Celebrating Helen

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blind faith, concentration, God's will, Helen Daly, perfect love, seek God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, tranquility, trust in God, wisdom seekers, wisdom way

Today I am up before even a hint of sunrise, getting ready to travel again to New Hampshire just for today to celebrate the life of Helen Daly, friend and benefactor. Helen, her friends agree, died much too early but gifted the world with a legacy of wisdom. The Sophia Center is just one recipient of grants over the past six years that have seen the creation and continuance of programs for “Wisdom Seekers” far and wide. Before her passing from this world, I was blessed by her light over six years and since I have continued to sense that light that cheers us on in the work we have been blessed to share with others. I invite you who read this blog to give thanks today for Helen and other generous people everywhere who understand the importance of God’s call to seek and serve in the Wisdom Way.

Here is what Thomas Merton has to say about wise people like Helen.

This is what it means to seek God perfectly: To have a will that is always ready to fold back within itself and draw all the powers of the soul down from its deepest center to rest in silent expectancy for the coming of God. Poised in tranquil and effortless concentration upon the point of my dependence on God, to gather all that I am, and have all that I can possibly suffer or do or be, and abandon them all to God in the resignation of a perfect love and blind faith and pure trust in God, to do God’s will.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It Remains to Be Seen

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Advent, commit, commitment, grace, intention, Isaiah, Lectionary, Mark Divine, Scriptures, seek God, St. Louis Jesuits, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, The Way of the Seal, urgency

This morning my reading of the day’s lectionary texts catapulted me back over thirty years into a reverie of liturgical music by the prolific St. Louis Jesuits. These amazing singer/songwriters brought the Scriptures alive with music that is still standard in Catholic churches and other Christian denominations to this day. (Check out YouTube for samples!) Today it was the gospel acclamation that started it all. Seek the Lord while he may be found! declared Isaiah 55:6. Call to him while he is still near! It sounded so urgent – so NOW! (although I must confess to adding the exclamation points myself.) I went then to YouTube to hear again the almost staccato delivery of those words that constitute the entire refrain of the song, building to the news of the three verses that: 1) Today is the day…to turn to the Lord, 2) As high as the sky…are the ways of the Lord, and 3) His words, his ways…lead us to life. Maybe you have to hear it to understand my enthusiasm (so feel free to Google “Seek the Lord” or go to YouTube) but that’s only part one of my morning pondering.

Having been “under the weather,” as they say, for nearly a week (much better now but still less than energetic), I have had a fair amount of time to assess things. I’m looking (albeit briefly) at time management, reorganization of my bedroom (because of spending so much time here), future commitments…lots of things. With the words of the song ringing in my heart, I moved to my computer to write something like what appears in the paragraph above. For some reason I clicked instead on my email account which I always avoid until the blog post is complete for fear of becoming entangled in what can be an entire day’s work. I was aware of going there and proceeded curiously, thinking there might be a reason for the diversion. I was not disappointed as what met my eye was the title of a “daily word” that I received from where and whom I do not know. It said, “How’s Your Commitment?” These are some of the thoughts that followed:

Certainty is a powerful energetic force essential for breaking inertia and developing momentum. The seed of certainty is found in commitment, a one-way street…Take a cue from Yoda, who forcefully mentors Luke: “Do or do not; there is no try!” You must commit with everything you have; otherwise say “no” or “not now.” (from The Way of the Seal by Mark Divine)

So…is there really a way that all this fits together? It seems so to me. How is it that I will choose to attend to the urgency that is growing within me to seek the Lord? I never think there will be a day that the Lord is not near or that grace is not accessible to me, but maybe it is the level of commitment in each moment that needs some energetic infusion in me – a worthy reflection for the season of Advent. Perhaps if the intention takes hold I will know some sort of new birth by Christmas. I can only hope…to commit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The God I Know

Tags

Acts of the Apostles, Athens, Christian, In him we live, Jesus, Paul, seek God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today’s selection from the Acts of the Apostles (17:15, 22-18:1) is quite poetic and contains my favorite line from this book, one of my favorite of the entire Christian Scriptures. Paul is in Athens and has been on fire with his message when he notices an altar with the inscription To a Unknown God. He takes the opportunity to proclaim to them what they “unknowingly worship,” that is, the God whom Jesus had revealed by his life and preaching. Paul says the following:

The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, although indeed he is not far from any one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’

Those lines deserve to be proclaimed rather than read. There is more – and everyone was not convinced. It was a revolutionary speech for the Athenians and I wonder how I would have reacted, were I “standing in their shoes.” From my vantage point, however, it was Paul’s finest moment and I can hear the enthusiasm in his voice each time I read the words. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll stop now and read the words aloud as I hear them to see if my faith feels as strong as his. Won’t you join me?

A Perfect Love

Tags

abandon fears, blind faith, coming of God, depending on God, effortless concentration, Kathleen Degnan, perfect love, pure trust, resign self to His love, seek God, soul, suffer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, tranquil, will

“This is what it means to seek God perfectly:

“To have a will that is always ready to fold back within itself and draw all the powers of the soul down from its deepest center to rest in silent expectancy for the coming of God.

“Poised in tranquil and effortless concentration upon the point of my dependence on Him, to gather all that I am and have, all that I can possibly suffer or do or be, and abandon them all to God in the resignation of a perfect love and blind faith and pure trust in God, to do His will.”

~ Thomas Merton
(from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan)