Labor Day Weekend

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breath, Holiday, Labor Day, restful, safe, school, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wellbeing

It’s shockingly late as I turn to this task today (9:28AM in the Eastern part of the country). There is a gentle rain falling and quiet all around. It must be that something in me has already leaned in to a consciousness of Labor Day weekend. It seems illogical to call it the end of summer, since date-wise and temperature-wise we are far from finished with what we define as the summer season. It is, however, the moment when the school calendar resumes and takes precedence over every other way of marking the passage of time. With school back in session for youth of every age, we all fall into step with the round of activities that qualify as “work” – or labor, to be exact. So we should call this coming Monday NON-Labor Day and recognize the need for taking a breath in the work-a-day world, giving thanks for all those workers who contribute to our wellbeing.

May we all have a safe and restful weekend, and if we are the necessary workers who offer others the opportunity to celebrate this holiday, may we receive the gratitude of those we serve and know inner peace in our generosity.

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Solstice

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celebrating good, embrace life, energy, seasons, solstice, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I got out of bed this morning at the exact moment of the summer solstice: 6:07 AM! Had I known, I would likely have stood before my bedroom window and bowed, at least, in honor of the great light that brings so many benefits to our days – including the energy that often gets me out of bed. I am aware of the turning of our world today and the ability of scientists through the ages to discover things like the exact moment when the sun is at its highest in the Northern Hemisphere. I’m thinking as well of my cousins in Australia for whom the winter solstice has just happened as they mark the darkest part of the year.

How magnificent is the world we live in, not simply because of the regularity of seasons or the mirroring that can be perceived from north to south and south to north. I wait with such expectation each year for the leafing out of trees and the taste of corn on the cob, the flowering of forsythia and arrival of the hummingbirds. To  be fair, I must admit that the quiet arrival of the first snowfall also dazzles me. There is, of course, a downside to consider: the devastating fires and drought, for example, happening with or without human intervention, wreaking havoc in the lives of farmers and others who rely on good weather for their livelihood.

The question that arises for me in all this is whether or not I am willing to embrace life in all its moments, celebrating the good and enduring the difficult, while continuing to believe in possibility and learning the lessons life teaches – every day in every way. It can be more than a bit of a challenge sometimes, but today, welcoming summer, I say “Yes!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advice for Weekend Festivities

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family, groups, guard, Memorial Day, mouth, psalm 141, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, watch

I smiled as I read the psalm response in today’s lectionary readings. I thought it a good thing to remember on this weekend when many families and other groups gather from near and far to celebrate the unofficial start of summer – although the actual date is still nearly a month away. Here’s the line that stood out as good advice if the conversation gets at all contentious.

O Lord, set a watch before my mouth, a guard at the door of my lips. (PS 141:3)

Bless the Children

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blessing, children, different, extraordinary, Jesuit, joy, simplicity, spiritual opening, spontaneity, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wonder

My thoughts this morning are of children – simple thoughts really, for a number of reasons. We have finally (some would say swiftly) arrived at the calendar designation of the beginning of summer and I have been aware that this is the last week of school for the youth of New York State. Freed for the summer from the constraints of study, some are likely jubilant while others quickly become bored. I suggest prayer for young people in general that this season will afford them some new, safe adventures and good friends to companion them.

Today is the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga who lived in the 16th century and died at the age of 23. An extraordinarily spiritual youth, he had a “spiritual opening” at the age of 7 years and was teaching catechism by the age of eleven! After a 4 year struggle with his father who was determined that his son join the military, Aloysius entered the Jesuit order. Soon after, in caring for those brothers sickened by plague, he contracted the disease and died. As I read about his early life, I thought of the children I have known as “different” or extraordinary – often the intellectually brilliant ones – who are not well accepted by their peers. Conformity is a much safer path to walk, especially in our younger years. I pray for those children and teens who wish for a simpler life but know a different calling, that they may accept themselves and others and come to celebrate their uniqueness as God’s gift.

Finally, I see pictures of the beautifully alive faces of the youngest members of my own extended family and pray for children everywhere that they may be granted loving parents or guardians like those I know their parents, my younger cousins, to be. May we learn from the young the lessons of spontaneity and wonder, of simplicity and joy and may they be a blessing to us in this season.

