Lenten Journey: Past Easter, Jesus waits … with breakfast

April 1, 2013 by

This entry is part 8 of 8 in the series Lenten Journeys

By the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Pratt

Every year, as I walk the Lenten pilgrimage I am reminded of breakfasts prepared over charcoal in a remote farm community in Cuba where our United Methodist Volunteers in Mission Team was working along side our Cuban brothers and sisters to build a retreat facility for the emerging Cuban Methodist Church. It was in that setting that my hungry, empty soul was filled as if by Jesus who also prepared a breakfast over a charcoal fire for his despairing disciples. I am deeply grateful for the compassion from a community filled with Grace who fed my soul.
Gracias Senor!

In the early 1990s, Jesse Jackson personally confronted Fidel Castro with his abuse of Christians. Castro publicly apologized opening the doors for suppressed faith groups to come out of hiding and grow. By 1998, the time of my first trip, the Cuban Methodist Church had grown from 2,000 to more than30,000. Other Christian denominations and Jewish communities have grown at great speed. Within the last year, the Cuban government has asked our UMVIM teams, which have averaged one team a month, to come more often.

Perhaps the rapid growth is because their faith was a light the darkness could not overcome, an underground light much like a smoldering fire that lingers unnoticed until the firefighters have left the scene, whereupon it erupts into flames.

It is a strange irony that Genesis begins with darkness and the last of the four Gospels, John, ends in darkness—Genesis1: 1-5 and John 21: 1-14. Genesis tells us that before darkness there had never been anything other than darkness; it covered the face of the deep. At the end of the Gospel of John, the disciples go out fishing on the sea of Tiberias in the dark night! They have no luck. Their nets are empty. Then they spot somebody standing on the beach. They don’t see who it is in the darkness. It is Jesus.

All it took to break the darkness of Genesis was God’s word, “Let there be Light!” Amazing—beyond our imagination! But the darkness of John is broken by the flicker of a charcoal fire in the sand. Jesus has built a charcoal fire and he is cooking fish for his old friends. Breakfast! The sun is rising. All that we need to know about overcoming our own darkness may be found in those two scenes.

The original creation of light is so extraordinary that most of us cannot fathom it. Breakfast cooking on the beach is the opposite. It is so ordinary that we are prone to ignore it.

God’s creation of Light to overcome the darkness is not what pulls most of us to faith. It is too exceptional. So, a small spark was lit to draw us. Jesus sheltered a spark with his cupped hands and blew on it to make enough fire for a breakfast. Very few of us will come to God because of our interest in creation. We are much more likely to come because of the empty feeling in our hearts and stomachs.

Nearly every morning while working in Camp Canaan in Miller, Cuba, I was reminded of these scriptures. We awoke in the pale early morning light before the sun arose. Then, like the dawn of creation, the rising sun filled the sky with a golden ball of fire. As we watched the sunrise, the smell of breakfast being cooked over an open charcoal fire drew us toward the morning table.

I wasn’t sure why I went to Cuba. I felt called to go but it was a call I resisted. It scared me. It was out of my comfort zone. I couldn’t even speak Spanish! I responded to a pilgrimage I needed to take. I went to attempt to heal something in my hungry, empty soul. I hoped and prayed that if I loved and served in a new way my hungry, empty soul might be filled. Every morning two women cupped their hands and blew on a spark to start a charcoal fire for preparing breakfast. It was the love and compassion of colleagues in a grace filled community, eating breakfast together, working for others who loved us in return that filled the dark empty place in my soul. They loved me. I loved them. We worked in community, and Jesus brought light into the darkness of our lives and the lives of those we served. God healed my hungry, empty soul through the ones I went to serve—with charcoal, a compassionate community filled with Grace, in Cuba.

GRACIAS SENOR!

Originally posted at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

This column also was posted at the website for the Day1 radio network.

Lenten Journey 7: Sacred doors into Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays

March 24, 2013 by

This entry is part 6 of 8 in the series Lenten Journeys

By the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Pratt

“YOU ARE HERE!”

We’ve all read the signs. They remind us of our current pinpoint on Earth—and, if we prayerfully reflect, we realize that these are sacred truths:
We are here.
We are among the living.
We stand on a tiny spot of God’s Creation—ready to take a step.

For Christians around the world this week, that next step carries us into the three most important days of the year. So, let’s pause in our Lenten Journey. Remember where we started? I wrote these words: “Holidays are history. That’s the way most of us approach the ancient traditions and family customs that we love to repeat each year. But, the yearlong cycle of Christian holidays are much more than that. These seasons are timeless, yet they also are very clear invitations to affirm our personal journey as God’s people.”

Remember how far we have come? You may want to review the earlier parts in this series.

