What then are its Boundaries

"If ... this sacrificial and self-giving love stands at the center of the Church's life, what then are its boundaries, its limits? In this sense one can speak of the whole of Christianity as of an eternal offering of a Divine Liturgy beyond church walls.   It means that we must offer the bloodless sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-offering love not only in a specific place, on the one altar of only one temple but that the whole world, in this sense, becomes the one altar of the one Temple - and that we must offer our hearts under the species of bread and wine, so that they may be transformed into Christ's love, that he may abide in them, that they may become hearts of Godmanhood, and that he would give these hearts of ours as food for the world, that he would commune the whole world with these sacrificed hearts of ours, in order that we would be one with him, that we not live but Christ would live in us, incarnate in our flesh ... "  - Mother Maria of Ravensbruk


It is clear from the words here that this is a central theme and or a core value of Mother Maria.  If our saint would have written up her own strategic plan, best practices, or even job description this statement would have been echoed all through out.


It is not that it is original.  She surely takes this from the themes of Jesus on caring for the "other" and the self-emptying lowliness of the lovers of God.  But, what is so substantial in this statement of hers is that she embodies it in her life and with her words, feelings and thoughts.  When any of us as individuals begins to wrestle with this notion that we are to be eucharist for the world, as He is Eucharist for the world, then we are on the royal road or the right path.


When we can say: "I must be broken for the life of the world", then we have entered the kingdom.  When we realize that the prize of attaining the kingdom is the marks of the wounds of Jesus, then we get it.


The Temple is everywhere because it is within.  The altar is everywhere because it is within.  "Lift up your hearts....  Let us give thanks to the LORD our God...."  Empty yourself of yourself so that you may be filled with the FULLNESS of Jesus - be broken and poured out.


How will you serve today?


Ciao!


+Tom

Truer than You Suspected

The mindset behind caring for those in prison, the poor, the sick, the homeless, the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the outcast is all about removing some image or stigma that sees the individual self (ego) as either different, better, or removed from the other.  Perhaps why the mystic communities throughout time have been also hotbeds for social action is because in the falling away of the small self in contemplative prayer there comes an awakening of the knowledge that we are all just ONE.  There is no division between the masses.

In the awakened heart there is room for the OTHER - no matter who it is - because the awakened heart is itself the universe.  The Buddhists have this sense of spirituality that recognizes that the Buddhas cannot seek salvation for themselves alone.  The seeking of salvation must involve the resolution of all humankind, the enlightenment of all.  Wesley tasted the vision and said: "all the world is my parish."

Caring for the "least of these" is not just a simple, bare-bones command of Jesus.  It is an ontological presupposition that the individual is inextricably bound to the corporate.  I cannot be truly fed unless my neighbor is also fed.  I cannot be truly clothed, unless my neighbor is clothed.  I cannot be truly "un-alone" until my neighbor is "un-alone".

The dropping of the single self in contemplative prayer is about the inherent cohesiveness of the universe.  Our simple acts of mercy only uncover what is already true.

"Let me seek, then, the gift of silence, and poverty, and solitude, where everything I touch is turned into prayer; where the sky is my prayer, the birds are my prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer, for God is in all."  - Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Ciao!

+Tom

Mother Maria - an inspiration to GIVE

I remember stumbling on Mother Maria of Paris back in 1986.  I saw a copy of Pearl of Great Price in the seminary bookstore and picked it up.  I was not prepared for the intensity of her life.

She balanced a spiritual life with a life of art and a life of social action.  This appealed to me as it held all of the components that I valued in my own life.  I loved to write.  I was devout in my spiritual struggle as a sinner, and I felt called to collecting truck loads of food for inner city homeless folks in Philadelphia.

I started a little venture then known as Orthodox Action in memory and honor of Mother Maria - not yet a saint.  I visited the city once a week with food I collected from local bakeries, restaurants, donut shops, churches, and grocery stores.  What I remember was the great eagerness with which people gave.

They really were happy to see these things go to someone who could use them.  All of my stops started collecting clothing, too.  Soon I had to get the help of my step-dad to deliver.  He would also go in town once a week.  Others would help as we needed.

I remember the awkwardness and the fear the first few visits.  But, after becoming known to the men and women of the streets, a community developed around the work.  This actually became an encouragement for me to realize that things build up their own momentum and take care of themselves.

Giving is a part of our lives.  When we stop being able to give we lose a whole portion of our lives and our identities.  Find some folks around you, collect some food and clothing from them, and take it all into a shelter, or children's home.  You'd be surprised how wholesome it feels and how much it clears out the garbage in your heart.

Ciao!

+Tom

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Poverty of SPIRIT

"For many perhaps, the promise of the Beatitude of the Poor in Spirit seems  incomprehensible. It seems incomprehensible, what is to be understood by the expression, -- poverty of spirit. Certain of the fanatical regard it, that this is an impoverishing of spirit, a freeing it from every thought, lest there be asserted the sinfulness from any thought, of any intellectual life. Others, unreceptive to such an explanation, regard the word "spirit" as an added interpolation not included in the original Gospel text." - Mother Maria of Paris


What if it was just as simple as becoming more simple.  What if poverty of spirit just meant to look at everything with a sense of simplicity and an eye toward simplification.  


Not some standard measure of how much is too much, just simply always being about the task of simplifying.  That is goods, emotions, attitude, projects, knowledge, wisdom, the whole shootin' match.


Tis a gift to be simple.


Ciao!


+Tom