Category: Spiritual

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The dynamic energy of transcendence

Without the dynamic energy of transcendence by which consciousness rises and relationships deepen, religion grows old and weary; it becomes rote, a mechanistic repetition of old ideas. To function out of an old cosmology with old ideas of matter and form, to think that God does not do new things, is to make an idol out of Jesus and to ignore the power of the Spirit.”

— Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology, Consciousness by Ilia Delio

Ilia Delio is my favorite modern theologian. She’s helped me to look at the deeper meanings of life and to better understand the writing of Teilhard de Chardin. Many people see God or the creator as immutable but that’s not my belief. As the universe continues to grow and unfold then the cosmos and the energy that surrounds us continues to grow and change too. What keeps everything in place? The creation story that is in the Book of Genesis is more allegory than reality. It was the best that an ancient mind could fathom. Now we know so much more about the cosmos.

Does the creative energy of the universe which we might call God not continue to grow and expand? I asked a Jewish friend of mine how he viewed the Bible. I wanted to know if he interpreted everything literally. He assured me that he didn’t but saw the stories as wisdom stories that needed to be interpreted in light of our present day.

God as he reveals himself to me through my experience is not the limiting God that some religious people seem to think. I believe that there are certain universal principles which govern the universe. Among them is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The golden rule applies in all cases in my experience. On the other hand the creative force of the universe is open to all people regardless of where they find themselves in the world. There is not one way of seeing God. There are many ways of seeing God. The disparate religious faiths are fingers pointing to the moon.

The universe is not an either/or proposition. It is nuanced and we’ve only scratched the surface. As St. Paul said, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

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We can be real here

I’ve been reading John Pavlovitz’ book, “A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic and Hopeful Spiritual Community.” It’s a breath of fresh air and reminds me of my own experience at Mt. Irenaeus twenty years ago. In late 1999 and early 2000 I was looking for an authentic community of believers. I’d recently been involved with youth ministry on our school campus. I liked the folks but it was an inauthentic experience for me. All of my life I’ve been deeply religious but profane too. I was trying hard to fit in with the church folks who wouldn’t say shit if they had a mouthful of it. I had spent most of my life around people for whom profanity was second nature. Most of them were deeply spiritual folks but there was always this tension to remain pious in the presence of the people at church.

In February of 2000 I followed the advice of a friend and went to Mass at Mt. Irenaeus is nearby West Clarksville. My wife and I showed up dressed for church. Wingtips for me and low heels for her. When we got there we found folks dressed in blue jeans and walking barefoot in the chapel. I returned the following week and stayed for brunch and kept returning Sunday after Sunday. One day I volunteered to help one of the friars work on the property. While we were working he accidentally hit his hand with a hammer and said, “Son of bitch.” I thought to myself, “these are my people.” Indeed over the years since then the Friars were real and they showed me that holiness comes from being wholly myself.

Tonight while reading John Pavlovitz’ book I came across this passage and it resonated. I’ve thought for many years now that Jesus of Nazareth was at home with folks like me. He was shunned by the religious people who were scandalized that he dined with prostitutes and tax collectors.

“At North Raleigh Community Church, where I’ve made my home and ministered for the past three years, we cuss a lot: in small groups, in casual conversation, even from the pulpit (well, it’s actually a podium, but you get the idea). When I initially arrived, this was all a little disorienting to me, not because the words weren’t part of my daily vernacular or because they offended my tender sensibilities, but because I knew better than to admit that I ever said such words or to utter them in mixed religious company. During our first Sunday visit, the pastor dropped an expletive during his message, and I nearly soiled myself. People laughed heartily, but no one seemed particularly surprised and no one walked out. I figured it was an accidental oversight—that is, until the next week. More expletives. I remember thinking, “This is brilliant. He’s set the table for us all. He’s letting us know that we all can be real here, that we are all in this together, and so we can let our guard down and be exactly who we are without pretense. We can be completely effing honest—and it’s OK.””

— A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community by John Pavlovitz

If you’re looking for authentic community and a prophetic voice I highly recommend this book. It’s been one of the best I’ve read recently.

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Beautiful solitude

To deliver oneself up, to hand oneself over, entrust oneself completely to the silence of a wide landscape of woods and hills, or sea, or desert; to sit still while the sun comes up over that land and fills its silences with light. To pray and work in the morning and to labor and rest in the afternoon, and to sit still again in meditation in the evening when night falls upon that land and when the silence fills itself with darkness and with stars. This is a true and special vocation. There are few who are willing to belong completely to such silence, to let it soak into their bones, to breathe nothing but silence, to feed on silence, and to turn the very substance of their life into a living and vigilant silence.

Thoughts in Solitude – Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton is my favorite mystic. This particular quote resonated as I read it today. I find the divine in the silence. I long for the silence of the woods near my home. I bring as much silence into my life as I can find each day. I enjoy times of laughter and community. I watch very little news. I receive an email from Governor Cuomo who provides a clear concise and coherent message without sensationalism nor self congratulation. I close each day in prayer. Sometimes it’s Mass and other times it’s listening to Gregorian chant or Taize prayer.

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Beside still waters

This pond which is a short distance from my home is one of my frequent haunts when I’m out walking. Lately with the need for more social distancing I find myself here more often because very few people come here. It’s on the edge of Mount Prospect Cemetery and not many people walk in the cemetery. Some folks may consider that walking in cemeteries is morbid but it’s a place of peace and contemplation for me. The cemetery and the neighboring pond are places where silence abounds. Herman Melville once said, “silence is the only voice of God.” I find God as I understand God in the silence too.

I find peace in the silence. I don’t watch the news. The cacophony of the pandemic is too much for me. I spend my time writing, walking and praying. Prayer walking is my best form of meditation. When I’m at home I listen to Taize and Gregorian chant interspersed occasionally with Carlos Santana. I’ve long considered Santana’s music very spiritual. I will keep walking and praying and listening to the silence. Mount Prospect and this pond have become my sanctuary.

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We thirst for you in this dry and weary land

Last night on my way home I turned to look at the setting sun and snapped this picture. There is no special filter but a beam of light appears to be streaming from the sun toward me. It’s my habit to pray as I walk and my prayers had focused on the pandemic and those who are the caretakers along with those who are suffering and dying. There is a time in all prayer when I have to ask myself “Is there a higher power” who really cares? Do these prayers make a difference? I read the psalms from time to time and often there is a conversation implied. One of my favorites is Psalm 63 which was written by David in the Desert of Judah.

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. –

Psalm 63

The psalm is about being stranded in the desert away from one’s family. There’s a connection for me with the psalm. Many times in my life when I have felt alone and afraid I have turned to this psalm and read it again. The beam of light in the photo invited a connection too. It signified an answer to prayer.

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Is this the apocalypse?

Tonight as we were eating dinner my wife shared of when she was a little girl who grew up in the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis. She said she often wondered if someday she’d come home and someone would have started a nuclear war. I grew up in those times too. We had civil defense drills in school. We’d be instructed to hide under our desks or place our heads next to the corridor wall to protect us from the blast. Families and schools built “fallout shelters” and they were stocked with blankets and other emergency items to ensure we survived the unthinkable aftermath of nuclear war.

That was almost sixty years ago. The threat of nuclear war loomed over all of us who grew up in the post World War II 1950’s and 1960’s. There was the Berlin buildup, Vietnam and the peace movement. Then the roaring 80’s of Reaganomics and a possible clash with the Russians. The threat of nuclear war loomed briefly once again. There were low grade wars in the middle east because of our addiction to oil. Thousands of Americans lost their lives along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s and other residents of the lands we fought on. The all volunteer force allowed most Americans the luxury of not having to be involved. Shared sacrifice was replaced with glib, “thank you for your service.” We could be distant and cold to the needs of the poor, the marginalized and to the planet itself.

There were the prophets who warned us there was a day of reckoning in the future. It was our children and grand-children who would pay the price of our disconnection with the planet and with each other. Politicians told us that we could not afford to disrupt our economy to address the needs of the planet. We ignored violent tornadoes, one hundred year floods that occurred with increasing severity, fires that burned out of control and threatened entire ecosystems.

Now we are in the grip of a pandemic that threatens the existence of our civilization. We are locked down in our homes. Afraid to to touch our neighbors or worse yet breathe on them. Doctors and nurses are dying to save us. We, in the richest country on earth lack adequate medical supplies and infrastructure to save our citizens. The cost in human life is immense. One expert today suggested that 200,000 people in the United States alone will perish. The world wide total will be in the millions. There is no known cure for the virus. Is this the apocalypse? Our vast weapons systems that cost trillions of dollars are powerless to stop the pandemic. Our military is infected and faces a threat they’ve never known. Field hospitals are being setup all over the country and the world to care for those who need them.

