CircuOsity .21

Howie and Jim approach the end of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week. They discuss the healing as well as the terrifying emotions we experience in the presence of God.  The pair chat about how Jesus caused the people around him to be full of awe (awful?). He challenges and provokes emotions in opponents and friends alike.  Jesus also encounters angels and demons around himself too.

 

Howie and Jim discuss the importance of community members sharing their stories, especially in uncertain and sacred time and settings. Holy Week creates space for living into Jesus' last mortal week.  The people around Jesus such as the soldiers, the Women of Jerusalem and other human beings. Jim highlights how important was to him to hear Bishop Audrey Scanlan share snippets of her life's stories and the gratitude she feels in the kinship she shares with the clergy in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. Jim also offers how Susan Scott's fierce Mineral Rights Conversation would be an excellent tool for Christians to share with themselves and the beloved people around them throughout this coming Holy Week. Howie reminds us that descent into spiritually shadowy spaces to include Christ's Passion is understood in the bright life of Easter. 

Howie and Jim close with reflections about how our lives mirror and evidence the same emotions that the women and men around Jesus did.

This week's Path concludes with a couple of plugs. Howie finished his run between St. Thomas' worship services last Sunday. Folks from St. Thomas rallied around him. There's news about Howie's run to support local children. There's lots of photos and captions on St. Thomas' Facebook page. 

Jim shared the good news about WNEP's Ryan Leckey's visit to Christ Memorial's awesome Model Trains program.  Bob Bomboy and other faithful "conductors" have let this joyous ministry since 2005.  There's a video of Bob's interview with Ryan here. Check out Christ Memorial's Facebook page too.

May all of you experience what God intends for you throughout this Holy Week. May your ascents not be too lofty nor your descents too dreadful.

 

Blessings along The Way,

Howie and Jim take some small, struggling steps to understand an ascent toward securing a closer relationship with God. They begin w/ Howie's reading of today's Path. Howie then describes how he continues to focus on taking small steps as he learns The Way as priest at St. Thomas. Jim describes his struggles with asserting himself physically and spiritually as he ages. Howie suggests that we take the proper steps based upon where we are rather than where we've been or expect to go.

The pair next takes a look at St. Paul's "racy" verses in Philippians. Paul strives to abide in deeper relationship with Christ, not because of his gain or strength. Rather he believes in God's yearning for him to obtain the goal of a deeper spiritual truth.  Jim follows up with a summary of St. Patrick's return to Ireland. Here too, Patrick's goal wasn't to boast about his own ego. His visionary call was to return to the place of imprisonment in order to proclaim God's love in Christ.  In both cases, sacrifice and struggle were the hallmarks of the spiritual ascent.

Jim then pivots the conversation to a discussion regarding our societies' and organizational needs for elders.  Jim introduces a recent "musing" from Bill Plotkin (founder of the Animas Valley Institute). Plotkin writes:

"When too many of us don’t grow into true adults, our cultures deteriorate into not-fully-human collectives — immature and dysfunctional societies. Contemporary Western societies are clear examples of this — with the U.S. perhaps in the lead ... he reality is that most contemporary people are lost and languishing on a vast deserted plain on the far side of which arise the gates to true adulthood — and few of them find their way across that plain." (Plotkin, April 5, 2019, paras. 2&4). Truer words have never been authored inside or outside of The Bible or many religious and cultural domains.

Jim and Howie talk about their personal experiences of striving to be elders.  The path is a climb to be sure but it isn't about personal gain or status. It is about seeking to make the world more livable and loving.  

The podcast concludes with a plug for Howie's and St. Thomas' participation in this Sunday's Crush Your Run. They take a quick look at coming off of the mountain tops and diving into the creative and murky depths of next week's "descending path."  There's everything in here from laughter to blessings.  Enjoy and share!

 

Blessings along The Way, Jim and Howie

Extenuating circumstances prevented Jim from producing and publishing a podcast today.  You'll find Howie's reflection regarding the ascending path on Christ Memorial's Paths webpage later today.

Jim invites you to listen to his sermon he offered yesterday. Jim reflects upon the wisdom of Jesus' Prodigal Son parable. Jim looks thru the lens of his own teenage and young adult experiences to shed some light on the over-abundant yet realistic realities of recognizing and receiving Christ's Grace.  Perhaps this message will help us all to understand that sometimes our greatest achievements begin with our harshest lessons. Perhaps?

 

Blessings along The Way

Howie calls in to help Jim explore the Circular Path.  Job 26:10 provides the backdrop for this week's summary:

 (God) traced a circle on the water’s surface,        at the limit of light and darkness.

The opening question then is: If we assume that this is a poetic way of saying that God has brought order to the universe, what signs of it do you see around you?

Jim and Howie's reflections range from the maintenance of the piscina to the esoteric realities of people's use of psychedelics in the 1970s. The duo then settles into exploring what is seen and unseen within the wanderings of living spiritually upon a circular path. Jim references a conversation that Krista Tippett's with Paulo Coelho on OnBeing's Becoming Wise podcast. Tippett and Coelho discuss pilgrimage. Coelho says: 

I also do believe that we have this possibility of doing a pilgrimage every single day — because a pilgrimage implies — in meeting different people, in talking to strangers, in paying attention to the omens — basically being open to life. We leave our home to go to work, to go to school, and we have every single day this possibility, this chance of discovering something new. So the pilgrimage is not for the privileged one who can go to Spain and to France and walk this 500 miles but to people who are open to life. A pilgrimage, at the end of the day, is basically — get rid of things that you are used [to] and try something new.

So it is within the seen and unseen boundaries of a circle. 

Jim and Howie check out with a "shout out" for Howie's participation in an upcoming running event.  Howie's going to get out and run a 5k between Sunday morning worship services on April 7th. Crush Your Run supports Preston's March for Energy -  an organization that provides adaptive bikes for children with special needs.

He's also living into "Hitting the Ground Running" - an effort to promote St. Thomas Episcopal Church's congregational life and connections with the community. And it is a way to get out of the usual circle of Sunday church activities as well as to invite neighbors to share in the church's Holy Week and Easter activities.  It should be fun and faithful.

In sum, the circular life is an exploratory one - one when and where a pilgrim is willing to leave home, explore the world, see what's going on while knowing that much of what happens is taking place beyond our control or comprehension.

 

Blessings along The Way,

Jim hosts another conversation on Paths. He begins with a reading from John Climacus' Ladder of Divine Ascent. Jim offers Howie's question of the day: "In what ways is love a circle, or does love form a circle?"

Jim uses Howie's writing from the 27th of March "Path" to further explore this question. Faithful people understand that the way of "divine timelessness" nothing valuable is lost or forgotten when traveling upon a circular path. 

 

Jim draws upon Thomas Merton's Wisdom in  his poem Hagia Sophia to explore how a circle is a container for living into "hidden wholeness." Merton provides a portal for understanding how Divine Wisdom reaches out and touches us from "a place of wordless gentleness" and flowing grace "from the unseen roots of all created being." Jim transitions then to considering Parker Palmer's wisdom in his book "A Hidden Wholeness." Palmer explains that our yearning to discover our hidden wholeness is soulful work. Our souls desire to keep us:

rooted in the ground of our being,

connected to communities of life and thriving relationships, 

speak the truth to us about ourselves, our world, and the relationship between the two, and,

Give us life and guide us to become life-givers in a world where death is ever-present. (Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness, pps. 33-34)

Jim then shares his thoughts about view the circular path and the circles we abide in as wells.  We need good and lifegiving water in the desert, Lenten times of our lives. We need circles of truth, vulnerability, and trustworthy love to offer more depth and reason for our being. Our souls are anchored in Divine Love, as Merton and Palmer, and Jesus suggest through their wisdom.

Enjoy exploring hidden wholeness on today's Path.

 

Blessings along The Way

Jim begins the Third Week in Lent by discussing the vital importance of our cores.  Yantras and mandalas offer geometric patterns for understanding the cosmos as well as ourselves. A mandala, circle in sanskrit. offers an observable shape for comprehending life.  The mandala core is a bindu. The Divine, Source, God, Presence - whatever definition offers you wisdom for life emanates from the core of our being.  Jim offers his perspective as a Christian who admires and appreciates learning from the religions and philosophies that preceded it and stand alongside.

Jim then explores the joy of the Feast Day of the Annunciation:

This joyous day, in the middle of Lent, announces that God constantly reaches out from the core of our faith to remind us of our purpose in life and our connections with God and one another. 

Jim then transitions into how a spiritual discipline such as a walking a labyrinth prompts us to seek connections with the core of our circular path.  Such patterned rituals focus our attention on the center of who we are as well as the source of our being.

Enjoy and Blessings along The Way.

Jim and Howie sit down to discuss what they learned during the curving 2nd Week in Lent.  Howie's cat Cato joins in with their exploration as he wanders upon the podcast production table. I wish I would have had a camera.  

Howie shares a delightful story of visiting a young parishioner's  elementary school class.  The young person shares his interest in pouring orange juice onto a graham cracker.  You have to listen to Howie share the tale.

Jim then gets much more serious in talking further about his time in Durham's Cathedral.  

Jim then invites the duo to spend time chatting about Richard Rohr's concept of living into life's two tasks or halves of life. The first task is to construct a human life thru a process of creating and practicing our identity - especially as our ego understands it. The second task - a more soulful endeavor - is to discern and live into what our identity is truly about in reality and more broadly. Pivotal moments (curves) present themselves as a means or connecting point between these two tasks.  The couple quibbles a bit about the truth of Rohr's model. They then chat about Moses' encounter with God and possible meanings for dealing with life's curviness. Jim closes this section from a current conversation taking place on the School of Life's Community page.  Jim talks about our minds' needs for controlling the future. We seek security when we're on holy and unstable ground, nonetheless such aspirations provides anxiety that comes from seeking such comfort.

The couple concludes today's podcast by summing up what they learned and what they look forward to with next week's "Circling Path." Check back in for more conversation and contemplations.  

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Blessings along The Way, Howie & Jim

Today's Path orients us to the importance of seeking out good markers and guardrails.  Howie writes: " Finding reliable guides is essential. .... The best guides point away from themselves and toward the goal - on the physical path to safety and the way ahead, on the spiritual path, to Christ." (Sasser, Paths, 2019)

Jim considers the life, faithfulness, and testimony of St. Cuthbert. Cuthbert is perhaps the most beloved saint in Northern England. He was a devout man of prayer, a fearless missionary, especially to impoverished people, and a pious, obedient religious leader. In later life, he wrestled with striving to be a hermit and a bishop at the same time - not an easy feat.

Cuthbert became more venerated and admired following his mortal death. According to the Venerable Bede, Cuthbert's sarcophagus was opened eleven years after his death, his body was found to have been perfectly preserved or incorrupt.[30] Numerous miracles were attributed to his intercession and to intercessory prayer near his remains. Thousands of contemporary pilgrims travel to Cuthbert's tomb at Durham Cathedral.  

Jim is one such pilgrim. Jim traveled to Durham  a few years ago to attend a conference at Durham University's Centre for Social Justice and Community Action. His purpose was to learn more about Action Research and how to use it in his ministries. While in Durham he and Howie visited Durham Cathedral.  It was a transformational and defining moment in Jim's life.  It happened at sunset in the Chapel of Nine Altars as the cathedral was closing for the night. He recounts some of that experience on this podcast. 

It is important for pilgrims to occasionally look back upon the paths they have traveled to recall and offer thanks for the guides - pragmatic and transcendent who shape our lives and our purpose for living. The podcast's purpose is to shine the light upon one such Saint, Cuthbert, who indeed points toward Christ and opportunities for living a memorable, hopeful life that shared God's love with neighbors and creation alike.

 

Blessings along The Way, Jim

Jim begins the 2nd Week in Lent with a reading from Proverbs. He then offers Howie's March 18th reflection from Paths. Howie raises a key question for finding our path and The Way throughout Lent and beyond. "What qualities or practices enhance our souls' abilities to bend?" (Sasser, Paths, 2019).

Jim considers pop music songs that describe how life winds around. He mentions Sheryl Crow's Every Day is a Winding Road, Bruce Hornsby's Valley Road, and U2's I still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Climbing hills and wandering through fields to find love and God has been a lifelong adventure for Jim.  How about you?  Augustine of Hippo's quote provides a prayerful compass for such sojourning:

"How shall I call upon my God, my God and my Lord, when by the very act of calling upon him I would be calling him into myself? Is there any place within me into which my God might come? How should the God who made heaven and earth come into me? Is there any room in me for you, Lord, my God? Even heaven and earth, which you have made and in which you have made me – can even they contain you? Since nothing that exists would exist without you, does it follow that whatever exists does in some way contain you? " (Augustine, Confessions)

Jim then segues into his trips from Tucson, AZ -> Mt Lemmon in the Coronado National Forest about an hour's drive away from Tucson. The only way to get up the mountain is on the Catalina Highway.  it can be a treacherous trip, especially on a bicycle. Yet, many people go up the hill to escape the heat, enjoy their summer homes, and relish the beauty of Mt Lemmon's "sky desert" forests. 

Jim suggests that trips up to the mountain to encounter God and ourselves are worthwhile if not risky. Such is The Way through Lent as well.  "What qualities or practices enhance our souls' abilities to bend?" (Sasser, Paths, 2019).

Enjoy the podcast. Share it with your friends and family.  Offer us feedback that will help us to provide you what you're looking for today and throughout Lent and/or other seasons of your life.

Howie and Jim discuss their pilgrimage through the First Week of Paths. Howie speaks to his inspiration for considering straight lines, practically and spiritually. Both guys talk about various automobile and religious adventures they've taken. They then speak about the process of figuring out what internal and external circumstances and experiences may cause someone to remain steadfast or their chosen path in contrast to wandering (lost or otherwise). The guys' conversation concludes with a look ahead to Week 2 and venturing out onto crooked or curved paths - something that all of us are familiar with, especially during Lent.

 

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Blessings along The Way, Jim and Howie