tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57612089366277666852024-03-13T15:54:06.191-04:00Faith & Life Inspirational MessageDaily Inspirational Messages from Baldwin Wallace's Chair in Faith & LifeFaith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.comBlogger2323125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-15210327711828382952022-10-31T09:00:00.000-04:002022-10-31T09:00:09.638-04:00The End<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Thank you
my friends and readers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have decided
to end this long journey of writing inspirational pieces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This past summer I retired from full-time
teaching at Baldwin Wallace University.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As a faculty member there, I held the BW Chair in Faith & Life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a wonderful appointment that afforded
me some freedom to do a variety of things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These inspirational pieces were one effort that was a good way for the
University to offer something to the larger world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It has been a blessed discipline for
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being responsible for writing piece
five days a week demanded that I live with a certain awareness in my life and
the lives of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It encouraged daily
reflection which provoked growth in myself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No doubt, I benefited more than any other
person.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I have appreciated the many words of
encouragement and notes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one writes
or speaks without the hope that someone will read or hear the words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I shared my thoughts through a blog and via
Twitter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can laugh that only a few
years ago, none of us would have heard of those two words, blog and Twitter!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>While I am ending the daily writing,
I do plan to continue reading and reflecting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I plan to write a more occasional blog that will be tweeted on
Twitter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so I will continue to use </span><a href="http://www.alankolp.blogspot.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">www.alankolp.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> to share my thoughts with
folks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope you occasionally check
those out to see what I am pondering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you also are on Twitter, I encourage you to follow me on that medium.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thanks for being on this journey
with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope we can continue
traveling life together.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Alan</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-51154992400456296972022-10-26T12:26:00.002-04:002022-10-26T12:26:37.573-04:00Music of the Spirit<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>One of the
things I most like about the semester ending is the fact we are getting near
the end of the various books I use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
example, in one class I have students read Kathleen Norris’ great book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Cloister Walk</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book originally appeared in 1996.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure when I bought it and read
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I first became aware of Norris’ work
with her book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dakota</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That book is about landscape and a look at
place and space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I came to appreciate a
few things about Norris.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I learned that her educational background
was poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is a published
poet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even of more interest to me was
the fact Norris had spent two lengthy periods in a Benedictine monastery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like me, Norris is a Benedictine oblate,
which basically means she is a “lay Benedictine.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That commits us to living as nearly as we can
the monastic life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both Norris and I are
married; I have kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, that
means we cannot be monks in the traditional sense of the word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we can make a spiritual commitment to
follow that way insofar as we can. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A few years ago, I invited Norris to
my campus to do the lectures which my endowed chair sponsors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was wonderful during her two days with
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is creative and funny in her own
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Norris is about the same age I am,
so it was fun to watch how she sees the world and describes it in ways that I
never would.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has a kind of poet’s
perspective and that fascinates me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As the semester unfolded, I was always glad
again to be near the end of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Cloister
Walk</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That book details Norris’
experience in her months-long stay at St. John’s Abby in Minnesota.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my favorite selection of the book is
one she entitles, “The Gregorian Brain.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If I were in my narrow Quaker world, I would have no clue what that
title communicates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, because of
my many times in a Benedictine monastery, I have a familiarity with Gregorian
chant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I add, I value very highly
every chance I get to participate in worship which employs Gregorian
chant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is something centering and
inspiring in that music.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Norris opens her little chapter with
this amazing sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Recent
neurological research has shown that in religious rituals from around the
world, poetry is generally chanted with a pulse of between two and four
seconds, a pulse that the researchers now believe to correspond to an internal
system in the human brain.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope
that research is true; I want to believe it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That certainly is the effect Gregorian chant has on me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her description of the effect on our brain by
Gregorian chant pushes me to think about music of the Spirit.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Norris quotes a monk who claims,
“the ritual chanting of sacred texts contributes in a unique way to a profound,
largely subliminal, absorption and engagement having many more dimensions than
mere rational understanding.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Norris
adds her own commentary, which I find resonates with my own experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She says about the monks who chant, “the
communal reciting, chanting, singing of the psalms brings a unique sense of
wholeness and order to their day, and even establishes the rhythm of their
lives.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>That’s it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is the effect Gregorian chant has on me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Whenever I enter a monastery, I can
feel my body relax and my breathing slow down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In Quaker language, I sense my whole being begin to center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This Quaker centering is our way to talking
about how soul sense the Spirit and both seek to find their place
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I am centered, I don’t
lose my own sense of identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remain
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I also sense I am with---and
even in---a Presence bigger than I am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is my feeble way of talking about wholeness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I experience myself in to part of a much
larger world and that I have a secure place in that bigger Whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When we find ourselves in that
centered place, we don’t have to worry about things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, it does not mean all our problems
and troubles disappear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, I still will
have problems in life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But life does not
have to be determined nor dominated by problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While problems will be inevitable for all of
us, we do not have to understand life as mere problem-solving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There can be a different kind of rhythm to
our lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This different kind of rhythm is
precisely what I feel and experience when I participate in the life of the
monastery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A significant determiner of
that rhythm is the Gregorian chant into which we all are invited to
participate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gregorian chant invites us
into the center of soul and Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
will feel it as individuals and we will experience the communal effect of being
in it with others---and I would suggest with the Other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Norris notes, “it also fosters an
appreciation for community.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I choose one last quotation from
Norris to describe my profound appreciation for the music of the Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She says “It is a music in harmony with the
body, and with the universe itself.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I can almost laugh as a Quaker when I type those last words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Quaker, I highly value silence and its
own centering effect on my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I
have learned to value equally highly the Gregorian chant of the monks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That music of the Spirit takes me just as
surely to that same centered place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
in that chant I am blessed by a spiritual community that goes to that place
with me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style> <br /></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-86758557243608544352022-10-20T15:07:00.003-04:002022-10-20T15:07:38.453-04:00The Future Has a Name<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>One of the
enduring popular media talks is Pope Francis’ TED Talk, filmed in April,
2017.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Pope is always a compelling
figure, so I like to rewatch it occasionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am never disappointed with his message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes, I am amazed at how relatable this
guy---some would say, old man---really is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I continue to be intrigued with his message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As usual, there are many significant
sub-themes, but I want to focus on his one major theme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is worth noting his overall theme is the
future, so let’s center in on one particular place he deals with that.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I center on one particular section
or big paragraph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The opening sentence
is very clever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Pope says, “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To
Christians, the future does have a name, and its name is Hope.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a cool way to introduce the theme of
“future.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the Christian, Francis
claims, to talk about the future is to talk about hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than analyze what he means by this, we
do well to quote some more papal words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Pope begins
to develop his ideas with the very next sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says, “Feeling hopeful does not mean to be
optimistically naïve and ignore the tragedy humanity is facing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is very important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naïve people are not hopeful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are like people buying cotton candy
expecting it to be food!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You take a bit
and it evaporates in your mouth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
learned a long time ago that hope has to be possible for it to be hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It cannot be some kind of wish dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the Pope is certainly correct when he
says hope is not ignorance.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the next
section of that paragraph, the Pope introduces some theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is not heavy-duty theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Listen to this longish sentence. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Hope is the virtue of a heart that doesn't
lock itself into darkness, that doesn't dwell on the past, does not simply get
by in the present, but is able to see a tomorrow.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hope is, indeed, a virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have written three books in which hope
appears as a virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I think the
Pope describes it far better than I have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hope does not lock itself into darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That does not mean we won’t see dark times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As surely as night follows day, we will have
dark and troubled times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But people of
hope do not get locked into these times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hope does not become despair---that prison out of which we never get.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Furthermore,
hope does not dwell on the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again,
the Pope is not saying hope is ignorant of the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may be very good to remember the
past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The past can be an effective
teacher---even if it were a hard lesson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But we don’t dwell in the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And what the Pope has to say about the future is quite insightful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tells us not simply to “get by” in the
present. Simply getting by is not much of a way to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, hope gives us a way to see a
tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tomorrow is the hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we have it today!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Pope,
then, becomes poetic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He suggests that “Hope
is the door that opens onto the future.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I like the idea of hope as a door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Doors offer access; walls block access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hope is a door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this sense
hope offers possibility. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hope knows
there is a way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like the idea that
hope is an opening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the opening
to our tomorrows.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Francis
continues to analyze hope by introducing a couple of metaphors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, the Pope says, “Hope is a humble,
hidden seed of life that, with time, will develop into a large tree.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hope is a seed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To hope does not mean we have to see the
whole thing---to know the whole story of the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plant the seed and some day you may get a
tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that is faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But hope always demands some form of
faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then Francis switches
metaphors.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He moves
from seed to yeast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He suggests, “It is
like some invisible yeast that allows the whole dough to grow, that brings
flavor to all aspects of life.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
an organic metaphor; yeast is alive. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is a form of action; things happen with yeast, just as it does with hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeast and hope are lively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, I feel the power of hope in a way I
never feel empowered by “wishing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
wish something feels fairly weak, if not, passive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hope has power.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is
more in this single paragraph, but let me end with one more sentence from the
Pope. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He points to each of us when he
says, “A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can
be you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find this both reassuring and
challenging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is reassuring because a
single individual can make such a difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If one person has hope, hope exists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I can always be that individual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it is also challenging because as a person of faith, I accept that
it is my responsibility to be a person of hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My hope is not necessarily that things will get better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My hope holds that there is a future---a
tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In faith I
am confident this is the Divine promise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Regardless of what’s going on, there is hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regardless of what happens, there is a
tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the Christian, even death
carried within it the seed and yeast of hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Through death comes life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
not fact; but it is true and meaningful in faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I thank
Pope Francis for giving me hope and for knowing the future has a name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-60689853864744206532022-10-18T16:57:00.000-04:002022-10-18T16:57:09.674-04:00The God Particle<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Parade</i> magazine is
not usually my source of revelation!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
you may know, it comes in the Sunday newspapers in many parts of the
country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I admit that I do not always
read it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple weeks ago, however, I
noticed the front cover had this as part of the headline: “Finding the Origins
of the Universe.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since I am
not a scientific scholar, it struck me this would be a good piece to read.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I
opened to the article, the title was even more interesting: “The Race for the Secret
of the Universe!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now the story took
on the character of a suspense novel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
was hooked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “race,” as it turns out,
is between the new research tool being built in Switzerland and our own, older
American one, the Fermilab outside of Chicago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These laboratories don’t fit the usual description of labs according to
my high school memory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The one in Europe
is a “17 mile-round-particle accelerator.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is three times bigger than “ours.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So what are we searching?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The article
puts it succinctly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are involved in
“the search for the elusive Higgs boson, also known as ‘the God
particle.’”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Ah, yes, that thing,” I
murmur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I have no idea what a Higgs
boson is!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the article is helpful at
this point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It tells us that “physicists
believe that this special subatomic particle allows all of the other particles
in the universe to have mass and come together to form, well, basically
everything that’s around us.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess
that says it all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without the good ole
Higgs boson, there is nothing---and that includes us!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may not know what it is, but clearly it is
important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I am glad it exists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks be to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And I can
see why it is called “the God particle.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But this thing is so infinitesimally small it has yet to be
detected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just like God to be so
important---yes, even crucial---and yet “hide” from us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love this sense of divine humor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of us, if we were God, would want big,
divine egos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would pound our royal
chests and be arrogant beyond belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thank God we are not god!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
appreciate the fact the article does tell us who this Higgs person is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is the Scottish theorist who initially
