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Pathway of Soul

“We all have the innate capacity to manifest God because we already are that image by virtue of being created.” (Thomas Keating)

So, what gives rise to the mistaken belief that we are ever separate from Grace?

The below image is my rendering of a famous 12th-century icon, by Andrei Rublev, based on Genesis 18 and titled, Hospitality of Abraham; The biblical story where three strangers are welcomed into the abode of Abraham and Sarah.

I’ve titled it “Never Alone.” It expresses conviction and consent of God’s Presence and Action in my life, a Holy Presence which never abandons nor exiles. It suggests a relationship and a safe meeting place for communion and refuge from the worst of this world.

See the eucharistic chalice at its lower center. When I was a child, I would imagine when receiving communion during mass; the host would float down over my speckled soul; Wrap it and return it to full white divinity.

Today I hold a broader experience, imagination, and practice of prayer, Church, and our eucharistic sacrifice. I include lived experience and imagination as necessary for a deeper understanding of faith’s mysteries. For words can only point.

It is through the practice of Contemplative/Centering Prayer that I am reminded my thoughts are not God’s thoughts.

Contemplative prayer is silence, the “symbol of the world to come” or “silent love.” In this silence, unbearable to the “outer” man, the Father speaks to us his incarnate Word, who suffered, died, and rose; In this silence, the Spirit of adoption enables us to share in the prayer of Jesus. “…like entering into the Eucharistic liturgy.” (CCC2711, 2717)

When I recognize that I am ” a little more than nothing,” but much, much more than my thoughts, my feelings, my body, my spirit, or their summation, I begin to know myself deeply and this “silent love,” within my soul.

And not me just alone, but as my spiritual sister (Cynthia) in the forest calls the below image, “the great cloud of witnesses;”

A Communion of Saints

In being open, vulnerable, and heartfelt in the sharing of both light and shadow, we enter a deep intimacy, …as a communion of holy persons.

This agape, …our communion of souls is the very best of meeting places. And for me, the incarnate and deepest meaning of Church, “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Until we enter full consummation with “thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven,” our outer man and outer world will bear its suffering and death. It is a lonely place, but through our call and participation as a People of God in the Work of God (Opus Dei), we live a deep eucharistic (sacrificial) liturgy (CCC 957,1069).

First, then, a lesson of silence (CCC 533).

Continue reading “Pathway of Soul”

Fig Tree

“I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, …” (Matt 12:6-7)

Each person has their own mental or spiritual image of what Church is. For many, it is the Church of their past. For others it is what Church “ought” to be. Either way, it is personal.

In a book titled, “Models of the Church,” by Avery Cardinal Dulles he writes:

“Christians cannot agree about the measure of progress or decline because they have radically different visions of the Church. They are not agreed about what the Church really is.”

He defines five models that people typically set as their “personal” Church.

Each bring their own favorite set of images, its own rhetoric, its own values, certitudes, commitments, and priorities. It even brings with it a particular set of preferred problems:

The Church as Institution,
The Church as Mystical Communion (People of God),
The Church as Sacrament,
The Church as Herald,
The Church as Servant, or Healer

Another visage which (I believe) gets too little attention is the family unit: where we first learn who God is and prayerfully seek His will for us. In this sense, Vatican II considers the family as a “domestic” church. (LG 11).

Interestingly, the bible (RSV2CE) shows 353 occurrences of the word “temple” and 109 occurrences of the word “church” mostly referencing a physical building where we encounter the Holy. Once Jesus is raised, the locale where we encounter God changes:

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

Now to the fig tree…

Check out Monday and Tuesday

The below aerial view shows the physical distance (about a mile) between Bethany and the Temple

In the Synoptic account of Jesus’ last week, before he enters the temple, he finds and curses a fig tree, a prophetic symbol of God’s judgment on that temple that was bearing no fruit.

The significance of this scripture for us today, is that it points us to reflect upon our own selves, our families, religious institutions, social groups and to the extent in which we serve interests that would earn Jesus’ outrageous rebuke.

I find the chart offers a wonderful scriptural map to “Walk with Jesus, a bit more closely, during Holy Week.

My plan is to read, meditate, contemplate, and journal each day with the prescribed scripture passages. It will be my prayer and search for “fruitfulness,” or lack thereof.

I’ll close with a beautiful reflection from Frank Ostaseski which speaks to a grace that is modeled for us by Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection:

Suppose we stopped compartmentalizing death, cutting it off from life. Imagine if we regarded dying as a final stage of growth that held an unprecedented opportunity for transformation. Could we turn toward death like a master teacher and ask, “How, then, shall I live?” . . .

ps. Feel free to comment, or share your “Walk with Jesus,” during Holy Week.

Building Great Cathedrals

In my philosophy class, I was given the following assignment:

Look reflectively at our society today. Are we building truly great cathedrals? What are we building that is comparable in scale and grandeur to the great cathedrals of previous centuries? What is (are) the underlying philosophical assertion(s) that those structures make?

Below is my response

The affective experience that one can have inside great cathedrals elevate our eyes, minds, and souls to the heavens in such a way that point us to the Creator. Less grand places of worship, sacred art and music, can affect us in the same. Even more so, the natural beauty of creation points us to the Creator.

We are to give our best to God. But, I have to admit that grand structures on the scale of St. Peter’s, Notre Dame, Hagia Sophia, and many others throughout Europe cause me to wander back in time to how those in power accumulated the wealth to construct them. I do not claim to know the sources of wealth acquired for any of these grand cathedrals, at the same time, I am not naïve to believe it was without some level of subjugating the population. Simony and the selling of indulgences is a known fact of Church history.

Perhaps not in the scale of medieval times but even today, great church structures are being built with great sums of money. The latest church built in our parish cost 25 million. I just returned from a liturgical art workshop in the middle of the wooded hills near Salem, SC and the Orthodox were building a huge magnificent church which I guess cost in the neighborhood of +25 million. We even hear of mega-churches being built for Evangelical traditions. One has to ask, is this how Jesus would spend large sums of money, …probably not.

In the secular realm, one only has to follow where societies are spending billions to build structures for people to glorify some “thing.” My first thought is sport stadiums, Also, mega-corporations, and stock market institutions, to name a few more.

Another structure to which society directs its “cathedral” money is on media systems applied on the world wide web. The smartphone is the “new” pulpit. It is the most frequented place where people point their eyes, mind, and soul for guidance on how to live their lives. There is good that comes from this technology but we are basically ignoring its darker effects and falling prey.

To expand, I’ll share an article that caught my attention from the Wall Street Journal. The headline read; “The Tug of War over America’s Children – iPhones vs. Parents: “Experience has already shown parents that ceding control over the devices has reshaped their children’s lives, allowing an outside influence on school work, friendships, recreation, sleep, romance, sex and free time.”

We all know the smartphone and social media bypasses parental influence and has an addicting quality to it,… and it’s not just children that are susceptible. So are we. The consequences of these addictions are subtle yet devastating. As much as social media applications tout the building up of human connectivity, on the whole, I believe it does exactly the opposite. It minimizes human to human contact and the development of people’s ability for authentic relationships. It moves us farther and farther away from created reality and its truths. And we have yet to experience the worst of it. When augmented and virtual reality becomes mainstream, it will accelerate the fracturing of society and civility.

If Christians of today, truly desire the foundations of our faith be instilled and guide our lives and that of our children – We will need new ways of thinking, teaching, and engaging faith formation.

When I began preparing my written response for this assignment, I googled – “building cathedrals.” Several websites came up that were authored by mothers blogging about motherhood and raising their children. Here is a snippet and quote by Joseph, Cardinal Mindszenty from one particular website:

“The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral – a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body…The angels have not been blessed with such a grace.”

The website author followed, “Cardinal Mindszenty’s words praise the vocation of mothers and it’s a beautiful quote. But, …We are all called to acknowledge that every person we come in contact with was created to be a cathedral–a heart that God himself will dwell in.”

To sum my thoughts, that is the most awakening and truthful statement – when thinking about what are the great cathedrals in our society today, that is – our children and the sacredness of marriage.

The featured art (photo) was not taken by me. Although, I do claim a joyful involvement.