Category: Silent Prayer

Embracing the Silence of Death and Life

by George Swanson


Introduction

During the sixteen months that my wife was dying of colonic cancer I sort of fell into silent prayer.  Well, I was also pushed.

I fell this way.  The hospice nurse told me always to sleep when Katrina did.  That way I would be rested and ready for action if we should have a bad night.  As it happened we only had two bad nights.  Thanks to the beautiful hospice care and the instructions we received on using the morphine, whenever she was asked what her pain level was “from one to ten,” Katrina would always answer, “Zero.”  The morphine let her sleep maybe ten or fifteen hours a day.  So I got entirely enough sleep and often lay awake beside her.

Fifty years earlier I had found the Jesus Prayer.  (Or it found me.)  Jesus Christ, child of God, have mercy on us sinners.  Lying beside Katrina and looking at the out-of-focus ceiling the Jesus Prayer would come echoing into my mind.  After some repetitions it would taper off into a pleasant silence.  I would find myself with a slight smile – looking at the ceiling affectionately and peacefully.

I was pushed in this way.  I had the good fortune to talk with Maggie Ross, the author of books on prayer and also how the church ought to shape up.  We had a great deal in common.  And yet she strongly criticized my attempts to pray certain prayers four times a day and repeat dozens and dozens of names asking G-d* to help them.  For two hours she urged me to “Put away the words!  Too many words.  Go into the silence.”  And so, except for public worship in church I have pretty much left all words behind.

* In reference to the ineffable mystery behind the word “God” some Jewish writers refer to G-d, replacing the letter “o” with a dash.  This helps us avoid the bearded-old-man in the sky.  We realize that the source and end of our life cannot be described in words or pictures.I will attempt to do three things:

There seem to be no fixed rules – over the centuries people have found different things work for different people.  Each of us can find our way to G-d who is always within us.  Jesus promised that Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth.

I will attempt to do three things:
1)  Suggest ways to get into the silent place within us.
2)  Describe things one can do in the silence.
3)  Share some results people have found after being in silence.  I imagine the results will be different for all of us.

1)  Getting into the Silent Place

At first it helps to go into the silence at the same time each day and in the same place.  Later on we may find it easy to enter our inner silence anywhere at any time.  We don’t need silence outside.  I imagine one can enter silence on a noisy street or in a boiler factory.

People have used just about any position: from sitting straight on the edge of a wooden chair to relaxing on one’s bed.  Each of us will find what works.

Breathing is not only necessary; it is a way G-d is always within us.  We can exhale – slowly and gently, as much as possible – and then, gently welcome the new breath deeper and deeper.  It is the rhythm of life itself.

If you wish to begin by focusing on something – a word, a candle, an icon – be ready to leave it behind and move on into empty silence.  G-d is not in a crucifix, holy picture, flower, or even any idea of G-d.  All these things are created.  Ideas are created by our minds.  We are invited to focus on G-d who is not a created thing.  G-d is no thing.  So we embrace nothing.  We desire nothing.

G-d is not defined by a three letter word.  G-d is beyond words.  Beyond definition.  Beyond theology or dogma.  Just like us.  We are also beyond words.  Our so-called “personality” is a mosaic of colors – gaudy or grey – having little or no relationship to who we really are in our deepest truth.

Getting ready to go into the silent place is preparing to do nothing.  Silence is not an activity.  It has no agenda.  More like relaxing into being, into breathing, into peace.

Paraphrasing Meister Eckhart, a teacher of prayer in the early 14th Century, “Your eyes looking at God are God’s eyes looking at you.”


2)  In the Silence

We can accept whatever “interruption” may come into our mind, notice it peacefully, and let it pass like weather around a solid mountain that cannot be moved.  Each of us is like Mount Zion “which shall never be moved.”

All sorts of worries may come: regrets, resentments, dangers – “How could I have hurt my husband/wife like that?”  “How could she/he have hurt me?”  “Did I turn off the stove?”

They come and they go talking of Michelangelo.

The Jesus Prayer – or simply repeating “Jesus” or a prayer word – brings us gently back into the silent land.

We are alive – G-d and you – G-d and I.  So we don’t have to talk a about it, think about it, make words about it.  All we do is breathe.  All we do is be.

It is a time when creative inspirations can come to mind.  If they are really gifts from G-d they will return when it is time for us to use them.  We don’t need to write anything down.  We are doing something more important now.  We are at the center of ourselves – the center of Life – the center of Love – the center of G-d.  It is so beautiful to be oneself with the one who created us, who rejoiced to see us born, and who saw that we are good.

3)  After the silence

Some people find that their compassion increases for all life, for all creation, for enemies and friends, and even for oneself – that person who is part of G-d.

Priorities may become clearer – what is important to do now and what can best be done later.

One may begin to understand that G-d has everything in hand.  “All shall be well.  And all manner of things shall be well.”  Julian of Norwich thought that was true.  I wonder if this is also true:  “All is well.  And all manner of things is well.”  And even:  “All has been well.  And all manner of things has been well.

One may be less anxious.

We may trust our judgment more.  After all, G-d is within us.  Do we have all the answers?  No, we are just like the Bible, the Creeds, and the Pope – inspired and fallible.  And yet – Emmanuel – G-d is with us.

It is a great joy to be oneself, alive, having gone into the silence of death and life itself.

Notes on Embracing Silence and Peace

When I was visiting St. Francis’ House in New London’s inner city, Emmett Jarrett and Anne Scheibner gave me a copy of Maggie Ross’s “The Fire in your Life” to help me pray.  This led me to read Ross’s other books.  When I offered Chilton Knudsen, the Episcopal Bishop of Maine, a copy of Ross’s “Pillars of Flame” she laughed and declined, saying she had a copy and had written on every page.  However she gave me Ross’s email.  Emails led to a two hour conversation about prayer which moved me to spend time with G-d in silence rather than with any words.  Ross recommended “Into the Silent Land” by Martin Laird, whom Ross had helped on his pilgrimage.  Laird’s book is the basis of these thoughts on silent prayer.  Ross also recommended Beverly Lanzetta’s On the Other Side of Nothingness which suggests that the mystics of all faiths are the only hope for world peace.  It is a great book, based partly on Meister Eckhardt.

Praised by Archbishop Rowan Williams, Ross’s Pillars of Flame has just been republished by Seabury Press with an introduction by Desmond Tutu.  Ross sees that hierarchy, patriarchy and dogmatism are like the emperor – no clothes.  I see hierarchy as a mental illness similar to the sickness of colonialism (as defined by psychologist and revolutionary Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth.)  If I wrote a jacket blurb for Pillars, it might be something like this:

Maggie Ross reverses eighteen centuries of bad decisions by various vicars of Christ – east and west – mostly west – by reviving Syrian theologians to replace Platonic and Aristotelian linear nonsense with Semitic theology; by exposing hierarchy as incompatible with Jesus’ self emptying; and by offering solitude and silence as an antidote to western Christianity’s tradition of violence and oppression.
In our chaotic lives how can we find the peace Jesus offers us?  Try a few minutes of the Jesus Prayer before drifting off to sleep, if wakeful during the night, and at occasional moments in the day.  This might give you brief visits into the silent land.  Finding this peace may be the most important things we can do for ourselves and for the people in our lives.  It may be the hope of the whole world.  And the reason Jesus came to earth.

If you cared to contact me, I’d enjoy sharing our experiences – in conversation or in silence.

 – George

george@katrinasdream.org

No Comments by George Swanson on August 21, 2009
filed in Silent Prayer

An Antidote to Violence and Oppression

Contemplation & Worship
“Bread and Silence” with Maggie Ross

A solemnly professed solitary directly responsible to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Maggie Ross will lead days of contemplation and worship in Hulls Cove and in Portland in Maine:

Saturday, March 1
10-3 at the Church of Our Father, Hulls Cove, Mt. Desert Island.

Saturday, March 8
10-3 at St. Luke’s Cathedral, Portland.

Bread and Silence is an extended meditation on the Eucharist that emphasizes the priesthood of our baptism. The process takes from three to five hours, depending on the number of participants. This is an opportunity to go deeply into the heart of Christianity; the rite draws on the most ancient Christian traditions. There is nothing else like it available in the church, and many people have found it to be a life-changing experience. Clergy and religious are asked to please wear ordinary clothes so as not to distract from the focus of this event.

Attendance is strictly limited to 45 persons. Everyone is welcome (up to a total of 45.) To reserve a place − please register in advance by email to George Swanson at george@katrinasdream.org. In your email please mention which day you wish to attend − March 1 or March 8. The cost is $35. Checks may be made out to Katrina’s Fund and mailed to George Swanson at 349 Seawall Road, Manset, ME 04679. Scholarships are available.

Ross Compares the Church to the Gospel

Seabury Press just republished Ross’s Pillars of Flame: Power, Priesthood, and Spiritual Maturity. The Archbishop of Canterbury says the book “unsparingly sets the Gospel in judgment over the popular Christian idolatries of our time.”

The National Catholic Reporter comments, “The questions the author raises come from scriptural and patristic thought.”

In the foreword, Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, “Maggie Ross argues cogently and persuasively that we should provide the world with the paradigm of the self-emptying leadership of Christ – not self-serving, not self-aggrandizing, but poured out in selfless service of others.”

Seabury Press says “…we sense what a truly Christian Church would be.”

No Comments by George Swanson on February 18, 2008
filed in Silent Prayer

Books to Rock the Church

Books by Maggie Ross
Or Recommended by Her


Available from George Swanson at:
george@katrinasdream.org
Free shipping


Maggie Ross – Pillars of Flame: Power, Priesthood, and Spiritual Maturity   $20

“A passionate and searching book which unsparingly sets the Gospel in judgment over the popular Christian idolatries of our time.” – Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

“There are no priests in the four Gospels or the genuine letters of Paul. That fact should make us rethink entirely the concepts of Christian ministry and community. Maggie Ross gives us a good way to start.” – Garry Wills, author of What Jesus Meant

“Ross argues that our methods of ordaining clergy based on their sense of “inner call” results in human control by fear, not transfiguration in love.” – Seabury Press in the jacket blurb

Maggie Ross – The Fire of Your Life   $15

“…full of vigor….and written with fierceness, humor, and beauty.” – Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

“Maggie Ross has nourished my spirit…. She describes deep spiritual truths in a manner that rings true.” – Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate and former Archbishop of Capetown

Martin Laird – Into the Silent Land   $20

“Into the Silent Land reflects a happy combination of wide learning, authentic spiritual experience, and clear jargon-free prose.” – Lawrence S. Cunningham, author of Thomas Merton and the Monastic Vision

“I tried it and it works. Try it.” – Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate and former Archbishop of Capetown

“…sharp, deep, with no clichés, no psychobabble and no short cuts. Its honesty is bracing, its vision utterly clear; it is a rare treasure.” – Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

Beverly Lanzetta – The Other Side of Nothingness   $20

“The work draws on a variety of Christian mystical texts, including those of Meister Eckhart, Gregory of Nyssa, Pseudo-Dionysius, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Bonaventure, and the anonymous author of The Cloud of the Unknowing while also making reference to Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism and the thought of contemporary social mystics such as Heschel, Gandhi, Merton, Thurman, and Day.” – State University of New York Press

“This book tackles one of the most significant problems that the study of religion has raised today: How do we remain committed to our own religious tradition and at the same time remain open to the beauty and validity of other religions.” – Harold Kasimow, coeditor of No Religion is an Island

Garry Wills – What Jesus Meant    $15

“Fascinating…. Like a long, rich conversation with a learned friend…that engages the heart and mind, to the ultimate benefit of both.” – Jon Meacham, The New York Times Book Revie
w
“It is plainer than we might like, and thus harder both to take and to avoid.”  – Peter Gomes, Plummer Professor of Morals, Harvard

James Alison – Knowing Jesus   $15

“Brilliantly makes the question Do you know Jesus? fresh, unfamiliar, absorbing and challenging. The most lucid and imaginative presentation of a theology of redemption that I have read in many years.” – Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

“James Alison has done a useful service in challenging us to look provocatively at old truths in a new light.” – Charles Colson

Second hand copies of two other books by Ross: 1) The Fountain and the Furnace: The Way of Tears and Fire and 2) Seasons of Death and Life: A Wilderness Memoir are available from Amazon.com, alibris.com, abebooks.com, and biblio.com. Also try the Anglican Bibliopole by phone at (518) 587-7470 or by email at AnglicanBk@aol.com. I found both of these books very powerful. George

