Leaves, Prayers, Death and Life

How can we make sense of death, especially a particular and tragic death such as Sister Denise's death in an automobile accident this past Sunday (Aug 1, 2010)?

Perhaps we can't. Or more accurately we don't see how we can in this, our current earthly life.

Last night, as I considered what and how to write the Urban Abbey blog entry for this week, reading news reports and my friends remembrances about Sister Denise, my mind went back to early 1986 and the book The Fall Of Freddie The Leaf By Leo Buscaglia. My father was dying from cancer and my wife and I pondered how to explain what was happening to our children, one in kindergarten, the other not even in pre-school yet. A friend gave us this book. It became a favorite of mine.

Freddie the Leaf fell from the tree to the ground in late autumn, after a full spring and summer of life. While many leaves do make it through all three seasons, falling when expected in autumn, others are torn from trees, shredded, and lost forever during horrible storms that reverberate through the forest and all surrounding hills. Such is how Sister Denise's death makes me feel. Her death, the injuries of two fellow sisters of the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia and the resulting holes in that community, as well as other surrounding communities remind me of the open, glaring, spaces after a storm sweeps through an area.

But remember how God uses these openings in our forests: Soon new growth springs to life, new shoots rise to meet the sun, animals, birds, lichens and moss all grow, as God intended.

Our community, formal, informal, religious, political and others are all using this moment. Debate rages regarding appropriate application of laws, what is true forgiveness, what changes (if any) we can make. Behind this remains God's call to seek forgiveness and to forgive. To cherish and treasure those among us and to celebrate the Resurrection.

Watch the news and engage in the debate, don't run from sadness and anger. Hold all before God. And if we can't think of where to start, perhaps the Prayer of St. Francis can be our springboard:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
 where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

God's Blessing

Dear Abbey Members and Friends:

I found the poem below on the Unfolding Light web site [http://unfoldinglight.net] by Steve Garnaas-Holmes.

Dear Beloved, God will bless you all through your life,
Love’s own gentle hand caress you, all through your life.
You are made by God’s designing, with the holy Presence shining.
Grace will be your silver lining all through your life.

Journey hand in hand with Jesus all through your life.
Walk with him who heals and frees us all through your life.
Like him may you be forgiving, generous and freely giving.
Risen, new, receive your living, all through your life.

May the Holy Spirit lead you all through your life,
guide, protect, renew and feed you all through your life.
In the light of our redeeming, with divine compassion gleaming,
be a light for others, beaming all through your life.
_______________________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight@hotmail.com

This poem speaks to me and reminds me that God is ever present in my life, and is all loving. As I have been reflecting on it, this poem speaks to me of all it is that we in our Urban Abbey are called to be and do. In praying daily, we are called to remind ourselves each day the we are God’s beloved. In “journeying hand in hand with Jesus” (service), we are called to be part of Community reconciling ourselves and others, giving generously of the blessings we have received. In our study of Scripture and other Holy (God-inspired) words, we find the Spirit, and are fed and renewed. As we show fellowship and welcome in our daily walk, we can be a light for others giving them hope when that is needed, a listening ear when that is needed, being present for that other when that is needed.

I invite you to spend some time with this poem today or this week in Lectio-style reflection. Let the poem wash over you and see what speaks to you today. I invite you to share with the rest of the Community what comes to you in your meditation.

Shalom and many blessings, George

The Way of Praise

Good morning Abbey Members,

Today is the middle of the week in the middle of a busy summer schedule. With working two jobs, weekend trips, my daughter in camps, weekly lessons and guests coming and going throughout the summer, I have to admit I am tired. Also we just discovered my daughter has an allergy to the sun! Who knew that existed? But apparently this is common among Native Americans in North, Central and South America. (My daughter is adopted from Guatemala.) I laid in bed for while this morning and wondered what next? I felt overwhelmed. I eventually got up and begin my morning routine which includes reading a passage from "God Calling" a wonderful meditation book written by two anonymous listeners as they call themselves. We do not know a lot about their lives but we do know they were poor and had health issues and struggled greatly during the 1930's. They decided to come together to pray and try and listen for God. The writing that came from their listening is powerful and authentic. Time and time again I come to the daily reading and find just the perfect response to my daily worries and struggles. Today is no different. Let me share with you today's reading.

