Perseverance

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Meg Wheatley, patience, perseverance, persistence, steadfastness, tenacity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

As I was reading the “Saint of the Day” entry on http://www.franciscanmedia.org, the word perseverance jumped out at me. Given that we come up against situations almost daily now where that could be the catch phrase, I decided to consult Margaret Wheatley who wrote a whole book under that title. Not surprisingly, I found a reflection on the word—the concept—immediately on page 3. Here then is my simple, but seemingly quite apt, reflection for today.

Meg writes: The word “perseverance” in Latin means “one who sees through to the end,” “one who doesn’t yield.” In English, it describes how we maintain our activity in spite of difficulties. Tenacity, steadfastness, persistence, doggedness — these are all common synonyms.

In Chinese, the character for perseverance is the same as the one used for patience.

Human experience is the story of perseverance. Throughout space and time, humans have persevered. We wouldn’t be here without them.

There you have it: three simple statements to help us through the day. May we all continue to persevere in this time of trial and opportunity.

Walking Together

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brothers, doggedness, faith, James, joy, Meg Wheatley, perseverance, persistence, sisters, steadfastness, success, tenacity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The beginning of the Letter of James says this today:

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (JAS 1:1-2)

These are days when it seems that our perseverance is being tested in many ways. Meg Wheatley, who wrote a book of that title, speaks of a persevering person as “one who sees through to the end,” or “one who does not yield.” It includes notions of maintaining our activity in spite of difficulties and is synonymous with tenacity, steadfastness, persistence, doggedness…My favorite notion in Wheatley’s introductory remarks is this: In Chinese, the character for perseverance is often the same as the need for patience.

On a mundane level – which is where most of us live all the time – I see perseverance as simply putting one foot in front of the other to “keep on keeping on.” But here is the key to success, I think. We cannot do it alone. Regardless of how strong we think we are or how capable of achieving success on our own, we need each other in order to survive. Once we conquer resistance to that reality, we are at least half-way there.

 

 

 

 

 

O Flower of Jesse’s Stem, Come!

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Christmas, come, Jesse, King David, life, metaphor, O Antiphons, prayer, psalm 139, root, steadfastness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Plants are amazing metaphors, I think, for the seasons of our lives. I have only two green plants in my bedroom now and although I smile at them and greet them as I come and go, I am sometimes rather inattentive. Happily, I know they are both always willing to forgive me. One is a Christmas cactus that is not a great indicator of the coming feast as it tends to flower at Thanksgiving – or sometimes whenever the inclination to burst forth gets hold of it. This year, however, it seems to have heard the Advent cry of “Come!” and, although with only one bud, is right on schedule to flower around – if not on – the actual feast of Christmas. I am always surprised at the budding and never mind whether or not it skips a year or comes unexpectedly because it is strong and requires very little care. Steadfastness is its gift to me.

Then there is my prayer plant, Maranta by name, that seems fragile and strong by turns. The reason for the designation as a prayer plant is simply because each night her leaves lift from whatever angle they sit at during the day and come together into a vertical image of prayer reaching to heaven. It is a small miracle each morning (if I awake early enough) to observe her faithful keeping of vigil, knowing that as I slept God was not forgotten. She has been through many seasons since she was given to me as a single leaf from the “mother plant.” Sometimes I have feared for her life but she has always rebounded from dry seasons or cold to flower again. At last count I had given gifts of her shoots to eight people and hope that her progeny will see many more generations. I count on her fidelity and example of how to navigate life.

Today the antiphon calling the Christ to come to us speaks of Jesse, father of the great King David, of whose line – 28 generations later – came Jesus. Although I cannot go back very far to name my ancestors, I know that in every cell I have been formed for this life I now lead. As the beautiful psalm 139 says, I know that God has “knit me in my mother’s womb” and made me for praise in this life. Let us all give thanks for what God has planted in us and ask to be faithful nurturers as we pray:

O Flower of Jesse’s Stem, sign of God’s love for all people, come! Take root in us and bring us to flower in our time!

 

 

 

 

 

Steadfastness

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Charlottesville, clarity, division, faithful, firm in resolve, grounded, Meg Wheatley, prejudice, racist, steadfast, steadfastness, Texas, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning I read Meg Wheatley’s reflection on the word steadfastness. I was trying to find something to redeem my world from all the racist experiences I heard about or saw on the national news yesterday. All the care of neighbor for neighbor that was imaged over the past week in Texas with no reference to preferred status for rescue seemed washed away in the same kind of horrific visuals and speech that were manifested during the recent incident at Charlottesville. I have no place inside me to find comprehension of such division and prejudice. I thought we had come farther on the road to acceptance of diversity. The question before me this morning is whether or not I will stand up and use my voice in situations that call out prejudice of the kind that I thought had been conquered. Meg Wheatley calls me to a challenge.

Steadfastness is a lovely old-fashioned word that we don’t hear much about these days. It describes how warriors stand their ground, how they find their position and stay there, unshaken and immovable. Steadfast people are firm in their resolve; they are not shaken by events or circumstances. They stand clear in their beliefs, grounded in their cause, faithful to the end. (Perseverance, p. 55)

May it be so in my life, beginning today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pearl

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deepening, Matthew, pearl, pearl of wisdom, perseverance, prayer, steadfastness, still small voice of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wisdom

On Sunday I spoke of the “pearl of great price” as wisdom because the accompanying reading from the Hebrew Scriptures was about Solomon’s wise request for the gift of an understanding heart. This morning’s gospel (MT 13: 44-46) repeats the same section of the gospel with the 2 short parables about the pearl. As I read it, two chants from our wisdom work rose up in me that focus on the search for that pearl. Both are apt, I think, for what needs to take place if we are to find true wisdom in our life.

1. Seek the treasure; seek the light. Seek the pearl in the ocean of night. When we are in darkness it sometimes feels as if day will never dawn, but for those who have embraced the night – whatever that night signifies, either actually or symbolically – we know that the deepest part of the night is usually also the most silent and it is often there that we can hear the “still, small voice of God.”

2. To find the pearl beyond compare, O dig right here, deep in your soul. Wisdom does not come without effort, nor from superficial seeing. Anyone who has ever spent any time gardening knows that sometimes going deep enough for the needs of certain plants is not an easy task. Encountering roots and stones and different kinds of soil can be challenging to the goal but if one perseveres, the beauty that eventually manifests – and sometimes “eventually” takes a fair amount of waiting along with the work – is worth the effort. Constant deepening in prayer and consciousness is the way to wisdom.

Steadfastness/perseverance seems the order of the day…