Community

•A few religious men to converse with thee of God and his Testament; to visit thee on days of solemnity; to strengthen thee in the Testaments of God, and the narratives of the Scriptures.

 

Find spiritual communion with those in the Order and with holy Christians who seek union with God.  Join with the community of merciful Christian Sisters and Brothers on holy feasts and whenever possible for prayer and celebration.  Share the Faith you have with others.  Build one another up in Faith, Hope and Charity and in Poverty of spirit, Purity of heart, and Obedience to God through the lessons in Sacred Scripture.

Reflection:  We can’t often get together, except for Cait and I, but even at a distance, we can be together on line or via Skype and email.  I have found the simple knowledge that others are out there trying to live out our vocation of mercy has helped me get through some tough times.  And we are always available by phone to encourage, commiserate, and build each other up.  Some of the best times have included gales of hysterical laughter.  Ask Sr. Peggy about “The Bishop on the Roof” song!

Enclosed in the Love of God

•Let a fast place, with one door, enclose thee.

Whether you live in common or alone, let it be holy ground which is secure, enabling you to live this life enclosed in the Love of God.

Reflection: I hardly ever know what to write about this point of the Rule.  I live in an intentional community.  I do have my private room, but for me the whole property is a holy place, enclosed in the Love of God.  

I think this rule may reflect the way of life of the time it was written, when many people lived in one room, sometimes even with the critters inside, where it would be difficult to find alone time, which is essential for building up the one-to-one relationship with God.  Even today, there are houses crammed with families who cannot afford to live alone.  In that situation, it would be very difficult to live at peace unless one had many years of practice of enclosure of the heart.  It makes me deeply grateful for both the privacy I enjoy and the fact that I live with like-minded people.

What Can We Do?

I don’t recall ever feeling so oppressed by conditions in this country and our dealings with the world as I now feel.  Unless I am very mistaken, our government has decided to go to war in Syria in spite of the will of the people.  If we had any excuse to trust that the government serves anything except the will of multinational corporations, there might be reason to hope.  As it is, I am led to a feeling of helplessness and a kind of free-floating anger.  Who is there to blame?  Is there anything we can do?  Where are we going on this road of endless conflict?

The Old Testament answer from God was, “Where were you when I created the world?” 

The New Testament, however, suggests the new commandment:  “Love one another as I have loved you.”  Christ bids us to love in the face of hatred.  We are to love against all evidence of hopelessness.  We are to love and not rage.  What does that mean in a practical sense?

In my life it takes the form of prayer and generosity with time and resources.  It takes the form of recognition of my poverty – I have no power to change things.  They are beyond my control.  In light of that powerlessness, I find myself called to be peaceful in my heart and in my words and in my actions.  God seems to put in my path the people I am supposed to help and the people who can teach me.  Therefore, my response to chaos is to love, and to remain at peace.

There are those whose vocation it is to fight, and in my youth I fought injustice where and as I could.  In my old age, I must fight injustice with my words and with my prayers, and by loving action.  I weep with those who are suffering and dying in the world.   I pray for those to be called forth who can change the things that must be changed in the world. 

Let us pray for peace.  Let us love one another as Christ loves us, and make enclaves of love wherever we dwell. 

For Love of the One Who Loves Me

Point of OMC Rule:

•Whatsoever little or much thou possessest of anything, whether clothing, or food, or drink, let it be at the command of the senior and at his disposal, for it is not befitting a religious to have any distinction of property with his own free brother. 

Look upon all possessions as loans from God and let them be used for the honor and glory of God and at the service of Charity.

Reflection:

This point of the Rule is lived differently by each of us according to our state in life, as most of us do not live together.  Before I retired, the money I made by working went to support myself, and after that to my ministry.  I never felt a need for more than my share of the world’s goods.  That was not a virtue of mine, it was simply the result of having lost everything so many times that they were just things.  I never feared having nothing, having been there before.  Nor did I ever lack anything essential during my ministry.  I have come to believe that in serving Christ, I am supplied by God with all that I need to do just that.

