Willingness and Surrender

Gerald May V: Willingness and Surrender

Return of the Prodigal Son. National Cathedral Washington

“The gentlest form of spiritual narcissism is the idea that one can accomplish one’s own spiritual growth. ‘I can do it.’”—Gerald G. May in Will and Spirit (HarperOne, 1982), p. 115.

In Will and Spirit, Gerald May writes about struggles in our world today and the many battles within ourselves. We will likely face issues with will, willingness, control, and surrender in our spiritual lives. Whenever we start our spiritual journey with willingness, as soon as we are aware of some spiritual growth, we become vulnerable to spiritual narcissism: the unconscious use of spiritual practices to increase our self-importance. We try to become holy, assuming we can accomplish our own spiritual growth. This becomes willfulness masquerading as willingness.

When we recognize our own self-interest in participating in charitable works, our actions and gifts will be more effectively given and received. But, on the other hand, sin occurs when self-image and personal willfulness become so vital that one forgets, represses, or denies one’s absolute connectedness and grounding in the God within us, the power who creates and sustains the cosmos and who placed in us that yearning.

May encourages us to let attachments come or go rather than constantly clinging to them. We must be aware of our need for self-importance; thus, he cautions us against immediately leaping to shore ourselves up. He places less emphasis on coping and mastery, and more on waking up to whatever is happening in the present moment.

As we surrender some of our self-importance, we make friends with mystery. Even though we may not always find God when we sacrifice our self-importance, May believes that as we lose our need for self-importance, we realize that God has already found us. We will experience more spontaneity and awareness when we are not driven to perform, and can let things flow when we no longer need to be defined through self-judgment or evaluation of our own actions.  

May reminds us that spirituality cannot be a means to end our discomfort.

Spiritual growth must be a way into life, not an escape from it. God calls us to be in the world, not of the world. But, unfortunately, this side of the world may be uncomfortable.

I share this familiar statue of the Return of the Prodigal Son in the Bishop’s Garden at the National Cathedral. It is an icon of surrender and willingness for both the son and the father. They are our role models.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

St. Michael and All Angels

September 29 St. Michael and All Angels

Dudley the Angel in The Bishop’s Wife

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”—Psalm 91:11.

September 29: The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels is remembered.

The next-to-the-last day of September is always the Feast Day of St. Michael and All Angels. Above my desk in my home office, a carved stone hanging by my window bears a painted picture of St. Michael with his sword. Michael is almost the first thing I see when I lift my eyes from my computer. St. Michael lives in stained glass, overcoming evil outside my church’s chapel. I give thanks for St. Michaels in my life—and for angels who have been by my side in troublesome times, lending me the courage to go on.

Clarence the Angel in It’s a Wonderful Life

I think of some of our favorite fictional angels. There is Angel Second Class Clarence Odbody, played by Henry Travers in the timeless Frank Capra Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). Clarence saves George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, from bankruptcy and suicide.

Whenever I hear a bell ring, I wonder if an angel has just earned his wings!

Then there is my all-time favorite movie angel, the suave angel named Dudley, played to the essence by Cary Grant in the Samuel Goldwyn Christmas classic, The Bishop’s Wife (1947). Dudley comes to save the life and marriage of Bishop Henry Brougham, played by David Niven. Loretta Young plays his wife, Julia.

Whenever I visit my Bishop’s office, I always look around to see where Dudley is.

As I engage in spiritual direction with people, I listen to hear if they speak about “angels” in their lives—people they encounter over time, or who stand by them or guide them through challenging situations or around impossible obstacles. Angels are life-changing and life-giving. They are messengers, truth-tellers, who see God in us and, as the angel, Gabriel did to Mary, proclaim that God is in us—when we never had a clue.

Give thanks for the angels in your life. Then, repay them by being a Dudley or Clarence or Michael—or another angel to someone else you meet. This is called paying it forward.

 Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

The Lens Through Which We See

 The Lens Through Which We See

“If you wear glasses, you likely often forget that they’re even there! Only when you take the lenses off do you realize how much your capacity to see is informed by the lens through which you are seeing, or as Richard Rohr often says, ‘How we see is what we see.’”—Cynthia Bourgeault in The Shape of God: Deepening the Mystery of the Trinity (CAC, 2004), disc 2.

Here, Cynthia uses an analogy to teach us about the Trinity, but we can also apply it to everyday life. If you or the spiritual friends you meet wear glasses, try this exercise:

Take off your glasses. Try to see at a distance or read a passage of text. Perhaps you will “see” or realize that what you “see” depends on the lenses of your glasses. Our lens, or how we see the world, is often filtered by our work, family, or position.

We might experience a need for prestige, a desire for money, control, or power, a longing to be in the spotlight or successful, or we could be obsessed with beauty, clothes, food, another person, alcohol, drugs, or other addictions. We must wear sunglasses when the world or the sun is too bright. Sometimes, if we are depressed or grieving, we indeed may see the world through dark glasses.

Meditation, prayer, and meeting with spiritual friends can help us find the prescription of the lenses we use to view our family, friends, enemies, and the world. We learn to take those glasses off and are led inward to see the light, the Christ in ourselves, and the Christ in our neighbor.

We begin to see ourselves, the world, and others through the lens of the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/