speculated in 1964 there was such a particle which could explain our universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a search worthy of Sherlock
Holmes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I now understand it, these
particle accelerators speed up particles---protons and anti-protons---and smash
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an attempt to replicate
the Big Bang and the very creation of matter itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there in the Big Bang we will find “the
God particle.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I finish
reading and trying to get my mind around this, I am left with two impressions
that are worthy of spiritual reflection---and thanksgiving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first impression concerns the undaunted
curiosity of humankind and our abilities to push the knowledge-envelope to the
very edge of life itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
impressive!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My life and yours should be
impressive.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The second
impression concerns that God whom I believe in some sneaky, creative way
enabled it all to happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be sure, I
realize why we usually think of God in big ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is appropriate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But God also might be continually lurking in
our present world as a “God particle.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I am left
in awe---awe at us (me, you, and all folks) and at God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In small ways may I live bigger in my world
this day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let us all live up to the
dignity the Divinity implanted in us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thanks be to God</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-15917244761923012062022-10-13T17:57:00.000-04:002022-10-13T17:57:12.158-04:00Quaker Waiting<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>A
theme that is part of the Quaker vocabulary, with which I grew up, is the idea
of waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure to most people,
the idea of waiting for anything seems pretty boring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, we do have to wait for things in
life, but generally we don’t like it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
wonder if American culture has not been a race to get faster?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are many examples that suggest this is
true.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So much of the world I inhabit seems
to be on a quest to get faster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
evolution of the internet is a great example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was aware of computers coming to be a factor in our world, but did not
personally get involved in computers till the mid-1980s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, that was before the internet had
been invented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In those days all my mail
came through the mail!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I finally made my
peace with computers and, of course, now can’t imagine not having one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then the internet was invented---in
the 90s, I think---and at some point my mail started coming through
electronically---appropriately labeled, “email.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now if I get a real, interesting letter in
the mailbox, I celebrate like an old friend pulled off a miracle!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And with the advent of cell phones now, most
of us get our “letters” on a phone in our pocket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of going to the mailbox, we simply
pull out the phone and read our emails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And the email might be from half-way around the world and it is still
instanteous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one want to wait one
second longer than necessary.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And that brings me back to the
Quaker theme of waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quakers
happened upon this term because our theology says we cannot program God to
operate on our own sense of timing or whim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We cannot demand that God show up on our command and do exactly what we
want to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In effect, we are resigned
to the fact that God is still God and we are still human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, an atheist denies God’s existence,
so doesn’t worry about interacting with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I still have a sense there is God and so am intent on interacting
with my God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I am intrigued with what God might
want to say to me and what God might want me and others to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I can’t email God, then I have to
wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recognize my timing is not
necessarily God’s timing, so I have to wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even if I am in a hurry, that does not means God is in a hurry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I have to wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s the issue.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The theme of waiting came to be
prominent for Quakers in their gatherings to worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theoretically, Quakers see worship as a time
when the people come together physically in order that they might be gathered
into the Presence of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is fair to
say the hope is to experience some sense of unity coming out of our
diversity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not happen every time
Quakers come together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, God is
not programmed by a group any more than by an individual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do think God promises to show up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But God will show up in God’s own sense of
timing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And so Quakers gather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is appropriate that we gather
expectantly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is appropriate because
God does promise to be present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But God
does not promise to be present whenever and however we demand it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so we gather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In effect we ready ourselves and come to be
ready to be gathered into the Presence of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is our part---to become ready.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Quaker language I learned is we
gather “to wait upon the Lord.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know
this is a line that occurs frequently in the Journal of George Fox, that
seventeenth century early Quaker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
wait upon the Lord was his way of expressing the “readying process” that made
Quakers aware and available to the God who would come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the waiting might not seem very
exciting, but does not have to be boring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let me use an analogy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Perhaps it is not a good analogy,
but the place where expectant language is regularly used is with women
expecting a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Typically, we say
“she is expecting.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In effect, she is
waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not boring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not a question of whether, only
when.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Analogously, this is how it is
with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically, waiting is the
active part we humans can do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Waiting is
indeed active waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the trick,
if there is a trick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most Americans
probably seen waiting as both boring and passive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There seems nothing to do when one is
waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that is not true with
active waiting.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The more I work with various layers
of spirituality, I wonder if active waiting on the Lord is not an exercise in
awareness and attention?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect it
is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am also convinced it is a form of
spiritual discipline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a good way
contemporarily to talk about the process of coming to meet and be present with
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is still the basic question.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I assume that most people who believe
in God and want to interact somehow with the Divine One do not think God is
some kind of “cosmic bell hop,” as one friend put it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do think there is always a timing issue
with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theologically, God may always
be present, but it takes a certain amount of awareness and attention on our
part to know it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And God may be sitting
around always waiting for us to show up, but generally it takes some discipline
on our part to learn to show up.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So in that little phrase, “waiting
upon the Lord,” Quakers nicely have captured a succinct way to talk about
coming to be in the Presence---to meet and mingle with God.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-82477666547013455082022-10-12T14:37:00.000-04:002022-10-12T14:37:00.577-04:00Waiting<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>I enjoy the various opportunities that come my way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am grateful for the rather wide-ranging
reading I am able to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I also
appreciate the daily discipline of using the lectionary to guide some
devotional time coupled with reflection time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As I have mentioned in the past, I use the daily lectionary (fixed
readings) from my Benedictine monastic friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I like the fact that I am reading the same scripture in the mornings
that monks across the land are reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
lectionary keeps my rhythm in place and manages a focus for me that I don’t
have to give thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As with all
discipline, the only issue is whether I do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The planning is done for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
question is my execution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A discipline
is not meant to be onerous or rigid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
am convinced most effective disciplines are the ones we choose to take on and
live in daily lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I
turned to today’s morning readings from the lectionary, there was the usual
selection from the Psalms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is one
of the nice things about the Benedictine lectionary; there are always
Psalms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did not grow up with much
familiarity of the Psalms, so I appreciate the daily dose of this magnificent
Old Testament book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently, one of the
Psalms for the morning was Psalm 63.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Morning
Prayer time when the monks first gather is early---before the sun comes
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, my friends at Gethsemani
Abbey in Kentucky begin their day at 3:15am!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As I began the morning Psalm reading, it was obvious why it was placed
at this time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Psalmist begins: “<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">O God, you are my God, I
watch for you from the dawn.” (63:1)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Part of using these Psalms is not to
race through the reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, they
are usually read slowly and, often, in Gregorian chant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are meant to be read meditatively and reflectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when I read this first line, I stopped to
ponder it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was intrigued by how
personal the Psalmist made it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Psalmist says, “you are my God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not
think that is meant possessively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
more in the vein of the familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
more that the Psalmist is saying something like, “Hey God, it is me; you know
me and I know you.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The next part of that sentence was a
good point for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Psalmist says, “I
watch for you from the dawn.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
experienced that line as a challenge and an inspiration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The style of the Psalmist is different than
most of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can hear the Psalmist
saying, “It is my commitment to get up and begin the waiting for God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect most of us assume it is God’s role
to show up when we want it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think the
Psalmist has priorities in place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is
human; God is God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the human role
to get ready for God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This prompted me to reflect on my
own human role in relating to the Holy One.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The first thing that occurred to me is to doubt that I have the close,
personal relationship with God that seems to be the case for the Psalmist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could rationalize it and say that the
Psalmist was advanced and knew that he had to write scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that does nothing but take me off the
hook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing is gained by going that
direction.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It really means I have not done
enough relational work to be as close to the Holy One.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To say that is not to head down the road of a
guilt trip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather it is meant to
challenge and inspire me to get going down the road of my choice: a closer
relationship with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Psalmist
inspires me in three ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will
posture myself to be waiting, watching and willing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>By getting up and preparing to greet
the Divinity, the Psalmist positions himself by waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like to think it is expectant waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Psalmist does not wonder whether God will
show up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, the Psalmist waits in
order to be there and be present when God shows up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That seems prudent to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Waiting is the spiritual antidote to
impatience. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Psalmist not only is prepared to
wait for the Holy One, he is ready to watch for the appearing of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Getting ready to greet the Divine One is not
always easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God does not just walk into
the room like some other human being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think God “appears” to us in many different guises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes it might be coming in the person of
a friend or mentor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to be able to
see the other and to see God in him or her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sometimes God appears in the beauty or majesty of nature---the sunrise
or sunset.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes it is a song or a
sign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to wait and to watch.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally, I have to be willing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to be willing to engage the Divinity
when I have that opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know
that God wants it from me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to be
willing for it to happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not God’s
puppet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And God is not my puppet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a grace to the Divine-human
encounter and relationship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
continuing to learn that grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a
gift, but I cannot be grabby!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One little verse has made my
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is true, but it has made my
day only if I learn from it and execute it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I will wait, watch and become willing.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-11927234243525922232022-10-10T10:16:00.002-04:002022-10-10T10:16:27.497-04:00Spiritual Crisis or Opportunity<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>The
opening line from one of David Brooks’ essays is a sobering one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brooks says, “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is
some sort of hard-to-define spiritual crisis across the land, which shows up in
rising depression rates, rising mental health problems.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am willing to take for granted Brooks’
analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is worth saying he bases
that on a recent Pew Research Center study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have often used information from the Pew Center and find it very
reliable.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Brooks’
line reminds me of the famous one-liner from the nineteenth century observer of
American culture, Henry David Thoreau.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In his famous work, Civil Disobedience, Thoreau notes, “The mass of men
lead lives of quiet desperation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is
called resignation is confirmed desperation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the desperate city you go into the
desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and
muskrats. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A stereotyped but unconscious
despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of
mankind. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no play in them, for
this comes after work. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is a
characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure Brooks has this quotation in mind,
although he never cites or refers to it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Instead,
Brooks quotes a number of unnamed folks to illustrate his point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the most poignant ones laments, “I no
longer find much of anything meaning, fulfilling or satisfying. Whatever used
to keep me going has gone. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
currently struggling to find any motivation to keep going.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I did not know better, I could imagine
Brooks had been sitting in one of my classroom and listen to this comment from
one of my students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, this may
not be representative of the American psyche, it is prevalent enough to take notice
and, if possible, address.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what
I like about David Brooks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He does just
that.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Brooks is
extremely well read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knows that
philosophers and spiritual folks have centuries of thoughts about the meaning
of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, he says that these
folks usually say meaning in life comes with “some version of serving a cause
larger than self.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would agree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That cause might be God or God’s will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be justice for the poor or similar
kinds of ego-transcending causes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
now, Brooks throws a wrench into this centuries old logic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He claims, “But the meaning of meaning seems
to have changed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He elaborates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“When people in this survey describe meaning,
they didn’t describe moral causes or serving their community, country or
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They described moments they felt
loved, satisfied or good about themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They described positive personal emotions.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Essentially,
Brooks laments that people now have tended to lose a sense of the
transcendent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is often about me,
rather than something beyond myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think his analysis is correct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like
the way Brooks articulates it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Everything feels personalized and miniaturized…The best you can do is
find a small haven in a heartless world.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fortunately, Brooks offers a window on the future that might be brighter
than we fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it rests with the
younger folk---the kind who are indeed sitting in my classroom.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Brooks has
just finished a lecture tour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He shares
this thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“…the big thing I
encountered was the seismic generation gap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>People my age rag on the younger generation for being entitled and
emotionally fragile, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this
generation is also seething with moral passion and rebelling against the
privatization of morality so prevalent in the Boomer and Gen-X generations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In fact,
Brooks shares one of his conversations with college students that gives me hope
