I've been watching American politics - fascinated.
The clear hatred people have for other people who are very similar to themselves except for the colour of their scarves, is the most depressing aspect of their news. Sadly, I am seeing bits of the same thing in New Zealand politics. Has it always been like that?
The difference in my experience (I may be wrong - it may be that that now I have retired I have the time to absorb more political debate), is that the debate has moved from issues to people.
Today's gospel lays out very clear guidelines. Peter asks how often we need to forgive each other - and Jesus says that we need to forgive each other every time - for as long as it takes! (Matthew 18)
There are two ways to look at life, at creation, at political decision-making - at everything: Peter wants a ruling that justifies his separation from others - Jesus tells him that he can never be separate.
Peter seems to be angling for a "reasonable" number of forgivenesses - maybe after three forgivenesses you have done what God requires and you can go back to resentment and hatred.
Jesus' final word on the issue sums up the reason: each of us must "forgive each brother and sister from our heart". We are either wholehearted - or we are going through the motions in our head.
"Wholehearted". What a great word. We either live and love with our whole heart - or we judge with our head. Of course, we all judge, but we must then remember that we are all brothers and sisters.
People, creation, and our individual selves are all part of the body of Christ. That is the big picture.
We see it when we are wholehearted - but when we are judging and condemning and hating our hearts are not involved: all that is in our minds, evolved and honed by fear and survival.
Today is also the Feast of St Clare of Assisi - the companion of St Francis.
When we think of these great saints we remember that even the sun and moon are our brothers and sisters: we need more love and huge hearts to over-ride the judgement and hate from small minds.
Now I just need the politicians to read this. We ordinary people are moving forward - our leaders need to catch up!
Wednesday, 10 August 2016
Thursday, 7 July 2016
Our culture of love and peace
News report Friday 1 July
- When the worn-out net lies in a heap, the new net goes fishing.
The old ways are not working for our children: our country needs a new way to do things.
"Around 66,000 children are at family violence incidents attended by police each year.
Many of those children will not receive counselling or other support, despite the long-term problems witnessing such violence and distress is known to cause.
Starting today, a new family violence pilot in Christchurch will handle police referrals, and focus on all family members - perpetrators and victims, including children who may not be physically abused.
The roughly 175 reports of family violence each week in the city will be responded to by an inter-agency team, operating seven days a week."
Sometimes we read of family violence and feel helpless, because there seems nothing we can do to stop it. "It doesn't happen in my family." "I can't do anything." "It's too big a problem" - and it happens in the dark where people don't see.
Sometimes a teacher will feel helpless because a student is being hurt at home, and there is nothing a school can do to stop it. "Doesn't happen in my school." "And I'm just a teacher."
But as a society we are each responsible. Each act of violence affects each of us on a psychic level, as well as emotionally, intellectually - and physically. And yet, in our society, there are still voices speaking against laws that prevent adults hitting children. That was a great place to start.
But only a start: now we need to deal with poverty and the angers and frustrations that go with that, drugs and alcohol, ending generational anger and changing expectations. All do-able - but all involving change for each one of us. Are we brave enough? Christian enough? Do we care enough about child witnesses and victims to give up a little, to make a few changes in our comfort levels?
It is my problem. Each one of us is affected by each act of violence, by the damage being done, by the less personal and friendly country, by the anger that family violence generates - in the victims and in the people who hurt others.
I was a teacher. I was trained to teach English to children who had spoken English very effectively for ten years. I was not trained to teach them how to think, or feel, or love, or parent. So who does that? Do we leave that entirely to parents - most of whom do it really well. The problem is that any who fail have a huge impact on all of us.
Sometimes now I think we should forget about teaching our rangatahi (our young people) how to count and speak and dissect - until after they have learned to use the tools God gave them to think and feel and control themselves.
To use those tools to become more self-aware and to control their minds so they are able to not build up feelings like anger and lust and resentment, but come to recognise what is happening at the start, and step back.
Each of us needs to own and value a way of living where we recognise and control destructive thoughts about betrayal or threat or insult while they are still seeds, how to deal with them so they do not grow - or grow to be acts of love - (because so often they are about people we love). Too often we water and feed the seeds of such weeds rather than digging them up and composting them.
This has been Maori Language Week, so I'd like to finish with a whakatauki. The word rangatahi has two meanings. It means "the young generation" but it also means a "short fishing net". That leads to deeper considerations of the proverb:
Sometimes a teacher will feel helpless because a student is being hurt at home, and there is nothing a school can do to stop it. "Doesn't happen in my school." "And I'm just a teacher."
But as a society we are each responsible. Each act of violence affects each of us on a psychic level, as well as emotionally, intellectually - and physically. And yet, in our society, there are still voices speaking against laws that prevent adults hitting children. That was a great place to start.
But only a start: now we need to deal with poverty and the angers and frustrations that go with that, drugs and alcohol, ending generational anger and changing expectations. All do-able - but all involving change for each one of us. Are we brave enough? Christian enough? Do we care enough about child witnesses and victims to give up a little, to make a few changes in our comfort levels?
It is my problem. Each one of us is affected by each act of violence, by the damage being done, by the less personal and friendly country, by the anger that family violence generates - in the victims and in the people who hurt others.
I was a teacher. I was trained to teach English to children who had spoken English very effectively for ten years. I was not trained to teach them how to think, or feel, or love, or parent. So who does that? Do we leave that entirely to parents - most of whom do it really well. The problem is that any who fail have a huge impact on all of us.
Sometimes now I think we should forget about teaching our rangatahi (our young people) how to count and speak and dissect - until after they have learned to use the tools God gave them to think and feel and control themselves.
To use those tools to become more self-aware and to control their minds so they are able to not build up feelings like anger and lust and resentment, but come to recognise what is happening at the start, and step back.
Each of us needs to own and value a way of living where we recognise and control destructive thoughts about betrayal or threat or insult while they are still seeds, how to deal with them so they do not grow - or grow to be acts of love - (because so often they are about people we love). Too often we water and feed the seeds of such weeds rather than digging them up and composting them.
This has been Maori Language Week, so I'd like to finish with a whakatauki. The word rangatahi has two meanings. It means "the young generation" but it also means a "short fishing net". That leads to deeper considerations of the proverb:
Ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi.
The old ways are not working for our children: our country needs a new way to do things.
Saturday, 25 June 2016
Glimpse: Independence
Mostly the little girl ran free and decided where the pair would go, but the old man became anxious when her way led to concrete steps - steps designed for bigger people - wide steps with hand rails only at the sides.
The old man had trained the little girl to hold his hand when they were walking along a road or in a car park or close to streams - and until that day the little girl had seen steep concrete steps as a place to hold his hand.
Not that day.
- Hold my hand.
- No.
- You've got to hold hands if you want to climb the steps.
So she did. Clasping her hands in front of her, she turned to the old man.
- I hold my own hand.
Wednesday, 15 June 2016
Glimpse: Running
She runs to the leaves. She runs through them, scattering auburn oak leaves, feet disappearing in their depth, diving into windblown heap, swimming in leaves - body-surfing.
She runs to the soccer centre circle, stepping onto the line and following it, running round, to jump into Grandad coming from the other direction.
Once is not enough - turn, and run the line to the end of the circle. "Again." "Again."
She runs to the Azalea garden, and runs, following random paths - sheer joy in choosing forks: "This way".
She runs to the steps down to the stream, down to the ducks, throwing bread from the bridge. Most of the bread - also wolfing slices to re-fuel - then throwing another slice up-stream and rushing to the other side to see it washed down under the bridge. Pooh sticks! And ducks! So much fun!
"Again Grandad."
Out of bread, she runs up the hill to the old staff club (empty in the morning), up to try the door, explore the deck, the ramp, the steps, the smokers' seats. "Don't touch that. Dirty."
Off to the trees. Hiding. "Is she there, behind this one? No. This one? Where's she gone?" Peeping out from the next tree, but not there when the old man gets there!
