Learning Goal #4 Spontaneous Prayer

The prayer style I am used to is reciting or singing prayers that are written down.  One of the areas I am focusing my learning on this year is  praying spontaneously with people of other Christian and non-Christian faiths.

To do this I plan to expand my prayer vocabulary; listen for the needs that patients and family members want to pray for; take cues from patients and family members and mirror them in prayer; practice giving thanks; asking for forgiveness, asking for healing, and giving blessings; ask a member of the Spiritual Care Team to be my goal partner; and write a verbatim about using spontaneous prayer to get feedback from my peers.

                                   

I hope to become more comfortable approaching people of other faiths or no faith tradition and and able to pray for their needs spontaneously when that is desired and appropriate.

Saint Mary Magdalen Berkeley

I have been transitioning to a new community in Saint Mary Magdalen Parish in Berkeley and a new ministry in spiritual care of hospital patients.  I live in the convent next to the School of the Madeleine.  There are six of us in the community.  One Sister serves in pastoral ministry at Saint Monica Catholic Church in Moraga, one serves as a Lector and Eucharistic Minister at Saint Mary Magdalen Parish and another works in development for the School of the Madeleine. These three and myself are all Dominican Sisters.  

Two Sisters from other religious communities are living with us.  One is a Sister of Our Lady of Perpetual Help from Korea.  She ministers in the Catholic  Bible Life Movement in several local parishes and the other is a Lovers of the Holy Cross Sister from Hanoi Vietnam.  She is studying for a Master of Divinity at the Jesuit School of Theology.

Saint Mary Magdalen Parish was founded by the Dominican Friars in 1923.  The convent was built for the Dominican Sisters in 1937 and remodeled along with other improvements that were made to the church, school and rectory between 1975 and 1981.  Mass is celebrated Monday through Saturday at 8:00 am and 5:30 pm. The public is welcome to pray Morning and Evening Prayer with the Dominican Friars in the church twenty minutes before Mass.  We Sisters pray Morning Prayer in our chapel at 6:00 am and Night Prayer in community at 7:00 pm.  On Sundays Mass is celebrated at 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00 am in the Parish.   

Contemplative Dialogue Retreat

Yesterday I finished a week long retreat on Contemplative Dialogue with Jean Holsten, Director of Dialogue Programs from Bread of Life in Sacramento.   Our Congregational Prioress, Sister Gloria Marie Jones, has participated in contemplative dialogue workshops since 2008 and has used it with our  congregational boards, administrators, prioresses and departments at the Motherhouse.  Fifteen of the youngest members of the Congregation participated in the retreat.  In addition to learning the skills for contemplative dialogue we were able to get to know one another on a deeper level.  We plan to continue to meet in the coming years as whole group at least once a year and in small groups of 3-4 to share life, laughter and learnings as we try to apply the contemplative dialogue skills in our daily living.  

I really want to hold the new friendships we are forming as young religious in gentleness and compassion and pray for us to grow in love and understanding of one another for the rest of our lives.  Our living apart makes this a challenge, but all of us are committed to making it happen.  I pray for the graces we will need to happen along the way.  

I came away from the week with a desire to use the ladder of inference tool to assess my own assumptions and how they lead to emotions and actions that are different from others in ministry and community settings.  I want to be more aware of when I am in a caught in a single loop that makes me continue to try to solve problems in the same way with the same result and observe leadership models that are coming from a defended stance or non-defended stance and how those play out.   I want to recognize polarities in myself and use the four quadrant to map out positives and negatives, shared assumptions and outcomes I want to avoid.  I want to read more about Rahner's theology of the human person and use the life frame arenas to consider topics of interest to me from a variety of perspectives. 

Fast for the Truth of Gospel Nonviolence

Today I am joining the 30th Annual Forty Day Fast for the Truth of Gospel Nonviolence, July 1 to August 9, together with thousands of people around the world who are praying to bring about peace and spread authentic Christlike Nonviolent Love (agape) throughout the world.  Because I believe that peace between Muslims and Christians is essential to bringing about world peace, I am using a modified Ramadan fast.  Ramadan is a forty day fast that begins July 20 and goes to August 18.  Muslims typically refrain from all food and drink including water from sun up to sun down during these days.  They begin their day with a good breakfast before sunrise and join their families and friends for a large meal after sun down. I am beginning my daily fast at sun up with a good breakfast and joining my community for the evening meal when it is served.  I am drinking water throughout the day.  

During these days I am praying for peace especially in the Middle East and between Muslims and Christians everywhere.  I am praying for an end to the war and for healing for all who have suffered mental, physical, emotional or spiritual injury.  I am praying for the Churches to return to the non-violent message of Jesus Christ.  I am praying for all Church leaders to step back from the maelstrom of violent political rhetoric and stop any  oppressive practices that serve no Christian purpose.  The message of Jesus Christ is clearly not about using your power and authority to assert your own will over others.  It is about loving kindness and peaceful resistance.  Fasting and prayer is an ancient practice that Jesus himself employed to bring about peace and overcome evil.  I found a website that gives good advice for engaging in the 40 day fast.  If you want to join us, please take the precautions advised on the Campus Crusade for Christ website to prevent damage to your health.  On behalf of Pax Christi and the Center for Christian Non-Violence, I ask for your prayers and support. If you choose to join us, please know that no effort is too small.  All efforts at bringing about peace through intentional acts of loving kindness, prayer and fasting contribute to the field of compassion from which peace flows.        

Christian Non-Violence and Peace

Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy

I made my annual retreat at the Marie Joseph Spiritual Center in Maine.  The retreat was an interfaith retreat, A Call to the Churches to return to Christian Non-Violence and Peace.  The retreat director Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy is a priest of the Eastern Rite (Byzantine-Melkite).  He was ordained in 1981 in Damascus, Syria. He is the founder and of the Program for the Study and Practice of Nonviolent Conflict Resolution at the University of Notre Dame and a co-founder along with Dorothy Day of Pax Christi-USA. He has spoken throughout the world on the issue of the relationship of faith and violence, and the Nonviolent Jesus and His Way of Nonviolent Love of friends and enemies.  

I chose this retreat because of my belief that the war must end soon and my hope to work with veterans and their families as they readjust to civilian life.  I did not expect to be converted to radical pacificism.  Fr. Charlie's carefully laid out argument convinced me that the so-called "Just War Theory" is a deceitful misinterpretation of the message of Jesus Christ.  The fact that this misinterpretation has been around for 1700 years doesn't make it true.  From Constantine onwards Christian leaders who are move interested in political power than living the way of the non-violent loving kindness of Jesus Christ have employed Just War Theory to rationalize involvement in war.  For 17 centuries Christians have been divided into those who believe in the tenets of a just war and those who are radical pacificists.  In our time both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI declared the war we are presently engaged in unjustified, but the USCCB published a statement saying that Catholic youth could participate in it with a clear conscience.  

In the afternoon sessions we saw the neurological damage done to soldiers and civilians traumatized by war and saw that the recruiters are well aware that the human brain does not achieve full formation until the age of 24.  For this reason young people who experience the trauma of war have brain damage that is difficult to repair because they have no former mature brain formation.  Over the course of the retreat I came to the realization that the biggest challenge of our time is to bring about peace through prayer, fasting, preaching and ministering.  We can overcome evil with loving kindness and courageous resistance to violence in all forms.  Those who are returning from the war need a compassionate and understanding society willing to help them heal their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual wounds.  This is the call I am answering through training for clinical pastoral care at John Muir Medical next year.   I didn't expect my retreat to be so perfect a preparation for it, but God provided just what I needed!  I support the Center for Christian Non-Violence and the Veterans for Peace. 

US CHAPTER JULY 1-6

During the US Chapter July 1-6, I will be posting daily updates following each days proceedings.  

Please go to my General Chapter blog to read the news, or paste this link into your browser:

http://generalchapter.blogspot.com/

Care of Creation 15: US Chapter

US Chapter - Engaging the Grace

How do I come to this chapter?  What do I bring?  

We began the work of this chapter with a theme of bold awakening, I find myself praying for the grace of boldness.  I bring an awareness of the boldness of Christ as a non-violent man in a violent world.  I bring an awareness of the price of war and mental anguish it causes.  I bring a passionate desire to bring about peace.  I bring a commitment to helping heal the wounds the war has caused and rebuild bonds of compassion, particularly between Muslims and Christians throughout the world.  I bring a changed heart and changed mind. 

 

Seven Scripture Quotes about the Grace of Boldness

“Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence.”  - Ephesians 3:12

“We can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.”  - Hebrews 10:19
 

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God…and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” - Hebrews 4:16
 
“So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you." - Deuteronomy 31:6
 

“Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.” - 1 Corinthians 16:13
 
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” - 2 
 Timothy 1:7
 
“The wicked run away when no one is chasing them,
but the godly are as bold as lions.” - Proverbs 28:1

 

There are more varieties of love than any other emotion, but the love that Christ teaches is a greater than any of these.  Courageous Christian Love is not an emotion, it is a co-motion.  It is not a romantic affection or a pleasant feeling of being at home with someone else.  It is a deep unity of heart and mind passionately resolved to bring about a bold new world.  


Boldness is a readiness to speak the difficult truth even when no one else agrees with you or is ready to hear it.  Boldness is courageous sacrifice with far-reaching, even eternal, consequences.  