Now, in Holy Week, everything we have summoned in this Lenten Journey rises and converges in a kaleidoscope of life and death, hope and tragedy, community and isolation. In these final days before Easter, we pass through enormous sorrow and abandonment as we move toward the spectacular joy we proclaim as Christians. On Good Friday, Jesus was tacked to a tree—his spirit broken. Holy Saturday is a long period of waiting when, some Christian traditions say, Jesus descended into Hell. Easter brings—resurrection.

We might think of Friday as the day of “NO!” As we experience Good Fridays, life throws us against a rock, tacks us to a tree, devastates our innocence and dreams for our marriage, our country, our children, our lives. That “NO!” breaks our spirit and almost destroys our faith in the goodness of God. On such Fridays, the pain is excruciating, and it is appropriate to be angry, enraged and in deep grief.

Saturday is “I DON’T KNOW.” We move—as Jesus’s followers did 2,000 years ago—into a soft cynicism or despair. We can’t stay in Friday’s intense pain, but we haven’t reached Easter’s joy. Saturday is the janitorial day. We can’t mourn; we can’t celebrate. So, we get up and start moving through our many tasks. Grief and anger from Friday evolves into a flat, soft, lazy, cynical bitterness, a spiritual deadness. This is life without any spice, vitality or vigor. This is spiritual accidie—a term I describe in my books on Ian Fleming and on coping with the challenges of caregiving.

And, Sunday? “YES!” We yearn for Easter, when we are reborn with new directions, new possibilities. It is the day of a clean and restored heart. We are able to sing praises and live with purpose, compassion and gratitude. The Psalmist writes: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, not a cynical spirit, not a bitter spirit. You will not reject a humble and repentant heart, O God.” (Psalm 51)

LINKS IN THIS TRIDUUM

Perhaps you can see, already, that this Lenten journey really is a cycle through which we live, over and over again, throughout our lives. The Catholic Church calls this the Easter Triduum—three inextricably linked days packed in Catholic tradition with more sacred firepower than Christmas. Bishops around the world bless all the holy oils that priests will use for 365 days until the next Triduum. The church’s mighty leaders wash the feet of the powerless, including at the central altar in the Vatican. Good Friday becomes the only day of the year without a Mass. And the liturgies for Easter? The Eastern Orthodox prayers go on for hours and hours—and hours.

In some Easter vigils, outdoor fires are lit and carried in processions. Such powerful images in these three days! My own prayers in recent years begin with images. I crave the clarity of images that reflect awe, gratitude, hospitality, compassion, fear, anxiety and hope—a vast array of feelings. These images may turn into words, some of which I record, but often I stay in the meditative clarity of the images. I often carry a camera and sometimes, I simply capture an image whole and wordless. I have given you lots of words, so let me turn to images for this most important of all periods in our journey.

PAUSE A MOMENT AT THESE THREE DOORWAYS

You may want to set aside a few minutes to read these next three paragraphs. You may want to gather up a notebook or journal to record your reflections.

A FRIDAY IMAGE: Remember the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre? Some images are burned into our collective memories: that single-file row of fleeing students and, later, the tears in President Obama’s eyes as he spoke to the nation. But, now, turn your mind’s eye toward another detail—one we all missed. As the tragedy unfolded, parents were told to report to a local fire station to pick up their children. Officials tried to bring all of the surviving students to that fire station to send them home in an orderly way. Envision a doorway—the doorway to that fire station. You are among the parents coming to take your children home. Then, you realize that all of the surviving children have been hugged and taken home. People are staring at each other, now. Weeping. Some parents are left standing. Some can no longer stand. The truth is: No more children will go home. A shocking image, isn’t it? Yet, that is what happened on Friday, December 14, 2012.

A SATURDAY IMAGE: On Saturday, January 8, 2011, U.S. Rep. Gabriel “Gabby” Giffords was shot numerous times in a Tucson shopping center. Initial news reports declared her dead, but an intern in her office, Daniel Hernandez, Jr., ministered so effectively to the severely wounded congresswoman that she was alive when she reached the hospital. During and after surgery, she was placed in a medically induced coma. She did not open her eyes for days. Imagine the doorway of her hospital room on that Saturday night: a white-wrapped body all but lifeless. It was a Saturday in which the whole nation could say only: “I don’t know.”

A SUNDAY IMAGE: Gabby Giffords has had many spectacular Easter moments over the past two years. Sunday June 22, 2011, we all saw her again—for the first time since the shooting—in two photographs she and her family released to newspapers and TV news that day. But think of another Sunday, July 31, 2011, when we all heard the news that Giffords would return to Congress the next morning! Hearts stirred in Washington and nationwide as each of us heard this news and prepared for what would unfold on that morning of Monday August 1. Focus your mind’s eye on the doorway into the U.S. House of Representatives as Giffords approached that portal. Inside, hundreds were poised to leap to their feet and applaud. In that moment at the doorway, envision the radiance of joy and purpose on her beautiful face—the resurrected image of a woman who will always live with the marks of her Friday but who lives with courage, purpose and faith in the future.

Wondering where you are this Lenten season? These three days take hold of us from that despair we all feel when we are utterly lost and scream: “No!” We have no choice but to move through those first stumbling Saturday steps—without much hope at all—admitting: “I don’t know.” And then, our faith says, we reach the “Yes!” of Easter. The Good News comes to us with that sign so clearly in our eyes again—pinpointing our sacred spot in God’s great Creation and allowing us to live again:

“YOU ARE HERE!”

May the One who called you unto life and who will call you unto death—the One who holds you Beloved and yearns that you know Eternal Life now, Bless you so that you may be an instrument of Peace, Love, Hope, Compassion and Forgiveness to all whom you encounter.
Amen.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

This column also was posted to the website for the Day1 radio network.

Richard Rohr on timeless wisdom in Immortal Diamond

January 27, 2013 by

RICHARD ROHR inspires you—even if you don’t recognize his name. From his base in the American Southwest, this Franciscan priest has become a master teacher of other famous teachers, including Rob Bell. In fact, Rob wrote the first review praising Richard’s new book, comparing it to “sitting around the tribal fire, listening to the village elder give words to that which we’ve always known to be true, we just didn’t know how.” Richard wants to reach ordinary men and women like you and me. Ask your friends to list writers who have moved them and you’re likely to hear Richard’s name.

THE MESSAGE of his latest book, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self: As is usually the case with Richard’s books, the idea can be conveyed in a single sentence: At the core of each life is true, eternal goodness—and the key to a successful life is opening up that true self so that we can compassionately connect with God’s world. After reading that sentence, dozens of questions spill from our lips: You mean, we’re born good!?! We’re not born evil? We’re not trying to deny the deepest truths about ourselves? We don’t need to fear what’s truly and honestly in our heart? So, how do we find that true self? And, why didn’t anyone tell me this before?

Here’s how Richard puts it himself in Immortal Diamond:

CLICK THE BOOK COVER to visit its Amazon page.I am writing this book for secular seekers and thinkers, believers and nonbelievers alike, and that huge disillusioned group in recovery from religion itself. Surprisingly, these are often more ready to see and honor Mystery than many religious people are. I can no longer wait for, or give false comfort to, the many Christians who are forever “deepening their personal relationship” with a very tiny American Jesus—who looks an awful lot like them. I would much prefer to write for those like Jane Fonda, who said recently, “I feel a presence, a reverence humming within me that was, and is, difficult to articulate.” Well, Jane, we are going to try to articulate and affirm that humming here.

Because far too many religious folks do not seriously pursue this “reverence humming within them,” they do not recognize that something within them needs to be deeply trusted and many things must be allowed to die—not because they are bad, but because they perhaps cannot get them where they want to go. Spirituality tends to be more about unlearning than learning. And when the slag and dross is removed that which evokes reverence is right there waiting!

Many religious people seem to think that God, for some utterly unexplainable reson, loves the human past—usually their own group’s recent past—instead of their present or the future of this creation.

Are you muttering something like: Wow? Or, Amen? Or, hey wait a minute! If not, re-read that italic excerpt from Richard’s book and think, again, about how sweepingly he slices through a lot of what passes for organized religion in America. Perhaps a second reading will prompt the: Wow. Or the: Wait! If this has piqued your interest, then Richard already is inspiring you. Please, read onward to enjoy the new interview in which ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm talks with Richard Rohr about Immortal Diamond.

One more important truth about Richard Rohr’s work: While Richard’s aim always is to explain simple truths—much like Frederick Buechner has done over many decades—Rohr (also like Buechner) has great depth within his teaching. In his personal life, Richard enjoys puzzles and Buddhist Koans. His new book’s title, for example, is simple on the face of it: In 2 words “Immortal Diamond” describes the good core of our True Selves. But the 2 words also reference one of the most powerful poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a 19th-century Jesuit poet beloved by spiritual seekers to this day. And, while Rohr does provide a few lines of Hopkins’ famous poem in the opening pages of Immortal Diamond—if you locate the entire poem, say, in the volume of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Poems and Prose by Penguin Classics, then you’ll discover the full sweep of Hopkins’ poem, titled: That Nature Is a Haraclitian Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection. And next, you may wonder: So, what was this Heraclitian Fire? And, does it relate to that ancient Greek—Heraclitus? Who was he? Well … then—from a two-word title on the cover of Richard’s new book—you’re off and running through an entire weekend of fascinating spiritual reflection.

Welcome, please, Father Richard Rohr in …

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR INTERVIEW WITH FATHER RICHARD ROHR ON
IMMORTAL DIAMOND, THE SEARCH FOR OUR TRUE SELF

Father Richard Rohr. Coutesy of the author.

DAVID: So far, you’ve written or contributed to more than 30 books. If readers already have a well-stocked shelf of Richard Rohr books—how is this new book unique from the others we’ve enjoyed in recent years?

RICHARD: In many ways, the other books led up to this. Falling Upward was the immediate prequel. All my life, I’ve tried to clarify what’s the Self that has to die—using Jesus language here—and the Self that has to live. This runs through all of my teaching and, now, I have finally put down in writing what has become so clear to me about this over the years.

Here is how this book came to be: I was inspired by all the people in Christian circles who choose some Advent readings before Christmas and some Lenten readings before Easter. But I haven’t found a good set of readings on the period from Easter to Pentecost—resurrection readings. When I presented that idea for a book to Jossey-Bass, they asked: Why don’t you connect that idea to your work on the True Self / False Self? So, this book amounts to a commentary on what Christianity means by resurrection and uses that as a skeleton on which to teach about True Self / False Self.

DAVID: Your writing seems timely as Americans move through an era of lowered expectations. ReadTheSpirit, through the OurValues portion of our online magazine, has reported extensively on issues like the growing wealth gap and the diminished economic expectations for millions of Americans. Your teachings about what truly matters in life seem appropriate for this era in our history.

RICHARD: I’m glad you connect these themes in that way. Yes, this is a time in which so many of us are struggling. We grow up as natural optimists as Americans. My generation of Catholic priests—we were so hopeful as we watched the Vatican II experience. Now, it’s a punch in the belly to see what has happened in the church and the world. Dualistic thinking seems to have taken over the church and our politics to a really neurotic degree. I’m not arguing that my books are the answer for everything that’s wrong in the world, but I do find that a disturbing amount of our liberal-conservative wrangling is still framed in a win-lose, False Self framework. Leading up to the American election in November, we saw a lot of that False Self talking in our public square.

RICHARD ROHR: PRAISING MATTHEW FOX, ROB BELL & HOPKINS, TOO

CLICK THE COVER to visit the book’s Amazon page.DAVID: This new book offers a strong salute to the teachings of Matthew Fox, the former Dominican priest who got into great trouble with the Vatican for declaring that men and women are born with an original blessing instead of in “original sin.” You write in your new book, that, in the 1980s, Matthew’s book Original Blessing “was groundbreaking for many Christians, and it well deserves to be. … We are all grateful that it was a Dominican who brought this essential truth forward.”

RICHARD: Yes, I think this is Matt Fox’s great contribution. My saying this may seem ironic, because there was this rivalry between Franciscans and Dominicans centuries ago. The Dominicans represented the more cerebral, perfectionist streak. And we Franciscans were known as the laissez-faire God-is-in-everything folks. The Franciscans supposedly were the let’s-be-jolly and let’s-not-worry-so-much-about-sin folks. So, for Matt, as a Dominican, to have raised this so clearly is very important. That book changed many people’s understanding of our Christian message. I could almost say: Forget about reading all of his other books if you want, but make sure you read Original Blessing. Matt and I have met several times. He wrote me just last year. I am thankful for his writings.

DAVID: A lot of readers will take note of Rob Bell’s strong endorsement of your new book. You know that, in the second half of 2012, Rob hit a few disappointing bumps in his own road. He continues to have a huge following—but nothing came of his high hopes for a new TV series on spiritual themes. And, by the end of the year, that venerable historian of American religion, Martin Marty, took a shot at him, publicly warning Rob that he’d better watch out about becoming too independent. Your thoughts?

RICHARD: Rob and I have emailed back and forth. I had lunch with him. We’ve invited him to be one of the faculty in our school along with Brian McLaren and they both have told me that they’re willing to do that. We don’t want our center to be too Catholic. We want to be open to the evangelical world. Frankly, I regard them as two of the best spokesmen for evangelical Christianity. Some evangelicals may disagree with my saying that. And, I know it’s hard for anyone as talented as Rob is to find his way, but I believe that he has a lot to offer the world.

DAVID: So, let me ask about another figure you’re strongly endorsing. We’ve talked about Matt and Rob. Your choice of prominently quoting Gerard Manley Hopkins is striking—leaping back to the 1800s and to a whole different kind of religious reflection, right?

RICHARD: I think Hopkins still has a lot to teach us today. I find myself digging not only into Hopkins and Heraclitus afresh—but also Aldous Huxley and others.

DAVID: And, in that regard, let me put in a plug to our readers for Don Lattin’s newest book, Distilled Spirits: Getting High, Then Sober, with a Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher, and a Hopeless Drunk. I’ve never seen anything quite like this book Don has reported about the spiritual influence of Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard and Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

RICHARD ROHR: EXPLORING A MYSTERIOUS POEM

Poet Gerard Manley HopkinsRICHARD: One of the many reasons I’ve loved Hopkins through the years is that I think he clearly understood the Gospel that we come to God by doing wrong, not by doing right. That’s what Bill Wilson understood, too. One of the great perversions of the Gospel is this private obsession with perfection in which we hide our wounds and our dark side. In Hopkins’ poem, he shows us how to appreciate the broken flaw in the human situation and how to see that God has fallen in love with us because of this flaw.

