Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Finally, I would like to look at the third piece of the Doxology which is recited many times daily at Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery where I visited recently.   The Doxology begins by praising the God Who is, Who was, and Who is to come.”   In some ways this God Who is to come is the most difficult to describe. Clearly, the language is future tense.   The verb indicates the not-yet quality of this aspect of God.   (I am assuming there are not three gods being affirmed in the Doxology!). It is the one true God who is the God who worked in the past (tradition), who works in the present time, and the same God who will be at work in the unfolding of future time.   The good news is this God Whom we knew yesterday and today will be the same God Whom we will know in the future time. I have no doubt, the popular understanding of this God Who is to come is that God Who will inaugurate the future judgment.   For many people this is probably the era of t...

Yesterday I mentioned how many times daily I said the Doxology while on my recent trip to the Tappist monastery in Kentucky.   I guessed it was thirty or forty times.   Of course, that seems like a big number and, truly, I may be exaggerating.   But it was many times. Of course, I lived a great deal of life before I really knew what a “doxology” was.   I knew it was something most people knew.   But why it was important was beyond me.   It was simple…a kind of spiritual no-brainer.   And then I learned Greek.   I learned the Greek word, doxa , means “praise” or “glory.”   So when I say the doxology, I am literally praising or giving God the glory.   That made it important to me. The Doxology we shared at the monastery at Gethsemani was a little different than the version I grew up saying. The opening line was praising the three persons of the Christian trinity: in traditional language, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   T...

It is probably not surprising that my mind and reflections are focused on the weekend spent with a group of students in a Trappist monastery nestled in the hills of Kentucky.   It is also not surprising to know the students are what make the whole adventure worth the effort.   And there was some effort.   Getting a bunch of college students for a seven-hour trek is not easy.   But they were eager.   I was expectant and that matched their eagerness. The last time I was there, it was snowy.   I had never seen the monastery snow-covered and glistening white.   Somehow the weather becomes more real when I am in a monastic setting.   This time I knew it was going to be cold in the morning and beautifully sunny during the day.   Indeed it was.   Morning greeted us with a cold rain.   And then came the warm sun.   In that kind of setting, I think the weather reveals something of God’s Spirit.   It reveals there is a nat...