we owe so much to so many

We Owe so much to so Many

“I’ll never know the identities of those people we interred in the St. John’s memorial garden.  But I think I know something about them.  I suspect that their final act was a sacrament, a representative symbol, of the way they lived their lives.  In the end, they gave away everything: the eyes that had gazed upon their children, the hearts that had loved, the arms that had embraced…Indeed.  At the last, the people in that memorial garden gave everything… I suspect they lived as they died, giving the all of who they were in life for the interest of others, in recognition of the profound grace in their lives.”

“Giving Everything to God”, Sunday, October 1, 2017 / The Very Reverend Barkley Thompson , God in the Midst of the City

young medical students about to become doctors

Barkley Thompson, the dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Houston wrote on his blog recently about a relationship his previous church in Roanoke, Virginia had with the Medical College of Virginia Tech. At the end of their spring semester, the first-year students and their faculty came and interred in St. John’s memorial garden the ashes of those who had donated their bodies for anatomy classes for the students to learn about the human body. The moving service of prayers and thanksgivings was prepared by the medical students.

 I wish I had been part of a similar service when I finished my medical anatomy class. Four of us learned anatomy from a thin African American woman. We knew nothing about her or her age. I know of two others who have donated their body to science as did my father. I say prayers for all four of them today.

I have an overwhelming sense of gratitude for those who have taught us about the human body by giving of themselves. I think of all physicians, all of us who owe so much to those who gave us our foundation by giving of themselves. But this is true about so many others in the other parts of our lives. We all owe so much to those who mentored, supported, loved us, living and dead. Our minds, on the other hand, want to obsess and be haunted by those who did not help us and may have harmed us.

 I know as long as I stay in this place of gratitude for those who helped me learn about the person God created me to be,  I have a chance of offering a part of myself to others. This is the way we honor those who did the same for us.

Joanna    joannaseibert.com

Keating Ezekiel Heart

A New Heart

“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you;

and I will remove from your body the heart of stone

and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26

 Thomas Keating and those who practice centering prayer, a contemporary form of contemplative prayer, believe that the daily 20 minutes of silence is not just prayer with God but also divine therapy, where during that time of quiet, God, the Holy Spirit, slips in and heals us of old and new wounds. They believe that silence may be the language of God where God can perform “open heart” surgery during this time of silent prayer, unloading our over-identification with the “false self” which developed since birth in order for us to survive in an imperfect world and be transformed into our true self.  Keating has written extensively about centering prayer. Best known among his works is a trilogy, Open Mind, Open Heart, which is considered the handbook for his method of centering prayer, Invitation to Love, about the stages of spiritual growth, and third, Intimacy with God, which describes more deeply what goes on psychologically during centering prayer and Lectio Divina and addresses the theological basis for centering prayer.

Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart, 1986.

Thomas Keating, Invitation to Love, 1992.

Thomas Keating, Intimacy with God, 1994.

Joanna             joannaseibert.com

Inside /outside voice

Inside / outside voice

Quiet

“For whatever reason, God never seems to shout when trying to get my attention. God always uses his “inside voice,” as my mother used to call it. Shouting, and calling, and crying out, and throwing people off their horses is great stuff, but that’s not how I hear God. I hear God in a whisper; in a look; in a turn of the head; in a subtle expression on a face.”  Br. James Koester, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, Daily Email SSJE

Trying to speak out

The irony here is that as I read this from SSJE about God speaking to me in God’s inside voice, I am practicing preaching with all my might with my outside voice. My voice is soft. It is a legacy from my father who was soft spoken. It is a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing as I talk to people and can more easily relate to them as a softer listener. But when I stand in the pulpit to preach the word of God or speak out to a group, I have always had difficulty projecting that message even with good amplification. My husband always sits in the back of any congregation or meeting giving me signs that I need to increase my volume. I have spent years working with an amazing speech pathologist, but still have to push my voice. If someone has a hearing impairment, they may especially have difficulty hearing me. My present rector has taken me on as a project to increase my volume. He let me read a prayer outside at a burial office as an “audition” to see if I had an outside voice.  Yesterday I preached at a church without amplification. I felt as if I were shouting the whole time.

So, what is the point of all this in reference to our relationship with God? For me, I am just acutely aware of what an inside voice sounds like and what my outside voice sounds like. My connection to God does indeed come through an inside voice, quietly slipping in. I also know I hear these soft messages at moments when I least suspect God, usually in interruptions in my daily routine. I am wondering, however, if God also speaks to me with an outside voice, and I just never hear it because I only expect the inside quiet connection. Does God’s outside voice also speak at the least expected times by least expected people I don’t usually listen to or maybe don’t even want to listen to?

 Let me know your experience. I want to hear from others struggling with God’s inside and outside voice.

Joanna   joannaseibert.com