Off she goes, tree to tree, heading for the road. "Hold my hand when we are by the road. Ready for home?" Grandad is! So they turn back.
Then they walk past a gate back into the park: she's off again. Back to the centre circle. And again. Back to the Azalea garden. Finally back on the footpath holding hands.
Walking now.
Stop to watch a tyre being changed. Exhausted suddenly after two hours of running, she lies down on the footpath. Sprawled on the path. Worn out by too much life, unable to get up.
"Ready to go?" Nothing.
"Let's go and tell Mum about the ducks." Nothing.
"Can I carry you?" Arms reach up, and she is swung up onto Grandad's shoulders. That's better - grabs Grandad's ears (!) and off they go. Home.
Tuesday, 14 June 2016
Re-learning our prayers
Most of us have a mental resource of memorised prayers.
People involved in church-going - and those of us brought up in church-going homes but no longer joining a parish on a weekly basis - still have prayers, often learnt back in our childhood.
For many people these prayers are very deeply buried and only come to the surface in times of crisis.
Usually those prayers were learned at an earlier age - a period in our lives when our understanding of life, and our relationship with our God, were less mature.
As I have come to a better understanding, I have re-written some of my old prayers so they stay meaningful to me. Several years ago I re-wrote my favourite Act of Contrition - a prayer I had absorbed from the Stations of the Cross liturgy of my childhood. It is one of my normal memorised prayers. My version is
Oh God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things
And with all my heart I am sorry
for the times I have tried to live without you in my life.
May I never miss the mark again.
May I love you without ceasing,
and make it my delight to do in all things your most holy will.
There are only two significant changes from the version I learnt 60 (!) years ago - but they have made the prayer something I want to say every day.
First: I have come to understand that, for me, there is only one thing that I (and I think, most people) need to apologise to God for: all the little things we have tried to do with our own strength, for our own purpose, aiming at our own good. That is why I say I am sorry for the times I have tried to live without you in my life.
I know there are evil people (although not as many as the media would have us believe). But nearly always when most of us get it wrong in life, it is because we have not allowed God into our hearts - or into our decision making process. Only then are we capable of selfishness and arrogant disregard for the needs of others.
But I have also come to see that when I get it wrong on my own, it is just about always because of my own fears or resentments. These two emotions can cause me to attack others, hurt others, manipulate others. These emotions can lead me into alienating others, objectifying others (treating them like objects rather than as fellow-creations of our God), and marginalising others (pushing them away from me and the warmth and comfort here at the centre, into the cold insecurity and poverty on the margins).
Fear is why I ignore the lilies of the field, and accumulate wealth and worry about safety, and why I struggle to build security.
We live in a world where fear and resentment elect unethical politicians, and where even ethic leaders bow to the groundswell created by fear and resentment as they generate our public policies.
That is what happens when I try to live without God in my life.
It NEVER happens when we allow God to be active in our lives - it never happens for individuals when they do it - and does not happen for countries when they do it.
The second change in my childhood prayer is changing the translation for the word "sin". In an earlier post I looked at the origin and meaning of that word "sin". I said that "sin" is a word that separates a lot of people from organised religion.
In translation from Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek and then Latin the original meaning for the idea was lost. The original meaning was a metaphor from archery and means "to miss the mark". We all miss the mark all the time (nearly always because we have stopped being aware of God in our lives).
So in the prayer I use today I have been explicit about that meaning.
In my version of the prayer I have deliberately kept the focus on "my heart" and I have kept the ending. The ending is what initially drew me to the prayer - that sense of euphoria and delight when we KNOW that we on the right path, the sense of satisfaction when our arrow thuds into the mark. That's what happens when we live with God in our lives.
May I love you without ceasing,
and make it my delight
to do in all things your most holy will.
People involved in church-going - and those of us brought up in church-going homes but no longer joining a parish on a weekly basis - still have prayers, often learnt back in our childhood.
For many people these prayers are very deeply buried and only come to the surface in times of crisis.
Usually those prayers were learned at an earlier age - a period in our lives when our understanding of life, and our relationship with our God, were less mature.
As I have come to a better understanding, I have re-written some of my old prayers so they stay meaningful to me. Several years ago I re-wrote my favourite Act of Contrition - a prayer I had absorbed from the Stations of the Cross liturgy of my childhood. It is one of my normal memorised prayers. My version is
Oh God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things
And with all my heart I am sorry
for the times I have tried to live without you in my life.
May I never miss the mark again.
May I love you without ceasing,
and make it my delight to do in all things your most holy will.
There are only two significant changes from the version I learnt 60 (!) years ago - but they have made the prayer something I want to say every day.
First: I have come to understand that, for me, there is only one thing that I (and I think, most people) need to apologise to God for: all the little things we have tried to do with our own strength, for our own purpose, aiming at our own good. That is why I say I am sorry for the times I have tried to live without you in my life.
I know there are evil people (although not as many as the media would have us believe). But nearly always when most of us get it wrong in life, it is because we have not allowed God into our hearts - or into our decision making process. Only then are we capable of selfishness and arrogant disregard for the needs of others.
But I have also come to see that when I get it wrong on my own, it is just about always because of my own fears or resentments. These two emotions can cause me to attack others, hurt others, manipulate others. These emotions can lead me into alienating others, objectifying others (treating them like objects rather than as fellow-creations of our God), and marginalising others (pushing them away from me and the warmth and comfort here at the centre, into the cold insecurity and poverty on the margins).
Fear is why I ignore the lilies of the field, and accumulate wealth and worry about safety, and why I struggle to build security.
We live in a world where fear and resentment elect unethical politicians, and where even ethic leaders bow to the groundswell created by fear and resentment as they generate our public policies.
That is what happens when I try to live without God in my life.
It NEVER happens when we allow God to be active in our lives - it never happens for individuals when they do it - and does not happen for countries when they do it.
The second change in my childhood prayer is changing the translation for the word "sin". In an earlier post I looked at the origin and meaning of that word "sin". I said that "sin" is a word that separates a lot of people from organised religion.
In translation from Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek and then Latin the original meaning for the idea was lost. The original meaning was a metaphor from archery and means "to miss the mark". We all miss the mark all the time (nearly always because we have stopped being aware of God in our lives).
So in the prayer I use today I have been explicit about that meaning.
In my version of the prayer I have deliberately kept the focus on "my heart" and I have kept the ending. The ending is what initially drew me to the prayer - that sense of euphoria and delight when we KNOW that we on the right path, the sense of satisfaction when our arrow thuds into the mark. That's what happens when we live with God in our lives.
May I love you without ceasing,
and make it my delight
to do in all things your most holy will.
Thursday, 17 March 2016
Lenten Meditations
If anyone is still looking for my weekly blog, I have been using my energy to write a daily reflection on the readings from each day's Mass in my Meditations blog.
Today: We are at our best when at peace; at our worst when angry and afraid. My meditation on today’s readings http://meditations-insights.blogspot.co.nz/
Why not join us for Holy Week?
Today: We are at our best when at peace; at our worst when angry and afraid. My meditation on today’s readings http://meditations-insights.blogspot.co.nz/
Why not join us for Holy Week?
Sunday, 28 February 2016
Reaching out to God (on my own)
I am sometimes asked how I meditate - or how to get better at it. I met someone who gave up "because I wasn't very good at it".
No-one is very good at it (except maybe professional monks and nuns or people who have been practicing for 20 years). And maybe they aren't very good at it either - but have come to realise that is part of being human, and accept that.
So I thought I would outline a little of my experience, and jot down one or two things I have found help me.
I have been meditating serious (daily) for about five years. I started with The Way of the Pilgrim - an anonymous booklet outlining the experiences of a Russian lay pilgrim learning to "pray continually" in the nineteenth century. The pilgrim develops a method of meditation as he walks - something quite similar to the Catholic meditation of the Rosary.
I am quite an analytical person and I then started researching other forms of meditation - particularly Catholic mediation used by contemplative orders, and came to Fr Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation.
Merton was very interesting for all sorts of reasons, but in the 1960s he spent a lot of time looking at Eastern meditation - and one of his final insights was that we already have all we need in our tradition. Very reassuring. He is well worth reading if you are interested. Here is one of his prayers, something I have found very helpful.
I have two minds: one is most obvious in moments of love, or tenderness, or of beauty.
The other is the mind that has evolved during 40 million years of survival. This second mind dominates our lives because it is so active (it has to be to help us survive). This second mind fears the danger in everything, especially the unknown. It is the mind that replays moments of conflict during our day to work out how to win next time.
It trusts nothing or no-one: everything could hurt us.
Obviously any prayer life or meditation practice aims to get us into the first mind - and find ways to quieten our evolutionary mind. My friend who "wasn't very good" at meditation and gave up, missed this point. None of us are good at meditation - especially at first, because our evolutionary mind is always trying to interrupt! I suspect sometimes that it is at war with my spiritual mind!
Anyone seriously working at a strong prayer life or at mediation, has to start by acknowledging this situation.
What do I do to get past the frantic worries and distractions of my evolved mind?
One of them is the interruptions and distractions of our minds. But there are other obstacles too: we are self-reliant and don't think we should rely on some unseen God. Our survival minds are afraid of danger and enemies that must be dealt with before anything else.
Our pride is a real obstacle - I can do anything I need to do! It seems weak to rely on God. Sometimes we don't like to bother God with something not urgent.
And we are not sure how to speak to this unseen, unheard God. I speak - but I hear no reply. My defensive mind whispers that people are right when they say there is no God and I am making a fool of myself!
But I believe our God is waiting for us, and in a moment when I reach out in faith God will reach back, touch me, change me. Our Father is waiting. And, like Thomas Merton, I believe that the desire to please God does in fact please God.
PS Don't forget that you are welcome to join me on my prayer pilgrimage to Easter - for the remaining 23 days, or just when you can: http://meditations-insights.blogspot.co.nz/
No-one is very good at it (except maybe professional monks and nuns or people who have been practicing for 20 years). And maybe they aren't very good at it either - but have come to realise that is part of being human, and accept that.
So I thought I would outline a little of my experience, and jot down one or two things I have found help me.
I have been meditating serious (daily) for about five years. I started with The Way of the Pilgrim - an anonymous booklet outlining the experiences of a Russian lay pilgrim learning to "pray continually" in the nineteenth century. The pilgrim develops a method of meditation as he walks - something quite similar to the Catholic meditation of the Rosary.
I am quite an analytical person and I then started researching other forms of meditation - particularly Catholic mediation used by contemplative orders, and came to Fr Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation.
Merton was very interesting for all sorts of reasons, but in the 1960s he spent a lot of time looking at Eastern meditation - and one of his final insights was that we already have all we need in our tradition. Very reassuring. He is well worth reading if you are interested. Here is one of his prayers, something I have found very helpful.
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.About 18 months ago, inspired by Merton's simplicity and honesty, I started regular meditation in the morning (and continued the "Jesus Prayer" of The Way of the Pilgrim at night). One of my first blogs outlined an early insight for me. I realised that we are two people and have two minds.
I have two minds: one is most obvious in moments of love, or tenderness, or of beauty.
The other is the mind that has evolved during 40 million years of survival. This second mind dominates our lives because it is so active (it has to be to help us survive). This second mind fears the danger in everything, especially the unknown. It is the mind that replays moments of conflict during our day to work out how to win next time.
It trusts nothing or no-one: everything could hurt us.
Obviously any prayer life or meditation practice aims to get us into the first mind - and find ways to quieten our evolutionary mind. My friend who "wasn't very good" at meditation and gave up, missed this point. None of us are good at meditation - especially at first, because our evolutionary mind is always trying to interrupt! I suspect sometimes that it is at war with my spiritual mind!
Anyone seriously working at a strong prayer life or at mediation, has to start by acknowledging this situation.
What do I do to get past the frantic worries and distractions of my evolved mind?
- The first step is to accept it, and accept that it will never go away
- I often start with a short reading to get me started and provide stimulus
- It is really helpful to remember that God will do the work - not us. But we do need to provide the invitation - and put ourselves in the situation of quiet and peace and without interruption.
- No-one begins good at this. My active mind keeps interrupting. That's normal.
- I notice.
- I push the thought or feeling aside without buying into it, and continue. Over time I have got much better at this.
- I find it helpful to develop routines around my meditation:
- I try to pray at the same time every morning and evening for 15 minutes (using the countdown clock on my phone)
- I use the same chair - sit up straight, eyes closed, feet on the floor, slow deep breathing
- I ask God for help. God made us with free will, and honours that if we do not open the door.
- I try to pray without words or images - my goal is to clear space in my mind for God. So I find it helpful to have a word to come back to every time my active mind distracts me. LOVE is a favourite - but sometimes my reading suggests a word.
- I do the breathing I suggest in the two minds blog - concentrating on breathing in and out. Once my mind has slowed to the breathing, I try to empty my mind. I try to observe the emptiness of my mind. Over time I have got much better at this.
- I accept that my first five minutes will be unproductive: it takes that long (at least) to slow down my active mind.
One of them is the interruptions and distractions of our minds. But there are other obstacles too: we are self-reliant and don't think we should rely on some unseen God. Our survival minds are afraid of danger and enemies that must be dealt with before anything else.
Our pride is a real obstacle - I can do anything I need to do! It seems weak to rely on God. Sometimes we don't like to bother God with something not urgent.
And we are not sure how to speak to this unseen, unheard God. I speak - but I hear no reply. My defensive mind whispers that people are right when they say there is no God and I am making a fool of myself!
But I believe our God is waiting for us, and in a moment when I reach out in faith God will reach back, touch me, change me. Our Father is waiting. And, like Thomas Merton, I believe that the desire to please God does in fact please God.
PS Don't forget that you are welcome to join me on my prayer pilgrimage to Easter - for the remaining 23 days, or just when you can: http://meditations-insights.blogspot.co.nz/
Thursday, 11 February 2016
The Road to Easter
Easter is at the centre of the liturgical practice and faith of Christianity. It is the time to remember and to celebrate that we are in fact immortal spiritual beings - and not just intelligent animals with a fixed life-span.
The first of the seven readings of the traditional Easter Vigil is the Genesis story of creation where we are reminded that "God created humankind in his image." (Gn 1:27)
That is the point of Easter: we are created in God's image as immortal spiritual beings, and Jesus demonstrated that when he rose from the dead and appeared to people (then and still now) as a resurrected person. That is the point of Easter.
So what is the point of Lent?
Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday this week, is a very old tradition. For some people Lent is a time to make ourselves worthy (through acts of penance, prayer and giving) to become immortal spiritual people created in the Creator's image.
But that view is not how I see it!
We are already immortal spiritual beings created in God's image, so we are already worthy.
But the immediacy of our physical lives takes over and we spend most of our time worrying about the physical threats and dangers we face, or responding to the deluge of sensory stimulation bombarding us.
Lent is a time when we go back to basics and remind ourselves that we are in fact spiritual beings with an umbilical cord rooted in our Creator.
We can work for seven weeks to put our physical needs where they belong - by putting things right and giving up some of our little luxuries, by talking daily to our God, and by giving our stuff and money away to remind us that, in fact, we don't need it all!
If we don't do that, we drift more and more deeply into the physical world, until in the end we cannot conceive of any other.
PS Don't forget that you are welcome to join me on my pilgrimage to Easter - for the remaining 43 days, or just when you can: http://meditations-insights.blogspot.co.nz/
The first of the seven readings of the traditional Easter Vigil is the Genesis story of creation where we are reminded that "God created humankind in his image." (Gn 1:27)
That is the point of Easter: we are created in God's image as immortal spiritual beings, and Jesus demonstrated that when he rose from the dead and appeared to people (then and still now) as a resurrected person. That is the point of Easter.
