Sharing Being Beloved

Nouwen: Sharing Beloved

“Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.” Henri Nouwen in You Are the Beloved (Convergent Books 2017)

Beloved Hat Lovers

Our being beloved is a basic premise of Henri Nouwen’s about the spiritual life. He believes that when God tells Jesus he is the beloved son at his baptism, God also speaks to us. Nouwen believes our primal identity is as beloved sons and daughters of God.

When we can accept God’s unconditional love, God then calls us to go out into the world and share this love. Unconditional love is only sustained when it is shared. It cannot be love, only of self. When we forget or cannot believe the truth about this love, self-rejection sets in that can destroy us and others. Unconditional love is constantly being attacked by ourselves, others, and the world around us. We must be reminded about it every day, every second.

One way to keep it is by being connected to a loving community where others strive to hear the voice of unconditional love, where the voice of the God of love is magnified and transmitted. Some days, the voice that we are beloved is so soft we cannot hear it.

Our ears become stopped up by the voices of the world. These days, we need friends to remind us that we are beloved. On other days, we know we are beloved and now remind others. We are constantly being healed and healing others of this self-rejection living among us, which is like an infectious disease.

However, unconditional love is always stronger, stronger than even death.

You are my beloved, Smithsonian American Art

Joanna     https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Praying Lectio Divina

Praying Lectio Divina

listen with the ear of your heart

 “Lectio Divina means Divine Reading. It is a prayerful way to read scripture or any spiritual writing.
 Read -- Read Deeply
 Read a scripture passage slowly and profoundly and hear every word’s sound and meaning. Imagine that God is speaking to you through these words. Listen attentively to see which word or phrase catches your attention and speaks to you and your life.
 Meditate – Think, imagine Deeply
Take what caught your attention from your reading and think deeply about it using your imagination. Imagine what it meant to those at that time who first heard it. Why is this important to you, your tradition, your experience, and your life today? What about it particularly moves you?
Pray -- Pray from the Heart
If your heart is moved or your emotions touched, go with the feelings and offer what you are feeling to God in prayer.
 Contemplate -- Rest
Fall into the love of God and the love from God that was generated. Rest in silence. Just be.
Finally, memorize or copy the thought that moved you and try to remember it from time to time during the day.
Journal, if possible, about what happened during the prayer.”

Modified from the Community of Reconciliation at Washington National Cathedral and the Friends of St. Benedict.

 Lectio Divina is an ancient Benedictine practice of reading the scriptures,, similar to centering prayer, which cultivates contemplative prayer. It was practiced in community in monasteries during the time of St. Benedict. This is a time-honored way to connect to God through reading scripture, prayer, meditation, and contemplation or listening for God. If your tradition has fixed lectionary readings for Sunday, practice Lectio Divina with one or all of the readings daily as your discipline or in a group.

In her book, A Tree Full of Angels, Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary, Macrina Wiederkehr writes extensively about Lectio Divina, calling it “plowing up the field of the soul.” As her guide, she uses a quote from Benedictine Abbot Marmion: “Read under the eye of God until your heart is touched, then give yourself up to love.” She uses imagery in the process and waits for a mantra, a holy word, a phrase, or a sentence that may stay. She then carries that word or phrase with her during the day. Finally, she describes giving yourself to God as surrender, melting into God.

Joanna    https://www.joannaseibert.com/

New Nursery Rhymes

Altering with Intent: The Case for “New” Nursery Rhymes

Guest Writer: Isabel Anders 

“When words and pictures work well together, they form something new, something greater than the sum of its parts.” —Lynne Barasch.

“The teaching of children … is where the story of the transfer of knowledge truly begins.” —Simon Winchester, LitHub (4/25/23).

Winchester goes on to explain that the very earliest means of transmitting knowledge “are primarily oral or pictorial in nature: they tend to involve stories, poetry, performance, rock carving, cave painting, songs, dances, games, designs, rituals, ceremonies, architectural practices, and what the aboriginal peoples of Australia know in their various languages as ‘songlines,’ all passed down through the generations by designated elders or specially skilled custodians of each form of cultural expression.”

Some people feel we shouldn’t mess with iconic nursery rhymes. But in fact, many different versions of our children’s classic lullabies and folktales have already been reshaped and shared through the centuries as nighttime comfort and the carriers of new ideas. 

However, some story-tale figures familiar to us that meant one thing in earlier times can now signify something totally unrelated in a modern, meme-rich context. In light of this realization, another look at nursery rhymes is reasonable.

Often, a new take on a familiar trope starts with a revised caricature.  Political cartoonists frequently draw on the legacy of familiar characters to strengthen their visuals as they make their points. And it usually hits home.

For instance, Humpty-Dumpty sitting on his wall instantly signals vulnerability; George Washington, pictured with a cherry tree, will have something to say about honesty. Biblical themes such as Noah and the Ark (being rescued) or Moses parting the Red Sea (exerting great power) are also shared memes that have retained widespread agreed-on significance.

The reviser of familiar rhymes and their potential messages starts from there. Picturing iconic figures can facilitate a visual “shortcut,” bringing children into a familiar frame or story to convey practical wisdom.

I have turned to writing children’s picture books of “refreshed” nursery rhyme versions to convey values in a culture of sensory overload. I’ve also tried to include some flexibility in the application to show that the child has a choice in how to respond to a situation. 

For instance, the older “morals” or intended teachings attached to folk tales tended to be quite rigid and even scary. And too much emphasis on magic and unlikely rescue leads to unrealistic expectations.

Joel H. Morris perhaps sums it up best: “The best re-imagined stories address what is inconsistent about the original text and make it unmissable. To tell such tales again is to tell them for the first time, to weave a thread in the tapestry of what it means to be human.”

By adding, for a new generation, an underlying awareness from Jesus’ Beatitudes of what goodness is all about—how it might manifest in the choices we make, the people we include, the goals we aim for, and the values that endure—the rhymes in my collection are not “New” so much as, I hope, “Timely.”

Isabel Anders’ Mother Bilbee Legacy Collection of revised nursery rhymes, picture books for children 3 to 8, includes Sing a Song of Six Birds; Mary, Harry, Pete, and Carrie, How Does Your Garden Grow? and the forthcoming Jack Horner’s Christmas Pie.

Isabel Anders

Joanna Seibert. joannaseibert.com