I come to this US Chapter a bold woman, ready make a commotion, willing to speak truth, to make sacrifices and to love with all my strength and courage.

Care of Creation 14: This Moment in Time

Today's Reflection is related to a clip posted on on youtube.  I think we are all moved by time lapse photography of nature.  It is simply amazing to see how the winds, waters, plants and animals change over time.  We know that time is a construct we use to order our days, our work, our lives.  But time lapse photography shows us that time is much more than that.  It is one of the great questions of life.  How can we change time, slow it, control it, move forward or backward...or even sideways in time?  

The following clip helps us to remember how awesome time is and how it inspires us.  Time keeps us from lollygagging around.  It keeps us from resting on our laurels or just sitting around and letting others take care of things.  It reminds us that we are limited beings...and if our life is to have any meaning at all it's up to us to get with it and make something of our lives.  Time is a gift we share.  All of us alive this moment share the gift of time.  Right here! Right now! We are one in this moment of time.  

Go here to see the clip.

or paste it in your browser and watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ&vq=medium****

Care of Creation 13: Energy Field Dissipation

  “Matter, considered as structured fields of activity, and spirit as energy, help us make sense of death.  Energy comprises fields.  Once energy dissipates or ceases, the field dissipates or dies—but it does not disappear altogether, that is, it is not annihilated.  Rather what was 'matter' (the information pattern or field) is converted through death to energy and enters the universe as 'information' or patterns of information.  This information translates into memory in the universe.  Memory in the universe then becomes a source of new life and can help generate greater wholeness of life.  Since this renewal of life is taking place within the divine matrix (God), the new field formation is always lured into greater wholeness and unity.  The death of Jesus forms a new matrix of divine-created life within the cosmos.  Resurrection into this next form of existence and activity is a new incorporation into the ongoing divine field of Trinitarian life which is a dynamic life of ever newness in love.”  -- Ilia Delio, The Emergent Christ pp 84-85

At my death, I want to be remembered as a person who made life's struggles easier to bear by helping to dissipate negative energy and create a positive field of influence for the good.  I believe in the communion of saints, with a small s...ordinary people who do ordinary things with great love.  I believe that the good things we do live on after us and that if we contribute to the good, we will be able to remain somehow connected with the creative life of the planet even after death.  I look forward to learning what the communion of saints means in the reality of space and time in the hereafter...even if my intuitive sense is of that turns out to be wrong.  I think a new way of understanding the whole divine mystery will be revealed and that it will be far more beautiful and perfectly logical than we ever imagined it could be.  I would want to still interact with the living in some benign way for the good of life on earth.  I hope to be a blessing even after death.

Care of Creation 12: A Happy Death

“This new life of Christ is new wholeness, new patterns of relationships to other beings and to the cosmos.  The life of Jesus sets the pattern:  mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation, prayer, charity, justice, peace, sympathy, tears, joy, sorrow, an engaged life with other human beings, with creatures, with nature and the stars and creation.  It is awakening to our relatedness to the earth, to other creatures and assuming our responsibility in this earthly relationship:  solidarity with the poor, compassion with the suffering, hospitality for the stranger, treating each and every creature with utmost dignity.  It also means living sufficiently without consuming excess amounts of vital resources, conscious that we share this planet with diverse peoples, creatures and elements. “-- Ilia Delio, The Emergent Christ pp 94-95

The new possibilities for life and relationship that I am invited into today are evolving from an awareness of the needs of so many who are grieving losses.  Our community prayer yesterday at St. Joseph Priory called upon St. Joseph as Our Patron of a Happy Death.  That phrase "a happy death" strikes me as beautifully poetic.  It is something I think we all hope for in the end.  I've been thinking about that today and praying for those who have recently died and those who are fighting for survival.  My faith teaches me to look forward with hope to eternal life and gives me sufficient hope to live without fear, a strong degree of detachment and a deep source of inner peacefulness.  These are what I share with you today.

Care of Creation 11: Church and State

"To follow Christ is to be engaged in such a way that one’s stance of being in the world is unitive not divisive. Eucharistic life sacramentalizes the vocation of whole-making by offering one’s life for the sake of drawing together that which is divided. Eucharist is being bread broken and eaten for the hungry of the world. It is the food that gives strength to make every stranger beloved, the “yes” of our lives to God’s mysterious cruciform love. What happens to us must be done by us. [Eucharist] requires death to the old self that refuses to embrace another and openness to the other as part of oneself. Whole-making is the desire to be part of a greater whole, and Eucharist sacramentalizes the whole…Jesus’ whole-making is self-surrender for a greater good, and anyone who makes whole by self-surrender for a greater good is following Jesus.” --Ilia Delio, The Emergent Christ pp 67-69 

Today I draw together that which is divided by politics.  I believe in the American way of keeping Church and State separate.  The Church is about communion and actions based on Eucharistic values and the teachings of Jesus Christ.   The State is about governing society, protecting the citizens and providing for those who cannot provide for themselves.  Although the Church and State can be drawn together effectively in an individual's life, as I am doing today, when they intermingle in the public rhetoric, they often clash horribly and create more confusion and division.

I take time to read the political opinions of all parties with candidates in the upcoming elections and various positions on the measures up for consideration.  I am grateful for the sacrifices people have made so that I have the right to vote.  I take it as a serious duty.  

I am an independent voter.  Every election I try to consider all the possibilities with an open mind and make the best choice based on my own analysis of the candidates' character, their voting records and their stated positions.  Lately, the election season has become so sullied by deceitfulness and hatefulness, it is a most unpleasant business.  It is harder and somewhat disgusting sorting the honest opinions from the deceit and rhetoric.  I consider the endorsements of organizations whose values I share, but I make up my own mind without discussing it.  Many Americans follow a similar process.  We are the "silent majority."  We do vote, we just don't talk about it much.  When we do talk about it, it isn't to parrot or dispute a particular party line.  Although I value the right to vote and take it as a serious civic duty, I dislike the election season because of the divisiveness it generates.  Hateful political rhetoric poisons the atmosphere and sickens society.  I am on guard, but I do my duty toward the State as seems best to me.  I think the place of the Church in the election season is to offer the Sacraments that soothe the spirit and heal the sickness, not to add to the confusion and disease.          

Mariological Society of America Photo Album

Free slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Harp and Piano Concert

Sharing an Audio Link to harp and piano concert by Maria and Markus Stange.  You may need to create an account and click on the red S to enable java script for the page a few times to get it to load properly.  I'm looking for a better way to share audio for free, but for now this is the best way I've found.

Marian Devotion of Dominican Foundresses

View YouTube video of my presentation on Marian Devotion of the Dominican Foundresses at the annual meeting of the Mariological Society of America to be published in the 2012 edition of Marian Studies.

Care of Creation 10: Birth of Christ

"There is no birth of Christ, however, without the Spirit.  It is the Creator Spirit who continues to breathe new life in evolutionary creation, who weaves together the cosmic body of Christ.  The Spirit is the “holon maker”, the One who breathes new life, generates new love, searches for new future by uniting what is separate or apart, by healing and making whole.  Where there is the Spirit, there is the divine Word expressed in the rich variety of creation, and where there is the Spirit and Word there is the fountain fullness of love.  Christ symbolizes this unity of love; hence, the fullness of Christ is the creative diversity of all that exists held together by the Spirit of luminous love God." -- Ilia Delio, The Emergent Christ pp 70-71

 

The place where I need healing or to be made whole by the Spirit in my life is in relationships that are broken or strained by misunderstanding, misuse, disrespect or disinterest.  Although I have an openness to all people, I also find that I am less willing to be open when past encounters leave me feeling wounded.  The Spirit heals this on a deep level so that in my heart of hearts there is forgiveness and I can move beyond the hurt to place of peace.  But the human encounter sometimes lags behind the Spirit in these matters and new hurting happens.  We are such fragile creatures, we human beings.  Hurting each other with or without intention on a daily basis.  In this we are united.  We are all wounded and all need the Spirit to become whole so that we can be bearers of the Word for others in need.  The Spirit works in the human encounter to make us whole.  This is the birth of Christ and the breaking of the bread in our daily lives.  A pause for thanksgiving.

Care of Creation 9: Universal Diversity

“A Eucharistic community should be a new energy field, a new pattern of relatedness; the joy of being a Eucharistic people is the renewal of energy for the sake of transforming relationships in the cosmos.  To be Christian is to be in relationships that promote the flourishing of life.  We might think of these new relationships as morphogenetic fields.  Jesus establishes new energy fields of compassion, inclusivity, healing, forgiveness, peacemaking, mercy and justice.  As the Christ, human energy is now integrated with divine energy throughout the cosmos.  The yes of the Christian to the body of Christ is a yes to life in the cosmos, to the earth, the planets and stars, to the diversity of creation and all peoples, to the many religions that seek the ultimate ground of being.  The Christian says yes to all of these because all are brought together in the unity of Christ.” -- Ilia Delio, The Emergent Christ pp 100-101

I am empowered by the Eucharist because of the transformative power of Jesus Christ who heals me and frees me to be his presence alive and active in the world.  This daily miraculous event is everlasting.  It takes me out of my own small world situation and inserts me in the greater truth that has been unfolding since the beginning of time throughout the universe.