We can't seem to know the good news that we are God's beloveds on our own. It has to be mirrored to us. We're essentially social beings. Another has to tell us we are beloved and good. Within contemplative prayer, we present ourselves for the ultimate gaze, the ultimate mirroring. Before this gaze of Love, we gradually disrobe and allow ourselves to be seen, to be known in every nook and cranny, nothing hidden, nothing denied, nothing disguised. It's like lovemaking. The wonderful thing is, after a while, we feel so safe that we know we don't have to pretend or disguise any more. We don't have to put on any kind of costume.
Letting your naked self be known by God is always to recognize your need for mercy and your own utter inadequacy and littleness. You realize that even the best things you've done have often been for mixed and selfish motives, not really for love. The saints often weep in the middle of prayer because they recognize how tiny they are in the presence of such Infinity. Your need for mercy draws you close to God. It's a wonderful and humiliating experience. Within contemplation, you stand under an immense waterfall of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.
Knowing your need for mercy opens you to receiving mercy. Knowing your intimate need for mercy is in great part what it means to know, need, or fall in love with God, because God is mercy itself and must be experienced as such! If you live like the Pharisee in Jesus' parable (Luke 18:9-14), where you do everything perfectly and you are never in need of mercy, then you will never know God! So don't be too good, even in your own eyes. Make sure you always and happily stand on the receiving end of God, just like the Three Persons of the Trinity do to one another, where self-emptying always precedes any new outpouring.
Frankly, it all comes down to this: God doesn't love you because you are good. God loves you because God is good!
-- Richard Rohr
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Saturday, July 30, 2016
The Church at Its Racial Turning Point
Friday, July 29, 2016
Time
In a 'yes to everything' culture, there is something powerful and respectful about saying, 'No'.
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What I choose to spend time on is what is important to me.
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We spend most of our time affecting over things that we think we know. And yet there is so much more that we don't know, than we do know. So, what are the implications of this on the way we spend so much of our time?
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Will personal drive always be at odds with contentment? Is peace the enemy of ambition?
-- Nathaniel Bellows
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What I choose to spend time on is what is important to me.
****
We spend most of our time affecting over things that we think we know. And yet there is so much more that we don't know, than we do know. So, what are the implications of this on the way we spend so much of our time?
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Will personal drive always be at odds with contentment? Is peace the enemy of ambition?
-- Nathaniel Bellows
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
I Used To Think: Evidence
I used to think...that I needed to dig for evidence. Now I know that it is better to let compassion surface.
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Monday, July 25, 2016
Advice to a Blue-Bird
'Poem selection' for the week -- "Advice to a Blue-Bird":
Who can make a delicate adventure
Of walking on the ground?
Who can make grass-blades
Arcades for pertly careless straying?
You alone, who skim against these leaves,
Turning all desire into light whips
Moulded by your deep blue wing-tips,
You who shrill your unconcern
Into the sternly antique sky.
You to whom all things
Hold an equal kiss of touch.
Mincing, wanton blue-bird,
Grimace at the hoofs of passing men.
You alone can lose yourself
Within a sky, and rob it of its blue!
-- Maxwell Bodenheim
Who can make a delicate adventure
Of walking on the ground?
Who can make grass-blades
Arcades for pertly careless straying?
You alone, who skim against these leaves,
Turning all desire into light whips
Moulded by your deep blue wing-tips,
You who shrill your unconcern
Into the sternly antique sky.
You to whom all things
Hold an equal kiss of touch.
Mincing, wanton blue-bird,
Grimace at the hoofs of passing men.
You alone can lose yourself
Within a sky, and rob it of its blue!
-- Maxwell Bodenheim
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Unbreakable Pledge
If Jesus Christ is, as we believe him to be, none other than God himself incarnate among us at work for us and for our salvation, then Jesus Christ, who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, is God’s unbreakable pledge that he will save and renew his creation, finally making all things new. If in Jesus Christ God has taken up our creaturely humanity into union with himself once and for all, then God can no more let us go to ruin and destruction than he can undo the Incarnation, go back upon His Word enacted in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ or contradict the Love which God himself eternally is, and which he has irreversibly incarnated in our human existence and destiny in Jesus Christ. That is the crucial point upon which Jesus Christ insisted when he declared that there is an identity of Word and Act between himself and God the Father, and went on to tell us that God has put everything into his hands, and no one can snatch us out of his grasp. That is surely a mighty Word of Christ to us today, when we seem to see human life and existence fragmenting and disintegrating all round us, and we quail in our innermost beings at the thought of fearful things that may overtake the life and destiny of mankind on earth. Let us put in the centre of all that the Word of Christ which cannot fail or pass away, for it is the Word of God eternal. Christ will bring about what he has promised, for his Word cannot pass away.
-- Thomas Torrance
My friend, Rujida, shared this with me...a fitting reminder for me tonight.
-- Thomas Torrance
My friend, Rujida, shared this with me...a fitting reminder for me tonight.
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Desire
With finally a period of undictated moments, I sat alone in my larger-than-needed house, without many of the discomforts that so many endure, reading. 'Keeping Faith', chapter 3 of the book, The Wounds of God, by Penelope Wilcock; my wife said I would love this book and she is right.
I am swollen with the tears of emotion over the love described in the lead character, the Abbot. So full, in part, I suspect because of the lack of such love, such strength, in me. Or, at the very least, the lack of recognition of it. It could, in fact, be there. But, what seems lacking, is a confidence that it is. Perhaps, that is not a necessary thing to have. Though, without it, I can be plagued at times by the insecurity of it.
Do others, in fact, possess something I simply do not? ...that certainly seems plausible. There are many things others have that I do not. What, then, is the point of the question? Would it not be something more akin to, is the something they have, something I, too, can acquire? If so, what is needed in me, to acquire it? And, is the answer to this question not nearly fully described in this very chapter?
We are all being given the opportunity to acquire something significant. What is it, then, that inhibits our acquisition? We might tend to think it is a matter of the will, or of the discipline needed. And, that may very well be true...Lord knows how weak our feigned attempts are. Is it endurance? Also, perhaps. But, I wonder more at what it is that fuels things like endurance, discipline, or will, which seem like important methods, but not inherent drivers.
Is it not the case that it is our desire which compels through things that inhibit us? What it is that we want, more than anything else, that moves us through or keeps us able to remain for something, even when all else simply seems to impede our ability to persist.
Desire, in fact, is what God uses, arouses even, in us to reveal to us who we really are. This alone is what changes us from being and pursuing a version of ourselves that is far less than we've imagined to be. The only thing, in the end, that can give us the ability to retain our sense of being, what we want and don't want, especially when the severity of circumstances abate or the natural comfort of things cause us to forget, is our truest desire.
I am swollen with the tears of emotion over the love described in the lead character, the Abbot. So full, in part, I suspect because of the lack of such love, such strength, in me. Or, at the very least, the lack of recognition of it. It could, in fact, be there. But, what seems lacking, is a confidence that it is. Perhaps, that is not a necessary thing to have. Though, without it, I can be plagued at times by the insecurity of it.
Do others, in fact, possess something I simply do not? ...that certainly seems plausible. There are many things others have that I do not. What, then, is the point of the question? Would it not be something more akin to, is the something they have, something I, too, can acquire? If so, what is needed in me, to acquire it? And, is the answer to this question not nearly fully described in this very chapter?
We are all being given the opportunity to acquire something significant. What is it, then, that inhibits our acquisition? We might tend to think it is a matter of the will, or of the discipline needed. And, that may very well be true...Lord knows how weak our feigned attempts are. Is it endurance? Also, perhaps. But, I wonder more at what it is that fuels things like endurance, discipline, or will, which seem like important methods, but not inherent drivers.
