Category: Spiritual

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The Franciscan Journey

This morning began early when I woke up unable to sleep anymore at 6:30 am. A shower and then getting dressed for graduation at St. Bonaventure University. The steady rain forced me to put my cap and gown in a makeshift barrel bag covering and then a twenty-five minute drive to campus. With the help of custodian in the Reilly Center I found a spacious classroom where we could stow our gear. I got gowned and capped and then stood in line waiting with hundreds of others grads and undergrads prior to our procession into the Reilly Center arena. As I turned the corner following my classmates I saw than one each side of the center aisle were the faculty of St. Bonaventure University who greeted us as we processed. Early in that procession my eyes misted a bit as I remembered my Franciscan roots at St. Pius X Grammar School where I graduated 45 years ago.

My adviser Dr. Gibbs, who is also head of the Department of Educational Leadership extended his hand. “Congratulations, Don.” Next to him was my friend Brother Kevin Kriso, OFM. Kevin looked resplendent in his red robes.  My humble friend is actually a Doctor of Counseling Psychology; next was Dr. McDonough who taught me so much about curriculum and data analysis; then there was Dr. Anne Claire-Fisher who explored the Secular Franciscan life; Fr. Bob Struszynski, OFM who is actually a Doctor of Theology; Fr. Dan Riley, OFM who is one of my dearest friends; Fr. Michael Calabria, OFM a lovely friar and Facebook friend who heads the University’s Islamic Studies program.

One of the professors that I didn’t know was wearing a Tau. I had two on this morning but they were under my gown. At St. Bonaventure University we are all Franciscans. Today was one of those peak experiences that define our lives.  I cannot begin to describe all that I experienced today but I can tell you that I am honored to be a St. Bonaventure Alumni. I had been looking forward to shaking Sister Margaret Carney, STD, OSF’s hand and I did today. Sister Margaret embodies all that one would want to be. She is so personable and hospitable. I can think of no one else who more embodies what it means to be a Franciscan.

Today I graduated with an MSED in Educational Leadership and that is very important and meaningful to me. More importantly I graduated from St. Bonaventure University an institution that embodies all that I treasure. I am a Franciscan and receiving a degree from a Franciscan institution is great blessing.  Words cannot adequately express all that is in my heart tonight.

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Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

This quote from Jeremiah has been with me lately. It’s one that I keep meditating on. In a few hours I’ll graduate from St. Bonaventure University. What will I do with my new certifications and skills? Will I lead a school or school district? Will I continue to be a technology coordinator? What did the Holy Spirit have in mind when it influenced me to enroll at St. Bonaventure University a couple of years ago? The spirit will lead as it always does and I will do my best to follow it, listening with the ear of my heart.

It is quiet this morning as I sit here keying in these words that have come to me. It is raining again and whenever it rains I think of Thomas Merton. Rain is the best metaphor for the grace of God and the Holy Spirit that I can think of. I am surrounded then by God’s grace and enveloped in that loving spirit as I have been throughout my life.

I came up here from the monastery last night, sloshing through the cornfield, said Vespers, and put some oatmeal on the Coleman stove for supper. It boiled over while I was listening to the rain and toasting a piece of bread at the log fire. The night became very dark. The rain surrounded the whole cabin with its enormous virginal myth, a whole world of meaning, of secrecy, of silence, of rumor. Think of it: all that speech pouring down, selling nothing, judging nobody, drenching the thick mulch of dead leaves, soaking the trees, filling the gullies and crannies of the wood with water, washing out the places where men have stripped the hillside! What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows!

Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. As long as it talks I am going to listen. — Thomas Merton, “Rain and the Rhinoceros.”

So this morning I listen to the rain as it talks to me. I am glad to be here and glad that it is raining otherwise I might miss the voice of the Ruach.

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Metanoia and mindfulness

In a few weeks I’ll be a graduate of St. Bonaventure University. I’ll have my degree in hand and I’m looking to make a difference in the lives of children. I’ve got some ideas of applying Franciscan spiritual principles to the education of students. I think you can do it in any setting whether public or private. St. Francis kissed the leper and that was a metanoia for him. In the past almost two years I’ve had a metanoia too. I think it’s time for a change in education. We need to re-humanize the process. Too much emphasis on testing and more testing. I recently read a book called “The Fourth Way” by Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley. I’m also a devotee of Parker Palmer and I think that we need to re-create community in our schools and specifically authentic learning communities to guide our communities and our students into the years ahead. I’m hoping this blog ignites some new thinking. I’m looking for others who are like-minded.

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Incarnation and Resurrection

Too often incarnation and resurrection are just words and thoughts that are too abstract for most of us to get a handle on. For Franciscans the incarnation is about the primacy of Christ. The universe exists for Christ not Christ existing for the universe. The universe and therefore all creation is for Christ. It’s not for man to defile but to give glory. Those among us who see a dichotomy between man and the universe are those who might see its defilement as desirable. There are some Catholics who got very upset because they saw a picture of someone urinating on Christ. But each and everyday we climb into our car and tool down the road we are urinating on Christ. We are defiling creation and eventually all sin has a price and ours is about to get exacted and at a tremendous cost. Perhaps we will pay with our lives and our civilization.

A conversation with my daughter yesterday let me hear how a sensitive young person sees the future. She thinks it’s too late and perhaps it is, but then again maybe there is hope of a resurrection. I hope that’s the case.

