The importance of preparation

Artist: Anne Kuehn-Meier

I just came across the most marvelous statement by Abraham Lincoln:

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my ax.

It reminded me of the story about Archbishop Michael Ramsey who was asked by a reporter how much time he devoted to prayer every day.

"One minute," replied His Grace. Then, in response to the reporter's shocked look, he added, "But I spend fifty-nine minutes preparing to pray."

I've always loved that story. It points out the importance of meditation - of settling and quieting the mind.

Memorial Day, 2008

Christ, no one on earth really wants the pain and horror of war. We do not want to kill or be killed, to hurt or be hurt. But we all see injustice, and sometimes it makes us angry and we see no other way to right the wrong except by war. Christ, teach us the ways of peace! Calm our angry hearts and grant to all peoples and their leaders patience in the search for peace and justice. Help us to be ready to give up some of our comforts and power and pride, so that war will leave the face of the earth and we may work for you in peace.

by Avery Brooke, in Plain Prayers in a Complicated World

Grace and Acceptance

"Acceptance"

Artist: Megan O'Beirne

Grace overcomes shame, not by uncovering an overlooked cache of excellence in ourselves but simply by accepting us, the whole of us, with no regard to our beauty or our ugliness, our virtue or our vices. We are accepted wholesale. Accepted with no possibility of being rejected. Accepted once and accepted forever. Accepted at the ultimate depth of our being.

— Lewis B. Smedes in Shame and Grace

Keeping sabbath time

"Relaxation"

Artist: Chris Cook

I really want to urge you to go read an article entitled Reclaiming the Sabbath by Jane Carol Redmont over on Daily Episcopalian.

Here's an excerpt:

One of the greatest challenges to us as church is to go against the culture’s use of time as a commodity, its business model of program evaluation, and its focus on production and consumption. God loves us. God saves us and makes us whole. God rests on the seventh day. If we decide to embody this as church, what will the shape of our time look like? How will we operate differently from the culture around us?

I am not about to cancel the work of the diocesan anti-racism committee which I chair. I do wonder whether, in addition to an anti-racism audit, we in the churches also need a “Sabbath audit.” The “audit” language is, of course, hardly countercultural. But it helps make my point. My intuition is that in addressing the problem of overscheduling and the struggle for Sabbath, we will get to the root of our vocation in the world as surely as we do when we address an issue of justice. The lack of time for rest and contemplation is, in fact, a matter of justice –among other things. Protecting Sabbath time may remind us that contemplation and action for justice are neither opposed to one another nor mutually exclusive. Each withers in the other’s
absence. Brother Roger, founding prior of the Taizé community, knew this when he spoke of lutte et contemplation, struggle and contemplation, in one breath.

I have no easy response to the Sabbath struggle and the overscheduling of churches. I have only an assessment, some intuitions, and some questions. I also know that the solutions, like the problem, are likely to be systemic and economic as much as “spiritual.”

My own Rule of Life requires me to keep sabbath and I'm so glad. Otherwise, we are very prone to burn-out.

Another comment on the Trinity

"Mountains of Creation"

I really love this:

What is God but Creator? What is creating but reaching out? What is reaching out but connecting beyond self? What is connecting beyond self but loving others?

Creating, reaching, connecting, loving -- these are what the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all about. It's what God is. It's who God is. It's how God is. It's what God does, and why. The three-in-oneness of God is how the followers of Jesus describe what we experience about God - to describe how God creates, reaches, connects and loves us.

What Jesus teaches his followers is that by following Him under the guidance of the Holy Spirit: we will create – within and beyond; we will reach – within and beyond; we will connect – within and beyond; we will love – within and beyond, and that's how we'll follow Him into unity with God.

-- Greg Jones

Teach me, Lord, to be generous

Ignatius of Loyola

Today, I had a meeting with the pastor and some members of Bethany Lutheran Church here in Tusla. They have asked me to lead a workshop in Ignatian spirituality later this summer. We discussed what sorts of information needed to be included in the publicity for the event and I found myself quoting this prayer by Ignatius:

Teach me, Lord, to be generous,
To serve you as you deserve.
To give and not to count the cost,
To fight and not to heed the wounds,
To toil and not to ask for rest,
To labor and not to seek reward
Save that of knowing I do your will.

