A Birth and a Rebirth

As we get closer to Christmas I share with you this prayer from the Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian Community of men and women from different Christian traditions and from different walks of life.  We used it for our retreat on Evolutionary Spirituality and also for our Employee Christmas Prayer.  It touches my heart deeply.

When the world was dark

and the city was quiet,

you came.

You crept in beside us.

And no one knew.

Only the few

who dared to believe

that God might do something different.

Will you do the same this Christmas, Lord?

Will you come into the darkness of tonight/today's world;

not the friendly darkness

as when sleep rescues us from tiredness,

but the fearful darkness,

in which people have stopped believing

that war will end

or that food will come

or that a government will change

or that the Church cares?

Will you come into that darkness

and do something different

to save your people from death and despair?

Will you come into the quietness of this city/town,

not the friendly quietness

as when lovers hold hands,

but the fearful silence when

the phone has not rung,

the letter has not come,

the friendly voice no longer speaks,

the doctor's face says it all?

Will you come into that darkness,

and do something different,

not to distract, but to embrace your people?

And will you come into the dark corners

and the quiet places of our lives?

We ask this not because we are guilt-ridden

or want to be,

but because the fullness of our lives long for

depends on us being as open and vulnerable to you

as you were to us

when you came,

wearing no more than diapers,

and trusting human hands

to hold their maker.

Will you come into our lives,

if we open them to you

and do something different?

When the world was dark

and the city was quiet

you came.

You crept in beside us.

Do the same this Christmas, Lord.

Do the same this Christmas.

Amen. 

What are your prayers, hopes, and dreams this Christmas?  In what way might Christ creep in beside you?  Today a friend sent me this You-Tube link and I was touched by the ordinary humans who present their dreams and hopes for a new and more loving humanity.  As we end the Mayan calendar when many focus on the world ending there are also many others who  believe this is a time of transition, a new birth, to a higher humanity where we join together  to co-create with God a world of peace, unity and love.  Science has taught us that our thoughts in many ways create our reality.  Scripture tells us "where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am" (Matthew 18:20).  Let us unite our thoughts, our hopes, our dreams with those of our brothers and sisters throughout the world who choose to co-create with God a better world.  Together we can create an energy field of love by our thoughts and it can transform our world.  I invite you to look at the You-Tube link and look into the faces and the words of our brothers and sisters, ordinary people like you and I and ask yourself what your prayers, hopes, and dreams are this Christmas?

Agents of Creation

Will you come into our lives, if we open them to you and do something different?  When the world was dark and the city was quiet you came, You crept in beside us.  Do the same this Christmas Lord.  Do the same this Christmas.

Christmas -- We're almost there

All the attention today is on a large tree placed in our chapel.  As you can see from the photo the lights are half way up the tree but it's a big tree and they have a long way to go  Somehow that feels like a symbol for me today and perhaps for you as well.  As a nation I think we're almost there but we have a ways to go.  I have sat several times this week to do a blog entry and always the same sad feeling comes to my heart--how to find joyful words a midst the sadness of Newtown, CT.  With all of you, we, at the Spiritual Center, still feel the ache of the tragedy of last Friday.  Even in attending the Nutcracker Suite at Neumann University, many commented that the children dancing brought to mind the innocence of the children killed and terrified last Friday morning.  Christmas is a time filled with the innocence and joy of children and the goodness and excitement that the season brings to everyone.  Where to go with the pain is still a struggle for many..

Eugene C. Kennedy has an editorial and here is a link to the article:  The Sacramental Revelation of Newtown, Conn. It freed something within me and changed my focus a bit.  To rehearse the tragedy over and over isn't helpful and nothing can take away the loss for those families but the families in Newtown have taught us a great deal.  This Christmas perhaps the gift is to see the goodness of the ordinary everyday people of Newtown and the manner in which they enflesh the love of God.  This is the Incarnation for us this Christmas.  Newtown is in some way the Bethlehem of today.  Although the focus is on the funerals of small children and their teachers the real story is in the  unbelievable resilience of a community coming together to support one another.  They are a simple people filled with such goodness and deep faith; they are a community of strength and deep love.  They have incarnated our God who is the love alive within and among us.  We have been inspired by their stories of strength and resolve and sacrifice.   I suppose we had a similar example in the victims of the super storm Sandy.  Ordinary people who go on day by day in the face of tragedy can truly help us refocus our values so that the true meaning of Christmas is alive within us.

