The Cloud of Unknowing Yesterday, Today and Always

I have recently returned to a classic writing on Spiritual Direction - The Cloud of Knowing by Anonymous.  It is a 14^th century classic of Contemplative Spirituality by an unnamed author who was probably a cleric.  It is written to a 24-year-old novice whom he is advising.  It is an early classic in Spiritual Direction and was formative for such people as Julian of Norwich, Friedrick von Hugel, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.  It was also formative in the development of modern Centering Prayer by Thomas Keating. 

In reading it again. What strikes me about it is its modern feel.  This is in part probably due to the masterful translation.  However, it also seems to be dealing with themes that resonate with today’s culture.  Anonymous speaks of the desire by people to solve problems through intellect and advises that this approach is not going to work for spiritual issues and our relationship with God.  He (we know that anonymous was a man) notes, “The self-important, hyper analytical intellect must always and in every way be quashed.  Stomp it under foot, if you want to do the work of contemplation with integrity”.  In this I believe it is a wonderful tonic to the approach today which believes that intellect and the products of intellect can solve all the world’s problems. 

Anonymous has a very dim view of the problems caused by what can be seen today as people being ego-centric, “You’re human, so watch out for that enemy, pride. Never think you're holier or better than anyone else.  Never confuse the worthiness of your calling with who you are”.  The more I experience life and observe what is going on in the world the more convinced I am that ego plays a central role in many of the problems in relationships between individuals and groups.  To overcome our ego-centric position has been the challenge that people have faced ever since humankind was exiled from the Garden.  Anonymous certainly seems to have identified it as a significant block to our relationship to God. 

I will close today with the prayer that Anonymous uses to close the preface to his book:

Dear spiritual friend in God, examine your life.  Pay careful attention to the way you live your calling.  With all your heart, thank God for your blessings, and his grace will help you stand strong in the face or subtle attacks from within and without, until you win the everlasting crown of life.  Amen

 

 

Are Our Relationships with God High Maintenance?

 

I recently spent a couple of days looking after our (I really should say my wife’s) cat while Lorna was away visiting a friend.  This was the first time this opportunity fell to me.  Trixie the cat and I have a rather strained relationship as she has never really trusted me after being taken in as a feral cat. We have speculated about this with no real answers’ forthcoming.  In any case, Trixie and I both survived the experience. 

However, what became clearer than ever before was that Trixie is a very high maintenance cat.  We have all probably experienced or know about relationships that are high maintenance as opposed to some that are less so.  Trixie is definitely high maintenance.  I know that Lorna has no question about it being worthwhile. 

As a result of this experience, I got to wondering about the relationship between God and people.  Is that relationship high maintenance and, if so, so what?  In my experience personally and as a Spiritual Director, it seems that the relationship between God and people takes a lot of conscious effort on the part of the people of God.  Often, we are not aware of how God is present and active in our lives.  As modern people in a secular world, we have forgotten how to recognize that presence.  We may be aware of what it takes to recognize where God is present in our lives.  However, we often do not know how to respond to that.  If people are part of a Christian community, hopefully they will be given information about how to identify and respond to that presence.  They are called to gather together as a community to worship God and, hopefully, are encouraged to study scripture, to pray regularly, study, and to share that experience of God with others through acts of kindness and Christian charity. 

However, even if we know God’s presence and blessing in our lives, we can easily ignore and avoid what it takes to maintain that relationship.  We might have good intentions about doing more to keep God in our conscious awareness and deepen that relationship but things in life seem to get in the way of doing that. We can sometimes, conveniently or not, forget to make that effort.  Sometimes life does seem to get in the way of doing those things.  If we neglect to keep up our end of the relationship, the relationship will wither and even die.  However, God is always present in our lives and that relationship can be resurrected and reestablished. 

I will use an analogy to illustrate this. Everyone dreams, and scientific studies have shown that dreams are necessary for our psychological and physiological health.  Many people will be aware that they dreamed last night when they awaken in the morning.  However, many people have difficulty remembering their dreams.  However, if they pay attention to their dreams they will begin to remember them more frequently and in more detail.  They can pay attention by recording their dreams and making associations with the images in the dream.  In that way, dreams are also high maintenance.  They require attention, and work to maintain the relationship that you have with your dreams. 

Now I believe that dreams are one way in which God maintains the relationship with us.  Culturally we have forgotten the language of dreams – dreams are, in effect, God’s forgotten language in our culture today.  But, even if you don’t subscribe to this understanding of dreams, they are important for our health and wholeness as human beings, and it is beneficial to pay attention to them.  Regardless, it takes two to tango.  We must keep our part of the bargain – our part of the relationship.  It definitely is a high maintenance relationship; it requires work to maintain but it is definitely worth it.  That is exactly with same with my relationship with God. 

My relationship with Trixie – not so sure but I will keep trying. 

May you be blessed to keep working on your relationship with God. 

 

Discerning the Right Road

One of the themes in much of my life - you might call it a guiding principle - is to find the correct road that I am supposed to be on.  This has been front and centre at some times and at other times it has not taken on a prominent role but it has always been there if I pay attention to it.

This road has often seemed to me to be a road less travelled to borrow the phrase from M. Scott Peck and Robert Frost, as I have seemed to be the odd-person out in many aspects of my life.  However, I have come to know when I have chosen the right road and when I haven’t usually as a result of where my choices have taken me.  When I take the correct road, it is a step on my journey to become the person that God intends me to be.  There have been many missteps and wrong roads taken as well as correct one throughout my now seven decades of life.  So, given the goal of choosing the right road in my life, you might ask how I know if a road is the correct one.  One of the main ways of doing this is through the God-given gift of discernment.  I believe that everyone has the gift of discernment and as with all gifts it can be strengthened when it is used consciously and intentionally.

