Faith & Life Inspirational Message

On its own the title for this inspirational journey makes no sense.   Of course, the words are understandable.   Everyone knows what ordinariness is.   And sweetness is a no-brainer!   But together, who knows?   What is missing is a context.   Actually, context is more important than we usually think it is.   So often, meaning is gained when we know the context.   For this phrase, “ordinariness into sweetness” (the text), to mean anything, we need other surrounding words (providing the “con,” which means “with,” for the text!).   Those surrounding words form a context.   They would shape to how we are supposed to understand “ordinariness into sweetness.” Let me build the context by making suggestions.   The first suggestion is when I came up with the phrase, “ordinariness into sweetness,” I was thinking of Halloween.   No doubt, now the “get” half of it!   Halloween---candy---sweetness!   And you are exactly rig...

Unless you are Roman Catholic, you probably never heard of Monica.   For sure, I never had heard of her until I took a church history class.   As far as I know, she never wrote anything.   She was not a leader.   She would be aghast to discover that she had become a saint!   Paradoxically, she is a model and a teacher.             Monica was born in North Africa in the early part of the fourth century.   If you are not familiar with the map of this, the northern part of the African continent, i.e. Egypt, Tunisa, Algeria, etc., was part of the Roman Empire.   South of this is the Sahara Desert and, then, south of the Desert---sub-Saharan Africa---is the Africa most of us think about.   Monica was born of Christian parents.   We know virtually nothing else about her.             She married Patriti us, a non-Christian with cle...

One of the things I like about hanging out with Catholics is the fact that I am continually sharing parts of that particular Christian tradition that my own Quaker tradition does not emphasize.   One of the things is their use of the saints of the Church.   I like that so many days of the year are dedicated to particular saints.   In my own mind there is no necessary connection of a day and the saint associated with that day.   But it is always a good occasion to focus on a special person of the Church.             Recently one of the saint days that I welcomed was the day celebrating Polycarp.   I used to spend some time with that old saint, but since I don’t teach more specialized courses in Christian history, I seldom have occasion to think about Polycarp.   So to share his saint day was like a reunion with an old friend.             I am s...

Often it is tempting to go with the novel and the faddish in spirituality.   Spirituality came onto the national scene---particularly for non-Catholics---in the 1980s.   Before that time, it would have been rare to hear churches or church leaders talking about “spirituality.”   Instead, one typically heard words about religion, theology, etc.   In college students took religion classes and theology classes.   Maybe Roman Catholic seminaries talked about spirituality, but I never heard about it.   However, in the 70s and 80s things began to change.   What led this change is less important than the impact of the change.   No doubt, part of the change came about because of Vatican II which opened up Catholicism by lessening Protestant fears of Rome.   There were other windows of change that were thrown open.   The impact was enormous.   One feature of this that resonated with my own religious tradition, Quakerism, was a new focus...

As part of my daily discipline, I try to follow the lectionary reading.   A lectionary is a pre-selected series of readings.   The one I follow from the Benedictine monastery has morning prayers, evening prayers, night prayers, etc.   If one knows anything about the monastic life, one knows that monks follow a daily regimen that alternates worship and work.   In fact, for the serious, classical monks there are seven different periods of worship throughout the day.   And this pattern is repeated day after day.   To live your life with this kind of schedule is bound to shape you in ways that most of us are not.   For example, contrast your daily schedule with that more worshipful structure of the monks.   Even though my daily schedule can be fairly busy and, in some ways, pretty structured, it does not approximate the monastic life.   Of course, my goal is not to be a monk.   But a monk’s goal is not to be a monk either!   The m...

One of the pleasant things that can happen while you are reading is finding something you had not been seeking.   It happens to me quite frequently.   It can make me feel like a kid who finds a treasure.   Usually, I want to yell, “hey, look at this!”   But normally there is no one around…or worse, I am sitting somewhere with some people and if I yelled that, they would think I am daft or, perhaps, throw me out the door!   Last evening I hit one of those gems that made me want to yell to someone.   But no one was at home with me.   And the neighbor above me already thinks I am crazy enough…no need to add evidence!   So let me share that tidbit with you.   It comes from Dorothy Day.   Fewer and fewer people these days know who Dorothy Day was.   Dorothy was a Catholic saint, although she obviously has not been canonized.   I doubt that she will be, but to me she is a saint.   In her early life through the 1920s a...

Today is the feast day of Martha---known as St. Martha in the Roman Catholic tradition.   Martha is a figure we met a couple times in the New Testament.   Probably the more famous of the two accounts comes in John’s Gospel when we hear the story of the raising of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha.   Clearly, the important person in this story is Lazarus. The other reference to Martha comes in Luke’s Gospel.   This is a much shorter story and throughout history has been open to various interpretations.   In this story Jesus comes to have a meal with the sisters.   The sisters function in two different roles.   And often one of these roles is seen as a “higher” or more important role.   If this were a contest, Martha would become the patron saint for non-winners.   Let’s get a bit of the background. In this Gospel story from Luke we read that Jesus came to a village where the sisters lived.   Right away we are told that Marth...