Time Flies…

Tags

courage, feel, live, meet people, never too late, see, sunrise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, time, timing

This morning when I woke the sky was still in the process of lighting up. According to my phone, I still had at least 25 minutes before the alarm would sound to wake me. I settled down to wait or doze…but something in me said ten minutes later that it was time for my day to begin. How fortunate an impetus! When I opened my eyes and looked out my windows in both directions – east and south – I was treated to a lovely wash of color, soft in pinkish-orange light, that lasted less than two minutes before fading into the monochrome glimmer that spells d-a-y. What a gift of perfect timing! Something not to be missed, I thought.

I’ve had several conversations already this week about the speed of the summer and how time seems to be passing too quickly. This morning convinced me once again that time is a precious commodity not to be squandered. Deciding to explore a bit, I typed “quotes about time” into the subject line on my phone. I read some familiar things, but there was a quote that seemed the perfect start for this day. It was from Eric Roth, from his screenplay for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. See what you think.

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late, or in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There is no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”

What could be a more perfect “thought for the day?” Let’s live it!

Sunrise

Tags

expectation, Lent, Pope Francis, prayer, Robert Moynihan, sunrise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Here comes the sun in all its blinding radiance, fairly shouting “Awake! Awake!” with the promise that it is indeed spring. I hear the energy in the birds and wish I could join in the song but I made the mistake of reading today’s headlines before the sun appeared. It seems that every day there is something new to add to the list of issues and/or events to mourn. Then I think that it is still Lent after all and that life goes on as it will.

Then my eye falls on the cover of Robert Moynihan’s book about Pope Francis that in bold letters entreats the world: “PRAY FOR ME!” (the first words of his papacy.) In that humble moment the Pope reinforced the fact that life is a jumble of strength and weakness, easy and difficult, happy and sad. In so doing he also let us know that we are all in this together and we can – if we truly make the effort – overcome the darkness that exists all around us.

So I face the sun and make an inventory of the day ahead, slowly feeling the rising of expectation within me. It will be a good day, I trust, because of the Pope, the people I will encounter, the conversations we will have, the prayer we will share, and the sun which will continue to rise in my heart.

O Radiant Dawn, Come!

Tags

Christ, consciousness, darkness, dawn, give glory to God, joy, light, miracle, O Antiphons, sunrise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

As I consider the “O” Antiphon for today, so many images flash across the screen of my mind, so many beautiful experiences of sunrise! You have heard me effuse as I watch the color that precedes the approach of morning brighten the sky and give glory to God just outside my bedroom window. The miracle of color is surpassed only by the constancy of morning light. Even on the cloudiest or rainiest of days, we can count on the fact that light will surely come and offer us the hope of a new day.

The memory that spoke the loudest in me this morning was my experience of sunrise at the top of Mount Haleakala in Hawaii. People told me that it was a “must see” that meant getting up and in the car at 3:30AM and negotiating the many hairpin turns (more hair-raising coming down!) to sit in the freezing darkness and wait for the moment of sunrise. As the light began to penetrate, shapes appeared all around us: people who had been hidden by the darkness when we thought we were all alone on the mountain! There was no sound, just a large cohort of people sitting on the rocks, bundled in blankets, facing East and waiting in the silence…and waiting…and waiting. The expectation was palpable; we knew that the sun would absolutely not disappoint. And come it did – first the soft light, then the rays and finally the miracle itself bursting into presence over the mountain to thunderous applause and shouts of joy!

What calls us to such an experience of what happens every day? Can it possibly be the sense that sunrise is one thing that we can count on, regardless of what is happening in the world and in our lives? Whatever the cause, the visceral effect is sometimes so vibrant that the only reasonable reaction is like that day on the mountaintop: unrestrained joy that the miracle has happened again…and again…and again. If only we were willing to wait for it every day, our lives might feel lighter.

If only we might wait for the rise of Christ consciousness with every dawn of our waking, our hope might increase. And so on this fifth day of the “O” Antiphons we lift our hearts and pray: O Radiant Dawn, you bring God’s light into our darkness. You are the rising sun, the morning star that brightens lives and lifts spirits. Come, blaze in us and cast out all fear!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wait For It…

Tags

dawn, hope, silence, slow down, slow work of God, spirit, sunrise, Teilhard de Chardin, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Having set up the coffee last night for the Sisters staying on the guest floor at our Province Center, I was surprised to be the first arriving in the kitchen this morning. I thought someone would have been awake before 6:30…I could hardly click the switch on the coffee maker, however, so glorious was the scene unfolding outside the window. The still darkish dawn sky was splashed with waves of deep magenta, growing brighter by the minute! But there was nothing hurried about the sun’s rise to the top of the hills across the Hudson River in Troy – nor of the coffee maker, I might add…

Joined by another Sister seeking a wake-up, we stood in silent stillness, companioned by the trees – unmoving as we all were in the silence, facing east – waiting for the brilliance that was sure to come. We watched as much of the magenta turned to gray, leaving a center patch that slowly morphed into deep gold…then a lighter, less ostentatious backdrop. Occasionally we shared a whispered hope for this day of deliberation at the Province Assembly: “May we move from the enthusiasm of our greetings with one another, carrying good feeling to the work of the meeting…”  “May we slow down and quietly wait for the Spirit to speak among us…”

It sounds strange to describe something that has been so deliberately awaited as sudden, but the actual breaking of the first rays of the sun and the swift blinding light that followed over the mountain was a breathtaking event! As I arrived back in my room, the clock told me we had been there for a full half-hour! I was reminded of Teilhard de Chardin’s famous adage: “Trust in the slow work of God!” Clearly God’s work of today has been marvelously begun. Now it’s up to us to join our effort to God’s in the work that awaits us. May we all trust the certainty that God’s loving light will unfailingly lead us!