It's important not to interpret this prayer as meaning that we shouldn't take care of ourselves. Remember, Ignatius was a soldier. In the heat of battle we can't stop and take it easy. But our ongoing training requires that we maintain our health and well-being. This prayer is truly about deep generosity - about not making self-interest our highest priority ALL of the time!

Growing toward meaning

"Faith"

Artist: Leslie McCullough-Payne

Back in the late 70s or so I had the very great privilege of attending a series of lectures by Ann Bedford Ulanov at Virginia Theological Seminary. She was riveting. Here's something she said that I just found:

Meaning does not come to us in finished form, ready-made; it must be found, created, received, constructed. We grow our way toward it.

(Ann Bedford Ulanov, M.Div., Ph.D., L.H.D., is the Christiane Brooks Johnson Progessor of Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary, a psychoanalyst in private practice, and a supervising analyst and faculty member of the C.G. Jung Institute of New York. She is the author or co-author of over a dozen books, including The Feminine in Christian Theology and in Jungian Psychology and Transforming Sexuality: The Archtypal World of Anima and Animus.)

Grief and joy

"Spring Radiance"

Artist: Roland Roy

“Precarious” comes from the same Latin root as the word “prayer.” Here prayer does not mean pleading with a distant deity who may or may not pay attention. It may not even be a request at all. Prayer in this sense means rather that we reconnect with the very Source from which we come. We open the eyes of our heart to the inner light abiding in everything. We feel connected to this Source – through a hovering hummingbird, a toddler’s giggle, the aroma of fresh-baked bread – yet in a flicker, the connection seems gone and we are plunged into grief. This teaches us to let go, courageously, again and again. None of us would have the heart for this task if we did not begin to see that the light has a steady presence in spite of appearances. With joy we realize that the radiance we glimpse flows steadily and illumines all creation in an everlasting glow.

This is from a marvelous essay called Grief/Joy on the Gratefulness.org site.

Prayer to the Trinity

Artist: Elizabeth Wang

O my God, Trinity whom I adore; help me to forget myself entirely that I may be established in You as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing trouble my peace or make me leave You, O my Unchanging One, but may each minute carry me further into the depths of Your mystery.

-- Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

Trinity Sunday

Does the Trinity make any sense? Yes, but not as a kind of celestial mathematics. Trinitarian theology makes sense as a continuation of a biblically initiated exploration into experiences of redemption and into an apprehension of God that is part of saving faith. It describes the Christian community's distinct experience of faithfulness and new life, and it points to the God who is beyond our comprehension.

-- Douglas F. Ottati

To see things as they are

Artist: Diego Rivera

It is in times such as these that mystics emerge who strive to seek a sacramental life that makes all of life sacred. True discipleship calls each of us "to see things as they are" and to refuse anything and everything that defies the will of God for all of us. This is what challenges us to live authentically and to live in solidarity with all who are marginalized. Jesus incarnated this, which in turn motivates us to turn the "world as we know it" upside down. This is what Gandhi meant by "you must be the change you wish to see in the world." To do so is to experience the HOLY much more as an encounter with the sacred presence of God.

-- Maureen Bauer-McGahey

Unconditional love

I found the photo here.

Unconditional love is enlarging the self, and an act of will. It is not a feeling or an emotional reaction. Think of the difference between falling in love, and growing in love through all difficulties and conflicts. Unconditional love is an act of mental and spiritual will, it cannot and does not take place upon the emotional level, which is where the problems first register.

Unconditional love is extending oneself in the service of the spiritual growth of oneself and/or another, independently of reward or the behavior of others.

-- Dr. Guy Pettit

Prayer for Lambeth

Canterbury Cathedral

Pour down upon us, O God, the gifts of your Holy Spirit, that those who prepare for the Lambeth Conference may be filled with wisdom and understanding. May they know at work within them that creative energy and vision which belong to our humanity, made in your image and redeemed by your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Pentecost in action

What we would like to do is change the world -- make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended for them to do.

-- Dorothy Day

Pentecost and change

Every time we say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit," we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.

