email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
March
2007
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Mar. 6, 2007 |
Robert John Russell on prayer and nature |
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Mar. 9, 2007 |
Labyrinths and making a personal ritual |
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Mar. 13, 2007 |
Chittister on suffering |
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Mar. 16, 2007 |
J. Phillips Noble poem “Spirit to Spirit” |
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Mar. 20, 2007 |
Lectio/Movie Divina |
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Mar. 23, 2007 |
John Main on Silence |
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Mar. 27, 2007 |
Praying with Icons with Henri Nouwen |
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Mar. 30, 2007 |
Jonathan Edwards on great religious affections |
My last email, of Feb. 23, pertained to faith and science, one of my minor interests. Here is another reflection in that same direction. It comes from Dr. Robert John Russell, from the journal “Continuum” vol. 2, No. 2 & 3. I ran across it in a reader compiled for our last session of the Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction. Its from an article entitled: “Contemplation: A scientific Context.”
“Christian spirituality is centered on knowing God through contemplation. Prayer itself is a form of service and Christian discipleship. The interior path demands hard work and a life-time commitment. I want to suggest that spiritual insights, gained and developed through prayer can be expanded, illustrated, and transformed by viewing them in the context of all of God’s creation as understood by contemporary natural science, particularly physics and biology.”
That’s my kind of thinking. I find the joy, even the occasional ecstasy, of nature to be reinforcement to my faith, not a hindrance to it. What are your experiences with faith and nature?
May you be lifted to heights of praise by an experience of nature.
Grace & peace
Geoff
We have the presbytery’s labyrinth at the church this week. I would like to invite you all to try a labyrinth walk, if you never have. If you are familiar with a labyrinth, here is an opportunity to do a walk for Lent.
Labyrinths provide an opportunity to make a ritual for yourself. Our modern world does not provide much in the way of ritual for us and a labyrinth walk can meet some of the need we have for ritual. Rituals provide ways for us to connect to the world of the Spirit, to connect with the unconscious part of ourselves, or our dreams or inner voices.
Perhaps a helpful way to think about occasional labyrinth walks is to remind yourself what you carried in prayer the last time you walked the labyrinth. What were the consequences of that walk? Was your prayer answered? How? As you approach the labyrinth this time, is there a need for further prayer on the same issue? Are there current issues that you want to pray about? Given your previous experience of prayer in a labyrinth, how might you pray and walk this time?
Whatever rituals you make for yourself, Use them to deepen your Lenten season this year. God awaits our seeking, and God answers our prayers.
Grace & peace
Geoff
I’ve been using the book “The Psalms: Meditations for Every Day of the Year,” by Joan Chittister, OSB, (Crossroad Publishing, 1996) for a brief daily inspiration. Here are some words of hers introducing the readings for the month of March.
It is interesting how we search for joy and despise suffering. Yet, suffering is a natural part of life with much to teach us and much to give us. Suffering gives us freedom and new opportunities. Joy give s us respite on the long road of life and an appreciation for heart-stopping beauty in the midst of the mundane. Most important of all, however, is the fact that suffering and joy come from the same place. Whatever is giving you your greatest happiness right now is the only thing that can really cause you great pain. Whatever is causing your suffering right now is the place beyond which you must now move in order to be able to live life joyfully again. Suffering and joy move us from end point to end point in life. They are the finger of God beckoning us to grow beyond where we are right now so that new and wonderful things can happen to us again, still, yet.
I, too, flee suffering, but a part of me knows there are spiritual aspects to suffering. I like the way Sr. Chittister spells out some of those benefits. May you find some help to face the difficulties in your life, and to find some direction through and beyond them.
Grace & peace
Geoff
I’ve been focused on body issues lately, with an injured rotator cuff in my right shoulder. Here is some verse that spoke to me. It’s from “These Days,” a devotional magazine that is published by the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. We use large print editions of it for members of our congregation. It’s called “Spirit to Spirit” by J. Phillips Noble and comes from the April, May, June, 2007 edition.
“We are more than a physical body.
There is the wonderful intangible
That is the soul or spirit or psyche.
It is mysteriously interwoven with the body,
But when the body becomes still and lifeless
This intangible continues to be.
The Word became incarnate in human flesh.
God’s intangible spirit became interwoven with the body.
When the body of Jesus was crucified
It became still and lifeless.
God in Jesus did not cease to be.
But in the mystery beyond comprehension and understanding
It manifested itself again in the Risen Christ.
As we in our living bodies reach beyond them
To the intangible part of us
Which is soul, spirit or psyche,
We probe in the world of spirit.
And that is the world of the Risen Christ.
There with spirit to spirit
A spiritual relationship can occur.
When it does and the relationship grows
We then experience the transforming
Power of the spirit of Christ.
Living in that relationship we experience
Deep and significant changes taking place in us.
And bit by bit a new, stronger and better person emerges.
As we grow in our prayer life, we realize the interconnection between our bodies and our spirits. Illness and injury highlight that connection. Verse like that above remind us also of that connection. May you find the relation between your body and spirit strengthening each other as this Lenten season matures.
Grace & peace
Geoff
We use a specific technique to generate reflection and discussion in our Wednesday Movies classes. The technique comes from the ancient Christian Practice of Lectio Divina. We took the idea from the book “Meeting God in Virtual Reality” by Daniel Wolpert and Teresa Blythe, Abingdon Press, 2004. Here are their words introducing the chapter that covers lectio.