 

 

 

 

 

Willingness to Rise

Tags

beauty, change, expectancy, patience, power, sun, sunrise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, willingness

As I look out a west-facing window this morning in Latham, New York, I am drawn in by the reflection of what is happening on the other side of the building that I cannot see. The golden blaze of the rising sun is visible to me on the trees that still hold many of their leaves, burnished gold by this date but receptive to the illumination of the sunrise. This is a season of surprise as we are amazed when the temperature reaches 65 or 70 degrees Fahrenheit and then hear that tomorrow we will be shoveling snow! The environment can be such a goad to our learning of patience in swift change, all the while giving us gifts of beauty and terrifying power at the same moment sometimes.

I wonder what all that means for this day of meetings and consideration of how to best meet change. Perhaps it’s one more way for the Spirit of God to say, “Wake up! Be ready to be malleable. Soften your gaze on the world and on the person next to you. Greet each moment with expectancy and willingness. Never be disappointed when you are surprised by events; rather let the realizations seep into your soul where acceptance sits waiting for what is to come.”

Well, the Spirit seems full of conversation this morning so I best get going to join the repartee!

 

 

 

 

 

 

O Radiant Dawn, Come!

Tags

birth, Christ, daily miracle, dawn, God, light, Messiah, metaphor, O Antiphons, radiance, sunrise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Winter Solstice

The workings of the universe are often confusing for some non-science minds like mine. For example, we are approaching the Winter Solstice, the time of the shortest day and longest night in the northern hemisphere (and the opposite, of course, in the south). Sometimes it is the 21st of December, sometimes the 22nd. I just read that the solstice begins tonight for my time zone at 11:48PM – which is 4:48AM GMT (Universal Time). It’s all about the tilt of the earth’s axis, you see, and the angle and length of the sun’s rays hitting the earth. The  confusion comes because there are reports as well of the fact that the solstice doesn’t signal the day of the latest sunrise and earliest sunset because “solar time” – measured by the spin of the earth – isn’t exactly the same as clock time, which always measures a day as exactly 24 hours.

That’s enough science for me – or too much, really – at this early hour. All I need to know is that at this very moment (7:16AM EST) the sky outside my window is turning pink on the eastern horizon and I can expect (because the pink complements beautifully the blue that is also appearing, heralding a clear day) that the sun will burst forth in radiance if I sit here long enough to wait for it. Sunrise is a daily miracle, whether or not it is visible given the weather conditions of the day. It always happens and it is a wonderful metaphor of birth, splendid in its beauty and hope-filled in its consistency.

The O Antiphon for today reflects the nearness of the Messiah and the longing soon to be fulfilled. If you live in a place where the dawn has yet to “spring forth” and you have the leisure to do so, watch for it. Be aware of the coming of the light and note the moment when the sun appears, giving thanks for another day. If tomorrow is the arrival of the solstice in your time zone, like in mine, spend this day in conscious waiting, in gratitude for what will surely come.

O Rising Dawn, Radiance of the Light eternal and the Sun of Justice, come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

O Dayspring, you bring God’s light into our darkness. You are the rising sun, the morning star that brightens lives and lifts spirits. Come, blaze in us and cast out all fear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A brief pause

Tags

sunrise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I am without internet service at the moment (just able to text via phone), so there will be no blog post today or tomorrow.

Here is this morning’s view.

 

O Radiant Dawn, Come!

Tags

dawn, faithfulness forever, God, Hanukkah, light, Luke, O Antiphons, Romans, Samuel, solstice, sunrise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

All of today’s Scripture selections point to God’s faithfulness forever – to King David (2 Samuel 7), proclaimed in the psalm (89), fulfilled in Christ (Romans 16 & Luke 1). How fitting it is, then, that the O Antiphon for December 21st (the Winter Solstice) shouts out the following plea:

O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: Come! Shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Just as the sun rises each morning, whether we see it or not, as long as the earth endures, we have the promise of God to be with us in good times and bad. Our Jewish sisters and brothers have been celebrating the great Festival of Lights and today the earth joins in with the turning of the season toward more light. Even if our world seems dreary going forward, we can count on more minutes of light each day. So it is as we move toward the great feast of the Incarnation. We turn to the East and welcome the dawn. Soon, and very soon, the dawning of God’s light will break upon our hearts with the knowledge that this promise is forever.

First Thoughts

Tags

evergreens, leaves, morning, psalm 1, seasons, sunrise, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Everything is stillness this morning as I sit to ponder Psalm 1:1-6. Light is coming to the sky; there are apertures in the cloud cover, just barely lighter than the gray. There is no movement of branches, no stirring in the kitchen or on the road. I wonder if it is a holiday for surely Monday morning traffic should be buzzing by now. I cannot yet see the bronzing trees on the hill or the gold of the not-yet-harvested cornfield behind the house. I know in my bones the passing of the “fruitful” season of apples and take a deep breath as I read of the trees planted “by running streams” that “yield their fruit in due season.” Their leaves are mostly gone – for now – as we prepare for the hibernation of bear and earth and, if we can manage it occasionally, ourselves.

I am feeling the rhythm of the seasons this morning, grateful to live in a region where they are all wildly different in unique beauty. In the same way, I have the certainty of the psalmist who compares people to evergreen trees whose “leaves” never fade, the ones who delight in the law of the Lord. And now the clouds are pink, a car just sped by and a song bird has offered a lovely welcome to the day. It is time for me to move along, surprised that I have been sitting for 45 minutes as the world continued its silent turning. I think of my relatives in Australia as they experience the turning and all those people in between and I give thanks for this day, this life, this amazing mystery…