Living in the Present Moment

   Richard Rohr, Poe: Seeing and Living in the Present Moment

  “Most people do not see things as they are because they see things as they are!” Which is not to see at all. Their many self-created filters keep them from seeing with any clear vision.”—Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation, daily Rohr Meditation.

Edgar Allan Poe also gives us more clues about having a clearer vision in “The Purloined Letter.” The Paris police chief asks a famous amateur detective, C. Auguste Dupin, to help him find a letter stolen from the boudoir of an unnamed woman by an unscrupulous minister who is blackmailing his victim.

The chief of police and his detectives have combed the hotel where the minister lives, behind the wallpaper, under the carpets, examining tables and chairs with microscopes, probing cushions with needles, and found no sign of the letter. Dupin gets a detailed description of the letter and visits the minister at his hotel. Complaining of weak eyes and wearing green spectacles, he disguises his eyes as he searches for the note. Finally, he sees it in plain sight, in a cheap card rack hanging from a dirty ribbon. He leaves a snuff box behind as an excuse to return the next day and switches out the letter for a duplicate.

Rohr is calling us to put on a new pair of glasses, perhaps 3-D glasses, to see the depth of what is in plain sight immediately around us in the present moment.

Guides and friends in our community remind us to meet God in the present moment. They remind us to listen to this call from God to live in the present moment, especially in the stories of the Epiphany season in our Sunday Bible readings.

Epiphany means an illuminating realization.

 The season of Epiphany calls us to see more clearly, living in the present moment.

Epiphany Wisdom from Wise Men

 “Three Wise Men.”  Epiphany Wisdom  

 “The three were hermits on an island in the Black Sea, very pious and humble and loving to all men but terribly ignorant.  A bishop goes in a steamer to see them and teach them a few prayers, but finds them too old and stupid to learn.  At last, he gets—or thinks he has got—one very short and simple prayer into their heads, and leaves the island, feeling rather contemptuous.  Then, when night falls, he sees a bright light advancing swiftly over the sea behind the steamer. The old men have come, walking on the waves, begging him to be patient with their great stupidity and to teach them the prayer again.”—Tolstoy.

food pantry car line Thanksgiving

My husband sent me this story. He tries to read it to me, but is so moved that he cannot speak. Alas, if all of us could be that way when we hear this story. I think of people I have talked with leading retreats and classes, hoping to share the word of God with them. But instead, I learn more about God by listening to them.

I learn this truth first from recovery meetings, where I hear wisdom from people I would never have previously listened to. Wisdom comes from those with no education who can barely speak intelligently. Wisdom comes from men and women who have spent most of their lives in prison. Wisdom comes from those who have lost their children because of their addiction. Wisdom comes from women who have lived on the streets. Wisdom comes from people experiencing homelessness.

I also heard this wisdom at our Food Pantry, where people come each week for just enough food to survive. They tell us how grateful they are and bless us. They tell us how blessed they are. They share what they receive with other families. They teach us how to turn our lives and our wills over to God. They teach us how to live in community.

In this season of Epiphany and into a new year, may we keep our ears and hearts open to hear wisdom in “wise men” and women at all places, in each precious moment, and especially where we once least expected it.

prayers before starting at food pantry

The Work of Christmas in Epiphany

The Work of Christmas in Epiphany

“When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone, 

When the kings and princes are home, 

When the shepherds are back with their flock, 

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost, 

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry, 

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations, 

To bring peace among brothers [and sisters], 

To make music in the heart.”—Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations

From InwardOutward/ Church of the Saviour Washington D.C. inwardoutward.org.

at Epiphany service

Carrying the love that came down at Christmas with us for the rest of the year is now our calling. Thurman calls it the work of Christmas. I need something to help me remember this. I have a Christmas tree pin I will keep in a dish with other jewelry that I cannot help but notice as I prepare for the day. I may even wear the pin if I have difficulty carrying Christmas love with me during the day.

 Anthony de Mello in Sadhana, A Way to God, Christian Exercises in Eastern Form, gives us other suggestions in “Exercise 18: The Joyful Mysteries of Your Life.” He tells us to keep a memory book of times we felt loved or experienced the Christ child within us. De Mello tells us to return to these times and relive the scene, as Ignatius Loyola would have us do. They both suggest we can experience the scene even more vividly in our memory. We could not enjoy it as much at the time for many reasons. Memories of Christmas love are especially meaningful for this exercise. We may have negative experiences at Christmas. We can work on these later with other de Mello exercises (“Exercise 24:Healing of Hurtful Memories”).

Reliving a loving memory can increase our capacity for love and joy. It can overcome our unconscious, instinctive resistance to happiness and love. As we go deeper into the memory, de Mello calls us to look for the presence of the love of the Christ child in the scene. This memory meditation becomes a way to recognize the love of God right beside us at all times.