The staff of the Franciscan Spiritual Center thank each of you for the way you incarnate God's love each day.  We thank you for your love and support and wish you blessings during this Christmas time and throughout the 2013 year.  We also unite with people of all faiths who in this movement of Birth 2012 invite us to three days of love -- Birth 2012 - Three days of love.  Christmas is about a child who taught us love and who grew day by day like all  children.  In our Christmas readings we often hear proclaimed Isaiah 11:6 (the wolf shall dwell with the lamb...and a little child will lead them).  Perhaps the children who lost their lives in Newtown will lead us to a more civilized nation where guns are less valued, assault weapons are banned, and peaceful conflict resolution replaces violence.  Let the little children lead us.  This Christmas may all children be safe, be loved, and be surprised by the goodness of life and love..

Card Writing Day and St. Nicholas Day

Yesterday we had an "Advent Ritual:  Card Writing Day".  All gathered in the morning with their address books, boxes of cards and the Spiritual Center provided a prayerful environment with soft Christmas music, candy canes, and we began the day with Ed Hayes' Christmas Card Psalm (follow this think:  A Christmas Card Psalm), and then moved to the real meat of the day--the actual card writing.  Sr. Marie Angela Presenza prepared the day for us reminding us that writing cards is a prayer of remembering and a prayer of celebrating.  Scripture tells us "where two or three are gathered together, there I am".  We gathered and felt the power of our togetherness.  Except for a break for lunch and an afternoon break for tea, you could hear a pin drop.  It was a blessed event.  We'll meet again next year -- same place, same time, same purpose!

Today is the feast of St. Nicholas.  I don't know about you but St. Nicholas did stop by my door last night and it was a glorious surprise awaiting me this morning.  May you be St. Nicholas for someone today!  I could do no better than Ed Hayes at telling you the significance of this day so I repeat his words adapted from Edward Hays' "The Pay-less Shoe Gift Shop" by Brian Cavanaugh" in Ed Hays book A Piligrim's Almanac:  Reflections for Each Day of the Year  (Forest of Peace Publishing, 1989, 190-191.)

It is fitting that the feast of St. Nicholas comes at the beginning of Advent and the beginning of the shopper's season.  As the patron saint of shoppers he proclaims, "Keep it simple!"  Keep it simple enough to fit in a shoe or a stocking.  One gift that could fit in a ... shoe, or in a stocking hanging on the fireplace, is a note that speaks of one of our most precious gifts, the gift of time.  Such a St. Nicholas note might read:  "The gift I give to you is half an hour of quality conversation each night right after the dishes are done."  Or, "The gift I give to you is one Saturday a month to be with you and do whatever you want to do." .... The possibilities are almost unlimited for these St. Nicholas shoe gifts.  
Come, St. Nicholas, patron of shoppers and gift-seekers, and make Christmas this year fun, creative and love-filled.

Blessings on your Advent

This photo of Mary painted by Henry Ossawa Tanner in 1898 was used by Brother Michael Laratonda, FMS on this past weekend's Advent Retreat entitled The Divine Pregnancy.  The oil painting captures Mary sitting in stillness as she is visited by Gabriel.  Mary is portrayed as a teen age girl in a simple and rumpled peasant dress without halo or any other holy attribute.  Gabriel appears only as a shaft of light. The original painting was placed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1899.  I share with you my own small reflection on  the painting, after Brother Michael's illuminating retreat, hoping it might  resonate with a piece of your heart.  

Advent

I sit still and ask for nothing

and in some way everything comes to me.

I sit and try to stay in the truth

of who I am

of who God calls me to be

and in some way everything fills me.

Is Advent that moment in history

where the invitation to stay empty

teaches us about the fullness that comes with emptiness?

Mary sat in stillness and silence. 

Did she feel empty

because she didn’t trust herself enough

to know if she should say yes?

Or did she simply

sit in her emptiness

and say “your will be done”

and allow the extravagance of God

to fill her emptiness?

And is that what it truly means

to allow ourselves

to be mother

to incarnate the divinity

so that others can see

the God who is still and quiet within,

the God who transforms

our emptiness, our nothingness,

into the womb of divine life.

Time: Enemy or Friend? Advent might provide an insight

Have you ever felt like time was your enemy.  That’s my reality this week. I know time is priceless and we each are allotted the same 24 hours each day but I’m feeling pressured by the “musts” on my “to-do-list”, the “coulds” that I really want to do, and the reality of the limits of time as I perceive it.   I keep whispering to myself that time is my friend but today I wasn’t for believing it..

With this oppressive feeling of time lingering in my heart, I watched Sr. Marie Angela Presenza prepare the center for Advent and I began to feel a certain excitement. Her decorations and her simple pondering filled me with a calm certainty that this is a special time. Ed Hayes in A Pilgrims Almanac (1989, p. 187) reminds us that Advent is a time to be aware that in the very busy preparation for Christmas (or completing our “to-do-list”) Christ is waiting to be reborn in the Bethlehem of our homes and our daily lives.   He advises us to take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present each and every day.

Advent and time go hand in hand.  Advent is about waiting in expectation.  It's about
preparing our hearts.  It's about taking time, slowing down, being awake.  But most of all it's about remembering with gratitude, remembering the ways God has been born to me today and yesterday and tomorrow.  Last night there was an unbelievable moon that we watched together; it made me forget about the frantic anxiety of "not enough time."  Sunday I spent the day with some friends in a fun but profound discussion about life that nourished me to the core.  In moments like that, time is not pressured; it truly is my friend and enables the Christ within to be born again.  In moments like that there is no past or future but only present--the REAL PRESENT that warms our heart, the real present that comes each moment if we can remain empty and aware.  Staying empty when we are stressed by time is essential.  Only if we are empty can we wait in expectation for God to fill us with the beauty and gift of ordinary time.  And only if we're aware can we remember and really notice with gratitude the surprises that time can bring.  Time is our friend if we have the right attitude.  Ange's decorating helped me to remember that.

Tomorrow as our first Advent retreat begins, I choose to make peace with time.  How about you?.   

Thanksgiving

Time has been getting away from me!  How about you?  It is good to see Thanksgiving approach – a time when we “take the time” we need to honor all the good in our life and in our world.  I have learned that for me, gratitude is the essential virtue; and, in many ways, it determines my life.  When I take life for granted I am often filled with anxiety and the drudgery of routine living.  On the other hand, when I approach life with deep gratitude I find myself filled with joy, happiness and enduring peace.  How could one virtue transform me so much?   It somehow turns what I have into enough and even more.  And, for Americans on Thanksgiving Day, it turns a meal into a feast, a house into a home and even a stranger into a friend.

Perhaps it is our “remembering” to say thank you that is the key.  All of us hold memories of our family traditions on Thanksgiving Day or of that special time of celebration that awakened gratitude inside our hearts.  Gratitude is holding the memories but it is more.  It is the homage, within our heart, given to God and to others for their goodness to us.  Meister Eckhart tells us that “if the only prayer you said was “thank you”, that would be enough”—pray that prayer often!

Evelyn Underhill tells us that God is always present to us in the “Sacrament of the Present Moment” and it is there that we meet God often and with gratitude.  Sometime it is easier to be grateful for the divine action in our life but it is also important to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity that has nourished our lives moment by moment, and to take the time to simply say “thank you”.  I know I need to do this over and over again each day of my life.  God is so good! and she is revealed to me each day by all those I meet on the journey. 

From the staff of the Franciscan Spiritual Center, “thank you” for the many ways you reveal God to us.   These past few weeks we have been nourished by the Quaker community, by the Mercy of God Community, by the genius of Mickey McGrath’s portrayal of Dorothy Day, the painful sharing of our Human Trafficking seminar, by your participation in our Centering Prayer and Grieving and Loss workshops and by those who come simply for the quiet of retreat.  To all of you we say thank you!  We hold you in our heart!

This link is a gentle entry into gratitude:   Gratitude Link

Election Day

Today, we the American People, do something quite sacred.  We make a choice that determines the future of our country and possibly even our world and our universe.  George Jean Nathan tells us "Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote." so be sure to vote today.  My prayer is that we choose someone who focuses on the common good, is compassionate and supportive to those who are most vulnerable, has the wisdom to create peace in our divided world and the strength to reverence the earth and work toward its well being.   The choice is ours.  The responsibility is ours. I believe in WE THE PEOPLE who desire a more perfect union. 

Here's a YouTube clip of scenes of America with Kate Smith singing our prayer:  God Bless America

Celtic Blessing

The picture above is Glendoloch, Ireland and it appropriately goes with this Beannacht blessing from John O'Donohue.  

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

~ John O'Donohue ~

 (Echoes of Memory)

I first heard this poem read by John O'Donohue in an interview with Krista Tippett.  It was written for his mother, Josie O'Donohue, and it was written shortly before his own death in 2008, like Sr. Ann Michele, he was found dead in bed.  This poem just seems to fit the time of year and the numbness of the hearts of our staff as we go through the motions of making life run smoothing in our Spiritual Center.  It is a bit of a resurrection blessing--from darkness to life, from drudgery to love, from pain to peace.   As the leaves let go of their tree limbs risking all, letting go into God, so we allow a slow wind work these words of love around" us and "an invisible cloak to mind [our] lives".  We have been blessed with understanding retreatants who have adapted to the inconveniences of Sandy and the grieving  hearts of the staff and brought us sunshine and peace each day.  For them we are grateful and for our ability to work as a team to create a hospitable environment worthy of those who enter our doors.

Here is the Beannacht blessing with some soft music and graphics to calm your soul:   
Blessing by John O'Donohue  May it do for you what God is doing for us!

Sr. Ann Michele Zwosta RIP

Yesterday we had quite a shock in the Spiritual Center as we discovered the sudden death of our sister/friend/hospitality coordinator, Sr. Ann Michele Zwosta, OSF.   There was a stunned numbness about us as we tried to move through the day.  It was All Saints Day and today All Souls Day.  For those of us working in the Spiritual Center these two days have merged in ways we never expected.  

All Saints Day is a time of remembering the officially canonized saints and perhaps All Souls Day is a day to remember our families and friends who have gone before us and undoubtedly have a sacred space within our hearts; they may well have been every bit as holy as some who have been canonized.  And so, as well as praying for Sr. Ann Michele and all those we hold deep in our heart, we also pray to them asking that they intercede for us.  Yesterday, All Saints! Today, All Souls!  And tomorrow and the next day we shall have perfectly ordinary days for perfectly ordinary people like you and I whom no one might call saints.  Yet that is what St Paul called all the Christians of his little churches and that is what our hearts desire. Isn't this where the distinction between Saints and Souls breaks down? Only God knows the secrets of our hearts, and how far we have progressed along the road to holiness. So be very aware -- today you may be next to someone who, if you could see them as they will be glorified in heaven, you would bow down in reverence before!  Today, let us remember to cherish one another for in this present moment we still have one another.  Sister Ann Michele will be sorely missed here at the Franciscan Spiritual Center but her legacy lives in our hearts and we are more and more awed as we realize all that she accomplished among us in such a quiet and simple way.

Awaakening The Dreamer: Changing the Dreamer

What could indigenous people teach us?  I was stunned to learn their courage, simplicity, and wisdom!  Last week at the center I attended the Pachamama Alliance program entitled: “Awakening the Dreamer: Changing the Dream” led by Sr. Kathleen McCabe, OSF and Lynne Piser.  The Pachamama Alliance was born out of an invitation from the Achuar people to work in partnership to preserve their land and culture while bringing forth a new worldview that honors and sustains life.  The Achuar are a group of indigenous peoples who have lived in the Amazon on either side of the border between Ecuador and Peru.  They have had a fierce devotion to their land and kept their sophisticated culture and worldview remarkably intact as late as the mid-20th century when individuals and corporations from the so-called “modern” world have sought to exploit their land for its oil, disregarding its irreplaceable ecological and cultural wealth.   Their response shows the depth of wisdom of their leaders and the simplicity and courage of this people..  Get more detail about the alliance in this twelve minute video clip A Call for our Time: The story of the Pachamama Alliance.  

Thought-provoking, challenging, and deeply moving, the program is a dynamic multimedia presentation drawing on some of the most respected social and scientific experts of our time, interwoven with wisdom and inspiration from the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.  It is well worth your time and is offered all over the world.  It invited us to explore a new global vision built on Sustainability, Spiritual Fulfillment and Social  Justice and confront head on the biggest challenges and opportunities of today.  Some examples of the topics covered were:  the state of our industrial world and the thinking that got us where we are today, a new dream--new ideas about what really matters, leading to deep connection and surprising solutions, and how you can be a part of what's emerging,!  Here is a four minute video that will move your heart to change your dream and brings us to the awareness that everyone can do something::  Awakening the Dreamer: Equality and Sustainability for all.  

As a Franciscan I sat there telling myself I can do more than recycle and monitor my ecological footprint. I left knowing that nature had rights that I had violated and that there are collective rights of all peoples that I never allowed to enter my consciousness.  In partnership with our brothers and sisters we can change the world and create a new dream.  The program  touched both the heart and mind. It provided insight into how our modern worldview and economic and political systems are preventing us from creating the world in which we want to live.  Our human and environmental crises is urgent, and we need each other’s support to shift the way we look at and live in the world on a mass scale.When you leave you believe that we live in a time of  extraordinary possibility. and you are committed to being part of the solution rather than part of the problem.  We can all make the shift from the so-called “modern” worldview that places short-term economic gain over the long-term interests of people and planet to a fulfilling life where we can  have a positive impact on our families and communities and truly respect all as brother and sister.   Join us in creating a new way forward for the entire human family.  You might want to consider joining the movement and making the difference.  Here is their website and you might find a symposium near you:  The Pachamam Website.

Be Still And Know That I Am God

In the stillness of an autumn weekend twenty participants focused their hearts and their love on a word, a sacred word, a word found deep in their heart.  Led by presenter Theresa Saulnier, they allowed their hearts to be empty so that our God could fill them.  In the stillness, the sun shone bright the whole weekend and the trees were painted in the color of autumn, that time for letting go, when the trees teach us about not clinging to what was  but opening to what is always meant to be in this present moment.   It was an invitation to intimacy with a God of extravagant love, an invitation to come and sit awhile and simply BE.  They took the journey  into contemplative prayer, an intimacy their hearts sought.  Choosing a sacred word as the symbol of their intention to consent to God's presence and action within them, they sat quietly, settling into that dwelling place within.  Therese taught them the 4 Rs of Cynthia Bourgeault (Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, 2004, p. 38-39): RESIST no thought; RETAIN no thought, REACT to no thought, RETURN to the sacred word."  All participants seemed to cherish the opportunity to experience the stillness of God and judging by their desire to have a week long retreat they found a nourishment within their heart that truly comes from the silence.  The invitation is there for us as well -- the invitation to sit in stillness and stay empty before our God, to move from an ordinary level, to a spiritual level to the divine indwelling -- all it takes is the willingness to respond to the call:  BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.  Perhaps all that is needed is our willingness to show up,  if only for a few minutes;  God is already there within, waiting like a lover.

Icon Workshop

Have you ever been touched by an icon, a painting of a holy figure used as an aid to devotion in the Byzantine and other Eastern Churches?  

All last week several retreatants attended an icon workshop presented by Sr. Christopher Marie Wagner, OSF.  They were invited to deepen their prayer experience by writing the icon of the Mother of God of the Sign. which represents Mary as Mother of the Church.  The participants not only learned the history, theology and symbolism of icons but they learned the technique of gold leafing and painting on a board prepared for painting.  They each completed their own icon of the Mother of God of the Sign using acrylic paints.

The greatest joy for me was seeing the intensity of the experience.  As peaceful as the room was during that special moment of creation, you could also sense the fear and anxiety of venturing into a world unknown to them.  Many of us have the experience of praying with icons but never had I seen the experience of writing the prayer of an icon.  The acceptance of their lack of perfection and yet their desire to experience the moment with their whole mind and heart and soul was clear.  I witnessed an amazing bonding that spoke Mary's FIAT in their actions.  Their persistence and support of one another endured as each person presented their icon to be blest by Fr. Cyprian Rosen, OFM cap at our Mass on the final day.

The evening before the icons were to be blest they were laid out beautifully on a table in our chapel.  Later that night I returned to chapel to sit before them.  To my left was a magnificent and very large icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (probably one of the first icons) and to my right were the images of the Mother of God of the Sign created in our Spiritual Center.  I tried to imagine what Mary was communicating to me in both of these images.  I know it is always more than what is seen in the icon but rather what is seen through it – for me it was the love of God overflowing from Mary’s willingness to say yes.  Sitting with icons is a right brain experience of touching and feeling what is.  I’m normally a left brain person but when I calm my heart and let my right brain take over God always has a way of getting to my heart.  I know icons are not simply art, they are a way into the heart of God.  They are thresholds through which we walk into the stillness closer and closer to our God.  If we sit with them long enough and if we listen to them closely we can hear the voice of God.  I thank our participants for giving me that opportunity!

Francis and the Sultan

Several weeks ago Michael Calabria OFM gave a presentation at the Franciscan Spiritual Center entitled “Simply Divine:  Art and Faith in the Islamic World”.  One presenter described his presentation in the following manner:  “Father presented to us with sensitivity, understanding and beauty so that ‘seeing’ with other eyes may lead us to the connective gifts of all people and creation.”  Father Michael is a scholar of Arabic and Islamic Studies and has researched a great deal on St. Francis and the Sultan and last year shared extensively on this topic at the Center. 

This week I was touched deeply by that story because a small group of Muslims visited us (thanks to the initiative of our Advocacy Committee).  To begin the visit, Sr. Pat Hutchison gave a short presentation on St. Francis and the Sultan, based on the scholarship of Father Michael Calabria and Sr. Kathy Warren, OSF. 

You may know the story of Francis and the Sultan but, if not, here it is in a nutshell:   Around 1219 during the Crusades when Christian soldiers took up arms against Muslims, Francis visited the camp of Malik-al-Kamil, who was the sultan of Egypt.  It is thought that Francis, who probably initially went with the hope of converting the Sultan, may have spent as long as two weeks with him.  During that time they most likely prayed together and shared a great deal about one another.  In the midst of a violent crusade they were able to transcend their differences and engage each other with reverence and respect and perhaps even amazement and appreciation. 

Our Muslim brothers and sisters were deeply moved by this story of Francis but those of us who knew the story were also touched by a new awareness of how influential the Sultan had been in Francis Life.  This encounter is said to have confirmed in Francis the idea that we are all brothers and sisters of one loving Father in heaven.  It is thought that the Francis’ Praises of God are modeled on the 99 names of God as found in the Qu’ran.  Scholars tell us the Canticle of the Sun may also be influenced by this visit, as phrases about the sun and the moon and water are also reflective of phrases in the Qu’ran.  And, finally, perhaps the Blessing Francis gave to Brother Leo, which we often sing, is less a blessing for Leo and more a  a heartfelt prayer for God to protect the Sultan and bring him peace. 