So what is the point of Lent?
Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday this week, is a very old tradition. For some people Lent is a time to make ourselves worthy (through acts of penance, prayer and giving) to become immortal spiritual people created in the Creator's image.
But that view is not how I see it!
We are already immortal spiritual beings created in God's image, so we are already worthy.
But the immediacy of our physical lives takes over and we spend most of our time worrying about the physical threats and dangers we face, or responding to the deluge of sensory stimulation bombarding us.
Lent is a time when we go back to basics and remind ourselves that we are in fact spiritual beings with an umbilical cord rooted in our Creator.
We can work for seven weeks to put our physical needs where they belong - by putting things right and giving up some of our little luxuries, by talking daily to our God, and by giving our stuff and money away to remind us that, in fact, we don't need it all!
If we don't do that, we drift more and more deeply into the physical world, until in the end we cannot conceive of any other.
PS Don't forget that you are welcome to join me on my pilgrimage to Easter - for the remaining 43 days, or just when you can: http://meditations-insights.blogspot.co.nz/
Monday, 8 February 2016
Mardi Gras: the start of Lent 2016
These few days before the Church season of Lent (beginning tomorrow) have long been something of a thorn in the side of the Church. Shrove Tuesday (today) is the Church's day to be "shriven" - to go to Confession.
However it is also the day before six weeks of fasting so the people have their own agenda: it may be fasting tomorrow - but today it is feasting!
And so the day is also known as Pancake Tuesday or Fat Tuesday, (Mardi Gras in French). For the last thousand years the Church has tried unsuccessfully to calm it all down. The day has now been taken over as a tourist event in many parts of the world, or as a celebration of alternative sexuality.
The original purpose of preparing ourselves for a journey through Lent has largely disappeared.
I am not going to allow that to get in my way though. Today I am preparing myself for a spiritual pilgrimage that will last 46 days. I am heading to Easter - but my journey follows the path Jesus took in his discoveries and teaching about prayer and suffering - his exploration of where we are, why we are here, and where we are going.
Today is an important day of preparation for the journey - although people will join us along the way or do day walks with us.
I am just one small part of the body of Christ undertaking this journey. You can join me, your local parish, or walk your own path with your own reading and reflection. The important thing is to make the journey.
However it is also the day before six weeks of fasting so the people have their own agenda: it may be fasting tomorrow - but today it is feasting!
And so the day is also known as Pancake Tuesday or Fat Tuesday, (Mardi Gras in French). For the last thousand years the Church has tried unsuccessfully to calm it all down. The day has now been taken over as a tourist event in many parts of the world, or as a celebration of alternative sexuality.
The original purpose of preparing ourselves for a journey through Lent has largely disappeared.
I am not going to allow that to get in my way though. Today I am preparing myself for a spiritual pilgrimage that will last 46 days. I am heading to Easter - but my journey follows the path Jesus took in his discoveries and teaching about prayer and suffering - his exploration of where we are, why we are here, and where we are going.
Today is an important day of preparation for the journey - although people will join us along the way or do day walks with us.
I am just one small part of the body of Christ undertaking this journey. You can join me, your local parish, or walk your own path with your own reading and reflection. The important thing is to make the journey.
In today's world much of the path is overgrown. We need to remake that path - and the best thing I can do is take a small step each day, my feet trampling down the weeds.
My daily journey will be outlined on my meditations blog. If you would like to join me for all or part of my pilgrimage, I would be honoured.
My daily journey will be outlined on my meditations blog. If you would like to join me for all or part of my pilgrimage, I would be honoured.
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
An invitation
Like many people I have had a busy and very enjoyable Christmas break - and I suspect that, as happens for many people, the change in my routine and the many new people in my daily life has made it difficult to maintain my inner life. I have mostly managed to keep up my regular reading (largely thanks to an imaginative son-in-law who gathered a collection of used books as a gift he entitled "Box-o-Merton") - but have often struggled to find undistracted time for prayer.
Hence the invitation.
To get myself back on track, I am writing a series of short daily reflections for Lent (which starts on 10 February). I see these as a sort of spiritual pilgrimage walking through the 45 days to Easter. I will use the daily readings for Lent as the basis of my contemplation - and will publish a milestone a day for the 45 day journey.
I will work hard to keep them short: I am hoping that anyone who wants to travel with me will be able to spend 10-15 minutes a day on the reflection and another 10-15 minutes on the resulting meditation or centering prayer.
If you would like to join me on my pilgrimage to Easter, I will begin on Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday - more on that in a later post) Tuesday 9 February on my Meditations blog.
Hence the invitation.
To get myself back on track, I am writing a series of short daily reflections for Lent (which starts on 10 February). I see these as a sort of spiritual pilgrimage walking through the 45 days to Easter. I will use the daily readings for Lent as the basis of my contemplation - and will publish a milestone a day for the 45 day journey.
I will work hard to keep them short: I am hoping that anyone who wants to travel with me will be able to spend 10-15 minutes a day on the reflection and another 10-15 minutes on the resulting meditation or centering prayer.
If you would like to join me on my pilgrimage to Easter, I will begin on Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday - more on that in a later post) Tuesday 9 February on my Meditations blog.
Thursday, 26 November 2015
Advent
This weekend the Catholic Church begins its year with the season of Advent - a word that tells us that Jesus is coming (from the Latin adventus). That means we are just four weeks from Christmas, the annual celebration of the nativity of Jesus.
Of course that also means presents and overeating and last-minute shopping - but behind all of that we celebrate the hope of the world.
The shopping and overeating may not reinforce that sense of hope - but the gifts certainly do - and so does that other great part of Christmas celebrations: family.
The groups working on the amalgamation of the Stoke and Nelson parishes have reinforced that with their name for the new parish which begins in February next year: Holy Family parish.
It's a great name, and even though we are sure of very little about Jesus' background, childhood, and family life, we guess that someone who turned out so well as an adult MUST have had a solid early life.
It was also something of a modern family. His father seems to have died while Jesus was still quite young so Mary ended up as a solo mother. The Holy Family started under the cloud of an unplanned pregnancy, and ended up as a single parent family. And Jesus and his brothers went on to change the world.
Christmas is the time when we remember the start of that story - but it is also the time to remember the power and importance of family. It is a time for family to gather. It may be the time for forgiveness and new starts. Maybe a time to put Jesus and family back to a more prominent place in in our lives. Maybe a time to support struggling families at a difficult time of the year for poor families.
But the next four weeks and Christmas is always the time for hope.
Of course that also means presents and overeating and last-minute shopping - but behind all of that we celebrate the hope of the world.
The shopping and overeating may not reinforce that sense of hope - but the gifts certainly do - and so does that other great part of Christmas celebrations: family.
The groups working on the amalgamation of the Stoke and Nelson parishes have reinforced that with their name for the new parish which begins in February next year: Holy Family parish.
It's a great name, and even though we are sure of very little about Jesus' background, childhood, and family life, we guess that someone who turned out so well as an adult MUST have had a solid early life.
It was also something of a modern family. His father seems to have died while Jesus was still quite young so Mary ended up as a solo mother. The Holy Family started under the cloud of an unplanned pregnancy, and ended up as a single parent family. And Jesus and his brothers went on to change the world.
Christmas is the time when we remember the start of that story - but it is also the time to remember the power and importance of family. It is a time for family to gather. It may be the time for forgiveness and new starts. Maybe a time to put Jesus and family back to a more prominent place in in our lives. Maybe a time to support struggling families at a difficult time of the year for poor families.
But the next four weeks and Christmas is always the time for hope.
Thursday, 19 November 2015
Giving thanks
Americans have a holiday that is so integrated into their thinking, and so neatly aligned to religious thinking that most people assume it had some sort of religious origin (a bit like Christmas). That holiday (from the original "holy-day") is Thanksgiving - and they celebrate it next Thursday.
In fact it is not religious - it started as a collective sigh of relief that early settlers had survived! And it was a continuation of their European harvest thanksgiving parties: with the help of local indigenous experts, the European settlers had grown and gathered enough harvest to likely make it through the winter.
Down here in New Zealand we see Thanksgiving only in movies and television cliches where people are embarrassed by turkeys, sit around perfectly-set tables, and hold hands to say what they are grateful for.
I'm sure that is part of it - but it is also a time for families to forego the busy routines of their lives, and be together. In modern times that has become very significant for a lot of people.
On Thanksgiving day next week, again with no obvious religious intent, the staff of Garin College will welcome everybody who helped out during the year with plenty of food and drink so coaches, tutors, exam reader-writers, and all the rest can gather and be thanked.
Hundreds of invitations have gone out. Some people will come without an invitation.
People as young as our superb student sport and academic coaches - and as old as the school's famous workshop technician will come together as the community they are, to be thanked. The community will recognise that their cog is part of the whole well-oiled machine; they may feel separate when they zip into the school, do their thing, and zip off again - but in fact that well oiled machine would not run as well without them, without their contribution.
It is not a religious event any more than Thanksgiving - but "thanksgiving" is an English word that is a translation of the Greek word "eucharist". On a much earlier Thursday Jesus "gave thanks" for the fruits of the harvest, for creation and God's love, for friends, for life itself - then he blessed the bread and wine, and shared it with the instruction to keep doing this and to remember.
On Thursday next week we remember and celebrate - at least in America, and in Garin College New Zealand.
In fact it is not religious - it started as a collective sigh of relief that early settlers had survived! And it was a continuation of their European harvest thanksgiving parties: with the help of local indigenous experts, the European settlers had grown and gathered enough harvest to likely make it through the winter.
Down here in New Zealand we see Thanksgiving only in movies and television cliches where people are embarrassed by turkeys, sit around perfectly-set tables, and hold hands to say what they are grateful for.
I'm sure that is part of it - but it is also a time for families to forego the busy routines of their lives, and be together. In modern times that has become very significant for a lot of people.
On Thanksgiving day next week, again with no obvious religious intent, the staff of Garin College will welcome everybody who helped out during the year with plenty of food and drink so coaches, tutors, exam reader-writers, and all the rest can gather and be thanked.
Hundreds of invitations have gone out. Some people will come without an invitation.
People as young as our superb student sport and academic coaches - and as old as the school's famous workshop technician will come together as the community they are, to be thanked. The community will recognise that their cog is part of the whole well-oiled machine; they may feel separate when they zip into the school, do their thing, and zip off again - but in fact that well oiled machine would not run as well without them, without their contribution.
It is not a religious event any more than Thanksgiving - but "thanksgiving" is an English word that is a translation of the Greek word "eucharist". On a much earlier Thursday Jesus "gave thanks" for the fruits of the harvest, for creation and God's love, for friends, for life itself - then he blessed the bread and wine, and shared it with the instruction to keep doing this and to remember.
On Thursday next week we remember and celebrate - at least in America, and in Garin College New Zealand.
Thursday, 12 November 2015
Love one another as I have loved you
Many adults feel quite disheartened by the immature behaviour of our politicians. They certainly disappoint me at times - and this week has been one of those times. Parents and teachers work hard to encourage good behaviour and strong values in our children: it might be time for our politicians to go back to school!
Throughout the democratic world we have come to expect childish one upmanship as our elected representatives forget their roles as our servants and standard-setters, and do all they can to demean, undermine and sabotage their opponents - and groups they have decided they cannot tolerate.
Adversarial governance always ends up with immature name-calling, treating people as objects, winners and losers. And too often it seems to draw us in as we find ourselves supporting the ideas and behaviour of our favourites (who we do support - but for other reasons).
In Australasia at the moment we have added what seems to be a new dimension in our part of the world. We are fighting about how badly we can treat groups of people we have decided we don't like: people who are mothers, fathers, children. But we don't see that; all we see are the group, the gang, the different-from-us.
I understand that Australia is afraid of strangers coming to their country. I understand that they want to get rid of the sorts of people-different-from-them they have decided they don't like. But, although it is shockingly new for us in 2015, both countries have incidents from our not too distant past that we don't like to remember - incidents that we should never have allowed ourselves to forget!
There are better ways to deal with people we disagree with or fear. Just last week on 5 November we celebrated the rebellion of Te Whiti o Rongomai of Parihaka - a nineteenth century Maori New Zealand Christian pacifist who seems to have influenced the thinking and ideas of Mahatma Gandhi. He was a man who understood, and acted on that.
Politicians yelling at each other can be seen as mostly harmless posturing, albeit disappointing and setting a poor example of behaviour. But always, real individual people are being hurt. Real mothers and fathers, real children and friends and families are affected.
All of us - you and me, as well as our leaders - need to stop thinking in stereotypes and "getting one over" the other. We are all created one-by-one by the same God, who knows and loves each of us. Wherever we are, we all need to see people as they are. I recall a memorial in Rwanda where they know what this hatred can lead to ...
... and there's another Rwandan memorial that's always affected me, this one from a survivor of the sort of stereotyping we are flirting with ...
Throughout the democratic world we have come to expect childish one upmanship as our elected representatives forget their roles as our servants and standard-setters, and do all they can to demean, undermine and sabotage their opponents - and groups they have decided they cannot tolerate.
Adversarial governance always ends up with immature name-calling, treating people as objects, winners and losers. And too often it seems to draw us in as we find ourselves supporting the ideas and behaviour of our favourites (who we do support - but for other reasons).
In Australasia at the moment we have added what seems to be a new dimension in our part of the world. We are fighting about how badly we can treat groups of people we have decided we don't like: people who are mothers, fathers, children. But we don't see that; all we see are the group, the gang, the different-from-us.
I understand that Australia is afraid of strangers coming to their country. I understand that they want to get rid of the sorts of people-different-from-them they have decided they don't like. But, although it is shockingly new for us in 2015, both countries have incidents from our not too distant past that we don't like to remember - incidents that we should never have allowed ourselves to forget!
There are better ways to deal with people we disagree with or fear. Just last week on 5 November we celebrated the rebellion of Te Whiti o Rongomai of Parihaka - a nineteenth century Maori New Zealand Christian pacifist who seems to have influenced the thinking and ideas of Mahatma Gandhi. He was a man who understood, and acted on that.
Politicians yelling at each other can be seen as mostly harmless posturing, albeit disappointing and setting a poor example of behaviour. But always, real individual people are being hurt. Real mothers and fathers, real children and friends and families are affected.
All of us - you and me, as well as our leaders - need to stop thinking in stereotypes and "getting one over" the other. We are all created one-by-one by the same God, who knows and loves each of us. Wherever we are, we all need to see people as they are. I recall a memorial in Rwanda where they know what this hatred can lead to ...
“If you knew me,
and if you really knew yourself,
and if you really knew yourself,
then you would not have killed me.”
Felicien Ntagengwa
Tuesday, 3 November 2015
The next step
This week at Garin College in Nelson, all over New Zealand, and - I assume - all over the Southern Hemisphere, 17, 18 and 19 year old students are leaving school to take another step in their lives.
Nearly all of those students are more than ready to throw off the uniforms, the monitoring and checking, the routines and the hierarchies of school life and try themselves out in the adult world.
So far, most are not fully aware of the size of the step they are taking.
At school older adults take care and responsibility for the growth, learning and safety of their pupils. The staff want them to do well academically - and want them to develop in positive ways as people.
But over the next week our young adults enter a world where (when they leave home) no-one they see on a day-to-day basis really will care about their life as a whole or about their personal development. They move from environments where they are genuinely loved and cherished and supported - to much more impersonal places where, at best, people are paid to watch out for them for eight hours a day, for a term or a year.
At school older adults take responsibility for the safety of their students. The adults - parents and teachers - explain how things might go wrong and try to prepare them for the step they take this week.
