Calm

 

 I just read a lovely quote by Episcopal bishop Rev. Barbara Harris (1930–2020). She was commenting on the story of the disciples panicking in a storm while Jesus slept:

"What they did not understand, and what many today do not understand is that although we may panic in times of stress and distress, God does not share our panic."     

   

   

Thank you, Father Richard Rohr and the Center of Action and Contemplation for this reminder.

 

Jesus woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased and there was a dead calm. He said to the disciples, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
Mark 4:39–40

A Passing Blessing

"If something comes toward us with grace and can pass through us and toward others with grace, we can trust it as the voice of God."  

Richard Rohr 

      

   

    

    

image:  Sonora Pass, September 2024

In the Growing Light

 What a beautiful sunrise this morning. I truly believe that our deepest call in these times is gratitude.  I found this quote by Richard Rohr to be illuminating. And who can resist a Mary Oliver poem? I leave you with both.  

 

"God does not directly destroy evil, the way our heroic and dualistic minds would like to imagine. God is much wiser, wastes nothing, and includes everything. The God of the Bible is best known for transmuting and transforming our very evils into our own more perfect good. God uses our sins in our own favor! God brings us - through failure - from unconsciousness to ever deeper consciousness and conscience. How could that not be good news for just about everybody?"

Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water   

   

Be still, my soul, and steadfast.
Earth and heaven both are still watching
though time is draining from the clock
and your walk, that was confident and quick,
has become slow.

So, be slow if you must, but let
the heart still play its true part.
Love still as once you loved, deeply
and without patience. Let God and the world
know you are grateful.
That the gift has been given.

~ Mary Oliver, First Sip  

   

image: San Leandro, May 2023

Feeling What There Is To See

 "God is the presence that spares us from nothing, even as God unexplainably sustains us in all things. God depends on us to protect ourselves and each other, to be nurturing, loving, protective people. When suffering is there, God depends on us to reach out and touch the suffering with love, that it might dissolve in love."

James Finley, Center for Action and Contemplation, August 4, 2023

    

So many people I know receive Richard Rohr's daily posts that sometimes I fear being redundant when I quote them. However, this idea of touching suffering is staying with me. I find myself thinking of St. Francis, and all the great healers of the world, including the chaplains, pastors, doctors and nurses and others who step into rooms filled to the brim with suffering. While yes, there is training that can be utilized, there really is no formula that can be relied on. We must first rely on God's love to carry us, and then we must be willing to carry that love.

  

I am going to probably poorly paraphrase a story I read a few months ago. I can't even remember where I read it.  A woman told her story of sitting in a doctor's office as the doctor was telling her that she had cancer. When the doctor paused, she asked him if he realized that he had not once looked up from his paperwork to look at her. Only then did he raise his head. He did seem a little embarrassed, and then quietly said, "Well, I have all this paperwork." That was a room full of suffering, both hers and his. 

  

There is a lovely hymn entitled, "Touch the Earth Lightly". Yes, I agree that we must begin to touch the earth with a more gentle touch. However, touch it we must. We are of the earth. As the saying goes, it is in our bones. And every other little bit of us. We must dare to look. We cannot heal what we do not see.      

  

image: It is dahlia season here in San Leandro. It was overcast when I went out yesterday morning, so the light was a little flat. Yet, I could not resist their cheeriness. They always make me smile, and for a moment or two I know what it is to be healed.  

   

What Matters

 The following is from Richard Rohr's post this morning (October 29).  I believe we are learning that evolution does not come easy, nor does it come quickly.  Yet, it will come for God is a beckoning God, impossible to ignore, and so much more than our finite minds can comprehend. For and from all of this, we learn. We exist to grow. What a journey.

Only the Divine matters,
And because the Divine matters,
Everything matters.

 Thomas Keating, “What Matters”

The simplicity of the final poem in The Secret Embrace speaks eloquently of what I (Richard) know more deeply to be true with every passing year. It’s the incarnational message at the heart of the Gospel: everything belongs! It is a Christ-soaked universe. As we near the end of this series, Cynthia Bourgeault shares her understanding of Thomas Keating’s final legacy to us.

In October 2018, two weeks before he died, Thomas Keating emerged briefly from four days in what appeared to be a coma to deliver an extraordinary final message beamed straight to the heart of the world. Acknowledging that “an extraordinary moment of civilization seems to be overtaking us,” he urged the human family to scrap old approaches based on religious or political dogma and “begin a new world with one that actually exists,” a world whose truth is guided by “silence and science” and whose heart is revealed in a universal resurgence of human compassion and creativity. “We need to find ways to make these really happen,” he said. “I leave this hope in your hands and hearts coming as a real inspiration from the heart of God.”  

  

The Present

The month of July ended up being partially dedicated to bringing some of my medical procedures current.  I visited my dentist, and I made several trips to Kaiser for blood work, a pneumonia vaccination, and a mammogram.  

