Traveling Inward

Traveling inward

“How quickly the days clatter by as we age, like a train rushing to some unknown station.. Sit back and look to the vision within: the unexplored rooms of your heart, the open ground of your creativity, the hidden dimensions of your faith. Reflect on the reason for your travel and turn time to the will of your spirit. Sit back and look to the vision within, for when you go deeper, you go slower.” Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook Emails

John Sanford’s, The Kingdom Within, The Inner Meanings of Jesus’ Sayings is often one of the first books to recommend for people wanting to go on an inner journey. As his title suggests, Sanford tells us that the kingdom of God is really within us. Sanford was a Jungian analyst and an Episcopal priest who was one of the first to apply depth psychology to Jesus’ sayings, relating Christianity to depth psychology, discussing personality types, feminine and masculine aspects of personalities, the struggle between the spiritual and the physical, being aware of our own egocentricities, projections, the struggle to become conscious, our identification with our outer mask, all as each of these experiences relate to the teachings of Jesus.

Sanford talks extensively about the problem of evil and sin in the world, reminding us that Jesus himself had little to say about the sins of the flesh. He was more concerned about the deadlier sins of the spirit brought on by a lack of awareness that causes us to “miss the mark.” Sanford reminds us that often when we feel deep hate in our hearts for our enemies, we are projecting onto them what we really hate in ourselves. This takes some time in inner work, often with a friend to discern, but the spiritual peace is well worth it. It also is a discernment that we will be called to do over and over again.

We have many guides along the way. The final hope is at some time to see the Christ, the God within each other. A therapist can help us see that shadow side of ourselves, and our spiritual director keeps reminding us to look for the God, the Christ in our neighbor. This most often happens when we begin to stay connected to the Christ within ourselves.

Joanna Joannaseibert.com

night time prayers

Vespers

“It is bad enough to cope with illness or worry during the day, but at night the hurts just seem to intensify as the darkness grows. Which is why I am inviting everyone to join me in the practice of vespers. Monks and nuns from many traditions keep regular hours of prayer. They sanctify day and night. Vespers is an evening prayer, a time to make the darkening hours holy. As night comes, let us pray for all those who will need help getting through it. Let our vesper prayer be a light for them to see.” Steven Charleston, Facebook page, September 25, 2018

St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Salem, Oregon

Serendipity can become a sign for us to listen more intently about what is going on in our lives. A call to evening prayer has been a message in my life recently from many avenues. It is beginning to get my attention. Morning prayer has become more of a routine most of my life, but I usually do not remember to say evening prayers until I am almost asleep, and they mostly consist of a brief review of the day with a few sprinkles of gratitude thrown in for good measure.

The rector of our church, Danny Schieffler, has asked our new Daughters of the King chapter to be more present at evening prayer on week days at our church. Our Community of Hope Retreat leader, Brother Michael Gallagher, OSB, almost the next day reminded us of having regular evening prayers as well as morning prayers. We are having a program at our church by Tom Elliott on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. The next day he talked about the evening examin and how important it is in following this tradition. This morning I hear from Bishop Steven Charleston about night time prayers, especially for ourselves and others who need to be reminded of the presence of the Love of God when the world becomes dark.

My favorite evening prayers before bedtime are the prayers of Compline (Book of Common Prayer, BCP, p. 127). Many years ago, friends came to our house or we went to theirs to say this brief service together. How did we fit that time into our day? Were we less busy or more intentional?

My experience is that night can be more frightening for those we are alone and those in any kind of pain. The stimuli of the day that keep us living our lives outward slow down as darkness silently creeps in. At evening we feel the pull of the less familiar inward life. We do not know our paths on the inner life and easily can be frightened, but saying night prayers with others for a while can remind us of Love’s continued presence with us and within us.

“Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield to joyous; and all for your love’s sake.” BCP, p. 134.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Reading the Bible

Reading the Bible

“We don’t go brain dead when we read the Scriptures. We need not hesitate to use our intellects – informed by many disciplines – as we approach the Scriptures. How does what you are reading in the Scriptures ring true to your own life experience and, if not, then what? The Anglican approach is to be on good speaking terms with Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.” Br. Curtis Almquist Society of Saint John the Evangelist, ssje.org Brother Give us a word, daily email, August 30, 2018

The Bible is a library of many books. It is our road map but not the final destination. It contains many writings of people seeking connection to God. We have so much to learn from them. We relate to their struggle, their joy, their sorrow and the peace they find with a deep connection to God.

We are continually amazed how reading a passage one day means something different when we read it a week or a year or more later. This experience is what happens when we relate our lives, the lives of those around us, the world around us to what we are reading in scripture.

Br. Almquist asks us to use our intellect, think about what we are reading in scripture. What was going on in the lives of the people when these books were written? Were they being persecuted? How different are our lives from theirs today?

See what other sources say. Br. Almquist is asking us to use our reason and experience. How does our own experience relate to what we are reading? We also have a rich tradition of holy mothers and fathers before us who have struggled and inwardly digested holy scripture. We are to see what they have to say.

I have always believed that the Holy Spirit did not stop working when the many books of the Bible were written. The Holy Spirit works in us and in those we live in community with to read and hear scripture and discern what it is saying today in the 21th century.

My tradition encourages that we read each day from the Hebrew Bible, in addition to one of the Psalms, one of the letters of the New Testament, and one of the gospels.

Here is my confession. I try to follow this rule. Sometimes I skip over parts. Sometimes I just read the first and last verses of the Psalm and use them for a mantra for the day. Sometimes I only go over only one of the readings, especially if it is a continuing story from the Hebrew Bible. I love the stories like that of Queen Esther even if God is never mention in that book. I also try to follow the adventures of Paul and the early Christians, again more stories. Some have become old friends like today’s reading about Paul’s meeting Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth after they had fled Rome. I do what I can. I have stopped beating myself up about not reading it all. I am learning that the Holy Spirit will speak to me in whatever part I can connect to. My job is to be faithful to the connection, sometimes very faithful, sometimes less faithful.

Joanna. joannaseibert