Marrying Orthodoxy to Orthopraxis

Marrying Orthodoxy to Orthopraxis

“There’s a movement in the church to marry action and contemplation, to connect orthodoxy and orthopraxis. We’re not throwing out the things we believe, but we’re also focusing on practices that work out those beliefs. In the past few decades Christianity has primarily been about what we believe. But in Jesus we see an invitation to join our actions with a movement rather than ideas and doctrine. I’m hopeful because people have grown tired of a Christianity that can say what it believes on paper but doesn’t have anything to show with our lives.”

Adapted from Shane Claiborne, When Action Meets Contemplation, disc 1 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2010), MP3 download.

From Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, July 2, 2017

Getting ready to go

Orthopraxis or practicing our faith is different from orthodoxy, an adherence to a certain belief.  It is a paradox. We need both. We need to frame and reframe what we believe, but if we do not put that belief into practice we are like a “noisy gong”. I am one of those that Shane Claiborne talks about who has lots of tee shirts about social justice issues but until I write letters or make phone calls or visit prisons or those who are sick or in trouble, I am not putting that belief into practice.  I have learned this most readily from the younger people in my family and in my life.

The women in my family marched the women’s march the day after the inauguration. We were talking with our feet. We were inspired to do more by the crowds and speakers there. That day has become like an icon for me about reaching out from under my comfortable tee shirt and visiting and making calls and protecting those in need. I know in my heart that this is the way the Spirit works. We are called to study about God and the Spirit, but we are also called to find the God within ourselves that will lead us to looking for the God in others. I share with spiritual friends that when I am attempting to find God in others, God is most apparent in those in need. God most readily shines in those who are sick or dying or seeking recovery, or at our food pantry or at our dinners for homeless veterans. They teach me the most about orthodoxy, about God.

Joanna   joannaseibert.com

YHWH Prayer

Practice: The YHWH Prayer

“A rabbi taught this prayer to me many years ago. The Jews did not speak God’s name, but breathed it with an open mouth and throat: inhale—Yah; exhale—weh. By our very breathing we are speaking the name of God and participating in God’s breath. This is our first and our last word as we enter and leave the world.

Breathe the syllables with open mouth and lips, relaxed tongue:

Inhale—Yah          Exhale—weh

During a period of meditation, perhaps twenty minutes, use this breath as a touchstone. Begin by connecting with your desire to be present to God. Breathe naturally, slowly, and deeply, inhaling and exhaling Yah-weh. Let your focus on the syllables soften and fall away into silence. If a thought, emotion, or sensation arises, observe but don’t latch on to it. Simply return to breathing.”

Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, February 11, 2017

Out of my head

 The Indian Jesuit priest, Anthony de Mello, is another who spoke and wrote about connecting to our breathe, being aware of our breathe. This spiritual exercise can be done in periods of contemplation or in short bursts, waiting in traffic, waiting in line at the grocery store, dressing our children, walking down the hall, waiting for a meeting. De Mello writes in his first published collection of Christian spiritual practices integrated with eastern contemplation, Sadhana- A way to God, that being aware of our breathe is connecting us to our body, which grounds us. Most of us live in our head which, for me, so often is not connected to the body. Our head talks to us about the past and the future.  Being grounded in the body connects us to the present, and that is where C S Lewis as well as so many others believed that God most often meets us, in the present moment.

Joanna       joannaseibert.com

Confronting Evil

Confronting evil

“When we have been deeply hurt by another person, it is nearly impossible not to have hostile thoughts, feelings of anger or hatred, and even a desire to take revenge. All of this often happens spontaneously, without much inner control. We simply find ourselves brooding about what we are going to say or do to pay back the person who has hurt us. To choose blessings instead of curses in such a situation asks for an enormous leap of faith. It calls for a willingness to go beyond all our urges to get even and to choose a life-giving response.

Sometimes this seems impossible. Still, whenever we move beyond our wounded selves and claim our God-given selves, we give life not just to ourselves but also to the ones who have offended us.” Henri Nouwen Society, Daily Meditation

I still do not know how to confront evil well. I know not to fight it with its own methods because then we become just like the evil one. My spiritual director gave me the old Jewish story that she heard from author, Megan McKenna, about the young girl who was given the choice of marrying an evil man or having her father’s debt paid depending on whether she picked a black stone or a white stone.  She saw the evil man actually put two black stones in the bag which would mean she was only picking stones to marry him. It seemed hopeless. She was not going to have a choice. She hugged her father, picked a stone, and threw it into the air. where it fell and became mixed up with all the other stones on the ground. She apologized for her clumsiness but said they would know which one she picked by seeing what was left in the bag. The story is telling us that when we confront evil, we cannot confront it head on. It is often too powerful. We must be creative, crafty, approaching it from a lateral position and hold on to love. Never let go of love.

Joanna      joannaseibert.com