I’m a Twitter person and I follow a lot of interesting people and groups. Among those groups and individuals is Gratefulness.org. Gratefulness is a part of Brother David Steindl-Rast’s ministry. I can’t remember when I first came across Br. David’s work but it is an important stop for me each day and with Twitter it’s possible to get uplifting tweets many times each day. Frequently these tweets carry me over rough spots or add some deeper meaning to each day. I re-tweet many of their tweets to people who follow me. They thank me at least weekly and suggest people follow a group of us who regularly retweet them. One of the groups they thanked this week was Virtual Abbey (@virtual_abbey). Curiosity got the best of me and I had to check out their website. What I found was an incredibly rich ministry dedicated to praying the liturgy of the hours on Twitter and Facebook. What an incredibly rich use of social networking to reach people. I started following them immediately on both Facebook and Twitter and have been blessed by tweeted psalms.
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.”
The Storm
It’s storming now and kind of frightening with all the news from the mid-west of tornadoes. I am scared too but welcome the peaceful sound of the rain, wind and lightning too as it is all produced by the creator of heaven and earth.
Altissimu, onnipotente bon Signore. – Most high, all powerful, all good Lord! — Francis of Assisi.
It’s from the Canticle of the Sun. It is scary but welcome too. I am tired and not just bone weary but tired of chicanery everywhere. Today one I was told at my work that I was not to make peace. The person doesn’t know that I work for the King of Kings and my job is to make peace. I welcome the peace of Christ even in the midst of this storm. I am still and know that you are God. I am still and know. I am still. I am here and I am waiting for you. Altissimu, omnipotente bon Signore! Pace.
Prayer request
Tomorrow I begin a new chapter in my life. It’s the official beginning of my leadership practicum at St. Bonaventure University. I’m confident that I can do well and that I’ll learn a lot, but like most things academic there is a fair amount of the proper crossing of tees and dotting of i’s. I’m excited that I’m going to be working in a Special Education scenario and that I’ll be forced to learn not only special education law, but also how to properly educate special education students. The best part of being Irish and worrying is that its such a relief when I stop.
Prayer request
Yesterday I learned that my sister has cancer. We don’t know much about it at this time, but she will meet with a surgeon Tuesday to determine their course of action. I’m a person who tries to help others but in this case there is not much I can do except pray. I ask you to do the same because I sincerely believe that prayer can move mountains and that our prayers can help my sister to regain her health. Thanks in advance.
White desert
Today is one of those typical January days that define winter in the western southern tier of New York. It’s 9 degrees Fahrenheit and there is a mist of snow and ice crystals in the air. It’s a good day to be close to the fire. Frigid days and nights are said to produce a good crop of maple syrup in a few months. Maybe that’s just legend but if it’s true then today is filled with sweetness. For most of my life I’ve wished I lived someplace else at this time of year. I’d still prefer the sun’s warmth to days like today, but I’ve come to appreciate the beauty of the white desert. I’ve been privileged to visit the Sonoran desert of Arizona at certain times and a few weeks ago as I made my way in this winter wonderland I came to appreciate the parallel between the Sonoran desert and our countryside in winter.
We all need deserts in our lives to help us better define and appreciate the lushness of creation in our day to day life. I’ve felt a closeness with my creator which I cannot describe when I’m in these deserts and it has been the desert experiences which have blessed me.
I will lead you into the desert; there I will speak to your heart. — Hosea 2:14
Merton on solitude
Earlier today I took a canoe onto the lake where we are staying and maybe it’s because I had ridden in motorized craft a lot this trip, but it was very refreshing to be paddling along in a still cove. I think there is a lot more to solitude than prayer or maybe it’s that contemplation leads to an awareness or state of mind that begets solitude and that solitude begins to infuse all that I am. It’s more than interior silence. It’s a state of being. As Ii paddled I began to recite, “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you.”