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A Reflection on Scripture

This video clip is one that I love and one that animates my life. From as far back as I can remember this part of scripture has had great meaning in my life. It comes from Matthew 25: 34-40

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’Then the righteous  will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Click here to watch the video.

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Good news

Today I wrapped up an internship and received good news that I had passed my comprehensive examinations at St. Bonaventure University. It’s late and I’m tired but I’m also very grateful. I want to thank all the people who prayed for me and for my wife for putting up with my worry. The last 21 months have been a journey of self-discovery and homecoming. It has been a metanoia and it is still unfolding. One of my younger co-workers said to me today, “Why don’t you retire?” How old are you anyway? I told him I was 58 years old and not ready to retire. He seemed incredulous. This young man is perhaps 35 at most and to him I seem moderately ancient, but to me it’s relative.

I got some good news too in the last couple days. One of the students for whom I have prayed a lot has received been selected to attend “Upward Bound” at Houghton College. I wrote a recommendation for him when no one else would. When his counselor told me he came into her office excited to be going I was thrilled and deeply moved. This young man and other young men and women like him are what keep me animated and moving forward. I’m tired tonight but grateful and I wanted to record these thoughts. Deo gratias!

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Happy Birthday Fr. Dan

This is about a day late, because it was at Mass this morning that I learned that this is the birthday of a beloved Friar and the protector of Mt. Irenaeus, which has become my second home in the past eleven years. Sixty-eight years ago William Francis Riley was born and raised in Rochester, New York. He often speaks of his public school legacy but eventually he would find his way to St. Bonaventure University and graduate from there and later become Fr. Daniel P. Riley, OFM.  If he hadn’t disclosed his age at Mass today most folks would think they were talking to a man twenty or thirty years younger. He has a vitality that is unmatched and a personality that attracts others easily. I first met him nearly eleven years ago when I began attending Mass at Mt. Irenaeus. I had been away from the active practice of my Catholic faith for nearly thirty years at that point. One Sunday morning in February 2000 I called the Mountain and learned how to get there. My wife and I made that first trip and it’s one that I’ve been making nearly every Sunday since. Dan has been so much a part of that journey. It was his vision to build this off campus retreat center in the hills of Allegany County in Western New York. Mt. Irenaeus is almost thirty miles from the campus of St. Bonaventure University.

From my first visit to the Mountain I felt welcomed and ultimately attracted but it was something Dan said early in my journey’s there that made me realize that I had finally come home. Mt. Irenaeus is home to many people like me who are looking for a place apart a place where solitude and the Gospel are celebrated. Mountain spirituality welcome all who come there and all are transformed by the hospitality that knows no bound. Everyone regardless of spiritual tradition is welcomed and they all know it soon after arriving.  This video embedded here was made a couple of years ago and it pays tribute to this wonderful man who is a brother and father to us all.  Happy Birthday Fr. Dan! We love you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbCVbCn2Z4c]

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Rabbi’s Gift Story

This is a beautiful story of community building. It’s one we need more of. I spotted in on the bench next to me while at Eucharist this morning at Mt. Irenaeus This is just the kind of story that needs to be celebrated because regardless of your tradition or no matter what you believe it is important to love and respect each other. Great power in those two actions.

“I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you.”

Rabbi’s Gift Story -Different Drum Version

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Compline

I am ending the day listening to the compline prayer of the monks of Mt. Saviour Monastery in Pine City, New York. I stopped by the monastery yesterday and spent sometime sitting quietly in the crypt that holds a statue of Our Lady. I love it there. It is so peaceful and quiet and that is what I was looking for yesterday.  The first plaque I saw in the bookstore really spoke to me. On it were inscribed the words of St. Benedict.

Listen with the ear of your heart

That’s exactly the word or words I needed yesterday and so I am listening with the ear of my heart. I hope that you will join me and maybe our two hearts will be knit together in prayer and listening. Peace and all good to you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQKy5QL-yt4]

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Thoughts on yesterday

Yesterday as I sat in our kitchen reading and listening to Gregorian Chant on Pandora the horrific events that happened in Tucson, AZ began to unfold. First as a tweet from @npr on Twitter  and then eventually to breaking news on Huffington Post to CNN, Fox, MSNBC, CSPAN and all around the world wide web. As I sat there in stunned grief and anguish for people I had never known nor perhaps will ever meet my heart was breaking for our country. I’m not a knee jerk liberal. I’d describe myself as  socially progressive and fiscally conservative. I’m a pro-peace veteran of the United States Navy. I love my country and I’m patriotic too. I even say the pledge to the flag in the morning with the students at the school I work at.

There are some on the left who want to ascribe all of yesterday to vitriol emanating from the right wing and there are those on the right who want to blame the left. I want to blame no one but to examine our conscience as a nation and say where to do we go from here? In the words of Rodney King, “can’t we all just get along.”  We have differences and that is what makes us strong. We need to celebrate those differences but in a way that encourages each other. I’m a Secular Franciscan and I don’t really wear that on my sleeve. In fact I go out of my way to not make statements about my faith. Instead I prefer to live what I believe. Tonight in surfing along the web I came upon a short talk by Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM who is one of my favorite authors. Richard like our seraphic father St. Francis issues a clarion call that goes beyond the boundaries of any faith and instead speaks to the heart of the message of Jesus. I hope you enjoy it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swTLo8abh-I]