, I was brought forth in love, and love is my birthright.
You have placed your truth in the inner being; therefore, teach me the wisdom of the heart. Forgive all that binds me in fear, that I may radiate love; cleanse me that your light might shine in me. Fill me with gladness; help me to transform weakness into strength. Look not on my past mistakes but on the aspirations of my heart. Create in me a clean heart, O Gracious One, and put a new and right spirit within me. Enfold me in the arms of love, and fill me with your Holy Spirit. Restore me in the joy of your saving grace, and encourage me with a new spirit.
07 Tuesday Mar 2017
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beliefs, conversation, curiousity, deep listening, interactions, Meg Wheatley, reflection, spiritual practice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Turning To One Another
Yesterday I was able to meet with my monthly “spiritual practices circle” for the first time this year. It was a lovely way to spend a slice of the day and a renewal of my conviction about the importance of deep listening and conversation. I was taken back to that privileged time this morning as I read some of Meg Wheatley’s comments in her book, Turning to One Another. Her point is something to remember in the complex and tumultuous times in which we live. I offer her words as a reflection that may open us in new ways in our interactions with others today – or any day.
It is very difficult to give up our certainties – our positions, our beliefs, our explanations. These help define us; they lie at the heart of our personal identity. Yet I believe we will succeed in changing this world only if we can think and work together in new ways. Curiosity is what we need. We don’t have to let go of what we believe, but we do need to be curious about what someone else believes. We do need to acknowledge that their way of interpreting the world might be essential to our survival…
To be curious about how someone else interprets things, we have to be willing to admit that we’re not capable of figuring things out alone. If our solutions don’t work as well as we want them to, if our explanations of why something happened don’t feel sufficient, it’s time to begin asking others what they see and think. When so many interpretations are available, I can’t understand why we would be satisfied with superficial conversations where we pretend to agree with one another. (p. 35)
27 Monday Feb 2017
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centering prayer, chanting, chosen, consciousness, God, grace, Hafiz, inner chatter, reflection, retreat, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
After eight days of virtually no speaking, I am clear about the difficulty of stopping inner chatter – at least for me. I realized somewhere during the past eight days how many thoughts flow through my head (several often at the same time) without my consciousness recognizing each or any of them. I began to wonder when I began to multi-task so much that the practice invaded my inner state as well as my outer daily life. One good place to start a reversal was at meals. Because we did not talk at meals, we just ate. I came to a renewed awareness of the awkwardness of spearing raw carrots or grape tomatoes in a salad as well as the fact that I often switch hands for guiding a spoonful of soup to my mouth. (Being very left-handed, I was taught that it was only proper to eat with one’s right hand, so as a child it was necessarily a conscious practice to do so. Now I know that even very early unconscious habits die hard.)
The week was filled with grace in small and great ways. Having thought I was in need of total solitude I realized early on that I would find more benefit in the communal silence which I found in several periods of centering prayer daily, in body awareness and movement sessions, in chanting and chopping vegetables and in daily worship. These practices enhanced the ample personal time for reflection that filled most of the afternoon and shorter spaces in between.
I would love to have taken a survey of the other participants to see if my sense that all the introductory short readings, poems and chants were really chosen just for me. God is funny in that we can all feel that way sometimes – but I was sure of it in this experience. How could everyone feel as “chosen” as I was for the word that was given each time we gathered? On the first morning, the first words I heard were from the mystical poet Hafiz, in a poem that sounded like a personal message for me. I write it in prose form below, just as it was spoken by Allen, God’s messenger, to set the tone for my response all week. See if God would speak to you this way – if God were able to catch your full attention.
This place where you are right now God circled on a map for you. Wherever your eyes and arms and heart can move against the earth and the sky, the Beloved has bowed there. Our Beloved has bowed there, knowing you were coming. The place where you will be in a year, our Beloved is bowing there now, setting the table for the feast, knowing you are coming.
05 Monday Dec 2016
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creativity, cure, history, incredible, Jesus, Luke, progress, reality show, reflection, repurposed, reverence, simple ways, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
I often wonder what the next “reality show” on television will be. Whether it’s “Texas Flippers” or the latest tiny house being built, the networks seem to be birthing new iterations of demolition and rebuilding every day. In contrast to the seeming lack of desire to save anything in a house that might be “repurposed: – e.g. kitchen cabinets that might be “dated” but still in good shape – there is one, albeit very different, show that was playing when I walked into the living room yesterday. I think it’s called “Barn Builders.”
The team of a half-dozen strong, bearded, Southern-speaking, friendly workers is led by a man named Mark, whose reverence for history is impossible to miss. There’s lots to learn from this show about how barns were built long ago, what woods and other materials were used and why anyone would be interested in them today. Each episode features either the careful deconstruction of a barn whose wood is to be repurposed or the renovation of a structure to its faded glory of long ago. Often the team uses the implements of the era when renovating – like the flat axe I saw yesterday. Time and energy ran out on that one though, as they were working on a 40-foot tree that was to become a strengthening beam in the renewed structure of an 1839 tavern. The chain saw came out and did the job in record time. All involved were not only grateful for time and effort saved but amazed at the creativity that has brought us so much progress over the last two centuries. Most important was the esteem for early farmers who had worked so hard to build their homes and their lives.
There were two prompts for the above reflection. First, what may seem a stretch but is really true, was the last line of this morning’s gospel after Jesus had cured a paralyzed man. They said, “We have seen incredible things today.” (LK 5:26) Secondly, there is the reverence for history that is evident not only in the actual project of the Barn Builders episode but also in the vignettes sprinkled throughout the hour where Mark tours other properties or gives brief lessons about historical building processes. The premise of this show truly does remind me that we continue to see incredible progress but also that we need to remember our history that is so rich in seemingly simple ways.