There are many ways in which we can discern if we are on the right road.  As an intuitive-feeling person on the Myers Briggs Personality type one way I use is if the choice I made feels right to me.  This can be tricky as sometimes my ego can confuse what my desire is with what my true feeling is.  This requires reflection and assessment of other abilities such as sensing which is not my strong suit.  Occasionally I will have help in ways that are more direct.  One such way is through what is called synchronicity.  This is a concept developed by Carl Jung for what can be called meaningful or significant coincidences.  One example of this is when I had been interviewed for entrance into the MDiv program at Huron College with the intention of it leading to ordination as a priest.  After the interview I turned on the car radio and the program playing was an interview with three people who had chosen to answer to call to ordained ministry later in life.  I discerned this to be a sign I had made the correct choice. 

There are many ways in which we can discern where we are being called in our lives – this is only one way.  What is helpful in strengthening the gift of discernment is to pray.  I was given a prayer for discernment which I find helpful and which I use at the beginning of Spiritual Direction sessions which I lead.  I will close today with the prayer:

O God of all, you give so abundantly to your people.  As we enter into a time of discernment, we ask you to walk with us.  Help us to listen to your voice in the midst of our thoughts, ideas, and suggestions we hear.

Give us the wisdom to weigh options, the strength to accept other possibilities, the trust to give it over for your guidance, and the hope for a holy outcome. 

Your love is unconditional and we know that your desire for us is that we find the best for our growth, health and well being physically and spiritually.  We desire to live a life full of your grace.  We open our hearts and minds to you.  Amen

May you be blessed to discern the right road for you on your journey.  

 

Prayer With and Without Words

 

Lorna and I have returned from our “home” in Prince Edward Island to our “home” in Parkhill.  This raises the question regarding my home i.e. where is my home and what makes a home a home.  However, I don’t want to go there this week.  I have written about that previously and perhaps I will again at some point.  However, I want to expound/explore another subject which is near and dear to me – prayer.  I have tried various types of prayer and use some of them on a regular basis both privately and corporately.  One which I find myself most in tune with is Centering Prayer.   I think that this type of prayer is most suited to me or perhaps I should say that I am most suited to this type of prayer.

I have made a concerted effort to practice Centering Prayer daily for many years since being introduced to it as part of my Spiritual Direction training.  There were times when it was honoured more in the breech than the observance. However, recently I have been able to reverse that and have managed, with God’s help, to be quite faithful in that part of my prayer life.  I look to that prayer practice to provide a grounding in my relationship with the divine.

Centering Prayer is a form of silent prayer in which you make space for you to be more aware of God’s presence in your life. God is always there but we often have difficulty perceiving it. The process is quite simple with just a few steps:

·         Choose a word or phrase that resonates with you as an expression of your intent and desire – I use the word ‘return’.

·         Sit comfortably and upright, eyes closed, breathing naturally, and begin to
repeat this sacred word silently. As your attention is focused on the desire behind the word, gradually let the word slip away.

·         Rest in silence. You will find that thoughts and image and feeling may come into your mind. We are not used to quiet in our culture – our brains want to fill silence. This has been called our monkey brains - which is very descriptive. When these thoughts, images or sensations arise, gently return to the sacred word as a symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within you.

·         The recommended period for prayer is twenty minutes each day.

Cynthia Bourgeault, one of the leading proponents of Centering Prayer, writes:

Gradually, as we progress in Centering Prayer—or in any meditation practice, for that matter—we begin to reorient. Centering Prayer’s instructions to let go of all thoughts, regardless of content, directs us back to the silence itself, and we gradually learn the shape of the new terrain. As we stop grabbing for content, we gradually discover that silence does indeed have depth, presence, shape, even sound. As we mature in Centering Prayer, the perception that the emptiness is in fact the presence becomes more and more palpable.

 

I would encourage you to find a form of prayer that you find suits you and enables you to be in closer relation with the divine in what ever form you know and pray on your journey.

Thin Places Within and Without

 Today, my thoughts turn to Celtic Christianity which has appealed to me from time to time on the edges of my spiritual life.  At times I regret that I do not pay attention to it more regularly and more deeply.  However, whenever I come across explorations of it, I am reminded of its deep resonance which I feel within.

Perhaps it is appropriate that it is on the edges – liminal – to my spiritual life, as Celtic Spirituality is very much about being on the borders and edges.  It speaks about the thin places in our lives. both physically and spiritually, where the boundaries between our physical life and our spiritual life are not so firm and clear.  I have experienced thin places from time to time and am always grateful when they occur.

For me, the other great strength of Celtic Spirituality is the appreciation it brings to everyday things in life being grounded in the natural world.  It recognizes and embraces that God is in the everyday things of life and seems to have a prayer for just about every activity that you might engage in.  I adapted a Celtic prayer for students for a prayer that I use before a spiritual direction meeting:

Celtic Prayer for Spiritual Direction 

Bless this time, in the name of the Three who are over us.

Bless this time, in the name of the One who guides us.

Open our eyes to see how our lives

Can reflect something of You.

Aid us in understanding Your will

With our hearts as well as our minds

Give us the wisdom to discern Your intention for us;

The strength to follow the path You prepare for us;

And Your comfort on the journey You offer to us.

Amen  

People are probably most familiar with Celtic Spirituality through the hymn known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate or a Deer’s Cry: 

I bind unto myself today
the strong name of the Trinity
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One and One in Three.