Is it not the case that it is our desire which compels through things that inhibit us? What it is that we want, more than anything else, that moves us through or keeps us able to remain for something, even when all else simply seems to impede our ability to persist.
Desire, in fact, is what God uses, arouses even, in us to reveal to us who we really are. This alone is what changes us from being and pursuing a version of ourselves that is far less than we've imagined to be. The only thing, in the end, that can give us the ability to retain our sense of being, what we want and don't want, especially when the severity of circumstances abate or the natural comfort of things cause us to forget, is our truest desire.
Friday, July 22, 2016
Civilizations Begin To Die...
Every observer of the grand sweep of history, from the prophets of Israel to the Islamic sage Ibn Khaldun, from Giambattista Vico to John Stuart Mill, and Bertrand Russell to Will Durant, has said essentially the same thing: that civilizations begin to die when they lose the moral passion that brought them into being in the first place. It happened to Greece and Rome, and it can happen to the West. The sure signs are these: a falling birthrate, moral decay, growing inequalities, a loss of trust in social institutions, self-indulgence on the part of the rich, hopelessness on the part of the poor, unintegrated minorities, a failure to make sacrifices in the present for the sake of the future, a loss of faith in old beliefs and no new vision to take their place. These are the danger signals and they are flashing now.
The alternative?
To become inner-directed again. This means recovering the moral dimension that links our welfare to the welfare of others, making us collectively responsible for the common good. It means recovering the spiritual dimension that helps us tell the difference between the value of things and their price. We are more than consumers and voters; our dignity transcends what we earn and own. It means remembering that what's important is not just satisfying our desires but also knowing which desires to satisfy. It means restraining ourselves in the present so that our children may have a viable future. It means reclaiming collective memory and identity so that society becomes less of a hotel and more of a home. Continue here....
-- Lord Jonathan Sacks
The alternative?
To become inner-directed again. This means recovering the moral dimension that links our welfare to the welfare of others, making us collectively responsible for the common good. It means recovering the spiritual dimension that helps us tell the difference between the value of things and their price. We are more than consumers and voters; our dignity transcends what we earn and own. It means remembering that what's important is not just satisfying our desires but also knowing which desires to satisfy. It means restraining ourselves in the present so that our children may have a viable future. It means reclaiming collective memory and identity so that society becomes less of a hotel and more of a home. Continue here....
-- Lord Jonathan Sacks
Thursday, July 21, 2016
No One Is Unreasonable
No one says, "I'm going to be unfair to this person today, brutal in fact, even though they don't deserve it or it's not helpful."
Few people say, "I know that this person signed the contract and did what they promised, but I'm going to rip them off, just because I can."
And it's quite rare to have someone say, "I'm a selfish narcissist, and everyone should revolve around me merely because I said so."
In fact, all of us have a narrative. It's the story we tell ourselves about how we got here, what we're building, what our urgencies are.
And within that narrative, we act in a way that seems reasonable.
To be clear, the narrative isn't true. It's merely our version, our self-talk about what's going on. It's the excuses, perceptions and history we've woven together to get through the world. It's our grievances and our perception of privilege, our grudges and our loves.
No one is unreasonable. Or to be more accurate, no one thinks that they are being unreasonable.
That's why we almost never respond well when someone points out how unreasonable we're being. We don't see it, because our narrative of the world around us won't allow us to. Our worldview makes it really difficult to be empathetic, because seeing the world through the eyes of someone else takes so much effort.
It's certainly possible to change someone's narrative, but it takes time and patience and leverage. Teaching a new narrative is hard work, essential work, but something that is difficult to do at scale.
In the short run, our ability to treat different people differently means that we can seek out people who have a narrative that causes them to engage with us in reasonable ways. When we open the door for these folks, we're far more likely to create the impact that we seek. No one thinks they're unreasonable, but you certainly don't have to work with the people who are.
And, if you're someone who finds that your narrative isn't helping you make the impact you seek, best to look hard at your narrative, the way you justify your unreasonableness, not the world outside.
-- Seth Godin
Few people say, "I know that this person signed the contract and did what they promised, but I'm going to rip them off, just because I can."
And it's quite rare to have someone say, "I'm a selfish narcissist, and everyone should revolve around me merely because I said so."
In fact, all of us have a narrative. It's the story we tell ourselves about how we got here, what we're building, what our urgencies are.
And within that narrative, we act in a way that seems reasonable.
To be clear, the narrative isn't true. It's merely our version, our self-talk about what's going on. It's the excuses, perceptions and history we've woven together to get through the world. It's our grievances and our perception of privilege, our grudges and our loves.
No one is unreasonable. Or to be more accurate, no one thinks that they are being unreasonable.
That's why we almost never respond well when someone points out how unreasonable we're being. We don't see it, because our narrative of the world around us won't allow us to. Our worldview makes it really difficult to be empathetic, because seeing the world through the eyes of someone else takes so much effort.
It's certainly possible to change someone's narrative, but it takes time and patience and leverage. Teaching a new narrative is hard work, essential work, but something that is difficult to do at scale.
In the short run, our ability to treat different people differently means that we can seek out people who have a narrative that causes them to engage with us in reasonable ways. When we open the door for these folks, we're far more likely to create the impact that we seek. No one thinks they're unreasonable, but you certainly don't have to work with the people who are.
And, if you're someone who finds that your narrative isn't helping you make the impact you seek, best to look hard at your narrative, the way you justify your unreasonableness, not the world outside.
-- Seth Godin
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
I've Noticed: Out Loud
I've noticed...that when I say things out loud, what I'm thinking about gets clarified. In other words, sometimes I need to hear it , to know more what I'm thinking. And, often times, by saying it aloud, the parts that don't 'ring true' are identified.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Monday, July 18, 2016
"When I Am Asked"
'Poem selection' for the week -- "When I Am Asked":
When I am asked
how I began writing poems,
I talk about the indifference of nature.
It was soon after my mother died,
a brilliant June day,
everything blooming.
I sat on a gray stone bench
in a lovingly planted garden,
but the day lilies were as deaf
as the ears of drunken sleepers,
and the roses curved inward.
Nothing was black or broken
and not a leaf fell
and the sun blared endless commercials
for summer holidays.
I sat on a gray stone bench
ringed with the ingenue faces
of pink and white impatiens
and placed my grief
in the mouth of language,
the only thing that would grieve with me.
-- Lisel Mueller
When I am asked
how I began writing poems,
I talk about the indifference of nature.
It was soon after my mother died,
a brilliant June day,
everything blooming.
I sat on a gray stone bench
in a lovingly planted garden,
but the day lilies were as deaf
as the ears of drunken sleepers,
and the roses curved inward.
Nothing was black or broken
and not a leaf fell
and the sun blared endless commercials
for summer holidays.
I sat on a gray stone bench
ringed with the ingenue faces
of pink and white impatiens
and placed my grief
in the mouth of language,
the only thing that would grieve with me.
-- Lisel Mueller
Sunday, July 17, 2016
So Strongly
...you can let go of and even easily "admit your wrongs." You are being held so strongly and so deeply that you can stop holding onto or defending yourself. God forever sees and loves Christ in you; it is only we who doubt our divine identity as children of God.
Yet the vast majority of Christians still believe in a punitive God and a pathetic notion of retributive justice, which is totally unworthy of God. This false and toxic image of God normally only recedes if we have an inner life of prayer.
What hope and joy a God of Infinite Love gives us all! Among many other things, it takes away all fear of admitting our wrongs to God, to ourselves, and to others.
