Faith & Life Inspirational Message

When my younger daughter developed into an avid reader, she told me she liked to see what the first word and the last word of books were.  Of course, she would not count the little words, like “the” and “a.”  In her estimation those were not real words!  I am sure she has influenced me because often I will open to the initial chapter of a book---be it an introduction chapter or the first chapter itself.  And I will read a sentence or two.  And then I will flip to the back, last page and see how the author ends the book.      And so I recently had a chance to re-read my favorite Quaker book, Thomas Kelly’s A Testament of Devotion .  The book was originally published in 1941.  It came from Kelly’s rather extensive time in Germany in the 1930s watching the Nazi threat come on the scene.  He returned to the USA and offered some observations to the Quaker community in the Philadelphia area.  These presentations became the chapt...

​ I have been working my way through the fairly recent book,  Thank You  for Being Late , by Thomas Friedman.   The subtitle of the book is revealing:  An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Acceleration .   Friedman is the well-known New York Times correspondent and author.  His earlier book  (2005) ,  The World is Flat , was wildly successful.  He is a good writer, bases his thoughts on a ton of research and addresse s the big issues of our world.  His current book addresses issues like climate change, technological change and all the challenges of life in our crazy world. ​ Friedman writes in a clear, focused way.  He makes so many good points that I want to copy and use in my own presentations and writings.  The other thing he also does is introduce a huge number of other writers, thinkers and researchers into the mix.  Everything he offers is science based or research based.  He does not sho...

It is not unusual in the realm of spirituality to talk about the heart.  One can even say it is central to understanding who we are.  Just as our physical bodies cannot last very long without the beating of our hearts, so we can conclude spiritually can’t last too long without attending to the heart.  With this in mind, I thought it would be instructive to turn to some of my favorite authors to see how they describe the heart.  I invite you to join me in hearing them speak about the heart. We can no better than begin with some words from the Hebrew Bible---words that are planted deep in the Jewish soul.  And all of us Christians should be very familiar with these words from Deuteronomy.  In Judaism these words form what is known as the Shema---from the first word of the quotation, “hear.”  The Deurteronomist says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with ...

Some writers’ opinion I respect so much that I will read whatever they publish.  Even if I might not agree with everything they say, I feel like it is important to know what they are thinking.  One such person is Diana Butler Bass.  While we seem to have quite a bit in common, she is younger than I am and has had different kinds of experiences in life.  So she offers fresh perspectives.  She recently wrote a short piece about contemporary events, which leads me to share some of her thoughts and my commentary on those. I like the title of her little essay.  “The God of love had a really bad week” is her take on recent events.  I like how she is introducing her image of God into the current affairs of our country.  I share with her the idea that God’s basic nature is love.  Of course, this is not a contemporary discovery.  The Hebrew Bible suggests this is true.  John’s Gospel and letters are explicit that God is love.  Other maj...

One of the things I count on is that ordinary life offers opportunities for learning things, if we are open and curious.  I know I am a person who has routines in my life.  I am fine with that.  In fact, when I travel, I become aware how much a person of routine I really am.  When I am gone for even a few days, I tend to turn my experiences into routines.  If I am in a hotel for three or four days, I find I start going to the same coffee shop and following the same steps in eating, exercising, etc.  I doubt that I am alone in this process. When I am home, the routines can be carved fairly deeply into my life and schedule.  Again, I have a morning routine with coffee and the paper.  When I am at the university, routine schedules my time in ways that I am basically ok with.  Of course, changes come along, but the routine is always ready to resume.  Recently, I walked to the local store that is the modern version of the neighborhood grocery...

I have enjoyed reading a couple of Ilia Delio’s books on science and religion.  Delio is a Franciscan sister who has a doctorate in science, as well as historical theology.  I know the religion side of what she is doing, but I lack the scientific knowledge she possesses.  And so I wanted to be informed.  It makes no sense for me to teach and be a leader and be cultural uninformed.  I have students who major in Chemistry or Physics and I work with folks in the world who have advanced engineering degrees.  While I am not going to know everything they do, I do feel responsible to them not to be teaching about a God working in a world that somehow is not real.  That would be a bit like insisting adults have to believe in Santa Claus!  God is not Santa Claus.   Delio is a good writer and is able to make complex material understandable.  Of course, that does not mean it is easy.  I find it interesting.  At times, Delio is able...

