Study your face

A Meditation on the face

Note: This reflection is somewhat different and is inspired by a book called “Buddha’s Brain,” which deals with some of the latest research on brain chemistry and how it can be applied to meditation, among other things.

You need a mirror for this meditation if you’re going to make it truly “interactive.” Here goes:

                You are a marvelously unique and complex human being. Look in the mirror at your face: your eyes are yours, your nose is yours, as is your mouth and your lips, your cheeks and your jaw. Look at your face? Is there any sadness or tension showing there? If so, ask God to touch it and to touch whatever it is in your life and in you that is at the root of that sadness or tension.

                Smile: Look at it. Does the smile come naturally to you or does it take conscious effort? When your face it totally relaxed, is it smiling or frowning? Is there anything you would like to have changed about that? Ask for it.

                Touch your lips. All around. Some believe that touching your lips sets off some good connections in your brain and can even affect your feelings and emotions.

                Close your eyes and breathe and smile. For as long as you want. Good.

                What would it be like if you smiled more often? What memory or thought brings a natural smile to your face? Dwell on those things when you sense your mind going to a dark place. Try this as a remedy to the darkness. And to give it even more power, touch your lips like you did before.

                One last thing before we conclude this reflection: Once again look into a mirror while you smile. Does the smile reach your eyes? It’s wonderful when that happens. If it doesn’t happen for you (like for most people these days,) ask God to rearrange things in your life so that you can smile with your eyes more often.

                By the way: People say you’re more beautiful when you’re smiling. Share more of that beauty with the world. It needs it. . . . Have a nice day!

Problem Solving

There are times when I worry about things: how they’re going to turn out, or how I’ll manage to solve a particular problem, or other thoughts of a similar nature.

Sometimes I need a gentle reminder that it’s not my job to worry this way, that all things are in the hand of God, and that he has ways working out problems and solutions that are far beyond anything I can figure out on my own.

Bluntly put, the lesson is this: I’m not in charge. I’m not the director. I’m not the problem solver. He is. And even when it looks like I’m the one solving the problem, it’s only because God has given me the insight or idea or solution.

Within the past two weeks, the Lord took care of two things I was fretting about, in two ways that I never imagined would come to pass. Wow.

“Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief.”

 

 

Savoring

He settled into his pew. The wood was old and creaky and actually felt softened by use. Nestled is a good word to describe the feeling. No one was within touching distance. Ah, it is so good worshipping in huge old cathedrals where this sort of “privacy” is possible. “Just you and me,” he said to the Deity. Suddenly, the organ chimes began tolling the melody to a favorite old hymn of his, a bit out-of-season but nonetheless very, very welcome--and appropriate: “Come Holy Ghost, Creator blest and in our hearts take up Thy rest.”

This was indeed a time of rest and refreshment. He thanked God for having given him the capacity to savor so many things: an ancient melody, the sound of the carillon, the text of an old prayer, the blessed time of private solitude, the beauty of an old church. He thanked God that his heart was so disposed that the meaning of those words brought him a very real sense of Presence, and peace, and giftedness. 

What do you savor? How great is your capacity, the capacity to savor simple things which lift the heart and spirit beyond the limits imposed by daily existence? Would you like more? It wouldn’t hurt to ask, you know.

Bow to the mystery

I have a friend who struggled for a good many years trying to figure out something that happened in her family when she was a child. The questions she had about that situation were always with her, and when she dwelled on them she would get frustrated and depressed.

Are there things in your life that you have not been able to explain, or figure out, or solve? Do you have questions you cannot answer about this, that or the other thing that you keep on trying to find answers until you drive yourself crazy? All of us have at least one thing like that in our lives, the mystery that defies any attempt at a solution.

One day my friend has a revelation that brought her relief. It was so obvious that she couldn’t see it for years. The revelation was this: concerning that one issue, she was never going to figure it out, never find an answer or solution to the questions she kept asking about it, and what’s more, she realized that once she accepted the matter as a mystery in her life and let go of the struggle, she was at peace.

Of course, from time to time, she would once again begin questioning things, but all she had to remember was that she had decided to bow to the mystery, then the torment would cease and her peace would return to her.

I’m writing this not only for you but also for myself, because I just realized that I have a question which I’ve been asking recently, a question that I will probably never be able to answer. This isn’t the first time I’ve had questions like that, and I’ll bet it won’t be the last time.

What I need to do, like my friend, and perhaps like you as well, is simply surrender to the mystery and let it be. If someday the Lord wants me to have an answer, he’ll work it out for me. But I’m not going to drive myself crazy waiting around for it. I bow before the mystery and just let.it.be.

