The Force of Compassion

Tags

brave, compassion, heartfelt, Meister Eckhart, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, virtue

Here’s a little news item that bears repeating, I think. Sister Andre, a member of the Daughters of Charity in Toulon, France, is celebrating her birthday today. She’s 117 years old, the oldest European and the second oldest person in the world. (The oldest is also a woman, Kane Tanaka, who is 118.) Sister Andre will have a birthday feast of foie gras, capon fillet with porcini mushrooms and baked Alaska, washed down with a small glass of port wine (a daily “tonic”). Asked what she would say to young people, Sister Andre said, “Be brave and show compassion.” Good advice and something I have espoused for years. As a matter of fact, long ago I saved and framed a calendar page with the work of artist Mary Southard, a Sister of St. Joseph, because in addition to Mary’s beautiful art work it offers two quotes. I see it every day.

The first of the quotes is from Thomas Merton who speaks of the quality of compassion, saying, “Compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all living beings which are all a part of one another.” The second, from Meister Eckhart, is closer to my heart as it speaks of how we should all be acting. It says, “Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion.” I like the quote because while it speaks of a heartfelt virtue that would seem very peaceful in itself, it is very active and can’t be contained, bursting out of us with the force of a love that must be shared.

So as we celebrate Sister Andre today, let us redouble our efforts to be brave in these troubled times in which we’re living and redouble our commitment to compassion for the good of the world.

Monday, Monday…

Tags

active work, Book of Hours, calendar, collaborative effort, contemplative, cultural, Job, Peace, renewal, schedule, society, spiritual, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, virtue, work week

8:27AM EDT: As we come round again to the beginning of the traditional work week (if such a concept even exists any more) I think of people who have already arrived at their offices or factories – or those who are just climbing into bed after finishing the night shift. I remember what it was like to wait outside every morning for my ride to school where teachers were expected by 8:00AM and how cold it was in January or how hurried I was on the rare mornings that I overslept. Now my schedule is so diverse that my most precious possession has become my calendar! Keeping track of what day it is and where I need to be at what time can become a tricky task some days! Mostly I just think of how lucky I am to have work that is usually of my own choosing which feeds my spiritual self and is also in service to others.

Here’s something from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours that gave rise to the above considerations:

All Christian life is meant to be at the same time profoundly contemplative and rich in active work…Christian holiness can no longer be considered a matter purely of individual  and isolated acts of virtue. It must be seen as part of a great collaborative effort for spiritual and cultural renewal in society, to produce conditions in which all can work and enjoy the just fruits of their labor in peace.

May all of our work be a blessing in our own lives and for the good of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Second Try

Tags

A Deep Breath of Life, adventure, Alan Cohen, blessed, capable of being, comfort zone, desires, dreams, failures, humility, missteps, more, Quaker, resting on laurels, retreat, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, virtue

A little over a month ago, when I was not sure of my ability to do this morning writing practice because I was leaving on vacation, I promised to leave a  series of quotes for our tech wizard, Mary Pat, to post day by day. I was so satisfied with myself for having completed that task but as I was driving the next morning, I realized that the quotes were still sitting in my computer as I had not sent them to her! Humility is a great virtue and I have learned a lot about it along the way. The best thing about that virtue, I think, is the ability to admit both the great things about oneself and the failures or missteps without agonizing over either. In that spirit, I am going to try again to complete what I didn’t on my first try.

I’m off again today, this time to a long-awaited retreat at Pendle Hill, a Quaker facility near Philadelphia. I am leaving home where we are completing a weekend with a group of wonderful women who have come here seeking to deepen their spiritual lives. In a different time and place, with a different set of circumstances, we are all looking for the same thing. I found the expression of that in a quote this morning from Alan Cohen (A Deep Breath of Life) that I will share as the introduction to the thoughts of others for the rest of his week. May the week be blessed for us all.

There is a part of us that will not let us be content until we become all that we are capable of being. Life is not about resting on our laurels and hanging out in our comfort zone; it is an adventure from good to better to best…Bless your dreams, your desires, and your sense that there must be more. There is more because you are more.

Clare of Assisi

Tags

contemplation, focus on God, God's mirror, humility, kindness, mirror, poverty, St. Clare, st. francis, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, virtue

It’s late afternoon here in the Northeast of the USA and I might normally skip the daily blog post on a day this far spent but today is the feast of St. Clare and I want to say a word (or more) about her.

