Sunday June 30: A Call to Act Hopefully

To Practice: 

– Pray these passages again in the manner of Lectio Divina, speaking them out loud to engage your senses and affirm them in your being. What do you hear for your journey now?

– Watch this short video with Thomas Keating, “A Word About Service” (7 minutes). What speaks to your heart?

– You may wish to experiment with the practice of breathing in suffering, breathing out well-being and peace as a vestibule to your Centering Prayer practice, or as an active prayer practice during the routines of your day.

If you wish, you may re-read the full email reflection here: https://mailchi.mp/coutreach/2024-word-of-the-week-june30

Gosh, that image! It is like going towards the light is a big deal. You have to go thru a lot to get to the realization of that vision appearing in yiur mind’s eye.

thinking of Bonhoeffer , choosing to go where he was called, back to Germany when hitler was solidifying control. Choosing to serve for him was just presencing …nothing to do…just being with…

yesterday my family was bemoaning US politics. I was getting triggereed and escaped to my room. Then i realized, if i really care about my country,  i need to stay and feel the grief  and the fear that accompanies what is.

the doing will grow out of such being.

I know that i will never be left to my own devices.

Whenever I thought I was being “of service”, I always learned more than I taught   I met people who trusted that there would be “a way when there was no way.”  A friend recently returned from Palestine with this new awareness:  saying that we “empower” others assumes that they have no power within themselves.  For me, spending time in silence helps me be more receptive to this “continuing education”.

Sorry to be posting this so late in the week, but the Keating video really spoke to me. I tend to think of contemplative practices in terms of Centering Prayer, lectio Divina, mindfulness, Welcoming Prayer, etc…with service as a kind of outgrowth. But in fact it’s the most challenging form of contemplative practice since we are asked to use our gifts, in obedience to the call of God in the here-and-now moment, without any kind of identification or subtle condescension. This has really stayed with me this week as I tend to the often unpredictable demands of monastic service. Demands?  Maybe “invitations ” is a better word!

Marlene OSB

 

“Hope springs from the continuing experience of God’s compassion and help.” Gazing on this  week’s image spoke deeply of  the maturing  of my inner voice. Images like this take the place what words used to convey. There is a faint image just below upper left, recalling the presence of this inner voice before I was 6 years. Just below is another image of the guiding presence of the indwelling Spirit, a constant presence. The boat and surroundings took me though, the following years till perhaps into my sixties and …. When I was in my late 40’s at an Enneagram workshop, one the identifying features of my enneagram space was that I rarely used the word “I”. Then followed years of ego development (the “I” of me), my inner voice (today I see it as the blend of my spirit and the SPIRIT – the two faint, but real images on the left side) . This “I” made myself very visible in the waiting area Social Services  department to get the services this woman needed; then following her suicided attempt the “I” running down the the psychiatrist demanding that women could not be released at this time and he listened. Then through years of listening to struggling people’s stories, facing my own darkness, willing to plumb the depths of despair, the “I” that were so carefully previously honed morphed  into the self I feel very much at home in (the huge golden sphere in the image). Oh yes, I still need that “I” of the ego. It is becoming more trusting of the self  that is the real me. I am more conscious of of an inner voice partnership, the “s”/”S”; I AM truly grateful for all the unloading of the Indwelling Spirit. The white  bird-like images in the golden globe, a gift of the Indwelling Spirit=HOPE.

For my journey now, a prayer: Lord, make me an alchemist of Your hope. May I breathe in suffering, breathe out peace, serve as a transformer of energy and transmitter of Divine life, light and love. By Your Spirit, Your will be done through me. Amen. <3 linda

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