Journal of Sacred Work

Reflection - 2007

   The last hours of the year provide an opportunity to reflect on the 364 days that have preceded this one. When I consider my efforts to nurture the Garden of Loving Care, I often find my own behavior wanting. Clearly, writing about Loving Care doesn't make it come true. If anything, it establishes a standard that those around me sometimes like to point to. "Hey, Mr. Loving Care, how come you're seeming irritable?" someone will point out to me when I veer off the path of kindness.
   What I am pleased about are things like this:...

Open Forum - Passion & Spirituality

   Over the past two weeks we have considered the role of passion in the Garden of Love. Some well known historical figures report a passion so great that it led to an encounter with God. Clearly, the feeling of being in the presence of God as Love is not an experience reserved exclusively for the famous. On two specific occasions, I have felt this sense in my own life - when I was four years old, and then again more than fifty years later.
   Do you feel as though you have ever had one of those most sacred encounters?
   To share your thoughts, click on Comments, below.

-Erie

What is Passion?

[Note: the following meditation was written by Cathy Self, Sr. V.P. of the Baptist Healing Trust]

   The idea of passion was first described by Plato (at left with Aristotle in painting by Raphael) who suggested that all passion falls into one of four categories including joy, grief, desire, and fear. Much later, Thomas Aquinas divided passion into two facets of the soul’s appetite: those passions that are readily satisfied, such as love and joy, and those that are more difficult to obtain, such as courage and hope. A typical definition of passion in a dictionary includes words like suffering, fervor, zeal. Regardless of how passion is defined, most have either experienced it personally or witnessed it in another – an energy that is observable and can be contagious....

Handel's Passion - The Third Seed (continued)

I did think I did see all heaven before me and the great God himself. - George Fredrick Handel - August, 1741

   He had been writing almost non-stop for three weeks in his humble home in London. Toward the end of this time, a servant entered the room where Handel (1685-1759) had remained continuously during the writing of one of the greatest compositions in history, The Messiah. He found Handel sobbing. That is when the composer uttered the words above.
   If you have been lucky enough to hear a performance of Handel's great work during this Christmas week, you have listened to what many experts consider the most perfect piece of music ever composed. And who are we to doubt Handel's words about God's presence?...

Merry Christmas

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah,^* the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ¹⁴‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace and good will...
  - Luke 2:8-14 (painting Gerard (Gerrit) van Honthorst (1590–1656), Adoration of the Children (1620))

Christmas Belief

   Our three and a half-year-old grandson met his cousin the day after her birth, just two weeks ago. Since they live just ten minutes apart in Boston, they will come to know each other much better than most cousins.
   Little Sonia will not remember her first Christmas Eve. But if Miles is anything like his father, he will recall this night vividly.
   Everyone always says that Christmas is mostly for children. Perhaps this is because it is the celebration of a sacred birth. Perhaps, also, it is because young children are able to express such a pure and innocent belief. They trust completely the stories they are told. They do not doubt that Santa Claus will appear, magically, while they are asleep and will, tonight, bring them their heart's desires...

Open Forum - The Seed of Passion at Christmastime

  The holidays take on so many different forms for each of us. Passion itself can be a confusing concept. In your moments of reflection, how would you say the seed of passion takes root in your life? How have childhood experiences of Christmas influenced your sense of the role of passion in your life?
   To offer your thoughts, click on Comments, below.
   Thank you for being a part of the Journal.

Erie

The Passion - The Heart of the Third Seed

   Just as Christmas, of course, celebrates the birth of Christ, The Passion refers to the narrative in the four Gospels describing the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus. This sequence, and the subsequent description of the resurrection of Christ, are a story so powerful that it has enthralled hundreds of millions over the past two millennia.
   For Christians, and for many Moslems who view Jesus as one of the five great prophets, Christ's suffering and sacrifice are deeply powerful. This is in part because of the purpose of that sacrifice. Jesus, of course, was given many ways to escape his suffering and death including renouncing the notion that he was the son of God. Instead, his passion for Love was so great that he offered his life to save us.
   What an odd notion, the people of the time thought. Why would some one so powerful offer to suffer and die on behalf of all others. This, they could see, was certainly a person moved by great passion...