and that resonates with my own experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He says, “I’ve also found that college students are eager to talk about
a moral project entirely absent from the Pew survey: Doing inner work, growing
in holiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many seem to have
rediscovered the sense, buried for a few decades, that one calling in life is
to become a better person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your current
self is not good enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have to be
transformed through right action.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I find it
intriguing to see the language he uses about the Gen-Z gang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doing inner work is a lovely phrase and
describes very well what I think students in spiritual seeking modes are
doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This inner work does have to do
with belonging and with identity issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It does include a search for meaning and purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And typically it is a search for community,
although this may be the most elusive for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I would argue our whole obsession with social media works against the
formation of authentic communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
the obsession with social media does betray the search for community.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I would
agree with Brooks that the ultimate answer for human beings is some form of
spirituality---or religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is
not evident and it is not easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have
to look for and be creative with the problems of our time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For in the problems we often find the
opportunities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, if someone
has concluded, there is no meaning, then we know meaning is the issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the opportunity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For those
of us who think we know something spiritually, there is work to do because
there are so many opportunities.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-91297729358667167052022-10-06T20:13:00.002-04:002022-10-06T20:13:27.171-04:00Venue for Human Goodness<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Sometimes
the inspiration for these pieces comes from very traditional and predictable
sources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I read a great deal in the
spiritual literature, so that obviously is a marvelous resource.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I try to follow the lectionary of the
Benedictine monastic community, so I know that is always a resources for
readings from the Psalms and other biblical references.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I try to watch as my days unfold for those
obvious or, even, subtle revelations of inspiring moments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find if I stay aware, a lot happens that
hints at profundity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today’s inspiration came from a
predictable place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I regularly read a
number of periodicals on line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
old days we would have called them magazines!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I don’t receive magazines in the mail any more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few regularly come on the internet and it
is there I find some inspiration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I
was reading last night, my eyes caught an intriguing title.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The title reads, “7 ways I find human
goodness in pickup basketball.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
immediately knew I would read this one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I began to think about the zillion of pickup basketball games I have
played in my lifetime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I played on organized teams
throughout school and am grateful for those days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in truth, pickup games were way more in
number than “official” games I ever played.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And probably they were just as much fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I’ll admit, I never thought about them the way this author, Mike
Jordan Laskey, insightfully offers his observations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to laugh at his name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to know if his middle name really
were “Jordan,” but I decided not to do that research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just hope that is his name!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mike Jordan Laskey is the director
of the Life and Justice ministries for the Catholic diocese of Camden, NJ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I’ll meet him some day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until then, I am grateful and content with
his reflections on pickup basketball.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
don’t want to quote much of the article.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead, I prefer to begin with the last sentence of the blog.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Laskey concludes his thoughts with
this sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maybe
basketball, wherever it's played, can be a venue for human goodness because
success requires sharing, teamwork, persistence and wanting the best for each
other, over and over again, until the final buzzer sounds or the high school
custodian shuts off the lights.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved
that sentence and now want to unpack it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I believe it not only characterizes pickup basketball games, but it
analogously is true about spiritual communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe we who want to live the spiritual
life---and hopefully in community---can learn from pickup basketball games.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
appreciate the major finding of Laskey, namely, that pickup basketball games
“can be a venue for human goodness.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
he realizes, there are occasions in the pickup game when quarrels break out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they normally get resolved---without
referees and without police.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our world
could learn and thing or two here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
fascinates me that the pickup game is competitive; players do want to win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is never “win at any cost.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People play by the rules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Players call fouls and errors all by
themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is respect for the
game and its boundaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this to
work, people need to be good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cheaters
wreck the game and, ultimately, bring an end to the game.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
especially like the way Laskey’s final sentences analyzes why pickup games are
venues for human goodness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Success
requires sharing,” he says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an
astute observation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so does spiritual living require sharing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sharing is the opposite of greed or
hoarding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sharing says, “what is mine is
also, in part, yours.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sharing opens up
relationships rather than closing them down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sharing creates friendships and refusal to share causes hard feelings
and, in the worst case scenarios, enemies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Laskey
continues by acknowledging pickup games require teamwork.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect part of the appeal and beauty of
basketball is the team aspect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved
playing team sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In spiritual terms,
this goes to the heart of community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is difficult and, certainly, no fun to try to be spiritual all by
ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both basketball and spirituality
are participation sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to
teamwork, the games require persistence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No game is won in the first minute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To win you have to play the game---the whole game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means teammates have to work together to
the very end.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Human
goodness is not won in a weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
also requires persistence---being good over time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just like a basketball game, there will be
challenges and probably mishaps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you
hang in there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You keep trying and
trying to do it right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teammates
help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both the pickup game and life have
to be seen through to the very end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally,
Laskey’s last point is my favorite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
pickup game works because the teammates want “the best for each other.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a great deal for everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To each of us individually, it feels demanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do need to want the best for every other
player.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the good news is: every
other player wants the best for me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is true in spiritual community as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a good life when you know there are others out there who want the
very best for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a far better
deal than traveling alone and trying to make it on your own---alone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I can’t
play basketball anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I can be
fully a part of spiritual community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is nice that it, too, is a venue for human goodness. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-53840129831265475852022-10-05T17:25:00.002-04:002022-10-05T17:25:50.849-04:00Feast of Francis<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>A title like this one for this inspirational reflection is
about a non-Quaker as I could image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When I was young, if you told me yesterday was the Feast of St. Francis,
I would have responded with a blank stare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It would have meant nothing to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In my tradition we did not have “feast days.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we never talked about saints, except
maybe the authors of the New Testament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I might have connected with St. John, the gospel writer, or St. Paul,
the other New Testament guy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there
were no Quaker saints.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But then my
education began.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God keeps putting into
my life good Catholics and Episcopalians and the others who regularly use
saints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gradually, the saints became
known to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I studied some about the
monks of the early centuries, I encountered some weird, but holy women and
men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I studied enough Greek and Latin to
learn that the word, “saint,” really means “holy.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A saint was a holy person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not mean he or she is god, but he or
she routinely hangs out with God and somehow that influences him or her.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I began to
realize there really were Quaker saints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We just never recognized them with that language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely John Woolman, the famous 18<sup>th</sup>
century American Quaker who was so instrumental in the anti-slavery movement,
deserved to be seen as St. John, even if we never talked about him as
such.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And surely, countless old Quaker
ladies, as we called them, were saintly in their work and their
ministry---often in unseen and quiet ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They will never be canonized, but they should be emulated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They knew what hanging out with the Holy One
meant.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yesterday
was the Feast Day for St. Francis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
now I know a fair amount about Francis and I like him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Francis was a 13<sup>th</sup> century Italian
who began his teenage years as the life of the party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He loved having fun and had little interest
in following his father as a merchant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He went out with some of his fellows as a soldier and was promptly taken
captive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He mind turned to more serious
things and the story of a saint begins.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Francis
felt called by God to rebuild an old, dilapidated church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His father got mad at him for squandering so
much money on a useless task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So Francis
repaid his father the loaned money and, then, set out on his own chosen
lifetime of “evangelical poverty.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Poverty became the hallmark of the Franciscans.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Franciscans, along with the Dominicans, were not actually monks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead they were what were called
mendicants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I know if I used the
word, “mendicant,” in my class, they students would have no clue what I
meant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mendicant is literally a
beggar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the beggar would be one that
should not be seen as a panhandler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
beggar is one who has committed to a life of evangelical poverty---following
rather literally the model of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Stay poor and be unattached to material things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of course,
those of us with some means have to share with these mendicants---these
Franciscans and the like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am ok
with this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they are committed to a
life of holy poverty, I am more than willing to share what I have in order that
they can share what they have, namely, their saintly presence. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If they are
hanging out with the Holy One, then I can join them on the edges of
holiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure I have the call
nor the will to become a mendicant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
use poor English, I prefer to be a “haver” than a “beggar.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not able to live without my possessions
and my attachments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I applaud the
Franciscans and all those who can go all the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far, I am a partway-spiritual person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I think God is ok with that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or it is a rationalization to make me feel
better.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Instead of
poverty the way Francis talked about, Quakers traditionally have focused on
what we call simplicity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Simplicity
seems less radical than poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Simplicity seems doable, even though I am not doing too well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Simplicity asks, “how much is enough?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have more than enough, perhaps you
have not chosen a simple life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Francis is
a kind of hero for me---a spiritual hero.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His life is both witness and challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He is a witness to what is possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a life free from attachments and free for service in God’s world
to God’s people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My heart wants
this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when I am honest, I realize my
heart does not want it bad enough to hang out with the Holy One too much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God knows what might be asked of me, if I
did!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So honestly
I hang back as much, or more, than I hang out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I appreciate the challenge of Francis because he keeps reappearing in my
life urging me to walk the saints’ path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I know I can’t do it with poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So I try to live more simply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
I can hang out more with St. Francis, then I likely am going to be drawn more
deeply into the sphere of the Holy One.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’m not a
saint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am a beginner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>St. Francis’ Feast Day is now past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am going to keep on.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-62918727321662251572022-10-03T15:24:00.000-04:002022-10-03T15:24:15.700-04:00Focus My Flickering<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Recently I was doing
some work with the poetry of Thomas Merton, my favorite monk of the twentieth
century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Merton wrote a huge amount of
poetry and, in fact, saw himself first and foremost as a poet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many people who like Merton a great deal do
not know anything about his poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
told his poetry is not great, but that is ok with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not a poetry expert.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One of my regrets is not paying
attention more in those high school English classes when the teacher was trying
to develop an appreciation for poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
am not sure what kind of stupid reason I would have given for my lackadaisical
engagement, but love of poetry did not happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Clearly the problem was not with poetry; it was with me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been playing catch-up ever since.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I was working with one of Merton’s
most famous poems, entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hagia Sophia</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since I know Greek, I knew that translated
“Holy Wisdom.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The biblical image of
Wisdom plays a key role in the spirituality of Thomas Merton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In biblical understanding, Wisdom is the
Divine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wisdom is one of the ways God is
present in our world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wisdom is creative
and inspiring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many ways Wisdom is
almost Christ-like.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I was sharing this with a group to
whom I was speaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turned out a
woman in the group is very much into poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was fun to watch her become so engaged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For her poetry was virtually a medium of
revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To her poetry sometimes
spoke the very words of Wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew I
had much to learn from her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I
laughed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Greek Sophia (Wisdom) is
feminine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You would appropriately talk
about “her.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps Divine Wisdom was
using this woman I had just met to teach me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I simply said thanks to her---to the woman and to Wisdom!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Later that same night I had a note
from the woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She talked about how she
was connecting Merton’s poetry to another Catholic poet of the nineteenth
century, Gerard Manley Hopkins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
know too much about Hopkins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know he
converted to Catholicism, became a Jesuit, was ordained and was one of the
leading Victorian poets.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My new friend also talked about the
poet, Denise Levertov.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know much
about her except some sense of her long, agonizing entry into the Catholic
Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My new friend shared a piece of
Levertov’s poem, to which she gave the title, “Flickering Mind.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was grabbed by this poem, as if Hagia
Sophia (Holy Wisdom) were speaking to me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At one point Levertov writes, “Not
for one second will me self hold still, but wanders anywhere, everywhere it can
turn.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That resonated deeply with how it
sometimes seems to be with my self---my soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then to God, she confesses, “Not you, it is I am absent.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mea
culpa</i>, I want to say---my fault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even when I intend to attend to Wisdom who is within us, I fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mind will wander.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will chase any distraction that comes my
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vowing stability, I choose to be
