People

Seattle has been a bit of a desert as far as friends and relationships go. (It's a good thing Brad and I like each other.) The last few days as I've been emailing old friends I've become aware of something. The importance of being with people has grown for me. The simplicity of sitting down for coffee or tea with someone; having a meal with friends; being on the same spiritual track with others. I'm so hungry for those things. Meeting with friends with no other motive than to just be together and know each other more is a luxury we take for granted.

This is short and simple today. Not a big theological thought: or is it?

Think About This

As a Protestant I have never quite gotten the "Mary" thing. I don't mean that to sound disrespectful. It's how I was raised (by the church not my parents). Last November God spoke to me very clearly through the passages about the angel coming to Mary and Joseph. It really was a significant revelation to me personally.

But today doing some reading in "Holy People" (see previous post) I had this new image of the symbol of Mary. Suppose she is not only the mother of God but a symbol of ourselves taking in the Holy Spirit and bringing forth Christ to the world. We are continually conceiving Christ, pondering and holding what lies within us and then giving birth to the transformation and showing it to the world.

I like that image.

Seized or Grasped

Love this:

"You have seized me; I have not "grasped" You. You have transformed my being right down to its very last roots and made me a sharer in You own Being and Life. You have given me Yourself, not just a distant, fuzzy report of Yourself in human words. And that's why I can never forget You, because You have become the very center of my being." - Rahner

May it become more and more true for me, God. Continue to seize me and be the center of my being.

What Is The Church?

I use to know what the church was. Well, I thought I did. I think I had a pretty good definition. But, in re-examining everything about my spirituality I have asked the question fresh. Here is something I came across today. It's from "Holy People" by Gordon Lathrop:



"The church is an assembly. The church is a gathering of people in a particular place who are, together, through concrete means, participating in the mystery of Christ and so are being formed into the holy assembly. The church is not a collection of consuming individuals, choosing religious goods according to their own self-perceived needs or desires. It is not a club supporting a particular ideology. It is not the audience for a speaker's eloquence, a choir's concert, or a priest's rituals. The local church-assembly is itself, as gathering, the primary symbol. By its participation, by its communal mode of song and prayer around Scripture reading, meal keeping (the Lord's Table), and bathing (baptism), it is being transformed into a primary witness to the identity of God and the identity of the world before God."



We are an assembly of people that come together before the risen Christ to be transformed and to witness to the world the body of Christ. Why have we made it so much more complicated and convoluted? Our love for each other is founded on the broken body and spilled blood of the Mysterious One. How humbling is that?



Can't even think of anything else to say. It's about Him, not us.

Weighty Words

Something was said to me this week. I think it has impacted me more than anything else over the last 7 years. I met with my spiritual director last Wednesday. She is a Sister of Mercy. I love this woman. She is a professor at SU and any of her students that I have ever met feel the same. I am privileged to have her be my director. She is teaching me compassion toward the homeless in a way I can accept and act.
But, that's not what this is about. I just want to be clear as to what kind of person she is and how she measures words before using them. Everything that comes out of her mouth is valuable. We were catching up after not seeing each other over the summer. She asked how our trip to Fresno was. Of course I told her about Mary but then went on to tell what a surprise the trip was in regards to discerning our future and that future being in Fresno. I described our desire to plant a church, to open an urban retreat center in our home and to start a spiritual direction practice. I also went on to say how I felt in my own heart that I was to be involved with migrant laborers in some way that would make their lives better. She got very quiet and then tears gently streamed down her face. She went on to say she was very familiar with this phrase, had heard it used but had herself never used it. She said, "I feel like I am on holy ground." At that point my tears joined hers. It was like setting our destiny in stone. God was in the room and his tears and joy joined ours. Because of who she is in God these few words carried much weight for me.
I am in awe. It's been a long time since I felt the purpose of God. I feel very humbled and at the same time excited. I had to take time to put this is writing, to have something to hold on to in regards to our future and our purpose.
Wow!