What a Pentecost celebration we had! A beautiful liturgy with singing and then a brunch together. And then the long ride home.
And the reminder that God wants to pour love into our hearts. Rom. 5:5 How shall we prepare? I think we first need to acknowledge that always we stand in need of love. Never enough love in this world. Never enough forgiveness, never enough compassion, never enough peacemaking. I found this Memorial Day a day of sadness. How futile all this warring, all the getting even in this world, .all the falsity of trying to make peace by killing. I read a great book Left to Tell. A woman who survived the killing in Rwanda and all her family butchered except one brother Yet she forgave all.. Her ability to forgive came out of her deep prayer, her recognition of her utter helplessness without God.
Have we really come to know the depth of these words of Jesus: without me you can do nothing. Are we as honest as many twelve - step people who know without God nothing, Only God can deliver them. And so they turn their lives and wills over to the care of God.
WE need time to be alone before God, waiting to be touched with the love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
The waiting is an active contemplative prayer. This prayer is the soul of our work, and our relationships with each other, our witnessing to the good news! Dorothy Day once said that neither work nor prayer are enough by themselves. As Americans we have no trouble keeping busy! Even if all we are doing is puttering! We do have trouble doing something that does not seem to produce a product. Yet we need to remind ourselves that without God we do nothing…
How do we make the journey to the center? By letting go and letting God. On the ego level we are in charge, we control the operation. In Meditation, we let go and let God take charge. We repeat our prayer and listen to it as a symbol of our selfless attention to the active loving Presence of God.
Sometimes it is helpful to sit a few moments and just listen to whatever sounds there are. Then to acknowledge that we are immersed in the Presence of God. Then we start our prayer word and go on listening to that within ourselves.
And we acknowledge the wisdom of the body. Which is our friend at prayer. We sit straight. We breathe deeply, we listen quietly. We have our feet on the floor and our hands loose, and our eyes gently closed. We are trusting in the transformative power of Love.
Therese Lisieux: “Let us love our littleness, let us love to feel nothing; then we shall be poor in spirit, then Jesus shall come to look for us and transform us into flames of love”
God is at our center…but we must journey through layers of obstruction and follow the lead of the Spirit. Strong and brave. A gift of God.
A gift that God is eager to give. With great trust we open our hearts and minds to the transforming power of Love for God is Love.
It always delights me that in the middle of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, so full of lament over the terrible things happening, the author burst forth in trust.: “The mercies of the Lord are new every morning. Great is thy Faithfulness, O Lord.”. Lam 3:22-23
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
HOPE
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Heb.11:1
John of the Cross says that as the object of hope is something unpossessed,
the less we clutter our lives with possessions, the more capacity there is to hope for what is unseen and yet promised.. We need to let there be space in our minds and memories too. Not just a limit to possessions, but a limit to the endless chatter of our minds. Sometimes people can spend days and nights rehashing something that has happened, getting upset over and over. This is not the peace promised. Instead we are urged to pray always. Take every confusion, doubt, and darkness to prayer. Hold them up to the healing love that God has for us, the healing love that Jesus showed us in word and in deed. I believe that the promises of God are not just for the life after death. No. Jesus has promised us peace. "My peace I give you, my peace I leave you, not as the world gives peace.". The world, and our government imagines that peace comes from owning more, bossing more, winning war. Out of the barrel of a gun. Not so. Jesus love was too great for all that, He only offered healing love, in word and in deed.
In Letter 19 to Juana de Pedraga, John of the Cross wrote: Live only in dark and genuine faith, and sure hope, and unmitigated love. Be joyful and trust in God"
Hope is an immense openness to a promised unseen future. As My Mother said off and on while dying: ":trusting in your infinite good ness and promises." Hope moves through and beyond the present moment. Not restlessness but anticipation. That is why my father, in much pain dying of lung cancer, could go right on being joyful. He had been gifted with hope and trust. He was eager for the promised future.
So part of hope is confidence that God’s love is certain, yet mysterious, with us in every possible situation whether felt or unfelt. That is why faith hope and love are intertwined.
When we sit in silence and sound our prayer word in our inmost being, we are opening our hearts to the gift of hope. And faith and love. In the poverty of this way of prayer, we are not seeking an out of the body experience, we are not seeking to be better than another. We are just entrusting God with our lives as Jesus did. Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit. Let us meditate.
Heb.11:1
John of the Cross says that as the object of hope is something unpossessed,
the less we clutter our lives with possessions, the more capacity there is to hope for what is unseen and yet promised.. We need to let there be space in our minds and memories too. Not just a limit to possessions, but a limit to the endless chatter of our minds. Sometimes people can spend days and nights rehashing something that has happened, getting upset over and over. This is not the peace promised. Instead we are urged to pray always. Take every confusion, doubt, and darkness to prayer. Hold them up to the healing love that God has for us, the healing love that Jesus showed us in word and in deed. I believe that the promises of God are not just for the life after death. No. Jesus has promised us peace. "My peace I give you, my peace I leave you, not as the world gives peace.". The world, and our government imagines that peace comes from owning more, bossing more, winning war. Out of the barrel of a gun. Not so. Jesus love was too great for all that, He only offered healing love, in word and in deed.
In Letter 19 to Juana de Pedraga, John of the Cross wrote: Live only in dark and genuine faith, and sure hope, and unmitigated love. Be joyful and trust in God"
Hope is an immense openness to a promised unseen future. As My Mother said off and on while dying: ":trusting in your infinite good ness and promises." Hope moves through and beyond the present moment. Not restlessness but anticipation. That is why my father, in much pain dying of lung cancer, could go right on being joyful. He had been gifted with hope and trust. He was eager for the promised future.
So part of hope is confidence that God’s love is certain, yet mysterious, with us in every possible situation whether felt or unfelt. That is why faith hope and love are intertwined.
When we sit in silence and sound our prayer word in our inmost being, we are opening our hearts to the gift of hope. And faith and love. In the poverty of this way of prayer, we are not seeking an out of the body experience, we are not seeking to be better than another. We are just entrusting God with our lives as Jesus did. Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit. Let us meditate.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Oil of Gladness
I. I so enjoyed the messiness of the anointing of the newly baptizedat the easter Vigil. It used to be even messier. Listen to these words about 4th century Baptisms by a modern scholar who has studied those days.
A Rite of Passage by Aidan Kavanagh, OSB
"I have always rather liked the gruff robustness of the first rubric for baptism found in a late fourth-century church order, which directs that the bishop enter the vestibule of the baptistery and say to the catechumens without commentary or apology only four words: Take off your clothes. There is no evidence that the assistants fainted or the catechumens asked what he meant. Catechesis and much prayer and fasting had led them to understand that the language of their passage this night in Christ from death to life would be the language of the bathhouse and the tomb—not that of the forum and the drawing room."
He then describes how Oil is poured over their whole bodies Deacons…deaconesses do the job… And after they go into the water of the baptismal pool, they are again anointed, only this time with perfumed oil. It was perfumed oil that the woman poured over the head of Jesus, as we read in Mark 14:
"While Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head."
We read in 1 John "The anointing that you received from God abides in you."
A Rite of Passage by Aidan Kavanagh, OSB
"I have always rather liked the gruff robustness of the first rubric for baptism found in a late fourth-century church order, which directs that the bishop enter the vestibule of the baptistery and say to the catechumens without commentary or apology only four words: Take off your clothes. There is no evidence that the assistants fainted or the catechumens asked what he meant. Catechesis and much prayer and fasting had led them to understand that the language of their passage this night in Christ from death to life would be the language of the bathhouse and the tomb—not that of the forum and the drawing room."
He then describes how Oil is poured over their whole bodies Deacons…deaconesses do the job… And after they go into the water of the baptismal pool, they are again anointed, only this time with perfumed oil. It was perfumed oil that the woman poured over the head of Jesus, as we read in Mark 14:
"While Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head."
We read in 1 John "The anointing that you received from God abides in you."
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II. What is this anointing? The seal of the Holy Spirit. The spirit of wisdom and love, as it says God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Quote from St Cyril of Jerusalem:
"The oil of gladness with which Christ was anointed was a spiritual oil; it was the Holy Spirit himself who is the oil of gladness because he is the source of all spiritual joy. But you also have been anointed with oil, and by this anointing you have entered into fellowship with Christ and have received a share in his life. Beware of thinking of this chrism as merely ordinary oil. As the Eucharistic bread after the invocation of the Holy Spirit is no longer ordinary bread but the body of Christ, so also the oil after the invocation is no longer plain ordinary oil but Christ’s gift which by the presence of his divinity becomes the instrument through which you receive the Holy Spirit. While symbolically, on your foreheads, ..your bodies are anointed with this oil that we see, your souls are sanctified by the holy and life-giving Spirit."
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III Christ Jesus, the anointed one. That is what ‘christos’ means..from the Hebrew ‘messiah’ which means the anointed one. Jesus the anointed one did not turn out to have the political and economic power some were looking for. He had the real power of the world, the power of cherishing love. Christians, then are the anointed ones.
So now so well anointed, you are one with Christ for he abides in you and you in Him. And yes this is a mystery, and yes this seems foolishness. But again it is Jesus Christ crucified who is the power and the wisdom of God. That anointing means we are called to be witnesses of Christ to the world, called to know that resurrection follows suffering and Resurrection follows death. In the humdrum of life, the ordinariness of every day, Jesus is saying: abide in Me. By abiding in Jesus, we are with Jesus redeeming our times. Walking with Jesus, we will hear very particular calls, calls to compassion, to forgive others as we have been forgiven, to let go of resentments, to let go of the desire to retaliate. Invitations from God to be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful, even to take the last place without needing to be top dog. And indeed, there is that very difficult invitation from Jesus: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you....as Jesus did upon the Cross. Called to a ministry of reconciliation. 2 Cor 5
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IV. What then? That oil poured over us is the anointing by the Holy Spirit, It is a sign of God pouring His strength into our weakness. It is the Oil of gladness.
And when we get together for worship or prayer, we remember who we are, we remind each other of who we really are and to what goodness and compassion we are called and what good news we have to share.
That overflowing oil. That oil of gladness set a seal in us so that each moment and forever we are to live in union with Jesus in the world, discerning and doing the will of God in good times and in bad. The Spirit of God is here, and now, with us, with the Divine power, within us. In season and out we are to call on the name of the Lord and to know the power we have received in this anointing. Pray always the apostle tells us. Our help is in the name of Lord who has made heaven and earth!
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Why are sitting there?
Many years ago, I was sitting meditating in my room that was at the end of a corridor. Being an extravert I guess, I had left my door open a crack. someome else in the house came by and said why you are just sitting there! Well the other day I read this story of St. Serapion, who wandered around a lot and came to Rome where they asked him to go to see a woman who was, as best I can figure, an anchorite.. People were worried about her. When he got to her, he said why are you sitting there? She answered: I am not sitting, I am on a journey.
If we believe what Jesus said: I am the way, the truth and the life, then we can say that too.
To be a Christian is to be a traveler. We are on a journey to our heart. To our innermost being where God dwells.
In the Acts of the Apostles (19:23ff) we read: "About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way." Actually it bothered people especially a man who made silver shrines to Artemis. In other words, the Way, the people following the way of Jesus, were not contributing enough to the world of trade, not buying enough stuff, not busy buying and selling. As William Wordsworth the poet wrote
"The world is too much with us late and soon, getting and spending we lay waste our powers."
This is something I will explore another time, But for today, it has made me think about how this life is a journey into the depths of our hearts where the Heart of God dwells. A journey into love, A way of life that opens us up to be changed by the Love God has for us so that we may live by love as Jesus did.
This journey into our innermost being has ups and downs, light and darkness, bumps in the road, deserts and mountains., But through it all, there is the constant Presence of God, looking on us with love. We can be sure that nothing can separate us from the love God has for us. This is why we meditate or center. We entrust ourselves to God. We let go of all concerns for 20 minutes as we gently repeat a prayer word. Whenever our mind starts thinking about many things we gently come back to our prayer word.
By saying our prayer word with attention we are really giving our whole attention to the journey!. Let us pray.
If we believe what Jesus said: I am the way, the truth and the life, then we can say that too.
To be a Christian is to be a traveler. We are on a journey to our heart. To our innermost being where God dwells.
In the Acts of the Apostles (19:23ff) we read: "About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way." Actually it bothered people especially a man who made silver shrines to Artemis. In other words, the Way, the people following the way of Jesus, were not contributing enough to the world of trade, not buying enough stuff, not busy buying and selling. As William Wordsworth the poet wrote
"The world is too much with us late and soon, getting and spending we lay waste our powers."
This is something I will explore another time, But for today, it has made me think about how this life is a journey into the depths of our hearts where the Heart of God dwells. A journey into love, A way of life that opens us up to be changed by the Love God has for us so that we may live by love as Jesus did.
This journey into our innermost being has ups and downs, light and darkness, bumps in the road, deserts and mountains., But through it all, there is the constant Presence of God, looking on us with love. We can be sure that nothing can separate us from the love God has for us. This is why we meditate or center. We entrust ourselves to God. We let go of all concerns for 20 minutes as we gently repeat a prayer word. Whenever our mind starts thinking about many things we gently come back to our prayer word.
By saying our prayer word with attention we are really giving our whole attention to the journey!. Let us pray.
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