ASCETICISM AND RELAXATION
March 8, 2010
Although we do not ordinarily associate the practices of
rest and relaxation with the ascetical mandates of Lent,
scripture as well as the literature of the spiritual masters
remind us that we are called to care for the body and mind as
the temple of the Lord. Even our efforts at renunciation are
meant to restore bodily health and spiritual presence, enhancing
at once our receptivity to the Spirit and renewing our
relationship to the Divine. An important part of our daily
routine during Lent can therefore be found in the Lord’s
invitation to us to come away and spend time alone with him.
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LENTEN PRACTICE: LECTIO DIVINA
March 1, 2010
As
discussed in last week’s reflection, the Lenten call to
conversion is a call not only to turn away from but to turn
toward. St. Paul, in the letter to the Romans, speaks of
this as the living of a new life, born of a new consciousness.
Do not model yourselves on the behavior of
the world around you, but let your behavior change, modeled by
your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will
of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, and
what is the perfect thing to do. (Romans 12: 2)
This
renewal of mind comes from our growing identification with the
mind of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:5). In this light, we
repent of the degree to which we have lost our true mind, to the
degree that we have come to live from a false mind or
consciousness that has become dissociated from our spiritual
identity. In this way, the practices of Lent are aimed at
our remembering who we most deeply are and to whom we most
deeply belong. Through the practices of Lent we seek to
recover our identification with the mind of Christ.
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CONVERSION OF LIFE
February 22, 2010
The
call to conversion of life is as old as human society. In the
Judeo-Christian tradition, conversion is strongly linked to
atonement for wrong-doing and the need to repent and do penance
for sin. However, as Richard N. Fragomeni observes in The
New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality:
. . . in recent years a more comprehensive understanding of
conversion has sought to include the full depth of biblical
insight into the understanding of the process as a turning from
and a turning toward.
This new understanding places the emphasis on the transformation
of personality and on God’s gift of grace within the process.
Without denying the reality of sin and guilt, contemporary
approaches to conversion foster the development of
self-awareness rather than self-judging and introspection as the
effectives means of bringing about healthy change.
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REFLECTIONS UPON ASH WEDNESDAY
February 18, 2010
Offered by Rev. Brenda Bennett of
Middleton, MA
Ash
— the powdery residue of burnt matter
—
is an age-old symbol of penitence and purification; derived
from the even older tradition of immolating living beings as an act
of oblation and worship. God told followers in ancient Israel that
kindness was God’s only requirement, never cruelty or suffering
(Amos 5:21-24). Yet we still live as if that were not the case.
Mythology and folklore provide us with
other, more beneficent, images of ash’s potential to transform. From
and through ash life can be renewed and restored. The phoenix, when
aged or injured, is said to ignite itself on a nest of myrrh and,
from the remaining ashes, emerges as a new, young bird.
Cinders and ash are also central to a
classic folk tale that tells of wrongs righted, love found and life
reclaimed. The ash represents sadness and sorrow, alienation and
abuse. Through the goodness and love of others a grim existence is
redeemed, replaced by wholeness and happiness. This good news story,
this gospel, shares its name with the Lenten symbol:
Aschenputtel or Ashpot in German; in English, the Cinder Maid
or Cinderella.
Like the phoenix, Cinderella is re-born
out of the ashes of her brokenness and pain. She is, to quote Jesus,
“born again.” (John 3:3). His message, like those of myth and
folktale, was one of hope and possibility. Transformation of our
lives and transcendence of our sorrows can emerge from the ashes of
our brokenness and the cinders of our past, if we allow God to help
and heal us; if we open ourselves to God’s renewing and restoring
love.
That was the message Jesus died to
proclaim. That is the true meaning of Lenten ashes.
A PERSONAL DIALOGUE WITH SCAR TISSUE BY
MICHAEL IGNATIEFF
February 17, 2010
It is over eleven years since she began to leave us.
Sometimes focally, often diffusely and unconsciously, a sense of
pathos colors my entire life: my prayer, my relationships, my
work. And now on a Sunday afternoon in the Fall of 1995, I sit
and try to make a connection, to find a place where I can be
with her. My mother, recently turned eighty, sits in a wheel
chair and tries to speak, to tell me about what she has been
experiencing. Occasionally a decipherable word or phrase
emerges, and I seize upon it, like a drowning man grabbing for a
rope, and reiterate it. As I do she smiles. She seems pleased at
our communication and encouraged to say more. But in the spaces
between my exhausting efforts to hear and find responses, I miss
her. As I reflect later that evening, “You never miss someone as
much as when you’re with them, but they are not there.”
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ASH WEDNESDAY
February 17, 2010
This is the time of tension between dying
and birth
The place of solitude where three
dreams cross
Between blue rocks
The place of solitude where three
dreams cross
Let the other yew be shaken and reply.
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REMEMBRANCE AND HOPE
February 15, 2010
As we celebrate Ash Wednesday the liturgical formula from
the Book of Genesis reverberates in our consciousness: “Remember
that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” We begin
this season of repentance and preparation with a suspension of
our ordinary forgetfulness of our destiny. We remember that we,
as we take ourselves to be, come from the dust of the earth and
are on our way to returning to that from which we came. A most
sobering recollection! And yet, as we enter this Season of Lent
2010, there is also an invitation to know the profound
consolation and the transcendent hope that a mindful living of
these words affords us.
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