For us today, Francis' visit to the Sultan clearly provides a model for engaging in open, respectful dialogue which is as important today as it was in the Middle Ages.  We desire to offer hospitality and friendship to our Muslim brothers and sisters because they are our neighbors, our colleagues, fellow Americans, perhaps even members of our families, but definitely our brothers and sisters in the faith of Abraham.  Our hope is to continue this dialogue by visiting our new friends again on the first Sunday in November.  May Francis teach us what is ours to do as we live a journey of peace with our Muslim brothers and sisters. 

Feast of St. Francis

The feast of St. Francis has finally arrived.  Despite the dismal weather that appears outside our window, there is bright sunshine and joy everywhere inside.  Last evening's Transitus led us to that deep satisfaction of knowing and following such a lovestruck troubadour who wanted simply to follow in the footsteps of his Lord.  We also know how blest we are as Sisters of St. Francis to have such good brothers and sisters who desire to share this celebration with us.  It was a joy to have everyone join us and we're looking for many more this evening at 7 PM as we celebrate Eucharist together.

The Franciscan Friars of Sacred Heart Province (http://www.thefriars.org/) have the following quote on their home page:  “We welcome you to the Franciscan vision of the world, a world where love is more powerful than hate, forgiveness more powerful than revenge, hope more powerful than despair, community more powerful than isolation and God is more powerful than all that mitigate against goodness and hope.”  Today I thought that was a profound greeting to share with you.  I also share a poem I wrote a number of years ago that speaks to the simplicity that drew me to Francis:

St. Francis of Assisi

By Julia Keegan

he was a simple man

disentangled from the frames

of a stilted world,

alive to the vital values

that open the hearts of our crippled life…

his cause was openness as person,

what tenderly trespassed

the isolated center of christian hope

and opened the box office

to a real God

who lives and speaks and loves…

he created a radicalism

by living an ordinary life

as the person God created him to be…

he abhorred the extravagant blueprint

of structured living

so he rebelled without revolution

by merely becoming

an extravagantly simple man.

Today at the center we had "Women’s Awareness Salon:  Seeing the Sacred in the Ordinary".  Thirteen women listened to Sr. Christa Marie Thompson share about the relationship between Clare of Assisi and Agnes of Prague.  She shared a little about each of them but focused predominantly on the 20 years they knew each other and how they formed such a deeply spiritual and nurturing friendship that Clare could greet Agnes by saying she was "half of her soul".   Such closeness, despite the fact that they lived about 750 miles apart and never once met face to face.  We were reminded that there was no telephone, no amtrak train, no airplane, no post office, and the only communication was by the friars taking their letters back and forth.  

The discussion that followed was about women and friendship as each shared the beauty of others who have supported and truly understood them throughout the years.  Renee shared that there is an African Zulu greeting which translated means "I see you" and the response from the other person is "I am here."  It is a tender response implying with gratitude that the person's "seeing them" made them present in a different way -- perhaps saying, "once you saw me, something new within me came into existence".   That something new is what we recognized in our sharing about our friendships.  Isn't this  the type of relationship which Francis calls us to?  Francis taught us that we (each of us and all of creation) are  brothers and sisters to one another -- we "see" one another and in doing this we bring each other here in a new way, in a simply extravagant way.

Transitus

Today is the vigil of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.  Franciscans from all around the world have a Transitus celebration this evening.  The Transitus is a Franciscan devotion to ritually remember the passing of Saint Francis from this life into God. 

