Buechner, Ignatius: News of the Day

“When the evening news comes on, hundreds of thousands of people all over the earth are watching it on their TV screens. There is also the news that rarely gets into the media, and that is the news of each particular day of each particular one of us. Maybe there’s nothing on earth more important for us to do than sit down every evening and think it over, try to figure it out, at least try to come to terms with it. The news of our day. It is, if nothing else, a way of saying our prayers.” —Frederick Buechner.

newsroom

Buechner here challenges us to spend even a fraction of the time that we spend listening to the world news of the day, dealing with the news in our own life. In fact, 12-step groups, short courses in Christianity such as Cursillo, and Ignatian spirituality all suggest methods for reviewing the day, giving thanks, making gratitude lists, thinking back to when we encountered God, when we did harm, asking for forgiveness, planning to make amends, and in essence turning our life and our will over to God one more time each evening. Those in recovery call it the 10th step. St. Ignatius calls it the Examen.

Buechner reminds us that we should consider all of these exercises as prayer. It is our news of the day for God, nighttime news, nighttime prayers. In time, answers will come as to how we are to respond to the world news of the day.

Joanna . joannaseibert.com

Book Signing Wordsworth Books

Saturday, November 2, 2019 1 to 3 pm

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. Money from sale of the books goes to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in

The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Starting School and Dolphins and Turtles

“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch—we are going back from whence we came.” —John F. Kennedy.

turtle tracks

I arise early before dawn and watch the world come alive on the sea. The Gulf is smooth with almost no waves. Its appearance is more like a glassy lake than the roaring ocean. It is so calm, I can see schools of fish moving rhythmically near the shore. There are more dolphins than I have ever seen before. They are swimming to my right, to the left, in the water in front of the condo. The large mammals move like ballet dancers in slow motion, with poise and confidence. Schools of fish. Schools of dolphins.

I think of last year when my two granddaughters both started new schools the same day, one beginning college, the other starting high school. I wanted to send them love for their new adventures. I think most of us can still remember our first college class, our first day of high school. Could all of nature also be celebrating these new journeys with my granddaughters and all others starting new adventures this early morning? I will just take it as a possible sign that generates warmth in my heart to send on to them.

My husband goes down to the beach to talk to a gathering of turtle volunteers about the turtle nest in front of our condo. There are tracks from at least one of the clutch that wobbled down to the sea last night. More turtle people arrive and wait for what they call “the boil,” when the rest of the 120 turtles hatch. Today, perhaps 119 turtles will start a new journey, as did Langley and Zoe.

I am overwhelmed about our ability to feel and send connection to the world around us, to nature, and to those we so dearly love who are physically removed from us. I still feel this connection to my grandparents that began so many years ago.

Today all the world as far as I can see seems to be affirming love and connection and new beginnings.

Joanna . joannaseibert.com

Book Signing Wordsworth Books

Saturday, November 2, 2019 1 to 3 pm

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. Money from sale of the books goes to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in

The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

King; The Great Stumbling Block

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace of justice; who says, ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a ‘more convenient season.’” —Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963.

I repeat part of the message from MLK this morning, for this letter from jail still speaks so profoundly to us in another century. We live in a time of paradox that continually shuttles us between “be patient” and “time to act.” How do we know which to do? I think part of MLK’s message is that what is a “more convenient season” for one, is not so for another. Most of us have no idea what it has been like to walk in the shoes of those who have been oppressed for years, even centuries. I also know that in my life, if I wait for the “most convenient time,” that time will never be, never happen.

When is the most convenient time to get married, have children, tell the truth, visit the sick, go to church, write, read, go on vacation, retire? I remember what a friend early in my recovery said at a 12-step meeting many, many years ago: “I am all right as long as I have all my ducks in a row.” Well, my experience is that those ducks never perfectly line up in a row! There is always some inconvenience that will keep us and our ducks in disarray and prevent us from doing any of the things we know are right and that we feel called to do.

We try to find “the most convenient time” to pray, meditate, be silent. There is always some reason that something else should be done instead, especially marking off the other things on our to-do list for the day.

We are called to “make time” for these things by deciding on priorities. We know this, but the doing is the hard part. We want to thank MLK today for putting us in our place, reminding us to listen more carefully to the cries of those who are oppressed, to the parts of ourselves that are oppressed—as well as to the parts of the needy who come for spiritual direction. We are called to listen, listen, listen, and to reach out, even at a most inconvenient time.

Joanna . joannaseibert.com

Book Signing Wordsworth Books

Saturday, November 2, 2019 1 to 3 pm

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. Money from sale of the books goes to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in

The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast