Norris: Advent IV, Responding to the Mystery

Norris: Responding to Mystery Advent IV

“Mary proceeds—as we must do in life—making her commitment without knowing much about what it will entail or where it will lead. I treasure the story because it forces me to ask: When the mystery of God’s love breaks through into my consciousness, do I run from it? Do I ask of it what it cannot answer? Shrugging, do I retreat into facile cliches, the popular but false wisdom of what ‘we all know?’ Or am I virgin enough to respond from my deepest, truest self, and say something new, a ‘yes’ that will change me forever?” Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace

Fra Angelico. Monastery of San Marco Florence Annunciation

The heart of spiritual direction and the spiritual life indeed is responding to mystery, and certainly Mary is our icon for responding to something that is a mystery to her and all of us to this day. First of all, we must be open to the presence of a call to mystery. I have sometimes imagined other young women that Gabriel visited who responded to the angel by saying, “Let me think about it,” “Come back later,” “This is really not a good time for me to do this,” “No, definitely, not!” “You must be kidding!”( Of course, I always must explain to my dear Catholic friends that this is just a trip, an exercise, in my imagination.)

There is no question that our answers to the mystery will change us and our life forever. My experience is that we can learn to respond to the mystery first in small ways so that when a larger call to the mystery comes, we are ready. This is the practice of awareness and openness. We must also be open to going off or at least temporarily abandoning our agenda and listening to the interruptions in our life. The mystery is all around us, in every wakening moment, in Nature and in young children, in older adults, often in those in need and poverty, and especially in our interruptions.

Taking time to be in silence or with others in need or being outdoors each day can expose us to the mystery of a world greater than ourselves. Spending time with young children can connect us to joy and love without conditions. Some of the most spiritual people I know are older men and women who know better than any of us how little control we have in our lives and have accepted it and made peace with it.

The people I sit with who come to our food pantry often talk about how blessed their lives are. They see blessings in every offering. I learn from them that

“Let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38) can be one of our best mantras.

Joanna. joannaseibert.com

Mary and Joseph, Refugees

Mary and Joseph, refugees

“As I ponder what these last few days before the Nativity might have meant for Mary and Joseph, I can’t help but see the connection between their journey to Bethlehem and flight to Egypt with the travels of so many refugee families searching for a new, safe home…I know that Mary didn’t have a baby registry set up with Amazon and likely there were no baby showers providing all her newborn’s needs but I can imagine that she was longing for a safe, warm and clean bed and the local midwife’s attentions when her time came. Joseph, as a carpenter, very likely didn’t have much experience with the women’s work of labor and delivery. And then, just when the new family might have felt a bit secure, God reveals the danger that they are in should they remain in Bethlehem so off they flee to a new, safe home where they will be strangers, refugees in this new land. In so many human ways, they were on their own in this endeavor much like the refugees who are longing to come to a country of safety but where everything will be new to them – new languages, new customs, a whole new life.” Judith Schelhammer, chair Resolution Review Committee, Episcopal Diocese Michigan, posted December 22, 2016 on the web site of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan. www.edomi.org

My heart goes out to the many refugees in our world, especially those at our borders, who are just seeking basic safety for their own lives and their family. I also have become acquainted with several DREAMERS, those who are undocumented who came with their parents years ago and now are seeking education and status. Their situation is very tenuous. This is the country they know and have grown up in. They have no connection to their country of origin. We would be deporting some of the hardest working groups of people I have experienced, people who already enrich and broaden our culture.

I try to connect to them in some small way by remembering that all of our ancestors were at one time refugees to this country unless we are native Americans.

I can also see ourselves in our search for God as refugees often deciding to leave a place or point of view of our origin, seeking more, a larger view of God, a new life, often learning a new language. We step out on roads less traveled. It as well cannot be an easy journey, definitely a sacred adventure where guides can be helpful.

Joanna. joannaseibert.com

Spiritual Friends

On a Pallet

“He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead.” Apostles Creed

Bishop Jake Owensby of western Louisiana recently reminds us in his blog, Looking for God in Messy Places, about the line in the Apostles Creed where Jesus descended to the dead. (“Unbearable,” Looking for God in Messy Places, July 1, 2018 jakeowensby.com) Bishop Owensby’s message is that our God goes to the places that seem like hell on earth to us. I also remember that our definition of hell is the absence of God. Perhaps the creed is telling us that even when we do not feel the presence of God, when life seems unbearable, God is still there.

When we are there in hell, when we feel unlovable, when our health fails, when we lose our job, when our best friend dies, when depression lives not only in a cloud above us but flows in our bloodstream and in the synapses in our brain, this is a hard belief to remember.

During Advent many churches celebrate a Blue Christmas where the church remembers those who have died and offers the grief of those who are grieving to God. This is also a time for us individually to remember and reach out to those who still live in sadness.

This image of a loving, caring God must be written on our hearts during times when we feel connected to God and live in what seems like heaven so that we can then carry that knowledge and feeling with us when our life descends into hell. This is still too hard.

We cannot depend on ourselves to remember how much God loves us. This is why spiritual friends and community are so needed. This is why God calls us to community. When we become paralyzed with fear and loneliness and pain, we need spiritual friends to carry us on that pallet through the roof to God. Otherwise life becomes too hard.

This is not the only answer, but it is the experience I have known best as my friends offer for me to be cared for by the God of love of their understanding until I again am connected to the God of love and compassion I once knew.

Then more will be revealed.