New Day

New Day

“Waking up this morning, I smile.
Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.
I vow to live fully in each moment
and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.” 
Thich Nhat Hanh, p. 102, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, Broadway Books:1998.

Caterpillar becoming pupa, chrysalis    Sally Klein

Richard Rohr in his daily email  compares Christians and Buddhists. “Christians are usually talking about metaphysics (“what is”) and Buddhists are usually talking about epistemology (“how do we know what is”). In that sense, they offer great gifts to one another.” 1

All I know is that the writings of the Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, so often speak to me. What a marvel idea to wake up in the morning and say to ourselves, “we have 24 brand new more hours before us. I don’t want to waste a second, minute, an hour. It is a new day.”

 Yesterday is past. We went over what we had done and left undone the night before and prayed that God would forgive us of wrongdoing, also called sins. We remembered where we found joy, often where we least expected it. We remembered where we found love. We remembered the experiences of that day where we saw God working in our life.

This is a new day, a new beginning. We can no longer regret the past. We will make living amends where we need to where we harmed others, but we have a new start.  We hope we have learned from the past. We will not keep doing the same thing every day and expect different results. We will look for synchronicity or moments or serendipity where we meet connections, related events. I write about the Eucharist one morning and someone not aware of that confides later that same morning about how important the Eucharist is in his life.  We receive a message from someone we have been thinking about that day. We think about someone we have not seen for some time and call. They tell us it was exactly what they needed at the time.

That is synchronicity. These  are God connections, and they are all around us in each new day.

1 Center for Action and Contemplation, Richard Rohr Meditation: Mindfulness, cac.org, August 24, 2018

Faith

Faith

 “Faith means receiving God, it means being overwhelmed by God. Faith helps us to find trust again and again when, from a human point of view, the foundations of truth have been destroyed. Faith gives us the vision to perceive what is essential and eternal. It gives us eyes to see what cannot be seen, and hands to grasp what cannot be touched, although it is present always and everywhere.”

-Eberhard Arnold, Why We Live in Community, Inwardoutward.org, Daily Quote, August 8, 2018, Eyes to See, Church of the Saviour

Casey Horner   unsplash

Faith is believing in something we cannot see or understand. The mind takes us to a certain place of belief, but then faith must be present to take the leap. My favorite quote about faith attributed to a multitude of people is, “the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.” If we are so certain about something, we have crossed back over that line away from where faith abides.

This gives all of us doubters great comfort. In fact, we have come to know that our doubts lead us into a deeper faith, across the line down new pathways, sometimes even major highways. Then we take a wrong turn, or run a red light and hit someone, or just become completely lost.

Then that stranger who met us on the road to Emmaus shows up. He may remind us of a quote from scripture that had been meaningful to us in the past. He may ask us if we remember how we have been cared for in the past by the God of our understanding and God’s stand-ins, our community and friends. He always feeds us exactly what we need to continue the journey, and before he disappears, he leaves on the dinner table a GPS.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com

Gods Presence

God’s Presence

When like Elijah you’re surprised by sheer silence, listen to God speaking deep inside. When like Peter you’re scared by the wind on the sea, look to Jesus right there with you. When bedtime nears, stop and review how the Spirit caught you by the hand and caught you off guard with love. Hold these close to your heart and go to sleep.”

-Br. Luke Ditewig, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, www.ssje.org, August 8, 2018, “Companion- Brother Give Us a Word”

God’s promise is that God is always with us, beside us. Always. All the time. How do we feel that presence? My experience is when I am connected to the God within me, the Christ within me, when I can see the God, the Christ, in my neighbor, I am feeling God’s presence.  

When we feel the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, and kindness, (Galatians 5: 22-23), we are feeling God’s presence. When suddenly we realize we were able to do something we did not think we were able to do, we are feeling God’s presence.

During difficult times, God shows up in the presence of someone who just loves us as we are. It can be a phone call, an email, a snail mail, or even a text.

It is difficult to spend any time outdoors in nature or even look outdoors to see the birds feeding near our windows without feeling the presence of something greater than yourself.

Gratitude helps us to put on new glasses so that we can see God’s presence in our lives.

Forgiving ourselves and others keeps us from putting up the barriers that keep us from seeing God in our lives.

Beauty in art, music, the sacred word, poetry, fiction and nonfiction writings open up our eyes and ears and mind to see God sitting right beside on a bench at the National Gallery or  in the center orchestra section or curled up in our favorite chair.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com