We are often tempted to deny, fix, or run away from suffering and imperfection. The Franciscan way, in imitation of Jesus, is to stand in solidarity and intimacy with the world’s hurt. Brian Mogren, an alum of CAC’s Living School and the director in residence of St. Jane House, a retreat and hospitality center in Minneapolis, reflects on what it’s like to live in an “alternative” way, being present and loving in the midst of brokenness.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
—Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”
These inspired words from poet and prophet Leonard Cohen were shared at the closing liturgy of the January 2017 Living School intensive. Our group had been together at a retreat center alongside the Rio Grande for a week, learning from Father Richard and each other about our rich, mystical, contemplative heritage.
We were also given spiritual practices and plenty of quiet time and space, opening ourselves to grace-filled moments of the Holy Spirit—alive in the world, manifested through each other and the natural world that surrounded us. We noticed that when we moved beyond our dualistic minds, the birds, the plants, and even the stones came alive to tell their stories, reminding us who we are and how we too fit into God’s “family of things.”
For me, it was an awakening to the power of Being—simply being who I am, in all my humanity, in Christ. I came to see that my striving so hard to keep the world from cracking actually kept me from being present and loving as it necessarily cracks.
We are living in times when many of the institutions in which we’ve found our identities and placed our trust are revealing their unworkability and brokenness. Unless we are grounded in a Bigger Story and Truth, the falling apart of the system could also be our own undoing. The Center for Action and Contemplation is a beautiful example of what an institution can look like in this new era—midwifing us to give birth to God’s Light within, allowing us to become more fully who we are. In so doing, we are liberated to move out into this broken and blessed world of ours to do the same. [1]
Reference:
[1] Adapted from Brian Mogren, The Mendicant, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2017), 5.
For Further Study:
Cynthia Bourgeault, James Finley, and Richard Rohr, Returning to Essentials: Teaching an Alternative Orthodoxy (CAC: 2015), CD, MP3 download
Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014)
Richard Rohr, In the Footsteps of Francis: Awakening to Creation (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2010), CD, MP3 download
4. Prayer
Almighty God, in directing us to our calling, I trust that You will grant us the confidence and strength to accomplish whatever You place before us.
Help us to find joy in You and not be concerned with things of this world. Walk with us, talk with us and guide us as You lead the way.
enriched by the courage and fidelity of so many
silent
sentinels who kept watch,
who patterned the lace of unity we cherish.
We walk together today with a new boldness as the
radical
embrace of mission
defines us to stand up along the margins as who we
are.
Sister Delphine Fontbonne
Sister Febronie Fontbonne
Sister ST. Protais Deboille
Sister Febronie Chapellon
Sister Marguerite-Felicite Boute
Sister Philomene Vilaine
Called
to Transformation Then and Now [excerpts]
“God of inclusive love . . .
We stand on this ground made holy by your love
– a love that animated the Sisters of St. Joseph
whose pioneer spirit brought them to Cahokia.
. . . One-hundred and eighty-six
years later, we stand on their shoulders.
We gather in the spirit of unifying love
as a diverse, compassionate, and engaged community.
May we, like our sisters of Cahokia,
be attentive to what is emerging
as we respond to your call
to be and act
as one Joseph family
radically transforming ourselves, our neighborhood,
our universe.”
Week Twenty-Four: Franciscan Contemplation and Action
The Earth Is Pregnant with God
The intuition of St. Francis is that the entire world is a sacrament revealing the presence of God! Here, Franciscan scholars explain how Francis and Angela of Foligno (1248–1309) could come to see such a universal vision of Christ in the created world:
Francis’s world was so imbued by the goodness of God that he was “aroused by everything to divine love.” [1] . . . Thomas of Celano [1185–1260] states: “Fields and vineyards, rocks and woods, and all the beauties of the field, flowing springs and blooming gardens, earth and fire, air and wind: all these he urged to love of God and to willing service.” [2] Francis truly became a lover of God through the beautiful things of creation. . . .
Many Christ-centered mystics, like Francis, have experienced the profound presence of God in creation. To know Christ in human form is to know God in created reality; to see God in the Eucharist is to see God in creation. The great penitent-mystic, Angela of Foligno, while attending Mass one day and seeing the host elevated, exclaimed:
I beheld and comprehended the whole of creation, that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea. . . . And my soul in an excess of wonder cried out: “This world is pregnant with God!” Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation—that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else—but the power of God fills it all to overflowing. [3]
The idea of the whole earth “pregnant with God” speaks to us of “Mother Earth,” a nourishing and caring Earth that cries out in labor pains, longing for its fulfillment in God (Romans 8:22). Angela’s vision reminds us that the power of spiritual vision and relatedness is made possible by the power of love in union with Christ. To see God present with the eyes of the heart and to love what is seen requires faith in the risen Christ, truly believing that God is present to us in created reality.
Authors Delio, Warner, and Wood press us to struggle with the implications of such an inclusive understanding of God’s presence during a time of environmental catastrophe:
Do we really believe that God dwells with us, in our lives and in the natural world of creation? Does the Body of Christ move us to contemplate God in creation? If so, then how can we say “Amen” to receiving the Body of Christ and perpetrate destruction of the environment? There is a disconnect between what we claim to be or rather what we claim to see and what we actually do. It is an alienation of heart and mind that has rendered a desecration of the environment, as if we take the host, the Body of Christ, and continually stomp on it while saying, “yes, so be it!”
[1] Bonaventure, The Life of Blessed Francis, chap. 9, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 2, The Founder (New York: New City Press, 2000), 596.
[2] Thomas of Celano, The Life of Saint Francis, chap. 29, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1, The Saint (New York: New City Press, 1999), 251.
[3] Angela of Foligno, The Book of the Blessed Angela: Memorial, chap. 6, in Angela of Foligno: Complete Works, trans. Paul Lachance (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1993), 169–170.
Ilia Delio, Keith Douglas Warner, Pamela Wood, Care for Creation: A Franciscan Spirituality of the Earth (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2008), 131–132.
4. Prayer
Loving Father and Creator of all, we come to you today deeply
grateful for your creation.
As we look around us we are amazed at the greatness and majesty of
all that you have made.
Nature around us speaks of your greatness—the vast expanse of the
sky, the mountains, trees, lakes, and streams speak of your great design.
You have given us such beauty in the colors of the rainbow, the
beauty of flowers and fields.
Words cannot adequately express the magnificence of all you have
created.
We join in praise with the writer of the psalms when he says, “O
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the Earth.”
May we show our love and reverence to you, our Lord, by caring for
all that you have created.
ANNE LAMOTT (AUTHOR) WRITES DOWN EVERY SINGLE THING SHE KNOWS, AS OF TODAY
April 10, 2015 Kindness Blog Confessions, Kindness, Kindness - Real-life Examples, Kindness Reflections 45 comments
Anne LamottAuthor Bio: Anne Lamott writes and speaks about subjects that begin with capital letters: Alcoholism, Motherhood, Jesus. But armed with self-effacing humor – she is laugh-out-loud funny – and ruthless honesty, Lamott converts her subjects into enchantment. Actually, she writes about what most of us don’t like to think about. She wrote her first novel for her father, the writer Kenneth Lamott, when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. She has said that the book was “a present to someone I loved who was going to die.” In all her novels, she writes about loss – loss of loved ones and loss of personal control. She doesn’t try to sugar-coat the sadness, frustration and disappointment, but tells her stories with honesty, compassion and a pureness of voice. As she says, “I have a lot of hope and a lot of faith and I struggle to communicate that.” Anne Lamott does communicate her faith; in her books and in person, she lifts, comforts, and inspires, all the while keeping us laughing.
61st birthdayI am going to be 61 years old in 48 hours. Wow. I thought i was only forty-seven, but looking over the paperwork, I see that I was born in 1954.