Clare was only 15 years old when she escaped her home against her parents’ will and begged Francis of Assisi to accept her as a member of his small band of itinerant monks. Clare’s parents dragged her away, locking her in the house, but she was having none of it. She sneaked out under cover of darkness, went to Francis and made him cut off her beautiful hair as a symbol of her desire to renounce all worldly things to serve God.

The stories of Francis and Clare have been romanticized in movies and books, but the reality is that Francis installed Clare in the church of San Damiano where she remained all her life and saw him rarely. After her first “falling in love with God” years, life for her was very circumscribed, daily and desperately poor. She rarely left San Damiano; her living was in every moment and her focus was on God. Here is what she says:

Happy is the person who clings with all her heart to our Lord and shares in God’s sacred banquet. God is the one whose kindness electrifies, whose contemplation refreshes, whose love satisfies, whose joy replenishes, whose celebration illuminates the world, whose fragrance resurrects the dead, whose splendid vision blesses, whose eternal glory shines, whose everlasting light burns brightest, whose mirror reflects all things flawlessly.

One could spend a very long time reflecting on those phrases. Clare spent almost 45 years doing so in quiet contemplation and communal prayer with her Sisters in community. In her later years she was visited by all manner of people, including bishops and other high officials who sought her counsel. For almost 800 years her simple message has endured and her advice to us speaks again of God’s Mirror: Look into that mirror each and every day. Study your face in it forever. Then you will put on the most beautiful clothes and wear them and every one of virtue’s flowers, because happy poverty, holy humility and indescribable kindness are reflected in that Mirror as you contemplate them there. 

 

Stepping Stones

Tags

faith, flowering, love, Peter, relatedness, soul, stepping stones, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, virtue

There is an exhortation in the text from the Second Letter of Peter this morning that deserves notice and reflection. It is a progression of development that begins with faith and moves to the crowning achievement of the highest good: love. Each of the steps demands something deeper from us and each is supported by what we have learned in the previous inner opening. The beauty of the flowering is that it is, in the end, not just about our own growth but flows out into relatedness to all. I suggest reflection on each of these stepping stones of the soul, the cycle of which, it seems to me, can be revisited time after time for a tune-up. See what you think.

Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection and mutual affection with love. (2 PT 1: 7)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Staycation”

Tags

American Catholic, Jesus, John, Martha, Mary, Pope Francis, renew, staycation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, virtue, work ethic

I found an interesting coincidence when I clicked on the American Catholic website this morning, looking for anything unique about Martha, the sainted sister of Lazarus and Mary whose feast we celebrate today. She is known for her work ethic – and her apparent frustration with her sister who preferred sitting at the feet of Jesus to helping with the meal preparation. This morning’s gospel (JN 11:19-27) is the less familiar exchange of Martha with Jesus where she laments the fact that if he had come sooner her brother wouldn’t have died. We shouldn’t miss the last part of that text where Jesus challenges her belief about him. She doesn’t hesitate as she answers clearly that she believes in him as the Christ, needed evidence of her reflective side perhaps.

But back to my discovery of the morning…While I wasn’t satisfied to reiterate the common message of balance gleaned from the Mary/Martha evidence (i.e. “Virtue stands in the middle.”), I had to pay attention because it got a boost from a wise and popular source: Pope Francis! It appears that after his whirlwind tour of three South American countries and as he prepares for his first, important trip to North America in September, he is on a “staycation.” Of course it was the newly-coined term – new to me at least – that got my attention. It seems that, while the Pope will not be going to some peaceful place to renew himself after his strenuous last few weeks, he is curtailing his public appearances until August 6th, content to do study and paperwork in an effort to rest and regain a healthy balance of his energy.  We would do well to follow his example if our responsibilities don’t allow a vacation right now. So my question to myself this morning is about how I will spend my staycation time in August. Hmmm…

A Great Collaboration

Tags

Christian, collaborative effort, cultural, holiness, just fruits of labor, Kathleen Deignan, Peace, renewal, spiritual, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, virtue

“Christian holiness can no longer be considered a matter purely of individual and isolated acts of virtue. It must also be seen as part of a great collaborative effort for spiritual and cultural renewal in society, to produce conditions in which all can work and enjoy the just fruits of their labor in peace.”

~ Thomas Merton
(from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan)