Is the Tent Collapsing?

Today after lunch, Bishop Joe, Mother Cait and I discussed the nature of God, the identity of matter and energy, and how our first conscious memories color our concept of God.  This evening, Cait is interviewing Joe for her book about their lives for the history of the Celtic Christian Church.  Cait writes like the Bard her heritage has prepared her to be.  And I am happy.  My whole life has been a preparation for this lovely, peaceful season­ of prayer, contemplation and community. 

An examination of the way modern people are attempting to be “spiritual rather than religious” led me to watch a show on Netflix called Wake Up.  I highly recommend it and am preparing a review of it for my other blog, “Critical Eye.”  What I want to mention here is the vision that the young man (Jonas Elrod) had.  He saw an empty big-top-style tent, supported from within by a structure that slowly collapsed, taking the tent down with it.  His eventual understanding of the vision was that the tent was institutional religion.  I would say that was a prophetic dream.

What are we leaving behind and towards what are we moving?  What do we lose if/when the institutional church disappears (either from our lives personally or actually)?  What do we gain if we personally leave the institutions behind? 

For me, the genius of the Celtic Christian Church lies in its monastic orientation.  We can discard buildings without losing community; we can serve upper class, middle class, even gangsta’ class people according to our individual vocations.  With the guidance of our Bishops, we range from academic circle communities to street people communities, to serving at science fiction conventions!  We can support ourselves by working in the real world and still minister according to our gifts, in such diverse places as baseball stadia and radio stations; as spiritual directors and as hospital chaplains. 

We come with an array of backgrounds, from Bishop Joe’s Ph.D. to those who graduated from high school and then went through our formation program.  We come from Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, Independent Catholic, Episcopalian and Baptist traditions, among other things. 

We are a diverse group of married, single, straight, gay, lay, religious and clerical people who love one another in an extraordinary way.  And even if the Celtic Christian Church does not survive the current generation of adults and elders, I believe the Celtic, monastic model will carry on serving the body of Christ because those who fall in love with God simply must share that love by serving others.  Love gives out of its abundance, requiring nothing in return.  “Without money, without price, why should you give your life, except for the Lord.”

In other words, from this point in my journey, it is clear that all will indeed be well.  Alleluia!

Shifting Sand

"Safe on the solid rock I stand; all other ground is shifting sand...."  This is from a well-known Christian hymn that came to mind today.  I have been reading  Pelagius, and a well-written novel about him.  The narrator observes at one point that the theological ferment in the church around 400 CE was concurrent with the crumbling of the Roman Empire.  He  says: "the worse conditions became in the changeable world, the stronger was the pull towards the eternal and unchanging citadel of God."

We see a similar process in America today.  The worse things become for the "average" American, the more polarized public opinion becomes, and the more desperately the Christian right seems to cling to its certitude. (Simultaneously becoming more and more hateful to the female of the species, in my observation.)

How then shall we find our safety on the Rock of Christ in such times?  Shall we condemn all those unlike ourselves as fools and conspirators with chaos?  Shall we retreat to our enclaves and ignore all those we think are wrong and/or dangerous?

I have been an activist of one kind or another for fifty years.  Now, pretty much forced into sedentary life by age and health issues, I sometimes feel angry and helpless in the face of what seems to be a descent into darkness foreshadowing the future of my child and my grandchild.  What role is there for me now on the path of destiny?

I think it is one of mentoring those whose vocation it is to be peace in the world and those who are called to stand up for the weak against the strong.  I also see it as one of exemplifying the ability to “live with the questions” which comes with age.  The latter is what I have been thinking about today.


Daily prayer and meditation have by the grace of God made for me a place within which is unaffected by the chaos without.  This is not a place where I know what is right and true regardless of others’ opinions or doctrines.  It is not a place where I am certain of everything and therefore unmoved by others.  

It is a place within where I am in relationship with the One Who loves us.  It is a condition in which I have no need to know it all or be the one with all the answers; it is rather a  condition in which I am loved utterly in spite of my fear or anger; a place from which I can admit that I have been wrong; that I have no idea what comes next. It is a place of assurance where. although my feet may be placed on the water, my Love holds me up, secure in the knowledge that all will be well.

I believe in the power of prayer, not to change God, but to change me.  I believe that I can pray for others in perfect confidence that my Beloved will carry that peace that passes understanding to others in the world, regardless of their challenges and circumstances.  I believe that constant contact with God in each of us can transform our world.  Therefore, I ask everyone who is a seeker: never cease in prayer and meditation.  Never, never leave His presence; he is our rock and our salvation.

