The Divine Hours Phyllis Tickle

The Divine Hours Phyllis Tickle

“Prayer is a nonlocative, nongeographic space that one enters at one’s one peril, for it houses God during those few moments of one’s presence there, and what is there will most surely change everything that comes into it.” Phyllis Tickle in Phyllis Tickle, Essential Spiritual Writings, selected by Jon Sweeney, p. 93. 

Phyllis Tickle was a prolific writer, amazing lecturer, rarely speaking from notes, and founding religion editor for Publishers Weekly as well as a great mentor and friend. My thank you to her would be to attempt to continue the kindness and encouragement she showed to me.  She may be remembered for her analysis of the Emergent Christian Church, but I most treasure her Divine Hours, a series of books of observance of the fixed-hour of prayer for spring, summer, fall, and winter. I know she not only wrote about it, she practiced it. I remember seeing her slipping away at meetings for a few minutes to pray at one of the fixed hours of morning, midday, vespers, or compline. Phyllis’ books allow us to follow a fixed time of prayer no matter where we are in time or place.  She brought back an ancient rule of life to modern times and reminded us how this would change our lives, teaching that we would never be the same after experiencing the practice. I am not as faithful as Phyllis, but instead practice the fixed hours of prayer at certain seasons of the year, sometimes for only a week or a month, sometimes for a whole season. She also wrote an entire book of fixed prayers for night offices for those who have difficulty sleeping or who work at night, prayers at midnight, night watch, and dawn. Phyllis has written prayer books for Christmastide, Eastertide, as well as a convenient pocket edition of the fixed hours.  There can be no more trusted or beloved friend to keep close by or carry with you during the day or night or the earth seasons of the year than Phyllis Tickle.

Joanna   joannaseibert.com.

First Soul Friend

First Soul Friend

"Finally, I suspect that it is by entering that deep place inside us where our secrets are kept that we come perhaps closer than we do anywhere else to the One who, whether we realize it or not, is of all our secrets the most telling and the most precious we have to tell."

Frederick Buechner, Telling Secrets

Kenneth Leech’s book, Soul Friend, an Invitation to Spiritual Direction, was the first book I read on spiritual direction over thirty years ago. Something was calling me to be more connected with other spiritual friends. I was going to a counselor who was helping me deal with life on life’s terms, but somehow, I instinctively knew I needed a friend whom I knew was caring for my soul, concentrating on helping me see the God of my understanding working in my life. I had learned in my medical practice the importance of sharing ideas and consulting with others. I learned from many mistakes that when I tried to make decisions without getting input from others, I so often went down the wrong path, made the wrong diagnosis.

 How do you find someone you can trust with your soul? Spiritual directors were rare breeds at that time. It had to be someone I trusted with my fears and secrets.  I knew I shared my life with my family members, but my direction or path to God always affected them directly or indirectly. I knew I needed to talk or be with someone who was not explicitly affected by the insights we might have. After some time, I did find another friend in a book group. She as well was seeking a soul mate, a spiritual friend. We read together Leech’s book. I know Leech had so much to teach us, but this is the message we decided to concentrate on. We met once a week. We each told what was going on in our life, our secret worries, our concerns, our fears, where we thought God might be working in our life. We each talked without interruption or interpretation. There was no advice to the other or empathy or sympathy. We just listened. Then we prayed for each other, specifically for each other’s concerns.  I am sure Leech would have wanted us to do more, but that was a start for both of us. In essence we were connected to God by telling our secrets to someone else. In doing so these secrets lost their power over us and somehow, we entered the secret place inside of us where God was dwelling. It was a start. I learned a little about how the power of secrets and fears can seal us off from God. We no longer meet but we are still friends and still trust each other and give thanks for this time when our journeys brought us together and started both of us on a new journey. This kind of a friend is invaluable, a gift from God.  If you are looking for one, keep it in your prayers, and let us know your experience with a treasured spiritual friend.

Joanna              joannaseibert.com

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Spiritual Practices Tony Jones

Spiritual Practices Tony Jones

“We all might long for the spiritual direction that Adam received when he walked with God in the Garden…but we live east of Eden.”

Tony Jones, The Sacred Way

Tony Jones has compiled an easily readable compendium of spiritual practices that help us connect to God. The secret of the book is in the subtitle, Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life. We do not need to live in a monastery to practice these disciplines.  Jones also brings in interesting notes about the history of how each practice began and developed. His book is first divided into contemplative practices such as silence, reading, the Jesus Prayer, centering prayer, meditation, Ignatian exercises, icons, spiritual direction, and the daily office. The second half of the book talks about active bodily spiritual practices such as the labyrinth, stations of the cross, pilgrimages, fasting, bodily prayers, Sabbath, and service. Lastly, he writes about developing a rule of life and gives us a short readable bibliography for each practice as well as a list of Christian spiritual classics.

I use Jones’ book as a reference especially when I am feeling disconnected from God. I first reread the sections in the book about the spiritual practices I am using in my rule of life to see something I have been missing. Next, I read in Tony’s book about a spiritual discipline that I am presently not using to try during this dry period. I also look over his list of books about the disciplines and the classics and pick out one to read.  I have recommended the book as a way for someone to become immersed in the spiritual disciplines. The Sacred Way can be a guide to tasting each practice perhaps a week or a month at a time. My favorite chapters keep changing. Today I identify most with the section on the Jesus prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” The prayer has been my constant mantra when I am fearful or impatient or meeting with someone with whom I am having difficulty. I identify with Tony Jones when he writes, “the Jesus Prayer has become very significant to me, maybe more than any other practice I’ve investigated, and it’s an important part of my Rule of Life.”

Joanna    joannaseibert.com