benetvision.org – Hear what the Spirit is saying

Wind Chimes: 1 Apr 2013

Sister Joan Chittister is one of my favorite authors. Here is her “Easter Prayer.” You can find an index to all of her “Ideas in Passing” here. I encourage you to subscribe to her weekly email.

To say “I believe in Jesus Christ . . . who rose from the dead,” is to say I believe that the Resurrection goes on and on and on forever. Every time Jesus rises in our own hearts in new ways, the Resurrection happens again. Every time we see Jesus where we did not recognize him before—in the faces of the poor, in the love of the unloved, in the revelatory moments of life, Jesus rises anew. The real proof of the Resurrection lies not in the transformation of Jesus alone but in the transformation awaiting us who accept it.

To say, “I believe in Jesus Christ . . . who rose from the dead,” is to say something about myself at the same time. It says that I myself am ready to be transformed. Once the Christ-life rises in me, I rise to new life as well. “Christ is risen, we are risen,” we sing at Easter. But it has a great deal more to do with life than with death. If I know that Jesus has been transformed, then I am transformed myself, and as a result, everything around me.

Until we find ourselves with new hearts, more penetrating insights, fewer compulsions, less need for the transient, greater awareness of the spiritual pulse of life, resurrection has not really happened for us. Jesus has risen but we have not. Resurrection is change at the root of the soul. It marks a whole new way of being in life.

Prayer

Jesus, help me to understand that in every life, something good fails, something great ends, something righteous is taken unjustly away, something looms like an abandonment by God. Give me the wisdom to know that You rose from the dead as a sign to us that every one of these “little deaths” is life become new all over again. Be with me in living Your Resurrection over and over again.

Joan Chittister in: Vision and Viewpoint e-newsletter dated 1 April 2013

The chimes are fairly shouting praises as they sound today. What do you hear?

Wind Chimes: 23 Dec 2012

The wind in the chimes creates the sound of a plea: ‘O come, o come, Emmanuel.’ What do you hear?

“Pray the O Antiphons” one final day

The “O Antiphons,” one of the oldest liturgical rituals in the church, are prayed around the world during the final days of Advent. For the seven days before Christmas, we recall in these prayers a quality of Christ that must be realized before the presence of Christ can consume the world.

(December 23) O Emmanuel

Jesus Emmanuel has already come. It is not a matter now of Christ’s being where we are; it is a matter of our being in the consciousness of where Christ is in life and where He is not as well. Where is Christ for you? Is there a place in your life that you know down deep is not in the spirit of Christ at all? — Joan D. Chittister, OSB

Prayer: O Emmanuel, leader and desire of all the nations, you set captives free, comfort the lonely; you feed the poor and the hungry. Come be born in us, God of Life.

Pray the O Antiphons with Sister Joan and others
(it’s not too late ~dan)

Links to online Advent Calendars

Even in tragedy, Advent continues. Perhaps this event will demand that we better incorporate the Advent spirituality into our daily lives. ~dan

Each of these has a different approach. Find one that helps you “prepare the way.” Find one that helps you focus on God as you make your way into the loving arms of God.

Trinity Wall Street Online Advent Calendar

Busted Halo Online Advent Calendar

CREDO Online Advent Calendar

Image: Benetvision

Wind Chimes: 21 Dec 2012

Sometime today, pause, listen, pray.

Click the image for the video tribute, a response to the request of the Governor of Connecticut to ring “church bells” 26 times today (12/21/12)

“Pray the O Antiphons” an invitation from Joan Chittister

(December 21) O Radiant Dawn

The celebration of the God of Growth in our lives—those moments of insight in which life comes newly alive in me—helps us to recognize those moments of insight in which life comes newly alive and I begin to see differently, to live differently, to function differently. A new friend, a new work, a new idea are all “radiant dawns” in life that can enable me to become more than I ever dreamed I could. — Joan D. Chittister, OSB

Prayer: O Dayspring, Sun of Justice, bright eternal light, one who shows the way, the one who sets us free even in darkness and death. Come, disperse the gloomy clouds of night.

Pray the O Antiphons with Sister Joan and others
(it’s not too late ~dan)

Links to online Advent Calendars

Even in tragedy, Advent continues. Perhaps the horrific event of one week ago will demand that we better incorporate the Advent spirituality into our daily lives. ~dan

Each of these has a different approach. Find one that helps you “prepare the way.” Find one that helps you focus on God as you make your way into the loving arms of God.

Trinity Wall Street Online Advent Calendar

Busted Halo Online Advent Calendar

CREDO Online Advent Calendar

Wind Chimes: 20 Dec 2012

If the chimes were an orchestra they might sound like this today. Surely the sounds in the chimes are sounds of loss and grief but also of yearning and hope. What do you hear?

As longs the deer for cooling streams
in parched and barren ways,
so longs my soul, O God, for thee
and thy refreshing grace.

For thee, my God, the living God,
my thirsty soul doth pine:
O when shall I behold thy face,
thou majesty divine?

Why restless, why cast down, my soul?
Hope still, and thou shalt sing
the praise of him who is thy God,
thy health’s eternal spring.

To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
the God whom we adore,
be glory as it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.

Hymn based on Psalm 42 | Source: Hymn 658 in Hymnal 1982 (Episcopal) on Hymnary.org

“Pray the O Antiphons” an invitation from Joan Chittister

(December 20) O Key of David

We are called to the kind of Christian commitment that opens doors and breaks down barriers between people, that brings unity to a divided world. Try to unlock one door that is keeping someone locked out of your heart. — Joan D. Chittister, OSB

Prayer: O Key of David, rod and staff of the house of Israel, one who opens and no one closes, the one who closes and no one opens. Come lead prisoners caught in darkness

Pray the O Antiphons with Sister Joan and others
(it’s not too late ~dan)

Links to online Advent Calendars

Even in tragedy, Advent continues. Perhaps this event will demand that we better incorporate the Advent spirituality into our daily lives. ~dan

Each of these has a different approach. Find one that helps you “prepare the way.” Find one that helps you focus on God as you make your way into the loving arms of God.

Trinity Wall Street Online Advent Calendar

Busted Halo Online Advent Calendar

CREDO Online Advent Calendar

Wind Chimes: 18 Dec 2012

The gale winds have subsided. The wind is as gentle as a baby’s breath. The sound in the chimes is softer. What do you hear?

“Pray the O Antiphons” an invitation from Joan Chittister

(December 18) O Adonai

When we build a vision of life it is necessary to realize that Jesus must be the center of it—not our institutions, good as they may be; not our plans or personal talents, necessary as they are. — Joan D. Chittister, OSB

Prayer: O Adonai, leader of the ancient Israel, giving Moses, while in the burning bush, the law on Sinai. Come with outstretched arms and teach us.

Pray the O Antiphons with Sister Joan and others
(it’s not too late ~dan)

Links to online Advent Calendars

Even in tragedy, Advent continues. Perhaps this event will demand that we better incorporate the Advent spirituality into our daily lives. ~dan

Each of these has a different approach. Find one that helps you “prepare the way.” Find one that helps you focus on God as you make your way into the loving arms of God.

Trinity Wall Street Online Advent Calendar

Busted Halo Online Advent Calendar

CREDO Online Advent Calendar

Image: Benetvision

Wind Chimes: 9 Oct 2012

As the wind blows through the chimes today, what do you hear?

A personal reflection

We were introduced to Job in our Sunday reading (10/7/12 – Job 1:1; 2:1-10). I encourage you to read all of Chapters 1 and 2. Today, I share some observations (from what we read and with a little bit of peeking ahead):

Job has it all, and with his wife and family gives thanks
Job has nothing, and less than nothing, and with his wife by him, he gives thanks
God was present in plenty and Job “knew” God
God was present in the darkness, and now Job really began to know God
Before my illness, with my wife and family, I gave thanks
In the depths of my illness, near death, my wife and family near, I gave thanks
God was present in plenty and I “knew” God
God was present in the darkness, and now I have really begun to know God

Where do we encounter God? In the present; we always encounter God in the present moment. Whether the moment is filled with light, or in the shadow, or in complete darkness, God is present, seeking the seeker and ready, always ready, to be found. As I write I have no doubt that you know the truth of Job’s story, that you know the truth of my story. You know because you have someone in your own life teaching you this wisdom; or you know because you are the one teaching others this wisdom. May God bless us all with the wisdom to understand.

What I said stated more eloquently

God is in the breeze, in the very atmosphere around us, in the little things that shape our lives. God is in the contradictions that assail us, in the circumstances that challenge us, in the attitudes that impel us, in the motives that drive us, in the life goals that demonstrate our real aspirations, in the burdens that wear us down, in the actions that give witness to the values in our hearts. God is in the stuff of life, not in the airy-fairy of fertile imaginations bent on the pursuit of the preternatural. God is where we are, including in the very weaknesses that vie for our souls.

God is not a mystery to be sought in strange places and arcane ways. God is a mystery to be discovered within us and around us. And savored.

Joan Chittister “Discovering the mystery of God” in Ideas in Passing on Benetvision.org. This paragraph is excerpted from her post which is itself an excerpt from “O Wonder of Wonders,” by Joan Chittister in How can I find God?, ed. James Martin, S.J. (Triumph Books)

A prayer

Never a trial that
He is not there.

Never a burden that
He does not bear.

Never a sorrow that
He does not share.

Moment by moment
I’m under His care.
—D.W. Whittle in Prayers for Healing Maggie Oman (Ed.), p. 205

Prayer

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