The Praying Life | Hearsay and Rumors about the Beloved

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Web Name: The Praying Life | Hearsay and Rumors about the Beloved

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The World today needs people who have been shaken by ultimate calamities and emerged from them with the knowledge and awareness that those who look to the Lord will still be preserved by him, even if they are hounded from the earth. Alfred DelpA letter written in the fall of 1945 from the South Pacific.Stirring words from a governor in the midst of catastrophic suffering and death.A dog who wants to fly.A story told by Forest Spryte, Esq. about the olden times, when Earth Dwellers forgot who they were.Check out the latest Holy Ground issue.There is something here for everyone! The contemplative who can stand back from a situation and see it for what it is, is more threatening to an unjust social system than the frenzied activist who is so involved in the situation that he cannot see clearly at all. Karl BarthThe Sanctuary reaches out to help people stand back and see the immensity, depth, and richness of faith.Support our Work!It s easy to donate to the Sanctuary Fundat The Topeka Community FoundationClick on the link above, then click on START.Scroll down thePick a Fundlist to pickThe Sanctuary Fundand make you gift online today. The Christian who knows his or her business is the Christian who has the freedom to return again and again into that silent unchanging presence – the hanged God, whose love, whose generosity, springs out of depths we can never imagine. It is the sounding of those depths that is the heart of the contemplative life . . . the contemplative who knows how to enter into the silence and stillness of things is, above all, the one who knows how to resist fashion and power to stand in God while the world turns. In that discovery of stillness lies all our hope of reconciliation. Rowen Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, May 2010____________________ The people of God have a long history of reaching for technical change to remedy their difficulties, instead of the adaptive change God is calling out from their hearts and minds.For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused and said, “No! We will flee on horses” – therefore you shall flee! And, “We will ride upon swift steeds” – and therefore your pursuers shall be swift!                                                                                                   Isaiah 30: 15-16Someone is always looking for a fast horse to save us from the hard work of learning, which requires us to face into our ignorance and vulnerability. _________________Here on a late March day in 2020 with the mourning doves calling from their perches, the grass slowly greening, and robins hopping about the leaf mulch in the woods, some of us are given a most remarkable opportunity. The world is gripped with the ongoing crisis of the corona virus pandemic.  We may wonder, Will I or my loved ones get it? Might we die from it?Government and health department officials scramble to respond. Health care givers put on hazmat suits and masks. Others labor to provide the goods and services we have taken for granted.  Some of us will reach out to neighbors and others in need and develop ways to tend the tissue of human connection, love and compassion. Nearly all of us are charged to stay home and do our best to stay healthy.In our communal enforced solitude we may have just the right hermitage for facing into the truth of ourselves and going deeper into our prayer and silence. In the Winter issue of Holy Ground, which I wrote before the virus erupted, Deep personal and communal changes are not something we roll up our sleeves and do. Such life-giving change is something that is done unto us. Something certainly is being done to us all. What kind of changes might God be asking of you and your communities?Here is the Winter Holy Ground issue which looks at grief and truth, transformation and hope. It starts with another story about that little fellow,Forest Spryte, Esq. He showed up on my couch one morning.HOLY GROUND WINTER 2020 Broken Hearts and Weary SoulsBut first do this now or soon.Turn off your screens. Step away from daily tasks. Sit down. Be still. Listen. Yes you will fidget and worry. That is okay. Stay there a little longer, where God is waiting for you.Notice your breathing. Feel your body. Be present to each moment, as best you can. Give up trying, thinking, and planning. And give yourself over to this great Mystery of Love which lives beyond words in silence. This is a love, which longs to be with you and be known by you. Allow the flowing Love and Mercy of God move through you.  Surrender to your Beloved, who is beyond your knowing and to the peace that passes your understanding.Here. Right herein this sacred momentof your infinitely precious lifeis all you will ever need.With you and the hanged God in these daysin love and prayer.                              Loretta F. RossThe curve of time turns in on itself, bends back and threatens to disintegrate. Apocalyptic whispers and end time sonnets play in bars and senate chambers. Death watches on the TV news announce more violence, more battles, more destruction.Come sit with me and rock a while and I will sing you lullabies that Sarah sang to Isaac.I will tell you stories, wondrous tales of adventure, danger, miracles and love. For these songs must be sung, these stories told. Not kept on shelves like jars of pickles in a darkened cellar.No spice can preserve us, but these stories can save. In the telling is new life. In the singing is good news.This issue  of Holy Ground is a poetic reflection on Psalm 131. It is a lullaby and a song of love about the difficult struggle of spiritual growth. It is also a song of hope. Holy Ground Autumn 2019 Vol 30 No 4Christmas Lullaby Little Ones to Him BelongI wrote this piece many years ago, when my first daughter was around a year and a half old. Some of you may recall it. Lines from this piece began coming back to me this fall. I think it is a lullaby worth hearing again.  May you find comfort here and deep assurance in the steadfast love of the One Who Is Greater than All.My heart holds your heart in the steadfast Love who hold us all.Loretta F Ross In times of crisis, change, or loss, one of the first things we may lose touch with is our joy, whimsy, silliness, and childlike play. In the year after my dog, Elijah, died I was feeling heavy and burdened with the sorrows of our day.So I took a leap into my imagination at a writer s workshop at the Iowa Writers House in Iowa City. With author and teacher, Debra Landwehr Engle s  introduction, I met a Forest Spryte, Esq, who taught me how to play again. You have much to learn before you will be young enough for this whimsical work of creation. F.S., EsqTo read more and tap into your own creativity here is the whole story:  Partners in Creation: Creativity and JoyDon t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativituy. It s self-concious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can t try to do things. You simply must do things.                                                                                                                       Ray BradburyTo live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.Joseph PearceOf course, I got a new pup. Meet Dabar, aka Dabby, named, perhaps unwisely by his mistress. Dabar is Hebrew for the Word of the God the sacred creative energy which brings form and order out of chaos. Right now Dabby seemsto be specializing in chaos.Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailPrintLinkedInMoreRedditTumblrPinterestPocketLike this:Like Loading... I fear that we are losing our capacity for reverence and wonder. From a perusal of headlines and social media it appears that the great American pastime is one of taking offense, being outraged over one thing or another, fighting over who deserves to be the one most offended, or should be offended immediately.The experience of reverence is crucial because it provides us with an internal check on our oh-so-human tendency to think of ourselves as superior beings, an attitude that can justify all kinds of harmful behaviors. Paul Woodruff, Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue.The need has never been more urgent for people in leadership positions to be educated in all matters related to dignity both the human vulnerability to be violated and the remarkable effect on people when they feel that they are seen, heard, understood, and acknowledged as worthy. Donna Hicks, Dignity, p 7New Issue of Holy Ground: Snowed In Learning to KneelIncluding a guide to spiritual practices to deepen reverence for God, ourselves, and others. Download or Read Winter 2019 Issue of Holy Ground:Snowbound Learning to KneelLove isn t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now. Mr RogersSanctuary NewsNew life is stirring at the Sanctuary ideas, insights, and learning as I begin to ponder possibilities in our new location. I attended a Day of Mindfulness held at a stunningly beautiful building, built by the Unitarian Universalist Society. They had expected 50 people. 100 signed up.  There is a hunger for depth and the wisdom that rises out of silence.Spiritual guidance is keeping me busy. I am grateful for Zoom and other ways the internet helps us stay connected. Speaking of connection, I am also taking time for extended prayer, which I neglected for most of a year. The call to pray intentionally, as the heart of this ministry, seems stronger and more essential than ever.  