Pray share chat 8/30/2023 Faith

Today’s theme is faith.  

 1.  Meditation 

https://youtu.be/NjlqCo8d2eE?si=mXTZQ-284Zn8179o

2.  Song

https://youtu.be/5-W0larqy7E?si=HWjMMsWbZbbbVVVl

3.  Narrative 

Faith as Participation
Thursday, July 20, 2017

Many scholars have pointed out that what is usually translated in Paul’s letters as “faith in Christ” would be more accurately translated as “the faith of Christ.” It’s more than a change of prepositions. It means we are all participating—with varying degrees of resistance and consent—in the faith journey that Jesus has already walked. We are forever carried inside of the “Corporate Personality” that Jesus Christ always is for Paul (citations too numerous to count!). That’s a very different understanding of faith than most Christians enjoy.

Most people think having faith means “to believe in Jesus.” But, “to share in the faith of Jesus” is a much richer concept. It is not so much an invitation as it is a cosmic declaration about the very shape of reality. By myself, I don’t know how to have faith in God, but once we know that Jesus is the corporate stand in for everybody, we know we have already been taken on the ride through death and back to life. All we can do now is make what is objectively true fully conscious for us.

Remember, it’s God in you that loves God. You, on your own, don’t really know how to love God. It’s Christ in you that recognizes Christ. It’s the Holy Spirit, whose temple you are (see 1 Corinthians 3:16), that responds to the Holy Spirit. Like recognizes like. That’s why all true cognition is really recognition (“re-cognition” or knowing something again). Only so far as you have surrendered to Christ and allowed the Christ in you to come to fullness can you love Christ. It’s Christ in you that recognizes and loves Christ.

“Faith” is not an affirmation of a creed, an intellectual acceptance of God, or believing certain doctrines to be true or orthodox (although those things might well be good). Such intellectual assent does not usually change your heart or your lifestyle. I’m convinced that much modern atheism is a result of such a heady and really ineffective definition of faith.

Both Jesus’ and Paul’s notion of faith is much better translated as foundational confidence or trust that God cares about what is happening right now. This is clearly the quality that Jesus fully represents and then praises in other people.

God refuses to be known intellectually. God can only be loved and known in the act of love; God can only be experienced in communion. This is why Jesus “commands” us to move toward love and fully abide there. Love is like a living organism, an active force-field upon which we can rely, from which we can draw, and which we can allow to pass through us. I am afraid you can believe doctrines (e.g., virgin birth, biblical inerrancy, Real Presence in bread and wine, etc.) to be true and not enjoy such a radical confidence in love or God at all.

Gateway to Silence:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. —Proverbs 3:5

Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation, disc 9 (Franciscan Media: 2002), CD.

4.  Prayer

Father God, open my eyes, not to see the world more clearly, but to see You. Open my eyes to see you working around me and in me. Nothing happens by accident. You orchestrate every day of my life. Allow me to see your hand in the mundane and the fantastic. Help me to trust in what I cannot see, and believe in Your invisible presence.

5.  Meditation 

https://youtu.be/3NycM9lYdRI?si=3lWJz2s7iu2N7Hgq

6.  Song 

https://youtu.be/6GGFb6LcX3U?si=FiNnMNvP0C9Rf6RV

pray share chat 8/23/2023 Gift of tears

 

1.  Meditation 

https://youtu.be/o_ZFzNACL-k

2.  Song

https://youtu.be/aX7ucgWlusY

3  narrative 

The Gift of Tears
Tuesday, August 3, 2021

The human instinct is to block suffering and pain. This is especially true in the West where we have been influenced by the “rationalism” of the Enlightenment. As anyone who has experienced grief can attest, it isn’t rational. We really don’t know how to hurt! We simply do not know what to do with our pain.

The great wisdom traditions are trying to teach us that grief isn’t something from which to run. It’s a liminal space, a time of transformation. In fact, we can’t risk getting rid of the pain until we’ve learned what it has to teach us and it—grief, suffering, loss, pain—always has something to teach us! Unfortunately, most of us, men especially, have been taught that grief and sadness are something to repress, deny, or avoid. We would much rather be angry than sad. 

Perhaps the simplest and most inclusive definition of grief is “unfinished hurt.” It feels like a demon spinning around inside of us and it hurts too much, so we immediately look for someone else to blame. We have to learn to remain open to our grief, to wait in patient expectation for what it has to teach us. When we close in too tightly around our sadness or our grief, when we try to fix it, control it, or understand it, we only deny ourselves its lessons.

