Category: Spiritual

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Merton and me

Last night I attended a talk given by Walt Chura, SFO at Mount Irenaeus. Walt’s topic was the “Transformations of Thomas Merton.” Walt talked about the similarities between the transformations of Francis of Assisi and Thomas Merton and helped me to more clearly see each man and their journey to God and my own journey too. Both Merton and Francis were profligate sinners. They knew excess and it is or was their excess that eventually drew them close to God.

I was thinking as I ran this morning and contemplating what it means to me and it occurred to me that it’s possible to know God without theology. In fact theology might actually come between us and God. In the west and particularly in Western Christianity we are totally absorbed in describing God and what God is and isn’t. It’s that obsession with description that actually stands in the way of our knowing God. In twelve step programs, old timers frequently say that if you can describe the higher power, you’ve just lost him or her. If that’s true, and I believe it is, then theology or theologies could actually be standing in the way of knowing God or following God. I think both Merton and Francis knew this. I was thinking too of the popular Christian view of a sin centered universe and how that shapes Western Civilization. The less popular theology is of Duns Scotus and the Theology of the Incarnation that says that Christ came not to save the world from its sins but to show how much God loved the world.

If you tell that to your average American Christian you’ll be in for the fight of your life, but it makes sense to me. I read a book a few years ago by an Irish theologian who said that spirituality had been around for 10,000 years and that religion for only the last four or five thousand of those years. Karl Rahner once said, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all.” The Buddhists speak of the various paths of truth as being fingers pointing to the moon. Drawing from all of this and Walt’s talk last night I believe its possible to get so caught up in the fingers as to miss the moon. Its possible that a profligate life is really the path of the true seeker and that it’s not a sin centered universe but a sartori centered universe in which each man and women is moving slowly, very slowly towards enlightenment which Christians in the west would call redemption.

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Waking up

I’m in the process of waking up. It’s a journey and not a destination. I’ll never be fully awake but I hope that I continue to awaken to the reality of the world that has been created for all of us. This isn’t the Madison Avenue marketing world or the world as described on the evening news. This is the world that St. Francis of Assisi awakened to. This world that I’m waking up to is found in the space between thoughts. It’s found in the darkness between stars.

Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics -Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion — are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare. — Anthony de Mello, S.J.

Read more by Anthony de Mello here.

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A generational challenge

I got an email from my daughter yesterday that linked this video which I hope you will watch in its entirety. It is a clarion call for change and a change that I hope to be a part of. Gandhi once said, that we must be the change that we wish to see in the world and I’ve been thinking of both the Mahatma’s words and my own actions. What can I do to help bring about the necessary change to save our planet and protect the interests of the citizens of my own country. We all know that prayer indeed moves mountains. Meditation and prayer may be our best weapons in this fight to change the status quo. I’ve thought of the power of the Promise Keepers movement of ten years ago and the movement of a nation and a world to prayer. Gandhi once said, “whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.” So we must move to end our dependence of carbon based fuels yet do so in a loving way that condemns not the producers nor consumers but points the way to a better life for us and the planet.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt9wZloG97U]

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Warriors

My recent written conversations with my nephew, reading The Promise of Paradox and my reflections on both of those have lead me to believe that being a warrior at one time is a necessary experience that lead me to the path of peace. A number of my favorite Psalms including Psalm 63 and Psalm 91 are definitely written by a warrior. St. Francis of Assisi was a warrior too. I’m beginning to think that one cannot truly love peace nor work for it until one accepts the warrior in our hearts. I was never in combat, but I was in the military and I really loved my time in the military. I still get goose bumps when I see certain displays and I’ve felt a special affinity for members of the armed forces ever since I was one myself.

I’ve noted too that many of the apologists for our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan have never served in the military, they’ve never been warriors and that is the missing piece for them. I believe that this warrior phase is necessary and until it’s embraced and celebrated a man can never be whole. One cannot be peace until one has been at war. I cannot experience redemption until I have been a sinner and the most powerful redemptions are the fruit of the biggest sinners. It all belongs.

