Monday, August 24, 2009

The Transfiguration

I am changing my mind. This blog is my daily journey through scripture. However I want to begin that format with a significant Church Calendar date. Until then, hear about significant scripture to me. Please engage me with your experiences. Otherwise this blog is for naught. Each passage I will share in the next few days brought me to "God is Love" and "teach me to pray."


I start with "teach me to pray." I find Contemplative Prayer, Meditation, and Prayer in Action, prayer in work ~ ora et labora ~ throughout God's Word. I start with The transfiguration.


I am struck by how often people in Jesus’ company asked him to teach them to pray. I imagine Jesus’ confusion ~ perhaps astonishment is the better term ~ when he realized that his companions perceived barriers when simply trying to pray. I hope that, today, I can simply pray.


Jesus invited a few of his closest friends to join him in prayer. “While (Jesus began) praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah…(Luke 9: 28-36)” One part important to me continues with Luke’s 33rd line, “Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and, one for Elijah.’ While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them ~ all of them including Peter, John and James ~ and they became frightened as they entered the cloud.”


They were praying when “they entered the cloud” but, perhaps, too frightened to notice; too busy “making three tents” to Be Still in full contemplative prayer with Jesus.


I imagine that every time Jesus prayed, he transfigured. Jesus’ contemplative prayer experience was so different than his friends’ experience upon “entering the cloud” that he must’ve realized 1) his true uniqueness and 2) the depth of “teach us to pray.”


I feel this could be one of the loneliest times for the Man Jesus. I can only imagine how alone the Divine Jesus may still feel when those of us spending so much time walking with Him are intimidated by intimate prayer.


Jesus’ mission is even clearer to him at this time: teach all to pray without fear, to talk with God without fear, to love God and each other so completely without fear. Be prepared to pray “to death, even to death on a cross.”


my heart beats and i sigh

Saturday, August 22, 2009

what's this all about?

in high school...all that time ago...i recognized i lived a life in conflict: my relationship with God and my relationship with the church, God in the Old Testament and God in the New Testament, my body & my mind & my heart, do i respond or do i react.

attending daily Mass was important to me. participating in daily Mass saves me.

soooooo, this space is the new vehicle for my journaling.

i am going to write about daily scripture: what i read how i read it what i hear how i hear it how it impacts me how i respond in my daily life

i come to scripture with an agenda: God is Love & Teach me to pray.

ah man...look at all those colons! speaks of two things: hehehe. I am either boring or full of poo. get it? colon poo ah man

we are very lucky at st. bernard of clairvaux because we have an 'open mic,' if you will, at daily mass. folks talk about the day's word openly, passionately, and talk with each other. we hear the word then share...powerful way to start the day, folks.

Introduction

Ah man...I'll tell ya now, "i am a mess." for the most part i am a happy mess. i really like the way i process my thoughts and feelings. I really appreciate how others work through their thoughts and feelings.

I am very tangential. my stream of consciousness will drive you and me crazy. be prepared, then, if you choose to read on...sometimes in this journal i will click the 'PUBLISH POST' after much attention to re-writes while other entries will be totally off the cuff. bear with me...is it bare with me?

Words freak me out; but, I LOVE words...sometimes i just don't have them. Language in general freaks me out; yet, I LOVE language...sometimes i just don't know how to maximize it. I binge on words sometimes. I make up words or at least how to use them. I really like 'empty spaces' and 'negative space' on a canvas, in a sculpture, on a wall, on a counter top...and on the printed page. I use my keyboard's space bar a lot although it doesn't translate through the 'PUBLISH POST' button. i cannot figure that one out...i am a very animated listener and talker which is lost in the written word. i stand tall with my shoulders back when my interest piques and close my body when my thoughts wander away from the topic. my company can immediately tell where i am emotionally, intellectually and spiritually by how i work my body. enthusiasm = tears. frustration = zutata ~ family word to identify the bounce in my crossed leg's dangling foot.

I have catch phrases that actually follow a pattern: Ah man...Praise God...Amen...I am a mess...whoa...there you have it...what are you going to do...whew...and that symbol ~. what is that outside mathematics?

I am not a big fan of exclamation points; but love ellipses, question marks, and semicolons. I don't use any of 'em correctly! hehehe. i love grammar but rarely follow the rules. believe it or not i have a blast diagramming sentences as did Gertrude Stein.

Rhetorical questions are a waste of time for me. when i post or am presented with a question, my goal is to answer it and hear another's answer.

I tend to blank out when a statement begins with 'basically...' or 'go ahead and...' I am not sure why; but they start to stop my attention.

All right...let's get started...whew