My inside self does not have an age, although can’t help mentioning as an aside that it might have been useful had I not followed the Skin Care rules of the sixties, ie to get as much sun as possible, while slathered in baby oil. (My sober friend Paul O said, at eighty, that he felt like a young man who had something wrong with him.).
Anyway, I thought I might take the opportunity to write down every single thing I know, as of today.
1. All truth is a paradox. Life is a precious unfathomably beautiful gift; and it is impossible here, on the incarnational side of things. It has been a very bad match for those of us who were born extremely sensitive. It is so hard and weird that we wonder if we are being punked. And it filled with heartbreaking sweetness and beauty, floods and babies and acne and Mozart, all swirled together.
2. Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.
3. There is almost nothing outside of you that will help in any kind of last way, unless you are waiting for an organ. You can’t buy, achieve, or date it. This is the most horrible truth.
4. Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared, even the people who seem to have it more or less together. They are much more like you than you would believe. So try not to compare your insides to their outsides.
Also, you can’t save, fix or rescue any of them, or get any of them sober. But radical self-care is quantum, and radiates out into the atmosphere, like a little fresh air. It is a huge gift to the world.
When people respond by saying, “Well, isn’t she full of herself,” smile obliquely, like Mona Lisa, and make both of you a nice cup of tea.
5. Chocolate with 70% cacao is not actually a food. It’s best use is as bait in snake traps.
6. Writing: !!$@ first drafts. Butt in chair. Just do it. You own everything that happened to you. You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves in your heart–your stories, visions, memories, songs: your truth, your version of things, in your voice. That is really all you have to offer us, and it’s why you were born
7. Publication and temporary creative successes are something you have to recover from. They kill as many people as not. They will hurt, damage and change you in ways you cannot imagine. The most degraded and sometimes nearly-evil men I have known were all writers who’d had bestsellers. Yet, it is also a miracle to get your work published (see #1.).
Just try to bust yourself gently of the fantasy that publication will heal you, will fill the Swiss cheesey holes. It won’t, it can’t. But writing can. So can singing.
8. Families; hard, hard, hard, no matter how cherished and astonishing they may also be. (See #1 again.) At family gatherings where you suddenly feel homicidal or suicidal, remember that in half of all cases, it’s a miracle that this annoying person even lived. Earth is Forgiveness School. You might as well start at the dinner table. That way, you can do this work in comfortable pants.
When Blake said that we are here to learn to endure the beams of love, he knew that your family would be an intimate part of this, even as you want to run screaming for your cute little life. But that you are up to it. You can do it, Cinderellie. You will be amazed.
9. Food; try to do a little better.
10. Grace: Spiritual WD-40. Water wings. The mystery of grace is that God loves Dick Cheney and me exactly as much as He or She loves your grandchild. Go figure. The movement of grace is what changes us, heals us and our world. To summon grace, say, “Help!” And then buckle up.
Grace won’t look like Casper the Friendly Ghost; but the phone will ring, or the mail will come, and then against all odds, you will get your sense of humor about yourself back. Laughter really is carbonated holiness, even if you are sick of me saying it.
11. God; Goodnesss, Love energy, the Divine, a loving animating intelligence, the Cosmic Muffin. You will worship and serve something, so like St. Bob said, you gotta choose. You can play on our side, or Bill Maher’s and Franklin Graham’s. Emerson said that the happiest person on earth is the one who learns from nature the lessons of worship. So go outside a lot, and look up.
My pastor says you can trap bees on the floor of a Mason jar without a lid, because they don’t look up. If they did, they could fly to freedom.
12. Faith: Paul Tillich said the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. If I could say one thing to our little Tea Party friends, it would be this. Fundamentalism, in all its forms, is 90% of the reason the world is so terrifying. 3% is the existence of snakes.
The love of our incredible dogs and cats is the closest most of us will come, on this side of eternity, to knowing the direct love of God; although cats can be so bitter, which is not the god part: the crazy Love is. Also, “Figure it out” is not a good slogan.
13. Jesus; Jesus would have even loved horrible, mealy mouth self-obsessed you, as if you were the only person on earth. But He would hope that you would perhaps pull yourself together just the tiniest, tiniest bit–maybe have a little something to eat, and a nap.
14. Exercise: If you want to have a good life after you have grown a little less young, you must walk almost every day. There is no way around this. If you are in a wheelchair, you must do chair exercises. Every single doctor on earth will tell you this, so don’t go by what I say.
15. Death; wow. So !!@$ hard to bear, when the few people you cannot live without die. You will never get over these losses, and are not supposed to. We Christians like to think death is a major change of address, but in any case, the person will live fully again in your heart, at some point, and make you smile at the MOST inappropriate times. But their absence will also be a lifelong nightmare of homesickness for you.
All truth is a paradox. Grief, friends, time and tears will heal you. Tears will bathe and baptize and hydrate you and the ground on which you walk. The first thing God says to Moses is, “Take off your shoes.” We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know.
I think that’s it, everything I know. I wish I had shoe-horned in what E.L. Doctorow said about writing:
“It’s like driving at night with the headlights on. You can only see a little aways ahead of you, but you can make the whole journey that way.”
I love that, because it’s true about everything we try. I wish I had slipped in what Ram Das said, that when all is said and done, we’re just all walking each other home.
Oh, well, another time. God bless you all good.
4. Prayers
Dear God, today I bring my loved one before you on their birthday and pray your blessings and guidance over their life. Thank you for leading them and guiding them in life. Help them to know how loved and cherished they are. Bless and protect them in the year ahead. May they know your peace and strength when they wake and your comfort and rest when they lay down to sleep. May their future be filled with hope. Amen.
May God bless you with his boundless love, calming peace, and heavenly joy throughout the coming year. Happy birthday, child of God!
Recipes for Kung Pao Chicken appear everywhere in the internet. I adapted one of the simpler ones into a plant based version using tofu. I decided to use the vegetarian oyster sauce I obtained at the Asian Store in Monroeville PA but one can use instead Hoisin Sauce. I have posted a homemade recipe for hoisin sauce in this blog. This is a tame (namely not too spicy) and simple version of this favorite Chinese take out dish. Every step is done in one skillet. Enjoy. You will not miss the chicken.
Add the sauce ingredients in a skillet and mix. Add the tofu cubes and heat the mixture till the tofu absorbs the sauce.
Add the water and the peppers, carrots and celery to the skillet. Heat the mixture till the vegetables are cooked. Add the cornstarch slurry to the mixture and mix till the sauce thickens.
Top the dish with green onions and cashews or peanuts.
I have read about Stanley Tucci’s obsession with a zucchini lemony pasta he ate in Italy but he never gave the exact recipe. The only thing I read is that you store the cooked zucchini in the fridge for at least two hours or more. Too long for me, I found a similar sounding preparation in this site. I tweaked it to be oil free and plant based. Well my picky taster. my husband. gobbled it up. Here it is. Be obsessed.
Lemony Pasta with Air Fried Zucchini
8 oz whole wheat spaghetti or other long pasta
2 zucchinis
Salt
Pepper
Cooking spray
1-2 tablespoons dry garlic flakes
1/4 tsp dried pepper flakes
1 whole lemon juice and zest
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
herbs, dry or fresh (I used dry basil) (optional)
Cook the pasta according to package directions Save 1/4 to 1/2 cup pasta water.
Slice the zucchini into round pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spray with cooking spray. Place them on an air fryer tray or basket and bake in batches at 400 degrees Fahrenheit from 12-15 minutes.
Add the cooked pasta in a skillet. Add the dry garlic, dry red pepper flakes and 1/4 to 1/2 cup pasta water. Mix and add the baked zucchini. Heat the mixture till most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the juice and zest of the lemon. Add the nutritional yeast and walnuts. Add more garlic flakes according to taste. Heat the mixture. Add the herb of choice if using.
