A Daily Lent

Standing Still in the Present Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent – March 23, 2020 Each of us has our own ways of running away from ourselves. We have our own patterns that distract us from seeing what is true and real about ourselves, God, others, and the world. But it seems to me that in these very different days, as we keep one eye focused on the coronavirus and another eye on our own altered daily routine, many of us find our usual patterns upset. We may not have our usual distractions available to us. I’ll confess that we’re only a few days into the social distancing and days apart from close contact with others . . . and already I’m finding myself out of sorts. It is easy enough to rehearse good days in the past . . . or to fantasize about what may or may not happen in the future. But I also realize that whenever we fixate on the past or the future, we immediately pull ourselves out of the present. It is a challenge to stand still in the present . . . to allow the present...

Holding All of Life Together Saturday of the First Week of Lent – March 7, 2020 The life animated and guided by the Spirit – what we would call a spiritual life – is not separate from our normal, everyday life. We do not step in and out of these two ways of doing life. I hear some people, for example, talking about their “time for doing” and their “time for being,” as if life is divided into compartments that can be kept separate from one another. The spiritual life – or life animated by God’s Spirit – is not a life which removes us from the world or which touches only one aspect of our existence. The spiritual life, both being and doing, touches every all of life. It umbrellas everything. Henri Nouwen holds together these two poles . . . what he calls the “worry-filled life” and the “life of the Spirit.” The goal is not to move back and forth between these two ways of doing life, but rather, to increasingly bring them all under one umbrella, so that the life of God’s Spirit...

Inner Experience of Oneness Friday of the First Week of Lent – March 6, 2020 To engage the interior work of the spiritual life means that we begin a journey which will be long, slow, and messy. I don’t know any way around that reality. I first made conscious contact with God in the context of a faith tradition which promised – both implicitly and sometimes explicitly – that conversion was a one-time decision that would set you up for a lifetime. The goal was the moment of conversion, and any growth or becoming after that initial experience was a bonus. I quickly realized within my own self that simply responding to an altar call and mouthing some words about giving my life to Jesus did not change all that was sideways in my life. But at that time, I had no idea what to do about it. My best guess was that every time I “sinned,” I lost Jesus and had to go back through the process all over again – I must not have “really meant it” when I gave my life to Jesus all those previous ti...

You Make the Path by Walking Thursday of the First Week of Lent – March 5, 2020 There is no single way to live the spiritual life. We have centuries of clues, passed down to us through the centuries by those who have sought a deeper connection with God and who lived meaningful in the world. But in many ways, we follow their clues in order to find our own way more fully. While some versions of Christianity promise to lead us into more and more certainty (and call it, “faith”), the contemplative spiritual tradition tends to lead us deeper and deeper into mystery and the unknown. We enter into a “cloud of unknowing” . . . we experience the “dark night of the soul.” There is no single template for journeying in this cloud or dark night. I’m drawn to the image of journey to describe the nature of contemplative spirituality, and I often think that the journey is mostly uncharted. In one of his poems, Antonio Machado says that we make the path by walking. Why should we call these...

Embodying Jesus Wednesday of the First Week of Lent – March 4, 2020 Following Jesus does not mean holding the right beliefs or advocating for the proper doctrines. Following Jesus is not a matter of becoming more moral. Following Jesus is not about joining a church or pledging allegiance to a religious institution. To follow Jesus, we go where Jesus goes . . . engage those Jesus engages . . . love as Jesus loves . . . live compassionately as Jesus lived compassionately. In short, following Jesus means that we embody the life and spirit of Jesus in our world. This is no simplistic what-would-Jesus-do, but rather an actual engagement with the world in the spirit of Jesus. With Jesus as our source and center, we allow him to live in and through us. The Apostle Paul called this being “in Christ.” And in Christ, we embody God in the world. In the paragraphs below, Henri Nouwen says we are destined to become like the life of Jesus. We are invited into his life, here and now in ...

A Loving Surrender Tuesday of the First Week of Lent – March 3, 2020 I am one of those persons described by Henri Nouwen who cringes at the word “obedience.” I can ascribe that to experiences earlier in life which were painful, in which I was expected to be blindly obedient to a way not my own. Like those Nouwen describes below, the word conjures up negative connotations for me. Yet, I realize that when I love and trust someone, I am willing to surrender, submit, and even be obedient to the beloved one. It is this sense of obedience St. Benedict leans into when he offers a Rule of Life as a guide for living together in monastic community. Within community, not everyone can be in charge. You cannot get your own way all the time and form a healthy community. So Benedict addresses vows of obedience made in the monastery. And the beginning of obedience, he says, is listening. Listen carefully, my child, to my instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advi...

Hold Together Doing and Being Monday of the First Week in Lent – March 2, 2020 In the spiritual life, we are not asked to make a choice between doing and being, Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42), the contemplative life and the active life. In truth, everything we do is infused with who we are. Our being always shapes our doing. In the language of the Luke 10:38-42 story, we are invited to do our Martha-work in a Mary-way. In other words, to be about our lives with a sense of being centered and anchored in the deeper reality of God. Henri Nouwen wrote about the tension of activity and contemplation in this way: There is little doubt that Jesus’ life was a very busy life. He was busy teaching his disciples, preaching to the crowds, healing the sick, exorcising demons, responding to questions from foes and friends, and moving from one place to another. Jesus was so involved in activities that it became difficult to have any time alone. The following story gives us the picture: “Th...

Change of Heart First Sunday of Lent – March 1, 2020 Contemporary life treats busyness and worry as if they were badges of honor. We are quick to tell others what busy people we are, as if our busyness itself makes us important. The fact that I’m busy somehow contributes to the feeling that I’m indispensable and seems to increase my worthiness in the eyes of others. Culturally we’ve created a cult of busyness and productivity. There are fewer more disdained words in our society than the word “lazy.” The spiritual life does, in fact, speak to simplicity, silence and solitude. Intentional time during which we give our attention to God is vital to our spiritual well-being; however, we do not claim that the only way to live a spiritual life is to let go of all responsibilities and obligations. The notion that anyone could live the spiritual life if all life-duties were removed is simply false. Rather, the spiritual life is about developing a different consciousness in the midst o...