A Daily Lent

The Sunshine School of Piety Thursday after the Resurrection – April 16, 2020 The popular prophets of contemporary culture are not those who tell the truth – which is the hallmark of a true prophet – but those who say what their followers want to hear. Religious leaders, political leaders, leaders of commerce . . . most anyone can fall into this kind of cheerleading . . . another version of dressing up a pig in lipstick. We notice this all around us, even in the midst of a global pandemic . . . some who say things are not really that bad (try selling that to 28,593 families in the United States and 138,487 families around the world who have lost loved ones to COVID-19) or who advocate sacrificing people’s health and lives for the good of economic factors (Capitalism as the greatest good!). In the excerpt below, Evelyn Underhill uses the ominous phrase, “ the sunshine school of piety ,” calling it a “charmingly optimistic outlook.” How apropos is that to our current times? G

The Long Way Home Wednesday after the Resurrection – April 15, 2020 Spiritual growth does not come in a moment . . . in a flash of insight . . . or by responding to an altar call . . . or in an inspiring conference . . . or even in an act of kindness that creates good feelings within us. Spiritual growth is a long, long journey. We grow day-by-day, moment-by-moment, the slow accumulation of long-term openness to God’s work within us. I’ve known persons who expected transformation to come in a flash, and who quickly grew frustrated when they did not get the immediate results they expected. The spiritual life is a journey of our entire lifetime. We never come to the end of it. This is the work God is doing within us slowly, moment-by-moment. In the excerpt below, Evelyn Underhill talks about spiritual growth. We talked first of growth and then of service, but we must not divide them too sharply, for the two go together from the beginning. In a good nursery, children are ta

Practice God’s Presence during Holy Week Palm Sunday – April 5, 2020 On Palm Sunday we remember that Jesus rode into Jerusalem to begin the last week of his life. He must have looked triumphant as people hailed him “King!” It was a reception that could have led to a coronation; yet, the reality did not match the appearance. He was moving not toward an earthly throne, but toward a cross. Progress in the spiritual life is difficult to measure. The usual tracks and markers don’t work. Appearance doesn’t always match reality. Movement takes place slowly, over time, as we give greater attentiveness to the presence of God within us, to those around us, and to the created world in which we live. For some people, that attentiveness comes naturally in the created world. Brilliant sunsets, vast sandy beaches, and mountain vistas consistently make it onto our lists of ways we sense our connection to God. They bring us to awe and wonder. Others find their connection to God through other

We Are in the Desert Sunday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 29, 2020 The entire contemporary world has been thrown into an experience of desert. All our usual norms and routines have been upended by a highly infectious virus. We are in uncharted territory, as “experts” remind us day by day, trying to stay true to best practices, and yet on ground that is unfamiliar – and highly uncomfortable – for most all of us. That we are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic during Lent is its own irony – or the mark of God’s mysterious provision! Someone texted me yesterday to say, “ This is the lentiest Lent I’ve ever lented .” The season of Lent actually parallels the 40 days spent by Jesus in the desert (Mt. 4:1 – 11) after his baptism in the Jordan River. The days of fasting and facing the temptations of the adversary prepared him for the onset of his ministry and confirmed the word he heard at his baptism: “ This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased ,” (Mt. 3:17). As

Listening As Openness and Willingness Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent – March 26, 2020 Benedict of Nursia wrote a guide for persons who sought to live in community out of a common desire to orient life around God. That guide is called The Rule of Benedict. And the “vows” we have explored this week are all integral to Benedictine spirituality. The Benedictine vow of stability means that we stand still and attend to who we are in this moment. We intentionally nourish the soul, we tend to the fires of the inner life. We do not move at such a frantic pace that we cease to know ourselves. Be still. The vow of continual conversion means that we are always journeying on. God is continually forming us, shaping us as the people God created us to be. We continue to journey, to explore, and to make new discoveries, both in the outer world and in the our own inner world. We are still moving. The vow of obedience , as Esther de Waal describes it below, simply asks us to listen . . .

Happiness Rises Saturday of the Third Week of Lent – March 21, 2020 I don’t want to undersell the difficulty and challenge in de Mello’s words this week. The work he describes with attachments is some of the most rigorous interior work we can undertake. At the same time, we experience a growing sense of interior freedom when we engage this spiritual work. There is a lightness of being that comes from not being weighed down by those people and things we cling to. And we have the experience, Fr Anthony describes, of “happiness rising.” Happiness arises between persons who are meeting without the desire to control, manipulate, or impress one another . . . happiness arises when we hear a beautiful piece of music . . . happiness arises when we participate in an act of kindness that makes a difference in the world . . . happiness arises when we see an object of beauty and stand still just to take the moment into ourselves. I love de Mello’s phrase. Happiness rising does not sugges

Is There Another Way? Friday of the Second Week of Lent – March 13, 2020 Over the years, we grow so accustomed to the broad gate and the wide road that we cannot imagine any other way to live. Wide roads are comfortable and give us lots of wiggle room. We learn to maneuver on wide roads. Elizabeth O’Connor, in the paragraphs below (which continue her thoughts from yesterday’s Lenten post), says that usually what jolts us from the wide road to the narrow road is “ an event, or a flash of insight, or a demanding ache. ” And then, after we have been jolted awake, God “ puts in the heart and the mouth the question, ‘Is there another way?’ ” Richard Rohr often makes a similar claim. He regularly says that our two most compelling teachers on this spiritual path are Great Love and Great Suffering. Those experiences have the capacity to shake us awake, so that we begin to ask about and seek out another way. That “other way” is what Jesus calls the “narrow road” and “narrow gate.” Thi

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

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

A Larger, Freer, More Truthful Way Saturday after Ash Wednesday – February 29, 2020 When Beatrice Bruteau describes a contemplative as someone who lets go of the old ways that seem “natural” to us in favor of that which is larger, freer, and more truthful, something in me says, “Yes!” and something else in me says, “I can’t!” She’s right. It’s not “natural” to us that we should love others without qualification. But this is part of the transformative process, the slow and messy shift in the interior life to which the contemplative is invited. Our vocation is to live in union with God, and this is the way God loves. This is how Bruteau says it: We have now identified the basic life principle of the communion of the saints. That is what is meant by abiding in Jesus’ love. Live in the kind of love-world he has created, the love-context in which he lives. Do it the way he does it. “Love one another as I have loved you,” leaving out any regard for “deserving” or “lovability,” eith

Fat Tuesday February 25, 2020 The season of Lent suggests starkness, struggle, and difficulty. Typical Lenten images include desert and dust, pilgrimage and preparation. Words like repentance and redemption show up often. Some folks image Lent as a time for a spiritual house-cleaning. Those images are appropriate and good, with a long history in the Church. They help us realize that we don’t appear on Easter morning to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ without some context, without making a journey toward that celebration. I affirm those understandings of Lent and their corresponding images, but I want to suggest another image for Lent. Lent is also the time to dig deeper into the heart of God, to find ourselves immersed more completely in the mercy, compassion, and generosity that are at the center of life. This may not be a typical Lenten theme, but I believe it carries significance for us. The journey with Jesus toward Holy Week, the cross and Resurrection is a pilgrimage o

Maundy Thursday Daily Reading : John 13:1 – 15 Focus Passage : It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (Jn. 13:1 – 5) All of Jesus’ actions, both on this night and through the last days of his life, are framed by these words: “ Jesus knew that he had come from God and was returning to God .” In other words, Jesus knew who he was. He knew his identi

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent Daily Reading : John 8:51 – 59 Focus Passage : “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." "You are not yet fifty years old," they said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!" "Very truly I tell you," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (Jn. 8:56 – 59) “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” Jesus used the words, “I Am,” to refer to himself. The words are especially prominent in John’s Gospel. Jesus is the fulfillment of the “I AM” of the Hebrew Scriptures. At the burning bush in Exodus 3, Moses stood before God and inquired about the identity of the One sending him. The God-voice from the bush said, “I AM that I AM” (Ex. 3:14). God was revealed as pure Being, complete Essence. I A

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent Daily Reading : John 8:21 – 30 Focus Passage : But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world." (Jn. 8:23) Jesus said to those pressing him, “You are of this world; I am not of this world.” The tone sounds harsh, especially given the context of the passage; however, I believe he implies no condemnation to being “of this world.” We are each “of this world.” Our humanity plants us in “this world.” Being “of this world” simply means that we are shaped by the structures of the “world,” that the society in which we live exerts tremendous influence on us, that our culture provides us a framework with which we do life. In a sense, you might think of this framework as a lens through which we see the world and life. Those who lived in Jesus’ first century world had a structure in which they lived, just as those of us who live today have a framework or paradigm with which we l

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent Daily Reading : John 8:12-20 Focus Passage : When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (Jn. 8:12) The vocabulary of “light” and “darkness” can get confusing on the spiritual journey. At one level, we read Jesus’ pronouncements about the light he gives, the light which brings a person out of the darkness forever. This light illumines the lives of women and men in order to bring us out of spiritual darkness and bondage. At this level of understanding, spiritual darkness is equated with life opposed to God, set against the movement of God. Darkness is a force for destruction and evil that stands against the well-being, healing, and goodness God brings into the world. This spiritual darkness is real and should not be diminished. Jesus’ light, then, becomes a new way of seeing in the world, a fresh way of orienting o

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent Daily Reading : Matthew 1:16 – 24 Focus Passage : When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. (Matt. 1:24) God continually works to bring about oneness. Our tradition says that union is the goal of the Christian spiritual life. We are being transformed over time, brought into union with God, others, ourselves, and the world. This is the action of God’s grace and mercy within us and in the world. It is clear in Scripture – and I suspect your personal experience bears this out – that this work of oneness and union is God’s work. We don’t have the tools to accomplish it. In fact, our brokenness and inability to produce this oneness for ourselves is a part of our human condition. We don’t know what we need to be fully human and most intimately connected to God. Further, even if we did know what we need for ourselves and for life with God, we would be powerless to produce it. And

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent Daily Reading : John 5:17 – 30 Focus Passage : Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does." (Jn. 5:19 – 20) Perhaps this passage could become an alternative to WWJD (“What Would Jesus Do?”). “What Would Jesus Do?” is a hypothetical guess. There are no firm answers about what Jesus would do in any given contemporary situation, only hints and guesses. Frankly, the phrase can be used to justify any number of responses. Further, WWJD assumes that the person asking the question has taken upon himself or herself the full spirit of Jesus. While I believe we each are connected intimately to the Father, we live mostly unaware of that connection, and thus don’t see life completely as Jesus does. Jesus only did what he saw the Father doin

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent Daily Reading : John 5:1 – 16 Focus Passage : One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." (Jn. 5:5 – 7) The challenges of being healthy of body, mind, emotion and soul sometimes outweigh the difficulties inherent in sickness and disability. Spiritual health does not happen by osmosis. It is not a matter of joining the right church or being a regular attender in worship or having parents who live with a growing faith. Spiritual health, like physical or mental health, happens with intentionality. We make decisions about how we intend to live, about the kind of persons we want to be. In the spir