A Full Life

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activity, contemplation, Dominicans, mission, Order of Preachers, prayer, retreats, st. dominic, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today Christians celebrate the feast of St. Dominic and all those who follow the Dominican way of life. The Dominicans are called the “Order of Preachers” and are known for their ministry of opening the Scriptures to the faithful in retreats and parish “missions.” This practice, begun by Dominic and three others, became the work of a formal religious community in 1215. Their ideal was to link life with God in both contemplation and action, that is, in prayer and all the activities of life. The website http://www.franciscanmedia.org says it this way:

The effective combining of contemplation and activity is the vocation of truck driver Smith as well as theologian Aquinas. Acquired contemplation is the tranquil abiding in the presence of God and is an integral part of any full human life. It must be the wellspring of all Christian activity.

How many of us see the totality of our daily activity as integrated in or springing from our prayer? If we consciously lived in this mindset each and every day, would our prayer change or increase?. And how would we perceive our everyday duties, our work and play? Would there be a new lightness in our days? Would it all be seen as one: prayer and work, prayer and play, prayer as relationship…How would that change the world?

Charism

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Catholic Church, charism, common folk, generosity, gift, Jansenism, kindness, life, pastoral, poor, Redemptorists, religious orders, retreats, service, simplicity, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, theology

Today we note an interesting juxtaposition of feast days in the Roman Catholic Church. While yesterday we celebrated St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order of priests (the Society of Jesus), today we note the founder of the Redemptorists (The Congregation of the Holy Redeemer), St. Alphonsus Ligouri. Taken together, these two religious orders have influenced the Church for over 5 and 3 centuries respectively in similar if not matching ways. The Jesuits are known, as we saw yesterday, for their leadership in education and the study of Scripture as the basis for theological research and deepening in the spiritual life. Today we hear of Alphonsus, himself a brilliant scholar who received a doctorate in both canon and civil law by acclamation at the age of 16 (!) who gave up the practice of law for apostolic activity. He was ordained a priest and concentrated his pastoral efforts on popular parish missions, hearing confessions, and forming Christian groups. (http://www.franciscanmedia.org)

Alphonsus lived from 1696 to 1787 (in itself an extraordinary achievement in his day!) and spent himself in the fight against the moral rigidity of Jansenism. Fr. Don Miller (Franciscan Media) begins the biographical sketch of this holy man’s life in a telling paragraph, saying: Moral theology, Vatican II said, should be more thoroughly nourished by Scripture, and show the nobility of the Christian vocation of the faithful and their obligation to bring forth fruit in charity for the life of the world. Alphonsus, declared patron of moral theologians by Pius XII in 1950, would rejoice in that statement.

The Redemptorists have always been dedicated to mission, working often in rural villages with the poor, preaching to them – by word and their lives – the imitation of Christ. Pastoral reforms were and are in the pulpit and the confessional, “replacing the pompous oratory of the time with simplicity, and the rigorism of Jansenism with kindness.”

That last statement leads me to a consideration of the word charism (charismata in the plural form of the Latin word) meaning gift. Each religious community is known for some special gift or gifts to the Church and the world. Yesterday we saw that the Jesuits did everything for “the greater glory of God.” How this charism is expressed is many-faceted but can be seen in the world by their efforts toward the imparting of the knowledge and love of God to others, especially in the ministry of education. The Redemptorists, on the other hand, are known for preaching retreats in parishes, speaking to “the common folk,” and for their kindness in hearing confessions of the faithful. I can attest to the efficacy of the Redemptorist charism from my personal experience of my uncle Walter Cavanaugh, CSsR, who served as a missionary to Brazil and started a parish with six congregants in the South of the USA in mid-20th century where there was little Catholic presence. Uncle Walter was best known, however, as were some of his “brothers,” for his kindness in the confessional where he provided solace to people for hours at a time.

That these two great religious communities, among others, to be sure, have endured for hundreds of years, is testament to the gifts of God to the collective but also to each of the members who have been called for a specific mission. Might we reflect today on the influence of God’s gifts in our own lives and consider that we, too, have a certain “charism” – a gift to share with the world?Is yours a personality that draws people to your faith? your joy? your hospitality? Are you noted for your generosity? your service? a certain skill? My mother used to show her love for all our extended family by making our birthday cakes – often unique and always delicious. Now my cousin Mary Jane is noted for spectacular creations for every special event.

What is it that makes your life a gift to the world – for the greater glory of God? (The only unacceptable answer here is “Nothing.”)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conversation

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accessible, conversation, deep reflection, energy, engage, forward, gatherings, ideas, meditation, million women march, open possibility, retreats, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I keep having conversations lately about the importance of conversation. I’m not talking about chatter but rather deep and meaningful conversation. It isn’t always necessary to know where the conversation will lead; it’s more important just to engage and stay open to possibility.

I was in a meeting yesterday about a series we’re planning in March on the broad topic of meditation. We three had begun the conversation before Thanksgiving, did some preliminary planning and were thinking, I’m sure, that we would have a good handle on things by the end of yesterday’s session. Oh yes, and we were probably all guessing we would be finished within about an hour. We spent the requisite preliminary moments of “catch-up” about the holidays and the world situation (although treading lightly there so as not to get side-tracked). As we moved into the review of what we were planning it seemed we were almost starting over and covering the same ground with different outcomes – or no firm direction. Trying to nail down something that would be broadly interesting and accessible to multiple age groups and spiritual disciplines is never easy and I could feel at least two of the three of us getting a little tense (just a bit) about whether or not we would have made any progress in the end. Having reviewed where we had been and where we seemed to be, we each took pieces of the work for follow-up. Feeling somewhat better, we turned to the topic of a title for our series and I once again understood how process is its own reward if we allow it the space it needs to work.

Over the next five minutes we all threw out into the center of the room numerous insipid ideas. Next, slowing down and adding pauses to allow our words a bit of spaciousness before we rejected them, we added some reasoning around those that had potential. Then, in a flash, one of us offered a three-word title and another added a sub-title and finally all three said, “That’s it!” There was no question; we had our framework for going forward, a way to contextualize with the presenters and engage potential participants that could make the events worthwhile. I realized, as I often do now, that it was the entire conversation and the energy around all of our sharing that produced the result.

I have heard of many gatherings being planned for the purpose of deep reflection in the near future. Some involve small circles of folks who know each other, some are retreats drawing participants from far and wide. And then there is the million-woman march in Washington on January 21st. It is my hope that all of the energy generated in all these conversations will lead to raising the consciousness of participants to unity of purpose and will. May it be so in this very important year!