 

 

 

 

 

Time Passages

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Autumn Equinox, celebrations, dream, families, friends, grace, graciousness, limit, picnics, psalm 90, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, time's passing, wisdom's voice

This is the weekend that we call the end of summer even though the calendar says we have some weeks still before the Autumn Equinox. People all over the USA are planning picnics and traffic has been heavy on the highways since Friday as families and friends celebrate the passing of yet another season that, for many, includes some slow down and vacation time. How can this be? In some ways it appears that the children just finished the past school year, and yet some of the events of a month or two ago seem like a faint memory. Time’s passing has a way of confounding us. It’s like that old adage from Henry Van Dyke that time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice…

Psalm 90 says this morning: Time for you is as nothing, Lord, a thousand years of it, your yesterday, passing as a watch of the night. We are your dream; we’re briefly here then simply gone, like grass in the morning green and growing and at sunset withered, dry. Not such an upbeat thought for those of us feeling the press of getting older by the minute. Later in the psalm, however, comes focus on a stance we ought to take, perhaps, going forward today:

So teach us the limit of our days that we may give our hearts to wisdom’s voice. And turn a gracious face toward us for we are here on earth to serve. Each morning let us rise to eat compassion’s bread. And even in the midst of dread, and years of deepest pain, make us glad for these. For there especially you are ever present as the guide. You show us secret splendors through your works and ways. You teach our hands new crafts, new handiwork through these. So may this grace, this graciousness be ours, and rest upon us now and evermore we pray. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Change of Season

Tags

Hafiz, love, party, planets, solstice, spring, strawberry moon, Sufi, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, thunderstorm

I get confused sometimes about the summer solstice. Is it the 20th or the 21st of June? Added to that this year was the title “Strawberry Moon” which I had never heard before. It turns out that I basically missed the whole (very rare) event as there was some cloud cover last night and it took me until this morning to read that the June moon got its name simply because it’s the season of strawberries in the USA. What I did not miss at 2:00AM, however, was a wild thunder and lightning event, with heavy rain drenching our bit of earth very quickly and moving on. I was awake just long enough to close my windows and to recognize the power of natural forces before I sank back into the oblivion of sleep. Maybe the storm actually lasted longer than I did in observing it…

Not drawn to the Scripture readings this morning, I opened The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master. These are the poems I found on two successive pages. (My apologies to Hafiz and his translator, Daniel Ladinsky, for typing them here in prose form.)

SOME OF THE PLANETS ARE HOSTING The ear becomes alert when music says, “I am over here.” The eye goes on duty, becomes viable, when beauty whistles and points to her dress on the ground. God has sent out ten thousand messengers  announcing a great bash tonight some of the planets are hosting where the lead singer is God, Himself. But most of those courtiers have become drunk, got waylaid, disoriented to the hilt with such exalted news, and can no longer remember the time and the place. What does that have to do with you? Plenty. Hafiz will fill you in later if need be.

WHAT IS THE ROOT? What is the root of all these words? One thing: love. But a love so deep and sweet it needed to express itself with scents, sounds, colors that never before existed.

I guess I should try to pay more attention to this day. I wouldn’t want to miss another big bash!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend Advice

Tags

intense, John, love, Peter, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, travels, vacation, weekend

It’s Friday again already! On this particular Friday, millions of people in the US are gearing up – or have already taken to the road or the skies – to celebrate on this long weekend not only Memorial Day on Monday but the beginning of summer all weekend long. The weather promises that even though the calendar tells us the real summer season is still almost a month away, the temperatures will convince us it has already arrived. There’s a happy feeling rising – a vacation attitude – that is expansive, perhaps because our houses cannot contain us; we are called outside to play!

Once again I turn to Peter for direct and clear instructions of how we are to be in order to enjoy the summer season – especially as we gather with relatives and friends on holidays and vacation times. Today he says: Above all let your love for one another be intense (there it is again), because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to another without complaining. As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace. (1PT 4: 7-13) Jesus is equally exhortative in the gospel acclamation (JN 15:16) where he says: I chose you from the world to go and bear fruit. And I want to add: So get out there and do it! (because we’re all chosen, you see.)

Safe travels! Enjoy!