I have come to see an aesthetic thread running through my life. It is there in my tastes in music, art, literature, food, and drink. The spectacular thing is that this thread resonates with my passion for God like the string on a violin.
Holy Longing marks my relationship with God. I have a passionate desire for intimacy with my Divine Lover that has its root in Eros and stretches for Agape. There is a bittersweet quality to our intercourse, my God and I. When I feel surrounded by God’s presence I feel joy and comfort, satisfaction and wholeness, but I also feel tears well up and a lump come to my throat. I rest in God’s presence and at the same time I mourn that I am not consummated and consumed in divine rapture. I have chosen words that may shock the reader with erotic connotations. This is appropriate because the holy longing I am describing is wholly a function of Eros. It is the divine spark and divine madness spoken of by philosophers and mystics alike.
Showing posts with label Spirituality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spirituality. Show all posts
Monday, April 11, 2011
Thursday, January 28, 2010
God tastes like espresso!
Recently I was on a retreat and Fr. Bernie, who was leading it, challenged us to imagine what God tastes like. I was surprised to find that God tastes like espresso. I am still thinking through the implications of this.
The flavor profile I look for in a shot of espresso is one that rumbles and grabs my tongue. It has a boldness and a clean finish with a fine aftertaste. It seems I want that particular profile because it reminds me of how I experience God. I find I look for similar qualities in music, jazz and blues that digs in with visceral emotion, art deco portraiture that is heroic and lush, Greek food... the list goes on.
What word can I use to describe this experience? Dare I say it?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Spirituality of Coffee
As proof that there are other people crazy about God and espresso, I submit for your consideration Billy Kangas. He has created a liturgy for making a cappuccino that I can't wait to use in practice! What an awesome way to find God in everyday life.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Spirituality and work
How can I lead people to find the spirituality of work from the ivory tower of vocational church life? How can my spiritual formation matter to people in the real world when I am seen as an oddity? Spirituality is my work. I am paid to pray, to study scripture and sit and think for long stretches. How can I say anything of substance to Marv about finding Jesus in the oil and gears of the engine I barely understand? How can I ask Jeff to find Jesus in the electricity flowing in the lines he is repairing at the sugar factory on a Sunday morning, keeping him from joining us at church? What does my intimacy with Jesus do for the retiree struggling with meaning after putting in years of labor at the steering gear plant while I haven’t loaded my “sixteen tons?”
These are just the questions I live with in a blue-collar community. I’m not sure I would be any better equipped to minister to them if I were shackled to an industrial job – especially if I was thrown off balance and couldn’t manage to continue to explore my spiritual formation. No, a pastor is what they need, but how to make it real to them that work can be more than what we do? Spiritual direction would be a wonderful place to explore this. Most of my working people aren’t seeking the spiritual let alone direction. Perhaps informally, doing direction with out them realizing I am – allowing my own deepening in grace to form questions and conversations that would get them thinking and looking for the presence of God at work.
These are just the questions I live with in a blue-collar community. I’m not sure I would be any better equipped to minister to them if I were shackled to an industrial job – especially if I was thrown off balance and couldn’t manage to continue to explore my spiritual formation. No, a pastor is what they need, but how to make it real to them that work can be more than what we do? Spiritual direction would be a wonderful place to explore this. Most of my working people aren’t seeking the spiritual let alone direction. Perhaps informally, doing direction with out them realizing I am – allowing my own deepening in grace to form questions and conversations that would get them thinking and looking for the presence of God at work.
Saturday, September 05, 2009
What does God need?
In our ministerial group we have on occasion batted around the question: does God have real needs? Does God need us? Does God need companionship? Does God need our service?
In thinking so about God's nature the thought occurs to me that if God has a deep inner need, it is the need to reveal himself. God's self-revelation is a gracious mystery. We have no explanation for it. Indeed by creating the universe and human beings to observe it, God has made a vehicle for communication of the Divine nature. God's self-revelation is also necessarily transformative. One cannot gaze into the awful abyss of God's nature and not be changed - from glory to glory.
As a human being I am created to not only search out God's personhood but to proclaim it, to worship. God invites me to participate in this revelation of the beauty of God's being, leading others (in the end all of creation) to transformation. To me that is the spirituality of leadership - firmly rooted in the Boundless.
In thinking so about God's nature the thought occurs to me that if God has a deep inner need, it is the need to reveal himself. God's self-revelation is a gracious mystery. We have no explanation for it. Indeed by creating the universe and human beings to observe it, God has made a vehicle for communication of the Divine nature. God's self-revelation is also necessarily transformative. One cannot gaze into the awful abyss of God's nature and not be changed - from glory to glory.