No Comments by George Swanson on February 18, 2008
filed in Bible, Church Politics, Silent Prayer

Maggie Ross in Maine — March 1 through 9, 2008

Maggie Ross, a solemnly professed solitary directly responsible to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, will visit the Diocese of Maine in the fourth week in Lent, 2008. Maggie Ross will lead a day of contemplation and worship called Bread and Silence in Hulls Cove and Portland:

Saturday March 1 10 am at the Church of Our Father in Hulls Cove.
Saturday March 8 10 am at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland.
“Bread and Silence” is an extended meditation on the Eucharist that emphasizes the priesthood of our baptism. The process takes from three to five hours, depending on the number of participants. This is an opportunity to go deeply into the heart of Christianity; the rite draws on the most ancient Christian traditions. There is nothing else like it available in the church, and many people have found it to be a life-changing experience.

Clergy and religious are asked to please wear ordinary clothes so as not to distract from the focus of this event.

Attendance is strictly limited to 45 persons. Everyone is welcome (up to a total of 45.) To reserve a place − please register in advance by email to George Swanson at george@katrinasdream.org. In your email please mention which day you wish to attend − March 1 or March 8. The cost is $35. Checks may be made out to Katrina’s Fund and mailed to George Swanson at 349 Seawall Road, Manset, ME 04679. Scholarships are available.

Sunday March 2 Ross will preach at the 7:30 and 10 a.m. Eucharists at St. Saviour’s Parish in Bar Harbor.

Sunday March 9 Ross will lead the Adult Forum at 9 a.m. and preach at the 10 a.m. Eucharist at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland.

Ross Compares the Church to the Gospel

Seabury Press has just republished Ross’s Pillars of Flame: Power, Priesthood, and Spiritual Maturity. The Archbishop of Canterbury recommends the book as “a passionate and searching book which unsparingly sets the Gospel in judgment over the popular Christian idolatries of our time.”

The National Catholic Reporter comments, “The questions the author raises come from scriptural and patristic thought.”

In the foreword, Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, “Maggie Ross argues cogently and persuasively that we should provide the world with the paradigm of the self-emptying leadership of Christ – not self-serving, not self-aggrandizing, but poured out in selfless service of others.”

According to Seabury Press, Maggie Ross “…minces no words in her critique of the contemporary Church, and goes on to propose changes so sweeping and fundamental that we sense what a truly Christian Church would be.”

No Comments by George Swanson on January 28, 2008
filed in Lost in the Stars?, Silent Prayer

One Beggar to Another

St. Saviour’s is Beautiful People
A Sermon by George Swanson
Second Sunday of Easter, 2007

Jesus said to Thomas, “Happy are those who have not seen me.”

In the name of Jesus, our dead and risen Saviour.

Chilton Knudsen, the Bishop of Maine, visited St. Saviour’s this winter. At a meeting before the service she was asked, “Why is the Episcopal Church declining in Maine? Our membership has really gone down.” The bishop answered the question then – and in the sermon at the Eucharist – encouraging us to take charge of our situation. That afternoon I found myself almost in tears. I thought of the expensive work that was going on in our building – repairing the Tiffany windows and repointing the Victorian stone walls. Huge buckets of money are being spent to preserve the building. I remembered an impressive brick church I saw in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana years ago. Totally empty. Not even a single house or building near it. It must have been thirty or forty feet high, with a beautiful tower, nicely proportioned, maybe capable of holding a thousand people. It had been built at great cost most likely when Victoria ruled. British people had probably given their money, maybe even imported good British bricks, to build NOT A CHURCH, but a home for the church. For a church is the people.

Here we are today in this building. What will this building (it’s not a church – we’re the church) what will this beautiful pile of expensive stones be like a hundred years from now? Most of us are old here. At 73 I am middle aged! None of us will be alive 50 years from now. Will God’s people gather here? Will it be converted to condominiums? A disco? Or turned into a municipal parking lot?

I almost wept.

I phoned Jonathan on Monday and told him I had some completely wild ideas of how we might welcome people into our beautiful church, which is US! WE ARE THE BEAUTIFUL CHURCH. The building isn’t bad either.

