Remembering Thomas

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consciousness, divine heart, Divine Presence, reason, spiritual journey, the living God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Keating, unconditional forgiveness

In these often busy days of summer I am always grateful to receive words from “one of the great ones” of the spiritual life. Such was my joy yesterday in picking up The Contemplative Outreach News to see the smiling face of Rev. Thomas Keating. Father Thomas left this world on October 25, 2018 at the age of 95 years but his spirit is as alive as ever and his words remain a goad and challenge for those desiring a deeper spiritual life. Two paragraphs from his brief front-page article require my attention and reflection today. In the first there is solace for people who seem to have too many thoughts to engage at once. In a later paragraph I find a possible answer to my distress at the painful side of life.

1. For those progressing on the spiritual journey, even when the consoling aspect of the Divine Presence dissipates because of excessive activity or too much thinking, an interior presence arises that becomes more and more permanent. A shift in consciousness begins to take place. Our rational consciousness is transcended by the awakening of intuitive consciousness. The rational level is not rejected; we simply become free of its limitations. Reason remains available and functional for ordinary daily life, human relationships , and all the needs of embodied activity, but does not overshadow or take away the deeper and abiding awareness of the Divine Presence.
   
   
2. To know the living God we have to share the sorrow of the Divine Heart. God puts up with endless human error, excess, and sometimes malice, in order to get across to us the most important realities of life, of which God’s unconditional forgiveness and love for everyone is the foremost.

My Soul Is Thirsting

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calling, Cynthia Bourgeault, homecoming, mystery, paths, pilgrimage, psalm 63, relationship, resonance, spiritual journey, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, thirst, Thomas Merton

This morning the psalmist cries out: My soul is  thirsting for you, my God! The whole of Psalm 63 is a passionate expression of what it means to be on a spiritual journey and is as relevant today as it was in the lifetime of Jesus or of the Israelites in the desert. Each of us is called, as we wake up to the necessity of relationship with something greater than ourselves, to search for what slakes that thirst. Some of us “go it alone” but most find companions on the way whose desire mirrors our own.

Today I leave on what I have come to see as both pilgrimage and homecoming while 14 people, some still sleeping across our yard, have come here to go deeper in their spiritual quest. Neither is preferable; both lead us on to more meaningful living. I will be sharing this week with about 80 seekers, many my “familiars,” in the hometown of my teacher, Cynthia Bourgeault. It is worth the 12-hour drive (only half of which I will do by myself) to touch back for a week into an experience of deep resonance that has been building in me for the past dozen years. I could just as well stay home in the company of another inspired teacher whose language is not as familiar but whose depth and spiritual authority I highly respect. But I go with expectation and joy.

There is mystery in our callings toward God. This morning I celebrate the variety of paths that lead us irrevocably to conscious union. For me, today, Thomas Merton says it best.

My only desire is to give myself completely to the action of this infinite love, Who is God, Who demands to transform me into Himself secretly, darkly, in simplicity, in a way that has no drama about it and is infinitely beyond everything spectacular and astonishing, so is its significance and its power. (Entering the Silence, p.48)

 

 

 

 

 

A Teachable Moment

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Benedictine, Christ, Christian, crucifix, fullness of life, joy, Jubilee, overcome, presence of God, Roman Catholic Church, sign, spiritual journey, St. Boniface, Teilhard de Chardin, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the way of the cross, weight of the cross

I keep trying to ignore my first thought for today’s post. It comes from the reflection I just read on the life of St. Boniface whose feast the Roman Catholic Church celebrates today. Boniface was an English Benedictine monk who gave up being elected abbot to devote his life to the conversion of the Germanic tribes in the 8th century. It was not an easy task, http://www.franciscanmedia.org reports. I had determined to abandon that topic for something more upbeat or light-hearted when I read the line of the commentary following the biographical information. It said: “Boniface bears out the Christian rule: to follow Christ is to follow the way of the cross.”

While I would not dispute the teaching that suffering is part of life and that Jesus is a model of how to accept and bear one’s suffering as a transformational practice, I take issue with the inference in the above statement that the cross is the entire or desired way of life for the Christian. The often quoted line of Teilhard de Chardin provides a needed balance for me. “Joy,” he said, ” is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.”

So why am I still talking about this? As it happens, I had an experience two days ago that moved me to a deeper place. It’s one of those analogies that seems far-fetched and maybe irreverent, but it helps me so I beg the indulgence of those who do not see it so.