I have returned to setting aside one day a week for this, Mondays. Feel free to join me in Spirit. Let me know if you do.Don t miss any opportunity to exert the power you have to remind others of  who they are: invaluable, priceless, and irreplaceable. Remind yourself too. Donna Hicks1. A spiritual practice for the new year.2. The new issue (Autumn 2018) of Holy Ground: Like a Trap. (Yes I know it is winter and now 2019. I have had a very hectic fall with my move to Iowa. Things are finally settling into new routines. Thanks for your patience!)3. Update with our Annual LetterA Spiritual Practice for a New Beginning         A new year with its promise and possibility of new opportunities  stretches out before us.       Take a few moments to ask for and to listen for the Word from God to you for 2019. Will you discover a word of  challenge or encouragement? Perhaps you hear a word of correction or hope or purpose. Pay attention to what attracts or repels you. Pay attention to your inner life, images, music that come to mind. Look at your dreams and your heart s deep yearnings. What might God be asking of you in relation to your work for the Realm of God?       When the Word comes  silently in a dream, or knocking you on the head like walking into a tree take time to explore your word or words. Look up the words in a dictionary. If they come from the Bible, track down their origin. Draw or paint them. Write a poem or song. Find an object to symbolize the word of God to you. Build or bake something. Take your word for a walk, as you  repeat it softly to yourself.  Chew over and live into the word, allow it to take flesh in you.           Take action in relation to your word. Set an intention regarding your word. Write down some goals. Make some phone calls or appointments. Share your word with a friend and pray together about your call from God.       It need not be a gigantic task. It may be quite simple and seem very small. One year I heard rest. In returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Isaiah 30: 15-17 Your gift is important. It may be something you and you alone can give. You are on this earth at this point in time for a purpose. Trust the angel who whispers through your life. Say yes.New Issue of Holy Ground: Like a Trap        I opened the door on apocalypse. I let it in and then kept draping throws and bright afghans on it. It brought news of my demise, my slow decomposition. I was weighed down with distraction and worry. It was like a trap.  . . .         The universe is saturated and dripping with the power of Holy Love, oozing like sap from every crack and cranny of being. I trust the tenacity and persistence of life pushing through the cracks, pouring over the dam, carving out canyons, and pulsing in our veins, drawing us to ever fuller expression of being. The Word the creating energy of being inhabits all that is, unfurling itself in kaleidoscopic formations and scintillating complexity. . . . Read or Download your issue of Holy Ground Like a Trap       Living in a time of apocalypse and reckoning brings both chaos and opportunity. We face great changes and challenges. We also bring particular gifts for this time, not the least of which is our faith. We look forward to the coming Realm of God manifesting more and more throughout the world.  It is important to deepen our roots into the bedrock of our faith. May these words from L. Daniel Hawk encourage us all  to look to the restorative end toward which the Lord is moving . . . rather than the clamoring demands of a paralyzed present.         The vision of a future beyond the contemporary horizon, therefore, calls the people of God to look beyond the present moment, with its violence, disintegration, and failed leadership, to the restorative end toward which the Lord is moving, and so to orient faith and decision making within the context of God s ultimate power and purposes, rather than clamoring demands of a paralyzed present.       The parable of the fig tree and Jesus admonition to pay attention to the signs of his coming remind readers that God is not absent or inactive in the interim but, to the contrary, powerfully at work in every present moment to bring about the redemptive end foreseen by the prophets. -L. Daniel Hawk, Connections A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship p. 3 The Sanctuary heals me. It has brought peace and serenity to me in the chaos of the Twenty-First Century by regularly reminding me of the serenity that comes through the stability of following the teachings and life of Jesus in good times and difficult times. Ron  -Sanctuary Annual LetterThe PromiseChrist tells us that here is where we are to linger, to stay awake, to waitand be ready here in the bleak and barren heart of our need.How long can you carry a secret, a gift of saving love, before giving birth to it? How long can you ponder in your heart and sit on the stone path in the sun? After a while it becomes obvious that something is up your sleeve, or under your tunic. Someone s delight is in you and is growing bigger every day.What is it? Who is it? How is this done? We are each alone here. There were no witnesses when Gabriel came. One or two may understand, who are strong when we are weak, who have hope when we have despair, who have faith when we have none. For the most part we must face rejection, fears, doubts, and devils alone.And then, suddenly in the night, comes the sharp all-encompassing pain of labor so much more painful than we had ever imagined it could be.It may not look like all that much, your child and your offering of yourself as a mother of redemption. It may seem a small thing compared to Mary s child. The child you bear may be nothing more (or less) than the courage to get through a bad day, or a shred of hope you cling to like a broken raft in the midst of a churning sea.Waiting, waiting how did she keep the promise alive, the hope, the word which was spoken to her, through all the days and nights while she walked the rocky paths? What good could come out of Nazareth? How can this be?  I have no husband. I have no money. I have no hope. I have no skill But he said, Nothing is impossible with God.A secret between her and the angel, a child growing in a hostile environment and stillness at dusk when the light slides under the horizon leaving a golden smear of hushed anticipation.She was like a tiny flame in a sea of  darkness.___________________________________________Advent Manna are short pieces taken from my writing over the years on the themes of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. This post is an edited excerpt from my book, Letters from the Holy Ground Seeing God Where You Are, Sheed Ward, 2000. Chapter 34, p 179. A blessed Christmas to you all. Keep your flame lit. May you be entrusted with a task to match the largeness of your soul.Holy Ground Quarterly Reflection on the Contemplative Life. See the summer issue here: Summer 2018 Holy Ground xSubscribe to Holy Ground here. It makes a great Christmas gift for a friend!Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailPrintLinkedInMoreRedditTumblrPinterestPocketLike this:Like Loading... Being Virgin“A virgin is someone who is free of all false images and is detached toward God s dearest wish and ready to fulfill it unceasingly, as was Jesus.” Meister EckhartVirgin comes from Latin and means, literally, slender branch, twig or shoot. The original sense of the word is a person who is one in him or herself. Such an individual is free from possession and possessiveness and capable of the total giving of self, body, as well as soul. The virgin aspect is that which is unpenetrated and unowned by humanity. It does not need to be validated or approved by anyone to know its own innate worth.Virgin carries much of the same intent as the word holy, which means set apart, the temple. The Parthenon (literally the virgin s place) was the temple to Athena on the acropolis in Athens. In the New Testament virgin is used to depict the host of the redeemed in Revelation and to refer to the church as the bride of Christ. But by far the most frequent use of the word virgin is in the Bible s figurative description of cities, nations, and communities. We often find virgin daughter as an expression for Jerusalem.The virgin is one who can hear and believe the anguished truth of a violated and profaned creation. The virgin does not indulge in denial or false hope. She has no illusions about the extent of the horror and suffering we inflict on one another and the earth.For the virgin knows that it is not our empathy that heals, not our outrage that heals, not our grief that heals. It is our faith our trust in the power of Goodness to prevail over darkness. The virgin does not respond to suffering and sin out of her own anxiety, fear and wounds, but rather out of her repose, her absolute serene trust in the one she carries in her womb and continuously delivers into the world. Such, as she, are the healers among us.______________________My small daughter, playing with the holy family in the wooden stable sings her lullaby:  Round yon urgent mother and child, holy infant so tender and wild.This mother, more urgent than virgin, smiles: Yes, indeed,  Holy Infant tender and wild, you are so wild, so undomesticated, so radically other than anything known and familiar. No matter how hard we coax, you will not eat out of our hands, but remain out in the timber hidden in the brush. We set out bait, offerings on the snow. Cowboy theologians toss ropes into the forest and lasso decoys. And rough-rider ecclesiastics try to corral you in sedate doctrines.The virgin daughter of Jerusalem sings at the gate. In the dark we lay a trail of bread crumbs to our door. We wait, stilled, hushed. Come, Lord Jesus.From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered  violence and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12But who can stand when you appear? The earth shudders, mountains topple, creatures shiver with fear. Shots