DAVID: I’ll let our readers get your book and explore these deeper themes on their own, but—just to give them a personal hand along that pathway—let me ask: How do you understand the Hopkins poem?

RICHARD: I think the poem is saying that, eventually, we must fall into that utterly broken, wounded character of the human situation. We might call it the tragic sense of life. In my last book, I called that awareness: Falling Upward. If you live your life with any authenticity, then you experience this more and more. You can react to that flaw in the human situation with massive disillusionment—and some people do that. But, if you get to the bottom of it, you can trust in God or Love and you can reach this point of affirming—as Hopkins does—that “I am all at once what Christ is.”

DAVID: I’m hoping that readers going through our interview will be intrigued by these questions, too, so that they will grab your book and begin exploring these central truths.

RICHARD: I do hope that people realize my book is quite optimistic. For Christians reading this book, we might say that the Paschal Mystery shows us that everything changes form. The cycle of life and death is unstoppable, but death always leads to a transformed sense of life. I am speaking in a hopeful way to people who are afraid of death—and who isn’t afraid of death? By the end of the book, I am urging a cynical world to proclaim with the resurrection that love is stronger than death. And I’m not simply coming at this as a priest telling people: Hey, we have to believe this as Christians. I am arguing that this is true throughout the universe. We start in love—and we will end in love. Huxley called this Perennial Philosophy—the idea of central truths that run throughout our spiritual traditions.

DAVID: Another example of this idea was just expressed in an interview we published with Dr. Matthew Lee, the chief researcher in a major university-based study of congregations. In The Heart of Religion, Lee and his team report that millions of churchgoers are experiencing the compassionate love of God, then they are inspired to share that compassionate love with others. This becomes a virtuous loop of more experience with God leading to more sharing with others. Lee and his team have studied Christians, at this point, but their conclusion sounds like a more universal truth.

RICHARD: What you are describing to me amounts to the first and second commandments for Christians: Loving God and loving our neighbor. So simple and yet, think about it: If that flow of love from God to neighbor isn’t flowing in your life, then you’re just playing with junk religion. What you’re describing in this work by Matthew Lee, it seems to me, is certainly moving toward the core of authentic religion.

RICHARD ROHR: REACHING BACK FOR TIMELESS TRUTHS ABOUT LOVE

DAVID: I don’t want to leave readers feeling that you’re pushing toward something exotic here. One of our authors at ReadTheSpirit, Dr. Benjamin Pratt, has enjoyed some of your books and Ben sent me an email describing your work as “pre-Renaissance.” You’re reaching back for earlier truths about our faith, before things became overly complicated in our modern era. Does that make sense?

RICHARD: I think your friend gets it. I think that’s what Perennial Philosophy is all about. I certainly don’t want us all to move back to living like they did in the 13th Century. (laughs) But I am looking for something timeless that keeps recurring. I am reaching back to truths that, from a psychological perspective, some may describe as a collective consciousness. As a Christian, I say it’s the Holy Spirit moving. In the modern tradition, the danger is that we all select our own little piece of what might be the Perennial tradition and we run off and emphasize these individual elements in our own little corners. I want to bring people together, to bring people to truths that, yes, go back a very long way. Despite our flaws and the inevitable cycle of life and death—I am reaffirming: Love is stronger than death.

Care to read more?

GET THE BOOK: Click on the book’s title, Immortal Diamond, or click on the book cover above to visit the book’s Amazon page.

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW RICHARD INSPIRES PEOPLE: We suggest, today, that you simply ask friends who enjoy spiritual reading—and you’ll likely find stories about Richard’s work. Also today, ReadTheSpirit is publishing a column from the Rev. John Emmert, a semi-retired Episcopal priest in Pennsylvania who is one of Richard’s ordinary readers nationwide.

SHARE AN ANCIENT PRAYER: Richard Rohr helps us share a centuries-old Christian prayer, focusing on the hope for resurrection.

ENJOY OUR EARLIER COVERAGE OF RICHARD ROHR: In 2011, we published a review of Richard’s earlier book, Falling Upward. We also published a joint interview with Brian McLaren and Richard Rohr on the spiritual challenges of aging in America.

SEE RICHARD IN ONE THE MOVIE: Richard appears in one of the most-talked-about feature-length documentaries about spirituality, a movie called simply ONE. In 2012, when the movie ONE was booked to air on Oprah’s TV network, we published several film clips from the film—including a video of Richard.

