Where God Can Be Found

Jesus taught us that God is found in relationship. Indeed, Jesus’ deepest desire was that we all enter into the relationship that he enjoyed with the Father. As he said before he died, “I pray not only for them [his disciples] but also for those who believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us….” (Jn 17:21).

One man who understood this teaching was the musician Pete Seeger. As another musician, Ani DiFranco, said of him, “Each time I saw him was a lesson in how to be a better person. An interviewer listed Pete’s many awards and honors and then asked what was his greatest accomplishment. Pete said it was marrying the best woman he’d ever met, staying married for seventy years, and having three kids and six grandchildren. In other words, he said a successful human being is someone who’s created a happy family and supportive relationships.”

If we believe, as Jesus said, that God is found in relationship, and if we want our own lives to be a lesson in how to be a better person, it appears that we should focus on nurturing our relationships with God and others. Then the God we seek will indeed live among us and be one with us, and when our body dies and we encounter God in a new way, we will recognize the Holy One and realize that God was in our midst all along.

Blessed Are the Flexible

Lately I have been aware of and grateful for the people who go with life’s flow instead of creating blockages by resisting change. Within the past year a number of sisters have gracefully transitioned from full-time to part-time work, retired altogether, moved from missions to the monastery, and moved from the monastery to Dooley Center. As Karen Casey and Martha Vanceburg say in their book The Promise of a New Day, “When we try to hang on to … any part of life, we impede the natural flow. To be in harmony, we must let go. It’s human to want to hold on to what’s precious. But life’s real treasure is found in achieving the rhythm of ebb and flow.”

As I’ve been studying the monastic vows, it is clear that “conversatio morum”—fidelity to the monastic way of life and continually being open to conversion—will be a lifelong challenge. However, it’s also clear that accepting change gracefully is one of the life-giving fruits of that fidelity, contributing to peace and harmony not just for ourselves but for others.

As a friend from Shantivanam, Fr. Tom O’Brien, used to say, “Blessed are the flexible, for they won’t be bent out of shape!”

Becoming Open to the Spirit's Power

Jesus’ original disciples were not notable for their achievements when they were first called to follow him. However, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, they preached, healed, traveled great distances, and endured persecution as they spread the good news and shepherded a rapidly growing church. How were these men and women able to accomplish such feats?

We all know that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. However, this Spirit is available to everyone; why, then, isn’t everyone open to it? Michael Casey identifies how the disciples came to this openness in his article The Benedictine Promises: “It is not by achievement but by endurance for the love of Christ that we become open to the Spirit’s power.”

It was easy for the first disciples to love Christ, because they interacted with him in the person of Jesus. We don’t have that blessing. Thus we have the challenge of seeing Christ in different guises—in those who make up the body of Christ—and loving them, which then opens us to the Spirit’s power.

It is in our grasp to live in joy and peace and invite others to share in God’s kingdom. By supporting each other, we can endure the difficulties of life for the love of Christ, who knows the suffering of humanity yet remains with us to be a conduit to God the Father. That willingness to be the conduit is reason enough for all of us to love Christ, centuries after Jesus walked the earth.

Knowing God by Heart

It was said of Sr. Margaret Brennan that she “knew God by heart,” which seems like an extraordinary statement. How does one come to know God in such an intimate way?

When we memorize a poem or scripture passage, we often say that we “know it by heart.” True memoriza- tion means more than reciting words; it entails spend- ing time with the text, looking at it from all angles, seeing how it resonates with our experience, exploring what it means for us, and integrating it into our life. We actually end up developing a relationship with the piece; we might say, “That is my favorite poem” or “I want that scripture passage read at my funeral.”

We can use the same process to come to know God by heart. Because God‘s depths and dimensions are fathomless, getting to know God intimately is a never-ending endeavor. Nonetheless, whether we ultimately get to see God face to face doesn’t matter, because if we devote ourselves to our relationship with our Creator now, when our earthly body dies we will surely recognize God’s heart.

Borrowing God's Eyes

According to today’s reflection in Give Us This Day, Theologian Dorothee Soelle defined mysticism as “a different relationship to the world—one that has borrowed the eyes of God.”

In the springtime, it is easy to feel that we have borrowed the eyes of God as we see trees and flower beds bursting with new life. This must be how God forever sees us, the earth, and the universe—beautiful, glowing, and growing into the light.

As Katherine Lang pointed out in her presentation on Laudato Si last night at the Mount, it is important that we take time to enjoy the beauty of the earth, because then we are more likely to work to protect it. It is not far-fetched to think of developing a relationship with the land, trees, our gardens…just yesterday, Sr. Carol Ann commented that her rosebushes are like friends that she looks forward to seeing every spring.

As with human relationships, the key to having a mutual and enriching relationship with the earth is presence—taking time to be with the other. Therefore, be sure to borrow the eyes of God this weekend and spend some time outside with our friends, the flowers and trees!

Claiming Our Voice

During the Easter season, it is fascinating to hear stories about how the disciples of Jesus in the early Christian community overcame their fear and claimed the power of their voices to proclaim the good news.

Last Saturday at the Mount, two sopranos from the Kansas City Chorale showed us just how awe inspiring it can be to claim the power of our voice. With no accompaniment, the song of these two women filled Saint Scholastica Chapel, from the sanctuary steps to the rose window above the organ in the choir loft. They showed us that having confidence in our gifts and using them is a witness to God’s creativity, God’s diversity, God’s glory.

Most of us are not called to preach from the pulpit or on street corners. However, once we understand the truth of God’s love for us and for all of creation, we need to claim it by transmitting the joy of that knowledge through the way we live—wholeheartedly, and with full-throated enthusiasm for the wonder of life in relationship with God.

Fostering our Wellsprings of Creativity

I suspect that God is most delighted with us when we are (a) loving and compassionate and (b) creative. After all, these qualities are God’s most distinctive characteristics, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

The sisters at the Mount are very supportive of any type of creative endeavor, showering praise on anyone who embroiders tea towels, bakes sweets, creates flower arrangements, writes petitions for mass, prepares special liturgies, decorates for Christmas, or plants a garden. This affirmation was displayed most recently when the prioress and more than 25 sisters gathered to bless Sr. Marie Louise Krenner’s new craft room in Dooley Center. She has named the room “Bethlehem” because it is the place where she sews colorful and unique creche sets that are a favorite of young children.

To see God’s creative spirit at work among us is heartening and hopeful. Sometimes we suppress our creative instincts because tending to other matters seems more important. However, if we want to be holy as God is holy, and God is constantly creating new things, shouldn’t we do the same—and support each other’s wellsprings of creativity?