Our Spiritual Guides

A few days ago I logged unto Fr. Ronald Rolheiser’s website and the weekly reflection that he posts there.  The nice thing I like about the website is that if I miss a few weeks or months the reflections are archived and they carry a title so if I am looking for something on a particular topic as I was the other day all I have to do is scroll down his list of reflections for the entire year.  While I was reading some of Rolheiser’s reflections it occurred to me that our choice of spiritual guides, writers that we are particularly fond of and return to time and again to give insight to our inner life, can say quite a bit about a person. Of course at various times in our life our spiritual guides can vary.  Sometimes it is a question of maturity, e.g. at 68 years old my focus, also my questions, have changed from when I was in my early adult years; at other times it is our ministry that introduces us to different authors, or a class that peeks our curiosity about an author we have been introduced to in the class.

Some of my favorite spiritual guides over the years have been:  Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I., Joan Chittister, OSB, Sue Monk Kidd, John O’Donohue, Michael Casey, OCSO, Joyce Rupp, the Dalai Lama, Thomas Merton, OCSO, Marcus Borg, and Nan Merrill.  As you have been reading this have you begun thinking of who some of your spiritual guides are or have been?  The books on your bookshelves might give you some ideas.  And what was it about their writings that was significant for you? If you would like to share some of your authors with me I would love to hear from you.

The picture above is of Thomas Merton’s hermitage at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky

Hélène Mercier, OSB

 

Common Prayer

Bro. Roger Schutz and his community of brothers at Taizé, France, have long been wondering why more and more young people—the world over—take part less and less in prayer in churches, or even, not at all.  Why are they (or we) often bored when attending a worship service that is in a parish church?  Why is passive attendance rather than active participation the going habit, if indeed, our churches are better than empty?

The community of Taizé, of course, addressed this reality long ago, and today we read of the thousands of young people who travel to Taizé from all parts of the world.  They want to experience what the brothers experience, viz., that hearts are changed as the rhythm of prayer, song and silence lead one into the depths of contemplative prayer.  Indeed, it seems to be the reverse of 13^th century Francis of Assisi’s advice to “build a church and the people will come.” Here at Taizé, the community of brothers seems to create a longing in the worshipers who then become “church”. 

Common prayer—whether the Liturgy of the Hours, the Eucharist, or the Rosary -- can be the place where God speaks to our hearts and where God continues to lead us,  to sing within us, or to be the silent Listener as we walk the halls, sit at our desks, bake the bread, wipe the tears from a child’s face.

 Please come to join us in our Oratory—morning, noon or evening.  Together we will find God and be made whole  so that we can go on living sensitively in our world!  Perhaps you would like to start in November when we seem especially connected with that other part of the church: our brothers and sisters, parents and friends, already in Glory.  They, too, can teach us how to pray in common with our sisters and brothers here in Sacred Heart Chapel/Oratory.

Renée Domeier, OSB

Seamless Presence

Sometimes I let my busy mind make things more complicated than necessary. One quiet day I was trying to “uncomplicate” my description of God and God-ness. I kept hearing God’s self -title, given to Moses from the burning bush, “I am Who I am” i.e. I cause to be, I create presence [Exodus 3:13-15].  I said, “That’s it!”  God is Infinitely Creating Presence.  Yet somehow, that doesn’t quite describe the dynamic God I experience around me.  The God I know is an ever-present compassionate and loving presence.  This God I meet in breathtaking scenes and hope-filled stories, as well as in situations of human dignity lost and cancerous self-centered greed.  All of these carried in the compassionate womb of God-Present, birthing us by love and forgiveness into our eventual fullness.  And so I pray.

Father, Infinitely Creative Wisdom-energy, manifest your presence, especially when you seem absolutely absent.  Create yet another way for me to experience your presence in the discomforting voice of prophets scorned for their acts of humble inclusiveness.  And help me see your face each time others open my self-protective wounds, igniting defensive anger.  Because you sustain both them and me with life, let your vision of our hidden “sweet soul”, soften my gaze and allow me to whisper a blessing on the other.  For I know that in your compassion, you always allow a blessing  to spark God-ness in both sender and receiver, so that mutual-God-ness can burst into flame, and manifest as “Children of God”, “Thy kin-dom come”.  I ask this in the name of your Son, Embodied Wisdom-energy, and your life-giving Spirit, Transformative Wisdom-Energy.
                                                                                                                                Amen

Mary Rachel Kuebelbeck, OSB

 

Autumn Invitation

AUTUMN’S call for me is always : “Stop. Go down into the depths. Let prayer happen.”  Autumn is often a time for the prayer of silence, of simply remaining close to Christ.  Sometimes silence is everything in prayer.  Imagine a big lawn chair, surrounded by colored trees and the quiet dropping to the ground of leaves no longer wishing to cling to their places on branches. . .and someone—your own soul—whispering to you:

Photo: Karen Streveler, OSB

  Sit down,

  sit down,

   said my soul.

  Sit down,

   sit down,

   be made

    whole.

Can you hear Autumn’s  invitation, too?  Will you find an opportunity for wholeness today?  Perhaps a simple melody will sing itself into your heart, as it did into mine: “Rest in God alone. . .rest in God alone, my soul, my soul.”

 Renee Domeier, OSB

Looking at Leaves

I'm finding life hectic at the moment. It's coming from several angles and I find it easy to become swamped in the hurly-burly of all that's happening each day - well, each minute really.

When I sat down to write my blog, I found my mind was just a jumble of things I had to do, ought to do, hadn't done, couldn't fit in. I had no idea what to write about.Then, someone who was maybe feeling the same way asked me to take something to another building in the monastery. I chose the outside route and I noticed one of the trees that is beginning to turn. I actually made myself stand still and be aware of it, the different tones of the leaves as they changed color.

I'm not claiming that I had a moment of enlightenment or that I even thought something profound, but I did realize the importance of making myself stop, making myself not  think and simply savor the pleasure of being alive for a short time.

As I say, not profound; it's something millions of people have thought before me, something I've realized myself many times in the past. But it was a neat reminder that there's more to life than getting the job done - there's also standing still and looking at leaves.

Karen Rose, OSB