“How many times have you read a newspaper or watched a TV news story and begun to pray for the people (usually victims) involved? Perhaps as you watched a film such as “Schindler’s List” you felt a deep compassion for the Jews caught up in the horror of the holocaust, and as a result were moved to prayer. Every moment in our day is an opportunity for God’s Spirit to break through to us in some way. Considering that the average American spends more than seven hours a day in front of a screen, whether it is television, computer or film, we had better hope that God meets us in and through visual media.
Indeed some of the films made, news events, etc. can drive us to deep prayer. How do you use your “visual media” time? Wolpert & Blythe give great advice, which we have incorporated into our movies classes. May you use the next moving experience of art or news to be drawn closer to God in prayer.
Grace & peace
Geoff
With the growth in interest in spirituality over the last couple of decades, there are more and more books coming out which explore the spiritual giants of the Christian past. One I’ve used lately is “Spiritual Classics” edited by Richard J. Foster and Emilie Griffin, Harper San Francisco, 2000. Here is a great selection about the way silence lays a foundation for our life of prayer. It is excerpted from the book “Moments of Christ: The Path of Meditation,” by John Main
“Now to tread the spiritual path we must learn to be silent. What is required of us is a journey into profound silence. Part of the problem of the weakening of religion in our times is that religion uses words for its prayers and rituals, but those words have to be charged with meaning and they must be charged with sufficient meaning to move our hearts, to set us out in new directions and to change our lives. They can only be charged with this degree of meaning if they spring from spirit, and spirit requires silence. We all need to use words, but to use them with power we all need to be silent. We all need religion, we all need the Spirit. Meditation is the way to silence because it is the way of silence…..”
I'm reminded of the proverb, "silent waters run deep." In our time of constant and instant communication and constant cell phone chatter, silence is all the more difficult to come by. It takes deliberate and persistent effort to find silence in our lives. Yet almost the only way to hear God is to stop talking for a while and listen. Listening can only be done in silence. May you find some bit of precious silence in your life today.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Several weeks ago my son-in-law and I took our kids/grandkids to an exhibit at the Getty Center here in Los Angeles. It was an exhibit of the Icons from Sinai, from the monastery of St. Catherine, at the foot of Mt. Sinai. It was a wonderful exhibit and got me thinking again about the use of icons in prayer. The best introduction to that practice that I know of is the book by Henri J. M. Nouwen, “Behold the Beauty of the Lord; Praying with Icons,” Ave Maria Press, 1987. Here are some excerpts from his introduction to that book.
“Acting, speaking and even reflective thinking may at time be too demanding, but we are forever seeing. When we dream, we see. When we stare in front of us, we see. When we close our eyes to rest, we see…
But what do we really choose to see?…It is easy to become a victim of the vast array of visual stimuli surrounding us. The ‘powers and principalities’ control many of our daily images. Posters, billboards, television, videocassettes, movies and store windows continuously assault our eyes and inscribe their images upon our memories.
Still we do not have to be passive victims of a world that wants to entertain and distract us. We can make some decisions and choices. A spiritual life in the midst of our energy-draining society requires us to take conscious steps to safeguard that inner space where we can keep our eyes fixed on the beauty of the Lord.”
Nouwen's ovservation is clearly dated. This book is 20 years old, before the advent of mass computer & internet gazing. Yet this excerpt points out how Icon gazing can be a wonderful way to add some variety to our prayer life. You might be surprised at how your looking at the world around you can begin to reveal bits and glimpses of God’s presence.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Today and daily throughout Holy Week, I want to share material with you from Jonathan Edwards, an early American preacher and theologian. In his analysis of Christian faith he asks what the nature of true religion is and what visible marks of true religion we might show or observe in others. This material comes from his book “The Religious Affectations,” The Banner of Truth Trust, first published in 1746, reprinted 2004. Holy Week gives the defining experiences of Jesus’ life and ministry and we may see ourselves for who we truly are as we reflect upon Holy Week.
We will look at the “unreliable signs” of religious faith as Edwards explains them. These signs may be signs of holiness, or not, hence they are unreliable. I hope this will become clear as the week unfolds.
We begin with the first unreliable sign, “That Religious Affections are very great is no sign.” By this Edwards means that outward show of faith does not guarantee the depth or sincerity of faith. Think of the words of Jesus in Matthew 6. I find the liturgical observance of Palm Sunday a good illustration of what an unreliable sign great religious affections are. The crowd hails Jesus with a great parade in this story, but before the week is out, many of the same people scream equally loudly for Jesus’ death. Palm Sunday would certainly demonstrate great religious affections, but they are shallow and turn into their opposite just a week later.
When I did drug rehabilitation work as a younger man, we had an expression “None so righteous as the converted.” Someone who was new to the program would become so excited about the program that they would start testifying to the greatness of the program before they had really experienced it. There was a reverse proportion that said the louder they praised the program, the sooner they would leave it, because they couldn’t live with the restrictions and life changes that were demanded. It was like Palm Sunday enthusiasm lived out repeatedly.
Outward show of our faith is unreliable. It may be real and deep, or it may only be on the surface. Where is your faith? Is it in outward show, or deep in your heart? May this Holy Week, 2007, be a refinement and strengthening of your faith.
Grace & peace
Geoff
