Dear Friends,
This week was a very sad and trying week for me as Spiritual Care-Giver at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. To have this haven of healing turned into a place of violence hurt. As I spent time with the wife of Dr. Davidson on Tuesday and as the
Chaplains led a prayer service while he was in surgery and as we led Remembrance Services on Wednesday to which hundreds of colleague caregivers came, we found strength in our coming together to support and comfort one another. I reflected on teamwork: how everyone from the hospital president to the surgeons, to the social workers and chaplain and psychiatric team each did their part. It is fitting that (in the words of this Sunday’s readings) that we were each following our call to be the best at our chosen profession. And even more to be the best human beings we could be. That clearly is true of Dr. Michael Davidson, too. As proficient and innovative a surgeon he was, what made him stand out was how magnanimous a human being he was. He always had time for his patients and their questions and their worries. We found ourselves imagining, too, how we could reach out to the family of the shooter, the Pasceri family, for they, too are in pain.
This weekend the first and third readings talk about call—the call to change one’s life and the call to follow. How is God calling us to change our lives, to grow? How are we called to find/fish for God? It seem that only then can we find each other. How is God Calling us to pass on life and love?
Hafiz has a meditation on this that offers us inspiration for this Sunday’s Eucharist. It will become our second reading.
A Golden Compass
Forget every idea of right and wrong
Any classroom ever taught you
Because
An empty heart, a tormented mind,
Unkindness, jealousy and fear
Are always the testimony
You have been completely fooled!
Turn your back on those
Who would imprison your wondrous spirit
With deceit and lies.
Come, join the honest company
Of the King's beggars -
Those gamblers, scoundrels and divine clowns
And those astonishing fair courtesans
Who need Divine Love every night.
Come, join the courageous
Who have no choice
But to bet their entire world
That indeed,
Indeed, God is Real.
I will lead you into the Circle
Of the Beloved's cunning thieves,
Those playful royal rogues -
The ones you can trust for true guidance -
Who can aid you
In this Blessed Calamity of life.
Hafiz,
Look at the Perfect One
At the Circle's Center:
He Spins and Whirls like a Golden Compass,
Beyond all that is Rational,
To show this dear world
That Everything,
Everything in Existence
Does point to God.
~ Hafiz ~
(I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)
.... and we invite you to make The Spirit of Life your ‘spiritual home’. In our midst you will find support for your inner spirit’s growing in peacemaking. We will help you remember that you are Beloved. We promise you a unique experience of community; one where members and guests find support and hope in the journey through time and body to deepen our spiritual lives, and work together to transcend our limitations and grow in faith. Our liturgies are not “cluttered’ with non-inclusive language and messages that discount the dignity of all people. Rather, we are radically simple in embodying the “good news” of Jesus Christ... “uncluttered” by messages caught in the moral time warp so present in more traditional Catholic liturgies. At the Spirit of life... the call of women to ordained priesthood is affirmed...the sacredness of all loving relationships is honored and celebrated, and as Jesus did, we welcome ALL to the Table! If you are seeking a Catholic community where you do not need to mentally/silently “insert” inclusive language into your prayer at Mass, or lament that your children are hearing non-loving messages about people whose sexual orientation is other than heterosexual, or feel that your “voice” is not heard.....we invite you to come and experience life in our community. We are an inclusive and interactive community, where everyone has a “voice.” We are truly a people of “justice & Joy.”
Remembering that you are Beloved of God and beloved to us as well, we send prayers of love and peace for you,
Ron & Jean