Quotable Quotes

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poverty, prayer, seek, silence, Sisters of St. Joseph, solitude, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

There are a lot of people who have chosen a specific quote that expresses something important to them, something that they want to say to all the people with whom they share e-mail. I’m always interested to read these brief messages that conclude their e-mails to see if I think they fit the person behind the quote. Last week one of my Sisters of St. Joseph treated me to a quote of Thomas Merton that was characteristic of him but one I had never heard before. I might have claimed it for myself if I were called to choose it from the many great lines that run through my brain on any given day. I don’t know if I could ever settle on one choice to the exclusion of all others but this one is certainly a contender.

Do you have a favorite? This one came from Sister Linda Neil, CSJ, and I could say I value its message more and more each day. Thanks to Lin!

Let me seek, then, the gift of silence, and poverty, and solitude, where everything I touch is turned into prayer, where the sky is my prayer, the birds are my prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer, for God is all in all.

It’s About Being

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Alan Cohen, chant, Darlene Franz, God's face, heart, inner awakening, light, peace of God, presence, psalm 27, seek, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transform the world, transformation

There’s a line in the Psalm response of today’s lectionary that got me singing – internally, of course, since I haven’t been awake long enough to trust my outer voice! What I heard inside my head was Darlene Franz’s chant, a call and response that says Seek my face in all things. Your face, O Lord, I will seek.  (cf. PS 27, vs. 10) Although it’s usually annoying to have a tune running just below the surface one’s mind for days, I think I would welcome this one since it reminds me where I should be putting my attention. I was encouraged by that train of thought when I read Alan Cohen’s ‘daily word’ in which he offered the following paragraph.

To walk with the peace of God in your heart is to transform the world by your presence. When love is your keynote, there is nothing in particular you need to do; your gift is your being. Many people seek to change the world by getting everyone to join their religion or organization, use their product, agree with their philosophy, or replicate their experience. But real transformation does not come from manipulating people or events; it proceeds naturally from inner awakening and then living in the light.

May our footsteps today seek to awaken us to the light of God’s face.

 

 

 

 

 

We Walk By Faith

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Catholicism, centennial, contemplation, convert, Dalai Lama, education, effortless conversation, faith, Hebrews, Salesians, seek, St. John Bosco, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, Trappist monk, will

Thomas Merton

Brothers and sisters, faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. (HEB 11:1)

This overarching theme for the day has many strands, just as each of us has our own stories of faith stretching back over our lives. I smiled when I saw that the saint of the day in the Roman Catholic Church is St. John Bosco, the educator from the 1800’s who founded the Salesians, a religious community that follows the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales. John Bosco was dedicated not only to the classical education of children but to teaching trades like shoemaking, tailoring and publishing. His goal was to “unite the spiritual life with one’s work, study and play.” I knew nothing of John Bosco’s life when I was in school except that he was the patron saint of students. The nuns urged us to pray to him as end-of-year exams approached and I know I credited him with much of my success in those most challenging moments throughout my school career. Faith was simpler back then and it was helpful to believe in the power of such a patron to give a boost to our competence.

Faith was a growing thing as well to Thomas Merton, one of the most prolific spiritual writers of the 20th century who was born 100 years ago today. Merton was a convert to Catholicism in his 20s and his desire for God continued to accelerate and be expressed in his books, essays and poetry as he lived a monastic life from 1941 until his untimely death on December 10, 1968. Deep contemplation had led him to study and write on issues of social justice and ecumenism as integral to the spiritual life. His spiritual quest led him to the East, to a great friendship with the Dalai Lama and others, and was culminated in an interfaith conference in Thailand where he died at age 53. We celebrate Thomas Merton today and all during this centennial year for his contribution to the legacy of faith that informs our own spiritual journey. Here is what he said to me this morning:

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 possibly can 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. (New Seeds of Contemplation, 44-46, excerpted)

Ask!

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ask, God, petition, prayer, Psalm 138, seek, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning’s readings center around the category of prayer known as “petition”. From a queen (Esther) in the Hebrew Scriptures, who is in dire straits and is only familiar with the God of the Israelites from books, to the disciples of Jesus in The New Testament who hear from Jesus himself, the message is the same. Ask, seek, knock on God’s door. Keep asking. The prerequisite in our asking, however, is trusting that God probably knows better than we ourselves what is a good answer to what we’re asking. So, if it’s likely we won’t get the answer we want, what’s the point of asking?

For me, it’s all a question of transformation. I start with asking God for what I want. Sometimes, my prayer is answered just as I had hoped. Sometimes it isn’t. I keep asking but sometimes I recognize as life unfolds and I don’t get what I’ve been asking for that maybe what I was asking for wouldn’t be the best outcome. Sometimes I don’t. As I’ve grown older, however, the method of my asking has gradually changed until each time I approach God with a petition it goes something like this: “Gracious and loving God, I know you know the situation. Here’s what it looks like to me. I’m willing to count on your love and wisdom to draw it to the best conclusion for everyone involved – and I’m grateful for your attention to me.” Sometimes I just say, “Please help!” In this way, I still feel involved but am not worried about outcomes. This sounds very simple as I write it but it is rarely easy unless the practice of asking has been bolstered by a consistent spiritual practice of surrender. And there is one more piece, of which the psalmist reminds me this morning in Psalm 138:

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart, for you have heard the words of my mouth!