-- J. B. Phillips

Pentecost

I know I've blogged before on the sermons of Lutheran pastor, The Rev. Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad who teaches at Union Theological Seminary in New York. I'm very, very impressed with her. Here's an excerpt from one of her Pentecost sermons:

Pentecost often ends too soon. The first part of the story is thrilling. The sound of a mighty wind. The tongues of fire. People from all over the Roman Empire hearing their own languages spoken by ordinary Galileans. The promise of the Spirit poured out on young and old, including slaves, both women and men. Pentecost means all of that. As the story goes on, Peter stands up to preach, and he preaches such a powerful sermon that over 3,000 people are baptized. Pentecost means all of that too. But Pentecost ends too soon if it has nothing to do with possessions, with wealth and poverty, with what we call economics. Economics is from the Greek word oikos, which means household. How do we live together in God's household? Well, I know economics is a subject so complicated that our eyes glaze over at the mention of the word. But God is very interested in economics, about what we do with our possessions and portfolios.

* A Pentecost church will reach out to people of every language and tongue.

* A Pentecost church will call young and old, women and men to prophesy.

* A Pentecost church will preach and baptize, but the story always ends too soon if a Pentecost church isn't concerned about economics.

A few years ago I talked with a friend of mine who's a pastor in New England. "How's your building program going?" I asked. "Oh, we ran out of money before we got to the worship space," she said. I thought to myself, "What could be more important than the worship space?" But I kept my thoughts to myself. "We renovated the basement," she said. "You know, we have a shelter there for homeless men. We put in new showers and renovated the old kitchen. The basement was so drab, and the showers-well, there was only one shower and it was lousy. On the Sunday before the shelter opened, the worship service began as usual in the sanctuary. When it came time for communion, the people carried the bread and the cup downstairs to the basement. The whole congregation gathered around the empty beds. They passed the bread and the cup around the circle. The body of Christ given for you. That night the shelter beds were full, and the worship space still needed a lot of work." The church calendar still said it was the first Sunday of Advent. But people in that congregation knew that Pentecost wasn't over. Pentecost shaped their life together, and it had everything to do with economics.

Finding what is real

Artist: Alyce Grunt

The first thing people do when restoring old chairs is strip — strip right down to the bare wood. They do this to see what the original might have looked like and to determine if the thing is worth doing over. They strip away all the years of grime, the garish coats of paint piled one on top of the other. They get rid of all the junk that's been tacked on through the years and try to find the solid, simple thing that's underneath.

I'm like an old chair needing that stripping process. Every now and then I have to take a really hard look at the illusions I've built up in myself and my society, see what I've gotten myself into. Illusions? Yes, illusions; the excess baggage I carry around, the unnecessary, the socially expected, all that keeps me living off center too long. Stripping myself of all this is an intentional letting go of these illusions. It is a spiritual act of personal forgiveness. God lets us let go.

It's hard work to let God forgive me. I have to discover the original under all these coats I've added, strip away all the cynicism and anger I've build up, get rid of the junk I've taken on, defy my disappointments, and find what is real again.

-- Donna Schaper from Stripping down: The Art of Spiritual Restoration

Lady Julian

Today is the feast of Julian of Norwich. Here's something about her:

Julian of Norwich was most likely a Benedictine nun who lived a life of seclusion in Norwich, England during the later part of the 14th century. She is thought to be one the greatest of English mystics. At the age of thirty, suffering from a servere illness and believing she was at the point of death, Julian passed into a trance and had a series of intense visions in which she was led to contemplate the nature of Divine Love. These revelations brought her great peace and joy. For twenty years she meditated on her visions in a small cell close to a church in Norwich, where she devoted her life to prayer and contemplation. She wrote the results of her meditations in a book called 'Revelations of Divine Love'. During her life many sought her advice in spiritual matters. Since her death, many more have found help in her writings.

The precise date of her death is uncertain.

And here is something she said:

Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God. From these two comes the third, which is a holy, marvellous delight in God, who is love. Where truth and wisdom are, in truth, there is love, coming in reality from both of them, and all are of God's making. For he is endless sovereign truth, endless sovereign wisdom and endless sovereign love, all of them uncreated.

And let us not forget that she kept a cat!

Make friends with the angels

Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.