I won’t repeat all the many verses here.  Versions can be found on the internet.  Here is one most appropriately performed in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWdZ13cH5lU

The part which resonates most with me, but is not included in many versions, has the bridge which connects the verses binding us to God with the understanding that Christ which binds us to God is within me and in all things and in all times:

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ to seek me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me;
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ sustaining all who love me,
Christ uniting friend and stranger!

I invite you to look out for those thin places on your journey.

 

Last week I began to answer the questions posed by one of readers in response to one missives Here are the questions:

Can you explain to me your grounding belief in the Trinity? I can’t explain internally the need for formal religion and rules and commitment. 

I agree that when you drill down to the bottom of all... be good treat people as you want to be treated..  try to correct wrongs when you can etc. 

Does it come down to blind faith? What drives you to continue?  Do you ever feel that your energy would better placed in just straight up social justice?

Last week I tacked the issue of my lived experience of the Trinity.  This week I will respond as best I can to the comment on the need for formal religion. 

Often people will reject the formal structure of religious organizations.  There is much to criticize and reject in the actions of religious leaders and organizations.  Things have been done and, I daresay, continue to be done which, in my view, are not what Jesus had in mind when he taught and healed and was crucified because of who he was and how he lived. 

Many people will say that they are spiritual rather than religious.  There is much to commend being spiritual.  Indeed, I work as a spiritual director and encourage people to explore and deepen their spiritual lives.  However, I believe that unless we live out our lives within the larger context of a community of faith it is very difficult to have a structure in our lived which provides the means of keeping me on the course which God has prepared for me.  Richard Rohr, one of my go to guys in these matters addresses this, “Our Western culture leans toward self-sufficiency and independence, and we often need to be reminded that we are part of a greater whole, that we are not alone in our longings and efforts for peace, justice, and healing. This is one of the great gifts of what we usually mean by “church”—a gathering of people in solidarity of purpose, praying and seeking God’s presence together.”  (Daily Meditation September 20, 2014)

Being part of a religious community does not mean that you will not take a wrong turn and go off course.  That is guaranteed to happen just as it happens to the organization.  However, being part of a community provides the opportunity to get back on course and try again.  Indeed, it is very foundation of the practice of religious worship that provides the regular opportunity to acknowledge where you have gone astray and missed the mark i.e. sinned, to repent and ask forgiveness.  We have the assurance by our doctrine that when we do this we will be forgiven.  Again, there is no guarantee that people will seek forgiveness in their heart of hearts, but the possibility is given to us through the grace of God.

Jesus Christ has promised that where two or three (or more) are gathered in his name he will be with them, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:20).  Again, there is no guarantee that those gathered will make an effort to understand what Jesus is directing them to do, but that is what we are called to do.  Religious organizations are comprised of fallible, imperfect, flawed human beings.  However, Jesus, being fully human as well as fully divine, knew that very well and understood that we would make mistakes and go astray.  However, despite this he calls us to be together.

Blessings on your journey will all its mistakes and missteps  

Spiritual Formation or Spiritual Unformation?

Are you spirituality formed or unformed?  Perhaps I could also ask if you are spiritually uninformed.

I believe that the Anglican Church―at least the part I am familiar with―has been left behind in encouraging and assisting our members in spiritual formation.

An article in the current edition of the Anglican Journal by Bishop Mark MacDonald hit the nail of the head when addressing this situation; the article was entitled A Return to Spiritual Formation.

In the article, Bishop Mark notes that the Anglican Church has never completely given up on Spiritual Formation focusing on the preparation for baptism and confirmation.  There have been elements of it in the Proclamation of the Word in services especially in the preaching.  I would also add that it has always been a part of Christian Education; however, that has been to a great extent restricted to Sunday School for our children (where our congregations still have children). 

Bishop Mark notes that Anglicans have taken this rather laissez faire approach to Spiritual Formation because Christianity was to a great extent the foundation of our culture:

We leave much of the formation of attitude, spirituality and daily practice to our participation in the larger culture. It is not hard to understand why this is so. Our contemporary church is only a short time away from a period when the broader culture was much more influenced by Christian thought and practice. During those years, formation happened through regular and common participation in a number of different societal organizations and institutions. It was possible to approach spiritual formation in the church as a kind of finishing school, affirming much that was already there in the culture and adding a distinctive, often denominational, flavour to the whole.  Bishop Mark MacDonald February 5, 2018

As a result of our relationship to culture, in which we did not need to take a proactive approach to Spiritual Formation or evangelization, our church finds itself in in the position we are in today with dwindling, aging congregations which are closing in shocking numbers.  Our Diocesan announcement seem to have a notice about the deconsecrating of a church building most weeks. 

There are, of course, many reasons why this is happening beyond the lack of Spiritual Formation.  The forces of modernity and secularization are driving much of the change.  We Anglicans, as well as other mainline denominations, have not responded to these forces quickly and adequately enough.

As a Spiritual Director what I do is to offer companionship and guidance to my Directees in their spiritual journey in which their spiritual life will develop more fully and their relationship with God (however, they understand God) will become richer, deeper, and stronger. 

I believe that is the journey in which God invites each person to take regardless of their tradition or lack of tradition.  It is a journey which we are all intended to take.

Blessings on your journey.

The Holy Spirit and the Church part 1

I have a line that I use to describe the position of the Holy Spirit in organized religion, “it is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Trinity—it don’t get no respect”. 