Saint Ephrem the Syrian (303–373), a Doctor of the Church, considered tears to be sacramental signs of divine mercy. He instructs: “Give God weeping, and increase the tears in your eyes; through your tears and [God’s] goodness the soul which has been dead will be restored.” [1] What a different kind of human being than most of us! In the charismatic circles in which I participated in my early years of ministry, holy tears were a common experience. Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi reportedly wept all the time—for days on end!

The “weeping mode” really is a different way of being in the world. It’s different than the fixing, explaining, or controlling mode. We are finally free to feel the tragedy of things, the sadness of things. Tears cleanse the lens of the eyes so we can begin to see more clearly. Sometimes we have to cry for a very long time because our eyes are so dirty that we’re not seeing truthfully or well at all. Tears only come when we realize we can’t fix it and we can’t change it. The situation is absurd, it’s unjust, it’s wrong, it’s impossible. She should not have died; he should not have died. How could this happen? Only when we are led to the edges of our own resources are we finally free to move to the weeping mode.

The way we can tell our tears have cleansed us is that afterwards we don’t need to blame anybody, even ourselves. It’s an utter transformation and cleansing of the soul, and we know it came from God. It is what it is, and somehow God is in it.

References:
[1] Ephrem, sermon on Isaiah 26:10, in Penthos: The Doctrine of Compunction in the Christian East, by Irénée Hausherr, trans. Anselm Hufstader (Cistercian Publications: 1982), 29.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Beloved Sons Series: Men and Grief (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2005), CD, MP3 audio.

Story from Our Community:
In March 2019, my 40-year-old daughter passed away suddenly. It felt as though I had been flung over a rocky cliff and fell headlong into a dark abyss of grief. Then came the realization that all attempts at controlling this temporal life are fallacy. Slowly too, came the sense of being held by both death and resurrection, that which is unknowable but still somehow known, and awakened to the eternality of God, whom I call the Present Now of all Love. —Linda C.

4.  Prayer

When life brings me to tears, LORD Jesus, restore my hope in Your promised joy. While I take these next steps broken with tears streaming down my face, LORD, I trust in You to heal my heart. Today, LORD, I ask that You grant me the courage to say, “Tears, I feel you, but today I choose Life

5.  Meditation 

https://youtu.be/LHPRaz5TlQ4

6.  Song

https://youtu.be/bBA2RUuch4U

Practically every ingredient is from your pantry. No chopping is involved except for the peppers but you can use jarred ones. My husband ate this with gusto and did not miss the meat. 

I used cooked rice which I conveniently prepared in a rice cooker. I prefer to prepare the vegetables first for them to be well seasoned and their sauce concentrated. I then add the cooked rice. The salsa gives the mixture more oomph than the usual tomato sauce. 

Easy Skillet Paella 

• 1-15 oz can chickpeas or any beans, drained and rinsed
• 1-15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1-15 oz can corn, drained
• 1- 6 oz can black olives, drained
• 1 green pepper, cubed or 2 pieces roasted pepper from a jar
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp dry onion flakes
• 1 tbsp dry garlic flakes
• 2 tbsp soy sauce 
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika 
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp dry oregano (optional)
• 4 cups cooked rice
• 1 cup salsa

Combine all ingredients in a skillet and cook till most of the liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens.  

In the skillet add cooked rice then add the salsa. Mix well. 

Spiritual connections

 

Reminiscing goes

Beyond emotional but

Reaches into soul. 

pray share chat 8/16/2023 Compassion

Theme is compassion

 Meditation 

https://youtu.be/o7VidQV2cI0

Song

https://youtu.be/fMR85VnEluM

Narrative

https://cac.org/compassion-weekly-summary-2021-10-02/

Loving Kindness, Discovering Compassion: 

Activist and author Rev. angel Kyodo williams was a presenter at CAC’s 2017 CONSPIRE conference. Raised in a Christian home, Rev. angel ultimately found her calling as a Zen Buddhist priest engaged in the pursuit of radical justice. 

Compassion seems like a nice buzzword, and we all want to have it. But compassion isn’t an idea that can be taught. You can’t pick it up at the bookstore. Compassion has to be felt. It’s one of those things that reveals itself without your having realized that it was at your disposal all along. You can’t manufacture what was always there, but you can create the condition in which it is most likely to thrive. [1]

Rev. angel offers these suggestions for ways of developing compassion for self and others:

[Make] a practice of being open. Practicing being intimate, getting close. Not just to the people that you already feel love for and want to be close to, but to everyone. Open to the dentist, the bus driver, the clerk. Little by little you open up more and more. Open to Republicans if you’re a Democrat. To the Liberals if you’re Conservative. Your capacity to appreciate difference deepens. Open to white folks, Asians, Latinos, and East Indians. You accept the whole world with open arms not because you have been told you should, but because you realize in your heart that we are all ultimately deserving of love and compassion. Open to the poor and homeless, the sick and dying.

There’s no magic involved here, and it isn’t nearly as impossible or distant as it may sound. The way to get to this place of openness and compassion is to practice opening more and more to yourself. All of yourself. The rough, unrefined parts as well as the areas you are proud of and like to recognize. The practice of meditation helps us call on the gentle “watcher” inside us who views all the contradictions that make us who we are without judging any of it. When you are sitting there counting your breath and a thought comes up, acknowledge it for just what it is . . . a thought. . . .

There are no good thoughts or bad thoughts. When you name them like that, they all end up just the same. . . . Each [thought] gets a name and is then allowed to move on. . . . Through meditation, every bit of us gets to be seen and acknowledged, rather than forced into a corner. We gain our sense of wholeness from that self-acceptance. . . .

Armed with the open mind and open heart that come from self-intimacy and self-acceptance, you can begin the very possible task of truly accepting others. When you practice accepting yourself in many different forms and moods, you naturally develop an ability to see your own self in other people. As you learn how to accept yourself, you learn how to accept them. That’s the true meaning of compassion.

Experience a version of this practicethrough video and sound.

References:
[1] angel Kyodo williams, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace (Viking Compass: 2000), 152–153.

[2] williams, 146–147, 151–152.

https://cac.org/themes/compassion/

Prayer

Help me cultivate a compassionate heart, Lord. Ephesians 4:32 encourages kindness, forgiveness, and empathy, just as You have forgiven us through Christ. May my actions mirror Your love, bringing solace to those in need.

Meditation 

https://youtu.be/PBQjpvZ9Gy4

Song

https://youtu.be/7mxO_dsvHew

Microwave Banana Cocoa Cupcakes from Cake Mix

 

Did you know that you can make six cupcakes at once in the microwave? I tried it myself using a ceramic muffin pan I got for free at the Plum Community Center. If you don't have one, a silicone muffin pan that fits your microwave could work, or you could improvise with six custard cups. The recipe I used called for a cake mix and didn't require any oil or eggs.

Microwave Banana Cocoa Cupcake from Cake Mix

Ingredients

1 cup white cake mix or any other kind

2 tbsp cocoa 

2 tbsp oat milk with 2 tsp vinegar 

1/4 cup applesauce 

2 ripe bananas 

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Use an ice cream scoop to add batter to a sprayed or paper-lined ceramic microwave-safe muffin pan. Microwave for four minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!

 

pray share chat 8/9/2023 Goodness of God and Mercy - The Call of Matthew

 

meditation

https://youtu.be/fYSh2Jklr8I

song

https://youtu.be/Sng32RXPT7Q

narrative (you can click on video or read the transcript)

https://youtu.be/VFrgXuJt15A

The Gospel according to Matthew. (Read by Deacon Mike Kelly)

As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post and he said to him, follow me and he got up and followed him. And while he was at table at his house many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to the disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus heard this and said, those who are well do not need a physician but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words I desire such mercy not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners. 

Fr. Mike Conway's homily on the feast of St. Matthew.  

The Call of Matthew  

The call of Matthew is one of my favorite scenes in all of scripture.   There's so much to reflect on and of course Matthew's version is a little bit pared down because, well, he doesn't want to make himself look that bad but I don't think he can look bad in this.   

It's just that this powerful beautiful story that when Jesus says follow him, follow me, Matthew gets up and he immediately follows him and he has every reason in the world not to. He's working at the customs post. He's a tax collector and he sold out his own people to work for the Romans and if that's not bad enough the Romans don't pay you that well so if you're going to make a living doing this you have to cheat and extort the people. It was kind of this wind down tradition that as long as Caesar gets his share you don't care what else you do. So Matthew has to make a living here and so he's cheating his own people.  He's a sell out like twice over so everybody hates him.  He has no friends. His family has probably cut ties with him. 

And Jesus stops and says follow me.  Matthew has to be thinking you're crazy why would I follow you why would you want me to follow you.  You know what they say about me.  If you know what I do, I'm the last person that should follow you. Yeah that's all Jesus says, it's follow me.   

