contemplative – Page 9 – The Future is Open

August 11, 2011

If my people…

One of my favorite Bible quotes is from Chronicles.

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. — Chronicles 7:14

Are we willing to pray for our land, our president and our leaders? Are we willing to turn from our wicked ways? There are some who interpret this to mean that individual moral failings. I mean are we willing to turn from greed? Are we willing to elect leaders who lead us away from corporate governance and greed? Are we willing to end wars whose only purpose is to create jobs for contractors? Are we willing to turn from this sin. Earlier today I reflected on another passage that is a favorite of mine. Micah 6:8, “do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.” Too often justice in our country plays out as retribution but biblical justice is about restoring the bonds of relationship and it’s related to the quote from Chronicles. We need to restore the bonds of relationship in our country. We need to step away from this either/or mentality and move to both/and. It is possible to be for one thing without being against another. Both/and creates win/win and that’s a direction we need in our country right now and it would be good for the world too.

I have no power. I’m just one guy asking that you stop what you are doing right now and pray. If you don’t have words that’s okay. A few moments of silence is enough. Pray for our president, our country, our leaders, our people. Pray for the people you find it most difficult to follow. I believe God will heal our land. Even if you don’t believe anything I’ve written just pretend you did and that will be enough.

August 10, 2011

The Great Bell

“Please help me. what am I going to do? I can’t go on like this. You can see that! Look at the state I am in. what ought I to do? Show me the way.” As if I needed more information or some kind of sign!

…suddenly, as soon as I had made that prayer, I became aware of the wood, the trees, the dark hills, the wet night in my imagination, I started to hear the great bell of Gethsemani ringing in the night…

A Merton Reader, ed. by Thomas P. McDonnell, (New York: Image Books, 1989) 128

This quote is one of my favorite Merton quotes and it comes from “Seven Storey Mountain.” I have felt this emotion strongly in my life and especially lately and that’s why it resonates so profoundly. I’m listening for the bell with the ear of my heart.

August 7, 2011

Send Thy Peace

Sufi Prayer by Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Send Thy peace, O Lord, which is perfect and everlasting, that our souls may radiate peace. Send Thy peace, O Lord, that we may think, act, and speak harmoniously. Send Thy peace, O Lord, that we may be contented and thankful for Thy bountiful gifts. Send Thy peace, O Lord, that amidst our worldly strife we may enjoy thy bliss. Send Thy peace, O Lord, that we may endure all, tolerate all in the thought of thy grace and mercy. Send Thy peace, O Lord, that our lives may become a divine vision, and in Thy light all darkness may vanish. Send Thy peace, O Lord, our Father and Mother, that we Thy children on earth may all unite in one family. Amen.”

Thirty-one US Navy Seals were killed yesterday in Afghanistan. We too have killed many Afghans. My prayer is not for a winner or loser but for peace itself. Send thy peace, O Lord!

August 7, 2011

Soaking up silence

This is picture of Mary Queen of Peace whose statue occupies the crypt underneath the chapel here at Mt. Saviour. It’s beautiful here this morning. The only sounds are birds, baa-baahing of nearby sheep and the rustling branchs above my head. Twice in a week’s time I find myself at a Benedictine monastery. God, I love the stillness & quiet. There is peace in silence and I think God is in there too. God us where it’s noisy too I’m sure but it seems easier to hear in silence.

July 31, 2011

St. Columban’s

I love it here along Lake Erie. Only the sound of the waves in the background and the rustle of leaves overhead break the silence. I have come here to pray and rest today. My heart is full of questions and here in the silence of this holy spot I hope to hear his voice. Like St. Benedict I am listening with the ear of my heart. I love it here along this beautiful great lake. Quo vadis Domine?

July 16, 2011

Abbey

After a lovely trip through Letchworth Park I made it to Abbey of the Genesee. I haven’t been here in awhile. I was afraid I tarried too long in the state park, but pleasantly I made it in time to get some gifts in the store. I purchased four Monks Brownies and two packages of Monks oatmeal raisin cookies. A fellow visitor asked if the cookies were good. I told her I had never had anything bad here. She chuckled at my answer. I am sitting in the chapel now before the sanctuary light. The Blessed Sacrament is nearby and Our Lady of the Genesee is central to the altar too. Earlier this week at a workshop I attended we were asked where would we go if money were not an object. I said I’d go to Jerusalem and spend a week on retreat in the Garden of Gethsemane. This chapel is Getsemane today. I’m grateful to be here in the silence. It is here in this silence that I feel close God. I cannot see him but I can hear with the ear of my heart. I love God and this place.

July 16, 2011

Inspiration Point

I stand perhaps a couple hundred feet above the Genesee River as it winds it’s way through the gorge that is central to Letchworth Park. I come here often because of the peaceful surroundings that are punctuated with lovely vistas like this one. It is quiet except for the distant roar of falling water from the Middle Falls pictured above. It is easy to imagine myself here a couple hundred years earlier as early settlers and Native Americans were drawn here too. There is peace and beauty here. It is the incarnation easily expressed and viewed. I come here often, sometimes in the cold stillness of winter. Today it’s warm and it’s great to return again to sit next to my friend sister water as she winds her way north through this picturesque canyon.

July 13, 2011

Evening of Re-Creation

Tonight I sit in Holy Peace Chapel with others seeking solitude and community. This is my first opportunity for an evening of peaceful re-creation here at Mt. Irenaeus this summer. I came tonight with a heart full of questions longing for answers. Earlier today I gathered on the campus of St. Bonaventure University to reflect on one if Parker Palmer’s books. Tonight’s theme is about transformation. Will I be transformed tonight or even this summer? Have I been transformed at St. Bonaventure? Yes, and that is what invited me here tonight.

June 30, 2011

One moment at a time

It is not hard to live through a day, if you can live through a moment. What creates despair is the imagination, which pretends there is a future, and insists on predicting millions of moments, thousands of days, and so drains you that you cannot live the moment at hand.

–Andre Dubus, “A Father’s Story,” Selected Stories (Vintage, 1995)

June 23, 2011

Be Still and Know

The King shall rejoice. The words of the psalms written thousands of years ago by King David and others are frequently with me. I sit beside the still waters of Nannen pond. My soul is restored. I walk through the valley of the shadow of death each day. It’s a metaphor for life. Under his wings I find refuge. Next to still waters I am refreshed. I’ve been thinking a lot lately and sitting next to a lot of still water. God I love the smell of the crabapple blossoms behind me. Their sweet perfume, this lovely June evening, and the stillness invite me once again to listen to the silent voice of my creator. What is it that you are calling me too? Is it simply to “be still and know.”