The Third Seed - Passion, Christmas, & a Special Greeting Card

   My favorite holiday card thus far in this special season came via email from a friend who is a poet. I love this card not only for the sweet picture of her infant daughter smiling out at us (left) but for the marvelous quote she included. It is by the famed writer and poet G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). Chesterton, in his book, Orthodoxy, tells us so much, in two remarkable paragraphs, about the role of passion in the Garden of Love:
   "A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony...

One Sunday Morning

[Note: Thank you to Liz Wessel, a nursing leader with the St. Joseph Health System, Orange, California, for the following meditation and for creating the beautiful mandala that appears at left]   
   One Sunday morning Father George began his homily by declaring, “My goal is threefold; 1) have something to say, 2) say it 3) and then shut-up.” This caused me to sit up at attention and listen to his message of Love within the context of two key words persistence and perseverance.
   Long ago, my father cleverly taught me the meaning of these terms without my conscious knowing. I was the fifth child among six children; each of us had chores to complete before we could join our neighborhood friends at play. Occasionally assigned duties, such as yard work or cleaning out the garage, would squelch all hope of a fun-filled Saturday afternoon.   
    Although, these responsibilities were difficult for youth’s exuberance to endure they were quite instructive in learning how to delay gratification...

Passion - The Third Seed

I began to live as if there was none but He [God] and I in the world. Brother Lawrence (1611-1691)

   In the world of 17th century France, Brother Lawrence developed his personal understanding of what it means to live passionately in the presence of God's Love. "Is it not quicker and easier," he wrote, "to do our common business for the love of God." What Brother Lawrence writes to us across the centuries is that, whether our work is as grand as a king or as humble as a housekeeper, when we do this work "for the love of God" we thrive in Love's grace.
   Passion is the fire that warms the Garden of Love. It is passion that feeds our purpose and allows the seed of our potential to blossom. My favorite example of passion is Martin Luther King...

The Second Seed of Potential - continued

[The following meditation was written by Cathy Self, Sr. V.P. of the Baptist Healing Trust, Nashville]

   This is a season in which many envision the picture of the lion and the lamb resting side-by-side. Yet I am mindful that even in this season of peace there is conflict within and among us all.
   I’ve been reading recently, again, from a book published by the Arbinger Institute titled The Anatomy of Peace. I’m learning that, typically, we assume that people who are in conflict want solutions. However, it often seems the preferred solution is that others change. We spend most of our time and effort with others dealing with things that are going wrong. We try to fix our children, change our spouse, correct our employees, and discipline those who aren’t acting as we’d like.

The Second Seed- Awakening Potential in Others

Because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do.  - Helen Keller - (1880-1968 - American author and educator.)

   Blind and deaf since infancy, Helen Keller became one of the most inspirational icons of the 20th century. Yet we would never know about her were it not for the way her teacher, Anne Sullivan, awakened her gifts. Through a mix of prodding, encouragement and loving insight, Sullivan helped Keller unlock her enormous gifts for the world.
   One of our greatest abilities is to awaken potential in others. The ways we do that inform us about how to awaken potential in ourselves.... 

Potential -The Second Seed- Continued -

   There is no more clear incarnation of potential in this world than a new born baby. All of life opens before my newborn granddaughter just as it did for each of us at our births. What will life bring to her? What will she bring to life? Already, her mere presence has brought smiles and shouts of joy. She is, after all, that most special of beings - a baby.
   Anthropologists across the world learned years ago that no matter what country or culture we are born into, we all speak the same language when it comes to babies. Whether Asian, African, European, we all utter the same sounds in the presence of a new born. We speak in soft, vowel sounds: oohs, ahhs, cooing. We are awed at the delicate strength in new life, we step back in reverence, we smile in the presence of hope.
   What we know about good parenting turns out to be equally true for loving leadership: The goal is not to make someone else what we want them to be, but what they are meant to be. Natural gifts help determine destiny...

The Second Seed of Loving Care - Potential

   "I've just snapped. I can't take this meaningless existence anymore. I've been a constant disappointment." - Suicide note of Robert Hawkins, left (the Omaha Mall Killer.)

