16. The Power of Gazing

St Francis of Assisi and St Ignatius of Loyola shared a similar deep longing and search for God. St Francis, who was born three centuries before Ignatius, saw creation as a gift of an all-good God where everything carried the footprint of God's love and goodness. The Franciscan, St. Bonaventure, made a similar practice of using his physical senses to 'clearly see the eternal God through them as in a mirror' and gave simple instructions on how to experience this life-transforming gaze:

• Remember that God looks upon me in love.
• Respond to God’s loving gaze.
• Begin to see the face of God everywhere, in everyone, in everything and at all times.

Recognising that life is a little more complicated, Bonaventure reminds us that,

Our intellectual effort, on its own, is insufficient for this path...
Above all, we need the help of divine grace to open our eyes
so we may behold the wonder of divine wisdom
which is reflected in all things as in a mirror.

The theory sounded very abstract until I stumbled upon a way to assist this experiential encounter. It also has three simple steps:

• Look at something in front of you at eye level that will remain still.
• While looking at your selected object, begin to widen your vision to include more and more of your peripheral vision.
• As you focus on your peripheral vision, you may experience an increasing sense of stillness and peace. When your eyes tire, gently close them without losing the feeling of still looking out of the corner of your eyes.

I later discovered this process is used by a range of counselling services to trigger our relaxation response. This natural response also helps us to become still and receptive, reducing the constant internal chatter that is so distracting for prayer and meditation. We are then more open to the eternal presence of God's Grace that seeks to carry us into the source of God's love.

Many other mystics have referred to this power of gazing in their spiritual practice. St Ignatius, for example, encouraged members of his community:

(To practise) seeking God’s presence in all things,
in their conversations, their walks,
in all that they see, taste, hear, understand, in all their actions,
since His Divine Majesty is truly in all things
by His presence, power, and essence.

And Meister Eckhart gave a simple explanation of why this intuitive way of prayer is so life-transforming,

The eye through which I see God is the same eye
through which God sees me;
my eye and God's eye are one eye,
one seeing, one knowing, one love.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil.

______________

• Manney, J, An Ignatian Book of Days, Loyola Press, 2014.- Letters of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
• Bonaventure, Journey into God, Tawera Press, 2013, Prologue, para 4.
• Echkart, von Hochheim OP (Meister), Walshe, M (Translator), Essential Sermons, Herder & Herder, Crossroad Pub. Co. NY. p. 298. Available from:. https://almiracatovic.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/sermons.pdf

• Smith, Andy, How To Use Peripheral Vision In Therapy, Practical NLP Podcast, Feb 11, 2016, available from:https://nlppod.com/how-to-use-peripheral-vision-in-therapy/

15. Living Mindfully

'Live in the moment and God will give you all the graces you need'.

This piece of advice was by a French Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and spiritual director – François Fénelon. Living in the moment is not easy, and one of the struggles I have in my meditation/prayer practice is taming my mind. You, too, may have found taming your mind is not easy – you have to keep hauling it back to the focus at hand like a wayward donkey. The Franciscan Friar, Albert Haase OFM, refers to this struggle at the beginning of his book 'Becoming an Ordinary Mystic'. He encourages us to persist in learning mindfulness because 'Mindfulness breeds mysticism' and will enhance our spiritual life. He then reminds us of a four-step process we can use when our mind wanders:

1. 'Stop' what you are doing, and take a deep breath to recentre yourself.
2.  'Look' briefly, at what has captured your attention to see if it needs immediate attention. If not, then,
3. 'Listen' to your five senses as a way to recentre yourself – as mentioned in my last blog (God in All Things). What are you Hearing? Seeing? Feeling? Tasting? Smelling?
4. 'Go' back to your practice.

Haase says we can also use this simple technique whenever we feel under stress or distracted because our five senses are:

'the keys that open the tabernacle door to the sacrament of the present moment.
It’s important that you take your time and dally and delight here'.

Learning to be aware of the power of the present moment is the beginning of both contemplation and learning to live mindfully – and mindfully aware of the power of God – “who holds and fills everything” is the way the monastic teachers expressed it.

Tessa Bielecki was a founding member and Mother Abbess of the Roman Catholic 'Spiritual Life Institute. She offered several helpful suggestions to support our growth in living mindfully. These included:

• Learning to live more closely to the rhythms of nature
• Cutting down on social media and television
• Quieting your mind with a regular (daily) meditation practice
• Keeping a journal and practising gratitude for the things that bring you joy
• Working tranquilly in a focused way that exercises your whole person.

