Guenther: Holy Play

Guenther: Holy Play

“Often what we call ‘play’ is competitive or compulsive, because the aesthetic dimension of true play, its holy uselessness, goes against our grain.” —Margaret Guenther in Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction (Cowley, 1992).

young people’s table

Holy uselessness. What a grand term for those of us who are driven. When I think of holy play, I think of just sitting, not reading or knitting or thinking about my to do list—just sitting. (Some friends this morning reminded me that they did not want to be on my to do list.) Holy listening, holy uselessness can entail just looking outside my window, watching a breeze come and go, or changing my horizon. Many learn to practice holy uselessness as they look out over bodies of water or mountains that call to us as icons to see through them—or perhaps hear through them as a connection to God. Nature changes the synapses, the pathways in our brains. Immersing ourselves in its peace slows down the cerebral traffic.

Others find holy uselessness listening to music or playing an instrument. Instead of light waves we experience sound waves like soft, free-floating harmonic speed bumps, slowing down the traffic jam in our head to two to five miles an hour.

Just sitting down on the floor with a young child can become holy uselessness, as you try to keep up with the child and follow his or her lead. In this way we can become connected so easily to the Christ Child in another, and to the Christ Child within ourselves. At your next family dinner, volunteer to sit at the youth or children’s table and just listen. You will find a whole new world, and it will be much more fun.

We usually do not put “practice holy uselessness” on our to do list. The best part of holy playtime is that we can follow this spiritual practice anywhere, any time. It can change our life.

Joanna joannseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.

Guenther: Women

Guenther: Women

“If Priscilla of Thecla had written our epistles instead of Paul, I suggest there would have been a good deal about Incarnation and relatively little about circumcision!” —Margaret Guenther, “Women and Spiritual Direction” in Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction (Cowley, 1992).

Guenther reminds us to be sensitive to women’s issues such as feelings of “not being deserving” and women using tentative speech out of a fear of causing anger. She helped me realize my own fear of speaking out: that I might say the wrong thing. She reminds us to be aware of the tiresomeness of endlessly repetitive menial work that women often are relegated to; and of the burden carried by those responsible for work that so often is noticed only when neglected. She reminds us never to be intimidated, even when our story is not theologically sophisticated.

A spiritual friend is called to help others to trust their own voice. We are challenged to help both men and women to be comfortable with feminine imagery for God in prayer. She asks us to remind others of the brave women who anointed Jesus, and especially the story in Mark (14:3-9) of the woman with the alabaster jar. Jesus said in response: “Wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Guenther believes that the greatest sin in women is not pride, but self-contempt—often paired with an apparent absorption in triviality. She suggests that an icon for this is Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, describing a day in the life of a high-society woman in post-World War I London as she is preparing for a party.

When we talk to women who may have been abused, Guenther suggests we ask the questions, “What do you want?” and Where do you hurt?”

Guenther reminds us of times when we, as well, have been verbally hurt by colleagues but showed no anger, because it was not acceptable. We may repeatedly allow other women and men verbally to abuse us, because we think if we just stay kind, the situation will change. Often we assume that there is something we have done wrong to deserve this treatment.

A statement to make when we sense verbal or sexual abuse is: “I sense you have been hurt a lot.” When we perceive a special woundedness, we hope not to be afraid to ask the difficult questions: “Where was God when all this was happening to you? Where is God now? Do you feel angry at God?” We hope that eventually all of us will conclude that God was there, right beside us, suffering with us all along.

Last, Guenther writes about the danger of premature movements toward forgiveness, and reminds us to tell spiritual friends to pray to want to be able to forgive—someday.

Joanna joannseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.

Margaret Guenther 2

Margaret Guenther 2

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” —Hebrews 13:2.

This is another quote from the beginning of Margaret Guenther’s book Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction. It had been on my bookshelf, half read for some time. I think I bought it around twenty years ago in Washington, D. C., at the National Cathedral Museum Bookstore, attracted to its cover of the newborn by one of my favorite artists, Georges de La Tour.

I am guessing that Guenther or her publisher picked this work of art because it depicts two women, one silent with a gently raised hand, perhaps in adoration or blessing, and the other looking intently at her sleeping newborn, tightly wrapped like a gift or package. What an image for conveying the essence of spiritual direction! I had been going for spiritual direction myself for many years, but it seems that the seed for fruition was planted in my heart and soul so very long ago. As people started coming to visit with me, I realized that they were seeking spiritual direction, though they were not calling it that.

I decided to take a course in short-term spiritual direction online from CDSP (Church Divinity School of the Pacific) in order to feel out the waters. I kept moving in that “direction”—and then five years later this course of action was affirmed for me when I spent two years in Spiritual Direction Study at Kanuga with the Haden Institute. So although I was greatly moved by Guenther’s cover more than twenty years ago, it took that long for my vocation to be affirmed!

Our God is a patient God who never gives up on a call.

Joanna joannseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.