Faith & Life Inspirational Message

                 Since I read a rather broad range of things, I am widely exposed to a variety of people and situations.   I realized a long time ago that I am probably more likely to learn things from people who think differently than I do.   If I hang out with people who think just like I do, then all we do is reinforce what we know and, perhaps, even our stereotypes.   There is not much growth or progress in that!             One of the things I try to watch out for is the tendency to think that my interests are interesting and other people’s interests are boring!   Of course, I am more interested in some things than others.   That is natural.   But if I cultivate curiosity, then I can become interested in different kinds of things.   For me immediately to discount something as “uninteresting,” means I have given it no chance to teach me anything.   I lose.             I have just read an account of a conference of nuns and women religious leaders.   On the sur

                 Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit a retirement center.   It was a very pleasant experience.   The retirement center is affiliated with my own Quaker tradition, so in many ways I felt right at home.   I was there to offer a few words about Quaker spirituality and I always enjoy doing that.   It is fun to talk about yourself.   Since I am a Quaker, to talk about Quaker spirituality is a chance to talk about myself.             Over the years I have visited countless retirement centers in my work.   Typically, they are quite nice places.   Although they are similar to nursing homes, they are not the same.   Most people don’t go into nursing homes until they are sick or incapacitated.   Nursing homes are often not quite as nice.   Few people probably are willingly there.             Retirement centers, on the other hand, are normally populated by people who chose to be there.   Of course, it means most of the folks are of such age that they kno

                 I have appreciated Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, An Altar in the World .   I find it to be engaging.   She is an eloquent writer who is helping me look at my world and notice things I have never seen.   She is helping me see how to develop new disciplines out of my ordinary way of living.   Her subtitle gives more clues: A Geography of Faith .               In her introduction Taylor shares her hopes for what she wants to accomplish in her book.   “My life depends on ignoring all touted distinctions between the secular and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul.   What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, more trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world.”   Taylor offers a number of practices that help us “save our lives” through the normal living of our life.             Each chapter outlines a particular practice.   One of the chapters I found very helping is entitled, “The

                 Since writing a recent piece on saints, I came upon a related question which I would now like to ponder.   What drives saints to be and do what they do?   For example, we could think about Jesus or the Buddha or Muhammad to try to answer this question.   If we can figure out their “drive,” then we have a clue about us lesser folks.          One answer Christians might have offered would be that somehow Jesus is divine.   And that surely is an advantage!   But I would counter by saying all Christians also think he was human---fully human.   And that is always a disadvantage!   And Muslims do not think Muhammad was divine.   And no Buddhist thinks the Buddha was a god.   So whatever ‘drives” them to be and do needs to be explained from the human perspective.          As I ponder what drives saints, I have come up with two things.   The first of these is motivation .   Motivation is one of those things that everyone assumes they can define until they

                 The phrase used in the title of this inspirational piece comes from listening to Brene Brown, who offers insight on one of the most viewed TED talks of all time.   Brown is a researcher in social work at the University of Houston.   The title of her famous presentation is “Listening to Shame.”   She links shame to vulnerability.   I have watched it more than once.   She is insightful, poignant and funny.   Much of the humor comes at her own expense.   That often is a good recipe for humor.   You are funny and no one gets hurt.             I also have run into Brown as I am finishing Krista Tippett’s wonderful book, Becoming Wise .   Tippett refers to and interacts with Brown in the final chapter of the book, which is entitled, “Hope.”   It is fair to say that Brown stumbled on to vulnerability while she was looking at what made some people able to live what she calls “wholehearted lives.”   So Brown set off to study the topic.   She said, “I started

                      I am just back from another monastic visit.   Let me clarify.   I am a Benedict oblate, which basically means I am a lay Benedictine monk.   That sounds much more committed and serious than it probably is.   To be an oblate means I affiliate myself with a local Benedictine monastery and do my best to live as spiritually as I can.   Most of the time, I would confess that I am not doing my best.   I am still too influenced by the culture around me.   I still have desires that really don’t align with a fully mature faith.   In a word I am far from perfect.             I appreciate my local Benedictine monastery and the brothers in it.   They allow me to come as I can and participate in whatever ways I am able.   I find my visits there to be humbling and inspiring.   I don’t ever feel judged.   They encourage me in my own spiritual journey.   I know I am not pretending to be a monk.   I simply am associating with them because they help me to be the

                 A monkish attraction?   Some would definitely consider that to be sick!   But I admit that it is something I suffer…well not actually suffer, more like delight.   This is an acquired attraction.   Growing up in rural Indiana as a young Quaker I never heard about monks, certainly did not know any monks, and was completely free of any taint of monkish attraction.   But you know what they say: “when they leave the farm…”          I suppose I read something about monks when I took some European history class in college or, perhaps, high school.   But it made no impression.   The first clear memory of encountering monks in literature would have been a history of Christianity course in college.   But again, there was little or no impression.            I am confident my vulnerability to this monkish attraction came with my own spiritual search.   In those transitional years of college, I began the move from interest in knowledge “about God” to knowledge

                 I often go back to Ilia Delio’s wonderful book, The Unbearable Wholeness of Being .   This Franciscan Sister is trying to show how to start with evolution as the way to understand how our world and ourselves came to be.   She wants us to realize evolution is a process and the process is still unfolding.   Human beings are not over against or outside the natural world, but rather we are a part of it.   And finally, she wants us to know that God is a part of this whole process---whether we know it or not.               I have learned so much from the book and am still trying to absorb the teachings and figure out how to incorporate it into my heretofore ways of understanding God, the world and myself.   Key to the whole enterprise is love.   That appeals to me.   I have always liked how the writer of John’s gospel and epistles said that God is love.   That appealed to me as a description of who God is and how God works in our world.   I think that it

                 I occasionally go back to a remarkable book.   Christopher Pramuk, a theologian who teaches at Xavier, wrote about the theology of Thomas Merton, my favorite monk of the last century.   Pramuk’s book is entitled, Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton .   The book is not an easy go.   While it has the hallmarks of a doctoral dissertation, it is very articulate.   It is tough going because it brings in significant amounts of rather sophisticated theology.             Many people in the church would not know what the term, Sophia, means.   That is the Greek word for “wisdom.”   Sophia plays a role in both testaments of the Christian Bible.   In most cases the word would be translated “Wisdom.”   Even though I know Merton’s writings fairly well, Pramuk was able to lift out ideas and analyze them in fresh ways that I found exciting.   Part of the fascination, of course, is my own love of Merton.               He was a remarkable man and monk.   Hi

                 I have many interests, but one enduring interest focuses on the life and spirituality of Thomas Merton.   Merton was the spiritual searcher who finally and, oddly, responded to a call not only to become religious, but do it as a Catholic and as a monk in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky.   For a world traveler and European at heart, to be open to God calling him to become a Trappist monk and enter the communal life at the Abbey of Gethsemani outside Bardstown, Kentucky is enough to make me think there is some kind of God!             One of the benefits of my interest in Merton has been the many friendships which have come with other folks who also are interested in Merton.   Some are academics, but many others are scattered among more typical professions in life.   Some are monks and nuns, but most are not living their religious call the same way Merton did.   It seems all of us find that Merton still helps us understand what it means to live cont