Matthew has the courage to get up and follow after him and it's this beautiful testimony to Matthew's faith.   It's a beautiful testimony to the mercy of God that Matthews sins are not the things that define him but rather the new identity the Christ is conferring upon him by calling him to be a disciple. That's what defines Matthew. That God's mercy is greater than any of our sins but I think the other beautiful thing about this is how Jesus calls it, He stops and looks at him and he says follow me. He doesn't stop and look at him and say Matthew, follow me but before you do that, I need you to complete a certain amount of credit hours in theology.  Matthew, follow me but before you do I need you to go back through the books and make recompense to all the people that you cheated. Matthew, follow me but first give two weeks of this to the Roman governor let him know that you're quitting.  Matthew, follow me but first do this first thing.   And he doesn't say any of those things and he's never said any of those things to anyone that he's ever called but we're really good at making that excuse. Well Lord I would do what I think you're asking of me, but you know I'm really unqualified so first I have to do this, or I have to do that or since I don't have that prerequisite Lord I just I can't.  I am going to pass.   Thanks maybe you can give the next guy to do it.  

Jesus just says follow me and doesn't care what you're qualified for. He doesn't care what you've done. He's just interested in leading you to somewhere better. He's interested in leading you towards the Kingdom.   

Everyone wants to know what path that's going to take.  Everyone wants to know what that's going to look like.  We like to be in control.   I get it but you're not in control.  You never were.   This isn't about you.  This is about Jesus and so if you follow him you're going to go down some roads and places that you didn't expect to go.  It's going to be bumpy.  Sometimes it's going to be unpleasant.   It's going to wind up in heaven.   So it's worth it to follow him.   

Abraham was very insistent in the first reading, "never take my son back there, back to my homeland back, to that place that God led me out of, I want you to go and take him somewhere new".  You can't take him back to where he was and Jesus doesn't want us to stay where we are either he wants us to follow him.  God is all about leading us to new places because he is eventually going to lead us back to himself.  So this morning as we prepare to receive Jesus in the Eucharist it's simply worth reflecting on how well we do it, following Him.   How many excuses have we made to not follow him.  How many times have we procrastinated doing what he has put on our hearts.  How many times have we tried to run back to our places of sin, to the places that were comfortable, to the places that we were never meant to be.  Ask our Lord to fill us with courage and strength this morning that like Matthew we can just stand up and follow him and let's do the work of building up his Kingdom here on earth until the day comes that we are happy with him and the Kingdom of heaven.

Prayer

Almighty God, who gives strength to the weak and upholds those who might fall, give me courage to do what is right, for those that trust in you have no need to fear.
Make be brave to face any danger which may now threaten me. Give me the help that you have promised to those who ask it, that I may overcome my fears and go bravely forward.

Fill me with courage, that nothing which is my duty to do, may be too hard for me. Let me put my trust in your power and goodness. Thank you my Lord. Amen.

Almighty God,
You reach into the darkness with hope, truth and light. Stretch out your strong hand in this situation, hold and rescue those who have suffered. Let your almighty love move mountains, cross seas and breathe life into the darkest places.

meditation 

https://youtu.be/_kT38XB1YHo

song

https://youtu.be/6GGFb6LcX3U

 

Respite from the rough

 

Sailing through placid,

clear, blue waters. Refreshing

respite from the rough.

 

Mung Bean Noodles in a Jar

 

This is an easy lunch gluten-free soup to prepare.  You can assemble it ahead and store it in the fridge.  You just pour hot water and voila you have a comforting soup for lunch dinner or break.

Mung bean noodles cook easily in hot water but you can use ramen noodles also.

Mung Bean Noodles in a Jar 

Inspired by this site.

Ingredients

• 1 bundle of bean thread noodles (Saifun brand)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp sriracha
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp sweetener (optional)
• carrots, radishes, spinach, napa cabbage, or vegetables of your choice
• 2 1/2 cup hot water
• green onion and cilantro for garnish

Place the soy sauce, sriracha, garlic powder, ginger powder, sweetener if using, and vegetables of your choice at the bottom of a mason jar.  

Place the bean thread noodles on top of the vegetable mixture.

Replace the lid and refrigerate till needed.

Pour the hot water over the jar when you are ready to eat and mix.  

