Posted in People I Meet, The Purpose of Relationship on December 1, 2005| Leave a Comment »
One of my favorite people in the world is my daughter. This quote is a part of her e-mail signature:
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”
Abraham Maslow
Wise words. Somedays I’d much rather cocoon.
Posted in People I Meet, Resources on November 17, 2005| Leave a Comment »
The following prayer of St. Basil speaks from a place of such deep presence and awareness of the Holy. I read it each day and find something transformative in it. In these dark times of both earthly disasters and national disgrace, I often find I do not know how to pray. What can I say? I am ashamed not just of my own insensitivites and insecurities, but I am ashamed of the actions of our government done in the name of Christ and the expectation of God’s blessing. My own beloved country, using chemical weapons, on men, women and children….using torture and denying it…I am deeply embarassed for us all. In the midst of this, two lines from this prayer help me: grant us to pass through the night of the whole present life and this reminder that this time too shall pass: For Thou are the true Light that enlightenest and sactifiest all, and all creation doth hymn Thee unto the ages of ages. Doth hymn Thee May we hymn thee, ture Light and may we worship in truth as well as in spirit.
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Posted in People I Meet on November 14, 2005| Leave a Comment »
About six months ago, my husband was out of work. We decided to make a game out of living on the edge of poverty. We collected cans and bottles from the side of roads, recycle bins and garbage containers. Our goal was to collect enough in deposit returns to pay for groceries. We did this for three months and were able to collect about $60 a month and buy enough groceries for the month at Aldi’s. It was fun for about three weeks.
After that, our relative wealth became a little clearer to us. Gas prices went sky high about the time my spouse got a new job. I kept collecting cans out of curiosity and habit. I discovered as the gas prices rose, the availability of discarded cans and bottles disappeared. There were letters to the editor in our local paper about others collecting these discards to afford gas to get to work. I decided they needed it more than us.
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Posted in People I Meet, The Purpose of Relationship on November 12, 2005| Leave a Comment »
Disturbing times we are in. No doubt about that. Parts of the earth have been washed into our oceans on several continents in the past year. Natural disasters which Pat Robertson calls acts of God have decimated the poorest men, women and children on our planet. Riots in the suburbs of Paris, suicide bombings in the midst of weddings in Jordan, another school shooting. These horrors bring out the worst and the best in our human nature.
I had a doctor’s appointment today for an infection in my eyes. I also have a chronic health problem that I deal with daily, in part through the use of self-hypnosis and in part by listening to what my body is trying to tell me. So, as my eyes have caused me pain, I’ve been asking myself – what is it that I don’t want to see? I think I know the answer – I do not want to see the fear. Nor do I want to see the power of evil.
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Posted in Fine Lines, People I Meet on November 8, 2005| Leave a Comment »
I was told this by a friend of mine who is himself a counselor:
A group of psychologists who are both interested in how religion effects persons emotionally and positive about that effect, consider fundamentalism to be the “religion of the virgin,” designed for those who cannot embrace their own humanity. The radical embracing of the doctrine of original sin means they have to prove to themselves over and over again that they are sinners. The anathama in this psychological rubric is the virgin who has been soiled. This group was not surprised by the sexual sins of the televangelists in the 1980’s because the “shadow” self has to be so repressed in fundamentalism that it has to come out and “prove” the person’s sinfulness to themselves.
Posted in People I Meet, Resources on October 25, 2005| 1 Comment »
Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions by Gerald May
A Different Christianity by Robin Amis; originally published by State University of New York , Albany1995; currently published by Praxis Institute Press, Chicago 2003
Job and the Mystery of Suffering by Richard Rohr
Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament; Unmasking the Powers: The Invisible Powers That Determine Human Existence; Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination by Walter Wink
On the High Road to Surrender by Frances J. Roberts
Prayer: Finding the Hearts True Home by Richard Foster
The Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on The Soul.s Ascent from the Early Church Fathers; Translated by John Anthony McGugkin; published by Shambala Press2003
The Forgotten Desert Mothers by Laura Swan; published by Paulist Press 2001
The Jesus Sutras by Martin Palmer; The Ballantine Publishing Company 2001
The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church by Vladimir Lossky
The Power of Myth Joseph Campbell
The Road Less Traveled & Further Along the Road Less Traveled & People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck
Posted in Grace in Unanswered Prayer, People I Meet on October 25, 2005| 1 Comment »
I received the following from a friend who has known me for almost 20 years:
Terming your self “The Practical Mystic” is very descriptive. I once described you as being perhaps the most spiritual person I knew and yet grounded in the realities of human life. I certainly have seen evidence of the gifts of the spirit in you.
I do have some questions that might also be of interest to visitors to your web site: I wonder how the spiritual gifts described in the Bible fit in with being a Christian mystic? Are some of them integral to the Christian mystic or are they independent? Also, how have you proceeded to develop your relationship with God and enhance your sense of His presence – is meditation the central method or other means?
I would encourage you to write on the practice of Christian meditation. (Some are practicing transcendental meditation: they open their minds and souls without being specific about the spirit they seek, a practice I consider dangerous.)
Posted in People I Meet, The Purpose of Relationship on October 19, 2005| Leave a Comment »
I was at my sixth silent retreat in four years. Three days of not speaking and only deep listening in prayer. This is the first time I have been able to keep the silence – no calls on my cell phone to the outside world. No attempts at conversation. No taking notes. I got a peek at the depths of God’s love
An older gentleman sat down across from me at luncheon. We acknowledged each others presence with a nod. Small sayings from the lecture portion of the retreat were scattered around the table. We took turns looking at each one.
He began to weep in silence as he read one contrasting the experience of self-acceptance in the light of God’s grace versus the experience of inadequacy, fear, greed and control in the spaces of life called our ego. I watched him weep and wanted to comfort him. The silence required me to only silently expand my heart to him.
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