Charleston: Sacred Within Each of Us

Charleston: Sacred Within Each of us

 “Do not be shy about claiming the visions you have seen. I know that in our time and culture it is not as common for people to speak of their spiritual visions, but that does not mean the visions themselves have ceased to appear. The Spirit still sends messages to each of us, images that are unique to our experience, flashes of meaning for us to interpret and understand. Some we seek, some come unbidden, but all are authentic parts of a spiritual life. The sacred is a visual realm. Wisdom is in what we see.” Bishop Steven Charleston daily Facebook page, June 27, 2018.

We pass by the town of St. Ignatius in the Flathead Indian Reservation on the way to Glacier National Park.  The name of Ignatius is sacred to so many of us for what this saint taught us from so many years ago. I have previously visited the church there at the foot of the Mission Mountains which is well known for its original biblical paintings on the ceiling and walls painted by one of the brothers, believed also to be the cook! My daughter tells me that there also had been a school there where the students were punished if they were caught speaking in their native Salish language. The Jesuits were so certain they were doing the right thing changing the native Americans into Europeans.

This is a constant reminder for me that we as well sometimes can be so assured about the God of our understanding and what we have to share that we forget to honor that part of God in our neighbor we are trying to help. Our hope is that we will first always honor the God of the understanding of our spiritual friends. We may tell them about the God of love we know and share our experience, but we do not insist that this is the only way to encounter God.

Each of us has a part of the divine within. Our job is to realize that part of God within us and help those we meet to find the God within them and look for similarities in our relationship with God. We also learn so much from others about the divine present in their lives and honor it, and care for it. It is precious.

Today we are beginning to realize the power of native American spirituality that so many for so long were certain was not really God.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Gifts from Elizabeth 2

Gifts from Elizabeth 2

“Each of us carries in his heart an album of lovely pictures of the past: memories of event that brought gladness to us. I want you now to open this album and recall as many of these events as you can.” Anthony de Mello, “Exercise 18: The Joyful Mysteries of your Life,” p. 71, Sadhana, A Way to God, Christian Exercises in Eastern Form, Image 1978.

I am spending another morning feeling the presence of my husband’s mother, Elizabeth. She and Robert’s dad taught me how to love.

I look down as I write. I am wearing Elizabeth’s engagement ring and wedding band. They are bonded together. When Elizabeth started showing signs of Alzheimer’s, Bob gave her rings to my husband, Robert. He almost immediately forgot where he put it; in fact, we had decided that they were lost.

Then three years ago in Elizabeth’s 104th year, when Robert was looking for something in an old briefcase in his office, he found the rings. We talked about what do to with them, break down the diamonds and give to our grandchildren. Finally, he decided just to keep them as they are. Then the summer of Elizabeth’s 106th year, at Trio’s Restaurant on the patio, Robert got on his knee and asked if we could become engaged. He then gave me his mother’s beautiful rings that he had had sized for me at Sissy’s Log Cabin. I did not get an engagement ring when we decided to get married. So, now in the 49th year of our marriage, I now wear these beautiful rings that were worn for almost that amount of time by Elizabeth.

Did I remember to tell you that Bob and Elizabeth were married the same day, the same year as my parents?

So what does all this have to do with spiritual direction? I think it is important to remember those who mentored and loved us.  De Mello tells us to keep these times in an album in our imagination to return to repeatedly. I think we can still feel that love even long after they have died. It is with us or beside us or in us. I do not know now exactly. These are the people who give us a little glimpse of the love of God. Often wearing a piece of their jewelry or having something that was precious to them nearby helps us connect to them. We remember and give thanks for them.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com

Elizabeth's 111th birthday

Elizabeth’s 111th birthday

“But Ruth said,

‘Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.’” Ruth 1:16

Young Elizabeth

In August we will celebrate my mother-in-law’s 111th birthday. She died when she was 81. Our church tradition remembers people on the day of their death. Our family still remembers those we love on their birthday. I think this is because we remember the ways we celebrated their birthdays, or maybe for some unknown reason their love, their presence seems  closer on their birthday. My daughter and one of our grandchildren are named for her. Elizabeth taught school, second grade, for over forty years. Her class was called Happy Town. I keep wondering if any of her thousands of students remember her. They do not know that August 30th is her birthday.

 I try to Google her to find out the exact day she died. I do not find her. There is no Google picture of her either. But my life was changed by knowing her, her acceptance of me, her love for her grandchildren.  There are so many saints like Elizabeth who changed people’s lives, many people’s lives, but are unknown to many. When Elizabeth died I remember asking her in my prayers to watch over our children like a guardian angel and I promised I would care for her husband she so loved, Bob who was left behind. Well, Elizabeth did a much better job of watching over our children than I did for caring for Bob.

Whenever our children were gone from home my prayers would be to Elizabeth to be with them. I truly know she was, reminding them in some way that they were loved, keeping them out of harm’s way.

I do feel her presence today, telling me that all shall be well, all shall be well.

My prayer is that others may remember the Elizabeth who taught them about unconditional love and once again know and feel that love.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com