One of the best things about writing this inspirational piece on a daily basis is I have to remain attentive.  I am convinced many folks (most?) lives their lives inattentively.  Of course, at some level they know what is going on.  But a great example of what I mean is driving a car.  You would think we would have to be attentive to drive down the highway or even in the midst of some inner city traffic.  But if we are honest, we confess that amazingly we can manage to drive without that much attentiveness.  Seldom do we drive without some form of music or entertainment.  A scary form of that entertainment now is the cell phone.  How many times I pass someone and see them blowing along at forty miles per hour and looking down at the cell phone!  When we are stopped at a stoplight, it is nearly instinctual to tap in the password and check email, text messages and the like.  I agree this is attentiveness, but the wrong kind!  This is ...

                    Many Forms of Love It is never surprising to come across a focus on love when reading different writers on spirituality.  And of course, that is not limited to Christianity.  We can find a focus on love in every major religious tradition.  In fact, it would be safe to say if you are going to be religious, then love is something you espouse and practice.  Recently, I have had the chance to re-read one of my favorite theologians and spiritual giants in the Christian Church, namely, Bernard of Clairvaux.  I certainly never heard of this saint in my growing up years as a Quaker.  I am sure many Quakers know about this medieval saint, but those Quakers never mentioned him to me.  I may have heard about him while I was in college, but I am only sure I learned about him when I was in graduate school.  Not everything about him is attractive, i.e. his support of ...

There are many bright, insightful people I have read, but surely one of them is Oliver Sacks.  Recently, I saw a reference to his thinking about how folks get a sense of themselves---their idea of identity.  The short article referenced his 1985 book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat .  One chapter in that book deals with identity, which I find fascinating.  We think we know a great deal about identity---who we are---until we begin thinking about it. In that chapter he deals with a man who had psychological issues.  We are told, “Dr. Sacks recounts the case of a patient with a memory disorder that rendered him unable to recognize not only others but himself — unable, that is, to retain the autobiographical facts which a person constellates into a selfhood.”  The most interesting word in this quotation is the verb, constellates.  This is a fancy word that means to group together or pull together.  Essentially, it means to form or create somet...

One of the most important contemporary theologians is Franciscan sister, Ilio Delio.  She has doctoral degrees in both theology and science.  I have appreciated her thinking and writing about the nature of our world and human nature.  I like her fresh approach and, yet, her willingness to bring some of the earlier church tradition into a contemporary framework.  This is important work, because we cannot expect modern folks to adhere to out-of-date perspectives.  That is how I prefer to see old church teachings.  They are not wrong, so much as out of date. In the first place, I like Delio’s perspective that humans are co-creators with the Creator of our universe.  This is both an important and responsible role to play along with God.  It says something both about God and about ourselves.  Here is how Delio outlines our task as problem solvers in this world.  “As co-creators, we can begin to resolve some of the problems by better integrati...

I decided to go to breakfast at a local restaurant instead of the usual yogurt or cereal.  That is certainly not a radical decision; people make this decision every day of the year.  My family was gone and it was an easy decision.  I went expecting to have nothing but eggs and bacon and a quick look at email.  In fact, I sat at the counter in order to have a quick breakfast and get on with my day. There certainly is nothing special in all that.  I was not looking for nor expecting anything special.  All I wanted were some eggs and toast.  A waitress whom I have seen, but do not know, came fairly quickly and took the order.  I turned to the emails on my phone, which is an announcement to the surrounding world that I don’t want to be in a conversation.  In the context of my teaching, this was hardly a move to make me contemplative.  I guess I was not concerned with being spiritual at that time. Within a few minutes the waitress brought...

I read a recent interview of Wendell Berry in the New Yorker.  Berry is a decade older than I am and much more famous!  He is a Kentucky writer and farmer, who is real throw back or perhaps a prophet of the future.  He is a poet, novelist and so much more.  Amanda Petrusich interviews Berry about a range of issues.  I want to focus on a couple of the issues and, perhaps, come back to this interview for more ideas at a later time. One of my favorite sections lets us hear Berry reflect on our contemporary culture (which he does a lot) and yields a story about the Amish.  Berry has Amish neighbors and he claims they have taught him much.  I also had some Amish neighbors when I lived in Indiana and I also felt like they were both teachers and challengers.  The challenge was their way of life asked me to think about my way of life.  I think the same thing happens to Berry. Before getting to the Amish, however, Berry reflects on President Trump...

