Beloved in our Lord, after being away on meditation retreat for the month of September, and returning to the fall schedule already underway, I am now finding a moment to share with you a few thoughts.
When I was on retreat the question came up as to why we meditate. As I looked as honestly as I could at this question, this is what I wrote in my journal of that retreat:
“Meditation provides me with refreshment. I can come into a meditation sitting bone tired and leave feeling renewed for engagement with others and with life (most of the time). Meditation is the place where I can process emotions, be present in an undisturbed environment with what is really going on in my life, where I can sit with difficult and demanding feelings and watch them be taken care of without any help from me. Meditation provides me with grounding, especially in times of high stress and activity when I am over-busy. At those times I can come to meditation and be reunited; without the time in meditation I feel scattered and energy gets diffused.”
One might notice from this that meditation is far more than a stress reduction technique or a brief escape from the hard realities of the present moment. Meditation is for engagement with life, a way of facing it head on, a way to break through the avoidance and denial served by keeping one’s self overly busy.
But during meditation we do not sit there working through problems or strategizing conversations or making action plans. We leave our imaginations and focusing on the future at the door, and instead we sit with the truth of what we are feeling right now. I have learned to sit and observe the body, and have discovered that it has amazing wisdom of its own. It will show me by the sensations that I feel, for instance, where I am connected with others (in both positive or negative ways) and where I am isolating myself. By paying attention and observing long enough I can come to see how much of what I feel is not something I can credit or blame others with, but comes from my own imagining and self-affliction.
Much of the time this observation will bring me again and again to the realization of my need for Yeshua’s mercy, which, of course, is abundant, free flowing, unconditional and always available. Then as I continue to sit I watch the physical sensations, and with them the dilemma, the concern, the suffering and self-affliction gradually diminish and dissipate. The faith process of meditation again brings healing and restores wholeness.
I meditate because I have found this to be, and can dependably trust, that the process of meditation is the most effective and efficient means I have experienced for healing my inward blindness. Without mediating navigating life and all that it throws at me would be full of frustration and despair, grief and anger, given what I know about myself, and I say not thanks to that. Why do you meditate?
Blessings in the Lamb
Beverly
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Course Offerings This Fall
Lost In Translation
Beginning Monday, October 26, this course explores key Greek words used throughout the New Testament, their use in conveying the central themes of the gospels, and what they reveal about the spiritual process of salvation, discipleship, resurrection, the work of the Holy Spirit, creation, light, eternal life, etc. We also look at how this deeper exploration of the gospels in their original language can inform an understanding of Christian meditation. No prior knowledge of the Greek language is required. Sitting in silent meditation is a part of each class session as an effective spiritual practice in preparation for reading scripture. 12 Mondays from 9:45 to 11:15 AM at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Mercer Island.
12 Week Course at Emmanuel, Mercer Island
For new and returning meditators, the 12 Week Course is a comprehensive foundation course of the Prayer of the Lamb designed to give support to establishing a reliable practice. Course includes meditation, study of the original text plus new material, and passages from the gospels that give light to the spiritual work of meditation. Tuesdays from 7 to 9 PM, Emmanuel, Mercer Island, beginning October 27.
Calm in the Storm, Developing a Rule of Life
A day-long workshop at St. Mark’s Cathedral on November 14, 9 AM to 3 PM, in Skinner Auditorium: The Rev. Beverly Hosea, of the Community of the Lamb, will facilitate this workshop on developing spiritual practices for daily living that engage our ministries in the world.
The ancient practice of following a Rule of Life helps us to integrate our faith practice with experiences of every day activities. This workshop will explore how the Prayer of the Lamb offers an integrative spiritual practice that is biblically, sacramentally and ecologically connected to the ministries of intercession and service in the world. The workshop will include instruction and times of silent meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb, as well as discussion on building a personal Rule of Life.
In follow-up to this workshop those attending may want to continue exploring and developing their personal Rule of Life with this spiritual resource of meditational intercession. A twelve week course will be offered to give support and further teaching for establishing an effective and sustaining spiritual practice for individuals and community for living this out.
Register by contacting the Rev. Marilyn Cornwell at St. Mark’s Cathedral: 206-323-0300, ext. 222, mcornwell@saintmarks.org
Clergy Meditation Group
Already underway this meditation group meets Mondays from 7:30 to 9:00 AM, for Episcopal and other clergy. Support for personal spiritual practice, instruction in meditating with the Prayer of the Lamb, and confidential reflection on practice.
Beginning Monday, October 26, this course explores key Greek words used throughout the New Testament, their use in conveying the central themes of the gospels, and what they reveal about the spiritual process of salvation, discipleship, resurrection, the work of the Holy Spirit, creation, light, eternal life, etc. We also look at how this deeper exploration of the gospels in their original language can inform an understanding of Christian meditation. No prior knowledge of the Greek language is required. Sitting in silent meditation is a part of each class session as an effective spiritual practice in preparation for reading scripture. 12 Mondays from 9:45 to 11:15 AM at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Mercer Island.
12 Week Course at Emmanuel, Mercer Island
For new and returning meditators, the 12 Week Course is a comprehensive foundation course of the Prayer of the Lamb designed to give support to establishing a reliable practice. Course includes meditation, study of the original text plus new material, and passages from the gospels that give light to the spiritual work of meditation. Tuesdays from 7 to 9 PM, Emmanuel, Mercer Island, beginning October 27.
Calm in the Storm, Developing a Rule of Life
A day-long workshop at St. Mark’s Cathedral on November 14, 9 AM to 3 PM, in Skinner Auditorium: The Rev. Beverly Hosea, of the Community of the Lamb, will facilitate this workshop on developing spiritual practices for daily living that engage our ministries in the world.
The ancient practice of following a Rule of Life helps us to integrate our faith practice with experiences of every day activities. This workshop will explore how the Prayer of the Lamb offers an integrative spiritual practice that is biblically, sacramentally and ecologically connected to the ministries of intercession and service in the world. The workshop will include instruction and times of silent meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb, as well as discussion on building a personal Rule of Life.
In follow-up to this workshop those attending may want to continue exploring and developing their personal Rule of Life with this spiritual resource of meditational intercession. A twelve week course will be offered to give support and further teaching for establishing an effective and sustaining spiritual practice for individuals and community for living this out.
Register by contacting the Rev. Marilyn Cornwell at St. Mark’s Cathedral: 206-323-0300, ext. 222, mcornwell@saintmarks.org
Clergy Meditation Group
Already underway this meditation group meets Mondays from 7:30 to 9:00 AM, for Episcopal and other clergy. Support for personal spiritual practice, instruction in meditating with the Prayer of the Lamb, and confidential reflection on practice.
Sermon Oct. 4 St. Francis, Emmanuel, Mercer Island
Looking around at you this morning, you are amazing;
you are all such lovely and loveable people.
It is so good to be here with you
in this beautiful space, all of us gathered together
to sing God’s praises along with the stars and moon and sun
and all God’s creation
and to plunge again into the incredible Mystery of the Eucharist
communing with the Heart of Christ, and with each other.
I am just back from a 30 day meditation retreat,
the entire month of September off in the woods near Spokane
with a few other veteran meditators
getting grilled daily by my meditation teacher about my practice
and reveling in the uninterrupted silence
of several hours of meditation each day.
Now I should say something about this retreat
because I know a number of people will ask me, “How was the retreat?”
And the quick answer that usually is all we have time for is “fine.”
But I think it is more helpful to say
what value this meditation retreat has had for me.
To that I can say with greater clarity
that meditation for me is energizing,
that it is the most effect way for me to process what I am feeling
and for being with what is really going on with me,
and that meditation is grounding for me,
especially during high demand times.
Through meditation I am empowered for action, for service, for ministry.
And just as we are here communing with God and with each other,
so too the retreat was a form of communion,
a Eucharist not of bread and wine
but of all creation.
Communion in that setting was different in configuration
than here at this altar.
Our retreat facility was set very closely within the natural setting of creation.
We were the interlopers intruding into the habitat of white tailed deer,
chipmunks, rabbits, hawks and crickets,
quail and myriad varieties of beetles,
coyotes singing to the moon,
and wild turkeys, always the wild turkeys making their daily visit
to the buffet table that seemed to be spread
right outside the barn we used for our meditation room.