Adults put themselves out to provide rich and stimulating experiences. Parents support them financially with free food and accommodation, and with other necessities and luxuries.
When our students were children many of the adults around our young people did their best to make them aware of the spiritual world around them. In most families and schools that support has become a rationalisation that we each must make our own way spiritually. In most families all they can do is set an example - or just pray for their children. Some families give in to the indifference of the world and are no longer involved in spiritual formation - of the adults or children.
At school and inside families, the consequences for mistakes are mostly personal and loving (even when the consequences involve short-term pain!) Next week - and definitely next year - mistakes will have adult consequences. A growling, a detention or suspension, or a "talk" - will be replaced with impersonal failure, debt, fines, prison, or lifelong commitments.
In our families and schools the adults protect young people from the worst consequences, but in the adult world that protection quickly fades and sometimes even becomes illegal. Everyone must face their own consequences.
Even the language changes. Borrow becomes steal. Tease becomes harass. Push becomes assault. Consequence becomes punishment. Experiment becomes illegal. Risk-taking may become death.
Parents and teachers have done all we can to prepare our young people for the world they step into so lightly. There will be grief for all of them - as there was for us. Most will adjust quickly and thrive. Some will continue to need our support.
Most young people stepping out this week are spiritually aware, even if most are not particularly religious. Tell them you are praying for them. Tell them you are still there for them. They will mostly be too proud to ask, but knowing you are still their backstop is an important security.
We ask God to continue to bless them, to protect them, and guide them in their lives, and as they become the people God (along with parents and teachers) created them to be.
Nearly all of those students are more than ready to throw off the uniforms, the monitoring and checking, the routines and the hierarchies of school life and try themselves out in the adult world.
So far, most are not fully aware of the size of the step they are taking.
At school older adults take care and responsibility for the growth, learning and safety of their pupils. The staff want them to do well academically - and want them to develop in positive ways as people.
But over the next week our young adults enter a world where (when they leave home) no-one they see on a day-to-day basis really will care about their life as a whole or about their personal development. They move from environments where they are genuinely loved and cherished and supported - to much more impersonal places where, at best, people are paid to watch out for them for eight hours a day, for a term or a year.
At school older adults take responsibility for the safety of their students. The adults - parents and teachers - explain how things might go wrong and try to prepare them for the step they take this week.
Adults put themselves out to provide rich and stimulating experiences. Parents support them financially with free food and accommodation, and with other necessities and luxuries.
When our students were children many of the adults around our young people did their best to make them aware of the spiritual world around them. In most families and schools that support has become a rationalisation that we each must make our own way spiritually. In most families all they can do is set an example - or just pray for their children. Some families give in to the indifference of the world and are no longer involved in spiritual formation - of the adults or children.
At school and inside families, the consequences for mistakes are mostly personal and loving (even when the consequences involve short-term pain!) Next week - and definitely next year - mistakes will have adult consequences. A growling, a detention or suspension, or a "talk" - will be replaced with impersonal failure, debt, fines, prison, or lifelong commitments.
In our families and schools the adults protect young people from the worst consequences, but in the adult world that protection quickly fades and sometimes even becomes illegal. Everyone must face their own consequences.
Even the language changes. Borrow becomes steal. Tease becomes harass. Push becomes assault. Consequence becomes punishment. Experiment becomes illegal. Risk-taking may become death.
Parents and teachers have done all we can to prepare our young people for the world they step into so lightly. There will be grief for all of them - as there was for us. Most will adjust quickly and thrive. Some will continue to need our support.
Most young people stepping out this week are spiritually aware, even if most are not particularly religious. Tell them you are praying for them. Tell them you are still there for them. They will mostly be too proud to ask, but knowing you are still their backstop is an important security.
We ask God to continue to bless them, to protect them, and guide them in their lives, and as they become the people God (along with parents and teachers) created them to be.
Tuesday, 27 October 2015
The letter of the law
I recently joined Twitter (we retired people can make time to do these things!) and even more recently got into a very focused discussion arising from the Synod for the Family about remarried Catholics being able to receive communion.
In that discussion it was brought home to me very forcefully that there are huge divides in the Church.
People who have got to know me have mostly worked out that I have a simple theology and philosophy of life: God made us in his image, so we are all spiritual beings created to mature spiritually and find our way back to God.
That means that we were all born blessed and gifted - and so the purpose of families and schools and parishes is to help us grow along that path by growing in God, sharing the blessings, and developing the gifts by using them for others.
My key understanding of our Creator is "God is love".
To me this is very obvious. It is all supported by scripture, the teaching of the Church, and reinforced by the experiences of my prayer-life. Just this week our Pope, speaking of Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus, reminded us that "even though Jesus has only begun his most important journey ... he still stops to respond to Bartimaeus' cry. Jesus is moved by his request and becomes involved in his situation. He is not content to offer him alms, but rather wants to personally encounter him."
Last week I got into discussion with very committed Catholics, members of my Twitter community, who have a strong black-and-white view that mistakes made early in life cut a person off from full participation in the Church for ever.
My understanding of the conclusions of the recent Synod is that these Catholics may be right objectively - but people in that situation always have the right to a subjective case-by-case review with their priest, and their conscience (which I see as a person's individual developing relationship with God) also plays a part. I do not know any priests in our country who would treat that discussion with a closed mind.
I would feel uncomfortable in a church that cut off prodigal members with no possibility of return.
However, one of the best things about the Catholic church is that there are about 1.2 billion of us. That is far too many for a real community - but when we break ourselves down into real communities, there seems to be a place for most of us.
That 1.2 billion is about half of the 2.5 billion Christians in the a world of 7 billion. I include these numbers not as a source of pride, but because all 7 billion were created in the likeness of God, and each has a direct link with our Creator. We are together finding the kingdom within us.
Many of those links are tenuous - but on a subconscious level at least, we are each guided by God. Some choose not to listen. Many do not know how to listen (and this includes nearly all of us at some stages in our lives). Listening to God is a skill that most are given as a seed only - and with a responsibility to water and weed and fertilise as we grow.
Perhaps some very committed people feel safer relying on clear and objective rules and find security there.
My Twitter friends may find food for thought in St Paul's comment in his second letter to the Corinthians 3:6 ...
In that discussion it was brought home to me very forcefully that there are huge divides in the Church.
People who have got to know me have mostly worked out that I have a simple theology and philosophy of life: God made us in his image, so we are all spiritual beings created to mature spiritually and find our way back to God.
That means that we were all born blessed and gifted - and so the purpose of families and schools and parishes is to help us grow along that path by growing in God, sharing the blessings, and developing the gifts by using them for others.
My key understanding of our Creator is "God is love".
To me this is very obvious. It is all supported by scripture, the teaching of the Church, and reinforced by the experiences of my prayer-life. Just this week our Pope, speaking of Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus, reminded us that "even though Jesus has only begun his most important journey ... he still stops to respond to Bartimaeus' cry. Jesus is moved by his request and becomes involved in his situation. He is not content to offer him alms, but rather wants to personally encounter him."
Last week I got into discussion with very committed Catholics, members of my Twitter community, who have a strong black-and-white view that mistakes made early in life cut a person off from full participation in the Church for ever.
My understanding of the conclusions of the recent Synod is that these Catholics may be right objectively - but people in that situation always have the right to a subjective case-by-case review with their priest, and their conscience (which I see as a person's individual developing relationship with God) also plays a part. I do not know any priests in our country who would treat that discussion with a closed mind.
I would feel uncomfortable in a church that cut off prodigal members with no possibility of return.
However, one of the best things about the Catholic church is that there are about 1.2 billion of us. That is far too many for a real community - but when we break ourselves down into real communities, there seems to be a place for most of us.
That 1.2 billion is about half of the 2.5 billion Christians in the a world of 7 billion. I include these numbers not as a source of pride, but because all 7 billion were created in the likeness of God, and each has a direct link with our Creator. We are together finding the kingdom within us.
Many of those links are tenuous - but on a subconscious level at least, we are each guided by God. Some choose not to listen. Many do not know how to listen (and this includes nearly all of us at some stages in our lives). Listening to God is a skill that most are given as a seed only - and with a responsibility to water and weed and fertilise as we grow.
Perhaps some very committed people feel safer relying on clear and objective rules and find security there.
My Twitter friends may find food for thought in St Paul's comment in his second letter to the Corinthians 3:6 ...
God has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Thursday, 22 October 2015
Glimpse: Hiding
If I can't see you, how can you possibly see me? The little girl runs behind the chair and sits down. Invisible.
- Where's my girl? Anyone see where she went?
- Is she under the table?
- No, not there. Behind the couch? No.
- Did she go into the kitchen? No.
- Edith - are you lost? where are you? She's gone ... can't find her anywhere.
- Edith?
A little head appears at the side of the chair.
- There she is. Where were you?
The head withdraws - gone again!
The game goes on (and on!)
Each time she disappears. Waits to be called. Reappears. Each time new - still believing I can't see her if she can't see me.
- Don't know where she is.
I sneak up to the chair. Look over the top. There she is ... sees me ... new game: run away from Grandad.
I follow her around a circuit of furniture. I stop and turn around. Catch her - lift her. Tickle time. She hadn't realised that the rules had changed, and if I turned round she would run into me.
We try again - this time I tell her when I turn back. One false step, but the second time she hears me, understands the new rules, stops, and turns when I do. I just can't catch her.
It is amazing to see a new person learning. Adult eyes see it all. We are amused, feel superior, pleased we have grown so much and aren't fooled the way a child is.
But really, have we learnt that much?
We still believe that if we can't see things, they don't exist.
We still run in the same direction (sometimes expecting different results!)
And too often, even when we are told we need to change direction, we just can't.
- Where's my girl? Anyone see where she went?
- Is she under the table?
- No, not there. Behind the couch? No.
- Did she go into the kitchen? No.
- Edith - are you lost? where are you? She's gone ... can't find her anywhere.
- Edith?
A little head appears at the side of the chair.
- There she is. Where were you?
The head withdraws - gone again!
The game goes on (and on!)
Each time she disappears. Waits to be called. Reappears. Each time new - still believing I can't see her if she can't see me.
- Don't know where she is.
I sneak up to the chair. Look over the top. There she is ... sees me ... new game: run away from Grandad.
I follow her around a circuit of furniture. I stop and turn around. Catch her - lift her. Tickle time. She hadn't realised that the rules had changed, and if I turned round she would run into me.
We try again - this time I tell her when I turn back. One false step, but the second time she hears me, understands the new rules, stops, and turns when I do. I just can't catch her.
It is amazing to see a new person learning. Adult eyes see it all. We are amused, feel superior, pleased we have grown so much and aren't fooled the way a child is.
But really, have we learnt that much?
We still believe that if we can't see things, they don't exist.
We still run in the same direction (sometimes expecting different results!)
And too often, even when we are told we need to change direction, we just can't.
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
What would you call a female priest?
I love the Catholic Church, but sometimes (as happens in a lot of families), I despair!
I have been watching the "Synod of Bishops on the Family" discussions in Rome, and despite the best efforts of our best people, the Synod is being sidetracked too often. For an interested outsider like me, the idea is simple: the family is where we learn to love and forgive. That's it. The job of the Synod is therefore to find ways to help and support each family to love and forgive.
Instead, we are sidetracked into complicated mazes like whether divorced and re-married Catholics can receive communion. (My question - for what it's worth - would Jesus cut off support to people at the very time in their lives when they are feeling lost and vulnerable? Would Jesus cast people away when they made a mistake - assuming there might have been a mistake?)
Another sidetrack in the maze: homosexual parents. Would Jesus judge them on their sexual orientation or the quality of their love? the quality of the love they bring to their family? their ability to help children learn to love and to forgive?
And, again, the role of women in the Church! To me it is hugely ironic that the leaders of our parish families - yes our parishes are modelled on the family - are all male. We call them "Father".
In the early Church some of the holiest people went into the deserts of Egypt to be more alone with God.
The word that has come down to us when they were addressed is "Abba" (father). But there were women there too. They were called "Amma" (mother). These people were our mothers and fathers in the faith.
The family is precious to the Church partly because it is a model for the Trinity: three making a single unity. The Holy Family (Joseph, Mary, Jesus) is our model for the family. And yet we insist on male-only headship for our parish family. That worked well enough even as recently as the nineteenth century when the Roman/Victorian concept of paterfamilias was accepted without much question.
Society has moved on. The Church has moved on in so many other ways. The world is changing. Rapidly! Spirituality is changing in a huge way. God is no longer seen as male (or female). The Church will change on this - but sadly not in my lifetime. Even this synod is a "Synod of Bishops on the Family" - with a few family people as "auditors" (listeners, who can only speak when spoken to).
The lack of balance is part of the problem. No-one would consider saying that the bishops are not bright or educated, nor say that they are unconnected to their flocks - but their experience of day-to-day family life is up to half a century old. AND they are trained male academics, and too many too often argue from the head rather than the heart.
So pray for the Synod.
Pray that they stick to their knitting.
Pray that their focus stays on love and forgiveness.
And pray that the teachings to come out of the Synod will support all our families as they form the adults of the future to be more loving and more forgiving people.
Pray that they stick to their knitting.
Pray that their focus stays on love and forgiveness.
And pray that the teachings to come out of the Synod will support all our families as they form the adults of the future to be more loving and more forgiving people.
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
Glimpse: Looking in, looking out
In my part of the world Spring is a short season, to be enjoyed before the equinox and the gales. I try to cycle every day, and have just returned from an hour biking in the wind.
The willows broke into leaf several weeks ago and have already matured past that fluorescent lime green - but they excited new life in a solitary bonsai willow, blasted trunk, perfect minimal zen shape, fighting to survive, but breaking late into leaf.
I started uphill and leaning into the wind. My head down, my gears down: it was hard work. That is enjoyable in a way - but the joy is in the work rather than the world around me. My focus is on the the body-length in front of me, the wind rumbling past my ears, senses limited to that tight bullet of awareness: the path coming up, the bike's gears, me.
But then there is the ride home: downhill and wind behind me. I sit up, a bigger sail for the wind. I see beyond myself and my own effort. The joy now is being part of creation. New lambs bouncing, or resting in preparation for bouncing. Glades of sunlight between huge dark totora, splashes of sunlit green on a canvas of black and brown and shaded leaves.
The willows broke into leaf several weeks ago and have already matured past that fluorescent lime green - but they excited new life in a solitary bonsai willow, blasted trunk, perfect minimal zen shape, fighting to survive, but breaking late into leaf.
The Monet magnolia flames are now being quenched by new leaves. But the oaks are just breaking into their tiny leaves - bronze shading the pale green - arthritic fingers of their branches still sharp, clawing at the sky.
A vivid kowhai - all golden flower on silhouetted branches - tiny leaves invisible.
A vivid kowhai - all golden flower on silhouetted branches - tiny leaves invisible.
And bird-sound everywhere, the earlier steady roar of the wind a whisper now as I am blown along at the same speed, just the hum of my tyres through the light gravel of the cycle path - and the invisible birds.
Further away are the hills, shadows and sun accentuating the anatomical nature of landscape: bodies sprawled in lazy postures, backs and bums, ribs and hips, spine and shoulders jumbled together in an orgy of shiney green and shadow.
Real joy: after my hard work and inward focus biking into the wind (and up hill!), the grace of sudden revelation: creation in bright light, pollination and quickening, wind-waves in the grass, even the hills alive with the bliss of new birth.
Saturday, 3 October 2015
Glimpse: Walking alone
The little girl in dark pink and pale green won't hold my hand. Out for a walk - traffic close enough to make grandad anxious. Just over a year old, but already making her own way in the world!
Who will she become? What will be my influence? Unanswerable questions.
She is a mix of genes (a quarter mine), so far unknown gifts from her Creator, and the unknowable effects of every single contact and experience of every single day of her life. Her parents and the environment they create have a huge influence, and many of the most influential contacts and effects have already happened. But there are so many more to come.
As she gets older, each will dilute or moderate earlier contacts - and she has still to meet many of the key people in her life, still to live through suffering and tragedy, to face disappointment, still to discover that her plans are not the only plans.
I rush to keep up, pick her up to cross to the park, let her down again.
I try to walk holding her hand - now more for my comfort than her safety! She will have none of it, rushing off to chase shadows, make friends with seagulls, find ducks to feed - all in a world of her own imagining.
I know my place; even at (nearly) one and half she needs to know that she can make her way alone. (And I do notice the occasional gratifying glimpse back to make sure she is not too alone.)
She's a lucky little girl - parents who love her and spoil her (just a little), a loving community of friends with babies of their own, plenty of stimulation and attention, clean water and enough to eat, a warm and safe place to live, and (maybe with some little influence) four grandparents who think she is the most wonderful little girl ever born.
So, she rushes off over the playing fields, a spirited bundle of apparent independence and gifted with huge potential. I follow, keeping watch, almost overwhelmed contemplating the persons she might become and the worlds she might live and love in.
Who will she become? What will be my influence? Unanswerable questions.
She is a mix of genes (a quarter mine), so far unknown gifts from her Creator, and the unknowable effects of every single contact and experience of every single day of her life. Her parents and the environment they create have a huge influence, and many of the most influential contacts and effects have already happened. But there are so many more to come.
As she gets older, each will dilute or moderate earlier contacts - and she has still to meet many of the key people in her life, still to live through suffering and tragedy, to face disappointment, still to discover that her plans are not the only plans.
I rush to keep up, pick her up to cross to the park, let her down again.
I try to walk holding her hand - now more for my comfort than her safety! She will have none of it, rushing off to chase shadows, make friends with seagulls, find ducks to feed - all in a world of her own imagining.
I know my place; even at (nearly) one and half she needs to know that she can make her way alone. (And I do notice the occasional gratifying glimpse back to make sure she is not too alone.)
She's a lucky little girl - parents who love her and spoil her (just a little), a loving community of friends with babies of their own, plenty of stimulation and attention, clean water and enough to eat, a warm and safe place to live, and (maybe with some little influence) four grandparents who think she is the most wonderful little girl ever born.
So, she rushes off over the playing fields, a spirited bundle of apparent independence and gifted with huge potential. I follow, keeping watch, almost overwhelmed contemplating the persons she might become and the worlds she might live and love in.
Friday, 2 October 2015
Yet another gun abuse
No-one wants to criticise people in a different place, but we are all saddened and upset when we hear more innocent people killed by disturbed people with guns. I'm sure Americans wish they had an answer. I wish I did.
The easy part of the answer is their easy access to guns - but that is not the main part of the problem. Guns do not fire themselves.
Too many people in America - in New Zealand - and in the world, lack either the empathy to feel for the innocent victims in cinemas, schools, sitting in their homes, shopping at the market - or lack an understanding of who they are hurting and killing. Or both.
People in America and Syria and the Horn of Africa and Palestine and in our own country - and in so many other communities in so many parts of the world - still allow ourselves to see people as objects rather than people, as inferior and of no value, as enemies. Innocent people are killed. Children abused or murdered.
It is a clear sign that humanity has still to grow up, to understand the extension of the golden rule: what we do to another, we do to ourselves. Our religions have always known that. Jesus told us about the Way, the Truth, and the Life - and that we reap what we sow. We all talk about karma.
Around the time of Isaiah about 2600 years ago a mystic in China wrote in the Tao Te Ching
I'm a bit of a science fiction fan and last week I bought Andy Weir's The Martian to read before I go to see Sir Ridley Scott's film. I bought the book - and at the same time as an impulse buy I bought Andy Weir's short story The Egg as an Audible file for $2 (to let my phone read it to me). It's only 10 minutes - but it is a brilliant story about how we relate to other people. I won't spoil it in case you want to read it (great buy for $2!) - but it does present an original take on our role in the universe and our connection to everyone else.
Jesus and Paul brought the same concept to Christianity. It is a theme in many other religions. I am convinced that this is who we are! People who use guns against people (or bombs or fists or even just lack kindness) clearly do not believe this.
The world needs a better compass - we do not have a clear or rational sense of direction. Too many people are adrift, not seeing their connections with others; not looking for goodness or virtue; living without any clear understanding of who they are or where they are going. They seem to have no idea of the purpose of their lives.
The irony is that in many of the world's trouble-spots people in power also claim to have a superior understanding of the Way. They clearly don't: their actions demonstrate that their prejudices, egos, self-centeredness, and personal ambition have dominated any relationship their God has tried to offer them. They try to use God to further personal ambitions.
What can we do? Practically, not enough - other than to add our voice when we can, and support the victims.
But if we believe that the spirit endures and is the better, stronger part of us - then we must add our spirit to the growth and flowering of humanity. Pray. Read. Meditate. Love. Forgive.
Sounds ineffectual? But imagine if we all did it. Even in human terms we would have such influence. But when enough of us open ourselves to God, to peace, and to love, we will transform humanity!
The easy part of the answer is their easy access to guns - but that is not the main part of the problem. Guns do not fire themselves.
Too many people in America - in New Zealand - and in the world, lack either the empathy to feel for the innocent victims in cinemas, schools, sitting in their homes, shopping at the market - or lack an understanding of who they are hurting and killing. Or both.
People in America and Syria and the Horn of Africa and Palestine and in our own country - and in so many other communities in so many parts of the world - still allow ourselves to see people as objects rather than people, as inferior and of no value, as enemies. Innocent people are killed. Children abused or murdered.
It is a clear sign that humanity has still to grow up, to understand the extension of the golden rule: what we do to another, we do to ourselves. Our religions have always known that. Jesus told us about the Way, the Truth, and the Life - and that we reap what we sow. We all talk about karma.
Around the time of Isaiah about 2600 years ago a mystic in China wrote in the Tao Te Ching
When a country is in harmony with the Tao (the Way),(He actually wrote about farm horses becoming warhorses - but you get the point!)
the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao (Way),
warheads are stockpiled outside the cities.
I'm a bit of a science fiction fan and last week I bought Andy Weir's The Martian to read before I go to see Sir Ridley Scott's film. I bought the book - and at the same time as an impulse buy I bought Andy Weir's short story The Egg as an Audible file for $2 (to let my phone read it to me). It's only 10 minutes - but it is a brilliant story about how we relate to other people. I won't spoil it in case you want to read it (great buy for $2!) - but it does present an original take on our role in the universe and our connection to everyone else.
Jesus and Paul brought the same concept to Christianity. It is a theme in many other religions. I am convinced that this is who we are! People who use guns against people (or bombs or fists or even just lack kindness) clearly do not believe this.
The world needs a better compass - we do not have a clear or rational sense of direction. Too many people are adrift, not seeing their connections with others; not looking for goodness or virtue; living without any clear understanding of who they are or where they are going. They seem to have no idea of the purpose of their lives.
The irony is that in many of the world's trouble-spots people in power also claim to have a superior understanding of the Way. They clearly don't: their actions demonstrate that their prejudices, egos, self-centeredness, and personal ambition have dominated any relationship their God has tried to offer them. They try to use God to further personal ambitions.
What can we do? Practically, not enough - other than to add our voice when we can, and support the victims.
But if we believe that the spirit endures and is the better, stronger part of us - then we must add our spirit to the growth and flowering of humanity. Pray. Read. Meditate. Love. Forgive.
Sounds ineffectual? But imagine if we all did it. Even in human terms we would have such influence. But when enough of us open ourselves to God, to peace, and to love, we will transform humanity!
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