Yesterday as I walked in the woods near my home I saw deer who crossed my path. There were some robins too. There were some beautiful flowers along the trail. I wondered if I would be here next year to see them. Will this be my final spring? Will this be our final spring? Be sure to tell the people around you that you love them. Make sure your affairs are in order. There are no guarantees. Make peace with each other and with the planet. Live simply so others can simply live. Pray for each other even for those you don’t like.

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Forgive them Father

Those are some of last words of Jesus as he was dying on the cross. Rather than condemn his torturers and murderers he forgave them. Gandhi also forgave the man who killed him. There are other stories like Maximilian Kolbe, Oscar Romero and others who spoke truth to power and willing gave their lives in the service of love. On this Sunday morning when normally I’d be on my way to Mass I thought of forgiveness.

I forgive those who have labeled this pandemic a hoax, I forgive those who have used the pandemic to fleece their customers. I forgive those whom I saw playing five on five basketball in the park after we were requested to keep our distance. I forgive those politicians who put party above the welfare of the world. I forgive those who have brutalized our mother earth that unleashed this pandemic. I forgive myself for judging others. I forgive myself for a lack of faith that there will be a positive outcome. I forgive our generation who has left this world a mess for our children and grandchildren.

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Spirituality

“Spirituality is not about feeling good about ourselves. It’s about doing good wherever we are. It’s about bringing good to everyone. It’s about becoming the good we seek. It’s about fashioning our souls in the kind of silence that enables the whole world to feel safe in our calm and quiet presence.”

— Radical Spirit: 12 Ways to Live a Free and Authentic Life by Joan Chittister

Spirituality is at the heart of good relationships. When folks think of spirituality they think there’s a connection to religion. There can be but it’s not always a given. I’ll always be more at home with the spiritual than the religious. Dogma, doctrine and rote aren’t for me.

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The Divine Assails Us

I was reading Teilhard de Chardin quotes this morning and though many were poignant there was one that shone brighter than the rest.

“By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, when in fact we live steeped in its burning layers”

― Teillard de Chardin


How often we are told that to be holy or blessed we must believe a certain way or say certain things or belong to a particular denomination. Today that’s all changed as even those who regularly attend churches are unable to do so. Jesus said, “the kingdom of God is within you.” No higher authority than that is there. Within each of us is the spark of life and that life has a divine origin even for the most heinous who inhabit the planet. Whether we love or despise those in our midst it matters not. They too are connected to this cosmic divinity. That isn’t just us either that’s all creation including the rabbits, squirrels, and our pets. That extends to the virus that is wreaking havoc on our world. That’s really beyond my comprehension. What can we do to put the genie back in the bottle? I have been praying more than normal. Praying for our world and all creation. Can prayer work? What does prayer look like for you? Is it wrote or it merely intention while doing yoga or some other form of meditation.

How will we respond? What can we do in the face of this pandemic? Why did this happen to us?

“In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.”

― Pierre Teilhard De Chardin


Pray for those who you love and those who you hate too. Pray for the virus and pray for its remedy. Peace

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Where is it all going?

In the past two weeks I’ve found myself wondering where will this end? How much suffering will we have to endure. Many have endured too much already. Pope Francis has led two worldwide prayer times and so have countless others. I find that as I walk I’m constantly praying for or thinking of others. I asked God to place the names and faces of people who needed a prayer today in my mind. One of those I prayed for was Amy Klobuchar’s husband. Later I learned that his condition is improving. I prayed for President Trump, Governor Cuomo and other local and national leaders. I prayed for healthcare professionals and members of our own family.

It seemed overwhelming but my spirits were buoyed by the presence of Brother Sun. The brightness and warmth were wonderful today. It reached nearly 65F here today. I took two walks and logged a bit over five miles. Though I was socially distant I was spiritually connected to the community I live in and the world that surrounds us. I found a quote by Thomas Merton that helped to put things in perspective.

“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”

― Thomas Merton

I’m trying to embrace the present moment with all its possibilities and challenges with enough courage, faith and hope.