The Way of Praise

"I am teaching you both My Way of removing mountains. The way to remove mountains is the way of Praise. When a trouble comes think of all you have to be thankful for. Praise, Praise, Praise. Say "Thank You" all the time. This is the remover of mountains, your thankful hearts of praise."

I have so much to be thankful for! I live in a beautiful home, in a safe a community, with family and wonderful friends in a time of peace. The great majority of my busy-ness is created by our tremendous abundance and our ability to travel and make choices to do a huge variety of things in our life like travel and taking lessons. These small things that wear me out are totally unaccessible to the great majority of the people on this planet. I am humbled and grateful. I praise God this morning that my mountains are truly only mole-hills. I am grateful I have access to doctors, medicine and the internet to help manage my daughters sun allergy. I am grateful to be a part of a spiritual community that supports my growth and grounds me in what is most important. Thank you for being a part of my community.


Praise God!
--Angela

(Yes - Seton posted this, but the text is all Angela's)

God, Work and Blessings

In my daily prayers and meditations I read a portion of the Rule of Benedict, usually with reflections or comments by a Benedictine Sister or Brother. Currently I am following reflections from Brother Jerome Leo of St. Mary's Monastery in Petersham Massachusetts. (You can find further information about the reflections at http://www.stmarysmonastery.org/HolyRule.htm.)

As I read today's section of the Rule of Benedict and Brother Jerome's reflection I am struck by how appropriate and important this is in my life! As I read his reflection I asked myself "How often do I ask God for his Blessing before I start work?" Do I remember to say "Thank You" to God after a meeting that did not go quite the way I expected? Did I remember to ask for God's Blessing before starting to write this Blog entry?

The answers are between God and me, of course, but I will admit that quite often I do fail to ask for Blessings. That, however, doesn't stop from trying.

A Challenge:
Are there tools you have found helpful in remembering to ask for God's Blessing? If you spend time regularly (whether daily or otherwise) have you found something helpful you could share?

Don't hesitate, use the "comment" feature of the blog and share your thoughts with others! (If you have a private question please don't use the Comment feature, use the email tool instead. Comments will be seen by all readers of the blog.)

Now, here is Brother Jerome's posting for today, July 14, 2010:



From the Rule of St. Benedict, the portion read on March 14, July 14, November 13
Chapter 35: On the Weekly Servers in the Kitchen
An hour before the meal let the weekly servers each receive a drink and some bread over and above the appointed allowance, in order that at the meal time they may serve their brethren without murmuring and without excessive fatigue. On solemn days, however, let them wait until after Mass.

Immediately after the Morning Office on Sunday, the incoming and outgoing servers shall prostrate themselves before all the brethren in the oratory and ask their prayers. Let the server who is ending his week say this verse: "Blessed are You, O Lord God, who have helped me and consoled me." When this has been said three times and the outgoing server has received his blessing, then let the incoming server follow and say, "Incline unto my aid, O God; O Lord, make haste to help me." Let this also be repeated three times by all, and having received his blessing let him enter his service.

REFLECTION

Blessing readers and servers may strike the modern reader as a bit silly: a CEREMONY of blessing to do a no-brainer like that for a week? Ah, well there's the rub. Ancient monastics (and many Eastern Orthodox monastics even in our own day,) did NOTHING without a blessing from their elder. This results in all kinds of blessings for things we would take for granted. When the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne went as a group to the guillotine in the French Revolution, at least one of the nuns approached the Prioress and asked; "Permission to die, Mother?" The Prioress blessed her to die.

Getting a blessing, asking God's help for even seemingly trivial matters is a powerful reminder of our own weakness. It is a statement that we can do nothing without Him, that we truly are nothing that He has not given. There is a great humility in asking anyone for help. In this instance, however, humility is richest truth: we need God's help for everything. We do things only because He enables us, whether we asked Him for help or not. Our very lives would not exist without Him.

We still bless readers and servers. Short ceremony, same every week. We all pray together for whomever is serving us. Since we are small (only 7,) the Superior is often reader or server. When that happens, he kneels like anyone else and the senior monk blesses him. It's a little family ritual.

But what is its message for families in the world? For single Oblates living alone? The message is that there are no tasks to insignificant to bless with prayer. St. Benedict has earlier encouraged us to begin every good work with prayer, but maybe we have forgotten. Because the monastic is MINDFUL, careful, attuned to life, nothing is unimportant, nothing should be done "on automatic pilot." There is that healthy level of mistrust of self that will ask for Divine assistance in any endeavor. "Bless, Lord, yet another diaper." "Bless, Lord, emptying the trash." "Bless, Lord, management meeting!!"

Making dinner or washing the dishes? Take a quiet moment in the midst of either to say "Help!" and "Thanks!" Two simple, one word prayers. No matter how chaotic your household, everyone will find time for at least that. God knows the details, knows your heart and can readily fill in the blanks! We may think God needs essay-length prayers, but He doesn't. He may enjoy hearing from us, but trust me, we NEVER tell Him anything that's news to Him.

Of course, there is another side to simple things like serving table, picking up pins and the like. No one could have done anything without God's help, but ah, if one does them out of love and care! Bingo! Double coupons, so to speak! If that pin got carefully picked up because of a barefoot and running child, or a beloved pet who is prone to "tasting" whatever she can find on the floor, simplicity becomes a very much greater matter, indeed. Now it is very close to the heart of God, and that is a wonderful place to be.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA

Silence & Listening

Dear Abbey Members and Friends,

You may recall that Angela, Seton, and I posted daily meditations on the Abbey Blog spot and on the Abbey YahooGroups listserve during Holy Week. We received positive feedback on that. In discussion at our last team meeting, we decided to begin a weekly posting on Wednesdays, rotating among the three of us. Our hope is that the meditations, or thoughts, we provide will be a springboard for an electronic discussion and an opportunity for all of us to grow spiritually. So we invite you to respond with your thoughts, feelings, suggestions...

If any of you who are in our physical or virtual Abbey Communities wish to share in our weekly posting rota, please let one of the three of us know. We welcome your participation.

With that prelude, let me give you my thoughts for this week.

I visited the St. Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, KS, web site and read a posting by their Abbot, Barnabas Senecal, reflecting on the life of one of their long-time monks, Brother Martin Burkhard, who recently died.
Following are a couple of excerpts that spoke to me,
“Brother Martin knew silence. Not only the silence that settles around a person who loses his hearing, but the silence of being alone, the silence of choice when one is listening well to another, the silence of one at prayer, the silence of sharing a moment of sadness with another, the silence of an artist who knows that inspiration comes from within, in response to beauty and possible beauty around him, and the silence of acceptance.”
“Brother Martin knew the silence of acceptance, giving rise to an ability to live with what is, not to be anxious about many things, to accept what he could not change. He allowed this to be a positive, to be a realist. He would complain, and he could say his disagreement, but that never took away what one confrere called ‘his sweetness.’”

WOW, to me this is a very powerful reminder of what it means to be in relation with God and one another. Brother Martin’s life exemplified what, I believe, we are called by God to be. To take time and really listen well to one another is one of the greatest gifts we can give. For me, this is one of the hardest things to do. My life and perhaps yours as well seem to be filled with so many worthwhile things that need to be done. In the midst of all these activities, it is difficult to slow my mind enough to be present and listen when a colleague, a friend, a spouse needs some of that time to be listened to. How hard it is in a meeting or conference when ‘gut issues’ are being discussed to REALLY take the time to listen to the speaker and not focus on our response. In our Listening Groups, it takes an effort of will to listen to what God has for us to say to another rather than the easy path of giving our own guidance or judgement. We all crave to be listened to – to be able to tell our ‘story’ to another and have that other be present for us in a non-judgmental way. When we can do this, we truly are walking in Christ’s steps. I’m successful occasionally; but, more often than not, I fail to be fully present for another. My challenge is to not give up hope, but to ‘pick myself up’ and try harder the next time. The good news is that there is great support and encouragement in our Community. I pray that we can come to the end of our days and, like Brother Martin, say that we too knew the silence of being.

