The Sea Is His

The Sea Is His
Venite

“Come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before God’s presence with thanksgiving;
and raise to the Lord a shout with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God;
you are great above all gods.
In your hand are the caverns of the earth;
and the heights of the hills are yours also.
The sea is yours, for you made it,
and your hands have molded the dry land.

Come, let us bow down and bend the knee,
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For you are our God,
and we are the people of your pasture, and the sheep of your hand.
O that today we would hearken to your voice!”—Psalm 95:1-7.

He hurries in late, with coffee in one hand and keys in another. “Sorry about being late. Trying to do too much, too much going on.” I light our candle as a prayer to the Holy Spirit to be present at our meeting. We sit in silence until his breathing becomes less labored.

“When I am so busy, my world becomes all about me. I do not feel God’s presence. I wish I knew how to slow down my life and better hear God working in my life,” he finally says.

I tell him I know exactly what he is talking about. But I let him know it could be different and told him this story.

On our last visit to the Gulf of Mexico, my husband and I rose early whenever possible, sitting on our balcony and waiting in the dark for the sun to rise. Usually, the sun creeps up, a little pink, a little lighter, and then with a massive crash of light like the cymbals and tympani at the conclusion of a symphony.

We become real beach bums for a few days, just sitting or looking out on the changing sea, waiting for the early morning fishermen: the osprey, the fishing boats, the surf fishermen with their accompanying blue heron, waiting for the catch of the day. Soon come the dolphins and the pelicans, swimming and flying and diving back and forth along the shoreline.

We take in a world more remarkable than that of our own making.

The Venite from Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer speaks to what happens more than we can express.

Paul Tillich, the famous theologian who spent his lifetime trying to understand God, came and sat by the ocean for the first time and wept uncontrollably as he experienced the vastness of God in the sea—more than he had ever imagined. Sitting by a body of water and observing new life as it emerges each day from under and above the sea, marveling at such a vast world of wonder, can be more healing than drugs.

Is it possible to start the day or stop to sit by a body of water during the day? Then, for a half-hour, during lunch or after dinner, stop and allow the rhythm of life on the river, sea, or lake to heal you.

It may be more difficult for some to go to the sea unless we live by it. Instead, we can bring up memories of what it was like on our last trip. Perhaps we will also be encouraged to make more memories the next time we are there.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Joanna   https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Paschal Candles and the Light of Christ

Paschal Candles and the Light of Christ

“After the Baptism, a candle (which is lighted from the Paschal Candle) may be given to each of the newly baptized or to a godparent.” —Book of Common Prayer.      

Paschal Candle

As a smaller candle is lit from the large white Paschal Candle after a child is baptized, I am often privileged to hand it to the parent or godparent receiving it and say, “The light of Christ.” Indeed, the Paschal Candle is frequently referred to as the Christ Candle or the Easter Candle.

Parents are given this smaller baptismal candle to take home and encouraged to light it on their child’s baptism anniversary as a yearly remembrance. It beautifully symbolizes the light of Christ in our hearts and minds.  

We may think the light of Christ inside us is small, but we are called, mandated to share that light, and one of the ways to pass on our light is to encourage one another. As Paul modeled in writing so many letters to others, we are also called to connect with others who carry that light. That is why we have spiritual friends or sometimes a spiritual director.  

When our light seems to dim, the others in our life who live in the light will lead us to the Paschal Candle, where we will once again find our light, often even brighter. We light the Paschal Candle during the Easter season, at Baptisms, and funerals—all times when we want and need to be reminded of the light of Christ in our hearts, in others, and in the world.  

Each time I meet with spiritual friends, I light a candle as they enter. This reminds me of how we share Christ’s light with each other. My experience is that I learn more from listening and talking with people than from what I can impart to them. We gather to see and encourage the light of Christ in one another. We meet solely to care for each other’s souls.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Promises of Recovery and Fruit of the Spirit

Promises and Fruit

Promises of 12-Step Recovery and Fruit of the Spirit

“1. If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. 2. We will know a new freedom and a new happiness. 3. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.

Keller Hall Camp Mitchell

4. We will comprehend the word serenity and know peace. 5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. 6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. 7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. 8. Self-seeking will slip away. 9. Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change.

10. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us. 11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations that used to baffle us. 12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.”—The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous (Alcoholic Anonymous World Services, Inc., 4th edition, 2001).

Do you see any similarity between the promises of a twelve-step program and the nine fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)? Paul writes that we know and feel our connection to the Spirit, the God within us, if the consequence, the fruit, of what we do produces “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

The twelve-step promises and the fruit of the Spirit can both serve as guides—benchmarks indicating whether we are indeed on the right track—if we are connected to the God of our understanding, the Christ, the Spirit within us. When two disciplines convey a similar truth, I begin to believe and pay attention to it.

We are especially called to look for the fruit of the Spirit as we approach Pentecost. The fruit are our guides, our mentors, telling us that we are staying connected to the Spirit, the God, within us. The promises also indicate that those in recovery are staying connected to their higher power.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/