Fasting

Kelsey, Foster: Fasting

“Fasting can be to the body what silence is to the mind and soul,” Morton Kelsey, Companions of the Inner Way, The Art of Spiritual Guidance, p 119.

Probably no one will consider reading about fasting only a couple of days after Thanksgiving! I was first introduced to holy fasting by Richard Foster in his now classic book, Celebration of Discipline. Fasting from food or any other ways of living helps us become aware of what is controlling us and the degree that it is controlling us. This is of course the traditional call of Lent, “to give up something,” a holy fast from something.

A fast can be a spiritual discipline to connect us more closely to God as are all the other disciplines. As we crave the substance or action, we can enter in some very small way and perhaps identify with the suffering of Christ and of others. Goodness knows, why in the world should we identify with more suffering? It is already present in our minds and in our bodies. For myself, however, when I attempt to fast from food or a certain type of food or from an action such as shopping or work, it is helpful to keep reminding myself that this is in an attempt to hear and see and find more time for God in my life. It can be a re-centering of what is important.

Fasting can especially be an important discipline to investigate how food or an action or a behavior pattern has become too important in our lives.

As we approach Advent, there is no better time to consider this spiritual discipline. Fasting could be a way to honor the Christ child as we fast from activities that block us from Christ in ourselves and in our neighbor.

Fasting above all the other spiritual disciplines can be an answer to prayer for quieting our soul during Advent while the outside world is unusually busy making demands on us. Intentional fasting from the news media, shopping, gossiping or criticism, for even one day a week or even an hour a day could change who we are by the time we approach the Christmas season.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

The Difficult people

The difficult people

“ Someone who has a way of getting under our skin in some significant way probably belongs there.” Br. Curtis Almquist, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, “Brother Give Us a word,” November 17, 2018, ssje.org.

This time of the year we find ourselves around some difficult people we have been able to avoid all year, but not during the holidays.

We learn about Christ by seeing Christ in other people. Sometimes seeing the love of God in our neighbor is easy, sometimes hard. We hope to learn the most about God by sticking with those whose light of Christ shines so easily. Celtic spirituality teaches us that at the core of all of us is goodness. We do meet people, however, whose presence of light and goodness seems impossible to see.

My experience is that God uses every part of each of us to connect and reconnect us back to God. This is true of the difficult parts of ourselves and our neighbors as well. God teaches us where we need help in our lives by being with people who encourage and love us, but we are also taught by being with those who don’t seem to have any concept of love. These are warning signs for us as we observe how empty that life is even if the person seems to be the wealthiest person we know.

We also are to pay close attention to character traits that we are repelled by in others. I think this is what Brother Almquist is trying to tell us. God teaches us so much about ourselves and what is blocking us from a relationship with God in those who repel us as much as we learn from those to whom we are attracted. What greatly irritates us in another often is a character defect we also may have well hidden in ourselves.

Brother Almquist asks us to try not to judge or condemn someone who significantly bothers us. Instead we are to consider this as an invitation to practice mercy and use this situation instead as a mirror into ourselves. We are called to see if these same character defects or sins are also carefully concealed in ourselves just under our skin and blocking us as well from the relationship to a God who loves all of us and constantly calls us to connection and relationship.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Thanksgiving, a Day to Listen

Thanksgiving, a Day to Listen

“To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.” Henri Nouwen, Henri Nouwen Society, Daily Meditation, excerpts from Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey.

As we gather today with family and friends, this is the perfect time to sit back and listen. Listening is at the heart of being a spiritual friend. Nouwen reminds us that it is not waiting our turn to talk. Instead, it is letting someone else know you are offering the gift of your attention and time to be present with them.

Some think it may be easier for introverts, but in reality, introverts may still be processing what they want to say in their minds while others are talking and only pseud-listening. Extroverts may have difficulty responding directly to what they are hearing, for they better process what they hear on the outside.

The answer is practice. This is an art form that must be practiced consciously every day until it becomes unconscious like brushing our teeth.

We have grown up in a multitask world where we learn to do multiple tasks at a time, eating while we work or watching television, working on several projects, multiple problems at a time, looking at emails, texting, or searching on our I phones while we are sitting down to meet with others. While someone is talking to us, our pattern becomes to think of how we are going to solve another problem as soon as we move on to the next project or meeting.

Living in the present and active listening are becoming lost arts. We must practice them intentionally. My experience is that making eye contact helps keep us focused on the person or people to whom we are listening. This enables us actively to “look for” the Christ visibly and invisibly within others that can only be most often revealed as we also begin to see the Christ within ourselves.

Listening is an art form and a gift. St. Benedict calls it “listening with the ear of our heart.”

Joanna joannaseibert.com