As a human being I am created to not only search out God's personhood but to proclaim it, to worship. God invites me to participate in this revelation of the beauty of God's being, leading others (in the end all of creation) to transformation. To me that is the spirituality of leadership - firmly rooted in the Boundless.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
A paradigm for everyday spiritual life
The sun is the light of God found in the cyclical process of awakening, purgation, illumination and union. The swirls of light irradiating from the sun represent the integration of the spiritual life in all things and the breakdown of imposed compartments and dualities. They remind us that God doesn't want to be the biggest part of our lives but integrated in to all of them. God invades our work, relationships, personal and communal life making all of life sacred.
The door is my home with God. The stone by the door is my touchstone that brings me back to practicing the presence. The path from the door is reversed in perspective like an icon to draw the viewer in. God invites me down the path to him, and regardless of how far I wander away from home the mere thought of my touchstone puts me at my front door again.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Loneliness and Family
Today I took advantage of my week between classes to learn something not on the curriculum (though I also took some time to get familiar with the text for the next course – go me:P). I listened to a tape by Henri Nouwen called Spirituality of Marriage and the Family. Fred lent it to me a couple weeks back. It was nice to hear what Henri Nouwed sounded like. I didn't imagine he had the accent that he did!
The thing that struck me most is that he saw the primary vocation in marriage being to solitude and intimacy. The idea of a vocation to solitude and of the ministry of honoring and protecting loneliness in each other really grabbed me. Nouwen suggests we should not expect marriage to end our loneliness, as it is our seal of being destined for a greater communion to come. The ministry of marriage is to protect and honor that feeling and minister to it the comfort of intimacy. When intimacy and solitude work together, we give space to each other – we bind up the pain of loneliness through intimacy and give generous space in solitude. The ministry of spacious generosity is hospitality and we offer it to our children and to all who pass through our door that we may bind up their wounds of loneliness while they are with us.
The thing that struck me most is that he saw the primary vocation in marriage being to solitude and intimacy. The idea of a vocation to solitude and of the ministry of honoring and protecting loneliness in each other really grabbed me. Nouwen suggests we should not expect marriage to end our loneliness, as it is our seal of being destined for a greater communion to come. The ministry of marriage is to protect and honor that feeling and minister to it the comfort of intimacy. When intimacy and solitude work together, we give space to each other – we bind up the pain of loneliness through intimacy and give generous space in solitude. The ministry of spacious generosity is hospitality and we offer it to our children and to all who pass through our door that we may bind up their wounds of loneliness while they are with us.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Music Appreciation
Reflect on the fragmentation of spirituality in [modern development] comparable to the ecclectic diversity today in musical tastes (there are no groups today like the Beatles; there are no theologians like Karl Barth). Does this simply mean everyone picks and chooses what they think best for themselves? How do we avoid a consumer approach to spirituality?-Mojo
Mojo's music metaphors reminds me of my class in music appreciation. The goal was to expose us to the musics of other cultures. As a stupid freshman I thought it wise to share my roommate's cd set rather than get my own. Now I kick myself every time I want to hear the Islamic call to prayer or a Chinese aria. Over the years my musical tastes have broadened. Some of the pop music I listened to as a teen, I can't stand. At the same time I have grown to appreciate hardcore and bluegrass simultaneously (though country is still devil's work).
The myriad options provide opportunities for growth and expression. To be honest, when I think of the fractured and many spiritualities, their quarrellings and shopping patrons, my stomach knots up. I feel nauseated much I like I feel when listening to country.
The point is that we can explore and appreciate the wide world of music (or spirituality). That is not to say we have to completely throw out our preferences, I will always have a special place in my heart for Jazz, Big Band and crooners, but I have found classical to enrich my life. Were I to turn my nose up at all these expressions (country accepted) I would fail to embrace the wonders of life. In spirituality I can also get stuck in one favorite genre the expense of all others, only to serve my preferences. It is then that I replace "disciple" with "consumer."
The myriad options provide opportunities for growth and expression. To be honest, when I think of the fractured and many spiritualities, their quarrellings and shopping patrons, my stomach knots up. I feel nauseated much I like I feel when listening to country.
The point is that we can explore and appreciate the wide world of music (or spirituality). That is not to say we have to completely throw out our preferences, I will always have a special place in my heart for Jazz, Big Band and crooners, but I have found classical to enrich my life. Were I to turn my nose up at all these expressions (country accepted) I would fail to embrace the wonders of life. In spirituality I can also get stuck in one favorite genre the expense of all others, only to serve my preferences. It is then that I replace "disciple" with "consumer."
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