All this set back up in the pine-covered hills away from civilization.
Then came the task of returning to “civilization”
which is often more like UN-civilization
returning to traffic lights and grocery stores
and mechanical sounds and artificial vistas of cityscapes
and the need to lock one’s door.
However, while in this beautiful pine forest perched on a hill
happily ensconced in my little hermitage,
I thought about Francis of Assisi,
whose Feast Day is today.
I thought about Francis of Assisi on a similar meditation retreat
likewise during the month of September 800 years earlier
perched on another high hill, Mount La Verna,
meditating there at the time of the Feast of the Holy Cross
and receiving within his own body
the same wounds as our Lord absorbed at the crucifixion.
This was more than Francis identifying with our Lord Jesus
and therefore wishing to imitate him to the ultimate degree,
although that certainly was expressed in all the literature
about this remarkable event.
This was more about Francis’ personal realization of oneness with Christ,
of being in Christ, as the Apostle Paul wrote about,
of baptismal identity in the Eternal Word of God.
And in that Francis’ own body then manifested this blood baptism
as a sign and witness of this union, this unity of being,
to his generation and for all generations to come.
That September of 1223/4 alone in the woods of Mount La Verna
Francis was in intimate connection with his environment.
You might even say that the distinction between self and environment was gone,
for that distinction is really arbitrary and dependent
for one cannot be distinct from environment,
we are ourselves part of the environment.
Admittedly this is not as easy for us to recognize,
because we can separate ourselves off from the environment so readily:
step inside a building, climb into our cars,
set the thermostat, screen the windows,
plant our gardens in neat rows and remove the weeds,
spray for cockroaches and ants in the kitchen.
We place ourselves over and against the environment
building artificial barriers.
It was after this time when Francis received the stigmata
that he composed his famous Canticle of Creation.
In it he expresses this interrelationship and interdependence
of all living beings in creation
all living beings including Brother Sun, Sister Moon,
Brother Fire, Sister Water, Brother Wind,
and our sister, Mother Earth,
all the primal elements
and all of them speaking in each their own way the praise of Creator God.
Francis, you see, is the ecological saint,
who saw the intrinsic connection between us humans
and all the other creatures, indeed the whole planet,
the entire ecosystem,
the interrelatedness of all life forms,
the interconnection that binds up all our destinies together,
so that we must both honor
our four legged and winged brothers and sisters,
and our sister Mother Earth,
both honor them and serve them for the sake of us all.
And also listen to them.
Did you pick up on that from the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible reading
for today? From Job, chapter 12
7 "…ask the animals, and they will teach you;
the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8 ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the LORD has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of every human being.”
The animals can teach us if we will let them.
The birds of the air have been trying to tell us, but will we listen?
Their very disappearance speaks volumes to us!
I grieve that it is more and more likely
that I will not again hear the song of the meadow lark
or the haunting call of the loon that graced my growing up years.
And should we not all tremble at how this gives us warning
of the likelihood of our own extinction?
of the madness of our own self-destructive behavior
that ignores their message.
St. Francis of Assisi saw clearly that interconnectedness
exhibited to him through all members of creation
as examples to illustrate the need for and the way to
reconciliation,
for indeed Francis is a saint for reconciliation,
for peace making
for relationship to creation and care for all living beings
for embracing Gospel poverty, non-ownership, as key to this
for the embodiment of a love for Jesus in imitation of his life and death
and for the power of that love, fiery and sweet as honey,
to save us from our own foolishness.
Francis was so remarkable in his own day 8 centuries ago
that thousands and thousands of people followed him,
and history was changed in Europe because of it.
Today within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion
there are those of us who are caught up in the same vision
that Francis had,
who see Francis as role model in living out faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Third Order, Society of St. Francis, of which I am a member,
there are many of us who take this ecological interdependence
with all the other life forms very seriously,
and we look critically at our own relationship to creation
and interdependence with other species of living beings.
We have been blessed to have my dear friend and fellow Franciscan,
Susan Pitchford, with us again today for the education hour.
This last Lent when she was with us, she was very well received.
Susan had more to say about the Franciscan understanding
of relationship with creation
and indeed our communion with creation.
And while I am taking a moment here to kind of make announcements
in the course of this sermon,
I want to mention the outstanding internationally known person
that we are bringing to Emmanuel as a guest lecturer on January 30,
Bishop Mark MacDonald, another Third Order Franciscan,
former Bishop of Alaska
and currently serving as Anglican Bishop
for the native peoples of Canada.
Bishop MacDonald will also preach here on January 31.
His is another voice echoing St. Francis,
helping us see this relationship of communion with creation
with astonishing freshness and clarity.
So this morning I stagger out of that space
of living in communion with creation
listening to coyotes and wild turkeys
singing the praises of Creator God.
and I come once again to this sacred ground, this holy table
for communion with you, beloved creatures of God.
And this afternoon when we include our animal companions
in our celebration of this feast day of St. Francis,
but may it also be a time of reflection about our relationship
with all our brothers and sisters of the diversity of creation,
the four legged and winged brothers and sisters,
and the ways in which they bless us
and the ways in which we are dependent on them
for our own existence.
And for all of us living, breathing beings
may we know more truly how each breath
is an incredible miracle and gift from God,
the One who is Source of all life, Creator and Sustainer,
in Whom we live and move and have our being.
Amen.
you are all such lovely and loveable people.
It is so good to be here with you
in this beautiful space, all of us gathered together
to sing God’s praises along with the stars and moon and sun
and all God’s creation
and to plunge again into the incredible Mystery of the Eucharist
communing with the Heart of Christ, and with each other.
I am just back from a 30 day meditation retreat,
the entire month of September off in the woods near Spokane
with a few other veteran meditators
getting grilled daily by my meditation teacher about my practice
and reveling in the uninterrupted silence
of several hours of meditation each day.
Now I should say something about this retreat
because I know a number of people will ask me, “How was the retreat?”
And the quick answer that usually is all we have time for is “fine.”
But I think it is more helpful to say
what value this meditation retreat has had for me.
To that I can say with greater clarity
that meditation for me is energizing,
that it is the most effect way for me to process what I am feeling
and for being with what is really going on with me,
and that meditation is grounding for me,
especially during high demand times.
Through meditation I am empowered for action, for service, for ministry.
And just as we are here communing with God and with each other,
so too the retreat was a form of communion,
a Eucharist not of bread and wine
but of all creation.
Communion in that setting was different in configuration
than here at this altar.
Our retreat facility was set very closely within the natural setting of creation.
We were the interlopers intruding into the habitat of white tailed deer,
chipmunks, rabbits, hawks and crickets,
quail and myriad varieties of beetles,
coyotes singing to the moon,
and wild turkeys, always the wild turkeys making their daily visit
to the buffet table that seemed to be spread
right outside the barn we used for our meditation room.
All this set back up in the pine-covered hills away from civilization.
Then came the task of returning to “civilization”
which is often more like UN-civilization
returning to traffic lights and grocery stores
and mechanical sounds and artificial vistas of cityscapes
and the need to lock one’s door.
However, while in this beautiful pine forest perched on a hill
happily ensconced in my little hermitage,
I thought about Francis of Assisi,
whose Feast Day is today.
I thought about Francis of Assisi on a similar meditation retreat
likewise during the month of September 800 years earlier
perched on another high hill, Mount La Verna,
meditating there at the time of the Feast of the Holy Cross
and receiving within his own body
the same wounds as our Lord absorbed at the crucifixion.
This was more than Francis identifying with our Lord Jesus
and therefore wishing to imitate him to the ultimate degree,
although that certainly was expressed in all the literature
about this remarkable event.
This was more about Francis’ personal realization of oneness with Christ,
of being in Christ, as the Apostle Paul wrote about,
of baptismal identity in the Eternal Word of God.
And in that Francis’ own body then manifested this blood baptism
as a sign and witness of this union, this unity of being,
to his generation and for all generations to come.
That September of 1223/4 alone in the woods of Mount La Verna
Francis was in intimate connection with his environment.
