Blog Archives

Thank you, Mary Luti

6/30/2014

I am quoting from “Same Mind” by Mary Luti in today’s ‘Still Speaking’ entry. You can go on line and get the full text, and better still, subscribe to the Daily Devotional posted by the UCC. http://www.ucc.org/feed-your-spirit/daily-devotional/

"Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself." - Philippians 2:5-8   

Paul's directive for relating to each other in a Christian way is to adopt the self-emptying attitude of Christ. Lay aside your sense of privilege. Abandon your love of reputation. Don't think you're the measure of all things.  Because as long as we're busy shrinking the world to the dimensions of our own egos, we can never really receive and honor others. As long as I'm interpreting everything I see in terms of my own interests, your interests will always appear to be rivals, vying for my territory. And as long as we see rivalries everywhere, there'll be no justice and no peace in any dimension of human life...."

Thank you, Mary, for theses words. You see, I’ve been grappling with a little interpersonal misunderstanding. But, with the help of this passage, I now realize that the problem is mighty little, is all mine, and owned by my ego and desire to interpret what’s going on in terms of my own interests. This one I can let go. No one is right at the expense of the other being wrong. What a relief.

Inspiration from Amy Carmichael~

6/27/2014

Amy Carmichael spent her life as a missionary, living in South India from 1895 until her death in 1951. I am often inspired by her words of faith published in Edges of His Ways: Selections for Daily Reading. Yesterday it was this:

       We must learn to pray far more for spiritual victory than for protection from battle-wounds, relief from their havoc, rest from their pain. We must reach the place where we bend all our prayers that way, or (for I want to be honest) our chief prayers.

       We are so eager to pray for a specific, tangible outcome, often a physical cure or personal material gain. But we can’t all be healed, we can’t all win the game; for someone to win, the other must lose. It is oh so human to pray this way, but that’s not the path God asks us to follow. To even assume that I know what God wants sets me far from God.

        I do know, however that God wants a spiritual victory for everyone I pray for, and for me, too. Perhaps my best prayer is to lift up my concerns to God, pray thy will be done, and then get out of God’s way. Anything more is hindrance or at the least superfluous.

      And yet, today I am praying for physical healing for three people. Yes, I’m definitely asking God that they get better so they can go on with their lives. If I don’t plead with God in this way, I lose compassion. So thank God for today’s comment by Carmichael:

     Yet He has told us to ask for what our hearts desire and so it is right to ask, and to ask earnestly, only with this :if” in the depths of our hearts, ‘If it be Thy blessed will, if it be for Thy glory.”

Prayer time on center stage~

6/23/2014

Presently I’m at the Minneapolis airport after a family reunion with my siblings to celebrate my niece’s marriage. It was a busy, social time, and I’m very grateful for every minute. But as I sit here by myself for the first time in three days, I’m aware that my prayer time took a back seat. I don’t want to feel guilty about putting God in the background. After all, not everything can be in the foreground at the same time, and prayer needs silence and solitude in order to be on center stage.

Now that I’m home, center stage it is, on this lovely evening.

Giving and receiving~

6/19/2014

What follows is today’s post from my cottage by the sea blog. I want to say a little more about it here.

      If the term ‘random acts of kindness’ had been in the lexicon during Jesus’ time, I believe he would have was pretty clear that they had to do with giving and receiving. Sometimes we give, sometimes we receive; do both, trade off, don’t own one. If I am always the giver, I place myself in a position of power, superiority, and arrogance, and diminish the other person to weakness, inferiority, and humility. The world is full of such situations; just listen to the evening news. But if I trade off, sometimes giving, sometimes receiving, the playing field levels off and all that is there is love, which has no opposite.

Random acts of kindness. But are they so random? Should we be so surprised? Are they more usual when we are open to them? Would we be more apt to offer them if we stayed alert?

     At the Dublin airport yesterday, waiting for my flight to Boston, there I was, receiving an act of kindness. I was starving, so up I went to the little snack bar and ordered a croissant and cappuccino, only to be told that they only took euro. All I had were pounds sterling, but even the U.S. dollars at the bottom of my suitcase wouldn’t have done the trick. I walked away, feeling a little sorry for myself I must confess, and sat down with an hour to go before flight time.

      “Excuse me, are you the woman who didn’t have money for a snack? I know it will be a long time before we get fed on the flight; my wife and I have some extra euro, so here, buy what you’d like.” I accepted the 6 euro, gratefully returned to the kiosk to make my purchases.

      Sounds easy, doesn’t it. And yet, my first inclination was to say, “No thank you, I’ll be fine.”

     How hard it is to accept money from a stranger. After all, I am self-sufficient, a seasoned traveler, and not poor. How hard it is to accept with a simple thank you and smile, and leave it at that. But that’s pretty much what I did, adding that I’ll return the kindness to someone sometime.