Solitude as act: the reason no one understands solitude, or bothers to try to understand it, is that it appears to be nothing but a condition. Something one elects to undergo, like standing under a cold shower. Actually, solitude is a realization, an actualization, even a kind of creation, as well as a liberation of active forces within us, forces that are more than our own, and yet more ours that what appears to be “ours”. As a mere condition, solitude can be passive, inert and basically unreal: a kind of permanent coma. One has to work at it to keep out of this condition. One has to work actively at solitude, not by putting fences around oneself but by destroying all the fences and throwing away all the disguises and getting down to the naked root of one’s inmost desire, which is the desire of liberty-reality. To be free from the illusion that reality creates when one is out of right relation to it, and to be real in the freedom which reality gives when one is rightly related to it.
Thomas Merton. Learning to Love, Journals Volume 6, Christine M. Bochen, editor (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997): 320-321.I used to
New direction
I recently wrote about fear and doubt and how I was uncertain of my future and how that future might include retirement. I walked all the way to the edge and even jumped off into retirement only to be recalled by one of my supervisors. A week ago I was summoned to the principal’s office for what I thought would be a scolding and lo and behold the man wanted me to return to the classroom. I’m being re-invented and in September I’ll be teaching seventh and eighth grade students how to stay safe on the internet, use tools like Google Docs and use their cell phones as learning tools.
The request and the experience has left me with a beginners mind. I’m reaching out to other teachers who’ve taught at this grade level before and who have had this assignment. For the last several years I’ve been a proponent of the educational uses of cell phones. I’ve been at loggerheads with the administration on this point. I’ve come to believe that cell phones are really the present and future direction of computing. For years we’ve been talking about one to one computing and only an elite few districts could actually pull it off. Most lacked the resources. Adding to the proliferation of cell phones is the emergence of the Net Book platform. The near and far term will see a melding of the two and in a relatively short period of time I think we’ll see an almost total disappearance of the traditional desktop and even laptop computers in favor of net centric devices that connect to both traditional 802.11 wireless networks and cellular networks. Recent events in Iran prove the effectiveness of low bandwidth tools like Twitter and SMS to get the message out.
Of course these tools can be dangerous in the hands of young people who frequently lack good judgement and use them to send inappropriate messages which put them and their futures in jeopardy. My assignment includes helping to change those behaviors. It’s a tall order but it’s one that’s got me excited and energized. I hope that you will continue to pray as I need those prayers and so do the students I’ll be working with.
Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
How often these words are with me and in particular lately. January 7, 1979 was my first visit to Abbey of the Genesee. I wanted to join the community at that point. I had recently read Thomas Merton’s “Seven Storey Mountain,” and was sure I was ready to be a Trappist. I met with Fr. John Eudes that day and was disappointed when he suggested there were other ways for me to lead a spiritual life. I’ve often reflected on that wise counsel. I wouldn’t have made a good monk, but from that day to this I’ve tried to lead a spiritual life. I’ve been a son, grandson, husband, and father and lead a spiritual life in all of those roles. Monasteries are not places to run away from life as I wanted to in early 1979. They are instead places where life is celebrated and where I’ve often returned for renewal. The stillness of the abbey chapel still refreshes me like a mountain spring. It is there that I once felt the healing presence of the Lamb of God and gradually over a number of years I’ve come to feel that presence in my home and elsewhere.
Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. -Romans 8:28
That verse and the thought of it is has been with me. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and I don’t think that God fore ordains those bad things. I think they just happen, just like rain falls on everyone whether good or bad. When things happen in my life that I think are bad I tend to blame myself. That’s one of my character defects. Lately I’ve been thinking more and more of this verse when adverse events come and they do. Just today our son called to say that his car had “conked out.” It’s only a couple of days before Christmas and we’re looking at over three hundred dollars to put a new starter in the car. Last night my sister was due to arrive from out of town to celebrate her 50th birthday, but the weather didn’t cooperate and her flight was cancelled. Naturally, we were all discouraged, but in this too I need to look for something good to happen out of this.
Much of my life I’ve spent walking around under a gray cloud when in fact I should be looking for something good to happen. It really all depends on how I look at a situation. My tendency is to be negative rather than positive.