Been away and now organizing and academic year. . .

I need a little more breathing room and I'll return to this important bloggin work.

I never seem to get out of the book of Genesis for some reason. Working right now on the nature of human desire, the bodying of life as the continual expression of creation. So much in the Hebrew language that doesn't translate easily. Whew! More than I bargained for.

Just found Christine Valters Paintner's work. . .

She's an artist/writer with a gracious, attractive manner of presenting monasticism using only an awareness of the boundaries of the heart. At least that's how I'm understanding her right now. I've listed her blog below at Abbey of the Arts.

My focus has often been limited by adherence to dogmas, doctrine and a moral code that always seemed to escape my grasp. I guess it worked for the people who wrote it but it was never a mirror in which I could see much that was positive or healthy about my own life.

Much of this journey into solitude has been the careful, conscious setting aside of what never worked for me. I maintain respect for all religious practice but realize that a simple way of compassionate awareness, kindred community and profound silence is as much as I can manage most days.

May we worship and live in spirit and truth.

Catching up reflection . . .

There's a nagging feeling within that has to do with a sense of struggle between time and talent and task. How do I make it all fit? I ask myself.

This last month has gone quickly. I've been reading and writing a lot but little of it is probably of interest here even though it's about the emerging shape of the spiritual life. I really haven't found the boundaries of this blog yet because I've never done this before. And I don't want my efforts and opinions to take it over in favor of your interests. But we can discuss that.

I've been getting ready to teach a class in pastoral theology and practice but it's online. I've never done that. The department head assured me that everything would go fine. I'd be introduced to something called Blackboard and, best news for a solitary, I could do the whole thing from home. Still not convinced I can project the content but we'll see.

I read fancy blogs with lots of art work and wonder how they do it when I can barely edit this one. And I know that much written work, especially in academia, is going paperless. Have you priced textbooks lately? Spent last week at my seminary alma mater in Alexandria, Virginia. A simple paperback was nearly $100. But there are few publishers willing to take chances with a long print run.

How do you "pray?"

I'm setting that apart in quotes for a reason. Like me, you may not find most of the conventional ways to your liking any longer. What about liturgical prayer? I know that some use the Divine Office and/or lectio divina.

Are there ways you'd like to share with others? I'm sure there are readers besides me who would be interested.

Next "Raven's Bread" newsletter will be coming your way shortly. . .

So I'm adding a couple of blogs that Karen sent my way. I also submit Meg Funk's work because I like her common sense approach to life as seen through the Benedictine spiritual lense.

Right now I'm reading Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology is Transforming Spiritual Life by Judy Cannato. (http://www.sorinbooks.com/) She had my attention from the opening paragraph:

This book is for mature readers only. It is not a self-help program. It is not
about building self-esteem. It is not intended to convince you that God loves
you. Neither is it an attempt to tell you about the many potentially deadly
crises that beset our world. . . The purpose of this book is twofold. First, I
want to invite you, my fellow human beings. . . to take up. . .the invitation to
transformation that will change the way our species lives. Second, I would like
to suggest ways that we may walk through this new terrain together. . .Karl
Rahner said that we are 'pressured' from within to evolve.

I like her approach and, for me, she delivers on her promise. She's one of the few popular religious authors I've found who is drawing on the work of Rupert Sheldrake and others interested in "resonant field" thinking. We live in a field of activity that forms us all the time. We change or transform because something enters the field and alters the energy that's there.
It's a "detractor" that sets up a new interest or center. The detractor goes by many names and shapes and forms. Religion often sees it as evil because it threatens to upset the way things have always been.

I'm rereading Martin Buber's I and Thou as part of my own research. He leaves me breathless at times with his grasp of Truth. I love reading a book where I just simply have to stop from time to time to allow its absorption to occur. There is no way I could have appreciated him in my 20's the way I can now. Along with it bought Kenneth Kramer's commentary which greatly deepens the reading for me.

Away for a bit of research and study last week. . .

I try to keep my written/teaching/preaching material current. Though I draw deeply from the wells of solitary work, I feel compelled to gather with others at certain intervals. Printed materials are helpful, of course, but conventional publishing is years behing what's really going on. Editors are usually the ones who tailor the final written text to a market niche and a place on the shelves at Barnes & Noble. Often important content is lost in the transition.


I've made a commitment to gather with others every few months as we explore the living edge of our own search. There are writers, teachers, psychotherapists, physicians and people from the arts community. Many of us have had great losses, deep depressions, addictions -- all the experiences that make us kind of "damaged goods" in the eyes of others. We all face what I call "disturbances of soul" that have no easy resolution. There is often no real welcome for us in religious circles if we are openly honest about ourselves.

So we find another way. Ours is the path of surrender. It's the way of the desert in Early Christianity, the medieval martyrs and of those who are currently part of a different narrative of salvation. I'm not usually happy being grouped with progressive Christians. I don't know what that means and I don't care about it. To surrender is to give up all knowing, all l labels, denominations, colors, genders, contests with wins and losses. It's the way where go with Moses into the terrifying place in the rock and hide there while the Divine passes. We want to feel the wholeness of that Presence and ourselves within It's embrace. Many of us remember our times dancing before the Golden Calf, an idol that left us exhausted, depressed and nearly dead.

Megfunk.com is a wonderful resource. . .

If you don't know her work, Mary Margaret Funk is a Benedictine nun living in Beech Grover, Indiana who writes and reads prolifically. I found her some years ago thanks to a Trappist friend who has been present when she did some teaching. Her approach, as is so true with women in general, is grounded and real. Right now she's taking her readers through A Day with Jesus written in the early '60's by someone identified only as a monk of the Eastern Church.

By the way, when I'm done with a book, I'll send it to the Raven's Bread library in NC for those who want to read it. I'm especially interested just now in articulating the spiritual/body connection that seems to have slipped the minds of most writers in the West up 'til recently.