I offered to walk through the building and grounds with him and share my off-the-wall ideas. Jonathan said, “Why don’t we invite everyone to join us.” I said, “Sure.” And that is what we will do on Saturday, April 28. Morning Prayer is at 8:30 a.m. George’s “Pipe Dreams” will start at 9 a.m. in the parish hall with coffee.

Then Jonathan sent me a great booklet by Charles Fulton and James Lemler. It’s called Faith and Hope. I would have bought copies to give to you all, but it costs $3 for heaven’s sake. So I’ll tell you about it – later. I’ll end up with some of their ideas of what we can do to keep the disco out.

So far this has just been an introduction. Setting the scene. Why I am talking to you today.

I’m going to raise three questions and SUGGEST some answers. Your answers will be better because you know the parish and Bar Harbor better than I ever will. Here are the questions:

Who’s hurting?

What do they need?

How can we help?

ONE – Who’s hurting?

You’ll be able to answer this so much better than I can. I am FROM AWAY. I have very shallow roots here. I’m a transplant from San Francisco, Botswana, Kansas City, Jersey City and other blessed points on this revolving planet. Yet I love it here, I love you. Katrina and William and Hélène and I have received your love here. I know what it is to be welcomed and included by beautiful people. I like it.

Who is hurting in Bar Harbor? On Mt. Desert Island? Well let me suggest three groups of people I think are hurting. Check me out. You may think of more.

PARENTS AND KIDS – How hard it is to raise children! God, it is so hard. It was not easy for me and Katrina. I suspect it is harder now. Two families left St. Saviour’s because we do not have a Sunday school. One of my crazy ideas is that BECAUSE we do not have a Sunday school we can welcome many families with children into our beautiful Church – not the building! But into the circle of our love and relationship with God and with each other – helping them in their difficult and eternally important work of raising their children. They will become OUR children too.

I’ll offer my suggestions at the end.

GAYS AND LESBIANS – Yes, I have rejected gays and lesbians as REAL Christians. Not publicly. But in my mind. “They must not be QUITE RIGHT.” I should be kind to them. Etc Etc Etc. Racism all over again.

Katrina and I had – and I have now – gay and lesbian friends – dear friends – people who stood with us in our troubles and with whom we attempted to stand in theirs. But deep down I wasn’t sure. I mean, the BIBLE and all that!

Newspaper people can really be a pain right where we sit. They ask so many questions that they make a person THINK. That happened to me.

Seven year of trouble began in 1986 after a wooden gothic Victorian building in Jersey City burned almost to the ground. This was where the beautiful people who were Ascension Church had worshipped for generations in Jersey City. Newspapers, TV, and the radio described the conflict between the people of Ascension and our bishop over the fire insurance settlement. Big bucks.

Ari Goldman, the religion editor of the New York Times quizzed me on the telephone – asking why we would not just let the bishop and the diocese have the money. Were we against him because he welcomed and ordained gays? Goldman came to Jersey City and continued that line of questioning. “Would I marry gays?” “I don’t want to marry anyone. If they end up getting divorced and hating each other, they may hate me too.” “What about lesbians?” “I don’t know. Some young women asked me about that. I happened to have a priest staying in the rectory next door who had publicly identified herself as a lesbian – so I got them together.” On and on with the questions. Finally I lost my temper and shouted very very slowly and distinctly to make him understand. (I think God was really trying to make ME understand.) WE’RE IN THE BLESSING BUSINESS, WE’RE NOT IN THE CURSING BUSINESS!

The article in the New York Times accurately explained our reason for fighting the diocese’s attempt to take the money: “Father Swanson says, ‘The people of Ascension Church paid the insurance premiums and they expect to receive the settlement.’”

And as a gift from the dear God – I learned what business we are really in!

I have since read James Alison’s beautiful books. He is at once firmly rooted in the Bible, in Catholic theology, and with the gift of a seeing what God is doing today. I have had the pleasure of becoming a friend of his. His viewpoint is, I think, a gift from our dear God to a world that has persecuted and rejected and marginalized gay and lesbian people IN GOD’S NAME. Alison is a Roman Catholic priest, is he openly gay, he is able to show reasonably and theologically and biblically that the Bible verses about men-sleeping-with-men and women-sleeping-with-women are most likely talking about worshipping other gods with sexual intercourse. Idolatry and blasphemy is condemned – not gay and lesbian relationships.

