Posts tagged ‘spirituality’
Come and Rest
From today’s Gospel reading:
Jesus said to them, “Some away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest for a while.”
Come and rest for a while.
This particular resting place can be found at Presentation Center in Los Gatos.
Here I Am, Your Servant Is Listening
Our Scripture readings continue with the theme of call. Yesterday’s was the calling of Jesus’ disciples, and today, in the First Book of Samuel, we read about the calling of the prophet Samuel.
Then Eli [the prophet] understood that God was calling the youth. So Eli said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the Lord came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
And in today’s response from Psalm 40 we read:
Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
We will only be able to answer God when we have learned to recognize God's voice. So we need to take time for solitued, prayer, and reflection.
What Is My Fishing Practice? Am I Faithful to My Spiritual Practice?
Sisters Pat and Judy hiking back from their fishing trip in the Sierras.
This morning (the Feast of St. Andrew) during our morning prayer, Sister Millie reflected on the Gospel reading. She talked about those who fish, and how sensitive they become to the movement of the water – the movement of the fish – the movement of the boat. Perhaps that helps create in them a sensitivity to the Spirit. Could that be why they were able to drop their nets and follow so suddenly (seemingly) and completely. They may have been predisposed by their practice.
What is my practice? Am I as attentive to my “practice” as these fishermen were?
[Jesus] said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of people.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.
- Matthew 4:19-20
In Awe of the Simple Gifts of LIfe
The following is the closing prayer from Vespers for this evening.
May we experience awe in the presence of the Simple Gifts of Life.
O gracious God, open our hearts and our eyes to the wonders of your presence among us. May we see the signs of your beauty within and about us and ever be in awe of the simple gifts of life. Help us to reach beyond ourselves and to give thanks for all of your creation that shares this universe with us: peoples of every nation, animals of every species, all forms of vegetation, the planets, stars, and all the elements. We pray this in union with the incarnate Word of God in whose image all was created. May you be blessed throughout the ages and for all eternity. Amen.
Contemplation of Creation
- . . . their answer was their beauty.
From today’s reading in the Psalter
I asked the earth, the sea and the deeps, heaven, the sun, the moon and the stars….My questioning of them was my contemplation , and their answer was their beauty.
From The Confessions of St. Augustine
Wisdom from Gertrude the Great
This morning’s reading (below) from the Psalter was from Spiritual Exercises by Gertrud the Great of Helfta.
"You glow altogether red in the spring-like loveliness of the festival of your love."
“My God, you are my hope; you the glory; you the joy; you my blessedness. You are the thirst of my spirit; you the life of my soul, you the jubilation of my heart. Where above you could my wonder lead me, my God? You are the praise in my heart and mouth. You glow altogether red in the spring-like loveliness of the festival of your love. May your most outstanding divinity magnify and glorify you because you are the source of light and the fountain of life forever.”
The Feast of the Holy Rosary
Today is the Feast of the Holy Rosary – a feast that is remembered by many, and especially by Dominicans everywhere. Throughout our eight hundred years of ministering to God’s people the rosary has been an important part of our prayer. Legend tells us that Our Lady gave the rosary to Dominic, but the historical facts are not quite so clear.
Nonetheless, we know that Dominic was a man of deep prayer and of great love for Our Lady, and that Dominicans have treasured this particular form of prayer over the centuries. The website of the Order of Preachers in Santa Sabina in Rome sheds more light on the subject.
Praying the rosary is a very meditative and contemplative way of prayer. It has brought hope, comfort, and solace to many in difficult times throughout the centuries.
A Poem by Antonio Machado
As I read this poem, I am reminded of St. John of the Cross’s poem, “The Dark Night of the Soul.” Lorenna McKennitt does an especially lovely version of it on her album The Mask and the Mirror. Both of these poems read beautifully in the original Spanish. But I think that Robert Bly has transmitted the sense of them.
Last Night, as I Was Sleeping.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt — marvelous error!—
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt — marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt — marvelous error!—
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.
Last night, as I slept,
I dreamt — marvelous error!—
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.
There isn’t much to be said; the poem says it all. The imagery of buzzing bees and a fiery sun inside my heart is stirring. The aliveness, beauty, sweetness, warmth, light,, and water of life, which is God, dwells within us at the very center of our being. Oh “marvelous error” indeed.