On my first trip to Kaiser, I was running a little late.  In this time of a pandemic, I find most scheduling to be a little off, but not being on time still makes me nervous. When I arrived at the front door of the medical building, I discovered everyone had to enter through the hospital.  I picked up my pace, and walked on. 

When I arrived, my intention was to move quickly through the hospital door, and once inside, get my bearings.   However, before I could put that plan into place, I was greeted by a pleasant young woman who told me that first I needed to stop by one of the outdoor hand washing stations.  I had walked right by them, but I never once thought they were there for me to actually use.  I retraced some of my steps  and placed my hands under one of the faucets.  Nothing happened.  Oh, yes.  I needed to press the pedal with my foot. After washing and drying my hands, I could then proceed.  For the second visit I was more efficient with the routine, but in the third visit, I felt a change come over me as I washed. I remembered that I was entering a place of healing.   As I dried my hands, I looked up and noticed a  pregnant young woman.  As I walked, I then saw an older woman trying to help a very frail elder get out of the passenger side of the car. Also in my view was a man walking slowly, relying on the help of a cane.  I was humbled to witness these stages of life, and to remember my own body.  I understood that the cool water, the soft foaming soap, and the rough paper towel were Communion elements.  I gave thanks as I entered the door.     

   

"When all three inner spaces [mind, heart, and body] are open and listening together, we can always be present. To be present is to know what you need to know in the moment. To be present to something is allow the moment, the person, the idea, or the situation to change you."

 Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water, 2011, page 10. 

    

   

photograph:  San Leandro, July 2020  

    

Kith and Kin

"I am ever present to those who have realized me in every creature. Seeing all life as my manifestation, they are never separated from me.  They worship me in the hearts of all, and all their actions proceed from me. Wherever they may live, they abide in me."        

The Bhagavad Gita, 6:30-31, translated by Eknath Easwaran     

     

As we make our way to the 4th of July weekend, it would be behoove  us to give thought to unity, not division. No matter how separate we might think ourselves to be, we are all related, and we journey together.  Let us keep all life in our hearts, and respect one another's struggles. May we risk deep listening to the unrest, and find common ground.   

   

O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each other’s burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our world. [Please add your own intentions.] . . . Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God, amen. 

Father Richard Rohr, OSB     

   

photograph:  San Leandro, 2020     

   

Pondering the Beatitudes

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." 

Matthew 5:9

"This peace is 'much larger' than the mind that needs to understand, label, and explain everything." 

Richard Rohr,  Just This

    

photograph:  San Leandro, September 2019    

      

Finding the Starting Point

"Don't start by trying to love God, or even people; love rocks and elements first, move to trees, then animals, and then humans. Angels will soon seem like a real possibility, and God is then just a short leap away." 

Father Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ (p.57)
photograph: San Leandro, June 2019

Might be good to carry a small stone in our pockets - for those times when we find we need to get back to the basics. This idea  also helps me understand mandalas a little more. May we all find someone or something to love today.  Start small if you need to.  We will be led ever on.   

    

    

The Light of Wisdom

My gratitude to Father Richard Rohr who sent me (by way of his book The Universal Christ, page 32-33) to the passage below. It is from the Wisdom of Solomon which is found in the Apocrypha.  It is worth seeking out a Bible that does contain these texts.  This passage reminds me of the revelations of Julian of Norwich.  She wrote of a God who is only love, a love that is continually being poured out. I think this is what Father Rohr means when he writes of the "Forever Coming of Christ" which he describes as  "...the light that allows people to see things in their fullness. The precise and intended effect of such a light is to see Christ everywhere else....A mature Christian sees Christ in everything and everyone else. That is a definition that will never fail you, always demand more of you, and give no reason to fight, exclude, or reject anyone."  As I ponder how best to be in relationship with someone I find truly difficult, I would do well to remember that Christ is forever coming, revealing, and patiently calling us all to be transformed by love.  How do we let the work that God is doing in all our hearts shine?  This I struggle with even as I know we are all a divine work in progress, being formed in love. The sooner we "see" this, the better, and that includes me.      

But you are merciful to all, for you can do all things,
and you overlook people’s sins, so that they may repent.
For you love all things that exist,
and detest none of the things that you have made,
for you would not have made anything if you had hated it.
How would anything have endured if you had not willed it?
Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved?
You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living.
For your immortal spirit is in all things.
Therefore you correct little by little those who trespass,
and you remind and warn them of the things through which they sin,
so that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in you, O Lord. 
  

 Wisdom of Solomon 11:23-12:2   

photograph: San Leandro, May 2019 

Residing

"It is impossible to make individuals feel sacred inside of a profane, empty, or accidental universe. This way of seeing makes us feel separate and competitive, striving to be superior instead of deeply connected, seeking ever-larger circles of union."  

  

The Universal Chirst, Richard Rohr (p. 16)   

 

photograph:  San Leandro, May 2019