--Saint Francis de Sales

The real reason for persisting in prayer

Artist: Gerard Menzel

I've admired Frederick Buechner for a long time but only today have I come across this:

According to Jesus, by far the most important thing about praying is to keep at it... Be importunate, Jesus says -- not, one assumes, because you have to beat a path to God's door before he'll open it, but because until you beat the path maybe there's no way of getting to your door.

Some sweet lyrics

Cultural Unity Wreath

Jesus’ hands were kind hands,
Doing good for all.
Healing pain and sickness,
Blessing children small.
Washing tired feet
And saving those who fall.
Jesus’ hands were kind hands,
Doing good for all.

Take my hands, Lord Jesus,
Let them work for you.
Make them strong and gentle,
Kind in all I do.
Let me watch you, Jesus,
‘Til I’m gentle, too,
‘Til my hands are kind hands,
Quick to work for you.

— Margaret Cropper (1886–1980)

I found this on Susan Russell's site. This was sung by children in her parish.

William Byrd - Ave verum corpus

Hail, true body,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Truly suffered, sacrificed
On the Cross for mankind,
Whose pierced side
Flowed with water and blood,
Be for us a foretaste
In the trial of death.

The Lord is present and living

The announcement is the great joy that the Lord is present and living in the world: that the Lord is with us. Dominus vobiscum, the Lord be with you. This is what we are constantly announcing in the liturgy, that the Lord is present in the world.

— Thomas Merton

The Ascension of our Lord

The following is an excerpt from an Ascensiontide sermon by The Rev. Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad:

Not long ago I saw a wonderful picture of Jesus' ascension. It was a black and white woodcut print finely etched. In the picture Jesus is rising up as the disciples watch him disappear into the clouds. If you look closely at the picture, not in the clouds, but on the ground, you can see footprints on the earth. The artist has carefully etched Jesus' footprints down on the level where the disciples are standing with their mouths open. Perhaps the artist was simply imagining a homey detail that isn't in the text. Or, perhaps, the artist is pressing us with the old question, "Why do you stand looking up into heaven? Look at these footprints here on the earth." Jesus' muddy footprints are all over the pages of the gospels.

* Can you see Jesus' footprints in the wilderness? Each time he was tempted to claim earthly power and glory, he reached up and touched the words of Torah. One does not live by bread alone. Worship the Lord your God and serve only God.
* Can you see Jesus walking on the wrong side of the street with the wrong people?
* Can you see Jesus walking up to a sycamore tree, then looking up at Zachaeus, the tax collector, perched in the branches? "Come down, Zachaeus," Jesus said, "let's walk over to your house for dinner."
* Can you see Jesus walking, then riding, into Jerusalem?
* Can you see him stumbling toward Golgotha, loving us to the very end?

The book of Ephesians poses an interesting question: "What does it mean that Christ is ascended but that he also descended... and now fills the whole universe?" So this doctrine is really a teaching about the ubiquity of Christ. Christ is everywhere at all times. Christ cannot be limited. Ever. That's what this day is all about.

Waking up

Gallery Mandala

Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics - Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion -- are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.

-- Anthony de Mello

You can read the rest of Fr. de Mello's short article right here.

About truth

Do you know about St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe? Here's part of his story:

On February 17, 1941 he was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and on May 25 was transferred to Auschwitz I as prisoner #16670.

In July 1941 a man from Kolbe's barracks vanished, prompting SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13 (notorious for torture), in order to deter further escape attempts. (The man who had disappeared was later found drowned in the camp latrine.) One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family, and Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

During the time in the cell he led the men in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe and three others were still alive. Finally he was murdered with an injection of carbolic acid.

Here's something he said that I found very insightful and challenging:

No one in the world can alter truth. All we can do is seek it and live it.

It strikes me that many (if not most) of the conflicts of the world are due to people trying to alter truth. What would happen if we chose to live it instead?

Only...

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky.

--Ursula K. LeGuin

Seeing God in all things

Artist: MC Morley

I have just stumbled upon the website of a retreat center in Dublin run by the Dominicans. Here's a brief passage from a letter by one of the brothers to an inquirer about seeing God in everything:

Words can become idols, as believers have always known – even the word ‘God’. They are much more likely to be mistaken for the reality than a statue or a picture. “If one knows anything in God,” said Meister Eckhart, “and affixes any name to it, that is not God. God is above names.”