Besides, He kind of likes us!
Amen.

Being Love

I have been thinking today about the people who dread and hate Valentine's Day because they don't have a "sweetheart."  I have been praying for them and wishing I could give them some of the great joy in my heart today. 

I have no  "sweetheart" per se.  I do have One Who loves me.  He is crazy about me; he would and has done anything for me.  I live so deeply connected to that One that I rarely get lonely. 

Sometimes I do; I am no saint.  I have days when my "skin hunger" hurts...there is no one to hug me or to "pet" me when I feel poorly or self-pitying.  I even have days when I don't believe in God.  I have times when I wonder whether I have lived my life deluded.

And then I go inside my heart's enclosure where He is and I rest in that soft, silent warmth  and I rejoice. So long as I keep to my spiritual practices, I live and breathe and have my being in God.  I am content.  I gave  up everything to Him and He gave it all back, full, pressed down and overflowing.

He will do that for absolutely anyone...He longs to do it...when you hurt, He hurts...Never, never stop seeking that place inside you where He dwells with welcome and a joyful smile just for you.

In His Love and Laughter,
Your friend,
Sr. Patti+

A Christmas Psalm

Welcome once more, O High King, to the world.

Welcome to suffering and sorrow, to cold and poverty.

Welcome to exclusion and harrowing grief.

Welcome into the battle for the Kingdom.

Teach us the art of peaceful war.

Lord of all creation,

Teach us to be the deepest peace of all,

The peace you give us.

Teach us to live without fear,

Walking lightly upon the earth,

Teach us to give ourselves away

To all in need.

Teach us to laugh at ourselves and our foibles.

Teach us to dance with the joy we own

As children of the Light,

As your beloved daughters and sons.

Teach us to recognize you

In all our brothers and sisters.

Teach us to be tender and kind with one another

As you are with us.

Welcome to the world, dear Lord.

Live in us and love in us

Bring us to union with God

Help us change the world.

Amen.

Our Father's Business

Isaiah says, “Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth! Break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones”

In this dark time, when powers and principalities oppress God’s suffering ones, Christians can rejoice indeed.  For we are blessed, as once more we await with great anticipation the birth of the One Who loves us.  Unlike Isaiah, we know that all time has changed forever; eternity has already begun, for Christ is coming again to us, who were without hope. 

Let us love and serve one another with such great peace and joy that those who see us will be stunned that we, who do not have all the power and wealth of the great ones of the world, are happy.  We, for whom enough is a feast, always have sufficient to share, even when the powers of the earth will not. 

Let us dance lightly upon our way, with song and laughter to mark our journey.  We are no longer alone.  Together we are building the Kingdom of God.  Come  my brothers and sisters, we must be about our Father’s business!

Blessed Advent

In prayer, we dialogue with God “in spirit and in truth.”  One of my heroes, St. Teresa of Avila, said that such dialogue “is the gate through which all good things enter.”  It seems fitting to me to think about this in light of the beginning of the new church year with the First Sunday of Advent. 

I believe that it is through the banquet of our prayer that we can most effectively spread the gospel, radiating out to all whom we encounter, and to all for whom (and with whom) we pray the peace of Christ which passes all understanding.

Let us unite ourselves with the mystery of Advent.  This season of our encounter with God may well bring to birth in us the newborn likeness of Jesus, which we can carry with us into all our daily activities.  Let us devote a portion of our days during Advent to the kind of mental prayer which is intimate conversation between our souls and the Beloved. 

“Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”  (Is. 2:5)

“I will be as a wall of fire round about her and the glory in the midst of her”

Once there was an old teacher.  To her young student one day she said, “You seem afraid.”  The student affirmed, “I am about to launch out into the deep in a coracle with no oars.  The seas are wide and dark.  The otherlands are completely unknown to me.  I have no wealth and no weapons to protect me.  Must I go?”

The old woman gathered her robes around her and walked to the edge of the waters where a small hide boat bobbed, waiting on its tether for its pilgrim.  After a time of watching the sun polish the waters to brassy brightness, she spoke:

“Fear is ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’ is it not?”

“Yes, teacher.”

“You ask if you must go.  I ask you that question.  Must you go?”

The student sighed.  “I have been called.  Yes, I must go.”

The teacher sighed as well.  “It has been said that he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world.  Do you believe this?”

“I do believe it.”

“Then?”

But there was no reply, for the student had launched into the deep, and as she was taken by the current, the teacher could hear her singing:  “And I will be as a wall of fire round about her and the glory in the midst of her.”

The old woman on the shore whispered, “Amen.”