instable in attention and in action.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I can agree with Levertov when she
writes about God: “You the unchanging presence, in whom all moves and
changes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This affirms God to be the
creative Source of the universe, of you and of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without Holy Wisdom, we die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without Holy Wisdom, we go mad and are
insane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally, I came to a passage in
Levertov’s poem that has become key for me in my pilgrimage in faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Delightfully she asks a question, rather than
make a pronouncement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think much
spiritual growth comes from questions, rather than pronouncements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Levertov asks, “How can I focus my
flickering, perceive at the fountain’s heart the sapphire I know is there?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I ponder this question, two things hit me.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The first thing is the conviction
Levertov has that we each possess a sapphire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To me this means that we each have at our core something incredible
valuable and beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That sapphire
might well be our deep soul, the true self, the child of God in whose image we
have been created.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Merton uses the image
of a diamond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems to me they both
are on to the same thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
beautiful at our core.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Secondly and sadly, we cannot stay
there at the core and live from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do
move away and chart our own agenda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is why I am arrested by Levertov’s serious query: how can I focus my
flickering?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love the image of
“flickering.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We think of the perilous
candle flickering in the wind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will it
go out?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or will it bear the light for
which it is intended?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a soulful
question.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Flickering suggests both peril and
promise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On our own the flickering
probably will end in extinction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if
we can focus that flickering, we have a chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have a chance to know and be known by Holy Wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teach me, O Wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teach me to focus my flickering.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-19363426334574607042022-09-30T16:05:00.002-04:002022-09-30T16:05:39.965-04:00Faith as Longing<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Regular readers know that I appreciate the writings of
columnist David Brooks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is an
insightful thinker who shares ideas and conclusions, which make me think about
my own ideas and conclusions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Near the
Christmas season Brooks wrote a trenchant piece on faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That piqued my attention for two reasons: I
consider myself a person of faith and I teach religion, which often deals with
faith issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I eagerly jumped into
his article.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The title
of Brooks’ offering was intriguing: “The Subtle Sensations of Faith.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I got the direction of his essay when
I read the following sentence in the initial paragraph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You’d
think faith would be a simple holding of belief, or a confidence in things
unseen, but, in real life, faith is unpredictable and ever-changing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure he is correct that many folks
assume faith means what they believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
fact, if you ask Christians about faith, they usually will begin a catalogue of
beliefs---in God, in Jesus, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seen
this way, faith becomes an intellectual or cognitive thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I much prefer the way Brooks
goes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He re-directs the faith discussion
when he claims faith is “unpredictable and ever-changing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because I agree with him does not make both
of us right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the way he puts it does
resonate with my experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I
ponder the meaning of faith, I admit I am influenced by the languages I have
studied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know in the classical
languages faith is more often a verb than it is a noun.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This simple observation is a subtle
one for those of us who only know English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As a word, faith is always a noun in English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To try to make it a verb sounds absurd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No says “I faith God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly when we need a verb in English, we
switch to the word, trust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It makes
perfect sense to say, “I trust God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
can also say that “I trust my kids” and mean that I have faith in them and so
on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Greek and Latin I could have used
the faith word as a verb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Greek I can
say “I faith my kids!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This seems relevant when we pursue
some more of Brooks’ insightful reflections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He describes the birth of faith in a neat way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It begins, for many people, with an elusive
experience of wonder and mystery.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again,
this makes sense because it resonates with my own experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think for a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If someone asked you how did your faith in
God begin, how would you answer it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
can even leave God out of the picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We could also ask how did faith in your child begin?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brooks’ answer is sublime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faith begins “with an elusive experience of
wonder and mystery.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If I understand Brooks, he is saying
faith is born in an experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
course, that can lead to ideas---even to theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But faith is primarily experiential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the early experience of faith often is
hard to describe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an experience of
wonder and mystery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know wonder and
mystery in my own life, but I also know they are not easy to describe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The neat thing about this is the fact that
wonder and mystery can break out almost any place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any of those places can become an opportunity
for faith to be born.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Brooks take a next and obvious
step.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He portrays likely experiences
that would bring most people to faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He says, “Most believers seem to have had these magical moments of
wonder and clearest consciousness, which suggested a dimension of existence
beyond the everyday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it happened
during childbirth, with music, in nature, in love or pain, or during a moment
of overwhelming gratitude and exaltation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Again, I could not agree more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
all my work with students in religion classes and adults in various groups, I
hear stories of experiences like these that describe “existence beyond the
everyday.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That points to faith.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally comes perhaps the most
important statement in Brooks’ entire essay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He says, “These glimmering experiences are not in themselves faith, but
they are the seed of faith.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
experiences are not faith; faith is my response to the truth of the
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my case faith is grasping
a truth that there is a God behind and beyond the wonder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is a God whom I meet (“experience”) in
the wonder and mystery.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But this is not where it ends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, faith is always a
commencement---always a beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faith
is a verb---a word of action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
get faith to have faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get faith to
begin to live out faith---to live faithfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To continue with Brooks’ line of thought, I see faith birthed in my by
experiencing the wonder and mystery of a dimension of existence different than
my everyday world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then I bring that
dimension of existence into my everyday life and transform everyday life into a
kind of wonder.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Put simply, faith enables me and
challenges me to life a life of wonder---grounded in the Mystery, which is God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To live a life of wonder is to life a
wonderful life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To live this kind of
faithful life will make life amazing and never appalling.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-7816381738473800182022-09-29T16:07:00.002-04:002022-09-29T16:07:22.183-04:00St. Louis Jesuits<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>To young
ears, the St. Louis Jesuits might sound like some boring theological group---a
conference perhaps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But with old ears
like mine, just perhaps you recall a group of guys who sang contemporary music
that was used in church services, but also gain momentum in many non-church
venues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were one of the favorite
groups of mine because of the lyrics they wrote and the melodic way they sang
this kind of music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of us in the
60s and 70s would have called it folk music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have not thought about the St. Louis Jesuits for a long time.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And then I hit upon an article that
headlined this group recently heading for their last concert after forty-five
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I began reading the article by
Jeannette Cooperman with relish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The article
opened with an interesting story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bob
Dufford, priest, was awakened from a sound sleep to learn that on the morning
of Bill Clinton’s first presidential inauguration, the groups’ song, “Be Not
Afraid,” would be used.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved that
song/hymn.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some of the words immediately came
to mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You shall cross the barren
desert, but you shall not die of thirst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You shall wander far in safety, though you do not know the way.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story continued to narrate how Dufford
had struggled with the lyrics of the piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As Cooperman shares the story, we learn, “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A fellow
member of The St. Louis Jesuits, Jesuit Fr. John Foley, had said at one point,
‘I think this could be an important song. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it's not <i>you </i>shall cross
the desert, it's you shall cross the <i>desert.</i>’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the melody's convenience, the emphasis was
falling on the wrong word.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a lover
of language, I appreciate this point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sometimes it does make a different which word to emphasize.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The other
point in this little story is originally desert had no modifier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The song simply said, you shall cross the
desert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly, there is nothing
wrong with that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is clear; it makes
sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Dufford knew something else
was needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was on the prowl for a
two syllable adjective!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He thought about
“sandy” and “salty.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am glad he did
not choose either one of those.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he
landed on “barren.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is amazing
how much that adjective adds to the idea of a desert and to the hearing and
singing of the hymn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Powerful…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We are told
their first album appeared in 1974.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
learned so much more as I continued to read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was amazed to learn they have written 571 songs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked learning about the history of the
group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all appeared in St. Louis in
the 70s for study toward ordination in the Jesuit order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vatican II was only a decade old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That phenomenal Catholic gathering literally
changed the Catholic Church that all of us knew---for Catholics and
non-Catholics alike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even as a
non-Catholic, Vatican II had a formative effect on me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Vatican II
dictated that Mass be said in the vernacular---English in my case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And new songs were needed to fit the time of
the 60s and 70s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so those
priests-to-be set out to write contemporary, meaningful hymns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would say their music became a way to
express the gospel and to do vocal ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was effective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still find it
speaks to me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One of the
things I like is to know how they combined the studies they were doing to be
ordained with the desire to let this academic material become part of the
message for the larger church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They took
ideas from theology classes and Bible classes and worked their magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They found a way to address their times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cooperman describes their effort and effect
this way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“There was gentle reassurance
and compassion, exhilaration and joy, doubt and search, intimacy and humility
and reverence — all of it set to melodies that were musically sophisticated,
yet singable.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is still true for me
today.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We get a
feel for this if we look at the fourth stanza of “Be Not Afraid.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If you pass through raging waters in the
sea, you shall not drown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you walk
amidst the burning flames, you shall not be harmed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you think about life and all its ups and
downs, this hymn offers the solace and encouragement not to get totally
down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple recurring stanzas articulate the
hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Be not afraid, I go before you
always.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come follow Me, and I shall give
you rest.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I can hear
the music for these words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am still
touched and encouraged by their promise and the hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am grateful for the St. Louis Jesuits for
this gift that keeps on giving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could
probably write something on a large number of their hymns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure I like it, in part, because of the
music---the pace, tone, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I also
like it for their theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No doubt, it
works well because their theology is probably close to my own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But I am
most grateful for the ministry their music and words provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am assured that I don’t have to be
afraid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At times in life, that seems
unbelievable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am comforted knowing
that God does go before us always.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
know my faith is tested at times, but my hope is their line does not lie.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thanks my
Jesuit friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-42039474520852562372022-09-28T15:29:00.003-04:002022-09-28T15:29:46.246-04:00Not an Easy Life<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>I loved
going into the classroom to teach younger students some of what I know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike Chemistry or some of the other
sciences, what I know is not the same thing as a fact in science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, there are facts in the study of
religion, but those may not be the facts that people assume.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, I do not think God is a fact in
the world and my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is faith
statement rather than a fact statement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By that I mean, I know God by virtue of faith in an Entity or Being that
is beyond me or any other particular individual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faith is more like trust than it is a
fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That does not mean God is any less
real for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I cannot prove to
someone that God exists or that God loves me and others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is my experience, but I recognize I can
be mistaken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means I could not
teach students the facts about God and expect them to sign on the divine bottom
line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some may believe much like I
do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others don’t believe it at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our job in the classroom is not to try to
convince each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to
respect each other and to be open to the sharing that can come from respect.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Whatever God is to me has to be
grounded in my own life and my own life experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recognize that much of our experience in an
interpretation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But much of the deepest
aspects of ourselves is an interpretation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For example, if I develop significant feelings for someone, I probably
will say that I love that person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I
call “love” is a complex mix of feelings and thoughts that I choose to identify
as “love.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then I choose this one
word, love, to convey to the person what I want them to know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I usually don’t spend time wondering how
they interpret the word “love” that I just used to tell them how I feel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Talk about risky business!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All this is on my mind when I walked
into the first class session of a course I taught entitled “Contemplative
Spirituality.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My goal, as I tell the
students, was to help them learn about and then begin to live as a
contemplative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, most of them
have no clue what that means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They might
use the word “contemplate” to mean thinking seriously about a problem or matter
in life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there is a rich history of
contemplative spirituality, not only in the Christian tradition, but in most of
the major religious traditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is
a fact what many of the folks in those historical traditions have said about
contemplative spirituality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we can
learn those facts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the facts don’t
make us contemplatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And so the first day of class, I
often turned to a key text we use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked
Roger Walsh’s book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Essential
Spirituality</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That book describes
the seven practices of becoming contemplatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The practices have to do with things like emotional wisdom, ethics,
service, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is all the content
for the whole course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like to start
small.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But small is not always
simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, the last time I
taught the class, first day I chose to begin with the first sentence of Walsh’s
book.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The first sentence affirms, “Life is
not always easy, but it can be ecstatic.” (1) I ask students to spend a little
time reflecting on these words and see if they have an experience in life which
resonates with the sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no
question for most human beings, life is not always easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Students begin to appreciate the clarity of
language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, the little
adverb, always, plays a huge role in that sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, sometimes life is easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes life is a total blast---it is fun,
filled with joy, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But life is not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">always</i> easy. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are times when life is a
pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there are times when life
brings more pain that we want or, perhaps, think we can sustain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no fun and nothing is funny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the times we may really wonder if there
is a God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if there is a God, we are
not sure what that God who loves us is up to?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In faith I am never led to despair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Life is not always easy, but it is still possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life does not become impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With God nothing is impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is faith.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Life is not always easy, but that
does not mean that life is always difficult or a disaster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last half of that initial sentence is
just as important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are reminded of
the other half of Walsh’s sentence” “…but it (life) can be ecstatic.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ecstasy means things are so good, we go
outside of ourselves in joy and delight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Things literally are unbelievably good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This often feels like grace---like pure gift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We get joy and we get to enjoy!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Again, language is important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Walsh only says life <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can</i> be ecstatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a
possibility; it is not a guarantee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
does not say life <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will</i> be ecstatic;
it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can</i> be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am good with this possibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Possibility is enough for hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If life is not always easy, it is nice to
have the hope that is does not have to be hard and awful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is the possibility and hope that life
can also be ecstatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To live long enough means most of us
will know both halves of that sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have experiences where life is not always easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we also probably have experiences when
life was ecstatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To become
contemplative is to be able to deal with life when it is not easy and to
celebrate those times when life becomes ecstatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked to tell students being contemplative
works better in community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life does not
have to be a lonely, solitary journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My
faith tells me we were created by Love for love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love is our way of coming to be in the world
and the way we are to be in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This faith is foundational when life is not easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-17938076703143582022022-09-27T17:18:00.002-04:002022-09-27T17:18:09.356-04:00Quaker Teacher<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>If someone
knows me and knows that I am a Quaker, it might be assumed this is about
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It actually is part of a headline in a book
review I saw in a denominational magazine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The title of that article in full is “Quaker teacher looks at the end of
life.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a review of my friend,
Parker Palmer’s, most recent book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On the
Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have known Palmer for some decades now and
everything he writes is worth taking seriously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This will be a good read.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I was also interested in how the
reviewer, Dana Greene, would look at Parker’s work and how she would evaluate
his work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s look at how she presents
the material and offers her appreciation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I appreciated the epigraph of the short book review.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a quotation from the Danish
philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says,
“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so this book by Palmer does just what
Kierkegaard suggests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Palmer looks
backwards to understand his life, while knowing he still has some forward
living to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so we can learn from
his backwards look in order to help us with our yet-to-be-lived days and years.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Greene tells us Palmer helps think
about how to confront death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She says, “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One
can deny it, defy it (think poet Dylan Thomas) or collaborate with it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the purpose of living is to become whole,
fully human and one's true self, as Palmer suggests, then collaboration with
aging and death is necessary.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like
the three options for thinking about death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Certainly many folks I know deny the facticity of death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We heart multiple ways this denial takes
shape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially when we are young, we
know others die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We just don’t consider
that we will die, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In denial, the
reality of death is a rude awakening when it finally hits us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As we age
and if we still have sufficient stamina, we may try to defy death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We see people go on health kicks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Smokers quit smoking; people go on often
absurd diets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Runners materialize from
couch potatoes!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pilates and yoga studios
abound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly, we need trainers,
coaches and psychologists to tell us things our health teacher told us in
elementary school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow we think, we
just might beat death!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally,
Greene latches onto Palmer’s idea that we actually can collaborate with our
death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This depends on how we view
ourselves, our lives and death itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is where vintage Parker Palmer comes to the fore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the first place we can understand that the
purpose of our lives is to become whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Greene gives it a further little twist by understanding wholeness to
means something like becoming fully human and coming to know our true self.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I know some
folks get put off by this “true self” language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It can be a fuzzy term that seems profound, but easily becomes
vacuous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People like Thomas Merton
became famous in touting the “true self.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And certainly, Merton has had a significant influence on Parker Palmer
and myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever the true self is,
many of us readily know it is not the self we currently are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As one begins to awaken from spiritual
slumber, we recognize we have lived superficially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is something like Thoreau’s description
that a great number of folks live lives of “quiet desperation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That phrase always struck me as true and
sadly tragic.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Palmer
offers an antidote to this kind of true, sad way of living and, then,
dying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Greene tells us Palmer likes
getting old, even with its problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
hope that is true for him and can be true for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Palmer says this book is about things he has
learned along the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Greene offers one
example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The most obvious of these
learnings is: ‘Old is just another word for nothing left to lose, a time of
life to take bigger risks on behalf of the common good.’”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I admit I laughed when I read this line.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Nothing
left to lose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It this defines old, then
I am getting there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am not there
yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are still some things I cling
to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can continue to grow spiritually
here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to learn not to cling to
anything---material things, psychological things like self-image and all the
rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other thing Palmer suggests is
to take on bigger risks for the common good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am ready for that and, perhaps, already doing some of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is simply a willingness to give away your
life for the common good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That makes
sense to me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One of
Greene’s best line was simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said,
“Death comes to all living things, and to die well one needs preparation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first half of the sentence is true: death
does come to all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to collaborate
with my death when and as it comes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
Greene’s advice is worth heeding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To die
well needs preparation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now is a good
time to be awake and to prepare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
certainly old enough to be well into this preparation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my case it takes some intentionality and
some spiritual discipline. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is
precisely the point at which I know I might still be denying or defying
death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I am not preparing, I probably
am denying or defying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be intentional
and be disciplined is not morbid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
simply learning to live a centered life with depth and compassion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those are easy words to type, but I want to
incorporate them into life by incarnating them in my actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to remember I am opting for the larger
common good, not my own selfish desires.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If I can
learn this and live it, I also can become a Quaker teacher.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-87146498975450365272022-09-26T17:57:00.005-04:002022-09-26T17:57:41.064-04:00What the Younger Ones Believe<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>I might be
a sucker for survey results and those kinds of overview of complex issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A recent report I have read offered the
intriguing title, “How We Gather Digitally.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The study by sociologists Robert Putnam and David Campbell looks at
millennials, generally those younger folks up to their forties now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am aware of a number of studies that
matches what all of us know: younger folks are not as interested in religions
and churches as earlier generations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Scholars and analysts have given a variety of answers why this is the
case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, I looked forward to what
these two authors were going to say.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Figures vary from study to study,
but generally two-thirds of Americans don’t actively participate in organized
religious life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, a
huge proportion of these disaffiliated folks still believe in God and have,
what might called, still some religious view of the world and life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This becomes a key focus of inquiry. I like
the way Putnam and Campbell put it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These people “reject conventional religious affiliation, while not
entirely giving up their religious feelings.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From this we get their initial
conclusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They contend, “This looks
less like a process of secularization and more like a paradigmatic shift from
an institutional to a personal understanding of spirituality.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another couple of scholars, Richard Flory and
Donald Miller discovered that “millennials are not ‘the spiritual consumers of
their parents’ generation, rather they are seeking a deep spiritual experience
and a community experience, each of which provides them meaning in their lives,
and is meaningless without the other.’”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I can attest this squares with many
of the college-age folks who sit in my classroom every semester.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not very many are active in any church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet the big majority believe in God or
the Universal Spirit or something like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And my experience is they do long for community, although they might not
use that language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deeper than the word,
community, is the human search for belonging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am very confident that part of being truly human is belonging to
someone or something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this belonging
is not ultimately satisfied by things like the local golf club or Rotary, even
though these are often important.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The authors begin to cite examples
of places that are trying to meet the needs of this group in their twenties and
thirties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first thing that is
obvious is this group is used to and, often, prefers the internet to the
personal encounter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taking this seriously
means our website is crucial to the engagement of younger folks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is where we “meet.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The normal building where people used to
congregate may be pretty irrelevant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
advice is to spruce up the website!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Given my age, I am intrigued by the
possibilities of online ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
course, it is not new.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember as a
boy catching a glimpse of Oral Roberts on tv.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was a pioneer of that generation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We need new pioneers---new explorers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maybe we just call the innovators today!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was interested to read that successful pioneers today tend to the
those offering “positive and practical advice.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They extend what the authors call an “ethos of care.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I was not surprised to hear the
authors talk a great deal about language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For example, they contend that successful ventures more normally use
secular language, as opposed to religious language---which might sound like
jargon to younger ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fascinatingly,
the authors say that this secular language mirrors “many of the functions
fulfilled by religious community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
wanted to know what kind of language they were referencing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so they offered examples of this older
language: fellowship, personal reflection, pilgrimage, aesthetic discipline,
liturgy,” etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The goal is to find and
use language more appropriate to the folks we want to address.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally, the authors offer six
themes of groups promising much of the same effect as church usually assume
they provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These themes are
“community, personal transformation, social transformation, purpose finding,
creativity and accountability.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
grabbed me was the extent the authors went to identify some of the contemporary
groups offering today what many of us older folks thought churches did in our
younger age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of these groups don’t
seem religious at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s the
point: they aren’t!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead they offer
what religious institutions apparently can no longer successfully offer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I will briefly cite one example with
the promise to delve more deeply into this at a later time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The example is what was called “The Dinner
Party,” which I did not know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a
group of people in their 20s and 30s who have experienced a significant
loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They gather over dinner to talk
about their experience, offer solace and healing and so forth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ah, I thought, this is what I used to do in
the groups I led on grieving and bereavement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But the Dinner Party does not have anything directly to do with God,
although I am sure if God came up, that person would not be judged.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The authors say this example is what
they mean by a group offering its participants community and personal
transformation, two of the six previously mentioned themes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have no need to go to a church to attend
a bereavement group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have formed
their own with more appropriate language and potential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
appreciate my ongoing education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
so much to learn about what the younger ones believe.</span>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-65290954110957169092022-09-22T17:28:00.002-04:002022-09-22T17:28:34.826-04:00Penny Wise<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Recently I
was writing a blog with a couple of my friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The blog had more to do with business than spirituality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am always amused by how much work I do
within a business context, but then remember that business is nothing more than
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I am in the “people
business,” so any context is a possibility for my involvement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The basic point of our work was not to be
stupid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That seems simple enough!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I was editing some of what my
co-author had written.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly, I knew
the perfect saying to edit into the text.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But in the moment, I could not cite the phrase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I stopped by the college to ask a secretary,
but she could not come up with the phrase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She is quite a bit younger than I am, which made me wonder whether
younger generations use the phrase?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all
know languages evolve, which means some terms and phrases drop out of daily
usage and new things creep into daily language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For some reason, the word “flesh”
was floating in my mind as part of the slogan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It turns out this was not correct, which means it misled us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We floundered for a while chasing dead ends
down the computer search.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, it
is amazing the things that do come up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is easy to get distracted and stay busy looking up things, but making
no progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At some point, I felt guilty
about wasting her time, so I suggested calling off the search.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she is tenacious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She finally nailed it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Penny wise, pound foolish,” she
asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was as if we won the lottery, but no money was involved---ironically
even though the phrase was about money!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it really was not about money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is really about prudence or wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And I know prudence is one of the classical virtues, so in that sense,
it is about spirituality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would argue
spirituality---like religion---is always about being virtuous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I was intrigued by the phrase, which
I heard so often while growing up on that Indiana farm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A little research yields interesting
results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The phrase means people can be
careful about smaller things that don’t really matter (penny) and overlook,
underestimate or waste things that are of significant value (pound).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was obvious to me British money was the
context for the saying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This meant it either
originated somewhere in the British Isles or in this country in the early days
when British money would have been the currency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is attributed to Benjamin Franklin, but
there is little evidence this was his creation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the saying the word, pound,
refers to the basic British currency, which is much like our word, dollar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In contemporary British money there are 100
pence (pennies) in one pound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the
saying is clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t pay undue
attention to one penny and ignore 100!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is why it is about prudence---being wise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, don’t be stupid!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is spiritual for me because I am
confident our culture---particularly our commercial culture---entices us to pay
attention to thing we don’t need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we
watch any television or commercials online, we are lured into buying cars, beer,
clothes, rings---you name it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are lured
into looking different than we look, say different things than we say and act
in different ways than we act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas
Merton, my favorite monk, says this is an invitation to become a false self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think he was on to something.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Our culture is enticing us to pay
attention to the pennies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are tempted
to become penny wise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the process we
forget about being pound foolish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
similar to paying attention only to today and forgetting we need to be ready
for tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This reminds me of the
classical fable of the ant and grasshopper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As you remember, the grasshopper squandered his time and when push came
to shove, was forced to ask the ant for some food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ant was the prudent one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often prudence is as simple as preparing
oneself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think this is core to the
spiritual life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One of the ways I like to talk about
spirituality is that it offers a way of making meaning in life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meaning is usually tied up with purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I am spiritually penny wise, I am chasing
short-term, flashy kinds of experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I may think getting rich will bring meaning and offer me a chance to
have a purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But study after study
suggest this simply is not true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is no good correlation between money and happiness.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Monk who take a vow of poverty are
often happy characters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is because
they have chosen a life that delivers for them real meaning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They become clear about their purpose in
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are working to become their
true self and avoiding, insofar as they can, being a false self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The key is, of course, figuring out what the
“pound” in your life is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Preparation and
discipline come into play as we labor for that which is worth something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We all know we sometimes work for
things that turn out to be worthless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ask the grasshopper!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
frivolous summer days gave way to more dangerous times ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wasted time on pennies and blew his chance
to have pounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The teaching is clear to
us: don’t be penny wise, pound foolish.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-29571637837986745202022-09-21T10:35:00.000-04:002022-09-21T10:35:04.207-04:00New Books<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>It
is fun to have a new book and open it to begin to read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if I have some idea what might be in a
book, I can never be sure until I begin to chase words across the page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regardless how fast anyone can read, no one
can read a whole book at once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It needs
to be done page by page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can read it
fast, but you cannot read it all simultaneously.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is also fun to reread some old books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is one I have wanted to reread for some
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is one I have used for
classes read for classes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know the
author as a personal friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is
usually a nice thing, but also potentially a misleading thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I know the person, I am a sitting duck to
be duped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too easily, I assume I know
“exactly what he will say.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That usually
makes me read the text too carelessly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
“read into” the words and sentences what I “think he would be saying” instead
of what the guy really said.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So I sit, I open the book, and I
read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I let my friend begin to speak to
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like opening lines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I always read the preface. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Important things are said there before the
author actually gets to the topic at hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Prefaces are usually the time to give some thanks to all those who
helped with the writing project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it
gives tribute to all those who put up with you during the writing process!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Parker Palmer is my friend and his
book, which I picked up to begin rereading is called, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Active Life</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Nice
title,” I murmur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It fits my life---an
active life by my own definition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also
am a sucker for sub-titles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Parker’s is
a good one: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Spirituality of Work,
Creativity, and Caring</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Right down
my line,” I think.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now I was ready for the opening
line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did not disappoint me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Palmer says, “It is a mistake to imagine that
writers are experts on the things they write about---at least, it is a mistake
in my case!” (xi)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked this for a
number of reasons.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>First, I liked it because Parker Palmer
is not claiming he is an expert in a spirituality of work, creativity, and
caring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither am I!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He certainly has a great deal of experience
in this arena.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But experience does not
necessarily make one an expert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact,
the most practiced monks I know would cringe at the suggestion they are experts
in spirituality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Parker Palmer suggests
contrarily that he is writing to think through what it means to develop a
spirituality of work, creativity, and caring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Me, too,” I want to exclaim!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That is a tall order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those are three big words: work, creativity,
and caring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, I know enough about
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But do I know about the spirituality
of work?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do I know how to work in the
Spirit?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can I become a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">labora spiritus</i>---a laborer of the
Spirit?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tomorrow when I get up, I will
think, “today I am off to be a spiritual laborer!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And creativity---that is a big
one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too many of us think of Einstein or
someone like him when we think of creativity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it can be more mundane and simpler than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One way to be creative is to make something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the case of spirituality, perhaps
creativity can mean simply making something out of your life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today is my next best chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not today, then I am a procrastinator, not
a creator.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally, there is the spirituality of
caring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know enough Latin to know that
“care-language” is a form of “love-language.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To care is always ego-displacing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you care, for the moment someone or something matters more than
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To care is to be for the
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So if I am going to practice that
spirituality today, I will look for those opportunities to be
“other-focused.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s easy, since
there are so many “others” in my life every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I care, they are everywhere!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ok, this book has sucker-punched me
with its first line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will practice
what I have just learned…and will continue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You, too?</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-73250314961868668082022-09-19T14:32:00.001-04:002022-09-19T14:32:20.953-04:00Learning from the Jesuits<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>There are sophisticated ways of putting it, but in simpler
terms we are formed and influenced by those with whom we hang out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our friends form us into who we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect that most people use the term, friendship,
too loosely these days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some claim to
have more than five hundred Facebook friends!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s ok; I don’t want to engage that issue.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What I do
want to suggest, however, is not all my friends---and perhaps, your friends,
too---are living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have quite a few
friends who are only friends to me because of their books that I read and
cherish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of these friends are very
old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, some of them pre-date
Jesus himself!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they influence me and
have formed me into the person I am today.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That does
not discount the formation I experienced at the hands of my parents and
grandparents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not belittle the
incredible formation of early grade school teachers and professors in my
graduate program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will always be
grateful for the many friends I had along the way---those who sat in the
classroom with me, those who taught me over coffee, etc.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But there
are others to whom I am grateful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Regular readers know about my journey with the Benedictine monks---men
and women alike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas Merton, the famous
Trappist monk from the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky has been a faithful
teacher for decades now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there are
other old-timers who will always be my teachers and spiritual director.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is
another who has played an odd formative role in my spiritual journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That person is Ignatius Loyola.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I first encountered Ignatius in a history
class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know I would have read about
him in some of the first Christian history classes I had in college and, even
more so, in graduate school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned
Ignatius was a sixteenth century Spanish knight who career seemed designed to
serve the King of Spain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was educated
in the chivalry of that age, entered military service and was wounded in battle
against the French.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was
during his recovery that he began reading some spiritual literature, among
which books was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Imitation of Christ</i>
by Thomas à Kempis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Slowly, Ignatius was
transformed from a solder into a soldier for Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was to serve under a different flag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As he prayed, reflected and developed
spiritually, Ignatius realized he could help others on their journey as
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He began writing down his
thoughts.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Eventually,
he produced his spiritual guide, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spiritual
Exercises</i>, and he attracted a group of followers who became a spiritual
community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ultimately, the petitioned
the pope to grant permission for them to become a religious order and were
known as Jesuits, technically, the Society of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I began being aware of Jesuits when I had a
few of them as professors in graduate school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And I have continued my journey with them in some sporadic ways.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I
spend time with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spiritual Exercises</i>,
it is like eating food that is good for you rather than food that is good, but
not good for you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His thoughts challenge
my way of thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ignatius’ language
is not always easy for me; he articulates things in a way that is not always
inviting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he causes me to do some
significant growing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I appreciate his
spiritual challenges to grow up.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If it seems
like I am complaining, I hope I am not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
am simply saying he is a struggle to stay with and grow from the
encounter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, to use a metaphor
getting a dose of the Jesuit theology is like getting a plate of vegetables
instead of ice cream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s why I keep
returning to have another measure. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
then I hit something like the following prayer from Ignatius and I have to eat
my words.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Teach us, good Lord, to serve you
as you deserve;</span></em><i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span></i><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to give, and not to count the
cost,</span></em><i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span></i><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to fight, and not to heed the
wounds,</span></em><i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span></i><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to toil, and not to seek for
rest,</span></em><i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span></i><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to labor, and not to ask for
reward,</span></em><i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span></i><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">except that of knowing that we
are doing your will.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
relish the beginning and end of this prayer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He begins the prayer with a petition to be taught---vintage Jesuit
theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he ends the prayer in the
way we all should end the prayer, namely, that we might know God’s desire for
us so that we can get on with doing that will.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
appreciate learning from the Jesuits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Joining his prayer I can only say, Amen.</span></em></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-91603048520882624932022-09-16T17:46:00.002-04:002022-09-16T17:46:35.146-04:00Intense Social Insecurity<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>There are a few people I very much like to read whatever
they write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I would go some
considerable distance to hear them speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One such person is David Brooks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His columns appear in many newspapers around the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have never heard him speak, but I have a
friend who has heard him and was duly impressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brooks strikes me as one who has a insightful
mind, a keen spirit and one who still has a vision for our country and, indeed,
for humanity as a whole.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Recently, I
read one of his columns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The focus was
when to follow convention, that is, when should we go along with tradition or
do whatever all the other folks are doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Alternatively, when should we consider going it alone?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When do we say no to the conventional and
strike out on our own?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As usual, I was
captivated by the analysis Brooks offered on this matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me pick out some of the key points, since
I think they easily relate to our spiritual journeys.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Brooks
began by dealing with the stereotypical American mythology that we are a
country of rugged individualists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my
own day this was epitomized by the Marlboro man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose that was an appealing figure, even
for those of us who never smoked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Marlboro man was a good-looking, outdoors’ kind of guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He dressed like the solitary cowboy who was
independent, strong and would surely get his way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was the appropriate alter-ego for all of
us who were more dependent, not so strong and seemed hardly to ever get our own
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We could live vicariously through
him.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This figure
surely never really cared what other folks thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was his own man---a man’s man (whatever
that was supposed to mean).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You could be
his friend, but he did not need you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
this is precisely where David Brooks’ analysis kicked in to make a convincing
point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Brooks’ point seems to me to
be a key spiritual point.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Brooks
comments, “In reality, of course, we do care what other people think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are wired to connect, to seek the
admiration of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We want to be part
of community…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on my own
experience, he is exactly on target.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
seems clear to me that most of us do care what other people think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may pretend that we don’t care, but for
most folks, this is a lie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We care
deeply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brooks even believes we are
wired to connect and we naturally seek admiration of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, I think he is correct.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I think
this comes close to a spiritual axiom of mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I believe were all created in the image and likeness of the Holy
One.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were created by God’s love and
we were created for love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That love has
a double focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were created to be in