Although the Holy Spirit is given its due on Pentecost Sunday and a few other times in the church calendar, it seems to me that not a lot of attention is paid to it in our branch of religion in any case.   Pentecostalism of course gives it its due.  However, speaking in tongues is not a biggie in Anglicanism and generally other branches of mainline Christianity.  Not that I am proposing that speaking in tongues become a part of Anglican liturgy.  I wonder what would happen if some parishioners started in one of our services.  It would be very interesting to say the least. 

I believe that this is due to the fact that if the Holy Spirit is given the attention and reverence it is due, religious leaders would not have the control that they believe is necessary to ensure that Christianity, as they understand it, will survive and thrive.  Richard Rohr addressed this recently in one of his Daily Meditations:

If religious teachers told their parishioners about contemplation, where individuals can experience the mercy of God for themselves, they would not be so dependent upon the clergy. Although this codependency is not engineered maliciously, it does create job security. We all have a hard time doing things that essentially work ourselves out of a job or make ourselves unnecessary. Sin management does hold the flock together, but soon we realize that there is little maturity, or even love, in a flock that is glued together in this way. The passive, passive-dependent, and passive-aggressive nature of the church is rather obvious to many of us who have worked on the inside.

Richard is speaking of contemplation; however, this is just one form that the Holy Spirit can and does work in our lives and in the world.  The problem with the Holy Spirit is that, as John declares in his Gospel, “The wind^* blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).   It is hard to develop church policies and procedures around something that is out of our direct control.  

The Holy Spirit is the Person of the Trinity which is at work in the world.  It brings change and creates as it did when all of this was begun by God, “In the beginning when God created^* the heavens and the earth, ²the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God^* swept over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1: 1-2).  

As Richard notes, it is normal for church leaders to try and ensure that the church and especially the laity are dependent on them.  It is not just a case of “job security” as Richard suggests, although that is probably at least some of the motivation.  Any organization needs to ensure its existence; indeed it has been proposed that this is the first concern of every organization.  The church, although it is ordained by God and was created on Pentecost by that very Holy Spirit, is run by people who are very human.  

I don’t believe that this is an either-or situation in respect to the Holy Spirit and the church.  Indeed Richard Rohr believes that dualistic thinking is not the goal of our development.  I know that if Christians are to live out their calling in the world we are called to be in community in which we gather in Jesus name; the church is absolutely necessary; it is ordained by God.  So, how can we be the church and be open to the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is at work in the world in more ways than we can ever grasp or imagine.  Indeed, as a Spiritual Director I attempt to help directees identify and deepen the ways in which the Holy Spirit is at work in their lives.  Richard notes one way, through contemplation.  Another is through dreams.  I consider dreams to be “God’s Forgotten Language” which is a term of John’s Sanford (and the title of his excellent introduction to dream work).  In my training in leading dream groups through the Haden Institute it is stressed that dream groups are best when they are under the umbrella of a church congregation/parish.  This enables the work of the Holy Spirit to have a container which will allow the work to take root and flourish. 

Similarly, the contemplative life needs to be grounded in and through an organization whether it is a church congregation/parish, a monastic community or other religious structure.  

The question that we are faced with in the church today is how do we enable the Holy Spirit to work in us both as individuals and those organizations we are part of?  I will explore that more next week.

I will leave you with the question, “how is the Holy Spirit at work in your life today and how do you best recognize its presence in your life”?

Blessings on your journey.

Greg

A Time of Spiritual Renewal in Huron

As reported in the Huron Church News (June 2016), in her address to Synod Bishop Linda Nicholls declared that there are no “quick fixes” for our diocese or the church.  She declared that, “We do need spiritual wisdom and revelation.  My prayer is that God will provide that wisdom as we come to know him as we pay attention to our own spiritual lives”.

To put this in action Bishop Linda encouraged each person in the room and by implication every Anglican in Huron, “to commit to one new way of deepening your knowledge of Christ this year!”  Bishop Linda suggested ways of doing this such as joining a bible study, participating in an Education for Ministry group, and going on retreat.  Bishop Linda also suggested that people find a spiritual director.  It is my experience that many people in Huron are not familiar with spiritual directors and spiritual direction.  I thought it would be helpful to some readers to provide an introduction to the practice of spiritual direction which I hope will encourage people to explore this spiritual practice as a way of enhancing their experience of God.

First I will share with you a bit about my background which is relevant.  I am an Anglican priest in Huron who retired from full-time parish ministry a few years ago.  I am a graduate of the spiritual direction program offered by the Haden Institute through the Mount Carmel Spirituality Centre in Niagara Falls completing the program in 2013.  Through the auspices of the Rev. Canon Todd Townshend, Dean of Theology at Huron University College and working with Rev. Canon Greg Smith, Director of Field Education, Worship, Community & Formation I have been offering spiritual direction to students in the faculty of theology beginning first as part of training and continuing once I completed the program.  I also work with lay and ordained people outside the Huron College context.

With that let me give you some information about spiritual direction and spiritual directors. A spiritual director is somewhat misnamed as a spiritual director doesn’t actually direct. It is the Holy Spirit—the third person in the room who directs the session.  A spiritual director is a companion on your journey as you deepen your relationship with God.  Here are some of the things which a spiritual director/companion may help you with on you journey:

·         Identify and trust your own experiences of God recognizing God’s unending love for you

·                        Acting with continued integrity and participation in your religious tradition

·                         Integrate spirituality into your daily life

·                         Discern and then make difficult choices

·                         Share your hopes,  your struggles and your losses

·                         Develop a sensitivity for justice and the concerns for the poor and compassion for those you               meet in everyday life

Most important thing in your journey is LOVE.  The spiritual companion can help you to understand and appreciate how the love of God in Jesus Christ can be recognized mire fully and shared with others. 

