email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
November
2007
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Nov. 2, 2007 |
“Your Long Journey” lyrics from Alison Krause
& Robert Plant |
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Nov. 6, 2007 |
Prayer of Alcuin of York |
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Nov. 9, 2007 |
The gift of listening |
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Nov. 13, 2007 |
Listening compassionately |
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Nov. 16, 2007 |
Lectio Divina with movies |
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Nov. 20, 2007 |
The importance of spiritual practice |
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Nov. 23, 2007 |
Prayer of John Bradford |
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Nov. 27, 2007 |
Desmond Tutu on being quiet. |
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Nov. 30, 2007 |
Arcade Fire’s “Ocean of Noise” |
Our society has a reputation for avoiding death and thoughts about death to the extent that some consider unhealthy. I respect those artists, philosophers, theologians, etc. who are willing to look death in the face and deal with it. Here is the latest such example I’ve run across. It’s from the CD “Raising Sand” by Robert Plant (he of Led Zeppelin fame) and Alison Krauss (a Grammy-winning Bluegrass star), Rounder Records 11661-9075-2. The song’s author(s) is either A.D. Watson & Rosa Lee Watson or Emmylou Harris (according to Cowboylyrics.com).
God's given us years of happiness here
Now we must part
And as the angels come and call for you
The pains of grief tug at my heart
Refrain:
Oh my darling
My darling
My heart breaks as you take your long journey
Oh the days will be empty
The nights so long without you my love
And when God calls for you I'm left alone
But we will meet in heaven above
Oh my darling….
Fond memories I'll keep of happy ways
That on earth we trod
And when I come we will walk hand in hand
As one in Heaven in the family of God
Oh my darling…
Whether it’s about a death that has already occurred or one that is imminent, the depth of expression and the statement of faith both touched me.
How do you face death? What levels of faith do you reach down into in the face of loss?
May your faith take your memories and make them sacred to you and yours.
Grace & peace
Geoff
WPC members, please note the dates below pertaining to the merger process.
In cleaning out my study from our trip to England, I ran across this prayer attributed to Alcuin of York. It was on the brochure we got when we toured York Minster cathedral.
Eternal light, shine in our hearts,
Eternal goodness, deliver us from evil,
Eternal power, be our support,
Eternal wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance,
Eternal pity, have mercy on us,
That with all our hearty and mind and soul and strength we may seek thy face.
And be brought by thine infinite mercy to thy holy presence. Amen
May our temporal lives be touched and supported by The Eternal.
Grace & peace
Geoff
WPC members, please note the dates below pertaining to the merger process.
I’ve been using the book “The Psalms: Meditations for Every Day of the Year,” by Joan Chittister (Crossroad Publishing, New York, 1996)I in my daily prayer. It is a book of short pithy statements that, like all of Chittister’s writing that I’ve encountered, are right on the mark for me. Here is the reading for Nov. 8:
“George Eliot had it right when she said, “We want people to feel with us more than to act for us.” Most people don’t want us to “fix” things for them, in other words. They want people to listen to things, to understand things, to help us sort things out for ourselves. Try it and watch all the people who had stopped coming to you for the advice they didn’t want come back for the compassion they need more than they needed advice.”
As we grow spiritually in the Christian tradition, we find the gift of listening becoming ever more important. Where can you find opportunities to listen, and therefore be more compassionate? May God grace you with ever deeper compassion.
Grace & peace
Geoff
WPC members, please note the link below taking you to the Merge Proposal.
http://www.whitpresby.org/merge-doc-2007.htm
Another quote from the book “The Psalms: Meditations for Every Day of the Year,” by Joan Chittister (Crossroad Publishing, New York, 1996).
“Today, don’t correct anyone. Just listen. Most of all, listen for the things people do not say. Then, respond to those things: “You sound excited.” “You seem happy about that.” You look irritated.” The message under the words is what people really want to talk about. Listen compassionately.”
What a wonderful suggestion, even a daily practice. Maybe we could take one day a week and work at practicing this. It will be work too, because we are so used to simply responding to the words of others, or worse, jumping off to our own thoughts and desires. Listening to the feelings underneath the words is a discipline that asks us to put ourselves to the side as we focus upon the feelings and needs of the one we are present to. We have to be aware of what is going on inside of ourselves as we do this. It becomes more difficult as we dig into it! But the reward there, for the one we listen to as well as for ourselves, is worth the work.
May you seize the opportunity when it comes to listen compassionately.
Grace & peace
Geoff
WPC members, please note the link below taking you to the Merge Proposal.
http://www.whitpresby.org/merge-doc-2007.htm
We just finished another series of our “Wednesday at the Movies” classes this week. We do a kind of Lectio Divina process with movies, asking what we notice, why we notice it and what God might be saying to us through that noticing. Here is a way to consider movies in this way from the book “Faith and Film; a Guidebook for Leaders” by Edward N. McNulty, Westminster John Knox Press, 2007.
