Dear Friends,
We hope that you are safe and well.
Today's Meditation features a poem by Wendell Berry "What we need is here." It further echoes in the reflections by Joan Chittister on prayerfulness: "the capacity to walk in touch with God through everything in life."
We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in the church, in healthcare, in the workplace--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.
In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.
We hope and pray that you find peace, healing, hope and the infusion of joy in your life!
With our love and care,
Ron and Jean
The title of this poem by Wendell Berry, “What We Need Is Here” is a great mantra.
What We Need Is Here
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.
—Wendell Berry
Read Sister Joan's reflections on prayerfulness, "...the capacity to walk in touch with God through everything in life."
This excerpt from Joan Chittister’s writings was featured as the “Reflection” for Thursday, June 16 in the monthly publication Give Us This Day: Daily Prayers for Today’s Catholic (Liturgical Press).
Both Gift and Grace
Many of the prayers we say have been passed down to us for generations. The psalms, for instance, mark the cry of the human spirit across time. The Scriptures speak of peoples and prayers over twenty centuries before us. Prayers such as these in every culture carry the wisdom of the past to enlighten the insights of the present.
These prayers are venerable, a history of the unchanging human spirit. But they do not guarantee that those who say them will ever be “prayerful” people. They tell us only that people pray.
Prayerfulness, on the other hand, is the capacity to walk in touch with God through everything in life. It is the internal awareness that God is with me—now, here, in this, always. It is an awareness of the continuing presence of God. It is my dialogue with the living God who inhabits my world in Spirit and in Mind.
Prayerfulness sees God everywhere.
Prayerfulness talks to God everywhere.
Prayerfulness submits the uncertainties of the moment to the scrutiny of the internal eyes of God. It trusts that that no matter how malevolent the situation may be, I can walk through it unharmed because God is with me.
Prayerfulness is both gift and grace, both a natural disposition and a quality of soul to be developed. But develops it!
Prayerfulness is fostered by the simple consciousness that God is. That God is near us at all times. That God is closer to us than the breath we breathe. That God is available, a silence in the midst of chaos, a voice in the midst of confusion, a promise at the center of the tumult.
If I ask and I listen and I reach out and I fill my heart with the words of the One who is the Word, then I will be answered. Somehow the path will become clear.
—from The Breath of the Soul by Joan Chittister (Twenty-Third Publications)
What's New: June 20, 2022
Joan Chittister on Renewing CommunityAs part of her speaking tour of Australia, Joan Chittister was interviewed by Doctor Meredith Lake, on the subject of renewing community in a lonely world. The conversation was aired on the radio program Soul Search, hosted by the Australian Broadcasting Company. “If community is showing us anything right now, it’s showing us that individualism has run its course,” Sister Joan says. Click here to listen to the full program, which touches on Sister Joan’s childhood, experiences in the monastery, and teachings on community building.
“The Time Is Now” at Monte Sant Angelo Mercy CollegeJoan Chittister also offered a presentation on the kind of prophetic witness needed today at Monte Sant Angelo Mercy College in North Sydney. A crowd of over 850 attended, and the event organizer noted that, “Feedback we have received has been only positive, including words such as 'life-changing'. We congratulate Joan on her clear and inspiring call to action and thank her sincerely for her contribution.” Click here to watch her speech.
The Call of Vatican II: Joan Chittister also spoke at Saint Ignatius Parish in Brisbane, Australia, and The Women's Night of Spirituality, an event that the parish has hosted for seventeen years. The talk was co-sponsored by Stuartholme School, WATAC (Women and the Australian Church), Australian Women Preach, and Garratt Publishing. Click here to listen to a recording of her speech, on the call of the Second Vatican Council.
Being Present to PainJoan Chittister’s latest audio blog is available now. “It is a spiritual work of mercy to counsel and comfort and forgive with patience, with understanding, with a care that is personal. It is a spiritual work of mercy to identify with that pain of the other, to understand its grip on them,” Sister Joan teaches. Click here to listen to more.
Flash Sale on Spiritual Classics
Our weekly flash sales continue for two more weeks. This week and next, we will be selling a different assortment of books at a discounted rate, while supplies last. Click here to place your orders. This week, the books on sale are Little Rule for Beginners, Joan Chittister: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith, In God’s Holy Light, and Dear Joan Chittister. Order today.
SOUL POINTSJune 21: On this date in 1859, the painter Henry Ossawa Tanner was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The first African-American painter to gain international acclaim, Tanner spent much of his life abroad, especially in Paris. He primarily painted religious works, including a much-beloved painting of The Annunciation. Click here to watch a video about his works.
June 24: Today is the feast of John the Baptist, the one who turned the heads of an avid population to Jesus, the one who used his own popularity to point to more than himself, the one who used the fire of his own life to kindle the flame of truth in the hearts of others. Evangelism goes wrong when it points only to itself. Beware of the charismatic types who make themselves the center of their own teaching. “Obey me because I said so,” is a spiritual message to be avoided. Have you ever mistaken the messenger for the message? What did you learn?
—from A Monastery Almanac, by Joan Chittister
June 26: Babe Didrikson Zaharias, one of the greatest athletes of all time, was born on this date in 1911. In an era when women were discouraged from participating in sports at all, Didrikson Zaharias made a name for herself by competing in track and field, baseball and softball, and tennis and golf. Unapologetic about her strength and skill, she was the only track and field athlete, male or female, to win individual Olympic medals in a running, throwing and jumping event. She went on to become a founding member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and inspired a generation of girls and young women.
POEM OF THE WEEKThe title of this poem by Wendell Berry, “What We Need Is Here” is a great mantra.
What We Need Is Here
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.
—Wendell Berry