morning Wake Up

Morning wake up

A Song of Ezekiel

“I will take you from among all nations; *
and gather you from all lands to bring you home.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you; *
and purify you from false gods and uncleanness.
A new heart I will give you *
and a new spirit put within you.
I will take the stone heart from your chest *
and give you a heart of flesh.
I will help you walk in my laws *
and cherish my commandments and do them.
You shall be my people, *
and I will be your God.” Ezekiel 36:24-28

Also, Canticle G: A Song of Ezekiel, Enriching our Worship I, Supplemental Liturgical Materials prepared by The Standing Liturgical Commission, (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 1997), p 34.

When people ask how to start their day, this is one suggestion that keeps coming to mind, especially if the person starts her day with a daily bath or shower. A priest I knew in my diaconal training shared that he sings this canticle each morning in his shower. This is an image that has stayed with me for many years. I am not good at memorizing scripture, but for those who are, I cannot think of a better way to start the day. Even if I cannot memorize the scripture, perhaps I can remember some of the lines. I am asking God to sprinkle clean water on me, to purify me from false gods. My favorite false gods are fame, recognition, and work, busyness.

I am asking God for a new heart, a new way to love, especially to love those who seem unlovable, different, those who seem to punch all my egocentric buttons that become harder and harder to hide, and those I perceive have harmed me. I pray for a new spirit, the Holy Spirit, God’s will, not my own will, to live inside of me and to lead me. I am well acquainted with and do not like the stone heart that quietly and subtly sneaks into me and judges others and myself. Take that hard stone heart out of my chest. It is a too heavy and painful burden to carry. I pray for a heart that accepts my humanness and the humanness of others.

I will try to follow the guidelines I think God has given me. Help me not to believe in my hubris that I am better than others and above the laws you have asked us to follow. I want to stay connected today to you, God, even if it is a thin thread. Perhaps I can remember clean water, no false gods today, a new heart, a new spirit, no stone heart, no hubris, staying connected for just one more day.
Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter in Little Rock from me joannaseibert@me.com or from Wordsworth Books or from the publisher Earth Songs Press or on Amazon. Proceeds from the book go for hurricane relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast.

Wythe: Spirituality at the Workplace

Wythe: Spirituality at the Workplace

“The first step to preserving the soul in our individual lives is to admit that the world has a soul also and is somehow participating with us in our work and destiny. That there is a sacred otherness to the world that is breathtakingly helpful simply because it is not us.” David Wythe in The Heart Aroused, Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, Crown Business, ( New York, 2002), p. 280.

Some of my amazing partners in Pediatric Radiology that I had the privilege to work with

In his book, The Heart Aroused, poet David Wythe writes about taking our spirituality with us to the workplace where it is so desperately needed by ourselves and others. He believes that preservation of the soul means giving up our desire in the scheduled workplace not to have the unscheduled meeting. My experience as well is that God drops into my life into the interruptions not on my agenda.

Whyte believes we must relinquish a belief that the world owes us a place on a divinely ordained career ladder. We have a place in the world but it is constantly shape-shifting. Our deeper struggles can be our greatest spiritual and creative assets and the doors to creativity. The Greeks said that if the gods really wanted to punish someone, they granted that person everything they wished for. The soul’s ability to experience joy in the workplace is commensurate with our ability to feel grief. We walk into corporate offices looking like full-grown adults but many parts of us are still playing emotional catch-up from the grief and traumas of childhood which unconsciously refuse to grow any older until the trauma is resolved.

The most dangerous time for a male is around nine o’clock on Monday morning and then the few months following his retirement when more injuries and illnesses occur. One is a death caused by carrying the burden and the other the ability to live without the burden. Work almost always becomes a platform for self-righteous moralizing. Hurrying from one workstation to another, we hope the hurrying itself can grant us importance we seek. Wythe suggests that slowing for a moment, we might open up to the emptiness at the center.

Wythe reminds us how astonishing it is to see how we shrink from the things that nourish our soul and take on every possible experience to quit it. I personally did this for dream work as I became too busy in my “church work” to go to my longtime dream group. I also see this continually in spiritual direction where I have a hard time fitting my own spiritual director into my own “busy schedule.”

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter in Little Rock from me joannaseibert@me.com or from Wordsworth Books or from the publisher Earth Songs Press or on Amazon. Proceeds from the book go for hurricane relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast.

Wythe: Spirituality at the Workplace

Wythe: Spirituality at the Workplace

“The first step to preserving the soul in our individual lives is to admit that the world has a soul also and is somehow participating with us in our work and destiny. That there is a sacred otherness to the world that is breathtakingly helpful simply because it is not us.” David Wythe in The Heart Aroused, Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, Crown Business, ( New York, 2002), p. 280.

Some of my amazing partners in Pediatric Radiology that I had the privilege to work with

In his book, The Heart Aroused, poet David Wythe writes about taking our spirituality with us to the workplace where it is so desperately needed by ourselves and others. He believes that preservation of the soul means giving up our desire in the scheduled workplace not to have the unscheduled meeting. My experience as well is that God drops into my life into the interruptions not on my agenda.

Whyte believes we must relinquish a belief that the world owes us a place on a divinely ordained career ladder. We have a place in the world but it is constantly shape-shifting. Our deeper struggles can be our greatest spiritual and creative assets and the doors to creativity. The Greeks said that if the gods really wanted to punish someone, they granted that person everything they wished for. The soul’s ability to experience joy in the workplace is commensurate with our ability to feel grief. We walk into corporate offices looking like full-grown adults but many parts of us are still playing emotional catch-up from the grief and traumas of childhood which unconsciously refuse to grow any older until the trauma is resolved.

The most dangerous time for a male is around nine o’clock on Monday morning and then the few months following his retirement when more injuries and illnesses occur. One is a death caused by carrying the burden and the other the ability to live without the burden. Work almost always becomes a platform for self-righteous moralizing. Hurrying from one workstation to another, we hope the hurrying itself can grant us importance we seek. Wythe suggests that slowing for a moment, we might open up to the emptiness at the center.

Wythe reminds us how astonishing it is to see how we shrink from the things that nourish our soul and take on every possible experience to quit it. I personally did this for dream work as I became too busy in my “church work” to go to my longtime dream group. I also see this continually in spiritual direction where I have a hard time fitting my own spiritual director into my own “busy schedule.”

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter in Little Rock from me joannaseibert@me.com or from Wordsworth Books or from the publisher Earth Songs Press or on Amazon. Proceeds from the book go for hurricane relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast.