Owensby: Changing Our Perspective

March 17, 2025 joanna seibert

Owensby: Changing our perspective

“A gestalt shift is a visual switch of perspective. While looking at an unchanging image, we see first one thing and then another. For instance, in the picture below, you can see an older woman or a young woman.”—Jake Owensby in Looking for God in Messy Places, https://jakeowensby.com, March 3, 2018.

In his weekly blog, Looking for God in Messy Places, the fourth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Louisiana talks about how we interpret what we see before seeing it. He challenges us to look at some things we think are familiar in another way.

Gestalt shifts involve changing our minds about something.

I see Gestalt shifts in spiritual direction as well. Spiritual direction is about caring for the soul. Spiritual friends help us put on a new pair of glasses to see God at work in their lives when we did not perceive God before.

Spiritual friends ask questions like, “How is your heart?” instead of “How are you doing?”

Spiritual friends follow a rule of life where we “bend the knee of the heart”1 and “listen with the ear of the heart.”2

Spiritual friends help us find our own sacred space inside of each of us and find sacred spaces outside of us in the world. As a result, we begin to see a different view of the world that Barbara Brown Taylor describes in her book, An Altar in the World.

The Gestalt shift of spiritual friends is that we look beyond the surface and see the Christ in each other, especially in the person we previously had difficulty with.

We begin to see them in a new light, often significantly wounded, just like the rest of us.

1 Prayer of Manasseh, Book of Common Prayer, p. 91.

2 Prologue to The Rule of Benedict.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Bishop Owensby’s book is Looking for God in Messy Places.

Joanna Seibert. joannaseibert.com

Nouwen: Jesus Prayer

March 16, 2025 joanna seibert

Nouwen: Jesus Prayer

“Lord God, Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on me.”

Previously, we read about the Jesus Prayer from Bishop Hibbs. Today we learn more about it from Henri Nouwen. This prayer is a modification of the Agnus Dei recited or sung in the Eucharist or Communion service at the Fraction after the celebrant breaks the consecrated bread.

The prayer is also a modification of the ancient Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” I have used this modification for years, awakening during the day—especially during difficult times and as I fall asleep. When we pray the Jesus Prayer or a modification continuously, it is considered a Prayer of the Heart: opening the heart with unceasing prayer, as Paul called for in Romans 12:12 and 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

I have been to only one General Convention of the Episcopal Church. What I remember most is attending a special lecture by Henri Nouwen. I continually give thanks for taking time out of a busy day to go. I do not remember a word Nouwen said, but I remember his presence. It was loving, accepting, not centered on himself, at peace with himself, the closest thing I have experienced to a holy presence. I can still feel that holiness in his writings.

Nouwen’s theme of praying the Jesus Prayer or Prayer of the Heart is found in Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life. Nouwen contends this practice moves our prayers from the head to the heart, as we realize that answers to questions and the presence of God are in our hearts. Nouwen’s thoughts remind me of the spiritual exercises of Anthony de Mello, who also recommends imaging our body and breath to move from our head to our heart and body.

The Jesus Prayer has been a part of my being, particularly when I find myself living in fear. I have never said it unceasing 3000 times a day, then 6000, then 12,000 times a day, as the 5th-century Egyptian Desert Fathers and the 19th-century Russian monk recommended to the anonymous Russian peasant in The Way of the Pilgrim. I confess that I pray the Jesus Prayer more often when I reach my human limits, indicating my powerlessness, rather than using the prayer on God’s terms.

Nouwen teaches about the paradox of prayer, learning to pray when we can only receive prayer as a gift. God’s Spirit, God’s breath, prays into and with us. Instead, I often use prayer, especially the Jesus Prayer, in times of weakness, as a support system, as a foxhole prayer, or when I can no longer help or control the situation and am desperate.

Nouwen reminds us to pray the Jesus Prayer at the point when we can reach out to God, not on our own terms and needs, but on God’s terms. This kind of prayer pulls us away from self-preoccupations and challenges us to enter a new world, a great adventure, praying to our God, who has no limits.

Nouwen’s book Reaching Out, about the spiritual journey and union with God using the Jesus Prayer, is one I keep readily available by my bed. I recommend it to those who come to me for spiritual direction if they are experiencing the absence of God.

Nouwen writes that God is present, but God’s presence is beyond our human experience of being connected, which may be perceived as absence. Yet, paradoxically, God’s absence is often so deeply felt that it can lead to a new sense of God’s presence.

Nouwen’s book is excellent for adult studies, especially during Advent or Lent.

The Way of the Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way, a new translation by Helen Bacovin. (Image 1978).

Henri Nouwen in Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life. (Image 1975).

Henri Nouwen in Desert Wisdom: Sayings from the Desert Fathers. (Orbis 1982).

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Into Darkness

March 15, 2025 joanna seibert

Into Darkness

Guest Writer: Gary Kimmel

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light around me turn to night,’ darkness is not dark to you, O Lord; the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to you are both alike.” Psalm 139: 11-12.

“In my mind, church talk about an association of darkness with evil and goodness with light made no sense.” Barbara Holmes in Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation: The Wisdom of Darkness, 29 December 2021.

If the psalmist is correct, why is darkness often associated with evil in scriptural settings? There can be no question that bad things happen in the dark and that emotional and spiritual darkness can invade our being. These aspects of darkness should not be discounted. And yet, darkness can also be a place of great and even unexpected beauty.

Darkness presents us with opportunities to experience God’s unimaginable love: the stillness when the world has settled for the day, the beauty of an unhindered view of our starry cosmos, the call of an owl or nightingale. In meditation, darkness can bring a sense of peace and calming influence, allowing us to come closer to God-within-us. Some services encompass darkness that quietly speaks to us (e.g., Christmas Eve, Easter Vigil, Taize).

For most of our world’s people, darkness comes in another form – the color of one’s skin. In a meditation[1], Dr. Rev. Barbara Holmes, an African American, touches on this in a very personal way:

“Because I saw my Aunties negotiate darkness as a reality with as much potential as light, I stopped being afraid of the dark. I realized that sight and insight were not dependent upon the glaring light produced by humans, for there was an inner light that glowed and revealed much more. In my mind, church talk about an association of darkness with evil and goodness with light made no sense. I knew that darkness held and healed me. So, there had to be many types of darkness that I could differentiate, dismiss, or embrace.”

Oh, that we all could experience this perspective of darkness.

Some nights, find a dark, quiet place (not easy in today’s busy world) and take a deep breath. Then listen. Listen to the night creatures, the distant busy world, or, maybe best of all, the silence. Experience the beautiful side of darkness.

1 Barbara Holmes in Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations, 29 December 2021.

Gary Kimmel

Joanna joannaseibert.com