So – are gays and lesbians hurting in Bar Harbor? I expect so – both them and their families and friends. I subscribe to a gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender email sharing. The suffering is real. So much rejection.

Probably 10% of the people in Bar Harbor and MDI are gay or lesbian. They are certain not welcome AS THEY ARE in some congregations.

PEOPLE WITH ADDICTIONS – What suffering here! I live in the Heroin capital of Hancock County, Southwest Harbor. How about that. Actually that was a few years ago. Today it may be oxycontin. Or meth.

Think of our beautiful, promising teenagers who die every year in alcohol driven automobile accidents! And the “drain board drunks” – women who nip all day to cope with unbearable inner pain. Some of our neighbors suffer from addiction to alcohol.

We can be addicted to food – harming our bodies, shortening our lives, and numbing our enjoyment of life itself. Some of our children are obese.

There is so much pain around us in town and on the island.

We, the wounded people of St. Saviour’s can welcome, embrace, and love many hurting people into our healing family.

TWO – What do they need?

They need HOPE.

And to get hope they need to know the TRUTH.

Here’s the truth about God and every human being. The Episcopal bishops wrote it on March 20th, this year. Hey, it ain’t perfect, maybe, but it’s pretty good. Here it is:

We proclaim the Gospel of what God has done and is doing in Christ, of the dignity of every human being, and of justice, compassion, and peace. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including women, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church. We proclaim the Gospel that stands against any violence, including violence done to women and children as well as those who are persecuted because of their differences, often in the name of God.

Like good listeners our bishops have observed where WE were going. They have spoken and we can ratify what they said. We can say to the world, to MDI and to Bar Harbor, THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS FROM JESUS!

How do we share this TRUTH with Bar Harbor? With our island?

In their booklet, Truth and Hope, Fulton and Lemler imply “Don’t tell them that this building is a church!” Here’s an adaptation of what they say about us folks over 50.

When St. Saviour’s embraces evangelism fully, it will be different from TV evangelism. It will be respectful and graceful, inviting mutual sharing.

Americans see religion differently now – especially those under 50.

Over 50, we want to talk about where we go to church, about the sacred place which is reverenced, decorated, and “close to God.”

Those under 50 are interested in everything but where. They ask, How do you pray? What difference does it make in your life? How do you experience God?

So . . . if we want St. Saviour’s to grow (or even survive after we all die) us old dogs will have to learn new tricks. We will have to learn how to tell anyone in Bar Harbor how we pray, what use it is to us, and listen to their experience.

THREE – How can we help?

Finally! You thought I would never get here. These are just suggestions. These thoughts came to be on that afternoon in February when my eyes were moistening with tears.

PARENTS & KIDS – We can make our worship a REAL thanksgiving meal. Eucharist means Thanksgiving. None of us would send our kids away from the table on thanksgiving. But when we have little children and grandchildren we make some adjustments so they don’t suffer too much. We don’t force them to act like adults.

What changes would that be? I don’t know. Together we can find what works. It might be more repetitions in the music: possibly Taize responses sung to the Prayers of the People. Maybe a Bible story told in contemporary language rather than a lesson read in boring language. Maybe processions, marching around. That’s an old Christian tradition. Young or old, can march around (if they wish) at the opening hymn, and when we perhaps all go to the altar for the great thanksgiving, etc. Maybe less stuff from a book and more call and response as in the Black church. Less paper and more soul.

GAYS & LESBIANS – First of all we have to be sure what the good news is. Can’t fake it. I have had some beautiful conversations with exceedingly patient gay and lesbian friends – as they answer my blunt and basic questions.

We had these sorts of conversations after Katrina’s ordination. Good people were offended or at least really uncertain about what we had done on July 29, 1974. And with many people the conversations were special and sacred and sometimes painful.

St. Paul says we should be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us. It may take some discussion for us to understand that hope.

What can we do? As we come to KNOW that this is the Gospel of our dead and risen Saviour:

We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church.

