The Single-Minded Search for God

Work is not what defines the Benedictine--it is the single-minded search for God.  The purpose behind everything we do gives our lives meaning.  It is this purpose that frees our hearts.

Creative and productive work are simply meant to enhance the Garden and sustain us while we grow in God!

The Mystery of Asking

Humbly asked [God] to remove our shortcomings.  

—Step 7 of the Twelve Steps 

This week’s meditations continue to explore the wisdom of the Gospels and the Twelve Steps. Father Richard responds to the perennial question, “Why do we pray?”: 

If God already knows what we need before we ask, and God actually cares about us more than we care about ourselves, then why do both Step 7 and Jesus say, each in their own way: “Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7)? Are we trying to talk God into things? Does the group with the most and the best prayers win? Is prayer of petition just another way to get what we want, or to get God on our side?  

This is the mystery of asking. Why is it good to ask, and what really happens in prayers of petition or intercession? Why is it that Jesus both tells us to ask and then says, “Your Father already knows what you need, so do not babble on like the pagans do” (Matthew 6:7–8)?  

I believe prayer is a symbiotic relationship with life and with God, a synergy which creates a result larger than the exchange itself. We ask not to change God, but to change ourselves. We pray to form a living relationship, not to get things done. (That is why Jesus says all prayers are answered, which does not appear to be true, according to the evidence!) God knows that we need to pray to keep the symbiotic relationship moving and growing. Prayer is not a way to try to control God, or even to get what we want.  

Prayers of intercession or petition are one way of situating our life within total honesty and structural truth. We are all forever beggars before God and the universe. We can never engineer or guide our own transformation or conversion. If we try, it will be a self-centered and well-controlled version of conversion, with most of our preferences and addictions still fully in place, but now well-disguised.  

So, Step 7 says that we must “humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.” We don’t dare go after our own faults or we will go after the wrong thing—or, more commonly, a clever substitute for the real thing. Instead, we have to let God first reveal our real faults to us (usually by failing and falling many times!), and then allow God to remove those faults, from God’s side and in God’s way.  

It’s important that we ask, seek, and knock to keep ourselves in right relationship with Life Itself. Life is a gift, totally given to us without cost, every day of it, and every part of it. A daily and chosen “attitude of gratitude” will keep our hands open to expect that life, allow that life, and receive that life at ever-deeper levels of satisfaction—but never to think we deserve it.  

Selected from Richard Rohr, Breathing under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, 10th anniv. ed. (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2011, 2021), 57, 59–60, 61. 

A Prayer for Leadership

Give us, O God,

leaders whose hearts are large enough 

to match the breadth of our own souls 

and give us souls strong enough

to follow leaders of vision and wisdom.

In seeking a leader, let us seek 

more than development for ourselves—

though development we hope for—

more than security for our own land—

though security we need—

more than satisfaction for our wants—

though many things we desire.

Give us the hearts to choose 

the leader who will work with other leaders

to bring safety to the whole world.

Give us leaders 

who lead this nation to virtue

without seeking to impose 

our kind of virtue 

on the virtue of others.

Give us a government

that provides for the advancement

of this country

without taking resources from others 

to achieve it.

Give us insight enough ourselves

to choose as leaders those who can tell 

strength from power,

growth from greed,

leadership from dominance,

and real greatness 

from the trappings of grandiosity.

We trust you, Great God,

to open our hearts to learn 

from those to whom you speak 

in different tongues 

and to respect the life and words

of those to whom you entrusted

the good of other parts of this globe. 

We beg you, Great God,

give us the vision as a people

to know where global leadership truly lies, 

to pursue it diligently,

to require it to protect human rights 

for everyone everywhere.

We ask these things, Great God, 

with minds open to your word

and hearts that trust in your eternal care.

Amen.

Sister Joan Chittister

Vision and Viewpoint

The Bishop's Gift

Once a little church had fallen upon hard times. The rector and precious few were left in the congregation—most over 60 years old.

In the mountains near the church there lived a retired Bishop. It occurred to the rector to ask the bishop if she could offer any advice that might just save the church. 

The bishop welcomed the priest and commiserated. “I know how it is” she said, “the spirit has gone out of so many people. Many churches are struggling—our sense of community seems to be fading.” So the Bishop and priest wept together, and spoke quietly of deep things.

The time came when the priest had to leave. They embraced. “It has been wonderful being with you,” said the priest, “but I have failed in my purpose for coming. Have you no piece of advice that might save our little church?”