On Saturday I participated in a very joyous Eucharistic liturgy for the family and friends of one of my “jubilee companions.” There are only five of us who entered the convent together 50 years ago so we plan to be present, if possible, at each of these individual celebrations. My participation in this event included the task of carrying the cross in the entrance procession at the beginning of the liturgy. I had never before performed that particular task at our Motherhouse and was surprised at the weight of the heavy metal, 5-foot crucifix when I lifted it. To hold it high processing down the very long aisle to the altar was no small task. At the same time we were singing joyfully: Let us bring the gifts that differ and in splendid varied ways, sing a new Church into being, one in faith and love and praise.

What struck me in that moment was very symbolic (perhaps only to me). Feeling the weight of the cross at the same time as the joy of such a communal gathering was a powerful image of possibility in the Christian life. Although our lives can be fraught with difficulty at times, we needn’t be overcome. The joy that comes from the spiritual journey in community, modeled in the life of Christ with his companions and the Spirit that remains with us, can and must enliven faith and engage our hearts in love. These realities are not separate but constitute a unified whole that is, in fact, the way to the fullness of life.

A New Day

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community, connectedness, Joan Chittister, love, reconcile, spark, spiritual journey, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the spiritual center, transformation, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, Wisdom School

Last evening we began our first “Wisdom School” of 2017 here at the Spiritual Center. It is different from past events in that at least half of the people came as strangers to us. Usually at least one of the three team leaders has met everyone. It was a wonderful gathering with lots of willingness on everyone’s part to participate. When we left the room two hours later to spend the night and early morning in silence, we were no longer strangers but companions on a search for deeper meaning. The next three days promise great blessings for the group. Even in this short time there is hope that we will begin in some small way to experience the truth of Joan Chittister’s words to me this morning. She writes:

In community we work out our connectedness to God, to one and other, and to ourselves…In human relationships I learn how to soften my hard spots and how to reconcile and how to care for someone else besides myself. In human relationships I learn that theory is no substitute for love. It is easy to talk about the love of God; it is another thing to practice it…Alone, I am what I am, but in community I have the chance to become everything that I can be. (Wisdom Distilled from the Daily p. 48-49)

I am not saying that major transformation will be achieved during this short sojourn together, but if my hunch is correct, something in each of us will be sparked into being and if we fan the flame, we will find ourselves a few steps further along on the spiritual journey. May it be so for each of us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of Love

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blessing, Corinthians, depth of love, endure, hope, kind, love, Love never fails, patient, Paul, rejoice, spiritual journey, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’ve been waiting for the lectionary reading of 1COR 13 – St. Paul’s famous and familiar “hymn to love” because no matter how many times I hear it – especially at weddings – it always makes an impact. The long form of the reading this morning is 1 COR 12:31 – 13:13 and every line is worth a look. I went to the part about the qualities of love and noticed for the first time that Paul defines love more by what it is not than what it is. He begins and ends with strong statements about what love is but in between it’s as if he sees a stripping away of behaviors in order to get to the depth of love. This section merits a hearing, (i.e. reading it aloud) with time to savor each line and reflect on what we are growing out of and into on our spiritual journey. It is St. Paul at his most eloquent and I offer it to you as a blessing for today.

Love is patient; love is kind. It is not jealous or pompous. It is not inflated or rude. Love does not seek its own interests; it is not quick tempered. Love does not brood over injuries; it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Up, Up and Away!

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God's name, how wonderful your name, Israel, Kathleen Degnan, Lectionary, Lord, pilgrims, psalm 8, sacred, spiritual experience, spiritual journey, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

Psalm 8 is one of my “top three” favorites. It is no wonder that it should appear in the lectionary this morning as I leave home today to begin a pilgrimage that will take me to Israel tomorrow. The refrain, O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth! is an apt title, I think, for what will be a voyage of some 5,600 miles (one way!) to reach a place that is sacred to the three Abrahamic faiths. Along the way I hope to see the sunset from above and know the clarity of the atmosphere from at least 6 miles above the earth. Flying – even in a plane – is a spiritual experience for me and I relish the time even as I look forward to the adventure on the ground.

Because I cannot predict what the days will hold and want to be free to immerse in all the activities and reflection on what we experience, I decided to dedicate the two weeks of my absence to Thomas Merton, as we continue to be mindful of him during the centennial year of his birth. I have probed Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan for snippets from various Merton texts and have asked our administrative assistant, Mary Pat Hyland to post one each day until I return. I trust this will be a worthy exercise.

Just as I do not travel alone but with 20 other pilgrims, so I am aware of connections to others near and far who share the spiritual journey with me. So I have packed everyone in my suitcase and look forward to the journey that will, I hope, culminate in a deepening of appreciation for all of us of God’s wonderful name in all the earth.