   Because 19 year-old Robert Hawkins couldn't find a loving purpose in his life, he ended his life, and the lives of eight other innocent people in a murderous rampage through an Omaha mall. "Just think, I'm gonna be famous," he said in his suicide note.
   The criticality of the seed of purpose comes in poisonous examples as well as through the lives of the angels among us. What some refer to as "senseless acts of violence" are often explosions born from the agonizing vacuum created when people can't find a purposeful way to express their potential.
   Likewise, caregivers who feel their potential is being underused may experience burn out. Without nourishment, the seed of their potential begins to die or, worse, it may turn toxic, poisoning the life of the caregiver and those around her....

Open Forum - Purpose

   During the first part of this week, we reflected on the role of purpose in the garden of Love. My own life purpose was enhanced yesterday, Thursday morning, Dec. 6, when I learned that our daughter had given birth to a healthy daughter.
   It is no exaggeration to say the my will to live longer will be significantly affected by my hope of seeing my two grandchildren grow up...and grow into Love's light.
   What is it that gives purpose to your life and work?
   Click on Comments, below, to share your thoughts with other caregivers.
-Erie

Love's Song

[Today's meditation was written by Cathy Self, Sr. V.P. of the Baptist Healing Trust]

   My radio is tuned to a station that now plays Christmas music around the clock. I am one of many who love this season and what it represents. And, yes, I start playing Christmas music as soon as the Thanksgiving dishes are cleaned and put away. Among my favorite Christmas songs is one centered on the phrase “Love came down at Christmas time.” The words are meaningful, but how much more meaning they become when we find our way to singing Love’s sweet song in every encounter, each and every day! Of course, none of us is perfect Love and we will, on occasion, fall short. But when I step into that sacred space, where need is met with Love, oh how my heart overflows!

The First Seed of Purpose, Continued - Frankl's Meaning

He who has a why can bear almost any how.  - Fredrick Nietzsche

   The importance of planting purpose in the Garden of Love is reinforced by the writing of the person many recognize as the most powerful spokespeople for the role of meaning in our time. In his book, Man's Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl, M.D. described his experience surviving a Nazi concentration camp. Without purpose, Dr. Frankl writes, people soon died. With a clear sense of purpose, they had at least a chance of surviving a place where the whole idea, the whole "purpose" of the camp, was to deny the humanity of Jews.
   What is most important to you? What matters in your life? If all of that were subtracted, how would you feel about your existence?
   We are not our work. Yet it can often feel that way...

The First Seed in the Garden of Love - Purpose

"Not to be on to something is to be in despair." - Walker Percy in The Moviegoer

   I repeat the above quote from yesterday's Journal entry because I think it's so important. As obvious as it sounds, there's not much point in beginning any effort, or living life itself, unless we have some idea of purpose. The purpose of the New Garden of Loving Care is to grow it as a place that will help us Live Love, not fear. Every seed, and every plant that grows from it, must nurture us in our desire to Live Love.
   How much of your life is lived afraid? It is difficult for most of us to calculate this. This is because we are, quite literally, afraid to consider how much many of our life decisions are fear-driven.
   Each day, countless mid-level executives and first line staff avoid speaking the truth for fear of being punished or, God forbid, fired. I have often said that my heart breaks for anyone who comes to work each day afraid of their supervisor.
   There is a solution to this kind of fear....

A New Garden

"Not to be on to something is to be in despair."             -Walker Percy, The Moviegoer

  From 1997 to 2001 I regularly sought the support and counsel of what is referred to by some as a spiritual adviser. This gifted woman helped guide me through several difficult changes in my life. Through that period, the one thing she always told me was that I was, at heart, an artist. In 1997, I was temporarily out of a job. Not being "onto something," I began to experience despair.
   What she said about my artistic temperament felt true to me. But I have never found the courage to live as the artist I supposedly am. The truth is, I'm afraid to live that life. I fear I'm not good enough, or that I would be unable to support my family. But there is also another, more positive reason that has nothing to do with fear. I love charity work. Through healthcare, you and have the chance to support a life ideal that may matters as much as anything...