A Christmas Prayer

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Emmanuel, generosity, Joyce Rupp, kindness, love, Prayer Seeds, respect, reverence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Joyce Rupp has a meaningful Christmas prayer in her book, Prayer Seeds, that seems appropriate for this sixth day in the octave of Christmas, to remind us that the spirit of the feast lives on beyond a one-day celebration. Won’t you pray it in connection with all those reading this post?

Emmanuel, God-with-us, you chose to come for each person, the destitute and the wealthy, the unfortunate and the privileged, the troubled and the peaceful, the healthy and the ill.

You came in human form with a message of extravagant love, showing us how to be with those who have much less than we do. You came offering a gesture of respect and reverence instead of indifference and disdain; giving courteous kindness in place of thoughtless disregard; contributing ongoing support rather than a mere holiday handout.

Change my heart. Turn it inside out, toward the larger world. Remind me daily of those who struggle with their basic existence. Lead me to help change social systems that contribute to this ongoing struggle. Enlarge my awareness. Increase my generosity. Guide my choices of how I live, what I purchase, and how I use my material wealth.

Remind me often of your presence in those I tend to ignore or forget. Boundless Love, thank you for cherishing each person on this planet. (p.2-3)

Monday Morning Stillness

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courage, heart, humility, John Philip Newell, Praying With the Earth, reverence, strong, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, treasure, wait

The lovely book by John Philip Newell entitled Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace is set up in such a way that the reader not only finds – in addition to the prayers for the life of the world – prayers of awareness and blessing twice a day but also quotes from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and the Quran. That sounds like a lot of words but, in fact, it is not. Here are the three Scripture quotes for Monday morning that in their brevity moves one, perhaps, to a deeper, wordless place of peace.

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)

Everything Means Everything

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conscious, everything, glory of God, gratitude, reverence, spiritual nature, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

On days like today when I read Paul’s directives about doing “everything for the glory of God,” I find myself saying, “Yup…Okay…I’ll avoid giving offense…Yes…I got that…” or words to that effect – assuming that I have taken Paul’s words to heart and that I’ll remember when situations arise that call for attention to my “spiritual nature.” If I’m honest I have to admit that sometimes I’m soaring on automatic pilot at these times because the words are so familiar. Usually it’s the extreme situations that call our attention more quickly to a response.

So just now I read for the third time: Brothers and sisters, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Eating and drinking for the glory of God…Who thinks about that? Suddenly a flood of questions: Do I ever just eat or drink? (Mostly I have a book in my hand or on my lap.) Do I savor what I’m eating? (Even if we’re watching TV during supper, i.e. “dinner theater?”) Can I taste differences in flavor in the different bites? What about different textures? Am I grateful just to have enough food to eat – even if I don’t especially like what I’m eating? Do I ever over-eat? I could go on…

Reverence for food and gratitude that I have enough to eat seems a “no-brainer” too often so today I will try to make it a conscious activity of my brain to offer praise and glory to God for every bite or sip that passes my lips and keeps me strong for the work of God in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isaiah’s Gifts

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Confirmation, courage, David, God, Isaiah, knowledge, Messiah, O Come O Come Emanuel, reverence, right judgment, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding, wisdom, wonder and awe in God's presence

The Book of Isaiah is full of prophecies that chronicle events predicted for the life and salvation of the Hebrew people. They are not easily understood without a commentary as Isaiah often uses images like those in today’s lectionary where he says that “a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse…” which is interpreted as a recognition that the Messiah would be descended from royalty (the family of Jesse, father of David). But Isaiah was writing about a time when the fortunes of the house of David would be at their worst, thus the reference to the “stump of Jesse.” An interesting point of the commentary was that of the “shoot” as different from simply speaking of growth out of the stump as a branch. A shoot, notes the commentator, would be slender and insignificant, in contrast to the girth of the stump, thus indicating that the fruit would come from one person at a time of humiliation and obscurity. Thus, the surprise of a Messiah like Jesus.

One could spend a lifetime studying the Book of Isaiah. Even those of us whose knowledge of the text is sketchy at best recognize images or snippets that appear in other places, as the most familiar Advent hymn – O Come, O Come Emmanuel – reminds us with its titles for the long-awaited Messiah. Additionally anyone who was ever prepared for the sacrament of Confirmation in Christianity has probably memorized the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, taken directly from today’s first reading of chapter 11 of Isaiah. I learned them in sixth grade and was happy as an adult catechist to teach a slight change in translation that made me better understand such “gifts” when fear of the Lord morphed into wonder and awe in God’s presence. I was also glad to know and teach that it was a lifelong living into my faith that matured  those gifts in me rather than a direct transmission expected immediately at the age of 12. If that had been true, I reasoned, I had definitely failed!

