Thoreau: Superficial Life

“When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip. We rarely meet a man who can tell us any news which he has not read in a newspaper, or been told by his neighbor. … In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post office. You may depend on it, that the poor fellow who walks away with the greatest number of letters proud of his extensive correspondence has not heard from himself this long while.” —Henry David Thoreau.

spiritual friends

My spiritual director sent this to me today. Most of us do not go to the post office, and letter writing is becoming a lost art. But we are now judged by how many Facebook friends we have! I have a Facebook page in order to keep informed about family and friends. But a Facebook message is very different from a phone call or a visit or a conversation over a meal. When we are face to face we can share what is really going on with us. It is then that we may bare our soul and look for the Christ in our friend—and hope that the Christ within us will guide us. Actually meeting with spiritual friends is not optional for the inner life, the life of the soul. It is mandatory.

Even better is meeting over a meal. Replenishing our bodies mysteriously opens up our mind to nourish the soul. Here is where we see Christ in each other, and maybe even get a little glimpse of the Christ in ourselves.

I was in a pediatric radiology medical group for more than thirty years. We each had our own agenda and our areas of expertise. We were having difficulty making decisions and seeing the importance of each other’s plans. We decided to meet for lunch once a week and just talk to each other about what was going on in our lives. It took a while, but miracles happened. We began to look at each other’s ideas in a different light. The mysterious result of meeting and talking to each other and having a regularly shared meal was that the food and conversation nourished us into forming a real community.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Release party!!!!!!!!!!!

Come and get a signed copy of the new book

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18

All Money from sale of the books goes either to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast

Seibert’s, 27 River Ridge Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72227

10 to noon, Saturday September 14, 2019

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Spiritual Compass

“Within each one of us there is a spiritual compass. It points always toward the good, toward what is holy. The compass is made of our values, what we believe and hold sacred, and over the years our experience makes the compass within us even more accurate, refining our ability to seek the right direction in life, making us even more sensitive to the pull of compassion and common sense. Therefore, we do not have to be afraid that we will get lost, wandering the wilderness of this age. We only have to follow where our heart leads and our reason points the way.” —Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook post.

Cynthia Bourgeault would agree with Steven Charleston about a spiritual compass. She calls it an inward GPS (Global Positioning System), similar to the one we use in our car to get us to the right location. What we need to know is where we are—and then the address of where we want to go—and the GPS will get us there.

Sometimes we are not certain of exactly where we are; but we have a good idea of where we want to go. Our aim above all is to keep our connection to God. I love it when our ideal location is not yet on the map, and the GPS takes us as close as possible. This also may be true in regard to our spiritual life.

Bourgeault calls our heart a “God Positioning System.” When it is attuned, turned on, it will allow us to achieve balance in a whole different way: perceiving by separating and differentiating things from each other; perceiving the whole and discerning our place within the whole. For her, becoming attuned to this spiritual GPS comes through the contemplative practice of Centering Prayer.

[See Cynthia Bourgeault, The Shape of God: Deepening the Mystery of the Trinity (CAC, 2004), disc 4; and Cynthia Bourgeault, “How Change Happens” in Transgression (CAC, 2014), Vol. 2 No. 1, p. 86.]

Joanna . joannaseibert.com

Release party!!!!!!!!!!!

Come and get a signed copy of the new book

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18

All Money from sale of the books goes either to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast

Seibert’s, 27 River Ridge Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72227

10 to noon, Saturday September 14, 2019

RSVP joannaseibert@me.com

Many Religious Traditions

“We are all rooted together in the ground of consciousness that is God’s gift to all of us, and our joining is absolute. When the Islamic mullah prays with true and quiet heart, I believe that the souls of the Iowa farmer and the Welsh miner are touched. When the gong sounds in the Japanese monastery and the monks enter the timeless silence of Zazen, their quiet nourishes the Brazilian native and the Manhattan executive. When Jews and Christians pray with true willingness, the Hindu scientist and the Russian policeman are enriched.”

—Gerald G. May in Will and Spirit (HarperOne, 1982), pp. 319–320.

Many authors remind us of our connection to Nature and to the world around us. Others remind us of our connection to the poor, the weak, the sick, the lonely. Gerald May reminds us of our connection to other religions—how the Spirit moves in so many different paths that we do not understand, too deep for words.

There is more here, though, than just recognizing God at work in so many varied ways. May is also telling us that we are intimately connected by this Spirit. What we do to further the Spirit, to connect to God in our own day, in our own way, makes a difference across the globe in some distant rain forest.

Again, this relationship is a deep mystery beyond our knowing. Sometimes when I read this passage from May, I can sit and almost feel the Iowa farmer working his black dirt, since we spent four years in Iowa City in training. Then I try to cross the Atlantic to England. I can connect to the shepherd and his dogs and sheep striding through green pastures, since we have made several trips to England and Scotland.

Because of our political situation these days, I am having more difficulty connecting to the people in Russia. I have never been there; but I always wanted to go to St. Petersburg to see Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son in the Hermitage Museum. The next time I watch a newscast from Russia, I will look and try to imagine the people there. I think this could make a difference. I hope they are doing the same for us.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Release party!!!!!!!!!!!

Come and get a signed copy of the new book

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18

All Money from sale of the books goes either to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast

Seibert’s, 27 River Ridge Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72227

10 to noon, Saturday September 14, 2019

RSVP joannaseibert@me.com