Our Spiritual life requires no spectacular effort or successes, but it does require passion and a faithfulness to attend to the hundred little things of everyday life. The Vietnamese monk, Thích Nhất Hạnh, once drew a comparison between mindfulness and the Holy Spirit. He saw them both as agents of healing that all people have within them as 'a seed of energy and life', with its capacity for healing, transformation and love. He suggested when we touch this seed, we touch the living reality of the divine presence of the Holy Spirit which dwells within us, waiting to be awakened and seen through the totality of who we are. The implications of this are far-reaching, because:

Our true home is in the present moment.
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green earth
in the present moment.
Peace is all around us,
in the world and in nature
and within us,
in our bodies and our spirits.
Once we learn to touch this peace
we will be healed and transformed.

To be mindful ultimately means to be fully aware; to be grounded in what is 'real' and less carried away by our imagination, or by our prejudice, or reacting to some internal thought.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.
Phil.

________________

• Eckhart,von Hochheim OP (Meister) The Essential Sermons, Herder & Herder, Crossroad Pub.Co.NY. Sermon 57.

• Dyer, Phil, Be Still & Know – 14 Day Retreat with the Christian Mystics, Tawera Press, 2020.

• Haase OFM, A, Becoming an Ordinary Mystic, InterVarsity Press, 2019.

• Hanh Living Buddha: Living Christ, Riverhead Books,2007.

• Thich Nhat Hanh, Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living, Parallax Press,1992.

14. God in All Things

I have been thinking more about my last blog, 'If at First You Don't Succeed' and how the Franciscans Saint Bonaventure and Jacopone da Todi both encouraged us to pray using our five physical senses. I don't know how you understand prayer, but I grew up learning prayer was something said, whether it be prayers around the breakfast table, or from a book in Church or the prayers I learnt to say at night beside my bed.

The first time I learnt to 'pray' using my physical senses was at a 3-month Buddhist Retreat in 2003 – a strange place to learn to pray, you may think! However, I found it very helpful, because it taught me how to be present, so I could contemplate the Divine Presence.

At the beginning of the retreat, we were told that the word 'contemplation' contains two words: 'con' meaning 'with'; and 'template' offering 'a space to be moulded into a new shape'. Our five physical senses and our mind being our sixth sense, all provide a natural way for this moulding to occur as we learn to sit mindfully at the centre of the mandala of our senses. This we learn to do consciously and deliberately by being aware of all that we are experiencing through each of our senses, by focusing on one sense at a time.

For example, as I sat on the old couch on the porch and watching the dawn light up the valley, I became aware of the sensation of,

seeing (with either open or closed eyes)
hearing (as I became conscious of the sounds around me)
smelling (as I focused on the fragrances carried by air)
tasting (the remnants of my last cup of coffee)
touching (the seat and air temperature with my body).

I then heard the first bellbird call of the morning. I immediately identified it, and by naming it, I lost the moment – and the experience. I was now thinking, judging, remembering because I had moved from the 'sense door' of hearing to the 'sense door' of my mind with its memories, judgements and opinions. I might later reflect upon 'Why is it that I automatically want to own the experience by naming it?' for example. Or, 'Why do I want to escape from experiencing each burst of music echoing across the valley, and retreat to the safety of my mind?'

How readily and easily it is to surrender the gift of the moment and become lost in a repetitive cycle of internal chatter! How easy it is to stop listening to another person because we are preoccupied with our endless concerns and agendas! Yet mastering the art of contemplation with awareness has a profound effect on the way we live. If we can learn to look deeply into the way we perceive and know things, we will find we can live more easily in the present moment, and be awake to all that each moment holds – which is the only time and place we will ever find and experience the Divine Presence we call God.

In my last blog, I mentioned the joy-filled and awe-inspiring wonder and union with God Bonaventure and Jacopone da Toli experienced in prayer. Another Franciscan mystic, Blessed Angela of Foligno, also mastered the art of being aware of the present moment and she expressed a very similar experience,

Everywhere she looked

she saw the created universe resplendent with God's presence
and herself one with it...
In a vision, she could see nothing except the divine power
so that marvelling she cried aloud:
'This whole world is pregnant with God...
the world is so charged with the grandeur of God'.
Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation...

but the power of God fills it all to overflowing (1)

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

___________________

(1) Lachance O.F.M., Paul. The Mystical Journey of Angela of Foligno in Vox Benedictina: A Journal of Translations from Monastic Sources 4.1 (1987): 9-39

Dyer Phil, Be Still & Know: A 14 Day Retreat Programme with the Christian Mystics, Tawera Press, 2020.

Hearn, Tarchin, Coming to Your Senses. Available from https://greendharmatreasury.org/writings/e-books/

13. If at First Your Don't Succeed...

Yesterday morning I stayed in Church after the morning service to practice the hymns for the coming Sunday. Having grown up in a Vicarage family with a father who was an accomplished pianist meant I learnt to play at an early age. When I had mastered a few of the basics, it was a natural progression from the piano to the church organ. It also meant I could go to the church building whenever I wanted, and I particularly loved to practice in the early evening. It was then and there that I learnt to love the stillness and the presence that filled the stillness.

Learning to become still and centred has similarities to learning any new skill – whether it is playing a musical instrument or cultivating a contemplative prayer practice – because both require self-discipline. One way that the Franciscan Saint Bonaventure encouraged us to pray was to use our five physical senses. He described these as being, 'Five doorways, through which we become aware of, enjoy and judge the world that surrounds us. In this way, our knowledge of everything in the outer world enters into our interior world... This suggests first: that the One who is 'the invisible image of God...exists everywhere.(Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3) And second... that we can clearly see the eternal God in them, as in a mirror'. (1)

One simple way to develop this way of prayer is to focus, for example, with undivided attention on whatever you are experiencing when you breathe in a particular fragrance or touch the bark of a tree; taste a favourite dish, look at a field of wild-flowers or listen to a bird song. It is not about analysing, naming or even thinking about what you are experiencing. It is re-learning to experience the world with child-like delight, and as your skill develops, you will begin to experience subtle differences you had missed before. How quickly this occurs will depend, in part, on your psychological make-up.

The good news is, we all carry God's presence within us. By using our five senses as spiritual pathways into our inner being, and our intuitive ability to perceive God's presence in and around us, we discover a very inclusive way of prayer that is beautifully reflected by the 13th-century Franciscan poet, Jacopone da Todi:

O Love divine, You besiege my heart:
you are overwhelmed with love for me,
and cannot rest.
My five senses are assaulted by You,
hearing, sight, taste, touch and scent.
Love, You woo me, and I cannot hide from You.
I gaze through my eyes and see Love all around
in radiance and colour, in earth, sea and sky.

Drowning in such beauty, You draw me to Yourself... (2)

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.
Phil
__________________
(1) Bonaventure, Journey into God, Tawera Press, 2013, Ch 2, para 1-3, 7.
(2) Jacopone Da Todi, The God-Madness. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/89200-o-love-divine-love-why-do-you-lay-siege-to

12. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei

Having grown up in an Evangelical Anglican Vicarage, the only early memory I have of Mary was at Christmas with cribs scenes and children acting out the Nativity Story. It was only later in life, while living in a Franciscan Community in the USA, that Mary became a significant person and spiritual presence for me.

I was making a Lenten 'pilgrimage' using the Community's outdoor 'Way of the Cross' – a series of 14 moments leading to Jesus' crucifixion. Each 'moment' was marked by a simple pole, beside a rough track, that wound its way from the valley that enclosed the monastery to the hilltop above. While reflecting on Jesus meeting his mother, I unexpectedly experienced one of those moments when the boundaries between the physical and spiritual planes became very thin. Not that I saw anything. It was an overwhelming sense of presence. That caused me to ask, 'What do you want of me?' – 'Pray the Rosary' was the clear response, and I began to do this at the Monastery's small Marian shrine.

However, my early attempts were not successful and I soon gave up. It was 20 something years later that the initial encounter with Mary's presence became alive for me – as a spiritual guide and Wise Woman who has become an important companion in my spiritual life (1). Part of what has fuelled that spiritual renascence has been the simple Franciscan devotion of the Angelus, which draws attention to three significant moments in Mary's life which also offers profound insight into the way God comes to each of us and offers us a framework for our response.

The Angelus begins with the words: 'The angel of the Lord appeared to Mary' (Luke 1:26-28). Here we hear of a young woman, who was spiritually open enough to sense the Divine Presence, willing enough to believe God wanted to be birthed through her.

While Mary first questioned the angel's outrageous statement before she was courageous enough to respond: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word' (Luke 1, 38). As a result, 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us' (John 1:14).

As amazing as this was for Mary – and no doubt incredible for us as well; God is present in each of us, waiting for our consent to be birthed through us. We need to be open and willing because “What occurred in Mary historically must be mystically re-enacted in everyone. Every soul is the elect of God, the bride of the Spirit, and the mother of the Son” (2)

Mary continues to be both an example and a spiritual guide for us, so that we too may become midwives of the Divine Presence in our lives and our world.

Come, Creator Spirit, meet me in this moment
as you met with those of old.
Be present in your power
and bring faith and hope, I pray.
Strengthen me with your gifts of grace.
Renew my life and bring to completion all you have begun
for you, O God, are my light and my salvation.
You are the stronghold of my life,
of whom shall I be afraid?(3)

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

 ______________________

(1) Two Modern Rosary Meditation Resources: Hail Mary: reflections on the Mysteries of the Rosary. | CEO ....By Br Mark O’Connor FMS from the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. Praying the Rosary: A Different Approach by Ella Rozett a Catholic and graduate in Christian-Buddhist Studies.