Add the green onion and cilantro and eat from the jar or transfer into a dish.

pray share chat 8/2/2023 Belonging and oneness

theme is oneness or sense of belonging

 meditation

https://youtu.be/0FR0r0yaG6s

song

https://youtu.be/5nLBBMWBXw8

narrative

No images? Click here

Saturday, July 15, 2023

 

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

 

 

Week Twenty-Eight Summary

Everything Belongs

July 9 – July 14, 2023 

 

Sunday 
Everything belongs. No one needs to be punished, scapegoated, or excluded. We cannot directly fight or separate ourselves from evil or untruth. Evil becomes apparent when exposed to the Truth. —Richard Rohr 

Monday 
Oneness is even an easy thing to profess, until we realize that it must include not only the people we like and agree with, not only those to whom we are sympathetic, but also those whom we view as abhorrent (whatever side of a political position we may hold). We don’t get to choose who we are one with—it’s everybody. —Liza Rankow 

Tuesday 
Exclusion operates by the same rule of mutuality as welcome, for it harms both the excluded and the excluder.
—Cole Arthur Riley 

Wednesday 
Human existence is neither perfectly consistent, nor is it incoherent chaos. Instead, life has a cruciform pattern. All of life is a “coincidence of opposites,” a collision of cross-purposes; we are all filled with contradictions needing to be reconciled. —Richard Rohr 

Thursday 
Francis of Assisi, like Jesus, refused to exclude things from the garden of grace; there is no exclusionary instinct in either of them—except toward exclusion itself!   —Richard Rohr 

Friday 
It seems that simply allowing ourselves to be here, to recognize the sacrament and the grace of the present moment, is enough to allow God’s loving gaze to happen. What we are doing in the allowing is returning the gaze. That’s it. We are completing the circuit and saying it’s okay. —Richard Rohr 

 

 

 

Week Twenty-Eight Practice

Belonging to Every Moment

 

At the age of thirty-four, Buddhist author Sebene Selassie was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. The experience offered her the freedom to find love, joy, and belonging in every moment.   

Belonging is an expression of life. I would have done anything to belong to the living. Also, everything is relevant when we talk about belonging. The challenge with belonging in these times is “everything” includes a whole lot of things…. We live in a world where previously isolated languages, cultures, and beliefs have been melded into each other. Each of us has a multitude of influences, various identities, and countless experiences…. In any moment, we may feel like we belong to one thing and not another. I belong to this community, to which others don’t. I belong to this statement, definitely not that one. I belong in this space way over here. Or perhaps I belong nowhere. The truth: we all belong to it all. Also to death….   

I don’t wish cancer on anyone else, but I wouldn’t change a thing about my experience. That doesn’t mean it was easy: I wasn’t always open to what was happening while it was happening. But the challenges I faced—the challenges you face, the challenges we face collectively at this time, any place in the world, … any challenge in life (even cancer)—all are invitations to belonging. And belonging is our true nature. 

Belonging is our capacity to feel joy, freedom, and love in any moment. As the late Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck [1917–2011] said: Joy is exactly what’s happening, minus our opinion of it. She made a distinction between joy and happiness—Happiness has an opposite: unhappiness. [1] Joy is not about happy or unhappy, liking or disliking. Joy is accepting each moment for what it is without contention. We belong to any moment simply by meeting it with joy. This is freedom. Love is the ultimate expression of joy and freedom. Joy, freedom, and love could be considered synonyms for each other, and for belonging.  

 

 

 

[1] Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special: Living Zen, ed. Steve Smith (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 233, 232. 

Sebene Selassie, You Belong: A Call for Connection (New York: HarperOne, 2020), 2, 3–4.
 

Image credit: A path from one week to the next—Izzy Spitz, Field Study 2, oil pastel on canvas. Izzy Spitz, Everything at Once, digital oil pastel. Izzy Spitz, Wings, digital oil pastel. Used with permission. Click here to enlarge image. 

Everything belongs: our messes and dreams, our hues of green and yellow, our curves and lines. 

prayer

The Better Part

 

To serve,

Not from compulsion but compassion,

To feel with, 

To be with,

To intuit the spirit of our guest —

This is the better part.

Let me choose it, Lord. 

Let me think not of the food I prepare,

But of the one who gladly waits.

I have already welcomed him,

Anointed him,

But have I listened to him?

Let me sit with my sister at his feet.

 

Lois J. Wendel

 

Inspired by Father Frank

meditation

https://youtu.be/_kT38XB1YHo

song

https://youtu.be/WT5rW6HF_K4