Here’s the list. See what you can claim at this point in your growing faith: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, right judgment, courage, reverence and wonder and awe in God’s presence. (Isaiah 11:1-2) Don’t forget that we’re all still growing!

 

 

 

 

 

Incredible Things

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delightful Fruits

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Confirmation, courage, faithfulness, generosity, gentleness, Holy Spirit, joy, kindness, knowledge, love, patience, Peace, reverence, right judgment, self-control, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding, wisdom, wonder & awe in God's presence

Part of my preparation for receiving the sacrament of Confirmation was to memorize all the gifts that I would receive from the Holy Spirit. Since I was only twelve years old at the time, I’m not sure how I understood the promise of those gifts. Much later, when teaching Confirmation classes to teenagers, it was still difficult to imagine – even in new translation – how suddenly the confirmands would become spiritually adult, having received gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, right judgment, courage, reverence and wonder & awe in God’s presence as the bishop laid hands on their heads and anointed them. I was lucky to team-teach those classes for a couple of years with a colleague of my age who explained very well to candidates that these gifts, if nurtured by the recipient, would grow in them as they matured. I remember the first time he said, “I was in my thirties when I first realized what that meant.” For him – and for me still – it was good to pull that list out from the brain filed under the title Gifts to grow into to see how we were doing. It still is.

This morning I read another list of Spirit-gifts – not so commonly referred to these days – that I also learned as a young person. These are called by St. Paul in the 5th chapter of his letter to the Galatians fruits of the Spirit. It was a good practice to take inventory of how these qualities that seem somehow more concrete and practical have or have not come to find a home in me as I try to live a good life. Take a look and see what seems to be flourishing in you these days.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I AM

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Exodus, feet, gratitude, holy, holy ground, I AM, Israelites, Moses, pure being, reverence, sandals, simple joy of being, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I often say that if I lived in a warmer climate, one of the best things about that would be not having to wear shoes all the time. I much prefer to feel the ground under my feet, especially if it is grassy, but even a stony path connects me to the earth in a way that is impossible if mediated by shoes or boots. One advantage that I often take while on retreat is to bring “slipper socks” and spend the days shoeless. Sometimes in those situations I’m even conscious of a connection with Moses whom God directed to remove his shoes at the sight of the burning bush. “Remove the sandals from your feet,” God said, “because you are standing on holy ground.” Shoes or not, that directive took on palpable energy in a song some years ago in a song entitled Holy Ground.

This is holy ground, the lyrics said. You’re standing on holy ground, for the Lord is present and where God is is holy. The second verse was a perfect accompaniment to the anointing that often concluded a retreat. These are holy hands. God’s given us holy hands. God works through these hands and so these hands are holy. As I was signing or being signed with oil as those words were proclaiming God’s presence, not only in the room but in each of the participants, the reality of our call to serve was always clear and our motivation strong.

The deeper recognition from this morning’s reading (EX 3:1-8,13-15) comes from the exchange between Moses and God when Moses asks God about the message to the Israelites whom God is planning to save through the agency of Moses. “When I go to the Israelites,” Moses says, “and say that the God of your ancestors has sent me, if they ask your name, what do I tell them?” God answers, “Say: ‘I AM sent me to you.'” God is saying, it seems, that God’s identity is pure being, not necessarily connected with any doing (as in ‘the God of the Harvest’ or the God of War, etc.) It follows for me, then, that if we are made in the image and likeness of God, we ought to be more concerned with how we are being than with what we are doing. We not only have holy hands; we have holy bodies, holy minds and holy spirits. So the question for today for me is: How am I manifesting the holiness of “I AM” presence in this world? It is, of course, our responsibility to do our best at whatever we do but the doing should flow from our understanding of the primacy of our being. So today, let us walk on God’s holy ground in gratitude for life and the call to live it with reverence and the simple joy of being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raqa!

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anger, baby, emotions, empty, human being, inflammatory, Lenten journey, Matthew, miracle of God's creation, negativity, Peace, politics, presidential campaign, Raqa, respect, reverence, Sanhedrin, Sermon on the Mount, spiteful, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, useless, venomous language

Yesterday one of my housemates received a text from her nephew with a sonogram image of his expected child. His wife is only three months pregnant, yet the technology was so clear that we could already see the brain forming in his (yes, it’s a boy!) well-formed head. We marveled at the amazing miracle of how this baby – and all of us – are formed in our mother’s womb. I was reminded this morning of how babies need do nothing in order to garner the attention of anyone who crosses their path. We are all in awe of the beauty and wonder of such an amazing creation. What happens to us as we age that causes us to forget how to reverence one another?

In today’s gospel (MT 5: 20-26) – near the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount – Jesus is speaking about a deeper way to follow the commandment, “You shall not kill.” He says, “…whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin…” The Sanhedrin was the supreme religious body in the land of Israel, comparable to the US Supreme Court. I always just passed over raqa when that reading appeared, figuring that it meant something mean that was said in Hebrew by someone who was angry. Today, I decided to research it and found that I was correct to a point but that raqa speaks of a kind of anger that erupts from someone whose anger is dangerously spiteful. Raqa means useless, empty and of no value. These days we call that kind of language used against another verbal abuse. When someone hurls those words at another person, it is as if the word becomes an arrow, piercing to the heart, and the damage can be devastating.  No wonder Jesus was so emphatic in his critique.

All this brings to mind the venomous language that is present in the political sphere during a campaign for an important office. Sometimes it is not only the candidates who denigrate their opponents but those in the different supporting  “camps” who are drawn in to such inflammatory rhetoric. We are in such a moment in our country now and need to take care, lest we lose ourselves in negativity rather than make intelligent choices on the issues.

In our personal lives as well we need to take care to monitor our emotions. Proceeding on our Lenten journey, let us seek out people and experiences that will remind us of the miracle of God’s creation that is the human being. Moreover, let us treat one another with respect and reverence, eschewing anger at its beginning to avoid any words that we may regret for the damage they inflict on another person. Peace be our path today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Old and The New

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convent, foremothers, gratitude, head of household, Jesus, Matthew, motherhouse, reverence, silver jubilee, sister, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Next week one of the youngest Sisters in our community will celebrate her Silver Jubilee – 25 amazing years among us. She has chosen our Motherhouse as the location for this event because, as she told me this week, that way many of the older residents who wouldn’t be able to travel can participate. She couldn’t imagine doing it without them. Betsy has ministered in places and ways that would never have been possible when I was “a young sister” – e.g., traveling the world as the World-Church liaison for Habitat for Humanity – and is very engaged in the conversation about possibilities of a sustainable future for us as a Congregation.

I was reminded of Betsy by this morning’s gospel verse where Jesus says, “Every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” (MT 13:52) I’ve always been grateful that I entered the convent on the cusp of all the changes in religious life occasioned by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s because I understood “the old” experientially while struggling to understand and live into “the new” – a process that is in some ways still going on. I am comforted, however, and filled with hope for the future by those who have come after me whose reverence for our history and the women who shaped it is strong. Reverence and gratitude can go a long way – in any organization or culture – toward life in abundance. Today I pray God’s blessing for Betsy and all of our foremothers, trusting in God’s Spirit as we go forward on the road that has brought us to where we are.

Wine Tasting

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Christianity, church practice, community, congregation, Jesus, Luke, religious life, reverence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universal understanding, wine

A recent conversation came to mind when I read this morning’s gospel (LK 5:33-39). It concerned my gratitude at having entered the convent in the tumultuous days of the 1960s. It was difficult because of the rate at which things were changing in the world and in our Church but was early enough for me to catch the spirit of the “old ways” so that I understood what had grounded the lives of the older members of our religious community. At the same time, I was able to see the value of what was emerging as a new way of being in the Church that was necessary for us to embrace if we were to survive as a Congregation. My experience stood me in good stead when I was part of the team charged with the formation of new members to our community in the 1980s. I was able to help those of the “new era” who had little understanding of the by-gone culture of religious life that was still clinging to us when they got frustrated with some of the customs and the slow pace of change. Reverence was the order of the day, I felt, on both sides of the equation.

I think that’s what Jesus was talking about today when he spoke of trying to sew new cloth on old garments or pouring new wine into old wineskins. It doesn’t work. The end of the reading, however, is a caution to anyone who just throws out all the old. Jesus says, “The old is good.” Even though we don’t live the same way that the Sisters of St. Joseph who came from France in 1836 (or even in 1966!) lived, we stand on the shoulders of those women whose vision and insight allowed them to cast off what was no longer useful while continuing to reverence what was at the core of the tradition.

It’s the same with Christianity, I think. Sometimes we get so sidetracked in church practice and rubrics that we forget the things that Jesus said and did to keep us on the right path toward God. If we can hold on to reverence – of people and traditions – we can usually overcome differences in our devotional lives and move forward by taking the long view back to Jesus. Perhaps today is a good day to have a glass of that “good wine” and be grateful, while at the same time looking forward to the incredible spiritual insights that are moving us toward universal understanding in our day.