You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,Say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust.”God will rescue you from the fowler’s snare, from the destroying plague,Will shelter you with pinions, spread wings that you may take refuge; God’s faithfulness is a protecting shield. You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, Nor the pestilence that roams in darkness, nor the plague that ravages at noon. Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, near you it shall not come. You need simply watch; the punishment of the wicked you will see. You have the LORD for your refuge; you have made the Most High your stronghold. No evil shall befall you, no affliction come near your tent. For God commands the angels to guard you in all your ways. With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the asp and the viper, trample the lion and the dragon. Whoever clings to me I will deliver; whoever knows my name I will set on high. All who call upon me I will answer; I will be with them in distress; I will deliver them and give them honor. With length of days I will satisfy them and show them my saving power.

–Psalm 91

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Double chocolate chip frappucino

Yesterday I received a letter from my nephew who is in boot camp at Great Lakes, IL. It was touching letter and I my voice broke as I read it. I never got to spend as much time with Tom as I would have liked because distance always separated us. Yet, now in my life I find us being knit together from the common experience of the United States Navy. His letter was also interesting because he mentioned that he is scheduled to graduate from recruit training on the Feast of the Assumption. I hadn’t made that connection until his letter. In one of my letters to him I mentioned stopping at a number of Starbucks on our way to and from North Carolina a few weeks ago. Tom said that their chaplain told them that one of the ways you can know that God loves you is by consuming a double chocolate chip frappucino at Starbucks. I think I’m going to get Tom a gift certificate to Starbucks. That’ll be a good completion for the Chaplain’s metaphor. It’ll be good for Tom and good for Starbucks.

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A reflection on hospitality

Last weekend at St. Francis Springs Prayer Center in the coffee room I found a reflection on hospitality written by Henri Nouwen which really impacted me. I took a picture of the writing with my cell phone camera and mailed it to myself. I’ve transcribed some of it and included it here. I invite you to think about hospitality and what it means to be hospitable.

Hospitality means the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. Hospitality is the opening of an opportunity to others to find their God their way.

The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover their own songs, speak their own language, dance their own dances, free also to leave and follow their own vocations.

–Henri Nouwen

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St. Francis Springs

This morning Brother Joe and I will drive from Mt. Irenaeus to St. Francis Springs Prayer Center in Stoneville, North Carolina. We’re going to a Peace and Justice Retreat sponsored by Holy Name Province of the Franciscan Friars. We were there a couple of years ago and though I’ve given up hope of any real or lasting peace in this world or this country in particular I will enjoy the trip, Brother Joe’s company and the stillness of this lovely center.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjgtb9591NI]

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Working together

I am convinced that only through working together can we win the disagreements and misunderstandings that lead to war. I am equally convinced that some countries like my own will never be at peace until they can see how much money they gain from being at peace. I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion and elimination of ignorance, selfishness and greed.

  • The problems we face today, violent conflicts, destruction of nature, poverty, hunger, and so on, are human-created problems which can be resolved through human effort, understanding and the development of a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. We need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share. Although I have found my own Buddhist religion helpful in generating love and compassion, even for those we consider our enemies, I am convinced that everyone can develop a good heart and a sense of universal responsibility with or without religion.–Dalai Lama
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Winter Soldier

On Sunday I found myself inside a church on Jamestown Island in Virginia. The church is a replica of the original that stood on that ground in the early 17th century. Posted at the front of the church were the Ten Commandments. One of them stated, “you shall not kill.” How often we hear reference to the Ten Commandments and how posting them would restore value to our society and our country. More important than posting them is having them written in our hearts. This soldier’s testimony is more poignant than posting the commandments. Apparently certain values were written on his heart at one time and no amount of military training can permanently remove them. Watch the video here.

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Twenty Five Days

Last week I had the privilege of attending an educational forum in our area. One of the presenters that I heard was the young lady who authors a blog called, Twenty-Five Days. I could not get over the heart and deep presence of the capacity for social justice in a person so young. I felt as though I was in the presence of an angel and it made me glad to be alive.

I hope you’ll take a moment to visit her blog and see what she is doing for others.  We need hope these days and this young lady is a beacon of that virtue.