Category: Spiritual

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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.

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Touch my body

Recently I’ve come to have a greater appreciation for the feminine spirit in my life. I recently wrote about the Ruach and how the Hebrews long ago realized that the spirit of God was feminine or at least that’s how they depicted it. One of the lines in the Tao te Ching says, “the soft overcomes the hard.” Lao-Tzu knew way back then that the most powerful forces in the world were feminine.

A week ago my wife got a present from our son for Mothers Day and it was Mariah Carey’s latest Album. I was somewhat surprised. I’ve been a Mariah fan since I first heard her in the early 1990’s. My wife told me that she had heard Mariah perform on Oprah Winfrey’s show and had really liked one of the songs. My daughter was playing the album last week in our home and we both like “Touch my Body.” In fact every since I heard the song I can’t get the melody out of my head. The video on Youtube is very captivating and highlights much of Carey’s mystique as a performer, but it also touches on the larger theme of the powerful feminine spirit which animates so much of my life and our lives in general. Returning from my workout this morning I mentioned to my wife about the song and about how this had gotten me to thinking again of how much we need the feminine and sacred feminine in our lives. It is women after all who give us life, who nurture us and protect us when necessary.

Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Lao-Tzu, Gandhi, the Dalai-Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Luther King were all leaders who understood this very well. Gandhi brought down the British by receiving their anger and turning it against them. Jesus said, “resist not evil,” “love your enemies,” “do good to those who persecute you.” It all flies in the face of the masculine war and endless war. I mentioned to Diane this morning that I think gay men are more in touch with the feminine and that is what is really unsettling to those men who haven’t accepted their own femininity. I hope you enjoy the video and song I can’t get it out of my head. You can view it here on Youtube.

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Solar Nation

In case you’ve been asleep for the past seven years, we are in an energy crisis. The leadership of our country has failed to recognize this fact and has failed to call on us the citizens to implement strategies that will protect not only our environment, but our very way of life. Renewable energy is perhaps the one strategy which could lift our dependence on foreign oil and our over reliance on fossil fuels in general. Renewable energy is good for the environment too because it lessens greenhouse gas emissions which are contributing global warming. One of the methods governments can promote renewable energy is through the use of targeted tax cuts. Up until now all the bills that have passed through our national legislature have been defeated by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers which demonstrates the hold that the oil and gas industry has on our country. It’s easy to blame Messrs. Bush and Cheney, but while they are not advocates of this energy, they are not completely responsible for the non-action.

in brief, they’ve all been about funding: the bills either targeted oil & gas industry revenues to pay for the tax credits, or they had no source of funding at all. So they all ran into roadblocks manned, respectively, by Senate Republicans or House Democrats. To this day, no-one is willing to budge an inch from their position, even with legislation as important as this.

This week we heard something different from Capitol Hill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are urging the House Ways & Means Committee to support a small ($6-8 billion) renewable energy tax extenders package that would include Solar and that would be funded, not from the oil & gas industry but from the reporting of credit-card transactions to the IRS.–Solarnation

If you would like to take true patriotic action in the run up to this year’s Memorial Day call on your elected representatives to consider joining Solar Nation and do your part to foster renewable energy.

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Pentecost

Today was the Feast of Pentecost. At Mass today Fr. Lou’s homily was about the Holy Spirit and about how much of theology is spent on Jesus and God the Father, but almost nothing on the Holy Spirit. He drew our attention to a print near the rear of the chapel today that is a depiction of the Ruach. The depiction is of a feminine spirit breathing life into the earth from the cosmos. Today was also Mothers Day and as I looked at this depiction I thought of the parallels between the Ruach and mothers. We come to life in our mothers and it is through the love, action and attention of our mothers that our early lives are animated.  We cannot see the Ruach but it is the breath of God that gives us life and gives our lives direction and purpose.  Mystics whether men or women are always in touch with the sacred feminine which is very much within the holy spirit. Those who deny this feminine are really out of touch with the Holy Spirit.

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Home again

I’m home again after two days at Stella Maris Retreat in Skaneateles, New York. It was the annual meeting of the Kateri Tekakwitha Region Secular Franciscan Order. I’m humbled to be a member, much less a minister of our local St. Irenaeus Fraternity. The Secular Franciscan Order, originally known as the Brothers and Sisters of Penance follow a rule of life much like that followed by Franciscan friars and nuns everywhere in the world except they follow it as very ordinary folks. Some are retired, some are not. Some are married, others are not. Some of our members are social workers, nurses, while others are teachers and some are even computer geeks.  Our members come from all walks of life and all around the world. We’ve got one thing in common and that is a desire to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the same way that our seraphic father St. Francis of Assisi did.

I’m humbled to be in the presence of such holy people. I feel like I am the least of the brothers.

Secular Franciscans, together with all people of good will, are called to build a more fraternal and evangelical world so that the kingdom of God may be brought about more effectively. Mindful that anyone “who follows Christ, the perfect man, becomes more of a man himself,” let them exercise their responsibilities competently in the Christian spirit of service.

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What is a contemplative?

Last Saturday my son asked my wife and I if we could define mysticism. I did my best but it’s like trying to define what strawberries taste like to someone who’s never tasted one.  This morning I decided to give one of my extra books to our school library but before I did, I looked inside one last time to see any notes I may have left. I found a note on page 81 of “The Illuminated Life: Monastic Wisdom for Seekers of Light,” by Joan Chittister, OSB.

To be a contemplative we must become converted to the consciousness that makes us one with the universe, in tune with the cosmic voice of God. We must become aware of the sacred in every single element of life. We must bring beauty to birth in a poor and plastic world. We must restore the human community. We must grow in concert with God who is within.  We must be healers in a harsh society. We must become all those things that are the ground of contemplation, the fruits of contemplation, the end of contemplation.

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Wholeness

Religion is about ritual, about morals, about systems of thought, all of them good, but all of them incomplete. Spirituality is about coming to consciousness of the sacred. It is in that consciousness that perspective comes, that peace comes. It is in that consciousness that a person comes to wholeness. –p.16, Illuminated Life–Joan Chittister, OSB