You might even say that the distinction between self and environment was gone,
for that distinction is really arbitrary and dependent
for one cannot be distinct from environment,
we are ourselves part of the environment.
Admittedly this is not as easy for us to recognize,
because we can separate ourselves off from the environment so readily:
step inside a building, climb into our cars,
set the thermostat, screen the windows,
plant our gardens in neat rows and remove the weeds,
spray for cockroaches and ants in the kitchen.
We place ourselves over and against the environment
building artificial barriers.
It was after this time when Francis received the stigmata
that he composed his famous Canticle of Creation.
In it he expresses this interrelationship and interdependence
of all living beings in creation
all living beings including Brother Sun, Sister Moon,
Brother Fire, Sister Water, Brother Wind,
and our sister, Mother Earth,
all the primal elements
and all of them speaking in each their own way the praise of Creator God.
Francis, you see, is the ecological saint,
who saw the intrinsic connection between us humans
and all the other creatures, indeed the whole planet,
the entire ecosystem,
the interrelatedness of all life forms,
the interconnection that binds up all our destinies together,
so that we must both honor
our four legged and winged brothers and sisters,
and our sister Mother Earth,
both honor them and serve them for the sake of us all.
And also listen to them.
Did you pick up on that from the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible reading
for today? From Job, chapter 12
7 "…ask the animals, and they will teach you;
the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8 ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the LORD has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of every human being.”
The animals can teach us if we will let them.
The birds of the air have been trying to tell us, but will we listen?
Their very disappearance speaks volumes to us!
I grieve that it is more and more likely
that I will not again hear the song of the meadow lark
or the haunting call of the loon that graced my growing up years.
And should we not all tremble at how this gives us warning
of the likelihood of our own extinction?
of the madness of our own self-destructive behavior
that ignores their message.
St. Francis of Assisi saw clearly that interconnectedness
exhibited to him through all members of creation
as examples to illustrate the need for and the way to
reconciliation,
for indeed Francis is a saint for reconciliation,
for peace making
for relationship to creation and care for all living beings
for embracing Gospel poverty, non-ownership, as key to this
for the embodiment of a love for Jesus in imitation of his life and death
and for the power of that love, fiery and sweet as honey,
to save us from our own foolishness.
Francis was so remarkable in his own day 8 centuries ago
that thousands and thousands of people followed him,
and history was changed in Europe because of it.
Today within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion
there are those of us who are caught up in the same vision
that Francis had,
who see Francis as role model in living out faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Third Order, Society of St. Francis, of which I am a member,
there are many of us who take this ecological interdependence
with all the other life forms very seriously,
and we look critically at our own relationship to creation
and interdependence with other species of living beings.
We have been blessed to have my dear friend and fellow Franciscan,
Susan Pitchford, with us again today for the education hour.
This last Lent when she was with us, she was very well received.
Susan had more to say about the Franciscan understanding
of relationship with creation
and indeed our communion with creation.
And while I am taking a moment here to kind of make announcements
in the course of this sermon,
I want to mention the outstanding internationally known person
that we are bringing to Emmanuel as a guest lecturer on January 30,
Bishop Mark MacDonald, another Third Order Franciscan,
former Bishop of Alaska
and currently serving as Anglican Bishop
for the native peoples of Canada.
Bishop MacDonald will also preach here on January 31.
His is another voice echoing St. Francis,
helping us see this relationship of communion with creation
with astonishing freshness and clarity.
So this morning I stagger out of that space
of living in communion with creation
listening to coyotes and wild turkeys
singing the praises of Creator God.
and I come once again to this sacred ground, this holy table
for communion with you, beloved creatures of God.
And this afternoon when we include our animal companions
in our celebration of this feast day of St. Francis,
but may it also be a time of reflection about our relationship
with all our brothers and sisters of the diversity of creation,
the four legged and winged brothers and sisters,
and the ways in which they bless us
and the ways in which we are dependent on them
for our own existence.
And for all of us living, breathing beings
may we know more truly how each breath
is an incredible miracle and gift from God,
the One who is Source of all life, Creator and Sustainer,
in Whom we live and move and have our being.
Amen.
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