Now that I live in community, I pay the bills I have to pay, and the rest of what I have is for the community’s needs.  It isn’t a lot, but so far amongst ourselves, we’ve had enough to keep on keeping on. 

I have no illusion that God needs honor and glory.  I have no doubt that Christ needs everything I have to give and more.  And because he is my first, best, and last love, I give it with great joy.

Hey, God!

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I have been thinking about gratitude.  I can choose gratitude for my old age rather than complaint.  My mother’s sister had rheumatoid arthritis and no medication to keep her from becoming crippled.  I live in a time and a place and with enough money to purchase medical care and medication to keep me mobile. 

I am not sure what is meant by aging gracefully, but I know about aging gratefully.  I appreciate living in a beautiful forest within a congenial and loving community.  I appreciate having a wonderful daughter and a grandson of whom I am so very proud.  I am grateful for what health I do have.

Most of all, I am grateful for my relationship with God.  Because of it, I am sober today.  I have friends and a host of acquaintances.  I know how to live through hardship and how to laugh with joy.  I know how to say that I’m sorry and how to forgive.

I don’t know how to fix the world’s troubles, but I can and do pray for them when I sit with my Beloved in holy silence.  I am grateful for the confidence I feel that although the world may be facing terrible times, in the end all will be well.  I’ve no idea how, but I am not God and don’t have to know. 

What I do have to do, and I am grateful for the ability to do so, is to love those that God puts in my path and in my heart and to try to give them some inkling of the depth of joy and peace that fills my heart.  As I look back, I can see what a jagged, crooked path I took to finding God.  I regret none of it.  I no longer suffer from it.  I even look forward to eternity with a sense of adventure yet to come.

So, thanks God, for never giving up on me.  Make me ever more grateful, and ever more giving.  Show me your way and give me the power to do your will.  And hey, God, have I told you today that I love you?

Spirituality and Religion

I read a bit of a discussion on Facebook about spirituality and religion.  The argument’s thesis was that spirituality is emotional and religion is about obligation.  I have to disagree with that.

For me the purpose of practicing a religion is to achieve union with God.  One can have emotional experiences along the way, and there is nothing at all wrong with that.  However, in my opinion, a real spiritual experience changes one forever.  If it does not,  then it was just an emotional experience.

Religion includes emotion, because it includes the whole human being.  But to me, spiritual practices are intended to achieve personal transformation, not emotional highs, or even certainty of salvation.  Enlightenment, if I may use the term, is not achievable by emotional excess.  Nor is it reached by intellectual exercise, in my opinion, though there is nothing wrong with that either.  The study of theology is important, if we are to be able to articulate what we believe and what leads us to those conclusions.

What I understand of God has come by way of diligent, daily practice of prayer and meditation, graced from time to time with the sheer, pure gift of contemplation.  I am a committed Celtic Christian, and if you want to know what that means, go to the CCC website and read the Statement of Belief. 

I am also a recovering alcoholic and I know from personal experience that there is no easy path up the Mountain of God.  Anyone who tells you it’s easy is lying or just doesn’t get it.  On the other hand, it is very simple:

            -- There is a God.

            -- I am not it.

            -- I daily turn over my will and my life to God as I understand God.

Everything else is details, such as putting God first in life to make everything else fall into place.  Such as telling the truth even if it costs me a friend, because not telling the truth makes me uncomfortable in my own skin, and then I have to make amends, which I do not like to do.  Such as living the Rule of my religious order because I have found a call, and the Rule helps me live that call to service and to prayer for the church and the world.  Such as giving my brother anything I have that he needs and I do not. 

Religious practices are just fine.  But the sacraments are not for God, they are for the people of God.  The rules are not to be worshipped – only God is worshipped.  Clericalism is a cancer and should be avoided at all costs.  Yes, I am a priest, but that only means I am the least and lowest servant of God.  I am here to serve Christ in my brothers and sisters.  Not because I am special or different, but just because I can’t help it.  He did something profound in me, and now I have to try to help everyone else see that he sees them as the beloved as well…that he aches to love and to help them; that he suffers with them when they are unhappy.

Maybe I am all wrong.  But these are the things I believe.  And when I live them, I am happy.

A guest post today from Rev. Dolly Ryan

Is God…

Recently, I received an e-ad with the subject line: “Is God Anti-Gay?”  The words slapped me in the face, poured ice cold water down my spine, and caused me to start scurrying through my mental Bible in search of my own security against the torrents of prejudices.  I wasn’t “stuck” where many might suspect.  I am not dismissing the seriousness of acknowledging the error of discrimination based on sexual preferences.  But my reaction wasn’t to the word “gay”.  I barely noticed the word sitting there at the end of the sentence like a signal flag on a yacht which silently flaps in the wind hoping to catch attention.  I barely read the sentence at all.  I was stuck in my core by “IS GOD ‘ANTI’”!  It is almost as if God and “anti” should never be used in the same breath. 

Thus began my search for a scriptural “anti”.  Show me “anti” my mind echoed.  My brain’s search engine began looking for times when Jesus was anti-somebody.  According to the culture of his time, Jesus must have been anti-Roman?  Instead I found him greeting and praising the centurion who wanted his servant healed.  He eagerly healed the son of a royal official.  Well then, surely Jesus obeyed the Jewish tradition by being anti-gentiles? Again the answer was no.  He took a moment to speak with the Samaritan woman at the well and he accepted the criticism from the Canaanite woman who wanted the crumbs from his table of miracles for her daughter.  Maybe Jesus was like so many of us, maybe he hated mindless followers.  Yet he continued to teach his apostles even though he got frustrated when they repeatedly misunderstood his lessons. 

Perhaps he was anti-criminals and wrongdoers.  Yet, over and over again I discovered him in their midst; the woman caught in adultery who was positioned to be stoned and the paralyzed man who was lowered through the roof, to name two.  Possibly he was against strangers. Then I find the parable about the Good Samaritan.  My thoughts continue to search, did he think that women were inferior to men, a rather common idea. But I remember that although women were often not permitted in the same room with a gathering of men, he revered the woman who washed his feet.  Likewise, as he was preparing to die he worried about the women who were weeping and the welfare of his own mother. Also, the first person he chose to visit after his resurrection was a woman.  No, he was not anti-feminist.

Wait, I remember!  During his lifetime it was forbidden to associate with someone who was considered unclean.  So, Jesus must have been against anyone who was sick or dead.  However, he touched lepers and blind men; the woman who was hemorrhaging; the lady who was bent over in the temple; the man who was demon possessed. And wasn’t he the one who called Lazarus from the tomb?  I discovered he wasn’t even against those who were plotting to kill him.  He never even became anti-Judas who traded loyalty and friendship for pieces of silver.  Nor, was he opposed to those who caused his crucifixion.  As a matter of record, he begged that they be forgiven.  Try as I may, I can’t find a single case where Jesus was “anti” anyone.

So what did Jesus preach against?  He preached anti-hate.  He set the standards of socially acceptable behavior. I know that he was anti-hunger, anti-homeless, anti-judgmental, anti-callousness, anti-hate…  In other words, Jesus was anti-“anti-love”. He preached against pre-judging who God loves.  He warned us to stop telling God who he must reject.

I presume the authors of the book that the ad was promoting want to talk about gay issues.  I have no idea whether they are prompting a pro or con viewpoint but I am sure that they are implying that their stand is God’s stand.  I know that gay-issues are tremendously important: socially, politically and spiritually. I know so many people who have suffered from the prejudice generate by ugly misplaced fears and misinformation on the subject.  And there are so many, who for so long, have suffered terrible indignities.  I do not want any of you to misunderstand.  I do know this discrimination is wrong and that it continues to promote more hate.  I am not trying to downplay the significance of this issue.  But, what is disturbing to me in this moment are all the things upheld as wrong in the name of God.  If we listened to the Word of God we should be unable to endorse anything that did not love.  We would not fight the truth that everyone is loved by God and this should be enough for us.  But we focus on searching the Rule of Love hoping to find the flaw that will allow us our prejudices.

In conclusion, my answer to the question asked by the ad is God is not “anti-gay”.  Nor, is God anti anyone.  If we truly practice Christianity, we would not have labels that build fences.  We would offer dignity and respect to everyone. We would obey the command to Love one another and we would be tripping over each other trying to do this.

Talk to me.  Can you find an incident where God rejected someone? Is God anti-?  As the old hymn says:  If God is for us, who can be against?  Therefore let us stand with God by being pro-everyone.

May we always know the comfort of God who loves us unconditionally.  May we love our neighbor as our self.  And, may our prejudices be revealed, forgiven and healed. Amen.

 

Your forever servant,

Dolly+

Living With Uncertainty

We must develop a deep confidence in God in order to lose our anxiety over the future.  We must live in the now to avoid “paying dues” of worry about things beyond our control.  Trusting our own wisdom and planning may satisfy our need for control of our circumstances, but how realistic is it, and how surrendered is it?  How can we achieve this deep confidence in God?  I am not referring to some shallow “Oh, it’ll be all right” positive thinking practice. I am talking about the kind of assurance that a child resting in her mother’s arms knows. 

How do we order our priorities to facilitate a life of contentment and confidence in the providence of God?  HHHow should our thinking and our activity differ from those of unbelievers? 

Perhaps it begins with putting God first.  We should not worship the American idols of money, property, power, prestige, etc.  We worship the ground of reality, our source, our Beloved.  If God is first, all else will fall into proper place.  But how?

Just as when I was first getting sober, I find I must keep watch on my thoughts, my emotions, and the state of my body.  I must not get too hungry, angry, lonely or tired.  If my body is tense, I must take a walk, or punch a pillow, or yell at God for a while.  Simple breathing exercises work best for me.  If I have given my day to God, and find I have taken it back to worry about something, I take a prayer break.  A “red light” should go on for me if I succumb to worry.  My first recourse at that point has to be to God. 

I must do whatever is required of me in my state in life.  I don’t expect God to pay my bills for me, or magically remove my health problems, or the results of years of suffering from my own sins.  But once I have done all I can do, I can safely leave the past behind me and the future to its own devices.  I will not be given tomorrow’s strength today.  I will not be given tomorrow’s peace today.  But I will lose today’s strength and today’s peace if I miss today by dwelling in the past or future.

Mother Cait talks about balance.  This is rare, I think.  I strive towards it and try to give myself a break for not being perfect.  I have a vocation to live out the charism of mercy.  I pray God that I will receive mercy and that I will pass it on.  That can only happen right here, right now.  Let me live in the now, Lord, where You dwell.

I know one thing with certainty:  I am my Beloved’s and He is mine!

Some Thoughts About Love

“Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

            1 Cor. 13: 4-8

In other words, love is as love does.  Love is an action word.  It concerns itself with the other, not with the self.  When we are a channel of the love of God, we get out of the way and let God love through us.  In so doing, we are changed utterly. 

Loving someone may mean telling them no.  It may mean speaking truth to power.  It may be risky.  But it is our great joy as well.  It is love that keeps us going when we can’t go on.  In the end we realize it is God’s love that is and has been doing that all along. 

This kind of love is not shallow or sentimental.  It is not romantic love as the teenager would have it. It is not even erotic love.  This is the love that is stronger than death.  This is the love that throws itself into the fray with joy knowing that the battle is with powers and principalities, and will cost us everything we are.  Knowing that in dying to self, we are born to joyful life. 

Because he first loved me, I can dance in the rain, laughing at illusory fears.  Because he rescued me, I can leave it all on the field when I pass through the veil, knowing that there too, I will be available to love all in all. 

Don’t believe me?  That’s all right.  Take the actions you would take if you did believe it.  Moment by moment, day by day, you will come to see that the hard work is being done in you by the One who loves us all.  Bit by bit you will realize you have become happy, independent of all the people, places or things around you.  You will know peace.  You will become the change you would like to see in the world.  See you there!

Hope

Hope is not a momentary flicker.
Hope is Eternity's slow, steady,
Illumining and fulfilling height.