a loving relationship with the Creator and we were also created to be in loving
relationships with each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again
Brooks gets it right when he says that we want to be part of community.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Community
is a huge word for me; it is a deep spiritual word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dual love-focus with God and with each
other is captured in the word community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We were not created to be Marlboro men and women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be true that we don’t need each
other (although I doubt that).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is
true---spiritually true---that we want each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love is a driver to relationships and to
community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be an outsider and to snub
love is to be strange and estranged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
fact, it is anti-communal!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The next
point Brooks makes is a telling critique of our times and our culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says, “we live at a time of intense social
insecurity.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For some reason, that is
both funny and sad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is funny because
it seems to be a play on words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of
us are old enough to be getting social security…and yet we live in a time of
intense social insecurity!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is sad
because it is doubtlessly true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
alternative, of course, is love and community.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Brooks
makes one final point to introduce here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He comments, “We are also living during an epidemic of conditional
love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many parents bestow or withdraw
affection depending on how well their children are achieving, producing
millions of young people without secure emotional foundations, who pine for any
kind of approval.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if this is only
half true, it is tragic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Again, it
is a spiritual indictment of our culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Conditional love means there are conditions you have to meet to gain
love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is our way of saying, “I will
love you if…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is hard to imagine The
Divine One saying that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am convinced
there is in the heart of each one of us a longing for the assurance of holy
Love and the solace of human love that comes through community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We pine for the assurance of relationships
that confirm and comfort us in our deepest places.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All of this
is why ultimately the spiritual figures are more appropriately Jesus, the
Buddha, Mohammed, Moses and so many other religious giants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They knew the power of spiritual
relationships and the peace of the spiritual communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my heart of hearts, I want what they
wanted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am ready to leave this culture
of intense social insecurity.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-2724460765906978912022-09-15T10:25:00.001-04:002022-09-15T10:25:07.752-04:00Simply Ask<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span> </span><span> </span>One
of the stereotype differences between women and men concerns what they do if
they are lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stereotype says that
women will ask for directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If she is
lost, it stands to reason, she thinks, that you would simply ask.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get directions and, then, be on your merry
way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not so, think the men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I am lost, but I will find my way.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow simply asking does not occur to men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if it did occur to them, they would
summarily dismiss the idea as pure folly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Why ask,” they say. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I know I
will find my way in just a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
sure if I turn here, I’ll know exactly where I am and then I will be merrily on
my way.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is as if asking is
genetically beneath the masculine dignity!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I don’t know whether this stereotyping
is true. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No doubt, there are exceptions
even if it seems generally true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does
resonate with my experience enough to make me slightly edgy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the surface it hints at the stupidity of
men…if not worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Beyond the gender stereotyping,
however, there may be a spiritual issue worth pursuing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s ponder the occasions when asking a
question makes perfect sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And let’s
be open to how this may uncover deeper questions about the human spirit that
perhaps only asking about God---or even asking the Divinity Itself---makes
sense.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the first place asking a question
makes sense if we are ignorant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ignorance is different than stupidity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Men who continue driving around while they are lost are both ignorant
and stupid!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But ignorance essentially
means I do not know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cam capable of
knowing---I am smart enough---but I just don’t know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a huge number of things about which
I am ignorant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I may not know the capital of New
Zealand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I can look it up and learn
that the capital is Wellington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is easy to multiply the examples of my
ignorance, but in this computer age, it would be easy to find the information.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But when we turn to the God-question,
it is not as easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may be ignorant
about God’s existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, this makes me an
agnostic…one who does not know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can go
to Wickipedia or “google it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
probably will result in many different answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it won’t necessarily be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my
answer</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Here is where you and I need simply
ask.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to open ourselves and ask
if there is a God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I am not sure God
exists, how do I ask God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am going to suggest a subtle
move here.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I suggest that we don’t ask the
question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">become the question</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This makes me more like the lost woman
driver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t keep plunging on in your
lostness assuming you will find---or make---your way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With respect to God we are looking for an
experience more than a piece of knowledge or a fact.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If there is a God, God will answer us
experientially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will “know,’ even
though it might not be book-knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
am confident I have been “answered” in this way by God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I also know my answer cannot be your
answer any more than my experience of anything can be your experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can compare experiences, but we don’t have
the same experience.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All this applies to me when I realize I
can live life just like a crazy lost guy driving around committed to not
asking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get frustrated, sometimes mad,
and in the end, often have to ask anyway!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If I am learning anything, it is simply
ask.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pause in my day, open myself,
wait---wait for God to come and be present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lord, I really prefer an experience, anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Simply ask.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-47551972453875811042022-09-13T17:48:00.002-04:002022-09-13T17:48:47.751-04:00A Deeper Understanding of Thanks<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>I remember so many times when I was growing up in rural
Indiana, one of my parents (or even grandparents) would ask, “Did you thank
him?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They drilled into my head that I
owed someone a word of thanks if I were given something or if I were told
something special.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect that I did
not fully appreciate what they were doing for me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I am sure
they were teaching me this lesson long before I could register what they
actually were doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know with my own
kids and, now with grandkids, I am watching that age-old lesson being
taught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No doubt, the kids are too young
really to grasp why saying “thanks” is all that important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know when I was young I was just happy to
get a gift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure I was driven by
pure self-interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a one or two-year
old, that is normal and fine.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But
learning to say “thanks” is an early lesson in self-transcendence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a big word, which simply means, you
are not the only one in the world!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What’s more, the world does not revolve around you and your
interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, I believe you and
I are important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my theology we each
bear the image of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are precious
children of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we are not gods!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
appreciate my parents instilling this habit of saying “thanks.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I grew old enough finally to realize what
they were doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They helped me see that
people are often gracious to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More
times than I could count, someone has given me a gift, said a nice thing to me,
praised me---all these deserve a response like, “thanks.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many instances, saying “thanks” is the only
appropriate response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not to respond
seems like the epitome of selfishness.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I would
like to take “thanks” to a deeper level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Little did I realize this would happen when I studied classical Greek
language in graduate school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
given that I was pursuing a degree that required I be able to read the New
Testament and early Christian theologians in their original Greek tongue, so I
learned Greek.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I remember
the day I hit the Greek word, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eucharisteo</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the verb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also comes as a noun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being a Quaker---a non-Catholic---I did not
see the inherent connection to our word, eucharist. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I had been more savvy, I would have known
that is the word for Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist---all
synonyms for what many Christians still do today when they gather for worship.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What I
learned about that verb, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eucharisteo</i>,
was more revealing that something about communion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Greek verb really needs to be translated,
“to give thanks.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Eucharist---Holy
Communion---is at its heart a “Thanksgiving.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To put it the other way, “Thanksgiving” becomes a sacrament!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Communion sacramentalizes the simple,
“thanks.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To me this
came like a revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was as if the
Holy One had spoken---had offered me an insight as profound as those writers of
the biblical stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Thanksgiving” is
at its deepest level a sacrament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
course, as a Quaker I would not have been able to define precisely what a
sacrament was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I learned what St.
Augustine would say and I liked it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
sacrament is a “visible sign of an invisible reality.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To say
“thanks” is to create a momentary sacred bond between the giver and the
receiver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The one to whom something is
given says, “thanks”---the visible reality (a sound, a word) of an invisible
reality (gratitude, a sense of being graced).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On the surface this might seem like much ado about nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely, saying “thanks,” if someone merely
opens the door for me, is not sacramental.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But why not?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why does a sacrament
have to be large-scale, like baptism and Holy Communion clearly are?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What about the little, sacramental moments?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I would
like to think any time we says “thanks” (if it is since and authentic), we have
created a sacred moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Thanks” is a
reciprocal closing the loop between the giver and the receiver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You give me something and I say,
“thanks.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My “thanks” loops back to you,
the giver, and bonds us momentarily in a sacramental connection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a sacred exchange.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is
profound because we all know the sadly secular nature of our world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We live in a time when folks are out to rip
us off, take advantage of us, grab while the grabbing is good, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a dog-eat-dog world, you know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All these betray an attitude of selfish
initiation and competition.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
attitude of “thanks” and “thanksgiving” is an attitude of openness, receptivity
and appreciation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This attitude allows
the Sacred into the middle of our dealings with one another: a gift, a
recognition, a sacrament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowing all
this gives me a deeper understanding of thanks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thank God!</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-35566830953773716752022-09-09T12:06:00.000-04:002022-09-09T12:06:00.802-04:00Your Own Greatest Work of Art<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">I had the occasion yesterday to re-read an article I had
looked at some years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bumped into
a wonderful quotation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This wonderful
line says, “your life is your own greatest work of art.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I very much like this way of seeing my
life…and yours.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
understand my life as a work of art puts the matter in a fashion that adds
dignity to this business of living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, the sad part is that so many of us probably do not see our
lives in this manner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is more normal
to hear people put the process of living in work language that suggests
drudgery and, often misery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too many
people do not see life as a great work of art, but rather as a lousy experiment
in ugly art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The original quotation
offers a compelling alternative to a life of drudgery.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What might
surprise you is to find out that this quotation comes in an article which
argues for spirituality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The title of
the article is revealing: “Why Spirituality Deserves a Central Place in Liberal
Education.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The author is not some
spiritual wack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, Alexander Astin
is a prominent, national figure in higher education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He holds an endowed Chair at UCLA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In brief the article lauds what higher
education in America does to prepare future workers and leaders of our society
in their “outer development” in fields like sciences, technology, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are much less able, it seems, to do the
same thing for our students when it comes to the “inner development,” areas
such as emotional maturity, values development, and spirituality. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No doubt, I
am drawn to this argument because I find some real truth in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my own classes I think I am trying to
address this inner development of young women and men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I also look around at the world in
which I live and I conclude it is not just a college issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also not a “young person’s issue.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I see far too many of us older
ones---post-college age---who make ugly art out of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps, for us spirituality is the way to
re-work our lives and make beauty out of who we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, we have no alternative: we are who
we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But life is a process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if I do not like who I am today, I can
begin to change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In fact,
most of us have no chance of pulling off a great work of art in any other place
than our own lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not an Einstein
nor Bach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than likely, I will not
pull off a great invention nor world-class piece of music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I can pull off a great work of art: my
life!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">But I will need help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me this means God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it probably implicates more than a few of
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes effort from me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, it is my life and I am the artist
of my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you are the same for
yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if I am now producing
ugliness, I am sure God wants something better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And you probably have a few clues how to form beauty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It likely will be some simple things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if I don’t know how to make those
beginning simple brush strokes, the life I am painting is already doomed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">So let’s remind each other often
that the simple tasks produce our great work: our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take a little time today to give thanks…and
quit grumping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Offer a little
mercy…instead of thinking murder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Smile…instead of snarling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">You get the picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What tidbits will you offer those around you
to help them make their life a little better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A little better finally leads to greatness!</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-4446427842010442872022-09-07T12:03:00.002-04:002022-09-07T12:03:33.917-04:00Upside of Anger<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>To write
about anger is not something I do easily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead I know myself to be one who too often avoided getting angry,
being angry or expressing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For anyone
who wants to be in control, anger is a tricky situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may not be in control, the situation in
which you find yourself may go into chaos and then what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many families have a tacit agreement that no
one gets angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, that seems
really nice, but it is obviously unrealistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And so the anger is repressed or displaced in unfortunate ways.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And so it was that I hit upon the
theme of anger when I read Sister Joan Chittister’s recent editorial about
anger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sister Joan is a globally-known
Benedictine nun from Erie, PA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is
older than I am, so she has been around for a few years!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For decades she has been a prophet within the
Catholic Church and beyond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She reminds