I have offered a few reflections from Sister Joan Chittister because I really like the way she thinks and theologizes.  I have had the good fortune to be at the Benedictine monastery in Erie, PA where Joan calls home.  I was invited one time to share a lecture with the nuns and guests.  That was a special experience for me and was even more significant when I chose to spend the night and be with the sisters the following morning.  I like being in this kind of environment that feels rich with commitment, dedication and meaning.  Everyone there is on an intentional journey to know and serve God. Chittister has been a prophet for the faith for decades now.  I would like to think she has been given eyes to see things the rest of us would miss.  Probably this is because her own spiritual sensitivities have been sharpened from her own spiritual journey and her life with the other sisters.  It is hard to underestimate the power of community.  I am s...

When I was in graduate school, one of the things we joked about was all the big words we were learning.  Learning the big words was not a joke.  We all understood why we were doing it.  The big words gave us an ability to be more precise about what we were discussing.  Our conversations were often about deep things that were not capable of absolutely clear description.  God is the biggest example here.  We would joke that if anyone described God precisely, that person did not know God.  And we felt like the joke was true! We joked about our big words knowing that we could never use these big words in many of our venues of ministry.  If we were preaching to a group of normal folks, we cannot use the big words.  They would not be understood and that is the point of speaking---to be understood.  And if we use big words when they hampered our cause, then we were the joke. I thought about this when I recently read one of Richard Rohr’s da...

Climate change is becoming more prevalent as an issue.  Or at least, I hope it is.  I am on the side of the debate that says our time is running out to do something about taking better care of our earth.  I am not worried about my own skin.  I clearly will be gone before things get dicey on this planet.  But I am worried about my grandkids, who can easily live till 2100 CE.  What will things be like when they are really old---eighty years old—and have their own kids and grandkids.  I am not so sanguine about them and their chances. And so it was with interest that I saw a recent article by Sister Ilio Delio, a contemporary theologian.  I have read some of her books and find her very insightful.  The title of her article is “Theology needs radical revisioning.”  She opens her piece with reference to Greta Thunberg, the young Swede, who has been speaking to governments about a different approach.  She has won the hearts of many and ma...

The opening line from one of David Brooks’ essays is a sobering one.  Brooks says, “There is some sort of hard-to-define spiritual crisis across the land, which shows up in rising depression rates, rising mental health problems.”  I am willing to take for granted Brooks’ analysis.  It is worth saying he bases that on a recent Pew Research Center study.  I have often used information from the Pew Center and find it very reliable. Brooks’ line reminds me of the famous one-liner from the nineteenth century observer of American culture, Henry David Thoreau.  In his famous work, Civil Disobedience, Thoreau notes, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.  What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.  From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats.  A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of man...

Yesterday I shared some thoughts from Sister Joan Chittister’s recent reflections on the twelfth stop of humility found in St. Benedict’s Rule.  Chittister is a Benedictine nun who has followed the Rule offered by the Benedictine founder all the way back to the sixth century.  I am a Benedictine oblate, which means I am a kind of lay member of this religious order.  It means that I try to follow the Benedictine way of life---insofar as it makes sense given my own life and situation. Humility is clearly a hallmark of this way of life.  It sounds simple, but even for Chittister and her religious sisters, it is not always a piece of cake.  After all, we are humans.  St. Benedict begins his admonition to the humble way of life in a fairly easy way, but by the time we reach the twelfth step, it is clear humility is supposed to be a way of life.  As I remarked yesterday, I like how Chittister offered her modern rendition of this twelfth step.  She sugge...

A piece I read regularly keeps me informed of the huge Catholic world (huge because they have over one billion adherents worldwide) and popular spiritual issues.  That publication has regular writers who routinely offer insight that I would hate to miss.  One of those writers is the now elderly Benedictine nun, Joan Chittister.  Chittister is a nun at the Benedictine monastery in Erie, PA.  She is well-known for her long-time work for social justice.  She has been a leader in her own monastery, within the larger American religious sisters and, indeed, worldwide.  When Chittister talks, folks listen.  I have immense respect for her. For some time, she has been focused on the section in St. Benedict’s Rule on humility.  This sixth century rule offers guidelines for life within the Benedictine monastery.  As such, it is a document Chittister knows well and still appreciates.  The Rule is divided into 73 chapters, many of which are quite sho...