Deciding which Path to Follow Next

Deciding which path to follow next

 And when you turn to the right or to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”— Isaiah 30:21.

Fork in the Road

How do we hear God’s voice telling us what to do and where to go? There are many options, perhaps more than the stars. The purpose of all our spiritual practices is to position us to hear God’s direction.

Many believe God is the dream maker who speaks to us in the language of dreams at night. However, my experience is that I can only find meaning in a dream group. Looking back on what I thought this dream meant, the answer was obvious, but only other people could see it.

Many discernment processes can help determine the next path. The one I use most is Ignatian discernment, in which we visualize or imagine our lives in one situation and then in the other. Ignatius suggests that we discern our path by evaluating how we felt after imagining each situation, rather than how we felt while imagining it.

Many use spiritual direction from another person to guide them. The director is there to help the person connect with their inner soul, where answers often come from.

My experience is that the hours just after waking in the morning are often when situations become clearer. So I try to be quiet and wait to see if answers come.

This reading from Isaiah also reminds me of Benedict’s direction in the prologue to his Rule: “Listen with the ear of your heart.”

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

The Righteous Gentiles of World War II, Remembered on July 16

The Righteous Gentiles of World War II, July 16

Carl at Window

“Lord of the Exodus, who delivers your people with a strong hand and a mighty arm: Strengthen your Church with the examples of the righteous Gentiles of World War II, who defied oppression to rescue the innocent, through Jesus Christ.”—Collect of the day: The Righteous Gentiles, July 16, in A Great Cloud of Witnesses (Church Publishing, 2016).

Holy Women, Holy Men was a trial expanded calendar of commemorations of saints authorized by the 2009 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which included many modern people of faith and apostolic action. It was revised to become A Great Cloud of Witnesses (2016). The people remembered on July 16 are the thousands of Christians and people of faith who saved Jews from the Holocaust. One of them was Carl Lutz, an Evangelical Christian Swiss Vice-Counsel in Budapest. Lutz negotiated with the Nazis for the deportation of over 60,000 Hungarian Jews to Palestine, probably saving more lives than any other person.

Lutz had gained permission to issue emigration papers for 8,000 Jews to Palestine. He interpreted this as applying to 8,000 families, thereby saving thousands more. A 2014 American film, Walking with the Enemy, tells of Lutz’s work with Pinchas Rosenbaum in Budapest during the German occupation of Hungary. Lutz also established seventy-six safe houses to hide Jews in Budapest, including the now-famous Glass House, all of which the diplomat declared Swiss territory. 

There is another documentary about Lutz called The Forgotten Hero. I believe each of us is given many opportunities to make a difference in others’ lives. The challenges may not be as dangerous or risky as Lutz’s on the international scene, but in our own environment, they may still demand courage. It is essential to see how creative people who came before us made changes and found loopholes in systems that were beyond awful, when there seemed to be no way out. I can only believe this was the work of the Holy Spirit in the worst of times. May we pray that the same Holy Spirit will work in us today.

We remember the many other righteous Gentiles from all over the world.

wallenberg bingham IV, Lutz, Sugihara, andre and magda trocme

[See Carl Lutz, International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, www.raoulwallenberg.net.]

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

By Living and Listening in Community We Image Gently

By Living and Listening in Community, We Image Gently

“Relationship is not a project; it is a grace.”—Thomas Moore, Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship (HarperCollins, 1994), p. 256.

My friend, Marilyn Goske, also a pediatric radiologist, spearheaded the Image Gently campaign to reduce radiation exposure to children in diagnostic radiology. The organization encourages physicians to use the minimum necessary radiation when performing tests on children. This guidance applies to conventional X-rays, fluoroscopy, interventional radiology, nuclear medicine, computed tomography, dentistry, cardiac imaging, and imaging in the setting of minor head trauma.

 In addition, the organization aims to educate physicians, technologists, and nurses about the amount of radiation used and the importance of reassuring parents about their concerns. This educational program involves communication with all those directly involved in these studies and with all medical organizations that support them. It has achieved overwhelming success, with more than 1.9 million participants pledging to the program.

Marilyn shows us how to change the world by communicating and dialoguing with all people who share a particular interest. It involves trying to solve a problem, working together, celebrating when answers come, and honoring those who bring the vision to life. In this way, we see the power of community.

I realize how important this could be to our spiritual lives. We find more answers to our spiritual questions in community, whereas we often cannot understand our concerns on our own.

 I remember meeting with my spiritual director, who helped me understand a dream that had baffled me for days. Each morning, I return to the dream and uncover another insight, as though she and all those who have taught me about dreamwork are still guiding me.

We also have many aspects of ourselves: the inner masculine, the inner feminine, the child within, and many more. They reveal answers when we see them as helpful voices rather than unwanted adversaries, especially when they come from our weaker parts. It is in our weakness and vulnerability, especially in community, that God the Holy Spirit creeps in and helps us discern a path where before we saw only a jungle.

In community, we image gently.

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