-- Richard Rohr
Yet the vast majority of Christians still believe in a punitive God and a pathetic notion of retributive justice, which is totally unworthy of God. This false and toxic image of God normally only recedes if we have an inner life of prayer.
What hope and joy a God of Infinite Love gives us all! Among many other things, it takes away all fear of admitting our wrongs to God, to ourselves, and to others.
-- Richard Rohr
Saturday, July 16, 2016
SM Brunch 2: Share It, Face Alone, Be There, and Flat Screens
More 'Saturday Mornings Brunch':
Half (the better half) of something good is the ability to share it will someone else.
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You cannot face your fear alone.
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We can offer no solutions, no easy answers, to other people's tragedies. We can only be there.
-- Penelope Wilcock, The Wounds of God
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Flat screens can be a bane to our souls.
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Half (the better half) of something good is the ability to share it will someone else.
****
You cannot face your fear alone.
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We can offer no solutions, no easy answers, to other people's tragedies. We can only be there.
-- Penelope Wilcock, The Wounds of God
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Flat screens can be a bane to our souls.
****
Friday, July 15, 2016
FILL THE MALL - 7/16/16
After another night of even more tragedy, we seem to have burdens everywhere to lay down.
Might we join FILL THE MALL tomorrow by praying for our world, our own country, our neighbors? For ourselves?
It will be interesting to see whether or how the media covers this event, because as this article points out, the media has a significant role in all that is going on.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Compatibility
I read an article recently about marriage and the idea of finding the 'right' person as a spouse. This observation struck me:
The person who is best suited to us is not the person who shares our every taste (he or she doesn't exist), but the person who can negotiate differences in taste intelligently—, the person who is good at disagreement. Rather than some notional idea of perfect complementarity, it is the capacity to tolerate differences with generosity that is the true marker of the "not overly wrong" person (as opposed the "right person" we otherwise are taught to look for). Compatibility is an achievement of love; it must not be its precondition.
-- Alain de Botton
The person who is best suited to us is not the person who shares our every taste (he or she doesn't exist), but the person who can negotiate differences in taste intelligently—, the person who is good at disagreement. Rather than some notional idea of perfect complementarity, it is the capacity to tolerate differences with generosity that is the true marker of the "not overly wrong" person (as opposed the "right person" we otherwise are taught to look for). Compatibility is an achievement of love; it must not be its precondition.
-- Alain de Botton
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
I Used To Think: The Answer
I used to think...that what I needed was 'the answer', now I know that what I really need is 'the source'.
It is not getting beyond (past) something or even to something that is the most significant thing; it is what or who we learn to rely on that is...the significant thing. Life is life. It's not going to change that much. I, however, can change; becoming transformed, in how I relate to life.
It is not getting beyond (past) something or even to something that is the most significant thing; it is what or who we learn to rely on that is...the significant thing. Life is life. It's not going to change that much. I, however, can change; becoming transformed, in how I relate to life.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016
litany
'Poem selection' for the week -- "litany":
I wish I knew how
It would feel to be free
I wish I could break
All the chains holding me
— Nina Simone
today i am a black woman in america
& i am singing a melody ridden lullaby
it sounds like:
the gentrification of a brooklyn stoop
the rent raised three times my wages
the bodega and laundromat burned down on the corner
the people on the corner
each lock & key of their chromosomes
a note of ash & inquiry on their tongues
today i am a black woman in a hopeless state
i will apply for financial aid and food stamps
with the same mouth i spit poems from
i will ask the angels of a creative god to lessen
the blows
& i will beg for forgiveness when i curse
the rising sun
today, i am a black woman in a body of coal
i am always burning and no one knows my name
i am a nameless fury, i am a blues scratched from
the throat of ms. nina—i am always angry
i am always a bumble hive of hello
i love like this too loudly, my neighbors
think i am an unforgiving bitter
sometimes, i think my neighbors are right
most times i think my neighbors are nosey
today, i am a cold country, a storm
brewing, a heat wave of a woman wearing
red pumps to the funeral of my ex-lover’s
today, i am a woman, a brown and black &
brew woman dreaming of freedom
today, i am a mother, & my country is burning
and i forgot how to flee
from such a flamboyant backdraft
—i’m too in awe of how beautiful i look
on fire
-- Mahogany L. Browne
From the author:
“‘litany’ was written after the anniversary of ‘I Wish I Knew How It Felt to Be Free,’ made famous by Nina Simone. And I sat with what that meant, years later—when I am still wishing for a certain type of freedom. To think of the time passing but of senseless deaths of black and brown bodies remaining. The poem was a mulling of all that has changed and all that has not. Injustice has not changed. Poverty has not changed. The idea that I am writing from poem to check to mouth/house is no coincidence. And the building on my corner was most certainly burned to the ground, leaving folks homeless. Within two weeks there was talk of building condos. And my neighbors and I, free to watch, stood on the opposite corner of the destroyed building as contractors stomped in and out of the remains. Someone smiled loudly about the ‘new multimillion-dollar building plans.’ And it didn’t feel like freedom at all.”
I wish I knew how
It would feel to be free
I wish I could break
All the chains holding me
— Nina Simone
today i am a black woman in america
& i am singing a melody ridden lullaby
it sounds like:
the gentrification of a brooklyn stoop
the rent raised three times my wages
the bodega and laundromat burned down on the corner
the people on the corner
each lock & key of their chromosomes
a note of ash & inquiry on their tongues
today i am a black woman in a hopeless state
i will apply for financial aid and food stamps
with the same mouth i spit poems from
i will ask the angels of a creative god to lessen
the blows
& i will beg for forgiveness when i curse
the rising sun
today, i am a black woman in a body of coal
i am always burning and no one knows my name
i am a nameless fury, i am a blues scratched from
the throat of ms. nina—i am always angry
i am always a bumble hive of hello
i love like this too loudly, my neighbors
think i am an unforgiving bitter
sometimes, i think my neighbors are right
most times i think my neighbors are nosey
today, i am a cold country, a storm
brewing, a heat wave of a woman wearing
red pumps to the funeral of my ex-lover’s
today, i am a woman, a brown and black &
brew woman dreaming of freedom
today, i am a mother, & my country is burning
and i forgot how to flee
from such a flamboyant backdraft
—i’m too in awe of how beautiful i look
on fire
-- Mahogany L. Browne
From the author:
“‘litany’ was written after the anniversary of ‘I Wish I Knew How It Felt to Be Free,’ made famous by Nina Simone. And I sat with what that meant, years later—when I am still wishing for a certain type of freedom. To think of the time passing but of senseless deaths of black and brown bodies remaining. The poem was a mulling of all that has changed and all that has not. Injustice has not changed. Poverty has not changed. The idea that I am writing from poem to check to mouth/house is no coincidence. And the building on my corner was most certainly burned to the ground, leaving folks homeless. Within two weeks there was talk of building condos. And my neighbors and I, free to watch, stood on the opposite corner of the destroyed building as contractors stomped in and out of the remains. Someone smiled loudly about the ‘new multimillion-dollar building plans.’ And it didn’t feel like freedom at all.”
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Worry and Prayer
Pray, and let God worry.
-- William Law
-- William Law
It seems we often don't pray because we don't believe...that it will really leverage anything. Of course, this perspective nearly wholly misses the purpose of prayer, it is not primarily just to get something, it is to abide in something.
Saturday, July 09, 2016
Saturday Mornings Brunch
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Our inadequacy is not our problem; our fear is.
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We are prone to the method of self-chastisement -- why?
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In spite of what our culture says, we are not primarily sexual beings.
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...the severity of restraint and respect.
Friday, July 08, 2016
Preparation in Gentleness
There is one thing I must do here at my woodshed hermitage... and that is to prepare for my death. But that means a preparation in gentleness...
-- Thomas MertonWhat a great leap — from death to gentleness! So different from Dylan Thomas’s famous advice:
“Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”When I was 35, raging seemed right. But at 77, it’s Thomas Merton, not Dylan Thomas, who speaks to me.
The prospect of death — heightened by winter’s dark and cold, by solitude, silence, and age — makes it clear that my calling is to be gentle with the many expressions of life, old and new, that must be handled with care if they are to survive and thrive.
Sometimes, of course, that means becoming fierce in confronting the enemies of gentleness. If that’s a contradiction, so be it! As Merton said in The Sign of Jonas:
I find myself traveling toward my destiny in the belly of a paradox.-- Parker Palmer
Thursday, July 07, 2016
Wednesday, July 06, 2016
Tuesday, July 05, 2016
Kindness
'Poem selection' for the week -- "Kindness":
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
-- Naomi Shihab Nye
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
-- Naomi Shihab Nye
Monday, July 04, 2016
Sunday, July 03, 2016
Saturday, July 02, 2016
Impulse: Compare & Compete
The impulse to compare and compete does not always come from arrogance. Sometimes it comes from a frightened, lonely, shame-filled place where the only instinct is survival—like minnows swimming among sharks. No matter how athletic, slim, handsome or pretty, intelligent, well-read, respected, connected, funny, wealthy, or religious we are, if we anchor our worth in these things instead of in the smile of God over us, these things will eventually wreck us.
The only esteem that won’t abandon us is the esteem given to us by Jesus. Why? Because only in Jesus are we fully known and always loved, thoroughly exposed yet never rejected. Only Jesus will repeatedly forgive us when we fail him. Only Jesus will declare his affection for us when we are at our very worst as well as at our very best. Only in Jesus can we return to that blessed Edenic state of being naked and without shame...continue here.
-- Scott Sauls
Aim at heaven and you get earth thrown it. Aim at earth and you get neither.The quest for self-esteem is, deep down, an attempt to silence negative verdicts that assault us from the outside and from within.
-- C.S. Lewis
The only esteem that won’t abandon us is the esteem given to us by Jesus. Why? Because only in Jesus are we fully known and always loved, thoroughly exposed yet never rejected. Only Jesus will repeatedly forgive us when we fail him. Only Jesus will declare his affection for us when we are at our very worst as well as at our very best. Only in Jesus can we return to that blessed Edenic state of being naked and without shame...continue here.
-- Scott Sauls
Friday, July 01, 2016
For vs Against
Fight against something and we focus on the thing we hate. Fight for something and we focus on the thing we love.
-- Simon Sinek
-- Simon Sinek
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Monday, June 27, 2016
Deciding
'Poem selection' for the week -- "Deciding":
One mine the Indians worked had
gold so good they left it there
for God to keep.
At night sometimes you think
your way that far, that deep,
or almost.
You hold all things or not, depending
not on greed but whether they suit what
life begins to mean.
Like those workers you study what moves,
what stays. You bow, and then, like them,
you know —
What's God, what's world, what's gold.
-- William Stafford
One mine the Indians worked had
gold so good they left it there
for God to keep.
At night sometimes you think
your way that far, that deep,
or almost.
You hold all things or not, depending
not on greed but whether they suit what
life begins to mean.
Like those workers you study what moves,
what stays. You bow, and then, like them,
you know —
What's God, what's world, what's gold.
-- William Stafford
Sunday, June 26, 2016
The Gift of Disillusionment
Only that community which enters into the experience of this great disillusionment with all its unpleasant and evil appearances begins to be what it should be in God’s sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it.
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
This comes from an article, referenced here, called "The Gift of Disillionment":
Peter’s problem is not that he can’t see Jesus clearly. His problem is that he can’t see himself. He is too humble to let himself be washed, but too proud to do the washing. He hasn’t washed his own feet. He won’t wash the other disciples’ feet. And despite his conviction that Jesus is greater, he doesn’t even offer to wash Jesus’ feet. Peter’s objection looks like humility. It sounds like devotion. But it is really just narcissism and pride attempting to disguise itself in the rags of false humility. It may be pride in a different form, but it is still pride and just as deadly. Continue....
-- John Koessler
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
This comes from an article, referenced here, called "The Gift of Disillionment":
Peter’s problem is not that he can’t see Jesus clearly. His problem is that he can’t see himself. He is too humble to let himself be washed, but too proud to do the washing. He hasn’t washed his own feet. He won’t wash the other disciples’ feet. And despite his conviction that Jesus is greater, he doesn’t even offer to wash Jesus’ feet. Peter’s objection looks like humility. It sounds like devotion. But it is really just narcissism and pride attempting to disguise itself in the rags of false humility. It may be pride in a different form, but it is still pride and just as deadly. Continue....
-- John Koessler
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Friday, June 24, 2016
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Create The Context
It is not enough just to notice differences between things that are or are not the way we want them to be; we have to take the steps needed to create the context for something different to occur.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Truth Differently
We engage with truth when we actually hear it; often when we hear it differently, often when we're forced to hear it differently.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Fathers Song
'Poem selection' for the week -- "Fathers Song":
Yesterday, against admonishment,
my daughter balanced on the couch back,
fell and cut her mouth.
Because I saw it happen I knew
she was not hurt, and yet
a child’s blood so red
it stops a father’s heart.
My daughter cried her tears;
I held some ice
against her lip.
That was the end of it.
Round and round: bow and kiss.
I try to teach her caution;
she tries to teach me risk.
-- Gregory Orr
Yesterday, against admonishment,
my daughter balanced on the couch back,
fell and cut her mouth.
Because I saw it happen I knew
she was not hurt, and yet
a child’s blood so red
it stops a father’s heart.
My daughter cried her tears;
I held some ice
against her lip.
That was the end of it.
Round and round: bow and kiss.
I try to teach her caution;
she tries to teach me risk.
-- Gregory Orr
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Refugees Look Into The Eyes
There is something powerful about actual contact with another human being...whether they be refugees or friends. We must see each other as, above all else, human.
Friday, June 17, 2016
To Be United With Beauty
We want so much more—something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.
-- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
-- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Estes Park
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Monday, June 13, 2016
A Man Said To The Universe
'Poem selection' for the week -- "A Man Said to the Universe":
A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
-- Stephen Crane
A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
-- Stephen Crane
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Stanford: 20 Things We’d Better Tell Our Sons Right Now About Being Real Men
Dear Sons,
When you’re the mother of four sons, the Stanford rape case — it’s not about somebody else… it’s about us.
Let’s be real clear, boys — I’m never writing you a letter like the father of Brock Turner, defending any sexual assault of a horrifically traumatized young woman as merely as “20 minutes of action.” Rape is not “20 minutes of action” — it’s a violent act with lifetime consequences and it’s time for parents to take far less than 20 minutes of action and stand up right now and say hard things to our sons right now before it’s too late.
The Stanford rape case is about having a conversation with sons about hard things and asking sons to do holy things. Continue here....
-- Ann Voskamp
When you’re the mother of four sons, the Stanford rape case — it’s not about somebody else… it’s about us.
Let’s be real clear, boys — I’m never writing you a letter like the father of Brock Turner, defending any sexual assault of a horrifically traumatized young woman as merely as “20 minutes of action.” Rape is not “20 minutes of action” — it’s a violent act with lifetime consequences and it’s time for parents to take far less than 20 minutes of action and stand up right now and say hard things to our sons right now before it’s too late.
The Stanford rape case is about having a conversation with sons about hard things and asking sons to do holy things. Continue here....
-- Ann Voskamp
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Transform Suffering
I've always been impressed by the "alchemy" of the human heart — by its capacity to transform the suffering that comes to all of us into compassion and generosity of spirit.