“My purpose in writing this book is to help readers develop “eyes that see and ears that hear.” What I hope for readers to see and hear is nothing less than the sovereign God who refuses to stay boxed within our churches and liturgies, the Holy One leaping off the pages of our Bibles, to confront us in the lives and decisions of the characters on the screen. There are many films in which God can be seen, even if dimly at times, films that challenge us to care and perhaps even to change our ways of thinking and behaving.”
We’ve had an enjoyable and inspiring time with movies for the last five years and have had many good, encouraging discussions prompted by the films we’ve watched. What have been YOUR experiences with films? What have been the most inspiring films you’ve seen? I’d like to hear about them, so I might see them myself and perhaps add them to the list of films we use for our class.
Grace & peace
Geoff
WPC members, please note the link below taking you to the Merge Proposal.
http://www.whitpresby.org/merge-doc-2007.htm
I’ve been reading a book by one of my friends in the International Association for the Study of Dreams, “Dreaming About the Divine” by Bonnelle Lewis Strickling, SUNY (State University of New York) Press, 2007. Bonnelle is a philosophy professor, Jungian Analyst and spiritual director. She has this to say about spiritual practices.
“There is no direct relation between spiritual practice and experience of the divine; spiritual practice seems to set the stage, so to speak, for experience of the divine. It turns out attention away from the world towards the divine. It makes a space for contact with the divine. Nevertheless, sometimes people experience spontaneous manifestations of the divine without any spiritual practice at all, and others may practice for years without such experience, or find it only after a very long time. Buddhism is filled with stories of people who have practices meditation for years and finally experience enlightenment at some unlikely time, perhaps it even wakens the person from sleep. Spiritual practice may set the stage for the divine, but it manifests on its own schedule.”
I’m reminded of Anna and Simeon in Luke 2:22-38. Spiritual practices do indeed put us in a better place to experience the divine. They also help us live out the ethical, moral and behavioral aspects of our faith. How have you found your own practices to aid your life of faith?
Grace & peace
Geoff
WPC members, please note the link below taking you to the Merge Proposal.
http://www.whitpresby.org/merge-doc-2007.htm
Meditation
John Bradford was an English Reformer and martyr in the early 16th Century. Wikipedia credits him with the saying “There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford.” This has become the proverbial expression “There but for the grace of God go I.” Here is a prayer of Bradford’s, taken from “Nearer to the Heart of God” compiled and edited by Bernard Bangley, Paraclete Press, 2005.
When you sit down to eat, pray: This is a wonderful mystery of your work, O Maker and Governor of the world. You sustain life with food! How great a thing it is that you are able to sustain so many creatures. I ask you to continue life in my body through this food. You are a liberal distributor of your gifts. You give us all kinds of good things to use. Because you are pure, the things you give are pure. Grant that I may not misuse them. Don’t let what you have given for the preservation of my body become the poison of my soul. The meat and drink before me is for my use and for me to abuse. You have given them to help me and not to hurt me.
I should have sent this out before the Thanksgiving feast, but you can pray it over your left-overs! May you enjoy the remainder of the holiday weekend and prepare to move into the Advent season.
Grace & peace
Geoff
WPC members, please note the link below taking you to the Merge Proposal.
http://www.whitpresby.org/merge-doc-2007.htm
Meditation
Here is a quote from the Nobel Prize winning Archbishop, Desmond Tutu about our spiritual lives.
“Dear Child of God, all of us are meant to be contemplatives. Frequently we assume that this is reserved for some rare monastic life, lived by special people who alone have been called by God. But the truth of the matter is that each one of us is meant to have that space inside where we can hear God’s voice. God is available to all of us. God says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Each one of us wants and needs to give ourselves space for quiet. We can hear God’s voice most clearly when we are quiet, uncluttered, undistracted—when we are still. Be still, be quiet, and then you begin to see with the eyes of the heart.”
Tutu writes as if being quiet was a simple thing to do. But most of us who work at finding silence in our lives know that it is work indeed. But the work pays off. I like Tutu’s phrase “see with the eyes of the heart.” May you find the silence you need to improve your heart’s vision.
Grace & peace
Geoff
WPC members, please note the link below taking you to the Merge Proposal.
http://www.whitpresby.org/merge-doc-2007.htm
Meditation
In a variation of Tuesday’s email, here are some of the lyrics from another Arcade Fire song, “Oceans of Noise” from the CD “Neon Bible.” You may recall them from my email of Sept. 21, 2007. I was pleased later to find that Arcade Fire was favorably reviewed in Christian Century Magazine in their Sept 4, 2007 issue. You can read the review here:
http://www.christiancentury.org/dept_music.lasso
An ocean of noise
First heard your voice
Rang like a bell
As if I had a choice
The rest of the lyric is not particularly appealing to me, but that line of “hearing your voice” is one that caught my attention and focused my thoughts on God’s spirit. I’ve long been fascinated with discerning the voice of God’s spirit among all the other voices around me, the “ocean of noise.” There may be sounds, smells, sights of one thing or another that will turn my thoughts towards God. This is just one of those examples of how it happens with me. Because listening to music is such a large part of my life, I find this “reading of God’s Spirit” happening with me most in that arena of my life. Once again, I commend this band and this album to you.
Grace & peace
Geoff
