Hours and Angels

Hours and Angels

“We are always meeting deadlines; we are always running out of time..The message of following the monastic hours is to live daily with the real rhythms of the day. To live responsively, consciously, and intentionally, directing our lives from within, not being swept along by the demands of the clock, by external agendas, by mere reactions to whatever happens. By living in the real rhythms,..we learn to listen to the music of this moment,.. we learn to dance a little in our hearts, to open our inner gates a crack more, to hearken to the music of silence, the divine life breath of the universe.”

David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B., The Music of Silence, Entering the sacred Space of Monastic Experience.

I take this book off my shelf to see two cards drop out, both from deceased spiritual friends. The one from Nyna Keeton is an encouraging note about some of my writing. Another from Joanne Meadors is on a card from San Marco Museum in Florence, Italy of the Fra Angelico painting of the angel beating the drum from the Tabernacle of the Linaioli. The harp and the trumpet musical angels are also on a birthday card in the book from another spiritual friend with whom I have lost contact.  There is also a photograph of the altar piece at the Pierce Chapel at Trinity Cathedral, Little Rock, which also depicts the musical Fra Angelico angels. I remember I went on a trip to Florence solely to see these angels.  A book full of angels, a book full of memories still coming from spiritual friends I no longer physically see calling me back to the spiritual life we shared. Also between the pages of the book is a Forward Day by Day pamphlet about following the monastic hours. This was my first introduction to the monastic hours over thirty years ago. Years later I would read so many of Phyllis Tickle’s writings about her experience of following the monastic hours.  The Music of Silence is also an invitation to follow the journey through the day following the monastic hours in some manner as each of the eight hours is prayerfully described by Brother David, often using the images of the Fra Angelico angels.  Beware of cards and notes you leave in books for now unknown reasons. They may become messages from angels unaware.

Joanna        joannaseibert.com

Silence, Waiting for dolphins, chant

Silence, Waiting for dolphins, Chant

“When chant music stops, sometimes quite abruptly, an audible silence reverberates throughout the room, especially in the high arches of the oratories in which it is sung..If we listen carefully, we discover that.. chant inducts us into this silence that is the ground of our being.” David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B., The Music of Silence.

We sit silently on a balcony overlooking the gulf in the early morning watching, waiting for the sunrise, waiting for dolphins to make their first run. Then we wait for a line of pelicans to silently sweep by. The rhythm of the waves is like a heart-beat, today a slow heart. Yesterday the heart beat was faster. At home in Arkansas we sit with our son and his family on his back deck as the sun sets behind the trees of his back woods and wait for the hummingbirds to come and feed before they finally rest for the evening.  Nature seems to be calling us to wait, to wait. Our own heart beat slows. Our body seems to say we are connecting to something greater than ourselves. Our mind wants to repeat Julian of Norwich’s famous words, ”and all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” We are ready for whatever comes. We think. Maybe. The dryer stops working. We know whom to call for help, and again we wait for the repair workers to come. We pray to take time between tasks, between breakdowns.

What do we do between sunrise, dolphin,  pelican, sunset, and hummingbird times?  One more suggestion is waiting for the heartbeat of music, especially the “silence between the notes” of Gregorian chant. One of the most popular versions to listen to has been CHANT by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. If you get “hocked,” you may want to read their companion book, “The Music of Silence, by Brother David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B. which may then lead you to a desire to follow in some form the canonical hours or seasons of the day.  Another book is simply called, CHANT, by Katharine Le Mee, who tells you more about the origins, form, practice, and healing power of Gregorian Chant.

See where silence can lead you!

Joanna            joannaseibert.com

care of the mind, care of the spirit

Gerald May 1

“Besides differing from psychotherapy in intent, content, and basic attitude, spiritual direction is generally surrounded by a characteristic atmosphere that is seldom encountered in any other interpersonal relationship. The atmosphere is one of spaciousness and underlying peace; of openness and receptivity; of a kind of quiet clarity in which it is easier to allow and let be. As one person put it, ‘Being in spiritual direction is just like being in prayer, only there’s someone with me in it.’”

Gerald G. May M.D. Care of Mind/ Care of Spirit, a psychiatrist explores spiritual direction, p. 113.   

I noticed Dr. May’s book, Care of Mind/ Care of Spirit, on my bookshelf, and when I opened it, a bulletin from September 1990 fell out about a book group at my church reading Care of Mind/ Care of Spirit. There were no marks in the book, so I knew I had not read it. This was over twenty-seven years ago, two months before I went into recovery. In the previous year, our book group had read May’s book, Addiction and Grace. For some reason, I was not ready to hear May’s words again for the second time so long ago, but today is different. In 1990, I was becoming a missionary member from my church to start another Episcopal church in a new part of our city. May’s book would have been helpful in starting a new congregation as I began a life in recovery, and even more so when I was studying to become a deacon nine years later. 

This has been one of the best books I have read about spiritual direction. Dr. May emphasizes how spiritual direction is different from pastoral care and therapy that he is so skilled at practicing. In pastoral care and therapy the director or caregiver “hopes to encourage more efficient living in the prevailing culture, seeking to bolster an individual’s capacity to achieve a sense of autonomous mastery over self and circumstances.” Spiritual direction “seeks liberation from attachments and a self-giving surrender to the will of God.” This means that at some point spiritual direction may turn in opposition to many of the cultural standards and values that psychotherapy supports. May skillfully writes about how a spiritual director is constantly seeking out rabbit holes or traps the directee may be encountering in looking for God in his life. May also reminds us that the real healer is God and that the director and directee are merely channels. He cautions spiritual directors about how easy it is to become distorted in our roles, “playing God”.  

This is a book I keep as close to me as possible while doing direction. I sometimes see myself trying to keep from obsessing about what would May say about this in a meeting and hurrying to look up his chapter when the session is over. But of course, May would say our job is not to worry at that moment about what he says but concentrate solely and “most soulfully” on connecting this person to God during our meeting!

Joanna                joannaseibert.com