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Antony of Egypt, humility, mercy, pray, righteousness, spirituality, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
Today is the feast of one of the great Desert Fathers, a man living an amazingly long life (251-356), whose legacy is greatly revered by those seeking a depth of spirituality. At the same time, Antony’s words are often quite matter-of-fact and “down-to-earth” and occasionally sound even humorous in our day (although most likely unintentionally). Here are three examples.
A brother said to Abba Antony, “Pray for me.” The old man said to him, “I will have no mercy upon you, nor will God have any, if you yourself do not make an effort and if you do not pray to God.”
Abba Antony said, “I saw the snares that the enemy spread out over the world and I said groaning, “What can get through from such snares?” Then I heard a voice saying to me, “Humility.”
Abba Pambo asked Abba Antony, “What ought I to do?” and the old man said to him, “Do not trust your own righteousness, do not worry about the past, but control your tongue and your stomach.”
The beginning of a new week is always a good time to take a breath and see what lies ahead. That task presupposes a look at the calendar to be sure we have noted all the “goings-on” and the preparation necessary for each event. I’m reminded of that practice by the first line from this morning’s psalm that prays: Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. (PS 90:12) The first clause of that sentence sounds like the necessity of knowing what day and date it is (something that escapes me sometimes lately) but the second clause adds a goal to the “numbering.” It implies good time management but also good choices about how we are spending the time that we have.
Last evening I went to the Baccalaureate worship service for graduating seniors of the high school where I spent my first thirteen years as a teacher. It took place in the largest church in our area. (We used to call it “The Stardust Ballroom” because seating is in the round and there is recessed lighting throughout – a very “modern” venue in the 1970s.) Although the population of the school has diminished greatly over the years, the church was quite crowded with families that probably included some of my students who are now celebrating their grandchildren’s commencement. I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the service which ran like clockwork and included excellent (and brief) speakers for welcoming and thanking those in attendance, great lectors and beautiful music suitable to the youth but also very reverent. Two of the musical selections, solos by members of the class, were actually jaw-dropping. The first was a lovely young lady with a voice bigger than she was and then a young man, accompanied by a great cellist from his class, who sang the traditional and well-loved Latin hymn, Panis angelicus, which reached the entire church simply by the power of his voice. I was told that he has received a full scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music.
This early rising time – 5:20 again this morning – seems a throwback to when I was first in the convent! At issue now, however, is the fact that I wake up at this time after only five or six hours of sleep (when my “normal” is eight) and am not able to go back for more rest, which has serious consequences later in the day. With my coffee just now I decided to make a list of important things not to forget for today and tomorrow. No wonder I’ve already entered a mental marathon! Within about three minutes I had 25 things on my list! They aren’t all very time-consuming, but still…
This afternoon I am scheduled to be guest speaker to a Women’s Group of about 15 to 20 people. In discussing a topic, the contact person said the members are always interested in information about resources in the community and that perhaps I ought to talk about our spirituality center. In writing up a “blurb” about the proposed topic, I titled it The Spiritual Side of Life. I’ve been thinking about it off and on for the past month and have had some difficulty settling on how to frame the topic. I realized yesterday that my thesis sentence would have to be something about the fact that there are no sides! Spiritual is who and what we are, spiritual beings in physical form, “made in the image and likeness of God.”
I had the privilege once of meeting Oren Lyon, the Native American “Faithkeeper” of the Onondaga Nation who lives just south of the city of Syracuse, New York about 80 miles from my home. I was pleasantly surprised that Alan Cohen wrote today about the role of “Faithkeeper” as it is embodied by Oren Lyon and others like him. This person in the tribe consistently holds the higher vision, having been designated to be the voice of hope, an inspiration to remember the bigger picture when others forget it. Cohen remarks that “each of us needs to be a Faithkeeper. When others around us go into fear or confusion, we serve best by remembering the light and holding peace.” When in the presence of Oren Lyon, it was easy to sense what this means and why he holds such a designation for his people.
I’ve thought and talked a lot about mercy, especially since I came to understand that it has more to do with love than with pity. At the conclusion of the “Year of Mercy” declared by Pope Francis, it was suggested that we continue to keep that virtue front and center in our lives. Not a bad idea, it seems, in our broken, frustrating world as we attempt to maintain equilibrium and good faith each day.
I found it difficult to go to sleep last night because of the noise, light and torrents of rain in the storm playing outside my window. Perhaps I should have put my attention there instead of on the fact that today would be a long and involved day for which I would need a long and restorative sleep. I should have remembered that lately I usually function quite fine with whatever amount of sleep I have and wake up when God (rather than my alarm) calls…a function of getting older, perhaps. It’s still raining outside but in a gentler, quieter way now. Hopefully the farmers will have received a little of what they have needed for a better harvest and some of the energies in the natural world will have been balanced out a bit for this new day.