(2) Quote: Rotzetter, A, etal OFM, Gospel Living: Francis of Assisi Yesterday and Today, Franciscan Inst, 2011..p 126

(3) Prayer: Adapted from the Ordination Service, A NZ Prayer Book, Collins, 1989 p. 896.

11. Jesus - Who?

I have already mentioned in an earlier blog, one of my past times is rummaging around the bookshelves in our local Charity Shops, especially the Spirituality books. On my last visit, I picked up a copy of Lee Strobel's 'Finding the Real Jesus – A Guide for Curious Christians and Skeptical Seekers'. I was attracted by the words 'Curious' and 'Skeptical Seeker' but should have been warned off by the words 'Real Jesus' because the author was more interested in convincing people that his view of Jesus was correct than any unbiased discussion of the wealth of academic research on the diversity of early Christianity.

During the first 300 years following the death of Jesus, there was great diversity amongst the Christian communities regarding Jesus and his life and teaching. Strobel mentioned gnostic Christianity, and we know from the library uncovered in at Nag Hammadi between the1940's-1970's, that several pictures of Jesus existed in early Christianity, compared to the Pauline Jesus we are familiar with in our New Testament.

I say Pauline because the four Gospels we have in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were written after St Paul's death and were influenced by Paul's writing and theology. During the great Christian controversies of the early centuries, these four Gospels were selected out of 30 Gospels in circulation. St Irenaeus (130-c202), a missionary bishop from Lyons is said to have commented, Since there were four corners of the earth and four winds of heaven, there had to be only four authorized Gospels'. However, in the third century, there were even attempts to reduce these four gospels into one story. Fortunately, we now have ready access to other Gospels in R.J. Miller's edition of 'The Complete Gospels' (Polebridge Press; Fourth edition, 2010).

What fuels my intrigue in all of this – and no doubt initially attracted me to the title of Strobel's book – is why do people try and 'stuff' God, and Jesus, into a theological box? God's love is bigger than that and like the air that surrounds us, God cannot be boxed in or contained by our definitions or limitations (See 1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles 6:18; Acts 17:24). I like the analogy of wind or breath. God breathed life into humankind and Jesus breathed new life into his disciples. 'Prayer is God breathing in us' suggests Henri Nouwen and Sri Chinmoy continues this lovely thought:

Divine Grace is constantly descending upon us
with infinite qualities of Peace, Light and Bliss,
offering us the very Life-Breath of God.
We have only to allow the flow of Grace
to carry us into the Source,
which is God.

God is everywhere and everything is an incarnation of God. That includes Jesus – and you and me. We are all invited to encounter the deep indwelling mystery of the Divine Presence. It is us who limit God (and Jesus) to our words, our definitions, and our understandings.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

_____________________

Sri Chinmoy, God Is: Selected Writings of Sri Chinmoy, Aum Publications, 2012.

Dyer, Phil, Be Still & Know... Tawera Press. 2020 .p72

See also Scholarly articles for The Diversity of Early Christianity

10. Is God Racist?

'Is God Racist?' is an interesting question that may sound a bit scandalous! Yet most theistic religions arose from and were influenced by, a particular cultural and ethnic setting (eg Judaism, Islam, Christianity etc). This, in turn, influenced people's beliefs, values and behaviour, as illustrated, for example, by  the following legend:

Once upon a time, as all good stories begin, God walked the earth, and one could talk to the Divine, face to face, as one would with a familiar friend.

Times changed – as they always do – and God became a distant memory. However, if anyone wished to see the face of God, and share their deepest fears and longings, there was a special mirror into one could look deeply and see again the face of the Divine, and remember instinctively the inner wisdom they carried.

Unfortunately, some tried to claim the mirror as their own, which led to disagreement – and disagreement turned to war – and in the process, the mirror was dropped and broke into a million shards of glass that spread across the face of the earth.

However, each shard still carried the capacity to see a partial reflection of the face of God – each unique to the land in which they lived – so each person thought, when they looked into the shard of mirror, they saw the truth. This, in turn, led to more conflict until a fool one day, tired of the bickering, suggested everyone should return their shard of mirror and lay it together piece by piece.

When the last piece of the mirror was inserted, it suddenly became whole once more – and when each person looked into the mirror they beheld within their own reflection, the face of God.

The truth was a mirror in the hands of God.
It fell and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it,
and they looked at it and thought they had the truth. -      Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

        To love another person is to see the face of God. - Victor Hugo

The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in them - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free. - Swami Vivekananda

I see God in every human being. - St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil