Spirituality

Solitude: Finding our own “lonely place” (part 1)

Steve · February 25, 2012 · 3 Comments

(The first of a three-part posting about seeking times and places of solitude in the midst of our busy lives)

“In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.” Mark 1: 35

sunset — Sunset in Sedona, 2011, Steve Givens

What surrounds this short piece of scripture In Mark’s gospel is a description of just how hectic Jesus’ life was. He was constantly on the move, walking from town to town, preaching in the synagogues, healing the sick, casting out demons, and dealing with impatient disciples. But in the midst of all this activity, he knew the importance of getting away and being quiet for a while. It’s an important lesson for us all to learn.

We’re all busy and our lives are chock-full of “stuff.” This stuff is mostly necessary, no doubt. We need to do the things we need to do, like go to work, take care of our homes and children and spouses, contribute to our communities and churches, volunteer to help others and good causes, and spend time with our favorite people. It’s all good. But it’s exhausting.

Patience: Treasuring the Ground on Which We Stand

Steve · January 8, 2012 · 13 Comments

Patience is not a waiting passivity until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later and somewhere else. Let’s be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

– Henri Nouwen

time — Sundial at Jewel Box, Forest Park in St. Louis (photo by Steve Givens)

So often over the years I have found myself the impatient person described above, especially when it comes to waiting for God to act. I wanted to believe that the “real thing,” the better thing, my true purpose, was always just around the corner, just over the horizon, just about to happen.

I think the most fervent and continuously prayed prayer of my adult life has been some version of this: “Show me your will for my life, God, and I’ll go do it. Just show me. Make it clear.” And then I would add parenthetically: “It would be nice if you would do that soon, please. But not TOO soon because I still have this and this and this to take care of…”

Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead?

Steve · January 1, 2012 · 3 Comments

churchyard — Christian Brothers Cemetery at LaSalle, Glencoe, Mo.

Walking through cemeteries, I have learned over the years, is a lesson in awareness. We are reminded, of course, that we are dust and to dust we shall return. But we also learn the power of quiet, of stillness, of non-busyness. It’s hard to hurry through a graveyard, and why would we want to? If we’re in a cemetery that bears the remains of our own ancestors, we become perhaps all the more acutely aware that we are not alone, that our little, short lives are not the be-all and end-all, that we are a flash in the pan of the flintlock rifle of human existence. We are merely a thread in the larger strand of life that includes the fibers of so many other lives.

Both Here and There

Steve · December 11, 2011 · 11 Comments

MIssion Churchyard Cross, Steve Givens 2010.

He was but two,

the age they call “terrible,”

the age that elicits terrible questions too.

He stood at the crib at the church’s entrance;

he glanced up at the cross in the church’s sanctuary.

Then Aidan asked his mother,

“How can Jesus be both here and there?”

from “Aidan’s Question” by Bishop Robert Morneau, A Splash of Sunshine and Other Glimpses of Grace, Orbis Books, 2011.

Aidan’s question resonates deeply in me in these days leading up to Christmas. For especially now we Christians face this great, painful and glorious paradox of the wood – the wood of the stable and the wood of the cross. Back in my undergraduate days, I wrote this (very) short poem:

On the Road: To stand and receive where JFK was laid

Steve · October 15, 2011 · 2 Comments

The next in an occasional series of travelogue/photo essays on seeing and experiencing intersections of faith, history and culture — on seeing new and old communities of faith.

On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., I attended morning mass at one of my favorite places, the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, just a few blocks up from DuPont Circle where I was staying. Because I travel to D.C. a few times a year to attend meetings of higher education public affairs folks like me, and because DuPont Circle is “home territory” for many higher education organizations, I have come to know this area pretty well. And St. Matthew’s has become my parish home when I’m there.

To be honest, in a city filled with architectural gems, from the outside St. Matthew’s has little in its facade that would draw you inside. It lies just a block off busy Connecticut Avenue on Rhode Island, tucked back from the street in such a way that you might miss it if you didn’t look up. But inside, its collection of side chapels, statuary, and mosaics are inspiringly beautiful and prayerful. My favorite mosaic is that of a different gospel writer, St. Mark, elbow on knee and fist beneath his chin, urging us all to enter into conversation with him on the life and death of his friend. The shape of the interior (at least to my untrained eye) is more of a square than a rectangle, drawing all nearer to the altar. (In fact, it is in the shape of a Latin cross, 155 feet long by 136 feet wide). To see more of the Cathedral, visit its online tour. [Read more…] about On the Road: To stand and receive where JFK was laid