"Third Sunday of Advent: Keeping Our Hearts Open in Hell". Fr. Richard Rohr's homily at the Center for Action and Contemplation, cac.org. December 16, 2012.
Loving Father, You have loved me when I was unlovable. I am so amazingly grateful that I know You and I can experience Your wonderful presence in my life. Give me this day Your grace in how I live my life today. Give me wisdom and gentleness in how I interact with others. Make me pure then peaceable and gentle. May I have a mind that is open to reason and shows mercy. In all of today’s tasks, grant me the wisdom and grace to be sincere and meek. Thank You that You pour out Your grace to me. Amen.
Prayer of Thanks for Sufficient Grace
God, my Father, as Jesus states to Paul in his time of need, so do I remind myself: Your grace is sufficient for me. Whether in wealth or poverty, hunger or feasting, I will, like the apostle, boast in my weaknesses. For it is my weaknesses, Lord, that make Your grace manifest even more so in my life. In my life thus far, I have been upheld by this grace You supply – thank You, O my Father. Praying in the name of Jesus Christ, I praise You forever. Amen.
The basic I-You can be spoken only with one’s whole being. . . . I require a You to become; becoming I, I say You. All actual life is encounter.
—Martin Buber, I and Thou
Theologian Pamela Cooper-White has thought deeply about gender and sexual violence, and believes that at its heart, violence is a failure to see the other person as a person.
Violence against women is connected to all other forms of violence, just as all living beings are, in reality and in spite of our forgetfulness or callous indifference, interconnected. We are confronted daily with the many forms of violence in our world. We often end up feeling that our powers are fragmented, as one worthy cause after another is lifted up. . . . What is needed is a way for understanding how, from a personal and holistic perspective, all violence is one.
All violence begins with the personal, with the I, and with a point of decision, a crossing of a line, where each of us chooses momentarily to view another living being as an It rather than a Thou. The ultimate purpose of each act of violence, each reduction of another person from a Thou to an It, is to control the other. . . . Our choices matter, even on what seems like a small scale. They have resonance in the universe. When we truly see another person or living being as a Thou, we cannot dominate or control them. We then must enter into a different kind of covenant, where power is shared. This is the “universal reciprocity” that Buber recognized as mysterious, connected with the divine. . . .
The I-Thou relationship is not simply an attitude of love toward others—although it is that—but also actions of making connections and actively working for justice. . . . The gospel message that is the great ethic of our faith is that we do reach out across borders and across cultures, both within the United States and abroad, and we honor the millions of Thous of every race and creed whom we recognize as our brothers and sisters throughout our neighborhoods and throughout the world. [1]
For Father Richard, Jesus becomes a person so that we, too, can receive and pass on the divine gaze of love:
The intimacy of what Martin Buber called an “I-Thou” relationship is a deep and loving “yes” to God, to others, and to the life that is inherent within each of us. When the face of the other (especially the suffering face) is received and empathized with, it leads to transformation of our whole being. It creates a moral demand on our heart that is far more compelling than laws. Just giving people commandments doesn’t change the heart. It may steel the will, but it doesn’t soften the heart like an I-Thou encounter can. Many of the Christian mystics talk about seeing the divine face or falling in love with the face of Jesus. Love is the gaze that does us in! [2]
[1] Pamela Cooper-White, The Cry of Tamar: Violence against Women and the Church’s Response, 2nd ed. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2012), 42–43, 45.
[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Albuquerque, NM: Center for Action and Contemplation, 2012). Available as CD and MP3 download.
4. Prayer
Loving God, fill my heart with the love that you freely give. Make love my first and last thoughts. May I love others and freely give to them. Make my spirit a spirit of joy, happiness, and love for both my friends and my enemies. Help me love as abundantly as you have loved me. Amen.