ring out in the forest. Innocence awakens and moves toward us, and the rough hand grasps for its lost treasure.The virgin daughter of Jerusalem stands on the path  and suddenly she is falling, falling into the blue sea and into the wide sky, falling through pain and fear and despair, falling faster and faster, picking up speed, plummeting like a stone, falling through a tunnel formed at the intersection of the cross hairs in the telescopic sight aimed at redemption where opposites meet and all things come together.She is whizzing down the tunnel like a child s slide, sleek and silent, silver in the sun, falling free. And the Realm of God does not suffer violence, and she is not taken by force and the two, who have been made for each other, delight to have found ground holy enough to hold each other s purity, ground strong enough to bear each other s pain. And in her joy she funnels greatness from the wideness of her hope down the narrow passage of her being into us.So now I pray for passionate virgins who have died for love and dwell beyond the clutch and fever of desire. I pray for eccentric virgins who live on the outskirts of propriety, raise geese, and talk to trees. I pray for violated virgins and their re-consecration. I pray for virgins who find the courage to reject the lie that eats away their souls and whispers that what happened never happened and leads them down a winding path of mirages and fun house mirrors that mock Truth.I pray for virgins who know they are only as holy as they are willing to see how horribly they have been profaned, and how horribly they profane. I pray for priestly virgins who preside at their own sacraments, who ordain themselves to Love, who anoint and purify, who refuse to bypass pain, but in their surrender to it and annihilation fall into the center of their humility to sit enthroned in the trust of total repose and divine indifference from which all healing flows.I pray for virgins, calm and pure, who stable holiness, and for virgins, safe and gentle and true enough to conceive the Immaculate Tenderness without doing it violence. I pray for undomesticated virgins, unpenetrated by conventional values, virgins unconfined by reason and impervious to the demands of privileged authority.I pray for revolutionary virgins, who despise the shame, and take up the suffering for the joy that awaits. I pray for virgins whose land, enclosed by strength, is untouched and guarded by a flaming sword. I pray for virgins, who with unveiled eyes gaze unflinchingly at evil and at God and live to tell the tale. I pray for virgin martyrs, who are witnesses with the conviction to believe their own eyes. I pray for chaste, intrepid, impeccable virgins, incapable of doubt.I pray for virgins who apply themselves to prayer until their souls become clear, focused lenses through which we spy, enlarged for us, the intricate dazzling structures of divinity. And God, hidden in the forest, is magnified by them; and glory sprints across the clearing kicking up a cloud of blessing.I pray for virgins who are not afraid of greatness, neither the greatness of themselves, nor the greatness of God. And I pray for a virgin with a heart which dilates. A bold virgin, who when she has grown as big as she can be, when she has come to the outer reaches of the limits of her being and all that she thinks and knows and hums to herself, will give up encompassing Plentitude. I pray for a virgin who becomes Emptiness, who will let go of her edges, the taut boundaries that separate this from that, and flinging herself like crumbs in a fragrant trail from what was once her heart to the forest will say:Let it be to me according to your word.And the shy, tender God takes the bait. And she and holiness are won. And their child tumbles, wet and wild, into the wounded world to heal us with his stripes.___________________________________________Advent Manna are short pieces taken from my writing over the years on the themes of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. This post is an edited excerpt from my book, Letters from the Holy Ground Seeing God Where You Are, Sheed Ward, 2000. Chapter 10 Urgent Mother and Child Holy Indifference and the Repose of the Virgin, p 39. It may be a challenging piece for some readers. I wrote it over 25 years ago following a workshop I led in New York state. The workshop topic was the spiritual aspects of recovery from sexual abuse and violence. After the presentation I was taken to the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception and guided to a small chapel. There I knelt before a larger than life bronze statue of the Virgin Mother, which embodied, both all pervading compassion, and perfect repose. Before her I felt all the pain of the women, whose stories I had heard at the workshop, drawn out of me and healed.By the way, this piece could easily be adapted for several voices and used as a readers drama for worship. I can als0 hear music behind it and slides of various artists depiction of the annunciation. Get creative!Holy Ground Quarterly Reflection on the Contemplative Life. See the summer issue here: Summer 2018 Holy Ground xSubscribe to Holy Ground here. It makes a great Christmas gift for a friend!Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailPrintLinkedInMoreRedditTumblrPinterestPocketLike this:Like Loading... Being SilentThe most beautiful thing a person can say about God would be for that person to remain silent from the wisdom of an inner wealth. So, be silent and quit flapping your gums about God.   Meister Eckhart (1260-1329) translation by Matthew Fox.You have to get past the miraculous son of Zechariah to get inside. The tall, gaunt figure looks down on you from his hollow eyes as you enter  St. John’s Abbey Church in Collegeville, Mn. Lean, muscular, and Spirit-haunted, the Baptizer brandishes a cross and is scary as all get out. He gestures with a gnarled hand toward the Baptismal Font.If you think you are coming in here, wash up first. Repent!Go under the flood. Die before you die.The old priest, John’s father, did not believe the angel who showed up when Zechariah entered the Holy of Holies to burn the incense. The lot had fallen to him to step into the place so sacred that one might easily be consumed by the Furnace of Love. Gabriel’s wings fanned the smoke. His voice penetrated the old man’s mind, that rickety cupboard, where he kept jars of truth, possibility, impossibility,  reason, and a near empty cruse of hope.“How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”His barren, wizened, Elizabeth have a child? The priest quibbled, doubted, split hairs, as those trained as religious professionals often do.So Gabriel tied his tongue to the floor of his mouth and sewed his lips shut. This fellow could not be trusted with the truth of God. Hard to say how he might mess up the whole plan of salvation.Messengers from God often do this to the people they visit. They press the mute button and enforce silence for a while.Six months after Elizabeth conceives, Gabriel makes an announcement even more incredible to Mary. She asks one question, then tells Gabriel okay, whatever you say. I am God s servant. Pondering the angel s words, she holds her tongue, and departs to speak with her old cousin, Elizabeth. Joseph is left to get the news on his own through a dream. Mary remains with her cousin for three months in the hill country of Judah.Advent invites us to withdraw and close the door on distractions and doubts. Will you allow yourself to be bound by silence? This ability to tie up all the strife, hunger, gossip, and turbulence, and keep one s mouth shut is required of servants of God. One needs to allow ideas, projects, and seeds of new growth incubate and ripen. Talk may dissipate the necessary accumulation of energy and unconscious incubation to bring actions to maturity and achieve God’s fullest purpose and intent for our lives and work.One must be discerning about to whom and when to speak of the visions we see, the words we hear, and what grows within us in order to protect both ourselves and the promise within us from exposure to threats to its development.Do you have a bright idea or a promise developing within you?Don t prematurely tweet your transformation.There will be plenty of time to raise a ruckus after the truth gets out, as old Zechariah soon found, when the Holy Spirit opened his mouth and he burst into song for his son: and you, child, will be called the prophetof the Most High;for you go before the Lord to prepare his wayto give knowledge of salvation to his peoplein the forgiveness of their sins,through the tender mercy of our God,when the day shall dawn upon us from on highto give light to those who sit in darknessand in the shadow of death,to guide our feet in the way of peace. Luke 1: 67-7___________________________________Advent Manna are short pieces taken from my writing over the years on the themes of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. This essay about Zechariah and John the Baptist was previously posted in 2015.It has been a while since I have written here. I have been busy moving from Kansas, where I have lived for 37 years to Iowa City, Iowa. It has been a time of challenge and transformation for me. I will continue to  do the Sanctuary ministry from my new location. I  am offering spiritual guidance, teaching, leading retreats, and will continue to publish Holy Ground Quarterly Reflection on the Contemplative Life. See the summer issue below.Summer 2018 Holy Ground xSubscribe to Holy Ground here. And it it makes a great Christmas gift for a friend!Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailPrintLinkedInMoreRedditTumblrPinterestPocketLike this:Like Loading... Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. 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