Then we will be led, I believe, to embrace and love and accept gays and lesbians as ordinary cussed parishioners like the rest of us. Just family.

PEOPLE WITH ADDICTIONS – This is so hard. So painful. There is a young man, perhaps even today, in a British jail. He is addicted to cutting himself. He is covered with scars. He says that he has so much pain inside himself that when he cuts himself he really hurts LESS. As someone with an addiction to food, I can understand that. Inner pain requires medication.

Now-a-days he is not cutting himself. He has found silent prayer. How about that? The pain within him is not gone but it is much less. We have had this available all our lives from the beautiful people who have told us about God. Some of these beautiful people are here around us today – like those who went before us. They built a building and invited God into their lives for US. Pretty good. We get medication here that is better than cutting ourselves or overeating.

A bishop in India said that inviting people into the Christian family is like one beggar telling another where to find food. We might say it is like one sick person telling another where to find a really good doctor. The treatment is free. One doesn’t have to sign anything. It is given without any cost to us. There are no requirements for joining the family. Jesus saved every human being. Already done.

Pope John Paul was not one of my heroes.  However, he has been quoted as saying something like this:

Is there a Hell?  Yes.  Hell is certainly here on earth.  And, yes, there is hell after death.  But I think the hell after death is probably empty.

Sure, it’s good to let AA and other Twelve Step groups meet free in our building. But what is so much more healing is our welcoming, embracing, and sharing the incredibly wonderful medication that God gives us here – sharing it with others who suffer as we do.

There are 75 places to sit at the 7:30 a.m. thanksgiving meal. There are 25 to 50 empty seats every Sunday. They belong to the people in Bar Harbor who desperately need what God has given us. Without a word from us they will never enter the door.

There are 325 places to sit at the 10 a.m. thanksgiving meal. More than one hundred seats are always empty. They do not belong to us. They belong to people on Mt. Desert Island who have not yet found what God has given to us. There is only one way they will find it. You or I will tell them what God has done for us.

Summing it all up:

We can share with others – listening & talking – beggar to beggar – wounded to wounded – the beautiful God who is within us ALL.

We can grow – for our own sake and for the sake of those around us who are still hurting so much – we can grow closer and closer, always closer to the dear God who is at the center of who we really are. And closer to each other.

Thanks to Bishop Knudsen, I am in touch with Maggie Ross, an Anglican teacher of prayer. Ross recommended a book to me, Into the Silent Land, by Martin Laird. It is helping me get close to God who has always been within me. There are slips in your bulletins about the book. The Archbishop of Canterbury likes it. Desmond Tutu likes it too.

Next Sunday I will have copies of the book to loan or sell after each service. I will meet with you at 9 a.m. in the Rectory Commons next Sunday and we can talk about silent prayer.

Aren’t we lucky to be St. Saviour’s Church!

Happy are we who have not seen.

Amen

Into the Silent Land
By
Martin Laird

“This book is different. There are plenty of books on contemplation that feel tired—either wordy and labored or unhelpfully smooth and idealistic. But this is sharp, deep, with no clichés, no psychobabble and no short cuts. Its honesty is bracing, its vision utterly clear; it is a rare treasure.”

— Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

“Often they say ‘you learn how to swim by swimming’ but a good coach or swimming manual is essential. Equally, we could say ‘you learn how to be contemplative by contemplating’ and a good guide or mentor is necessary. Into the Silent Land is just that. I tried it and it works. Try it.”

— Desmond Tutu, Nobel Prize Winner & Former Archbishop and Primate of South Africa

“We are built for contemplation. Communion with God in the silence of the heart is a God-given capacity, like the rhododendron’s capacity to flower, the fledgling’s for flight, and the child’s for self-forgetful abandon and joy. If the grace of God that suffuses and simplifies the vital generosity of our lives does not consummate this capacity while we live, then the very arms of God that embrace us as we enter the transforming mystery of death will surely do so. This self-giving God, the Being of our being, the Life of our life, has joined to Himself two givens of human life: we are built to commune with God and we will all meet death.” — Martin Laird in the Introduction

3 Comments by George Swanson on April 15, 2007
filed in Evangelism, Lost in the Stars?, Peace & Justice, Silent Prayer, Women & Justice