Shalom and blessings, George

UA Community Meeting June 19

Dear Urban Abbey Members and Friends,

This is a ‘Save the Date” reminder for our Urban Abbey Community meeting on Saturday, June 19. We’ll meet at St. George’s from 9:30 am to about 3:30 pm. We plan to use the “hours” – Terce, Sext, and None – to frame the day. Our general topic will be on caring for one another in community. There will be community discussion time as well as spiritual exercise and fellowship time.

Seton has agreed to organize lunch and refreshments; so, expect a note from him in the next week or so with more specifics. We hope that you all will be able to join us for the day. Please feel free to invite friend who you think might be interested in the Abbey.

We’ll have more information near the end of the week or early next week.

Shalom, George

Meditation - Maundy Thursday 2010

Thursday Apr 01, 2010

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should love one another

John 13:34 (NRSV)

Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come before you;*

    Hide not your face from me in the day of my trouble.

Incline your ear to me;*

    when I call, make hast to answer me

Psalm 102:1-3 (BCP)

If I take Jesus' call to love one another just as He loved me I do need to pray, and trust that God hears me. I am far from being able to love the other just as God loved all the others while here on earth.

Love one another? Easy when it is my neighbor or family and they treat me well. Not so easy when I don't them. Or when I disagree with them. Do I love them when they make a mess, or when they haven't had a bath or shower in days (or weeks) and need my help?

Jesus showed love for others in many ways during his last night with us on earth. He knew Judas would betray him. He knew Peter would deny him. He washed their feet knowing all this. He prayed knowing they would fall asleep as he was praying. And Jesus loved all of them. We find out how much he loved all of them, and us tomorrow.

But today, come, sit and pray with Jesus. Pray that we may love one another, both those we know and those we don't. And pray that most of all we keep loving all the others, even the others we recoil from, or simply forget...

Reading Can Be Prayer...

Prayer can take the form of reading and reflecting. I include two passages for your reading and reflection, should you wish.

John 13:1-17, 31b-35 (NRSV)

Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’

 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

The New Commandment

 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

Psalm 102 (BCP)

 

1       Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come before you; *

     hide not your face from me in the day of my trouble.

 

2       Incline your ear to me; *

     when I call, make haste to answer me,

 

3       For my days drift away like smoke, *

     and my bones are hot as burning coals.

 

4       My heart is smitten like grass and withered, *

     so that I forget to eat my bread.

 

5       Because of the voice of my groaning *

     I am but skin and bones.

 

6       I have become like a vulture in the wilderness, *

     like an owl among the ruins.

 

7       I lie awake and groan; *

     I am like a sparrow, lonely on a house‑top.

 

8       My enemies revile me all day long, *

     and those who scoff at me have taken an oath against me.

 

9       For I have eaten ashes for bread *

     and mingled my drink with weeping.

 

10     Because of your indignation and wrath *

     you have lifted me up and thrown me away.

 

11     My days pass away like a shadow, *

     and I wither like the grass.

 

12     But you, O Lord, endure for ever, *

     and your Name from age to age.

13     You will arise and have compassion on Zion,

         for it is time to have mercy upon her; *

     indeed, the appointed time has come.

 

14     For your servants love her very rubble, *

     and are moved to pity even for her dust.

 

15     The nations shall fear your Name, O Lord, *

     and all the kings of the earth your glory.

 

16     For the Lord will build up Zion, *

     and his glory will appear.

 

17     He will look with favor on the prayer of the homeless; *

     he will not despise their plea.

 

18     Let this be written for a future generation, *

     so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord.

 

19     For the Lord looked down from his holy place on high; *

     from the heavens he beheld the earth;

 

20     That he might hear the groan of the captive *

     and set free those condemned to die;

 

21     That they may declare in Zion the Name of the Lord, *

     and his praise in Jerusalem;

 

22     When the peoples are gathered together, *

     and the kingdoms also, to serve the Lord.

 

23     He has brought down my strength before my time; *

     he has shortened the number of my days;

 

24     And I said, “O my God,

        do not take me away in the midst of my days; *

     your years endure throughout all generations.

 

25     In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations

         of the earth, *

     and the heavens are the work of your hands;

26     They shall perish, but you will endure;

         they all shall wear out like a garment; *

     as clothing you will change them,

     and they shall be changed;

 

27     But you are always the same, *

     and your years will never end.

 

28     The children of your servants shall continue, *

     and their offspring shall stand fast in your sight.”