P.S. Once on the plane I realized that I could have paid with a credit card. But then, there would have been no opportunity for that random, or may not so random, act of kindness, no opportunity to pass it forward.

Pilgrim crosses on Iona~

6/16/2014

Admitting our faith~

6/15/2014

In the past two days I have had conversations with several women. Some staying at my hotel, others after services at the Abbey, and a few on my walks about the island. On Iona, because it is assumed that we are all Christian, it is acceptable to talk openly about our faith. This is rare to me; I like it, and I am sad that I don’t have more extensive faith conversations with Christians in my life.

Why not, I ask myself? Much of it has to do with the fact that I live in New England, where people rarely talk about their faith and hardly ever in spiritual language. After all, we are an intellectual, liberal group. I believe this shuts us down and shuts us up. We don’t want to be misinterpreted or, worse still, be thought of as stupid. We New Englanders, after all, and have been acculturated since birth to keep our faith in church on Sunday and to give God no credit for leading us in good works. We do not dare open our faith-filled mouths for fear that we will be considered ‘one of those’ who are not members of the regional educated, liberal club of the northeast.

I don’t know how to break this description, this persona that we Christians and non-church goes have created and continue to shared together?

June 14th, 2014

6/14/2014

I tried Laurence Freeman’s suggestion on my walk today (see yesterday’s post). A prayer walk with less thinking, more being. I was able to let go of most of my questions to God and pleas to Jesus. In summary, I prayed the Jesus Prayer and enjoyed the scenery. Um, simple and practical.

Meditation from Iona~

6/13/2014

In the Quiet Corner of Iona Abbey is a book of daily readings, compiled by Peter Millar, a long-time member of the Iona Community, in a little booklet entitled “Notes for a Pilgrim”. The page for the thirteenth day of the month includes the following by Laurence Freeman, Catholic priest and a Benedictine monk. I offer this for your mediation.

Meditation is simple and practical. It is about experience rather than theory: a way of being rather than merely a way of thinking. Indeed, because of the profound change meditation can work in one’s life, it is even more than a way of prayer: it is a way of life, a way of living from the deep center of one’s being. Meditation is focused on Christ. This means that it is centered on the prayer of Christ, which is continuously poured forth in the Holy Spirit in the depth of each human being. Thus, in this way of ‘pure prayer’ we leave all thoughts, words and images behind in order to ‘set our minds on the kingdom of God before all else’. We leave our egotistical self behind to die and rise to our true self in Christ.

Meditation does not exclude other types of prayer and indeed deepens one’s reverence for the sacraments and one’s reading of scriptures.

Service of Commitment, Iona Abbey~

6/12/2014

The Service of Commitment last evening was led by a group of young boys, about 12 years of age, who are on retreat at the Macleod Center, which is part of the Iona Abbey complex.

      Two boys participated in a dialogue between Jesus and Peter. Jesus, called out, “Peter, follow me.” Peter kept asking what that would entail. Jesus kept answering, “Follow me.”

    The second part of the services was comprise of four readings, each expressing different reasons for our reluctance to follow Jesus, each excuse framed as a secret: issues of money, relationships, health, and private faith.

     What to make of this Jesus call? It’s frightening, counter cultural. I’m not used to following without asking questions, without getting answers. What fool would do that? None of us.

      And what about my very legitimate excuses? I fit into all four categories, although probably a ‘exclusive’ relationship with God is my specialty. I don’t want to give up my illusion that I am in control of how God acts in my life.

    There’s much to take on, primarily taking on the role of fool.

…. I wrote the above before my walk. Now I’m back. Can’t believe that I started out asking Jesus a bunch of questions, to which he answered, “Follow me.” So I’m trying to follow and listen.

Iona service for prayers of healing~

6/11/2014

Every evening at 9PM there is a special service at Iona Abby. Last night, my first night on the island, was the service for prayers of healing. Throughout the week visitors had written the names of people for whom they wanted prayers. At the service all the names were read slowly, in categories: those suffering depression, addictions and other tragedies, those involved with illness, those experiencing a new focus in life, those who have died (there may have been more). In between each grouping we sang the Taize prayer of intercession.

O Lord, hear my prayer,
O Lord, hear my prayer;
when I call answer me.
O Lord, hear my prayer,
O Lord, hear my prayer;
come and listen to me.

The service ended with healing and the laying on of hands for those who so desired. People laid hands on the head or shoulders of those kneeling for healing; after each group, we all repeated the healing prayer from Iona Worship.

Spirit of the living God present with us now,
Enter you, body, mind and spirit,
And heal you of all that harms you,
In Jesus’ name, Amen