As St. Paul tells us there are many members but one body.  Each of us will have different ways in which we are open to the Holy Spirit. A spiritual companion can help you to identify the ways in which God through the Holy Spirit is active in your life and how you can be open to deepening and expanding your experience of the divine.   Blessings of you journey.  

The HOly Spirit 'Don't Get No respect'

Last Wednesday I returned to Huron University College to do a short introductory presentation on Spiritual Direction to the theology students.  I will again have the wonderful opportunity to provide Spiritual Direction to the students under the auspices of the Theology Faculty.

I attended the Wednesday Eucharist prior to lunch and the community gathering.  The excellent homily was preached by The Rev. Dr. Lizette Larson-Miller, a faculty member.  In the homily Dr. Larson-Miller used a wonderful phrase from the prayer of Confession in the Book of Common Prayer (I am paraphrasing what she said) of the tension between “the devices and desires of our hearts” and the action of the Holy Spirit.  This was a wonderful lead in to my talk on Spiritual Direction.

The goal of Spiritual Direction is, in my view, to help identify the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Often this seems to be in conflict with the devices and desires of our own hearts.  The Spiritual Director is more accurately a Spiritual Companion on the journey with the Holy Spirit and will help the Directee identify where and how the Holy Spirit is with them.  Indeed I prefer to think of the devices and desires of our heart as the devices and desires of our egos.  The ego wants to be in charge of the show and run things—our lives and our world to ensure that any control it believes it has is not threatened.  The ego believes that God should be serving the ego.  However, the correct relationship is for the ego to be in the service of God.  This for me is the central message of Jesus i.e. to love God and your neighbour as yourself. 

I have said before that the Holy Spirit been held by the church to be the Rodney Dangerfield of the Holy Trinity i.e. it don’t get no respect.  As it says in the Gospel of John, “The wind* blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  As such it is unpredictable and cannot be controlled by hierarchies and doctrine.  The action of the Spirit can be difficult to identify as it can and will be confused by the devices and desires of our hearts and egos.  However, I believe we are entering the age of the Spirit in which the work of the Holy Spirit will be recognized more fully.

In a Spiritual Direction session there are three persons; the Director/Companion, the Directee and the Holy Spirit.  The goal is to allow space for the Holy Spirit to be recognized and affirmed in the life of the Directee and to help the Directee to recognize where the Spirit is moving in his or her life.  That is my wish for everyone.  Blessings,

Greg

Change! We Don't Change, We're Anglicans

One of my favourite radios programs is This American Life on National Public Radio in the U.S.  I was listening to an episode from their archives last week about how people change their minds. 

The program reported on the rather surprizing results of an experiment in which had canvassers who went door-to-door and spent some time talking to people about controversial issues such as same-sex-marriage and abortion.  The results were quite amazing as they showed that after a relatively short period of time the people interviewed changed their minds on the issue.  More surprizing is that the change remained over a significant time period i.e. it was not just momentary.  If you are interested in listening to the program here is the link: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/555/the-incredible-rarity-of-changing-your-mind.

One of the key factors in this result that they identified was that the interviewers had to be identified with the issue e.g. a woman who had an abortion of someone who was self-identified as LGBT.  Another significant factor that was identified is that people do not change their beliefs based on facts and data.  Where people change their minds is on the level of the gut; of visceral reactions; of emotions; of feelings (which by the way are not the same as emotions). 

They found that the most important thing that the interviewer could do in this process was to stop telling people things and to listen.  The interviewer needed to let them talk about their own lives and tell their own stories.  I would qualify that this doesn’t quite match the first finding i.e. that the interviewer needed to be identified with the issue personally.  Their experience was important. However, that information needed to be revealed in the course of the interview in context of the discussion.   The focus needed to be on the experience of the person being interviewed.

These findings were quite unexpected and surprizing because they completely overturn the expectation and common wisdom held by experts in the field.  I am wondering how these finding can be applied to that thing which Anglicans are particularly struggling with these days as we increasingly find ourselves out of step with our culture which is increasingly secular and disconnected with anything religious; That thing is evangelism.  

Today Anglicans particularly do not have experience in evangelism; in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Many other denominations have had greater experience and success in this. It was not something which, I must admit, I am very comfortable with and did not receive any training specifically on how to evangelize in school.  However, as they number of people in the pews dwindle; as our parishioners get older; and as more and more churches close it is something we need to turn our attention to.  It is not just a case of survival as the Anglican Church in Canada and perhaps all the Western world.  It is also an imperative as Christians.  We are called to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world.

I must qualify the above by saying that I am not comfortable about evangelization when I think of it in traditional way of thinking about evangelization.  The picture I have is of the T.V. evangelist who would play on the audience’s fears and desires and prejudices, or the people at the door who ask if I have been saved or born again.  That is key to the issue and where it intersects with the findings discussed in that radio program.  We need to redefine what evangelism means.  We need to share the Good News by approaching people where they are and listening to their experience.  We also need to be able to share our stories and how being an Anglican is part (hopefully an important part) of our stories as Christians. 

Actually that is pretty much what I do as a Spiritual Director.  I listen to the experience and stories of my directees and share how my experience has helped me to have a closer relationship with God.  This week I invite you to reflect on your experience of being an Anglican or Roman Catholic or United Church member or as a spiritual person unconnected to organized religion and how that has affected your life.  What would you say to share that with someone you just met?

Sermon February 14, 2016 Lent 1

We are now in the season of Lent.  Last Wednesday should have marked with the imposition of ashes on our foreheads with the words, “remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.  Unfortunately Mother Nature did not cooperate and we did not observe Ash Wednesday or Ash Thursday.  Therefore today, in addition to being the First Sunday in Lent will be Ash Sunday and we will mark it with the imposition of ashes. 

Lent is a time to put into focus not only our mortality and all that that means, but also our humanity.  We are created in the image of God and are called to live in a way that will explore and fulfill that image.  Lent is especially a time in which we can focus on the renewal of our calling to answer that call from God to become more fully a reflection of God incarnate—the image of God made flesh.  It is a time of spiritual renewal. 

One of the great prophets of Spiritual Renewal is Henri Nouwen.  He had a great connection with the L’Arch Daybreak Community in Newmarket living there in the final years of his life.  In his book entitled Out of Solitude Nouwen writes:

In solitude we become aware that our worth is not the same as our usefulness. We can learn much in this respect from the old tree in the Tao story about a carpenter and his apprentice:

A carpenter and his apprentice were walking together through a large forest. And when they came across a tall, huge, gnarled, old, beautiful oak tree, the carpenter asked his apprentice:

"Do you know why this tree is so tall, so huge, so gnarled, so old and beautiful?"  The apprentice looked at his master and said: "No . . . why?"

"Well," the carpenter said, "because it is useless. If it had been useful it would have been cut long ago and made into tables and chairs, but because it is useless it could grow so tall and so beautiful that you can sit in its shade and relax."

Nouwen goes on:

In solitude we can grow old freely without being preoccupied with our usefulness and we can offer a service which we had not planned on. To the degree that we have lost our dependencies on this world, whatever world means--father, mother, children, career, success or rewards--we can form a community of faith in which there is little to defend but much to share. Because as a community of faith, we take the world seriously but never too seriously. In such a community we can adopt a little of the mentality of Pope John, who could laugh at himself. When a highly decorated official asked him, "Holy father, how many people work in the Vatican?" he paused a moment then replied, "Oh, about half of them I suppose."

Spiritual renewal is not just a personal calling; it is a special calling of the church in the world today.  It is a renewal that is not is not based on action and activity in the outer world. 

Our culture is very good at that and the church also sees the need in our society and responds by doing things to meet the needs which are there.  However, there is another kind of renewal which is unique to the church and is something that our society is very much in need of—it is Spiritual Renewal. 

One of my callings is as a Spiritual Director.  In 2014 I completed a Spiritual Direction program offered by the Haden Institute and the Mount Carmel Centre in Niagara Falls.  In the program I learned how to help people discern where God is in their lives and how to be more aware and open to where the Holy Spirit is calling them.  For the past three years I have been working particularly with theology students at Huron University College to accompany them on their journey with God. 

The ministry of Spiritual Direction is actual not the best name for what we do.  The Spiritual Director does not actually direct the directee.  Rather a Spiritual Director is a companion on the person’s spiritual journey.  There are actually three persons in Spiritual Direction—the Director, the Directee and the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit who does the direction and shows both the Director and Directee the way in which God is working in their life.

During the Sunday’s in Lent, I propose being the Spiritual Companion for St. Anne’s and St. John’s.  Each week we will explore a different way in which we can learn to pay closer attention to how God is working in our lives and where The Holy Spirit is calling us to travel in this Lenten journey which lies ahead of us.  It is also my hope that you will find some of these ways to be meaningful for you and that you will chose to incorporate one or two of them into your lives on an ongoing basis.

I will close with the prayer I use to begin a Spiritual Direction meeting. 

Celtic Prayer for Spiritual Direction (Adapted)

Bless this time, in the name of the Three who are over us.

Bless this time, in the name of the One who guides us.

Open our eyes to see how our lives

Can reflect something of You.

Aid us in understanding Your will

With our hearts as well as our minds

Give us the wisdom to discern Your intention for us;

The strength to follow the path You prepare for us;

And Your comfort on the journey You offer to us.

Amen 

Sermon February 21, 2016 Lent 2

In my sermon last Sunday I spoke of the special calling of the church – that is a calling for a kind of renewal that is not based on action and activity in the outer world.  Our culture is very good at that and the church also sees the need in our society and responds by doing things to meet the needs which are there.  However, there is another kind of renewal which is unique to the church and is something that our society is very much in need of – it is Spiritual Renewal. 

I finished a program in Spiritual Direction in 2014 at the Mount Carmel Centre for Spirituality in Niagara Falls.  In that program I studied how to help people discern where God is in their lives and how to be more aware and open to where the Holy Spirit is calling them.  The ministry of Spiritual Direction is actual not the best name for what we are learning to do.  What the Spiritual Director does with the directee does not actually direct them.  Rather a Spiritual Director is a companion on their spiritual journey.  There are actually three persons in Spiritual Direction – the Director, the Directee and the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit who does the direction and shows both the Director and Directee the way in which God is working in their life.

During the Sunday’s in Lent, I will be a Spiritual Companion for St. Anne’s and St. John’s.  Each Sunday in Lent we are exploring a different way in which we can learn to pay closer attention to how God is working in our lives and where The Holy Spirit is calling us to travel in this Lenten journey which lies ahead of us.  It is also my hope that you will find some of these ways to be meaningful for you and that you will chose to incorporate into your lives on an ongoing basis.

As I mentioned Spiritual Direction involves listening and recognizing how God is working in your life.  A significant part of that is developing an active prayer life.  Of course God has made us as unique beings—each one of us is unique and different.  Not every form of pray will be something which resonates with each of us and a way which we will find meaningful.  Often it is a matter of finding one or two that is right for us. There are many ways of prayer and I want to begin our journey by exploring one particular way.  The one I would like to explore with you today is Lectio Divina.  Don’t be put off by the Latin name – it actually means Holy Reading. 

