Hello, everyone,
Just musing about how prayer always has two poles, one person and then God/Jesus/Holy Spirit on each side of the cries and whispers, praising, thanking, complaining, every thought and thought we have yet to become aware of, all that is in our hearts and possible to a human being. Read this morning "The Spirit always operates in the between: between Jesus and his Abba, between Jesus and us, between you and me, between us and those to whom we are sent."
Speaking and hearing, writing and reading, prayer, Spirit, Mystery and Presence, Bonds that form community. Can our community be authentic? Will worship and thanksgiving be deeper after we have read and digested? Will we be more equipped to go to those to whom we are sent?
So here is his writing for us to reflect upon:
"Richard Armstrong and Edward Watkin tell the story of a biologist's experiment with "processional caterpillars." On the rim of a clay pot that held a plant, he lined them up so that the leader was head-to-tail with the last caterpillar.
The tiny creatures circled the rim of the pot for a full week. Not once did any one of them break away to go over to the plant and eat. Eventually, all caterpillars died from exhaustion and starvation.
The story of the processional caterpillars is a kind of parable of human behavior. People are reluctant to break away from the rhythmic pattern of daily life. They don't want to be different.
We must break away, however, if we are to accept Jesus' invitation to "go off alone" with him in prayer. We must break away and be different.
This is especially difficult in today's world. J. D. Salinger points this out in "Teddy." "I mean it's very hard to meditate and live a spiritual life in America. "People think you're a freak if you try to. My father thinks I'm a freak, in a way. And my mother--well, she doesn't think it's good for me to think about God all the time. She thinks it's bad for my health."
The decision to begin a meditation program is a deeper commitment than people realize. A story will illustrate. One day a boy was watching a holy man praying on the banks of a river in India. When the holy man completed his prayer, the boy went over and asked him, "Will you teach me to pray?"
The holy man studied the boy's face carefully. Then he gripped the boy's head in his hands and plunged it forcefully into the water. The boy struggled frantically, trying to free himself in order to breathe. Finally, the holy man released his hold.
When the boy was able to get his breath, he gasped, "What did you do that for?" The holy man said: "I just gave you your first lesson!" "What do you mean?" asked the astonished boy. "Well," said the holy man, "when you long to pray as much as you longed to breathe when your head was underwater--only then will I be able to teach you to pray."
Mark Link wrote this whole book I'm believing because he has thought a lot about prayer and engaged in it himself and probably received a lot of answers to his prayers and is passionate about sharing with other people what he has learned. If I/maybe you and me/we stick with this, maybe we will be able to feel the Spirit operating in the between--even between a writer and a reader, between Mark Link and ?, even here in cyberspace.
God's blessings to you all for a very, very precious day,
Sharon
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Author's reflection on page 5
Hello, all readers, helping the Mustard Seed Library,
Reflection
There is only one way to understand the gospel fully--on our knees. In other words, we must pass beyond gospel study to gospel prayer. We must cease being gospel spectators and become gospel participants.
Imagine you are the man in this story. Experience with all your senses everything the man sees, feels, and hears.
"Some people brought (Jesus) a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged Jesus to place his hands on him.
"So Jesus took him off alone, away from the crowd, put his fingers in the man's ears, spat, and touched the man's tongue. Then Jesus looked up to heaven, gave a deep groan, and said to the man, "Ephphatha," which means, "Open up!"
"At once the man was able to hear, and his speech impediment was removed, and he began to talk without any trouble....All who heard were completely amazed. "How well he does everything!" they exclaimed. "He even causes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak!"
Mark 7:32-37
Me, writing now. I must say the meditation from yesterday put me off quite a bit. I didn't like the comparison about people who are deaf being like Christians who who aren't able somehow to talk and listen to God. The description of deaf life was difficult to read and it distanced me from the author but, the more thinking that came, the more I realized that--through this language--the author had enabled me to enter into the loneliness too, loneliness from being apart from the author, being closer to the deaf "Soon, you begin avoiding the hearing world, associating only with the deaf." (page 3) and realizing that I also would be one of the people in Mark 7 who would be "Some people brought (Jesus) a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged Jesus to place his hands on him." So many things help us to know we have needs to breakaway from the crowd and go off to a quiet place with Jesus.
God's Peace,
Sharon
Reflection
There is only one way to understand the gospel fully--on our knees. In other words, we must pass beyond gospel study to gospel prayer. We must cease being gospel spectators and become gospel participants.
Imagine you are the man in this story. Experience with all your senses everything the man sees, feels, and hears.
"Some people brought (Jesus) a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged Jesus to place his hands on him.
"So Jesus took him off alone, away from the crowd, put his fingers in the man's ears, spat, and touched the man's tongue. Then Jesus looked up to heaven, gave a deep groan, and said to the man, "Ephphatha," which means, "Open up!"
"At once the man was able to hear, and his speech impediment was removed, and he began to talk without any trouble....All who heard were completely amazed. "How well he does everything!" they exclaimed. "He even causes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak!"
Mark 7:32-37
Me, writing now. I must say the meditation from yesterday put me off quite a bit. I didn't like the comparison about people who are deaf being like Christians who who aren't able somehow to talk and listen to God. The description of deaf life was difficult to read and it distanced me from the author but, the more thinking that came, the more I realized that--through this language--the author had enabled me to enter into the loneliness too, loneliness from being apart from the author, being closer to the deaf "Soon, you begin avoiding the hearing world, associating only with the deaf." (page 3) and realizing that I also would be one of the people in Mark 7 who would be "Some people brought (Jesus) a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged Jesus to place his hands on him." So many things help us to know we have needs to breakaway from the crowd and go off to a quiet place with Jesus.
