Hearing God

“As we live in this season of Advent, awaiting the coming of the Lord, we might examine our hearts to see if they are truly open. Are we open to God speaking to us in the language of everyday events? Are we willing to hear God’s admonitions and to accept God’s guidance, or are we happier to justify our selfish behaviors and chart our own way in life? May the Lord find in us hearts that are open and ready to receive him, whenever and however he chooses to come to us.”

—Br. David Vryhof in “Brother, Give Us a Word,” a daily email sent to friends and followers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, a religious order for men in the Episcopal/Anglican Church. www.ssje.org

This is our daily question. Are we following our will or God’s will? Are we listening to God or are we listening to ourselves and what promotes ourselves and our own self-interest? My experience is it is so hard to know, and I have learned to listen cautiously to those who tell us they know exactly what we are to do. I usually do not know if what I am doing is God’s will until much later.

So, what do we do? We try to put ourselves in position to hear God’s will. This means being silent, practicing spiritual exercises; dwelling in thin places where the spiritual and physical world seem to have only a thin membrane between them; living in community with other spiritual seekers who share experiences; studying Scripture and stories of those before us in our own religious traditions; worshiping in community.

My experience also is that when I feel or know the fruit of the spirit after discernment, this is a sign that I am being guiding by the Christ within, the Holy Spirit, the God of our understanding. (Galatians 5:22: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.)

This is not a walk we do alone. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who have traveled before us and who are now with us to guide us. I share the book of meditations written in 1994 by such a cloud of witnesses of Arkansas women with illustrations by Andrea McMillin. .

Joanna . joannaseibert.com

Icons

“I have always heard that icons represented ‘windows into heaven,’ glimpses of the glory of the life to come, hinted at in golf leaf and vivid colors suggesting fullness of life. But our speaker countered this view by pointing out that we don’t really need ‘windows’ so much as eyes that are opened up to see what is around us here, in this life. For in Orthodox thought heaven is not so much ‘another place’ that needs to be peered into, but rather the quality of life in Christ which begins here through the power of his resurrection. In this view, eternal life includes the day-to-day getting there, the faithful journey of the saints as they are permitted glimpses of glory that punctuate everyday life, especially as they are revealed to us in corporate worship. No wonder Orthodox services tend to be so long—with seemingly endless choir responses and many opportunities to grasp the beauty and joy of resurrection, especially as it is celebrated in the season of Easter.”

—Isabel Anders in Awaiting the Child: An Advent Journal (Cowley, 1987, 2005).

st. John’s Orthodox Church, Memphis

A recent short dream has called me back to a daily use of icons as my spiritual practice. In the dream the icons for my hard drive and my backup on my computer desktop have suddenly disappeared, but the icons for the documents I am working on are still there on my desktop. I have difficulty understanding that, as the desktop icons should not be there without the hard drive. My dream group and my spiritual director tell me that this may mean the hard drive and backup are still there but hidden. The things that I use for support, that I think I have lost, are still there but hidden.

One of the people in my dream group with extensive computer experience reminds us that icons are also called shortcuts. This offers a new understanding of icons. Computer icons help us more easily access information that is behind them. That is what icons on our desktop as well as religious icons do! Religious icons are shortcuts, often also called “windows” to connecting to God; but Isabel Anders tells us there is much more to it. They are also exercises in recognizing beauty and God, so that we can transfer that skill to realizing the presence of God all around us. So icons could also be considered spiritual Cliff’s Notes—a concentrated experiential practice of awareness, connecting us to the kingdom here on this earth.

I hope my icon-loving friends will not view this as trivializing the spiritual practice of using icons. In fact, my own desk and walls are covered with many icons, so that everywhere I turn I can hope to connect to them. Icons help me stop in my busy day to remember what the day is all about.

All this is just my inadequate attempt to introduce to icons those who may be afraid to use them, thinking they signify foreign practices or idol worship.

Spending time with a favorite icon, especially one of Mary and Jesus, is a favorite Advent meditation of many spiritual friends.

Joanna . joannaseibert.com

December 14 Remembering Sandy Hook

December 14

Remembering the names of children and teachers killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012.

“Holding these persons in our broken-open hearts, we are less likely to forget.” —“Advent Message for Today” from St. Mary’s Cathedral, Memphis, December 10, 2018.

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Daniel Barden, 7

Olivia Engel, 6

Josephine Gay, 7

Ana Marquez-Greene, 6

Dylan Hockley, 6

Madeleine Hsu, 6

Catherine Hubbard, 6

Chase Kowalski, 7

Jesse Lewis, 6

James Mattioli, 6

Grace McDonnell, 7

Emilie Parker, 6

Jack Pinto, 6

Noah Pozner, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Jesica Rekos, 6

Avielle Richman, 6

Benjamin Wheeler, 6

Allison Wyatt, 6

Rachel Davino, 29 (Teacher)

Dawn Hochsprung, 47 (School Principal)

Nancy Lanza, 52 (Mother of gunman)

Anne Marie Murphy, 52 (Teacher)

Lauren Rousseau, 30 (Teacher)

Mary Sherlach, 56 (School Psychologist)

Victoria Soto, 27 (Teacher)

Adam Lanza (shooter)

“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” —Elie Wiesel.

The “Advent Meditation for Today” from St. Mary’s Cathedral in Memphis listed the names of the children and teachers killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School six years ago. Elie Wiesel, renowned survivor of the Holocaust, will keep reminding us in his writings, which live on after him, that remembering those who have died, especially their names, helps us to keep them alive. We are called to keep their memory and the memory of so many others present in our hearts to remind us how the availability of guns and assault weapons is out of control in our country. These children and their teachers cry out to us to save the lives of the children they will never have.

As we long for peace this Advent, may we pray for courage and sacrifice and forgiveness and compassion and wise discernment—for solutions to this crisis for our country. May we be guided by what we can learn from so many other countries that have found answers to this issue.

So, what do the children and teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary School have to do with spiritual direction? The God of love daily calls us to spread the love we learn as we connect to the God within us and God in our neighbor. We know our God grieves with all these children and their families, and we are called to connect to their grief in some unknown way as well. Out of our love and grief we are called to honor those who have died by working to prevent such acts of violence in the future. Discernment and action are just as important in the spiritual life as prayer and silence and contemplation and forgiveness.

Joanna . joannaseibert.com