Nature

Today’s Word: Harvest

Steve · August 2, 2013 · 5 Comments

I am no farmer and not much of a gardener. Sue and I grow annuals in flowerpots and once in a while grow some tomatoes, but that’s about it. Something in me would like to be, but I’m not sure I’m up to the commitment it takes to care for the potential harvest, however small. I grew up in urban St. Louis, but even there my father found the time and the space in our backyard to plant (mostly from seed) a healthy, organically grown crop of tomatoes, onions, lettuce, peppers and more. Today, I have friends who participate and work hard in community gardens, and I love the harvest at our local Farmer’s Market.

So I love the harvest (what’s better than a fresh tomato or strawberry?) and stand in awe and gratitude of all those farmers who bring us our daily fruits and vegetables. I am thankful for the often-underpaid farmworkers who plant and pick the produce that ends up in our supermarkets. And, as always, I worship the Creator who waters the fields and blesses the ground with nutrients. I adore the Lord who makes tomatoes taste heavenly and strawberries better than just about anything should be allowed to taste. We too easily take all this for granted. We just go down the produce aisle and there they all are, lined up and waiting for us, freshly misted. Today, let’s remember all those who bring us our food and the God who gives everything that is good: “The earth has yielded its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.” (Psalm 67:7)

Ask yourself in silence: Can our eating (and our gathering together to eat) become an act of worship and prayer?

Today’s Word: Doxology

Steve · July 23, 2013 · 4 Comments

The other night, Sue and I were sitting on the deck at the very end of the day as the light was fading and darkness was just creeping in. The crickets and the frogs were doing their thing incredibly loud, a crescendo of spindly legs and balloon-throated amphibians, a symphony of sound that rose and fell every 30 seconds or so, as if led by an invisible, knowing, baton-wielding hand. But whose?

“The whole of creation comes from God, goes back to God and is in God,” Paul Coutinho writes in his newest book, An Ignatian Pathway. “Creation finds its identity in God and the interconnectedness of all life.”

Ignatius once described the trinity as a three-note chord. And so I wonder, listening to the crickets and frogs, how many individual notes are sounding tonight, all of them resonating with the pure tone of the trinity ringing throughout the universe?

Praise God from whom all music flows. Praise God all singers and players here below. Praise God above the heavenly strains of sound and silence. Glory be to the composer, and to the singer, and to the conductor, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Ask yourself in silence: What do I hear when I take the time to be silent and listen? How does music connect me to God?

Today’s Word: Morning

Steve · July 17, 2013 · 4 Comments

41HVHEIBm4L._SL500_AA300_ — "Morning Calls," by b. burk

I remember being a young adult on retreat in the late ‘70s at the Marianist retreat center just outside of St. Louis. Each morning we were awakened to the sound of Dan Fogelberg singing through the speakers in our rooms: “And it’s going to be a day/there is really no way to say ‘no’ to the morning…” But we tried (to say no)! I’m still not a morning person, and it was only in the past year or so that my wife and I committed to getting up (most) mornings to attend daily mass at 7. It’s still not easy to pry myself out of bed, but once I’m up I’m good to go for the day. It’s a blessing, however bleary-eyed.

That engagement with the morning is exactly the reason that Deacon Bruce Burk published his book: “Morning Calls.” Published by Railroad Street Press and available for sale online, the book is a simple, eloquent, seven-day retreat leading to greater awareness of self and God. Bruce’s short reflections for each day embrace the daily cycle of sunrises as an opportunity for a fresh restart – a chance to begin again. Each day’s reflection is accompanied by one of his sunrise photos, each seemingly more dazzling than the last. The photos capture the warm welcome of the sun while the text guides the reader into an introspective approach to the day. He writes in the book’s introduction:

Morning allows one to start fresh, a new start, after yesterday’s missed opportunities. It’s a gift that many miss. It is the time to smile and say, “Today I can do it.” It’s a time to reflect and start anew, a time to make a mental list or plan. Morning is that opportunity to put our reflections into action. It is the time to celebrate what went right the day before and perhaps do it again. It is the perfect time to “be.”

Indeed, there’s no way to say “no” to the morning, but there is a way to embrace it and welcome it. This little book is a nice introduction to doing just that.

Ask yourself in silence: How do I welcome each day?

A call for guest bloggers: Writing as a true spiritual discipline

Steve · May 11, 2013 · 3 Comments

“When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place...SJG photo.

“Writing,” Henri Nouwen wrote, “can be a true spiritual discipline. Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts, to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences, to give artistic expression to what we are living, and to store significant events in our memories. Writing can also be good for others who might read what we write.”

So…I’m embarrassed to see that I’ve not posted anything here since December 29. Ach! I have no real excuses, other than a busy work schedule, a couple of graduate classes (I’m completing a graduate certificate in Spiritual Direction at Aquinas Institute of Theology here in St. Louis…) and, oh yeah, I’m about to become a grandpa for the first time! (Although, admittedly, I had very little to do with that last one and I can’t blame him or her for my blog-crastination. Watch for a photo soon!

I’m planning a regular (hopefully weekly) summer series of short blogs, the theme of which I’m still considering and mulling over. In the meantime, I thought I’d give some of you a chance to share your writing on this site. (And I know from hearing from some of you that there are some very good writers out there among my subscribers).
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New Year’s Resolutions: To See Goodness

Steve · December 29, 2012 · 13 Comments

hill — Hill adjacent to Volcan Cerro Negro, Nicaragua, 2009. SJ Givens photo

Over the years, here on this blog and in my 25 years of writing reflections for Living Faith, I have often recalled those times of finding and experiencing God through the wonder of the natural word. Indeed, many people say that they often experience God more intensely during a walk in the woods or along the beach than they do sitting in a church. And while I’m a big fan of sitting in churches, both in solitude and as part of a community of faith, I continue to readily find God in the simplicity and the complexity of God’s created world. For me and so many others, it is impossible to separate the created from the Creator, so the earth and all its marvels stand as constant and ever-changing monuments to the One who dreamed and fashioned and set all in motion.

In the creation story told in Genesis, even God seems to be amazed at his handiwork, so why should we not be? Over and over, at the passing of each day of work, God stands back, surveys his accomplishment, and says: “Yes, this is good.” For who can witness a clear starry night, a majestic mountain, or the power of the ocean’s surge without thinking the same? It is good, indeed.