God's Peace,
Sharon
Saturday, June 27, 2009
pages 3 and 4 of the book
Hello, I'm going to start with the very first meditation in the book:
"Breakaway Invitation
Many people wake up each morning not to the sound of an alarm clock, but to the whir of a vibrator under their pillows. These people live in a silent world. They are deaf.
Most of us think that blindness is worse than deafness. But Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf, considered deafness the greater handicap.
When you are without hearing, an important door to the everyday world closes. Turning on the radio is useless. Watching TV becomes a bland experience. You can't understand the people around you, even their simplest questions. You begin to feel lonely and abandoned.
Soon, you begin avoiding the hearing world, associating only with the deaf. You become a stranger in your own land.
The tragic plight of the deaf illustrates the plight of many Christians today. They have become strangers in their own land. Spiritually, they have become deaf and dumb--unable to speak to God in prayer, and unable to hear God speak to them.
Though this spiritual plight is as old as time, it is especially prevalent in modern times. Tennessee Williams refers to it in his play The Night of the Iguana:
Hannah: Liquor isn't your problem, Mr. Shannon.
Shannon: What is my problem, Miss Jelkes?
Hannah: The oldest one in the world--the need to believe in something or in someone.
What can we do about this problem? Laurence Gould answers bluntly: "We must stop gagging on the world "spiritual". We must rediscover and reassert our faith."
But how do we refind and reassert our faith? The gospel points to the answer.
One day, some people brought a deaf and dumb man to Jesus to be healed. Jesus took the man off alone, away from the crowd, and restored his health.
To be healed of our spiritual deafness and dumbness we must present ourselves to Jesus for healing. Concretely, this means we must "break away" from the crowd, go off with Jesus alone, and spend time with him in daily prayer."
This is an experiment to see if this long meditation goes through. If you would like to comment on it, you can go to http://mustardseedlibrary.blogspot.com You just click on the part that says "comment" and a box will open up for you to post your own thoughts on Mark Link (the author), on his thinking about prayer and about Jesus and our relationship to Him.
God bless,
Sharon
"Breakaway Invitation
Many people wake up each morning not to the sound of an alarm clock, but to the whir of a vibrator under their pillows. These people live in a silent world. They are deaf.
Most of us think that blindness is worse than deafness. But Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf, considered deafness the greater handicap.
When you are without hearing, an important door to the everyday world closes. Turning on the radio is useless. Watching TV becomes a bland experience. You can't understand the people around you, even their simplest questions. You begin to feel lonely and abandoned.
Soon, you begin avoiding the hearing world, associating only with the deaf. You become a stranger in your own land.
The tragic plight of the deaf illustrates the plight of many Christians today. They have become strangers in their own land. Spiritually, they have become deaf and dumb--unable to speak to God in prayer, and unable to hear God speak to them.
Though this spiritual plight is as old as time, it is especially prevalent in modern times. Tennessee Williams refers to it in his play The Night of the Iguana:
Hannah: Liquor isn't your problem, Mr. Shannon.
Shannon: What is my problem, Miss Jelkes?
Hannah: The oldest one in the world--the need to believe in something or in someone.
What can we do about this problem? Laurence Gould answers bluntly: "We must stop gagging on the world "spiritual". We must rediscover and reassert our faith."
But how do we refind and reassert our faith? The gospel points to the answer.
One day, some people brought a deaf and dumb man to Jesus to be healed. Jesus took the man off alone, away from the crowd, and restored his health.
To be healed of our spiritual deafness and dumbness we must present ourselves to Jesus for healing. Concretely, this means we must "break away" from the crowd, go off with Jesus alone, and spend time with him in daily prayer."
This is an experiment to see if this long meditation goes through. If you would like to comment on it, you can go to http://mustardseedlibrary.blogspot.com You just click on the part that says "comment" and a box will open up for you to post your own thoughts on Mark Link (the author), on his thinking about prayer and about Jesus and our relationship to Him.
God bless,
Sharon
Friday, June 26, 2009
checking to see if the blog works
checking to see if the blog sends a message to my address so hopefully it is also going to all of your addresses. Thanks for you and your son giving me the helpful webb site on setting up a blog, Pastor Freed. I could never have figured out any of this on my own.
Peace,
Sharon
Peace,
Sharon
New book for Mustard Seed Library - for discussion
Joyce has contributed a bag of books for us to consider putting in the Mustard Seed Library. The first book I've looked at is entitled "Breakaway: 28 Steps To A More Prayerful Life" by Mark Link, S.J. The book has many reflections from many theologians and people on prayer and perhaps it will be interesting to share thoughts about these reflections together, over the internet and conveniently as our own time might allow. One page of the book carries this quote "Prayer in the simplest definition is simply a wish turned Godward." Phillips Brooks
Joyce and I and maybe all of you are also desiring that the Mustard Seed Library at Emmanuel will be a source of inspiration and knowledge and truth and comfort and help for all who step through the door wanting to be closer to God and closer to all their fellow men, woman and children, closer to all of God's creation. That is our wish, that is our prayer. This is the first time I've ever attempted to blog--thanks for any help you can contribute.
God bless,
Sharon
Joyce and I and maybe all of you are also desiring that the Mustard Seed Library at Emmanuel will be a source of inspiration and knowledge and truth and comfort and help for all who step through the door wanting to be closer to God and closer to all their fellow men, woman and children, closer to all of God's creation. That is our wish, that is our prayer. This is the first time I've ever attempted to blog--thanks for any help you can contribute.
God bless,
Sharon
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