How then do we see God in all things? We search for God all our lives; but God is not lost. We are lost. God is always present, and when we become present God is present in that awareness. As long as we are present – to anything, even to a tree – we are present to God.

-- Donagh O’Shea OP

Oblation

"Sky and Cloud"

Artist: Craig Bisgeier

Even if I should be locked up in a narrow cell and a cloud should drift past my small barred window, then I shall bring you that cloud, Oh God, while there is still the strength in me to do so.

--Etty Hillesum from An Interrupted Life

Living Water

"Quiet Stream"

Artist: Katie Puenner

Jesus said, "And let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’"

-- John 7:38

I think this is beautiful

" The Joy of Life"

Artist: Rita Cappello

It's possible for a person to be created and live an entire lifetime just for the sake of uttering one word or making a single gesture that he performs for the Holy One.

— Pinchas of Koretz

Let us pray for peace

Earth Day

Here is an excerpt from an Earth Day sermon by Joseph C. Hough, Jr., President of Union Theological Seminary in New York:

Here is a fundamental compelling choice. It is the one choice that will determine all of the other choices we make. It is an absolutely bottom line, base line choice between life and death.

* Yet, despite the disappearance of the forests, the death of thousands of species and the pollution of air and water;

* despite the growing consensus that we have already done irreparable harm to our world;

* despite the fact that we are in danger of opening another nuclear arms race;

* despite the fact that a deteriorating ecosystem can seriously distort the genetic structure of those yet unborn;

Despite all of this that we now know, our national political leaders scorn the warnings of the world's top scientists and stand alone against all efforts of other nations to stem the tide of destruction.

This cannot go on. This is not a matter that we Christians can leave to habitual partisan politics. At this moment in history, our choices have to transcend our self-interests and our political loyalties. The care of the earth is a part of our covenant with our God that determines who we are and what we choose. So let the voice of the covenant people rise into a mighty and deafening roar so that all the world may hear:

This destruction of God's world cannot go on. The time is now and we cannot rest until we are heard. We choose life! We choose life! We choose life! -- a life that will ensure that we are working with our God as a covenant people to ensure a future of any life at all for our children and their world!

It is a powerful sermon, truly. I would like to urge you to click through and read it in its entirety.

Windows to the inner life

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Connection with gardens, even small ones, even potted plants, can become windows to the inner life. The simple act of stopping and looking at the beauty around us can be prayer.

- Patricia R. Barrett from The Sacred Garden

Poured into the will of God

"Warm Light Over Southern France"

Artist: Tracey Creighton

As a drop of water seems to disappear completely in a quantity of wine, taking the wine’s flavor and color; as red-hot iron becomes indistinguishable from the glow of fire and its own original form disappears; as air suffused with the light of the sun seems transformed into the brightness of the light, as if it were itself light rather than merely lit up; so, in those who are holy, it is necessary for human affection to dissolve in some ineffable way, and be poured into the will of God.

--Bernard of Clairvaux

Psalm 121

Treble soloist: Andrew Johnson

Becoming the silence

"Inner Silence"

Artist: Joanna Gabler

Years ago, when I was living in Ireland, I spent some time house sitting for a priest friend of mine while she was on vacation. She had left out some tapes she thought I would be interested in and some of them were by John Main, the priest who was so influential in the fairly recent revival of Christian meditation. Here's something he said:

Now to tread the spiritual path we must learn to be silent. What is required of us is a journey into profound silence. . . Meditation is the way to silence, because it is the way of silence. . . I think what we all have to learn is that we do not have to create silence. The silence is there within us. What we have to do is to enter into it, to become silent, to become the silence. The purpose of meditation and the challenge of meditation is to allow ourselves to become silent enough to allow this interior silence to emerge. Silence is the language of the Spirit.

--John Main from Moment of Christ

The ideas of God

"The Tree of Happiness"

Artist: Dawn Hitchcock

A luminous realization by one of my favorite poets:

So every day
I was surrounded by the beautiful crying forth
of the ideas of God,

one of which was you.

-- Mary Oliver

Listening to Spring

"Spring Rain"

Artist: Jackson M. Hensley

Listening to Spring

How quietly the earth breathes forth new life.
How eagerly the sun bleeds forth the spring,

I am listening.

I am listening to seeds breaking open,
to roots growing strong beneath the ground,
to green shoots rising up from winter wombs.
I am listening to thorns blossoming,
to barren branches laughing out new growth,
to wildflowers dancing through the meadows,

I am listening.

I am listening to the forest filling up with song.
I am listening to the earth filling up with life.
I am listening to the trees filling up with leaves.

I am listening.

I am listening to the sky with its many changing moods,
to flashes of lightning, peals of thunder,
to opening buds and greening grass.
I am listening to the breaking forth of light
in the vestibule of dawn.
I am listening to the freshness of the morning.

I am listening.

I am listening to the rain drops
giving hope to thirsty gardens.
I am listening to the orchards
pregnant with new life.
I am listening to the flowers
bursting forth in rainbow colors.

I am listening.

I am listening to the brook,
to the song of happy waters.
I am listening to music
rising up from all the earth.
I am listening to spring
soaring in on wings of life.
I am listening to the sounds of spring.

I am listening.

I am listening to prayers
pouring forth from feathered throats.
I am listening to prayers
rising up from misty waters.
I am listening to prayers
of a meadow crowned with dawn.

I am listening.

I am listening to the growing
in the garden of my heart.
I am listening to my heart
singing songs of resurrection.
I am listening to the colors of life.

I am listening.

I am listening to winter
handing over spring.
I am listening to the poetry of spring.

I am listening.

— Macrina Wiederkehr

Decisions

Someone sent me a list of slogans today and this was one of them:

It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.

I agree.

Many people who come to talk to me tend to fuss about what "God's will" for their life might be. And what they are talking about is the so-called big decisions: where to live, what job to take, whom to marry, whether or not to be ordained --- those sorts of things.

Of course, there is no way of knowing. What I'm very sure of, however, is the nature of God's will no matter what life choices they make. It is very clear that we are to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. When you think about it, it really doesn't matter what we do in terms of those seemingly important decisions. What matters is how we go about carrying out those decisions once they are made. Are we going to be competitive and grasping and self-centered? Or are we going to practice compassion and loving-kindness?

The gift

"Brand New Day"

Artist: L. Diane. Johnson

Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day.

-- Kent Nerburn

A friend who cares

"Consolation"

Artist: Gustave Miller

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

- Henri Nouwen from Out of Solitude

Autism awareness

Maureen Adams sent me the following information:

The band, Five for Fighting, is generously donating $0.40 to Autism Speaks for each time the video is viewed. The funding goes toward research studies to help find a cure. When you have a moment, please visit the link below to watch the video and pass it along to your friends and family. It is a great & sad video. They are aiming for 10,000 hits, but hopefully we can help them to surpass this goal.

What kind of world do you want?

Note from Ellie: It's actually a lovely video and the music is great. Please go watch.

Simple awareness

"Desert Sun"

Artist: Susanne Korte

It is a common misconception that prayer is about talking to God. Actually, talking is not necessary. Words are not only not necessary, they can be a genuine hindrance at times. Here's a wonderful passage that describes the real beauty of non-verbal prayer - the prayer of simply disposing oneself towards God:

As one passes through the wilderness on the way back to God, one discovers a new depth and efficaciousness at prayer. Previously one might have thought that prayer consisted in saying things to God and that it trafficked only in words and mental images. In the desert the words and images fall away, and one is left with a simple awareness of God’s presence. The subtle presence of God is as palpable as that of a friend or lover, and yet one does not see God. Rather, it is as though for a moment in the corner of one’s eye one glimpses God passing. One feels caught up in God’s presence and transformed by it.