VISIT HIS WEBSITE: His Center for Action and Contemplation website includes a box on the right-hand side of the opening page where you can sign up for Richard’s free Daily Meditations emails.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Richard Rohr: Anam Cara, soul friend, to thousands

January 27, 2013 by

In this photo, Richard talks with a group in person. However, he speaks to far larger crowds via daily digital messages.RICHARD ROHR greets thousands of friends via his Daily Meditations. Visit his Center for Action and Contemplation website and you can join those friends via the Daily Meditations sign-up box—on the right-hand side of the webpage. To convey the importance of this aspect of his ministry, ReadTheSpirit invited the Rev. John Emmert, a semi-retired Episcopal priest from Pennsylvania to describe what these short messages from Richard represent in his life. John follows his own discipline of prayer, meets regularly with friends and colleagues to talk about faith and occasionally serves in local parishes. Richard’s notes have made a difference in all of those phases of John’s life. Here’s how …

Small Differences:
Thanking Richard Rohr

BY THE REV. JOHN EMMERT

ALTHOUGH RICHARD ROHR is a prolific writer, I must admit I have never read one of his books. I know him only through his daily messages from his Center for Contemplation and Action. I no longer remember exactly who brought these daily gems of inspiration to my attention, but they have become anticipated touchstones of theology and thoughtfulness that I would miss more than my morning coffee.

They are short—never more than a paragraph or two: an idea, a reminder of a Christian season or celebration, a reflection on a sentence or two of scripture, development of a weekly theme. A few words that set a tone or raise an issue—personal, ecclesiastical, vocational, life-style—that more often than not lead to small changes of thinking and living. The impact of his wisdom accumulates quite significantly. I cannot count the number of times these inspirational pieces “coincidentally” touch a theme I am pondering with a friend or colleague, and influence our discussion, a decision and an action.

They are pithy, but practical. I’ve tried to think of a general descriptor, but none is quite adequate: “Where-the-rubber-meets-the-road” theology? A coincidence of exegesis and praxis? Where heart-mind-body-and spirit/Spirit touch? Where presence and Presence animate one another?

They are Catholic, in the very best sense of that word (as we use it in the creeds). They are also beyond Catholic. They reach for the Mystery that all religious language and experience aspires to touch, yet never quite adequately does—except that not to have tried would be so much the worse.

They are “old”—vintage, richly aged and time-tested truths. But “new” and fresh and re-born, with a twist or side-ways glance, that either opens my eyes (or narrows them), as I try to see more clearly, more deeply yet again.

CLICK THE IMAGE to visit the website for Richard’s Center.Sometimes they are visual, as the picture of a “Young Madonna” to illustrate “Mary, the Prepared One.” The Daily Meditations used that striking photo of a young Mexican girl each day for a week in Advent. I pulled it up on my I-pad, and passed it around the congregation as we contemplated the image of a teen-age Mary, offering herself as Theotokos.

I have tried to find a niche for Richard—a person I’ve never met, who yet now occupies a place of Anam Cara, soul friend, in my life. I think he reminds me of Merton, even more Nouwen. I recall another Advent piece on “Learning to Receive” in which Richard remarked on Mary’s “fertility and fruitfulness” in contrast to our culture’s productiveness, a theme I first heard many years ago from Nouwen. So, Gordon Cosby, Madeline L’Engle, Elizabeth O’Connor, Eugene Peterson, Jim Wallis, Steven Charleston—name your own roster of speakers and livers of Truth and Wisdom. So, thanks be for such Grace-bearers and sharers; Richard is now included in my list.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Richard Rohr: Ancient prayer of hope for Resurrection

January 27, 2013 by

CLICK THE BOOK COVER to visit its Amazon page.IN RICHARD ROHR’S new book Immortal Diamond, he ends with a prayer from an ancient liturgy used by Christians on the eve of Easter—the church’s great celebration of resurrection.

Rohr introduces the final prayer this way:

Many Christians begin Lent on Ash Wednesday with the signing of ashes on their forehead and the words from Genesis 3:19, which is just the first shocking part of the message: “Dust you are, and unto dust you shall return.”

But then we should be anointed (“Christed”) with a holy oil on Easter morning with the other half of the message: “Love is always stronger than death, and unto the love you have now returned.”

Then, Rohr adds these ancient lines, which are spoken as if God is calling the dead to new life:

O Sleeper,
to Awake!

“I ORDER YOU, O SLEEPER, to awake!
I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell.
Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.
Rise up, work of my hands, you were created in my image.
Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you.
Together we form only one person and we cannot be separated!”

Care to read more?

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD ROHR: This prayer’s theme is central to Richard Rohr’s newest book—and you can learn much more about Immortal Diamond in our inteview with him.

READ THE ENTIRE ANCIENT TEXT: The Vatican website publishes the entire much-longer reading in a slightly different English translation, that traditionally is used on Holy Saturday. The portion Richard Rohr excerpts appears as the fifth paragraph of the longer Vatican text.

A Prayer for Light in Dark Times of Accidie

December 30, 2012 by

CLICK THE BOOK COVER to learn more about Fleming’s spiritual themes in the James Bond novels, including much more about the challenge of accidie.AS THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE passes through the darkest season, pastoral counselor and author Dr. Benjamin Pratt shares a prayer that helps us take a first tentative step from accidie. That may sound like a strange new term, but it is a classic part of Christian teaching on the so-called 7 Deady Sins.

In addition to his current work helping caregivers nationwide—Dr. Pratt is a scholar of Ian Fleming’s literary works. Most of the Hollywood 007 blockbusters skip over the theme of accidie. But, Fleming wrote the original Bond novels to explore what he argued were the deadliest sins of our modern age. If this is news to you, then you will enjoy Dr. Pratt’s Ian Fleming’s Seven Deadlier Sins & 007’s Moral Compass.

Dr. Pratt explains:

This prayer reflects the nature of one of the original 7 Deadly Sins, accidie, which was translated in the Middle Ages as sloth or torpor. This is a spiritual condition and is distinctly different from depression. In accidie, we loose all energy for engaging the world. The needs, the goals and even the good and the evil around us do not matter enough to inspire any action.

In the Ian Fleming novels, James Bond often struggles with this sin. It was the word accidie that first drew me to serious study of these novels and the life of their creator. The word accidie appears in eleven of the fourteen Bond tales and is central to understanding James Bond—as well as the dangerous powers of the most evil demons 007 pursues. When I first encountered accidie in the Bond tales, I did not know it was one of the original 7 Deadly Sins. I had not yet discovered Ian Fleming’s long-time fascination with these themes as both a journalist and a novelist. I do know that accidie has been the most insidious sin in my own life and I agree with Fleming: Accidie is one of the most insidious sins in our world today.

If these ideas resonate in your life, we invite you to use this prayer. You are free to share it with others, as well. Simply credit Dr. Benjamin Pratt and readthespirit.com as the source.

Prayer for Light
in Dark Times
of Accidie

By Dr. Benjamin Pratt

Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
I lament;
I resent;
I feel powerless now;
I can’t see a point, a direction, a purpose in my life.
I’ve lost my passionate spirit.
I‘ve lost my energy to struggle forward.
I’m living each day, but my heart is dry, tepid—
like a saucer of milk in the noonday sun.

Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
I know what my life should feel like.
I’ve lived hard, worked hard, loved hard,
And I once believed hard, too. My faith was a rock.
I’ve thrown myself into my work, my relationships, my community.
Once, I knew I was making a difference in the world.
But, now I’m adrift without a compass.

Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
I know there are countless issues crying for my energies.
I am surrounded by pressing needs, by loving people
But I’ve lost my heart for any of it.
I crawl out of bed each day and meet the day,
But my spirit, O God—my spirit feels broken.
I’m empty.

Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
I’m yearning for the light of a new day.
I long for the old courage, the old calling.
Now, I’m taking this step in prayer;
I’m calling out humbly for just a taste of purpose and passion—
a ray of light in these dark times.
Fill me, O Lord, with the hope of joy—the joy of hope.

Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.

Amen

By Dr. Benjamin Pratt and …
Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

This article also has been posted into Dr. Pratt’s column at the website for the Day1 radio network.

Welcoming and hospitality are more than shaking hands

December 9, 2012 by

The nation’s biggest religious celebration of the year is coming soon: Are you ready? More importantly for millions of American Christians: Is your chuch ready?

Click the book cover to visit its Amazon page.CHRISTMAS: THE NATION’S ‘BIGGEST RELIGIOUS CELEBRATION’

IS IT TRULY AMERICA’S BIGGEST RELIGIOUS CELEBRATION? This claim could be debated. Is going to church at Christmas truly “religious” for everyone? And, if we expand the meaning of “religious,” one could argue that July 4 is a celebration of civil religion—or that New Year’s Eve is a return to pagan spiritual roots. But let’s turn to the Gallup Poll: The most recent Gallup study of this question reports: Ninety-five percent of Americans celebrate Christmas and—of those who do—51% describe the holiday as “strongly religious” for them, continuing an upward trend seen since 1989.

CHURCH ATTENDANCE BOOMING: Over many years, Gallup has reported that 4 in 10 Americans describe themselves as weekly churchgoers, even though actual head counts in houses of worship haven proven that’s an optimistic claim. However, at Christmas, the percentage of Americans who say they plan to attend Christmas services leaps to more than 6 in 10. In short, Christmas is the year’s biggest occasion for visitors in churches. (Yes, Easter boasts high attendance, as well, but come back as Lent begins in February for more on that season.)