The Bishop simply replied, “I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is among you.”

The rector, returning to the church, told the small congregation what the bishop had said. In the months that followed, the church members pondered the words of the bishop. “The Messiah is among of us?”  As they thought about this, they all began to treat each other more kindly on the off chance that, that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off, off chance that he or she might be the Messiah, they also began to treat themselves with extraordinary care.

As time went by, people visiting the little church noticed the aura of gentle kindness that surrounded the members of the small church; their care for one another and everyone in the community.  Hardly knowing why, more people began to come back to the church. They began to bring their friends, and their friends brought more friends. Within a few years, the small church had once again become a thriving church, thanks to the bishop’s gift.

The Sick

 Today is July 15.  

Benedict continues to talk about service.  Today the focus is on caring for the sick.  However, read closely, for Benedict and Sister Joan offer far more than you might first think from a chapter simply titled The Sick.  

The purpose of maintaining the body is to make it possible to acquire wisdom.  For you see, every day we have gives us another chance to become the real person we are meant to be.  Never give up.

How much of our precious time do we spend on those with little time left? Every bit of kindness, every tender touch can heal...perhaps even in ourselves.  

 

Service

Today is July 14th.   

We are meant to serve the community--for it brings together
the transcendent and the transforming. 
Prayer and work influence and fulfill each other.

Service

Today is July 13th.  

Chapter 35 speaks to the importance of service to our community.  Benedict reminds us that

Members should serve one another.  It fosters love.
Serve one another in love.

Sister Joan goes on to point out that the spiritual life is not simply what we think about; it is what we do because of what we think.  If we do not serve one another we are, at best, a collection of people who live alone together.  Love and accountability should be the fulcrum of community life.

Benedictine Spirituality

Today is July 10.  

Sister Joan reminds us today that Benedictine spirituality cares for the earth and the integration of prayer and work, body and soul, as essential parts of the journey.  A seemingly simple idea but essential to becoming who He calls us to be.

A Fresh Beginning

 Today is July 6.  

Benedict and Sister Joan offer us a wonderful reminder today.

We must settle down and do something serious with our lives, knowing that everyday we must make a fresh beginning.  

Go in Peace to love and serve the Lord!

Patience Presence

Today is July 4, 2024. 

There is much to be found in today's reading from the Rule and Sister Joan's commentary.  It is yet again one of those readings we might initially think is meant for another time and place.  I quietly offer the following observations, drawn directly for Sister Joan's commentary.

The Rule of Benedict is for human beings.  We are just simple people who never meet our own ideals. Our role is simply to try to soothe what hurts them, heal what weakens them, lift what burdens them and wait.  The spiritual life is a process, not an event.  It takes time and love and help and care. 

It takes our patient presence. 

 

Most important of all...

Today is July 2, 2024.   Sister Joan reminds us today of what may be the most important adage in all the Christian literature ever written...

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

God truly loves us beyond measure.  Oh my...beyond measure.  That dear one is a lot!  And, He asks us every day to, 

"Pick up my cross and follow me." 

We must pick it up.  Oh, and yes, we will drop it.  And then, He calls us to pick it up again, and again, and again.  He understands.  And, so His call to us today is, 

"...persevere, keep trying--I will be with you always."

His invitation is clear.  We must at all time be open and honest with ourselves--truly see ourselves as He see us.  And, remembering there is no failure except in no longer trying.

Patience

When I returned home today from our time together this morning, I continue to think about our discussion of the gospels and our private morning meditations.   I was drawn back to my bookshelf and I came across a worn old book, titled Daily Strength for Daily Needs.

I'm not sure how this book found its way into my library, but I feel fairly certain it was among my parents belongings. The book was originally copyrighted in 1884 and a note from the publisher suggests this book was printed in 1934.

And then the phrase came to me--from generation to generation.  Where had I heard this before? Knowing that so much of my faith has been, by His Grace founded in worship and study at Christ Episcopal Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, I turn to the book of common prayer and found this prayer.

Lord God of our Fathers: God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us. Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name.

Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the Bread.

Accept these prayers and praises, Father, through Jesus Christ our great High Priest, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, your Church gives honor, glory, and worship, from generation to generation.  Amen

And so from Daily Strength for Daily Needs, I pray for each of us...

Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself. I mean, do not be disturbed because of your imperfections, and always rise up bravely from the fall. I am glad that you make a daily new beginning; there is no better means of progress in the spiritual life than to be continually beginning afresh, and never to think that we have done enough.

Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1602)