Encouragement

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adventure, John O'Donohue, risk, spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, To Bless the Space Between Us

Just a word from John O’Donohue for today from his book, To Bless the Space Between Us.

Awaken your spirit to adventure. Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk. Soon you will be home in a new rhythm. For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

May you know great blessing in this day.

The Choice

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choose life, Deuteronomy, life, Moses, risk, Sister Helen Kelley, ten commandments, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today Moses takes the podium with a clear choice for the people. (DEUT 30: 15-20) “Today I set before you,” he says, “life and prosperity, death and doom.” Who wouldn’t choose the first option? Oh, but there are conditions: obeying the commandments, statutes and decrees he sets down, walking in God’s ways rather than adoring their other gods… Not so simple when I start reflecting on the everyday experience of my living…(What “other gods” are still pulling me in the wrong direction? I ask myself.)

Moses is persistent, repeating his charge again and urging them toward the correct choice, saying, “Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him…” (Sounds like a choice that would be hard to resist, but then I think of the habits that are so persistent, especially in the down, difficult days of winter…)

A more evocative version of the challenge, perhaps, came to me long ago from Sister Helen Kelley, whose name remains anonymous to me but whose words always return when I listen to the speech of Moses in Deuteronomy.

Choose life, only that and always, and at whatever risk. To let life leak out, to let is wear away by the mere passage of time, to withhold giving it and spreading it is to choose nothing. (See berkana.org)

A Ride on the Lake

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courage, Jesus, Luke, risk, Simon, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There is so much to ponder in Luke’s version of the call of the first disciples.  (LK 5:1-11) One might first think of Jesus as rather presumptuous. There were two boats by the lake whose owners were washing their nets after a night of fishing when Jesus steps into the one belonging to Simon and asks him to put out a bit from shore – a better vantage point from which to teach the crowds that were pressing in on him. Simon says nothing about being tired or disappointed that they hadn’t caught anything; he just does what Jesus asks. The encounter gets more challenging, however, when Jesus finishes his teaching and says to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” At that Simon has to speak (“We’ve worked hard all night and have caught nothing.”), but it seems that his heart is already softened to Jesus. (“…but at your command I will lower the nets.”) We all know the end of the story: so great a catch of fish that the nets are tearing and Simon’s regret that he had even hesitated before acquiescing to the request of Jesus. (“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”)

Clearly, the point of this story was not about fish but rather about the work of those who willingly “left everything and followed him” as a result of the fishing expedition. Sometimes a lazy boat ride on a placid lake can be a very peaceful and meaningful experience. At other times, however, we may need to be courageous enough to set out into deep waters in order to understand the depth of our call to serve. It’s a risk, as we know from later gospel stories, but we’ll never know the final reward unless we start rowing.

 

 

 

 

 

A Late Surprise

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emotions, faith, gift, gratitude, joy, loss, marriage, risk, seniors, thankful, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning, a cautionary tale. The lesson: stay always in the present moment. It is all that we ever can depend on.

This morning I will attend a memorial Mass for a man I did not know. He was 80 years old and came into my consciousness when a woman I have been acquainted with for many years, a widow important to our local church community, re-connected with him. They had known each other in their youth – dated even, I believe, – and found very quickly this time that they were so happy together that there was no reason not to commit to each other in marriage. And so they did – about 18 months ago. She said she had never been happier and it clearly showed on her smiling face. Some time in the latter part of 2017, they were told he had cancer.

I don’t know what these last months have been like for her. I can only speculate on the mix of emotions that have played in her every day. Some people would most likely be raging against a God who was seen as a cruel trickster. Others would, no doubt, be thankful for the unexpected and glorious gift of joy shared so late in life. My sense of this faithful, prayerful woman is that gratitude will win out even as the sadness of loss becomes a frequent companion.

I can imagine what our conversation might be about today if we are lucky enough to share a moment before the ritual. I expect that her faith will be evident as always, her gratitude for the family that has pledged to remain present to her will be expressed and that she will have a treasure chest of memories to carry with her into the future. Most of all, I expect that she will be glad for having taken a risk for such a gift from a God whose ways may not be our ways but who sometimes offers amazing opportunities to those awake enough to say “YES!”

 

 

 

 

 

Decisions, Decisions…

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bad decision, conscience, decision, hyperconscious, prudence, risk, St. Martin of Tours, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning I read about St. Martin of Tours, the saint of the day, who lived in the fourth century and was a conscientious objector as well as one of the first declared saints not to be a martyr. Desiring to be a monk, he was thrust into many other roles, including that of soldier and bishop. His story is interesting but I was most taken by the comment at the end of the biography (www.americancatholic.org) that seems a worthy thought for the day.

Martin’s worry about cooperation with evil reminds us that almost nothing is either all black or all white. The saints are not creatures of another world; they face the same perplexing decisions that we do. Any decision of conscience always involves some risk. If we choose to go north, we may never know what would have happened had we gone east, west or south. A hyperconscious withdrawal from all perplexing situations is not the virtue of prudence; it is, in fact, a bad decision, for “not to decide is to decide.”