Spiritual Experience

“It may be possible to find explanations of spiritual experiences such as ours, but I have often tried to explain my own and have succeeded only in giving the story of it. I know the feeling it gave me and the results it has brought, but I realize I may never fully understand its deeper why and how.” —Bill Wilson in As Bill Sees It (Alcoholics Anonymous, 1967), p. 313.

Bill Wilson was not the only one to have a spiritual experience. I daily meet with people who gradually, reluctantly, and sometimes embarrassingly tell me stories about their spiritual experiences. We are still under the influence of the age of enlightenment and reason. We only know what we can explain.

We may fear sharing anything that comes from mystery. For many people, these spiritual experiences occur outside in nature. Suddenly we feel arms holding us up. We sense a presence beside us. Some have the experience in a house of worship. A flickering candle produces what looks like holy smoke. Some grow into awareness at the Eucharist. They leave the rail at peace with what is going on in their lives. Many people remember a religious experience at the birth of a child, or seeing a newborn for the first time.

Birds often can contribute to a transcendent experience. I remember the Sunday after the death of a dear friend, Jane Murray. I saw a wild goose fly closely by the window of our church sanctuary. I had never seen that before and haven’t seen it since. The wild goose is the Celtic symbol for the Holy Spirit.

Candles can often contribute to our enlightenment. I was recently meeting and talking with a friend who saw the reflected light of the burning candle beside us through a window, and the reflection made it appear to be on a tree outside our window. He spoke up, “I see a burning bush!” These are all “burning bush” experiences, and we should take our shoes off when we encounter them.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Book Signing Wordsworth Books

Saturday, November 2, 2019 1 to 3 pm

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18. Money from sale of the books goes to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in

The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Precious Present

“God speaks to every individual through what happens to them moment by moment. The events of each moment are stamped with the will of God ... we find all that is necessary in the present moment.”

—Jean Pierre de Caussade in Abandonment to Divine Providence (1921).

We wrote about Spencer Johnson’s famous book about living in the present, The Precious Present (in A Daily Spiritual Rx for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany). C. S. Lewis writes that God speaks to us in the present, not in the past or future. Many mindfulness exercises are about getting into the present moment, living in the present moment, as are many of our spiritual practices such as walking the labyrinth, using the rosary, waiting in silence, and walking meditation.

Anthony de Mello in his book Sadhana teaches us that living in our body and not living out of our head keeps us grounded. Our bodies are what keep us in the present moment by grounding us to the earth. Our mind is always in the future or the past. Spending time in nature connects us to the present. The trees photosynthesize, transform the energy within us to see beauty. Beauty grounds us in the present. Being and playing with children keeps us in the present, for that is where they live.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Book Signing Wordsworth Books

Saturday, November 2, 2019 1 to 3 pm

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18. Money from sale of the books goes to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in

The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Crafton: Living with Limitations

“Just because you’re disabled doesn’t mean you’re not anything else. Have you lost an ability you used to have? Something you loved? Have you had to say good-bye to it? Maybe there’s another way or another place in which you can still do it, or something like it.” —Barbara Crafton, eMo from The Geranium Farm (geraniumfarm.org), August 16, 2018.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has reported on its website that 61 million adults, or about one fourth of adults in this country, have a disability that impacts their lives in a major way. The most common disability involves mobility, affecting one in seven adults. This limitation is more common in women, especially those in the South who are of lower income. The most common disability in younger adults is cognitive impairment.

Barbara Crafton, who recently visited St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Little Rock, writes an almost daily email eMo from the “Geranium Farm,” including a picture of artwork related to her story. One week she featured a Van Gogh painting, “Summer Wheat Field with Cypresses,” painted in the artist’s last year, a view from a window in his room at a mental facility.

My experience is that each of us has what the Apostle Paul calls a “thorn” in our flesh. If we think another person doesn’t suffer from this, we are very mistaken.

We have a choice of how to respond to a disability. More and more I believe we can ask in our prayers how that thorn brings new light into our lives. Those in recovery will say that their addiction brought them to a new life they never dreamed of. I see people with cancer changing and bettering the lives of others until the very end. I see parents with handicapped children who are experts in patience and kindness and love.

There is a new pathway. It may not necessarily mean overcoming the disability, but rather waking up to a divine message, or being opened up to a new direction in becoming the person God has created us to be.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Book Signing Wordsworth Books

Saturday, November 2, 2019 1 to 3 pm

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18. Money from sale of the books goes to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in

The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast