Consolation in and of the Body?

Consolation in and of the Body?

I have only recently started running.

And I am still a beginner – I avoid hills and run, following the alleged advice of Eamonn Coughlin “as slowly as I can, for as long as I can”. But it feels great. There is something about ‘feeling’ life through my body as my feet hit the ground and the cold air my face…I love it! I still need to push myself into that first step of making time, changing clothes to face the cold… but I love it. It is a physical –spiritual practice and place of discovery for me.

And it makes me think – there is a sort of ‘consolation of and in the body’, right? A sense, somehow, ‘without previous cause’ of God’s presence in and through stretched muscles and flesh moving to a rhythm marked from within and without. And it makes me wonder if there could not be a  “discernment (also) through the body” as well – that when we face important decisions (or daily ones), does God not also allow us sense in how we feel about ourselves in-our-body-in-the-world, what could be right? And I know discernment implies a lot of other elements and aspects, but perhaps this one has been overlooked? The joy of the flesh that God really wanted to come to visit… Cf. Jn 1:14.

My image of the week...

Brancusi's sleeping Muse...

It's not that I feel unfruitful, but I do think that besides Jesus sleeping in the boat, sometimes one's own creative spirit needs to take a break...slow down, take a break, ruminate, let it lie, unfold or sleep...for something new (or old) to emerge.

Let's see...

If you focus on the problem, you'll never see the solution

“Ad primum ergo dicendum quod finis, etsi sit postremus in executione, est tamen primus in intentione agentis. Et hoc modo habet rationem causæ.” ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, Summa Theologiæ I- II, 1, 1.

...my favourite (or at least most quoted) Thomas Aquinas quotation. Because it is all about where we are going. If you know where you're going, and what your aim is, then the rest will follow. So I find myself asking: where to, Lord? What next, personally and perhaps especially, lately, as community and Church? Open my heart in the direction of yours and I will be there...and I do think it is about learning to see as God sees. I watched an old but amazing film the other day:

"See what nobody else sees; see what everyone else chooses not to see, out of fear or conformity or laziness. See the whole world anew..."

And that's scary, but it's what I'm asking for. we have one life. Many gifts, many challenges, many lights...and one life to do it in. I pray Lord, it won't be fear or conformity that stops us.

I'm not sure I'm looking for greatness but I do know we are called to great things, and that in order to do them, God needs us free and creative. 

Who are we for each other?

I wonder sometimes, thinking about those of us called to religious life: "who are we to each other?"

Maybe I am naive, in that I came into the world through a very blessed and beautiful family, so it seems to me that the commitment to another person as a couple or to one's children, although difficult, is at least clearer. But those of us who have given our lives to and for God - is it not too easy to become trapped in ourselves? Loving everyone, we risk loving no one? and in any case: who is the other person for me? Where and how do I bond? What do I give? What do I receive? What is friendship and love for a person whose heart is called to love Jesus, fully and wholly, and through him, others? Even having blessed relationships and friends, for whom I thank God daily, at times this question haunts me, as I look at the Church, near and far.

My soul is flooded with Sadness…

My soul is flooded with Sadness…

and I think it’s not all mine.

As the water rises, Lord,

Drench memories

            Darken corners

                    Drown the past in your still-breathing presence…

that I may die, forget, let go

and rise

different and new…

My soul is flooding with Sadness and it’s not all mine.