Just a little desire is all you need

Follow this path and you’ll experience love; I promise. I’ve told you to run this path, but you’re telling me you’re doing well just to walk it. I know. I’ve been there too, over and over again. I don’t know if that makes you feel better or worse. The truth is, over the course of life we often grow cold to our desire for God. After all, God doesn’t usually show up cheering you on like a college marching band. And even though you want to trust me about that Fire burning within you, you don’t feel it. If your head’s on fire, that’s news to you. And so, there doesn’t seem much that’ll keep you moving along this path I’ve told you about. Honestly, what counts is that you’re on the path—walking or running, even dragging yourself along, if that’s the best you can do. You’ve tasted just enough of God to desire more. That little hunger is enough to keep you moving, even inching forward. You don’t know it’s all you need because all you know is how empty you feel. But wanting to want is a kind of desire isn’t it? You want more than that because it doesn’t feel like what little you have will carry you very far. But it will. That little desire is itself a kind of faith. And Jesus says faith the size of a mustard seed is all you need to get all of God (Matthew 17.20). It’s not the greatness of your desire that moves God toward you; it’s the little you have offered in love that opens you to the abundance of Heaven. All God needs is a tiny crack, and God will pour more mercy your way than you know how to handle.

For more meditations on the Daily Guide/Rule of Life, click on the blog category, “Daily Guide/Rule of Life”

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Jesus is a New Yorker: The Fujimura Illuminated Gospels

New York City artist Makoto Fujimara's Illuminated Gospels. Sociologist Tony Carnes sees Fujimura as part of a “global religious transformation,” the result of blurring lines between mainstream and religious culture. Another recent illustrated manuscript of Genesis, by decidedly secular illustrator R. Crumb, is evidence of this shift.

Fujimura also recognizes this movement, saying “the Age of Faith is coming.” This illuminated manuscript, painted in Midtown Manhattan by a cultural navigator like Fujimura, will be further affirmation. “Jesus is a New Yorker,” Carnes says. “And he’s got an illustrated Bible.”

The commission is an illuminated manuscript published by Crossway, to commemorate the four hundred year anniversary of The King James Bible, set to be released January 2011. The leather-bound English Standard Version of the Bible, printed with a six-color metallic process, will comprise the four Gospels as designed and illustrated by Fujimura.

We need more beauty like this. It gives us eyes to see beyond into the mystery that's all around us, and it opens our hearts to express that mystery in our own ways.

Fujimura - 4 Holy Gospels from Crossway on Vimeo.

The simple prayer of the most important people

A re-post: The most important people today are probably not those we think of first.

Kallistos Ware tells of St. Barsansuphios of Gaza (sixth century) who says that in his time there were three persons whose prayers likely held everything together. Because of their spiritual intention, the sun rises each day, evil is held in check, and life goes on. He even mentions their names. John, he says, is one of them. And Elias too. The third, he says, lives in the province of Jerusalem. It could be anyone—a priest, a farmer in the fields, a mother tending her hearth and her children. But it may well be Barsansuphios himself, who was trying to keep himself clear about his spiritual vocation, but humility kept him from saying so.

For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, Ware says, “the world is upheld by the prayer of hidden saints—Christian and, I believe, also non-Christian.”

Awakening to the spiritual life and the vocation of prayer in the midst of daily life is not, as I’ve said before, a cul de sac or private party. Just as a butterfly fanning its wings in Tokyo affects weather patterns in New York, our spiritual intention, our life of prayer, has enormous social and political consequences no matter how hidden our life may be.

Thomas Merton once said:

“I wonder if there are twenty people alive in the world now who see things as they really are. That would mean that there were twenty people who were free, who were not dominated or even influenced by any attachment to any created thing or to their own selves or to any gift of God, even to the highest, the most supernaturally pure of His graces. I don’t believe that there are twenty such people alive in the world. But there must be one or two. They are the ones who are holding everything together and keeping the universe from falling apart.” (New Seeds of Contemplation, page 203)

Who can say what good is happening in this world because of your hidden life of simple, and sometimes bumbling, prayer?

The power of a spiritually awakened life

A re-post: When you awaken to a vibrant spiritual life you're entering the fullness of life. You're not hiding yourself away in some interior cul de sac, avoiding the demands of daily obligations and roles. Spiritual transformation is not a dead-end street nor is it a private party.

The heart is the abode of God . . . not exclusively, of course. The whole earth is full of the glory of God. But our bodies, our beings, our lives are a shrine. And when the light of God shines from within us, all things around us are affected.

The Butterfly Effect, or the ripple effect a single butterfly's wing movements on the whole cosmos, is now common science. It shouldn't surprise us then to hear St. Seraphim of Sarov say, "Acquire inner peace, and thousands around you will find their salvation." It's one thing to hear such words coming from a monk. It's quite another to hear them coming from someone like Dag Hammarskjold, General Secretary of the United Nations (1953-1961), and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1961).

Hammarskjold said, "Understand through the stillness. Act out of the stillness. Conquer in the stillness."

This was spoken by someone deeply involved in global politics and who lived a very busy and demanding life.

"Acquire inner peace." St. Seraphim of Sarov

"Act out of the stillness." Dag Hammarskjold

"The kingdom of God is within you." Jesus

There is no action more powerful than the action arising from a single spiritually awakened life.

How to read prayerfully--lectio divina

This is an excerpt from Cyprian Consiglio's excellent little book on prayer: Prayer in the Cave of the Heart: The Universal Call to Contemplation.  The book's a primer on the historical center of Christian spirituality---drawing from resources from the Christian East and West, as well as illustrating parallels to other religious traditions enriching our prayer experience. In this selection, Cyprian introduces holy reading, or lectio divina, as a particular practice of prayerful feeding of the thinking mind with holy things.

"When choosing the object of our meditation, pride of place is given to scripture.  In addition, though, there is a long tradition of other types of reading (of devotional or spiritual books or of poetry) and other types of experiences (listening to music, looking at art) that can serve the same purpose.  At times we read academically, to learn facts and figures, dates and names, or we listen to music or look at art critically, analytically.  Lectio divina, however, is totally different.  It is gentle, like reading a love letter, or hearing a loved one's voice, or gazing on a loved one's face." (p. 96)

It is my habit to read a very small section of holy scripture each morning, in addition to the non-reflective reading of a psalm, and invite the Trinity to be the Host of this encounter.  I read and listen, waiting upon the voice of the Beloved.