-- William A. Simpson in From Image to Likeness: The Christian Journey into God

Wonder

"Wheat Field With Crows"

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Today I happened to come across several passages from a book I now want to read in its entirety. That book is Learning to Fall: The Blessings of an Imperfect Life by Philip Simmons. Here is a sample:

This experience of living at the edge is not so extraordinary as it may sound. We have all had it. Perhaps you have sat with someone who was near death, and found yourself drawn into her inner radiance, into a place where pain and fear give way before a lucid awareness of the nearness of life’s source. Or perhaps you have listened to a friend who has just lost a loved one, and heard in his voice, through the grief and exhaustion, a wondrous and wondering connection to life’s deepest levels. Perhaps you have had it while giving birth or witnessing a birth, when we seem to rise out of our bodies and become winged things, hovering over all we love. Or you have had it in those ordinary moments, when watching a child butter a slice of bread or a crow settle in a field, and suddenly nothing else matters and you felt like removing your shoes and bowing down.

We all have within us this capacity for wonder, this ability to break the bonds of ordinary awareness and sense that though our lives are fleeting and transitory, we are part of something larger, eternal and unchanging.

Wonder. Just sit with the word for a little bit and see how it affects you. It's a beautiful word - a full, rich word. May we learn to cherish both the word and the experience.

UPDATE: You can learn more about Philip Simmons right here.

About grace

Our Lady of the Highest Grace

I found this on the Spirituality and Practice site:

Grace confounds certain very natural human tendencies. We want to believe we are in control. We assume there are specific moves we can take to ensure that we are rewarded. We expect God's gifts to be doled out according to some recognizable plan.

But grace does not work that way. Instead, it teaches us to let go and let God. Not only are we not in charge, we don't have to be. We just need to stay open to receiving the sacred.

What church is really for

"Flying"

By a 10 year old

If This Is Not a Place

If this is not a place where tears are understood
Where can I go to cry?

If this is not a place where my spirit can take wing
Where do I go to fly?

If this is not a place where my questions can be asked
Where do I go to seek?

If this is not a place where my feelings can be heard
Where do I go to speak?

If this is not a place where you will accept me as I am
Where can I go to be?

If this is not a place where I can try to learn and grow
Where do I just be me?

(Attributed to William J. Crockett)

This was posted on a brand new blog I just discovered called Thoughts and Liturgical Elements for the Emerging Church.

Openness

"Open Spaces"

Artist: Melanie Weidner

Openness is not gentility in the social arena. It is not polite listening to people with whom we inherently disagree. It is not political or civil or “nice.” It is not even simple hospitality. It is the munificent abandonment of the mind to new ideas, to new possibilities. Without an essential posture of openness, contemplation is not possible. God comes in every voice, behind every face, in every memory, deep in every struggle. To close off any of them is to close off the possibility of becoming new again ourselves.

- Sr. Joan Chittister

My heart

The Peace Rose
Artist: Ruth Sharkey

That which God said to the rose,

and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,

He said to my heart,

and made it a hundred times more beautiful.

— Rumi

What speaks to us of God?

My Family

Anisa Kasa, Age 13, Tirana (Albania)

You know, if we did this and if we let this princple guide our evangelism, we wouldn't be able to keep up with all the baptisms!

If God is love, then let our love speak to us of God. If God is good, then let what is good speak to us of God. If God is joy, then let what fills us with joy speak to us of God. If God is peace, then let what brings us peace speak to us of God. If God is life, then let what is full of life speak to us of God.

— Margaret Hebblethwaite

Love and peace and tenderness

Today, someone who comes to me for spiritual guidance sent me a card with this quote on the front:

Our life is love and peace
and tenderness -
and bearing
with one another -
praying for one another,
and helping
one another up
with a tender hand.

-- Isaac Penington (Quaker)

I thought it was absolutely beautiful. There was also a mandala on the front of the card. I couldn't find one exactly like it to reproduce here but the image above is close!

Sacred space of contemplation

Seated upon the porch one finds it unnecessary to comment upon or analyze what one sees and hears. It is enough that it is. Being is not something to be taken for granted nor overlooked, but something to be breathed in and celebrated with sweet contentment and a grateful heart. The porch is the home's sacred space of contemplation, the structural articulation of the home's most treasured and earnest secret. The porch speaks mutely all that we cannot say, but that we nonetheless know to be truest about our lives.

-Wendy Wright, Sacred Dwelling: A Spirituality of Family Life

Thinking of others

Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great sanctity. If you learn this art of being thoughtful, you will become more and more Christlike, for His heart was meek and always thought of others.

- Mother Teresa