Duality, Part Two: Touching the Pain

You’ve become aware that there are times when you are not able to be inclusive, but rather think of others as THEM. Like that person who speaks with a heavy accent, or someone who doesn’t dress appropriately (as you define it) or people in a different socio-economic class as you. Or maybe even the neighbor whose dog barks too much.

Here’s a quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each person’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm any hostility.”

And here’s something my juniormaster often used to say to me back in the 80’s: “You never know what kind of burden the other person may be carrying around.”

Well, some times I got to find out. More than once I’ve experienced being part of a support group or an encounter group, or a faith-sharing group where the group of strangers I was sitting with gradually became a group of peers as each of us took a risk and shared some of our own pain and struggles with the others. These unifying experiences were full of grace.

Become sensitive to that pain and those burdens and you grow closer to Christ, who made the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of that pain. “Because of the ontological unity of Christ with the whole human race, the sacrifice was a bloody crucifixion. United with us in being and in love, Christ took on himself all the hatred, rebellion, derision, despair (‘My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?’)—all the murders, all the suicides, all the tortures, all the agonies of all humanity through all time and all space. In all these Christ bled, suffered, cried out in aguish and desolation.  . . . At that moment death is swallowed up in life, the abyss of hatred is lost in the bottomless depths of love.” (Olivier Clement: The Roots of Christian Mysticism, p. 44)

Sense the pain in the other, even if you do not know the specifics. When you are able to do that, then the other is no longer THEM but becomes part of US. And the cross takes on a newer, more poignant significance for you.

Duality

We share a natural instinctive tendency to divide the world into two groups of people: Us and Them. Anthropologists tell us that we inherit this divisive inclination from our warrior-gatherer pre-historic ancestors whose very survival depended on being part of a separate group or band or tribe, seeing everyone outside the closely-knit clan as The Enemy.

Us and Them.  A simple and clear way of considering this dynamic is to look at American politics: Republican/Democrat or Conservative/Liberal divisions are striking examples. One might also consider any of the wars throughout history, as well as so many of the insistent prejudices in our own society.

There is also a lot of Us/Them divisions in both the Old and New Testaments. Note, however, that Jesus sometimes broke through those divisions, challenging his fellow Jews to look at things more inclusively. The leper was separated from society because of fear of disease; Jesus touched the leper (and perhaps you remember that St. Francis kissed the leper!). The prostitutes and tax-collectors were judged; Jesus ate with them at table. The Samaritans believed differently and therefore were regarded as Them; Jesus challenged this notion in the parable of the Good Samaritan (an oxymoron to many a Jew of his day) as well as in the scene with the woman at the well.

It does us good to look even more closely at less obvious times that we too engage in Us/Them thinking, even in the course of a single day.  I caught myself this past weekend at Mass: someone arrived late—one of THEM! An individual worshipper was making (gasp!) Charismatic gestures—clearly not one of US.

Whom do you see as THEM? See if you can catch yourself. Tomorrow I’ll share a quote with you that I believe can help break down so many of the petty divisions we make on a regular basis.


By the way, if you'd like to receive my reflections by email, please send me your address to bcamera@anselm.edu

Gratitude, part 2: Gratitude and hope

Expanding our capacity for gratitude leads to an increase in the virtue of HOPE. Look at it this way: the more aware we become of just how much God cares for us on a regular, daily, hourly and consistent basis, the better able we are to avoid panic, discouragement or despair when we are confronted with some trial or disappointment in the present. As the hymn has it: “’tis grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.” God has been there for me in any and all difficulties yesterday and the day before and throughout my life. Surely now God is going to help me in this particular situation, he is going to help me through this trial, he will help me “break through any barrier” as it says in the psalms.

                There is a clear admonition in the Scriptures to REMEMBER what God has done. Consider these verses from Psalm 78:  “. . . they too should set their hope in God and never forget God’s deeds.” (Psalm 78:7)

Psalm 78 is the story of Israel in the desert on their way to the promised land, and it is a chronicle of how again and again the people angered God. Every time they came up against a new difficulty or obstacle, rather than remember all he had already done for them, they gave themselves over to doubting and whining and complaining.

Of course, we’re never like that, are we?

Anyway, if you have a chance this weekend, go and read psalm 78, a saga about what happens when an entire nation of people loses its sense of gratitude, and therefore its sense of hope. (Or perhaps you can go and read a few articles in the news this weekend or any day.

Gratitude, Part One

Gratitude, Part 1.

"Now think what God has done for you; give thanks to him with all your voice."
(This is an antiphon we sing at morning prayer on Thursdays).

I used to challenge my students by having them make a “gratitude list” in their journals—a list of things they would like to thank God for. For some, this was a difficult assignment at first. I was as if their “gratitude pipes” were clogged and it took a while to get things moving.

Next, I would ask them to thank God for things that happened within the past week. Finally, I would narrow it down to just one day. Again, some of them would find this difficult.

How about you? How would you answer these questions:
---How has God touched my life today?
---How, and through whom or through what has he spoken to me?
---What beautiful things has he set before my eyes to savor and enjoy? (Perhaps that beautiful cloud formation in the sky that I took delight in while driving down the highway . . . )
---How has he answered a particular prayer of mine?
---How has he handled a situation I wasn’t sure about in a way that I never would have figured out?

(You can add to this list yourself.)

And so one task for the day is for you to sharpen up your “antennae” as they cast about your life looking for things you can give thanks for.

Thinking like this, by the way, introduces some subtle changes in your brain circuitry. If you’re not used to regularly giving thanks, you’ll be surprised to see what develops.

No need to worry

There are times when I worry about things: how they’re going to turn out, or how I’ll manage to solve a particular problem, or other thoughts of a similar nature.

Sometimes I need a gentle reminder that it’s not my job to worry this way, that all things are in the hand of God, and that he has ways working out problems and solutions that are far beyond anything I can figure out on my own.

Bluntly put, the lesson is this: I’m not in charge. I’m not the director. I’m not the problem solver. He is. And even when it looks like I’m the one solving the problem, it’s only because God has given me the insight or idea or solution.

Within the past two weeks, the Lord took care of two things I was fretting about, in two ways that I never imagined would come to pass. Wow.

“Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief.”

What are you going to do next?

I told a friend last night that I had retired. And just like so many other people I told about my retirement, her first question to me was, “But what are you going to do now that you’re retired?”

Common question, certainly; a caring question; a curious question; perhaps even a worrying question.

“What are you going to do?” After all, don’t we need something to do in order to give meaning to our lives? True. (Note that I am doing something—I’m writing these lines, something that I rarely had time for when I was doing what-it-was-that-I-was-doing before retirement.)

And, I must confess, I wonder what I’m going to do as well. I have a list of projects in mind that I never had the time to dig into before. But something else is also important. I have to leave the space and the time open, because there might very well be something that the Lord has in mind for me to do that I don’t even know about at this point in the journey. So I need time to slow down, to meditate more, to savor so many of the things that I didn’t have time to appreciate when I was busy doing ______. 

And, above all, I need to be open to the promptings of the Spirit. That above all.

I’d offer one piece of advice to you if I can, and this is something that I had to learn the hard way: we all would do well not to over-identify ourselves with our jobs, titles, roles and functions at any stage of our life. Because things change. It is far more important to focus on who we are than on what we do.

And that being said, I have to move on. There are a number of things I would like to get done today . . .

Grace is not imposed on us

“Life continues to be offered, not imposed.” (Oliver Clement, The Roots of Christian Mysticism, p. 40)

Clement is speaking about new life, life in the Spirit, that fullness of life that Christ promises when he says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

This life is offered to us but it is never forced on us. We are not compelled to grow in wisdom, or in the virtues, or in anything else that would enlarge our lives and make us grow closer to God and, ultimately, to his kingdom in the world to come. It is there for us to choose freely: God yearns for us to choose life, and if we ask, he sends us all the help and graces we need to make it happen. But we have to ask. We have to choose.

And so, what choices are set before you at this point in your life? What choices are set before you today? What will bring you to the “fullness,” what choices however will empty you out and set you apart from what Christ had come—and died—and rose from the dead—to give you?

And here’s a little trick: don’t think on any grand scale. Think small. The little things, taken together, lead to the greater ones.  12-steppers know so well how they have to work on their recovery on a day-to-day basis, paying mindful attention to the little aspects of the struggle. All of us, too, need to work out our salvation, our ultimate union with God, in the same way: one small step at a time.

Today, perhaps, I will read something inspiring rather than plop myself down in front of the television   set.

Today, perhaps, I will let the other driver go first instead of fighting for control of the road.

Today I will not give my energy to that person who robs me of joy and wholesomeness.

Today I will speak with someone who brings out the best that is within me.

Today I will meditate, even if only for 3 minutes.

Today I will look for opportunities to perform some small generous acts, especially in areas where I tend              to be selfish.

Today I will smile more.

Today I will give thanks as often as I can remember.

Today I will spend time with that hobby or that creative work which lifts me up and brings me joy and    peace.

Today, you will . . . 

IMHO is back

Welcome again, everyone. I'm now retired and have more time to read, think and pray . . . and also more time to write. My goal is to publish 5 or 6 daily reflections each week. Please pray for me the the Spirit will inspire me to offer something on a regular basis. And, above all, please tell others about this blog and to use the comments feature to stay in touch with me.

God bless you all,
Fr. Bede