I know so many people who have used their own wounds to become "wounded healers." Instead of growing bitter and passing their pain on to others, they've said, "This is where the pain stops and the love begins."
They've become better able to offer understanding and compassion to others — not in spite of their suffering, but because of it.
-- Parker Palmer
I know so many people who have used their own wounds to become "wounded healers." Instead of growing bitter and passing their pain on to others, they've said, "This is where the pain stops and the love begins."
They've become better able to offer understanding and compassion to others — not in spite of their suffering, but because of it.
-- Parker Palmer
Friday, June 10, 2016
You Are One Day Away From Being Tabloid News: Why We Are All the Gorilla Pit Mom
Because our kids are always falling into gorilla pits. There may not be a camera present. People may not be internet shaming you. But every single day mothers (and fathers) make terrible parenting decisions that have the potential for dire consequences. Did you text your friend back with your kids in the car? Car accident....
What I wish for this shamed-by-the-entire-internet-mother is that she would not stand alone. I wish that we would see ourselves in her trauma. I wish we would remember those times that we have completely lost control. Unfortunately, we are not likely to do that. No one wants to admit that they have lost control of their lives. Because admitting that you have lost control means thinking back to a time when you actually felt like you had it. And let’s be honest, that time has never existed.
Instead, we cling to our mirage of control and we isolate the least, the last, and the lonely. We judge the woman and her five husbands...continue.
-- Sarah Condon
Thursday, June 09, 2016
Patience
As patient as I want or try to be, I have realized that being patient still is a tremendous battle. Battle, because it requires trusting in something I cannot see, in something I cannot control. It seems that lurking around nearly every corner of patience is the threat of or the accusation of not doing enough. "You could do more, you know...you should do more, etc.".
This has a really powerful appeal and attack on the virtues of patience, one that I encounter nearly every day. But, this battle also walks me right up to the door of a good question; what is informing my impatience?
This has a really powerful appeal and attack on the virtues of patience, one that I encounter nearly every day. But, this battle also walks me right up to the door of a good question; what is informing my impatience?
Wednesday, June 08, 2016
Old Enough
For a long time, I didn't feel old enough...to really know.
Now, I feel only old enough to speculate.
Perhaps, I will live long enough to even have something to say.
Now, I feel only old enough to speculate.
Perhaps, I will live long enough to even have something to say.
Tuesday, June 07, 2016
Monday, June 06, 2016
Lesvos
'Poem selection' for the week -- "Lesvos":
Fishermen out before dawn. None returned.
I asked you why they left their nets behind,
but you were looking out, across to Assos,
and maybe didn’t hear me in the wind.
We both wore the same ironic mask:
one blue eye floating upon a white sea.
On that balcony, beside the iron table,
a geranium held on for dear life.
All day we watched waves capsize in the rain.
Our shoreline here: the other shoreline’s mirror.
Those aren’t nets, you said after a long time,
but mounds of sodden jackets and lost oars.
Stray cats sheltered in the light of the café.
We didn’t know the others huddled there.
The wind changed course and tried to explain
by shaking the geranium, but words sank
in the crossing, so we heard under water.
When I opened my hands, my palms burned,
as if they’d been lashed by splintered wood.
In sleep, you told me, we have been rowing.
Truth is, no one here knows where we’re going.
I begged you not to leave, but you’d already
slung a orange scarf over your wet head.
There aren’t enough boats to carry them,
I shouted, so there’s nothing left to do.
There is, you said. I’m going down to see.
-- Christopher Bakken
From the author:
“I have spent a lot of time over the years in Molyvos (a port town on Lesvos) and also in Assos (just across the water on the Turkish mainland). In the past two years, an estimated three to five thousand refugees drowned while attempting to cross the stretch of water separating those two places. Many of my Greek and expatriate friends have volunteered on Lesvos, or in refugee camps on the northern border town of Idomeni. What they have described is heartbreaking. The poem registers my sense of regret for not being there, if only to bear witness.”
Fishermen out before dawn. None returned.
I asked you why they left their nets behind,
but you were looking out, across to Assos,
and maybe didn’t hear me in the wind.
We both wore the same ironic mask:
one blue eye floating upon a white sea.
On that balcony, beside the iron table,
a geranium held on for dear life.
All day we watched waves capsize in the rain.
Our shoreline here: the other shoreline’s mirror.
Those aren’t nets, you said after a long time,
but mounds of sodden jackets and lost oars.
Stray cats sheltered in the light of the café.
We didn’t know the others huddled there.
The wind changed course and tried to explain
by shaking the geranium, but words sank
in the crossing, so we heard under water.
When I opened my hands, my palms burned,
as if they’d been lashed by splintered wood.
In sleep, you told me, we have been rowing.
Truth is, no one here knows where we’re going.
I begged you not to leave, but you’d already
slung a orange scarf over your wet head.
There aren’t enough boats to carry them,
I shouted, so there’s nothing left to do.
There is, you said. I’m going down to see.
-- Christopher Bakken
From the author:
“I have spent a lot of time over the years in Molyvos (a port town on Lesvos) and also in Assos (just across the water on the Turkish mainland). In the past two years, an estimated three to five thousand refugees drowned while attempting to cross the stretch of water separating those two places. Many of my Greek and expatriate friends have volunteered on Lesvos, or in refugee camps on the northern border town of Idomeni. What they have described is heartbreaking. The poem registers my sense of regret for not being there, if only to bear witness.”
Sunday, June 05, 2016
Seconding The Motion
All prayer is seconding the motion. God is the initial motion, the initiative. In contemplation, we become aware of God's movement and surrender to it. We begin with "yes," ready to receive reality just as it is and ready to let it teach us. Contemplation teaches us how to say "yes"--yes to the moment, yes to the event, yes to the relationship. It is what it is before you analyze it, compare it to something else, or prefer it to something else. It takes much of your life to learn how to always begin with yes. I warn you that if you begin with no--which culture by and large trains us to do because the ego prefers the negative--it's very hard to get back to yes.
Saying "yes" to the moment allows space for the real question, which is "What does this have to say to me?" Those who are totally converted come to every experience and ask not whether they like it, but what does it have to teach them. "What's the message or gift in this for me? How is God in this event? Where is God in this suffering? What is God calling me to do?"
As you practice contemplation--in whatever form you choose--intentionally say yes to God's presence and leading. Outside your times of contemplation, stay in this posture of willingness and openness. Let the hard, consequential questions of our world's suffering stir your love into action. Discover and say yes to your unique way of participating in God's love and healing, which is already working in every life, in every place, and simply asks for you to join.
-- Richard Rohr
Saying "yes" to the moment allows space for the real question, which is "What does this have to say to me?" Those who are totally converted come to every experience and ask not whether they like it, but what does it have to teach them. "What's the message or gift in this for me? How is God in this event? Where is God in this suffering? What is God calling me to do?"
As you practice contemplation--in whatever form you choose--intentionally say yes to God's presence and leading. Outside your times of contemplation, stay in this posture of willingness and openness. Let the hard, consequential questions of our world's suffering stir your love into action. Discover and say yes to your unique way of participating in God's love and healing, which is already working in every life, in every place, and simply asks for you to join.
-- Richard Rohr
Saturday, June 04, 2016
Pope Francis' Field Hospital for the Family
The late cardinal said that it is insufficient simply to drop the truth on people and then smugly walk away. Rather, he insisted, you must accompany those you have instructed, committing yourself to helping them integrate the truth that you have shared.
I thought of this intervention often as I was reading Pope Francis's apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. Pope Francis wants the truths regarding marriage, sexuality, and family to be unambiguously declared, but that he also wants the Church's ministers to reach out in mercy and compassion to those who struggle to incarnate those truths in their lives.
In regard to the moral objectivities of marriage, the pope is bracingly clear.
He bemoans any number of threats to this ideal, including moral relativism, a pervasive cultural narcissism, the ideology of self-invention, pornography, and the "throwaway" society. He explicitly calls to our attention the teaching of Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae regarding the essential connection between the unitive and the procreative dimensions of conjugal love (80).
However, the pontiff also honestly admits that many, many people fall short of the ideal, failing fully to integrate all of the dimensions of what the Church means by matrimony. What is the proper attitude to them? Like Cardinal George, the pope has a visceral reaction against a strategy of simple condemnation, for the Church, he says, is a field hospital, designed to care precisely for the wounded (292). Accordingly, he recommends two fundamental moves...continue.
-- Robert Barron
I thought of this intervention often as I was reading Pope Francis's apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. Pope Francis wants the truths regarding marriage, sexuality, and family to be unambiguously declared, but that he also wants the Church's ministers to reach out in mercy and compassion to those who struggle to incarnate those truths in their lives.
In regard to the moral objectivities of marriage, the pope is bracingly clear.
He bemoans any number of threats to this ideal, including moral relativism, a pervasive cultural narcissism, the ideology of self-invention, pornography, and the "throwaway" society. He explicitly calls to our attention the teaching of Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae regarding the essential connection between the unitive and the procreative dimensions of conjugal love (80).
However, the pontiff also honestly admits that many, many people fall short of the ideal, failing fully to integrate all of the dimensions of what the Church means by matrimony. What is the proper attitude to them? Like Cardinal George, the pope has a visceral reaction against a strategy of simple condemnation, for the Church, he says, is a field hospital, designed to care precisely for the wounded (292). Accordingly, he recommends two fundamental moves...continue.
-- Robert Barron
Friday, June 03, 2016
Solitude Is Not
Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one’s self. It is not about the absence of other people — it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others.
-- Parker Palmer
-- Parker Palmer
Thursday, June 02, 2016
Wednesday, June 01, 2016
I've Noticed: Force
I've noticed...that I feel stopped sometimes, by my fear of using force with others. I think I have something yet to discover about my relationship with force.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Tattoo
'Poem' for the week -- "Tattoo":
You do know, right,
that between the no-
longer & the still-
to-come
you are being continually
tattooed, inked
with the skulls of
everyone
you’ve ever loved—the you
& the you
& the you & the you—you don’t
sit in a chair, thumb
through a binder, pick a
design, it simply
happens each time you
bring your fingers to your face
to inhale him back into you . . .
tiny skulls, some of us are
covered. You, love, could
simply tattoo an open
door, light
pouring in from somewhere
outside, you
could make your body a door
so it appears you
(let her fill you) are made
of light.
-- Nick Flynn
You do know, right,
that between the no-
longer & the still-
to-come
you are being continually
tattooed, inked
with the skulls of
everyone
you’ve ever loved—the you
& the you
& the you & the you—you don’t
sit in a chair, thumb
through a binder, pick a
design, it simply
happens each time you
bring your fingers to your face
to inhale him back into you . . .
tiny skulls, some of us are
covered. You, love, could
simply tattoo an open
door, light
pouring in from somewhere
outside, you
could make your body a door
so it appears you
(let her fill you) are made
of light.
-- Nick Flynn
Monday, May 30, 2016
Nowhere Else Festival
Here are some lines that struck me by Joe Henry:
"Write about one specific thing that means something about everything else."
"No one is about just the one thing they have shown."
"Like light through the pines of our walk, you lead me on."
"You push me away and farther along."
"I speak between the truth and what I mean."
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Value of Vulnerability
One reason we Christians have misunderstood many of Jesus' teachings is that we have not seen Jesus' way of education as that of a spiritual master. He wants to situate us in a larger life, which he calls the "Reign of God." But instead we make him into a Scholastic philosopher if we are Roman Catholic, into a moralist if we are mainline Protestant, or into a successful and imperialistic American if we are Evangelical. Yet the initiatory thrust of Jesus' words is hidden in plain sight.
Study, for example, his instructions to the twelve disciples, when he sent them into society in a very vulnerable way (no shoes or wallet, like sheep among wolves). How did we miss this? Note that it was not an intellectual message as much as it was an "urban plunge," a high-risk experience where something new and good could happen. It was designed to change the disciples much more than it was meant for them to change others! (See Matthew 10:1-33 or Luke 10:1-24.) Today we call it a reverse mission, where we ourselves are changed and helped by those whom we think we are serving.
When read in light of classic initiation patterns, Jesus' intentions are very clear. He wanted his disciples--then and now--to experience the value of vulnerability. Jesus invites us to a life without baggage so we can learn how to accept others and their culture. Instead, we carry along our own country's assumptions masquerading as "the good news." He did not teach us to hang up a shingle to get people to attend our services. He taught us exactly the opposite: We should stay in their homes and eat their food! This is a very strong anti-institutional model. One can only imagine how different history would have been had we provided this initiatory training for our missionaries. We might have borne a message of cosmic sympathy instead of imperialism, providing humble reconciliation instead of religious wars and the murdering of "heretics," Jews, "pagans," and native peoples in the name of Jesus.
When we could not make clear dogma, moral code, or a practical war economy out of Jesus' teaching, we simply abandoned it in any meaningful sense. His training of novices has had little or no effect on church style or membership, by and large. When one throws out initiatory training, the whole latter program and plan of life is left without foundation or containment. Now we seek a prize of later salvation--instead of the freedom of present simplicity. I am told that the Sermon on the Mount--the essence of Jesus' teaching--is the least quoted in official Catholic Church documents.
However, there were always people like Francis of Assisi, Simone Weil, Menno Simons, Peter Waldo, George Fox, Catherine of Genoa, Peter Maurin, Mother Teresa, and Dorothy Day who made Jesus' Gospel their life map. They knew that lifestyle was more important than theories, intellectual belief systems, or abstruse theology. Once you know that your life is not about you, then you can also trust that your life is your message. This gives you an amazing confidence about your own small life--precisely because it is no longer a small life, it is no longer just yours, and it is not all in your head. Henceforth, you do not try to think yourself into a new way of living, but you first live in a new way, from a new vantage point--and your thinking changes by itself.
"I live no longer, not I," Paul shouted with his one daring life (Galatians 2:20). And this one-man show turned a Jewish sect into a worldwide religion. Paul allowed his small life to be used by the Great Life, and that is finally all that matters. Your life is not about you. It is about God and about allowing Life and Death to "be done unto me," which is Mary's prayer at the beginning of her journey and Jesus' prayer at the end of his.
-- Richard Rohr
Study, for example, his instructions to the twelve disciples, when he sent them into society in a very vulnerable way (no shoes or wallet, like sheep among wolves). How did we miss this? Note that it was not an intellectual message as much as it was an "urban plunge," a high-risk experience where something new and good could happen. It was designed to change the disciples much more than it was meant for them to change others! (See Matthew 10:1-33 or Luke 10:1-24.) Today we call it a reverse mission, where we ourselves are changed and helped by those whom we think we are serving.
When read in light of classic initiation patterns, Jesus' intentions are very clear. He wanted his disciples--then and now--to experience the value of vulnerability. Jesus invites us to a life without baggage so we can learn how to accept others and their culture. Instead, we carry along our own country's assumptions masquerading as "the good news." He did not teach us to hang up a shingle to get people to attend our services. He taught us exactly the opposite: We should stay in their homes and eat their food! This is a very strong anti-institutional model. One can only imagine how different history would have been had we provided this initiatory training for our missionaries. We might have borne a message of cosmic sympathy instead of imperialism, providing humble reconciliation instead of religious wars and the murdering of "heretics," Jews, "pagans," and native peoples in the name of Jesus.
