Darkness and Light

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bounty, courage, darkness, fear, grace, home, Isaiah, light, love, presence, psalm 27, sacred place, salvation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wait for the Lord

For the first time in over a week, I awoke this morning in darkness. It was 5:50AM and although it was only the light on my phone that allowed me that information, sleep had already fled and it seemed I was being called to pay attention. So here I am awash in thoughts of light and darkness, blindness and sight. Isaiah 29 promises today that out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see while Psalm 27 hurls into the dark a declaration in answer to – perhaps – our own question: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The psalmist goes on in confidence attesting to the belief that he shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living and urging us to wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted and wait for the Lord. Matthew’s Jesus cures two blind men and I begin to wonder why he warned them (sternly, the story says) to see that no one knows about this – a directive that they totally ignore. Perhaps there is some deep value here about holding things in our hearts.

So what is it that I am to see today and how will I come to know the happening? I needn’t work to produce the dawn; it comes of its own accord (as it now has while I’ve been writing). I couldn’t make it happen anyway. All I can do, it seems, is notice: see it and know a truth about the ways of time and light. Sensing all that, I turn back to a lovely translation of Psalm 27 that matches the desire that woke me and moves me forward today.

There’s only this one thing I ask of you, one thing for which I care, that your own dwelling place becomes a home for me; each day, each night, I shelter there. For in that place I see the brilliance and the beauty of your face; all this, enough for me, is temple, mountain, highest ground, and there I come to seek and know your grace, your love. For in these troubled times I come to you to find a place to hide away, your light a tent that covers all. Your presence is the highest pinnacle of rock on which to stand, beyond this storm. For there you raise my head and lift my eyes to you above my enemies round about and unafraid. And in this sacred place I give my being back to you… (Ps. 27:4-8a – with apologies to Lynn Bauman for my formatting)

 

 

 

 

 

 

In All Things

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divine exchange, grateful heart, James, Jesus, Lent, Luke, Peter, possibility, psalm 27, retreat, sacred place, sacrifice, Simon Peter, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Transfiguration of Christ

From 7:00PM on Friday evening until 7:00PM yesterday I was privileged to share a 24-hour retreat experience with four spiritual seekers, women who came to enter into silence in order to pray and then to share reflections on the Scriptures dealing with the women in the life of Jesus, women who accompanied him to the cross and finally to resurrection. It was an extraordinarily meaningful time and we left with some new insights and a new appreciation of the value of really delving deeply into each word and possible meaning in the Scripture texts. We learned also (perhaps not for the first time) of the value of conversation as together we mirrored the practice of Mary, the mother of Jesus who “pondered all these things in her heart.”

Today will be a different kind of day and yet analogous as we welcome a group of Sisters and lay Associates to our home for an afternoon of meetings about important issues in our present and future life together. I expect less silence but just as much thoughtful sharing and the enthusiasm that comes from women whose purpose is to extend the great love of God to the world.

Today’s gospel is Luke’s rendition of the Transfiguration of Christ (LK 9:28-36) which must have seriously impacted the lives of Peter, James and John, the disciples who witnessed this moment with Jesus on the mountain. I have come to believe that we are all transfigured by the experiences that we have, alone sometimes but also in communion with one another, if we open ourselves to possibility. The season of Lent is always a time for more constant awareness of this fact and of the necessity of being an active participant in this “divine exchange.” Psalm 27 speaks today of this reality as the psalmist sings:

…And in this sacred place I give my being back to you, and everything as sacrifice; and there I offer you in song a grateful heart and a voice filled up with praise and prayer. O hear this voice of mine that calls to you. Take pity on my soul and answer back, I pray. Instantly and deep within my heart I hear your voice. You say: “Seek out my face in everything.” And from my heart, I answer back to you, “Your face, and you alone, I seek, my God.” (Ps. 27: 8-10)

Who Are We?

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angels, awe, creation, Earth, heavens, moon and stars, psalm 8, sacred place, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe, wonder

Today I’m happy to be accompanied through the day by my favorite Psalm. It speaks of all creation and our place in it. It seems to me lately that we are coming to understand better our responsibility toward each other as well as the “non-human” elements of what exists. The early biblical charge of God to “fill the earth and subdue it” has gradually morphed into a gratitude for the beauty that we experience and a reverence for what we have been given. We have a long way to go and some big mistakes to correct regarding environmental waste and carelessness, but the children of the world certainly seem to have a better grasp of how we and the cosmos are all connected, giving me hope for the future. All of that comes clear in Psalm 8.

O God, our God, how glorious is your name over all the earth!…When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place, who are we that you should be mindful us, that you should care for us? You have made us little less than the angels and set us over the works of your hands… 

A reflection that I read this morning said that the night sky has always been for humanity a source of wonder and awe. Looking up on a clear night with the vast star-field spread out above puts our lives and world into a very different perspective. We see ourselves as small and insignificant in this vastness, but are we? A voice out of the universe seems to answer our question: “You have a sacred place and role to fulfill.”

My point exactly.