--  Sri Chinmoy

Hope, I think, is that which keeps us moving forward in spiritual darkness.  It is born of faith and fed by sacrament.  It grows with praxis and makes gentle the spirit.  Not a mere dedication to “positive thinking,” hope survives the most horrific events because faith gives meaning to life. 

Hope is that which permits us to ask, at the end of our rope, “Help me.”  Hope grows in light of the knowledge that we are loved by the Beloved.  It makes us get up one more time and try again. 

Hope is fed by love.  Love that is given by us and love that we give both nurture hope.  Hope is a great gift, best grown within one’s self by giving it away.  We can be utterly helpless and still have hope. 

Hope understands that the One Who loves loves us utterly and entirely and wants us to be happy.  Hope dances in the dark, laughing at illusory fears, knowing that with the dawn, the King is coming and all will be well.

Faith

“If the thought ever comes to you that everything that you have thought about God is mistaken and that there is no God, do not be dismayed. It happens to many people. But do not think that the source of your unbelief is that there is no God.

“If you no longer believe in the God whom you believed in before, this comes from the fact that there was something wrong with your belief, and you must strive to understand better that which you call God.”
(Leo Tolstoy 1828 – 1910)

There are many quotes about faith which I have considered to start this post, but I like the above quote best today.  

I know a man who has evidently never had a peak experience that changed his life.  I think that man is a living saint.  I think so because “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”  This man has lived his entire life in the path of God because he believes.  He chooses the right, and suffers when he must endure what is not right.  He is single-hearted in his love of God.  

Choosing the right because it is right can get very, very old.  The “everydayness” sets in and we are tempted to the darkness because it offers excitement and change.  The whole American culture is addicted to breaking things and killing people even in its entertainment, not just in its global domination.  The rest of entertainment tends to be about sex, which is used to sell everything.  There are people who are famous just for being famous.  Warhol’s prediction about everyone being famous for 15 minutes has pretty much come to pass, in this age of global media and the internet.  

What, then, is faith good for?  Another American question.  If something has no immediately evident utility, or visible purpose, or is not profitable, why bother with it?

I suggest that what faith is good for, is a good grasp of reality.  Faith is good for realizing we are not the center of the universe.  Faith that we live and move and have our being in God is good for health and long life.  Faith can keep us choosing the right and refusing to harm ourselves or others when our character defects are out of control.  

In my case, faith keeps me going in spite of chronic pain and the knowledge that I may have done more harm than good in my life.  I need to live long enough to do more good than harm.  I need to do that because I have had a peak experience that changed me forever.  I have had more than one such experience.  The Hound of Heaven has been after me since I was born, and I no longer run.  Knowing people such as the man I mentioned above is such an experience.  

When I was four years old I nearly died.  I experienced that as getting out of my body and waiting to see whether it would live or die.  I knew that if I died, there was somewhere else to go and someone there waiting for me who loved me unconditionally.  

I had another experience of basically being “struck sober.”  I hit bottom and went to AA and haven’t had to take a drink in over 35 years.  I frequently have prayer experiences of being silent in the presence of he One Who loves us, in the way two old people sit together in loving silence and have no need for words.  

I am so different from who I was as a child that I ought to have a different name.  Well, maybe I do.  I am now Sister Patti.  I live to serve, and I am happy.  My faith sometimes wavers in spite of all my blessings.  But when I do what I ought to do every day, my faith grows strong, and I am happy.  

Be happy.  Have faith, even if you don’t believe it yet.  Just take the actions you would take if you did believe it.  

Love and prayer for all.
Sr. Patti+

Fear -- False Evidence Appearing Real

In AA, we say that some people die of terminal uniqueness.  They are sure that they are different.  Their story is unique and no one can possibly understand.  I suspect that at the core of this is a feeling that if they let us see who they really are we will not love them.  I trace my recovery from the day I let go of that fear and told someone every bad thing I had ever done.  He looked at me with love in his eyes, welcomed me to the human race, and we began to make my list of all the people I had harmed and prayed for willingness to make amends to them all.  In my case, it was a priest, because I was raised Roman Catholic.  Some people find the courage to tell their story to their sponsor.  Some to a spiritual director or other soul friend.

In order to change the world we must first overcome our fear and change ourselves.  In order to create peace, we must find within ourselves the conscious contact with God that will permit us to have the Peace of Christ.  Some, they say, are born humble, some achieve humility and some have humility thrust upon them.  I was of the third type.  In this context, humility is the awareness of ourselves as we truly are, scars and all, and the peace of heart to be that person in God's hands. 

The conquest of the fear of rejection sets us free from the self-centeredness that plagues us and the whole world.  The promises of AA have come true for me:  I do not regret the past or wish to shut the door on it.  I have a conscious relationship with God as I understand God and I know peace.  I have to work at it every day, because I am not unique.   I am not a saint.  I am a sober drunk who has learned to live in such a way that I have a new happiness and joy.  My peace does not depend on any of the people, places or things around me.  When I am in "fit spiritual condition" I know the holy liberty of the children of God. 

I say all this in case someone should read this one day and be encouraged to find a friend to help them learn to pray and to begin the journey of transformation.  Anyone can do it.  Anyone who can be honest with themselves.  You don't even have to believe in God.  The principles of transformation work anyway.  I have seen it again and again.  Never give up.  Fear is false evidence appearing real.  Don't fall for it.  Reach out and ask for help. 

Not as the World Gives

Born in sorrow

Grown in chaos

We struggle to find love

To leave the world a little better

To give away something of ourselves

In hopes of showing just one person

The value of silence in times of confusion

            Of holding on for one more day.

Wise in pain

With suffering a friend

Comes our Beloved

With comfort and with courage

The lord of our quantum dance

Along the lines of probability

To teach us how to find each other

            Finding Him

***************************

There is no more wonderful thing in this life than conscious contact with God.  It is worth every effort, any sacrifice.  Many teachers have come my way, some of them people who I felt at the time were terrible people; people who hurt me or someone I love.  Some were and are truly holy people who leave me in awe of their simplicity and single-heartedness in the pursuit of God's will.   Today I am grateful for all of my teachers and ask God's blessing on every one.

I write under obedience....

Mother Cait has put a link to this blog on  my web page in the Celtic Christian Church website.  Sigh.  Therefore, I am obliged to write! 

Seriously, I have been thinking of ways to leave a legacy of my love of God before I go on to the other side and party with all my other peeps there, and here we are.  This is going to be one of the places I try to share my experience, strength and hope with others.  I have been given so much in my life, and I really should try to pass it on. 

I will start today with this little bit:

The Wild Horde

 When I think about the People of God, I see them as a Horde of Pilgrims.  Some of them forge ahead, like scouts, finding new paths towards God, exploring byways and wildernesses.  Some report back, some do not.  Some lag behind, having found a pleasing place where they feel comfortable. 

Some are slow because they are lame or otherwise handicapped, or because they cannot accept help along the way.  Others decide to settle down and make villages and families.  Some race about trying to convince others that their way forward is the most direct and safest path.  Some set up shop as professional horde guides and refuse to recognize that the entire group is actually headed in the same direction.  

 

Some build dwellings and say among themselves how good it is to dwell here together.  Many of that group practice a hospitality that enables the whole tribe to keep moving forward.  Some particularly fearful ones try to build walls to prevent others from falling off the edge of the world  and being forever lost.  Of course they won’t explore the other side of the wall, so they never realize how much of the tribe has discovered the wall is permeable and can be simply walked through.

They are infinitely diverse, this horde, and infinitely beautiful.  In a way each of them is Christ on His journey.  It is deeply transformative, this journey, and can be experienced as an adventure, as a perilous quest, as a miserable slog, even as a painful torment.  Much depends on whether or not the pilgrim is the center of her own universe, or whether Christ is the center of that pilgrim’s reality. 

As the least and most lame of the pilgrim horde, I am learning to let them be Christ to me, and to allow the Christ in me be what they see when they look at me.  I have fallen in love with the whole, crazy, clanging, loud, wild bunch of them.  I find them a fascinating, endless, wondrous creation, which shows forth the Glory of God.  I find us to be a fitting expression of the One Who loves us.

Amen.