me what Jesus might have been like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Often her thoughts cause me to be a little uneasy, but I am sure hanging
out with Jesus would have done the same thing to me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Chittister decides to reconsider the
function of anger, when she realizes there are too many things going badly in
our country and in so many of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is easy to catalogue the ills of the nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We seem to be in a political mess. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is so much divisiveness, yelling and
failure to get on with major issues in our world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to find a way to heal the plant and
we are still polluting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to find
ways to save people---economically, socially and spiritually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in Chittister’s mind, there is too much
silence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Folks are too nice in the face
of all these major problems.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She pits silence over against
anger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find her argument to be
persuasive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems to describe how I
usually go about things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Listen to her
describe the way silence is working in current society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She begins in a way that made me flinch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is as if she is describing me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After all, we were raised to be
nice. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We taught our children to be nice.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can raise my hand to plead guilty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She does not stop with description.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
continues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But today, "nice"
is the conversational path to nowhere. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No opinions. No new ideas. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No conversation that was once scintillating,
educational. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now talk just trails off
into nothingness.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a nothingness
that breeds meaninglessness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so many
turn to their social media to participates in the emptiness of their
technological rituals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She won’t
quit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“’Nice’ talk agrees with
everything, listens but pursues no point, develops no ideas, and presents no
data to open new aspects of the subject. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's ‘niceness’ guarantees to make hypocrites
of us all. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We smile. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We say nothing to the contrary. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We add nothing to the wisdom or the honesty of
the human race.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is at
this place she offers a better alternative: anger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She says, “It seems to me, then, that we need
a new category of virtues for times such as these. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need the kind of virtues that enable us to
do something about what's bothering us.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So anger is going to be a virtue?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As one who has written a great deal about
virtue, I realize she is dragging me into new territory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I go with her into this new territory to
learn more about anger and how it works.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Unlike
niceness, she counsels, “The truth is that anger pursues a concern, but anger
also listens. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Listening is the only way
two people can come together with respect for different ideas as well as with
genuine openness to another human being.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hence anger has a two-pronged approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It pursues a concern, but it also listens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sense anger has a determination, but also a
sensitivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She then
offers an interesting image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Anger, in
other words, is a Geiger counter.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a
Geiger counter, “It finds the ticking time bombs of the heart. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It clarifies them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It searches out their root ideas. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seeks to add to the available data. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It deepens the approach to a subject. It
brings depth. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It requires us to look at
our own positions more critically. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most
of all, it can lead us to mutual understanding that can lead us to find another
way to resolve a situation together.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is a lot of Joan Chittister, but she is on to something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Seen this
way, I understand the importance of getting angry and working for peace and
justice and healing with a spirit of anger, so that we get someplace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someplace is better than simply being
frustrated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s where too many of us
are in this day and time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to get
someplace---a new and different place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ultimately, we want to get to the kingdom.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And that is
where she leads us back to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Appropriately, she implicates the creative God of the universe, who also
demonstrated some anger with the people when their ran off the tracks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She calls it holy anger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She observes, “Holy anger does not harden us
in our position, it moves us to do something about resolving it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of all, it makes it impossible for us to
be superficial anymore.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is good
news.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That is
spiritual hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can appreciate the
upside of anger.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-31573628725817896742022-08-31T13:25:00.000-04:002022-08-31T13:25:18.534-04:00Life Down to our Roots<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>I keep
reading so I don’t shrivel up and become a blob sitting in my chair watching
television all day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is hard to
imagine Jesus doing that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if I
somehow want to claim being a follower, I have to do better than blob-living!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the reading I do is not directed to
some specific end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generally, I want to
be more informed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want some ideas to provoke
me to think, ponder and see where it takes me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And so recently I ran across an article in the periodical, Aeon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is more scientifically based, so it
challenges and keeps me mentally engaged.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The article was entitled, “Cognition
all the way down.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was by two Tufts
University professors who are rather big names among scholars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved their subtitle: “Biology’s next great
horizon is to understand cells, tissues and organisms as agents with agendas
(even if unthinking ones)”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Oh boy,” I
thought as I dived in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It began by admitting
that biologists were “properly scientific behaviourists” who ‘Identify causal
mechanisms” that typically don’t require explanations like free will and the
things most of us take for granted. The image that emerges here is our bodies
are like machines.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now I know much of me happens
without thinking about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My heart beat
even when I am preoccupied with other things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I also think I have some choices---some freedoms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The list goes on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I realize that most of us are content to live
in a kind of dual world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The way I get this
duality is to borrow from the late University of Chicago theologian, Langdon
Gilkey, who talked about polarities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two
such poles are freedom and destiny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All
of us are operating from both poles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On
one hand, there is some of life that unfolds as a matter of destiny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things such as our DNA and other aspects of
physicality are givens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I also have
freedoms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can choose to overeat and
become much heavier than my body should be bearing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Freedom becomes such a big issue
when we consider our own intentionality---our choosing something for a goal and
then working toward it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously,
humans have the capacity to imagine a future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Somehow we form pictures of “something out there,” something we want to
come true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know our future is simply
imagination, hopes, goals, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In one
sense, they are not real.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we believe
they can be!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we believe we can
probably do some things to make that come true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To this extent, we are agents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
the scientists would say, we have agency---that is, we have the ability to make
things happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not simply
reacting to stimuli in the environment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is with this background that I
jumped into the Aeon article.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
intrigued what the biologists would tell me about cells and molecules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I smiled when the two authors said that
biologists are reluctance to say that there is intentionality or chosen purpose
at the level of cells and molecules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Apparently, they do not have agency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To quote the authors, “These little biological mechanisms weren’t really
agents with agendas…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I actually think
the authors hoped we would smile and find this a bit funny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is almost as if we could create a comic
that picture a little cell with a mini-briefcase saying to another cell, “Well,
I am off to do my job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am going to
make something happen today!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And then I came to what can pass as
the authors’ definition of a human being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“We’re all just physical mechanisms made of physical mechanisms obeying
the laws of physics and chemistry.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There you have it, in case you wondered who you really are!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I agree there is not much comfort in seeing
myself in this light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am just a
physical mechanism?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I feel like so much
more!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the authors don’t want to be
off-putting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They actually are aiming at
something more profound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is amazing what scientists have
been able to do---all the way to genetic manipulation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What the authors are driving at is a
recognition that even at the cellular level, there may be some degree of acting
like we do as a whole human being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
example, they say, “Treating cells like dumb bricks to be micromanaged is
playing the game with our hands tied behind our backs…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead following the lead of other
scientists, what they suggest is “thinking of parts of organisms as agents,
detecting opportunities and trying to accomplish missions is risky,” but they
argue this is the way to make progress.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Clearly, this can get very
deep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many ways I am in over my
head!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what is at stake is an
important and exciting possibility for all of us who have some kind of faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It needs to be said this is not where the
authors are going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least one of the
two is an avowed atheist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if want to
see God as the energy or spirit of the universe and if God is love, then that
will be true at the cellular level as much as it is in my sense of myself as
one, whole person.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In my freedom God has given me
agency---the ability to see opportunities and to go after them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In effect, I can co-create my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can see this possibility even at the most micro
level within myself, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the cells
in my body have some capacity to work toward their and my having a really good
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, they can be derailed,
like I can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cancer or Covid can attack
them and sin or whatever can get me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But there is a Love out there and in
here working and aiming us all in the direction that life at our roots already
knows. </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Faith & Life Inspirational Messagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544424720615227218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5761208936627766685.post-30981638179441469572022-08-30T14:41:00.000-04:002022-08-30T14:41:22.712-04:00Listen to Your True Self<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Recently, I
reread Brian Doyle’s book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eight Whopping
Lies</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doyle has an uncanny way of
telling a compelling story within about two pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stories originate out of real life and it
is so easy to relate to the ordinariness of the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then Doyle drags us deep into profundity
and that is where the enlightenment emerges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wow, that is an amazing revelation is my normal response.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Still near the front of the book is
the little story Doyle entitles, “Is That Your Real Nose?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had no clue what this story would
narrate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose I had my doubts that
it would be about real noses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I
eagerly began to read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doyle has a
charming, simple way to engage the reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This entry begins with the cryptic question: “Best questions I have been
asked?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a writer and speaker to
many groups, I am sure he has been through his fair share of Q&A, as they
are called.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Quickly, he tells us his favorite question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The best ever: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Is that your real nose</i>?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
admit that this is a good one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns
out he describes his real nose and the story that goes with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doyle had a second best question, which I
will skip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His third best question set
the stage for what he really wants to do in this essay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The context for this third question is an
auditorium of high school kids to whom he has spoken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From up in the far reaches of the dark auditorium
a young gal poses this question: “How do you retain your dignity when you know
and we know that most of the kids in this auditorium are not paying any
attention to what you are saying at all?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Doyle was ready for this one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
had a good answer!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the first place he tells us he
was once a teenage, so he is used to not being listened to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also has kids of his own and all of us
with kids know the answer to this one!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His third response inches us toward what he wants to teach us with this
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says, “not to be rude, but I
don’t care if you have the guts to drop your masks and listen to what I have to
say.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In effect, he says that the ball
is in the questioner’s hand and all the rest of the audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He begins to elaborate.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He makes some great points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tells the audience, “It took me the
longest damned time to come out from behind my masks, it took me deep into my
twenties, and if you want to be as stupid as me, swell.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he shares a central message of the
book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He allows “I am just an aging
idiot addicted to stories, because stories matter, my friend, and if you do not
catch and share stories that matter, you will have nothing but lies and sales
pitches in your life, and shame on you if that’s the case.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he says something that surprised
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tells us we should not feel
compelled to listen to him or anyone else.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now comes the key point for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You ought to listen to your own true
self.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I read that, I felt the need
to sit up straight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It resonated with
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I was in late high school and
college, I think that is exactly what I was trying to do, but I had no language
for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At some point, I realized I
needed to find people who knew things and could talk and tell stories so that I
could learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the process unfolded, I
also learned no one could tell me about my true self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one could point out that true self, but
they could help me know how to search and to find.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is when I began to learn that I needed
others and needed community and the stories that communities generate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I like how Doyle puts it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the young woman and all the folks in the
auditorium he says, “I can maybe help you tiptoe a little closer to that self
by sharing stories that matter, but if you are too cool to play today,
swell.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doyle is smart enough to know he
really cannot adequately answer the girl’s question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he is smart enough to know the very best
he can do is be a midwife to her own search and discovery of her true
self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He launches into what is a
remarkable paragraph that you will need to read to appreciate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cannot do it justice by quoting it all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Suffice
it to say here that Doyle is talking about not only the true self but the true
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I assume that real life is what we
all want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But too often we wind up with
superficial, phony lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this is
all lives lived hiding behind a mask can muster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We cannot have real life---authentic
life---behind masks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the good
news that we can have this kind of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The bad news is we will have to come out from behind our masks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He concludes that life itself is
“priceless and inexplicable.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This kind
of life holds supreme worth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life can be
the most worthy thing on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it
is yours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But some of us don’t know it
yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the promise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what all the major religious
traditions proclaim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, behind
masks---sometimes religious masks---we can get caught in religious games and
miss the life that is promised.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the end he asked the girl if he
answered her question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said, “Yes
sir…Yes, sir, it surely does.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thankfully, his answer to her helped me too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
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