It might bother some, the translation of “bendita ilusion” (blessed illusion, dream, or vision) with “marvelous error.” Yet I am reminded of the words from our Easter vigil liturgy: “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer! Our Redeemer has, indeed, made sweet honey from all of our failures!
Ash Wednesday Thoughts
I never thought my Ash Wednesday reflection would begin with the Los Angeles Times, but it has. Tim Rutten quotes Cardinal Mahoney this morning:
According to the calendar, Ash Wednesday occurs [today] and we begin another Lent,” he writes. “Except for this year. Lent actually began in 2007 for many thousands of families all across the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and we have been in a long and protracted season of Lent ever since. . .
In prior years when life and our financial security were far more predictable, Lent meant that we could choose which special sacrifices we wanted to undertake — but just for six weeks, until Easter Sunday. And then back to normal. But now we have a new reality: We aren’t choosing our sacrifices this year, they have chosen us. And they aren’t just for six weeks; they have been our burden for over 75 weeks now with no sign of relief in sight.
I’m sure I could never express Ash Wednesday thoughts any better than this. Certainly, all of our citizens who are unemployed and face layoffs are praying in the words of the prophet Joel, “Spare, O LORD, your people, and make not your heritage a reproach, with the nations ruling over them! Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:17-18)
And so, as I refrain from taking a second helping, or piece of cake, or my favorite selection of See’s candy, I would like to keep in mind those people who do not have the luxury of refraining from anything. As I head out this day on the long drive from San Francisco to Southern California ( a trek down Highway 5 that many might consider penitential), may I keep in mind those who are enslaved and imprisoned in sexual trafficking and do not have the luxury of freedom of movement.
May the things that I refrain from serve to make me more mindful of others. And may mindfulness become a practice that stays with me beyond Ash Wednesday, and well beyond Lent.
A Poem – Ephphatha!
When I read the Gospel reading for today, Mark 7:31-37, I was reminded of this poem that I wrote on April 30, 1995, when I was in the novitiate.
Who can hear what is not spoken,
the cry that never parts lips,
the secret, un-whispered desires
never uttered, never stammered?
Who, but one who listens deeply?
Listens deeply and hears.
Hears the hunger of the crowds for true bread,
the searching heart of Zaccheus atop a sycamore,
the desperation of a Canaanite mother, willing to be……
….dog.
Yes, one who listens deeply
hears the lonely heart of a woman at a well,
hears the trembling fear of one grown weak from loss of blood.
Yes, one who listens deeply
hears the cry of the poor,
hears one’s own voice deep within,
hears the very heartbeat of God.
Yes, there is one who…
but for me
It all takes too much time!
this listening business.
(bus-i-ness
a still, quiet kind of busy-ness)
Listen in prayer.
Listen in conversation.
Listen to the footsteps of birds in flight.
Take time. Pay attention.
Allow God’s voice to sift through a screen of distractions.
“I vow obedience means I promise to pray.” (Carrol)
Attend to the multiple faces,
the many voices,
the reaching hands of God.
What might happen?
…if I did.
Listen (on purpose) I mean. Pay attention.
Would hearing improve?
…ears be opened?
Ephphatha!
Have I, too, been deaf since birth?
…had ears to hear?
Could my heart be opened?
Ephphatha!
They want me to do what?
(don’t let them become they)
Ephphatha!
“It’ll take you and a good wrestling team
to get me to be open to that!”
EPHPHATHA!
Yes, be open.
(even if it takes wrestling with a god)
To allow myself to be surprised at
where, when, how
God’s voice is heard.
In the wisdom of creation,
in the inspired words of Scripture,
in the life and teachings of Jesus,
in the accumulated wisdom of the…tradition,
in the word and example of [others],
in the voices that speak to us of the needs of our world,
and in the directives of…legitimate authority.
(Constitutions of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael)
And then to
respond.
Whole heartedly, unreservedly,
(is that possible?) without measure.
Joyfully! (that too?)
Not looking back after putting hand to plow.
Without complaint (not me!),
Without longing for what could have been,
what once was (yet grieving the loss).
In Ecclesiastes it is said,
Whatever your hand finds to do,do it with all of your might. (Eccl. 9:10)
No cosmic scavenger hunt, this.
And Paul,
Whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord alone and not for those you serve,
knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.
(Col. 3:23-24)
Listen (deeply)
Hear (openly)
Respond (generously)