There are four steps in Holy Reading.  The first is to read the passage—the Lectio.  During the reading the intention is to be non-judgmental—just be open to what the passage is speaking to you.  Is there something especially in the passage that catches you attention – a phrase or a word?  Make a mental note of this.  You can use any passage from scripture or an inspirational work that is meaningful for you.  I will be using the scripture passage that we head from Philippians.

The second step is meditation—meditatio.  Here we reflect and ponder on what we have read or heard.  Remember that Mary, at the nativity pondered what she had seen and heard in her heart.  Ponder and see how Jesus is speaking to you in the passage of phrase or word that resonates with you.  Ask yourself what does this mean for my life today?  Direct it to God at work in your life. 

The third step is Responding – Oratatio.  This is a prayer—a prayer which is unique and personal to you and comes from the heart.  This may lead to response in your outer life but it is an inner response initially.  It may be surrendering your will to God – not something we do easily but something which is important if we are to follow where Jesus leads us. 

Finally there is Rest – Contemplatio.  This is resting in the presence of God.  It is a knowing that God is with you and that you are in God’s hand.  As it says in the passage from Philippians:

Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you.

Now let us have a few minutes of silence to centre ourselves and I will begin by reading the passage.  You don’t need to remember the steps – I will guide you at the beginning of each step.  

Following God's Will

 do not usually give titles to my sermons.  However, my sermon yesterday could be entitled “Following God’s Will (part 2)”.   As we do not have Jesus with us in bodily form to guide us, we cannot know with certainty what God’s will is for us and for the church as the Body of Christ.  That doesn’t mean that we should not do all we can to discern God’s will.  There are many ways which can be helpful in that goal such as reading and studying scripture daily.  This, along with daily prayer is foundational in understanding God’s will for us and for the world.  There is no shortage of other ways such as connecting with God in nature or in non-biblical inspirational writing.  Another foundational way for me is in paying attention to my dreams which I consider to be “God’s Forgotten Language” This is John Sanford’s term and the title of his book on understanding dreams as a way that God communicates with us.  

As we are each unique children of God we will have different ways of connecting and listening to God.  Some people find different forms of prayer such as contemplative prayer or centering prayer to be most meaningful.  While other finds more active forms such as walking the labyrinth to be the way they can best connect with God.  Many people find Spiritual Direction to be very helpful to them in their journey with God.  I have had a Spiritual Director for some years and that person has been very helpful in my journey.  I would invite you to explore different ways of listening to God with or without the help of a Spiritual Director.  I would be very happy to talk with any of you further about exploring how you might do this.  Blessings on your journey.

Acedia and Me?

I have begun to read Acedia & me, a book by Kathleen Norris. I have just started get into the book but I find the subject fascinating and want to share early impressions with you.   Acedia is a term which has fallen out of favour is not in general use in the modern world.   I was vaguely aware of this concept but was introduced to it in the Spiritual Direction program I completed with the Haden institute and the Mt. Carmel Spiritual Centre in Niagara Falls.  Lorna found out about this book which was not on the reading list of the program (and should be) and purchased it used on-line.  

As I noted, I began to read it recently after Lorna recommended it and am finding acedia to be a concept and condition which appears to be very much something which is part of modern life and deserves more consideration.  Kathleen Norris delves into the concept of acedia drawing her life long experience with the condition.   As Norris notes acedia is often considered to be another name for depression.  Norris notes that there are many similarities between the two conditions.  However, the two conditions are not synonymous.  Norris suggests that, “while depression is an illness treated by counselling and medication, acedia is a vice that is best countered by spiritual practice and the discipline of prayer.” (3)  Categorizing acedia as a vice is not done lightly by Norris.  She traces the early thoughts about acedia and notes that Evagrius, a 4^th century Christian monk and ascetic, classified it as “one of the eight bad thoughts that plagued a monk, whole John Cassian discerned in acedia a stubborn sadness that could lead a monk into a far worse state of distress”. (20)  The eight bad thoughts eventually became of seven deadly sins of Christianity.   The theologian dropped acedia form the list and conflated it with sadness. 

As I noted, it is often thought of as depression.  It is rather hard to get a definitive handle on just what the condition—or vice—entails and how it differs from depression.  The simplest way of thinking about it appears to be a state of generally not caring about the world and others.  Norris describes the condition—which she diagnoses as acedia—as one in which she would avoid life by obsessively reading anything and everything as a way of running away and “consuming books rather than reading them”.   With acedia the ‘not caring’ can take can take the form of sloth or laziness of body and mind.  But it can also take the form of escapism either in nostalgia about a golden past or fantasy about the grass being greener in the other places.  It can even take the form of being a rescuer who wants to obsessively help and rescuing people.  However, the common factor in this is avoidance.  The sufferer is not able to engage the world around them.  They do not/cannot care about anything and do not take the effort to engage in anything.   I believe that acedia is what people in other times and places were addressing when they talked of ‘loss of soul’.  Norris notes that, “John Cassian and Thomas Aquinas recognized that acedia operates on the borders between the physical world and the spiritual life.” (35)  It is also interesting that Norris notes Aquinas recommended ‘a hot bath, a glass of wine, and a good night’s sleep’ as a remedy.   However tempting that may be, I suspect that someone who is in the thrall of acedia will not get a good night’s sleep.  Rather, they will be pursued by the demon of acedia.  Indeed considering acedia in the realm of demons or evil spirits has some validity if we consider the world of the early monks who were very familiar with acedia as the demon of mid-day which brings lethargy.  I think the understanding that we are dealing with a condition that allows temptations in the form of thoughts to take hold.  Norris notes that the demons “arouse evil thoughts by working on the memory and imagination.”  We may have difficulty believing in demons or evil spirit in today’s modern material, world.  However, it can be useful to understand the thoughts that creep unaware into our consciousness that encourage us to avoid what we know is in our best interest in this way.  Indeed after I had begun to be engaged by the book I had the thought that I have done enough and deserve to play a computer game which I must confess I surrendered to quite willingly.   

