communal prayer

i have to say that i am really enjoying
the morning prayer service
that we have begun at our church
on wednesdays during lent

only 4-5 people typically show up
but it feels like commmunity nonetheless
we sit facing each other in the choir stalls
and alternate verses of the psalms

for an introvert like me
this coming together
to begin the day with prayer
provides a stronger sense of connection
than the "fellowship lunches"
we have in the church basement

i find that in my solitary morning prayer
during the rest of the week
i hear in my mind the voice of the woman
who sits beside me wednesday mornings
and then on the alternate verses
i hear the voices of those who normally sit facing me

it makes my solitary prayer
not so solitary

unity in ashes

millions upon millions of catholics
(and some other christians too)
will identify themselves with smudges
of ashes on the forehead this day

they will accept their marking along
with everyone else who believes in this

this is a worldwide community act
and it also by implication indicates
the commonality of all human experience
it is not a mark of distinction so much as
a visible statement of belonging to the human race
and a recognition of the centrality of our story

now christ is marked with ashes from last years'
palms of palm sunday
and we begin once again the humbling reality
of our pilgrimage in time

these black dirty smudges are our banner of hope
we have little else to go on
making true our gesture of faith
that this meaning we allow to mark our foreheads
is enough to carry all our hearts' hopes
to their ultimate destination
god knows

it's a good thing the eucharist follows
the ashes
else we'd be the most foolish of people
perhaps we already are

ashes to ashes
we all fall down

the jerusalem community rule of life

every day ask God to pour love
for your brothers into your heart
and to put love for you into theirs
God can deny nothing to a community
that prays this way because
it is his will that we love one another
as he has loved us

where there is no love
put love
and you will harvest love
susceptibility is charity's worst enemy
humility its best ally

you should be intelligent and holy enough
to be the first to give way in a quarrel
and never let squabbles over trifles
harm your deep union with your brothers
you may be in the right
but your duty is not to let
the sun go down on your anger

resolve each day anew
to pray for your brothers
pray that you may love
and love while you pray
and the grace of his love
will find a way in

look on this call to brotherly love
as the entry into an immense mystery
since it is your gateway into God himself
where love is there is God
you, with your brethren,
give God a body
express his presence
and signify his action
let your whole community
become in this way
a theophany of his love
to express love in authentic action
you must live sharing
share your time, table, roof, salaries and belongings
possess nothing so that one day
like christ you may be
enriched by all you have given away
likewise you should be able to say
to each community member
all that is mine is yours

 

what it takes...penultimately

http://earthlingwonders.blogspot.com/

for a poignant reference to
what is required of us in christian community
please click on the above blog site

a gentle command from the jerusalem community of faith

i tried to steal it and download it directly
but i guess i can't do that
while i'm out here trudging in the world

there must be a way
i just have not figured it out yet

getting water and making sure a house is warm in the winter
seem to me to be
fundamental daily community tasks

but facing your brothers and sisters with
generous mercy is more taxing in the long run

hey sally
is there a way for you to post
that piece on my blog here
is there something i need to do
so that can happen
i want you to feel free to publish
over here
anything you find pertinant

que sera sera

naked on the edge

everyone contends with marginality
no-one maintains a complete sense
at least when they've been bumped around
by life a bit
no one maintains a sense of
O i'm in with the in crowd and i have no worries
young people allow themselves this illusion
and very young people if they are fortunate at all
don't have to worry about it
but people who experience the world for what it is
at some point are going to face up to their
relative marginality

can there be community at the margins
perhaps that's where community naturally is
i don't know

a person sits near a window
looks out to the world
sees the sky between the branches of the trees
can't think of anyone to call or talk to
his mind will not read a book
he doesn't have a clear sense of what he will do
or where he will go when he stands up
finished with his cafemocha

there are a significant number of people on the planet
who
every day choose to have a marked degree of empty space
for the eye to feast upon
large contained areas of empty space
vaulted ceilings of churches auditorium space
box stores
stadiums
these are places of huge congregation
these are places where it is possible to doubt
whether or not others exist
but it is nonetheless impossible to avoid them
they are all around you with the intention of
experiencing the same thing you are experiencing

i write from the margins
i write from outside the community
i write from the outside looking in
a perspective i had not considered
being this interesting

this very moment i am thinking of
sitting in the choirstalls
reciting the psalms
and knowing that i am in a community
normally right now i would be
preparing for mass and there knowing
i worship in a community

community is always a joint inquiry into

what will this day bring

insofar as i trust the prayers of others
i live in a community
and the distance is of little consideration

i'm going to say
today
community is a collection of people
who are very different from one another
who perhaps bear no common concerns
other than to
pray with and for one another
no matter how near or how far

the metaphysics of the 21st century requires
that we pray for one another

we are family
being in the world demands
a certain magnanimity

the dance is always
how to unleash or unfurl the
natural human tendency for magnanimity

community demands forgiveness

today

abstract

the mind rises up and wrails against the concept of
no being
when gorgias states that nothing exists
and that if it did it is incomprehensible

but what is he looking at
i think he is looking at the
immense medium of
the storehouse of mystery

we know something
therefore something exists
it stands to reason

and we possess common sense
even if people tend to defy it constantly
still we have it
we drive cars

so how would gorgias live in a community?
that's my communication question of the day
a la dies
if someone lives in a state of cognitive nihilism
decideing each day that nothing exists
i am only experienceing a psychological state
known as existential dreaming then of course
all is only imagery
but we are faced continually with the real fact
of real people
something about the human mind and self will
that is obstinant

the human person will not go away
but what is a person
this is the great question of the 20th century
i think the philosophers like levinas and scheler and edith stein
and merlou-ponty and bergson and maritan of course these people were
intensly interested in the idea of person and how the idea of person
works itself out in the real world
a world that is to some marked degree imagined
people are continually imagining things and space
so what

the community stands as a locus of grace
into which almost any character can have a footing
can have a say can have a place of refuge
there is always discipline
how to march how to bow how to put the food on the table
these are great opportunities for community
gorgias can bow to br urban
br urban who does not give a flippity dingdong
for the unknowing incomprehensible nothing shadow
he only wonders if the carrots will be planted
if the flowers and the birds will thrive
these things exist
all else is phantasm

we do well to grant ourselves the luxury
of looking upon our own ethereality
but we must have bowel movements
and we must greet one anothers' disenchantment
with the world

for that is community
a group of people who are willing
to encounter disenchantment together

how do we arrange our shared tedium
how do we remain joyfully bored with life
with one another
how do we gracefully make the best of a bad scene

these are community thoughts

come one us lord
unite us in the womb of your mother
from which we may be ever born
into a world of necessary heart blood

on the 7th day of christmas

placing a community in context

from where comes the angst?

this is a good question

people living together display angst

the stated fact that due to the discoveries
of modern science we now live in a world that
seems far more inconsequential and far more random and negligible
than previous generations were wont to admit

is there a reason for 6.5 billion people to be
hustling about in the world today

why does it matter whether or not we can see the moons of jupiter

i'm going to be real here
and then depart

i am being drawn to mass
by the bells of advent

perhaps the only question is -
how does a community sustain its
attention -
and to what ??

a routine of sleep rising prayer sustenance
quiet work worship reading play walks naps
what else

i enjoy the quiet meal

i take solace in the quiet of my cell

simple necessary work suits me fine

a community is a place of harbor
but also a place of inquiry
a place to accept the challenge to know oneself
amongst others

the inherent integrity of a community is something never to be taken for granted lest it lose its very integrity

a community is always in the same general location
as the rest of the known universe

just some jots of thought
on 12/11/2010