WHAT YOUR CHURCH SHOULD BE DOING TO BECOME WELCOMING

OUR AUTHOR INTERVIEW LATER THIS WEEK FEATURES HENRY G. BRINTON: He’s a popular columnist on faith, congregatinal life and American culture—posting occasional columns for the Washington Post and USA Today. His new book is The Welcoming Congregation: Roots and Fruits of Christian Hospitality. In our interview, we will talk more about Brinton’s very valuable insights.

WHAT YOUR CHURCH SHOULD BE DOING NOW TO PREPARE FOR CHRISTMAS: Start by updating your website! Hundreds of thousands of congregations coast to coast now have websites and a huge number of those sites actually push away potential visitors. Right now, your church’s front webpage should list all holiday-related programs and services. At this time of year, families are scrambling to plan December activities with family and friends.

IN HIS BOOK, HENRY BRINTON ADVISES: “Web sites are often the first threshold space that a visitor encounters, and they can make a positive first impression and deliver a powerful message of welcome.” Then, Henry cites examples. He urges churches to design their websites so that—right on the front page—there is clear information about “what happens during a Sunday morning worship serivce, where to go when you arrive, and what to do if you have questions about the church.”

THIS WEEK, check out your congregation’s website. Look for:

SCHEDULE: Is the upcoming schedule of events obvious on the front page? Is it so big and bold that no one can miss it? Post your whole balance-of-December schedule right there on the home page.

ADDRESS: Visitors use map apps or GPS devices, so your street address should be front and center—not in the fine print at the bottom of the home page or on some secondary page. Are there special parking problems—or helpful options like Visitor Parking spaces? Put that information on your front page with your address. Those visitors who use your webpage to reach you will really appreciate those tips!

WHERE TO GO ONCE YOU ARRIVE: If you’re reading this far, you’re probably active in a congregation and you would be shocked to learn how difficult it is for visitors to find the doorway that your members know is the “front door.” You would be floored to learn how many visitors don’t have a clue where they should go inside your building.

DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENS: Describe your worship and other customs. If your congregation has coffee before services or a social time after services, makes sure your website schedule explains that. Visitors won’t know in advance and won’t be able to plan for it. Post a photo of your church’s interior, so visitors know what to anticipate. Or, better yet, post a photo of people attending a typical worship service. Churches are mysterious, daunting places to most visitors.

IDENTIFY THE MAJOR PLAYERS: Many churches seem to hide their clergy deep inside their websites, perhaps out of modesty on the part of the clergy—or out of a theological push to make members feel that they are leading the congregation. But consider: Making it easy for visitors to visually identify key figures in your congregation is a friendly service.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS: Most church leaders have heard that it’s a bad idea to mention collections. But, if you’re collecting special items during the holidays—like cans of food for the needy or special offerings for the local homeless shelter—tell people as part of your events schedule. If visitors feel moved to seek out a church for the holidays, they don’t want to arrive and feel that “everybody else” knew about a special community-wide effort.

SPECIAL LIGHTS: A big draw at year-end holidays are “lighting” services. Some churches use candles, distibuted for free at the doors. Some churches use flashlights or even lit-up mobile phone apps held in the darkness. If you’ve got a special lighting service—explain it to your visitors in advance. Don’t assume they know what the words “candle-lit” means in your congregation.

A FINAL WORD FROM HENRY BRINTON ON CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY

Click on the cover of Henry’s book, above, to order a copy. Just to clarify: The book is not specifically oriented to Christmas. It’s a year-round exploration of Christian hospitality. The book is not specifically focused on Sunday morning worship, nor is it focused on websites. It’s a deep analysis of why Christians share a distinctively welcoming vocation in this world. In Henry Brinton’s words from the book:

Jesus plays a dual role in any experience of Christian hospitality—he is both our host and our potential guest. We gather to feed the hungry and welcome strangers because that is what Jesus did as a gracious and loving host during his earthly ministry and because that is what Jesus continues to do through the Christian community today. But we also practice hospitality because it gives us an opportunity to welcome Jesus in the form of people who are hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, sick and in prison. The line from Matthew 25, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” echoes again and again throughout the ancient Christian texts … Over the centuries, the question of whether to offer assistance to a stranger has been intensified by the Christian understanding that it is Jesus himself who stands before us, in need of food and shelter.

One of the Greek words for hospitality, philoxenia, literally means “love of the stranger.” It combines the general word for love for people who are connected to us (phileo) with the word for stranger (xenos), reminding us that hospitality is always “closely connected to love.” But the word xenos has other meanings—in addition to “stranger,” it also means “guest” and “host.” So the word itself captures an essential mutuality that is at the heart of hospitality, uniting strangers, guests and hosts.

MORE WITH HENRY BRINTON

If you enjoyed this story, you will want to read:
Part 2: Interview with Henry G. Brinton about his book and tips for welcoming churches.
Part 3: When strangers who walk through our doors are truly “strange”—including Jedi knights.