A Christmas Prayer

Brother Dennis, who convenes the Sacred Journey group, is a writer of both prose and poetry.  He sent our group this poem in the week of Christmas.  (As this blog's moderator, I'm celebrating the fact that Christmas is a season, all the way through January 6.)  May this be our prayer during these 12 days and beyond.

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A CHRISTMAS PRAYER

Oh Divine, we need your spirit to breathe into our imaginations this Christmas.

For so many, justice seems far away.

For the world, peace seems improbable.

Hope seems a faint flicker.

And yet, we get glimpses -

Glimpses of kindness,

Glimpses of reconciliation,

Glimpses of swords being turned into plowshares.

Each glimpse whispers to us that your word of grace is the final one.

Feed our souls your hope, Jesus who comes as a child,

Because we need it this Christmas.

Amen.

What Is Advent?

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This post is a little late, but worth putting up nonetheless.  We have just passed through the season of the Christian calendar called Advent - the four weeks leading up to the celebration of the Incarnation (aka Christmas).  During one of our Sacred Journey meetings during advent, Cathy shared a reflection she had written on the idea of Advent, and has been kind enough to share it here.  

Even though Advent is officially over and we are in the season of Christmas, Cathy's thoughts are always "in season."

(More links to Cathy's writing can be found at the bottom of this blog post.)

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What is Advent?

Is it the season to be Jolly?

Or should we be feeling our grief, our angst and our hopelessness instead?

I am coming to realize that we need to take the AD out of advent and VENT more.

Tis the season to get real, methinks.

I am learning that the 4 weeks before Christmas were traditionally a season for reflection and “waiting”. But not the kind of waiting a little kid feels the night before Christmas.

It is akin to a hopeless daring – akin to the Jews wandering the desert for 40 years – “Maybe just around the corner is the promised land – the milk and honey. It is the fierce, yet naive hope expressed in the broadway hit “Maybe This Time” (see link to this song in our Sacred Journey Playlist).

It is the season of the Cautious Optimist. I am afraid to hope, but what else do I have left?

The problem is – Most Christians like to skip to the end of the story. That is cheating – but mostly cheating ourselves. When we do this, we cheapen the journey part – we rob ourselves of the surprise ending.

I have realized that we, as Christians, have forgotten how to feel our lives. We have forgotten how to sit with our angst, feel it, and come to the end of our selves. We have forgotten how to identify with those around us who are grieving, suicidal and conflicted. We need to sit a little while with the in-between.

THAT in-between is called advent.

SO – as Chris Linebarger advised, we need to play less of “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” and more “O Come O Come Emmanuel”. Our playlist should include more dirges like Leonard Cohen’s – “You Want it Darker.” Or U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” Turn off the Tinny Christmas and turn up the BLUES!

Professor Mark Oldenburg, argues that Advent “excludes all those aids that would help keep the celebration of Christmas from vapid sentimentality, all those proclamations that remind us what it means that “the hopes and fears of all the years” were and are met in Bethlehem. Keeping Advent entirely as a preparation for Christmas empties not only Advent but Christmas of its meaning.

Gone is the notion that we are in the “meantime” between the Incarnation and the Eschaton. Gone is the opportunity for our honest cry that things are not as God has promised they would be. Gone even is the notion that God comes to us here and now, where we are, in our rush to pretend our way back to “when Jesus was alive.”

I think of all the people who say, “I feel so sad this time of year.” I know there are many reasons for this sadness.

As a Christians, we always remind each other to consider those people who are unfortunate, poor or depressed this season. But perhaps, instead, we should learn from them. Perhaps, instead, we should get in touch with our own misfortunes, poverty and depression this season. Perhaps this is the true calling of Advent.

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The Journey of Grief

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 Joan, one of our beloved circle members, has spent many years in developing a transformative, wholistic way of providing eldercare.  Her ministry is called Healing Companions, and her website offers a treasure trove of beautiful resources for those in the final stages of life on earth and those who care for them.

Joan invites everyone to partake of these nourishing offerings by visiting her website, Healing Companions.  For those in a process of grieving, Joan particularly recommends the section entitled Hospice.

Thank you, Joan, for the light you bring to the Sacred Journey group and for your life-long outpouring of love to the world!

Just for Today

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Our current series of gatherings is exploring 12-Step Spirituality and how widely applicable it is to any spiritual journey. At our gathering on September 3, we focused on steps 4 and 5 and the practice of making a "moral inventory."  Many people are probably familiar with the statements of intention from the 12-Step tradition called "Just for Today," and our time together included meditating on a video version of this prayer (see our video playlist for the link.)  Here is version written by Listening Circle member Joan in response to the evenings' meditation and sharing.

Just For Today 

*Just for today I will forget all the unhappiness and walk along the road with a song in my heart.

*Just for today I will bend low and realize how little I know.