When we could not make clear dogma, moral code, or a practical war economy out of Jesus' teaching, we simply abandoned it in any meaningful sense. His training of novices has had little or no effect on church style or membership, by and large. When one throws out initiatory training, the whole latter program and plan of life is left without foundation or containment. Now we seek a prize of later salvation--instead of the freedom of present simplicity. I am told that the Sermon on the Mount--the essence of Jesus' teaching--is the least quoted in official Catholic Church documents.
However, there were always people like Francis of Assisi, Simone Weil, Menno Simons, Peter Waldo, George Fox, Catherine of Genoa, Peter Maurin, Mother Teresa, and Dorothy Day who made Jesus' Gospel their life map. They knew that lifestyle was more important than theories, intellectual belief systems, or abstruse theology. Once you know that your life is not about you, then you can also trust that your life is your message. This gives you an amazing confidence about your own small life--precisely because it is no longer a small life, it is no longer just yours, and it is not all in your head. Henceforth, you do not try to think yourself into a new way of living, but you first live in a new way, from a new vantage point--and your thinking changes by itself.
"I live no longer, not I," Paul shouted with his one daring life (Galatians 2:20). And this one-man show turned a Jewish sect into a worldwide religion. Paul allowed his small life to be used by the Great Life, and that is finally all that matters. Your life is not about you. It is about God and about allowing Life and Death to "be done unto me," which is Mary's prayer at the beginning of her journey and Jesus' prayer at the end of his.
-- Richard Rohr
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Friday, May 27, 2016
What Wars
Have compassion for everyone you meet
even if they don't want it. What seems like conceit,
bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign
of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone.
-- Miller Williams
even if they don't want it. What seems like conceit,
bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign
of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone.
-- Miller Williams
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
I Used To Think: Becoming Big
I used to think...that I needed, to at least try, to become as big as I could be. Now I know that trying to be big makes others feel small.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Part Of It
'Poem' for the week -- "Part Of It":
I can only have
part of it.
I want
all of it
but I can't;
for I would consume it
if it were all mine.
It needs to be
embraced
and let go. Both.
Pain over this
is not my best
informer,
rather
my teacher:
Enjoy the part
I have
and share the rest
with someone else.
Besides
part of it
is more than
enough.
I can only have
part of it.
I want
all of it
but I can't;
for I would consume it
if it were all mine.
It needs to be
embraced
and let go. Both.
Pain over this
is not my best
informer,
rather
my teacher:
Enjoy the part
I have
and share the rest
with someone else.
Besides
part of it
is more than
enough.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Learn by Doing - In The Company of Beggars, Prostitutes, and Lepers
Much of what passes for spirituality and spiritual practice--prayer days, meditation, retreats, spiritual direction, contemplation, ritual, and study--is primarily informed by an exclusive attention to the self and perhaps family relationships, suggesting that much of what we call spirituality is actually some mixture of psychology and private devotion, made sacred by the use of religious imagery. My argument is not that it's worthless, but that it's woefully incomplete. I am concerned that it provides a very limited experience of what Jesus is so passionate about, namely the "Reign of God" (the most repeated phrase in the four Gospels). As I understand the Reign of God, it includes the grace-driven, love-driven transformation of the self and the world. What's more, it recognizes that the transformation of the self and the world are directly connected to each other....
Isn't it instructive that the spiritual formation of the original disciples happens with Jesus on the road? In effect, the disciples learn by doing. They grow into an understanding of this God of love, this God of compassion, this God who loves justice, this God who makes all things new, by participating as active observers and agents of compassion, justice, and newness. And, yes, necessarily, they pause with Jesus to reflect, ask questions (sometimes stupid questions), and pray. But the spiritual adventure described in the four Gospels does not happen in the sanctuary; it happens on the road, in the company of beggars, prostitutes, and lepers.
-- Jack Jezreel
Isn't it instructive that the spiritual formation of the original disciples happens with Jesus on the road? In effect, the disciples learn by doing. They grow into an understanding of this God of love, this God of compassion, this God who loves justice, this God who makes all things new, by participating as active observers and agents of compassion, justice, and newness. And, yes, necessarily, they pause with Jesus to reflect, ask questions (sometimes stupid questions), and pray. But the spiritual adventure described in the four Gospels does not happen in the sanctuary; it happens on the road, in the company of beggars, prostitutes, and lepers.
-- Jack Jezreel
Saturday, May 21, 2016
When It Comes to the Next President, We Need More Than Strength
This is not the first time America has faced daunting internal tensions and external threats. But during this year’s presidential primaries, fear, despair, and dissatisfaction have drawn Americans to would-be leaders who promise radical change to restore our country’s strength.
Yet strength is only one part of real health for nations. All truly flourishing communities must also embrace vulnerability. Continue here....
Friday, May 20, 2016
Trick to Believing
The trick to believing in something is to commit to it, even though it's possible that you will discover that what you have believed in was wrong. Because, doing so is, in fact, the path to ultimately determining what is worth believing in. Otherwise, you just end up not believing in anything…because you haven't actually tested the truth of anything, in any personal way.
We tend to think we that we need to know something is true first and then believe it, but I suspect it actually works the other way around. We believe first, then we come to know. And, it is the sometimes agitated, personal process of committing ourselves in belief that enables us to know.
By the way, I am agitated today...while not necessarily good for others, it is good for me to know this.
We tend to think we that we need to know something is true first and then believe it, but I suspect it actually works the other way around. We believe first, then we come to know. And, it is the sometimes agitated, personal process of committing ourselves in belief that enables us to know.
By the way, I am agitated today...while not necessarily good for others, it is good for me to know this.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
The More You Open
The more you open your heart to other people, the more hurt you will experience...AND the more joy you will discover, the more significance you will feel because of the beauty of the giving and receiving, the more you will grow, the more you will enjoy, the more you will discover who you are, the more you will fall in love with, and the closer to God you will become. But, you must open your heart to other people...and you can never stop doing this, or all of this will reverse itself.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
I've Noticed: Limited
I've noticed...that I can only love a certain number of things. I'm not saying I know what that number is, because I also think I can love a lot more than I think I can. But, it is also true that I am limited. There is plenty of opportunity for others to love what I can't.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Greatest Tutors
We need to learn to pay attention to what is going on inside of us; these are among the greatest tutors we have. What we learn from these tutors is what, in the end, we have to offer the world.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Prayer Before Reading St. Mark's Gospel
'Poem' for the week -- "Prayer Before Reading St. Mark's Gospel":
Please attack my colonialist ego,
o lion-face, o ancient evangelist.
The carcinogenic self, gleeful
but cruel in its unhealthy glow,
needs every means of resistance,
nor do I expect your treatment to be
remotely easygoing, if any freedom
is to be won from tumor, polyp, cyst.
Don't let my withheld forgiveness
be among the glittering cargo
of my sickly little boat, battered, kissed
by fortune's surges. Let me bestow
instead regard to every fellow narcissist,
to thief and punk, humbug and arsonist.
-- Brett Foster
Thanks, Jim, for forwarding this.
Please attack my colonialist ego,
o lion-face, o ancient evangelist.
The carcinogenic self, gleeful
but cruel in its unhealthy glow,
needs every means of resistance,
nor do I expect your treatment to be
remotely easygoing, if any freedom
is to be won from tumor, polyp, cyst.
Don't let my withheld forgiveness
be among the glittering cargo
of my sickly little boat, battered, kissed
by fortune's surges. Let me bestow
instead regard to every fellow narcissist,
to thief and punk, humbug and arsonist.
-- Brett Foster
Thanks, Jim, for forwarding this.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Cubs vs Pirates 2016
Another good Wrigley time, though Conner wonders if he jinxes the CUBS!
A no-hitter for Lester thru 7 innings and some real drama in the bottom of the 9th! ...more pics here.
Radical Transformation
Regarding transformation; a little longer than the usual posts, but so good:
Mature religion teaches contemplation as a path to true transformation. But before we are ready to be shaken and changed at our roots, we need religion at its lower levels to help us develop a healthy ego. Ken Wilber describes religion's different roles along the spiritual and developmental journey:
Wilber goes on to explain the second function of religion:
Contemplation is indeed radical because it's a way of being in the world, walking in the world, and seeing the world that is absolutely different than the daily grind of ideas and contests.
-- Richard Rohr
Mature religion teaches contemplation as a path to true transformation. But before we are ready to be shaken and changed at our roots, we need religion at its lower levels to help us develop a healthy ego. Ken Wilber describes religion's different roles along the spiritual and developmental journey:
[Religion] itself has always performed two very important, but very different, functions. One, it acts as a way of creating meaning for the separate self: it offers myths and stories and tales and narratives and rituals and revivals, that, taken together, help the separate self make sense of, and endure, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.This is good and needed. That's how you get started. As psychology would say, you have to have an ego to let go of an ego. You have to have a self to move beyond the self. But most religion stops at this first function, simply giving you a positive self-image and identity--that I'm religious, moral, dedicated, or whatever my sense of worth and belonging might be. Wilber continues:
This function of religion does not usually or necessarily change the level of consciousness in a person; it does not deliver radical transformation. Nor does it deliver a shattering liberation from the separate self altogether. Rather, it consoles the self, fortifies the self, defends the self, promotes the self. As long as the separate self believes the myths, performs the rituals, mouths the prayers, or embraces the dogma, then the self, it is fervently believed, will be "saved"--either now in the glory of being God-saved or Goddess-favored, or in an afterlife that ensures eternal wonderment.We're never totally sure what "saved" is supposed to mean, but everybody uses the word rather glibly. I suppose in most Western Christians' minds it means going to heaven, that I'm going to get some reward later for behaving or believing in a certain way. It sounds like a very bad reward/punishment novel. It's preposterous that anybody believes this could be the Great God's simplistic agenda, but if you haven't really worked with it (and I'm fortunate that I have had time to work with it), you believe it because everybody else does. You figure this many people can't be wrong. They must be right that life is a giant reward/punishment system, and if you jump through the hoops properly, you'll get the reward. It's not really about becoming "a new creation" (Galatians 6:15). You don't have to be transformed; you just have to play the game right. This is first half of life religion. It deals with the small self, the false self, and is all about requirements.
Wilber goes on to explain the second function of religion:
But two, religion has also served--in a usually very, very small minority--the function of radical transformation and liberation. This function does not fortify the separate self, but utterly shatters it--not consolation but devastation, not entrenchment but emptiness, not complacency but explosion, not comfort but revolution--in short, not a conventional bolstering of consciousness but a radical transmutation and transformation at the deepest seat of consciousness itself.This is true religious conversion. This is second half of life religion, although it can happen at any age. The experience occurs when God or life destabilizes your private ego, usually through some form of suffering. It will feel like dying because it is the death of the false self. The small, separate self is shattered, and your True Self is revealed. The True Self is all about right relationship, not requirements. It's not about being correct; it's about being connected, which you always were--you just didn't realize it. This is the self that is capable of contemplation because it no longer reads reality from an egocentric position.
Contemplation is indeed radical because it's a way of being in the world, walking in the world, and seeing the world that is absolutely different than the daily grind of ideas and contests.
-- Richard Rohr
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Same River Twice
No man steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
-- Heraclitus
-- Heraclitus
Friday, May 13, 2016
Inventions Of An Agitated Mind
Today’s opening line in A Year With Thomas Merton, “You can make your life what you want” if you don’t “drive [yourself] on with illusory demands.” I don’t think it’s entirely true that I can make my life what I want. But it would help if I stopped making demands on myself that distort who I really am and what I’m really called to do.
After five days of silence and solitude, many of the demands that hung over me when I came out here have lightened or lifted. Since I’ve done little this week to meet those demands, the lesson seems clear: they were mostly the inventions of an agitated mind. Now that my mind has quieted, its “illusory demands” have vaporized, and I feel a deeper peace.
-- Parker Palmer
After five days of silence and solitude, many of the demands that hung over me when I came out here have lightened or lifted. Since I’ve done little this week to meet those demands, the lesson seems clear: they were mostly the inventions of an agitated mind. Now that my mind has quieted, its “illusory demands” have vaporized, and I feel a deeper peace.
-- Parker Palmer
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
I Used To Think: Ask Questions
I used to think...that I needed to act more courageous and make faster judgments about things. Now I know that it is generally wise to ask questions first.
Monday, May 09, 2016
For My Mother
'Poem selection' for the week -- "For My Mother":
Once more
I summon you
Out of the past
With poignant love,
You who nourished the poet
And the lover.
I see your gray eyes
Looking out to sea
In those Rockport summers,
Keeping a distance
Within the closeness
Which was never intrusive
Opening out
Into the world.
And what I remember
Is how we laughed
Till we cried
Swept into merriment
Especially when times were hard.
And what I remember
Is how you never stopped creating
And how people sent me
Dresses you had designed
With rich embroidery
In brilliant colors
Because they could not bear
To give them away
Or cast them aside.
I summon you now
Not to think of
The ceaseless battle
With pain and ill health,
The frailty and the anguish.
No, today I remember
The creator,
The lion-hearted.
-- May Sarton
Once more
I summon you
Out of the past
With poignant love,
You who nourished the poet
And the lover.
I see your gray eyes
Looking out to sea
In those Rockport summers,
Keeping a distance
Within the closeness
Which was never intrusive
Opening out
Into the world.
And what I remember
Is how we laughed
Till we cried
Swept into merriment
Especially when times were hard.
And what I remember
Is how you never stopped creating
And how people sent me
Dresses you had designed
With rich embroidery
In brilliant colors
Because they could not bear
To give them away
Or cast them aside.
I summon you now
Not to think of
The ceaseless battle
With pain and ill health,
The frailty and the anguish.
No, today I remember
The creator,
The lion-hearted.
-- May Sarton
Sunday, May 08, 2016
Enneagram, Con't
In the Enneagram tradition, "sin" is simply that which doesn't work, i.e. self-defeating behavior. Our root capital sins can be understood as emergency solutions that we developed in early childhood as a way of coping with our environment. At the time, these coping mechanisms were necessary for survival. But the older we grow, the more they get in the way of living freely as our True Self.
We all have a little of each personality type in us, allowing us greater understanding and compassion for others. But for our own transformation, we must recognize that we tend to have a primary set of blinders, a primary delusion, a capital sin. There is a key dilemma, a habitual trap in each of us. We must notice how we block ourselves by our preferred style of perception. Even though this way of perceiving reality doesn't reflect the True Self, it seems to "work" for us, giving us false energy and purpose.
The Enneagram refuses to eliminate the negative and is grounded in what Bill Wilson called "a vital spiritual experience." We only have the courage to face our deep illusions when we are entirely loved and accepted by God or by somebody who acts as God toward us. So, with great irony, our faults are the crack that lets grace in, exactly as the Gospel teaches. We must bring our root sin to consciousness rather than deny or repress it. We can only heal our wound with kindness and compassion, not judgment and condemnation.
-- Richard Rohr
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