It is similar to what you might do on the anniversary of the death of a  family member or very dear friend.    You sit around and remember their lives, recall the day they died and what occurred.  You share your memories and talk about how much they meant to you.  Tonight at 7 PM we will have a transitus service in our chapel and our hope is that many will join us.  

To ritually revisit the story of Francis' passing is important to us; without it, something significant would be missing from our celebration.  At Transitus tonight we will listen to the stories Francis' early brothers and Clare of Assisi shared  about the night Francis died.  They tell that, despite the pain he was enduring, there was a deep joy and peace in him.  He wanted the Gospel read to him and he wanted all his followers there so that we could give them a blessing.  And, of course, Francis wanted singing all around him as he welcomed Sister Death.  Come see what it is like!  If you can't join us, this link might help you to understand a little more about it and then you can plan to join us next year on October 3, 2013:  Transitus explanation.  St. Francis tells us "it is not fitting,  when in God's  service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look" and so, like good Franciscans, we will have some delightful refreshments after the transitus in order to make tangible our Franciscan joy.

Angels: Yes or No?

Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels.  As Fr. Cyprian said at Mass this morning, some people believe in them and some people don’t  -- Me, I’m a firm believer!  One of the Fathers of the Church, St. Basil the Great (329-379AD) told us:   “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him (sic) to life.”  (St. Basil, Adv. Eunomium III, 1: pg 29, 656B)  I think I feel that protective presence each day.  But what I also believe is that we can be angels to one another.  One of our sisters tells the story of sliding off the road during a snow storm and two young men helped her get her car back on the road and when she turned around to thank them they were gone.  Angel or not?  I think they were. 

Henri Nouwen tells us:  “We need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation. Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it.” (Can You Drink The Cup, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN,  1996, Chapter 3)  Yesterday the team of the Franciscan Spiritual Center (FSC) went out for breakfast to celebrate one another.  One was transitioning from the FSC to a new ministry, one was just starting her first day ministering at the Spiritual center, and one was beginning the year of her golden jubilee.  The one thing that is clear to me as we share our lives side by side  is that we influence one another and we make each other better than we could ever be alone.  We have different talents and different personalities and all of those gifts come together in a wonderful way to manifest as the Franciscan Spiritual Center.  We are angels for one another.  Luciano de Crescenzo, the famous Italian writer, tells us:  We are angels with one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.  Enjoy this song based on that quote and ponder the question for yourself:  Angels:  Yes or no?

Angels With One Wing

First Day Blogging

Today is my first day blogging for the Franciscan Spiritual Center.  I come with excitement but some anxiety not knowing what you, our readers, would like most to hear.  You'll have to direct me as I move forward into this new blogging world.  Today is an exquisite day in the neighborhood, bright sunshine and blue skies everywhere with a obvious hint of Fall in the air.    There is a stillness and an excitement around here as we anticipate the Feast of St. Francis this week.  We celebrate Transitus on Wednesday night at 7 PM and the liturgy for the Feast on Thursday at 7 PM.  All are welcome to join us.


The excitement is deep within our hearts as we ready for the feast.  Our call down a Franciscan path is different because it does not ask, “what would Jesus do?” but “how does Jesus live in me?”  (Delio, Ilia (2011-06-29). Franciscan Prayer (p. 147).  Kindle Edition.)   As we ponder the life of Francis and our life in a Franciscan Spiritual Center we recognize that what's really important is the authenticity of the person that enables us to be in relationship, that enables Jesus to live through us  No one ever doubted Francis' sincerity.  All were awestruck by that clear and singular desire Francis had to imitate Jesus, our brother.  And so the challenge continues for us to do the same.  Sometimes in our lives we do things because others expect it of us and other times we allow the life that wants to live within us to manifest itself fully-- that is what it is to be authentic.  To look in our hearts and to find the dwelling place where we are one with this good God of extravagant love and to let it move out of our eyes into the eyes of those we meet,  That's how Jesus lived.  That's what Francis understood and that's what's important to us. What we do is not all that important but who we are inside our heart is what Francis shows us is key.