*Just for today I will stop longing for what I do not have and celebrate what I do have.

*Just for today I will refuse to criticize or condemn.

*Just for today I will see my faults without drowning in them.

*Just for today I will know that I am loved.

*Just for today I will lift up my eyes to the heavens and rejoice.

*Just for today I will breathe deeply, accepting my right to exist and be seen.

*Just for today I will give up trying to prove myself worthy.

*Just for today I will not allow myself to self-punish me.

*Just for today, I will be whole, healthy and at peace.

--Joan Englander

 

 

 

Video Meditations

Sacred Journey meetings often begin and end with video meditations. 

Brother Dennis, who convenes the Circle and curates the video content says: "The audio/visual elements of each gathering are intended to enhance our group experience.  The Opening Video Liturgy is selected to help shift gears from life outside to a settled interior posture that then carries us into our group meditation and and Listening Circle reflections.  At times, we may also use brief talks on the topic of the evening.  The Concluding Music Video is typically one that can carry us into the world on a high note.  The music videos you see here are all examples from recent gatherings."

For those of us who wish to revisit these videos (since many of them deserve more than one viewing), below is a link to a Google doc with a list of links to some of the videos we have enjoyed over the course of our months together.  The list will continue to be updated, so keep checking back, or bookmark the doc for easy reference.

Sacred Journey Video Playlist

Seeing Who is with Us and Celebrating

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Last Wednesday evening we meditated on the hopeful and challenging Hopi Elder's Prophecy issued in 2000.

One takeaway for many of us was our need for steadfast and loving community so we can not just survive but actually live fully in difficult times.  In the prophecy, this is expressed in the exhortation to "see who is in [the river] with you and celebrate."

I was reminded (yet again) of a song I first heard while traveling on a train.  A man a few seats back started playing guitar and singing a beautiful and poignant song that was a real balm to what was, at the time, a very achy soul.  And so I met Lee Koch, the musician and songwriter, and his song Dreams Awake has given me that same sense of hope ever since that day in 2009.  It embodies how I feel about the Sacred Journey group and other communities I'm involved with who hold a vision for the world of love, grace, justice, and acceptance that seems entirely contrary to what we witness on a daily basis.

So many times during our Sacred Journey together I have thought of this song, and I am glad to be able to share it on this blog.

Here is the original recording of Dreams Awake from Lee's Bandcamp Website.

A Provocative Parable

The focusing text of our gathering on August 6 was the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25.  Our meditation on this challenging parable prompted much reflection on our past associations with the story (if we grew up hearing it), as well as an introduction to a reframing of it by Cynthia Bourgeault in her book Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind - a New Perspective on Christ and His Message.  In the week following our meeting, two members shared these further explorations of the parable.  

Rick shared these quotes from The Mystic Way of Radiant Love by John Francis:

"Another metaphor suggestive of life energy is 'lamp oil'. It occurs in the intriguing parable of the five wise and the five foolish maidens (Matthew 25:1)... Let us consider that the number five, which is repeated twice, is a key to interpretation. There are five physical senses - sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. From the mystical point of view, there is a wise and a foolish way of using these senses. In mysticism, lamp oil is a common metaphor for the life energy that is associated with the sensory organs...  a sleeping maiden could represent a sense organ that is still and inactive. The parable thus presents us with sense organs that have entered an inactive ('sleeping') state through either wise or foolish means. The wise way to still the senses is through self-discipline that conserves life energy ('lamp oil'). The foolish way to sensory stillness is through exhaustion resulting from overindulgence in sensuality which drains the life energy."

"The parable would thus be telling us that to enter into the heart's cave (marriage chamber) sufficient life energy is required to illuminate the way. This interpretation is certainly consistent with contemplative experience. Anyone who has tried to focus attention inwardly in contemplation knows how difficult it is to remain alert and responsive when in a fatigued condition... this parable has the added dimension of instructing us regarding the inner discipline required to transcend ordinary, dualistic awareness and feel the Love beyond pleasure and pain." (pages 23-24)

At the close of our meeting, Joan shared this poem that she had written during our time together:

This is my prayer:

My Lord, I must come to realize that I will always have enough oil, enough energy, enough longing to make ready for your coming.

Indeed, I must believe you are coming any minute. I can’t wait until later to know how to be ready. I have to right now bend and stand straight before the glory you are. Close my eyes not in sleep but in reverence; your light is greater, bolder, more joyous than my lamp. My lamp is dim compared to what you offer this world. To be ready for you, I must first be in awe that you are alive, the fullness of grace and blessing, the wisdom and deepest voice coming, coming, now and always coming. I have a small lamp, Lord make this lamp grow. I have a waiting heart, make this heart patient. I have a crowd of thoughts, make them one steady flame of your love coming into me. Come into me and make me your flame.

Amen, and amen.