I am looking forward to reading more and will probably share more of it with you next time.  Blessings and don’t let the demon of acedia or any other catch you unaware. 

So You’ve Written a Book (Part 2)

My Adventures in Publishing (Continued)

I am continuing my account of publishing my first book,  The Ego and the Bible: Stories of Divinely Intended Ego.  I left the account at the point where I had decided it was not worthwhile trying to find a traditional publisher that would accept my book. 

The next step I took was to decide to see about hiring an editor.  My wife Lorna who worked as an editor wisely declined to undertake the task for the sake of marital harmony.  However she was very helpful throughout the process on advising on points of grammar and particularly on the final appearance and format of the cover.  I looked around on line and found a suitable candidate to do the editing.  After contact the candidate and doing due diligence with references and a contract I hired the individual.  Initially it was working out well but unfortunately for me and fortunately of her the person landed a full time job (with I presume benefits and a regular pay cheque) and she felt she was unable to continue with editing my manuscript.  I have no problem with this and she gave me a full refund of my initial deposit despite the initial work she had done.  However, I was in a quandary concerning how to proceed. 

I decided to try the self-publishing route and found a Canadian firm which had a long experience of this type of work.  I was in negotiation with them for a while and they seemed to be a good possibility but found price they quoted to be on the high side; in the range of three to four thousand dollars.  I was hesitant to proceed as I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend this amount on the project. 

About this time I received two pieces of good advice from colleagues who had experience with publishing books.  One, Bob Haden, who self-published his book, Unopened Letters from God, is the president of the Haden institute where I completed programs in dream groups and Spiritual Direction.  He advised that trying to go through traditional publishers was a rather a lost cause and would take years if you ever found one that would agree to publish you book.  This was an individual who was very successful with many contacts that would be interested in his book.  He also gave me good advice about the title.  I originally wanted to use the title ‘Divinely Intended Ego” which was a reference to a phase of Friedrick von Hugel that had resonated with me for many years; ‘divinely intended tension’.  He recommended that I find a more accessible title that would better describe the book—which I did using my original title as a subtitle.  The other person, who had an experience which I could more closely relate to, had a book published through the publishing arm of Amazon, CreativeSpace.  He highly recommended them and found the process and results to be very satisfactory. 

I investigated the possibility of using CreativeSpace primarily based on my colleague’s recommendation.  CreativeSpace is an U.S. based firm as part of Amazon, as is my colleague which gave me some hesitation as a Canadian.  However, after some discussion and consideration I decided to go with CreativeSpace.  The cost for similar services to the Canadian firm was substantially less at about $2,600—about $2,800 Canadian at the exchange at the rate that that time (note to Canadian, the exchange rate has fallen through the floor since then).  So I launched into the world of what used to be called derisively, vanity press but is becoming a creditable way of publishing in the modern age.

 I found the process of working with CreativeSpace overall to be very positive.  I worked with two editors who were professional and did a good job.  I had signed up for a package deal which included two rounds of editing with proofs provided as well a customs design for the cover.  It also included writing of an introductory blurb for marketing and making the book available through Amazon.  Not everything was perfect of course.  I had some difficulty getting used to the editing system where I would have to accept or reject every change proposed by the editors down to every jot and tittle and comma and Em Dash.  This was a long labourious process for someone who is not detailed oriented but is of course necessary to have a good end product.  One assumption one of the editors made was to put commentary on the biblical passages in the past tense without checking with me.  I had put some in present and some in past in my initial manuscript.  After some consideration I decided to go with present tense and had to manually change the manuscript to reflect that.  This was a rather extensive process, however, I am glad I made that decision.

CreativeSpace was very responsive to my questions and issues that I raised by email.  There overall system is quite processional and comprehensive.  However, I discovered that my assumption that the book would automatically be available on Amazon.ca was not correct.  This is a drawback for a Canadian as it makes it more difficult for Canadians to order copies with exchange and duties and shipping.  I don’t believe Amazon.com offers free shipping to Canada whereas Amazon.ca does. However, I have recently discovered that my book is available through Amazon.ca.  However, it is not ‘in stock’ and will probably take longer to obtain through that route.

Finally I have successfully made the book available in Kindle format which was more difficult than I had anticipated.  Kindle is an Amazon company.  However, it doesn’t happen automatically through CreativeSpace.  I had difficulty getting the files into a format that Kindle would accept which was surprisingly not provided by CreativeSpace.  However, the people at CreativeSpace and Kindle were helpful and I was eventually successful without becoming too frustrated which is an accomplishment for a non-computer nerd such as I. 

In conclusion, the process was worth it whether or not I make a profit in the process (perhaps there is a bit of vanity or ego in it).  However, it was a real thrill when my copies of the book arrived and I open the box two days before Christmas.

 

Readers of my sermon might enjoy my book The Ego and The Bible.  It is available on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Ego-Bible-Stories-Divinely-Intended/dp/1500759155/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419870942&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Ego+and+the+Bible

It is also available on Amazon.ca:

 http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=THe%20Ego%20and%20the%20Bible%20