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I recently returned from a retreat at the Quaker Institute at Pendle Hill in PA. The theme was “Living Our Testimonies in the Fierce Urgency of Now,” taken from a line in Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. Although it was a great event, the most salient portion for me wasn’t its presentations, presenters or facilitators but the people I met during those four days.  They were very ordinary people who were engaged in awe-inspiring work for love, peace, and justice in the world.  Literally, “ordinary people doing extraordinary things!” 

One of them, in particular, gave me a copy of his book “WHAT IS NOT A MIRACLE?” He autographed it after we talked about things that matter to both of us. It is a book of poems he has written over the years that speak to the wonder and awe of living every day on planet Earth.   

It seems the themes of wonder and awe in life have been circling my soul lately. Once I received the book and began to contemplate its message, awe and amazement started crossing my path even more. It reminded me of the time I bought my red car and then noticed that there were tons of other red cars on the road, that I had never noticed before. 

So, last weekend at a Centering Prayer Retreat, I was amazed to learn a new practice for my soul—lectio terra.  It opened me up even more to the miracle of Life in Creation. Lectio terra is a cousin to lectio divina, the spiritual practice of reading holy texts to encounter the Spirit of G-D in the spaces between the words.  In lectio terra, you encounter the sense of G-D’s PRESENCE as you read nature.  Meeting G-D in nature is similar to meeting  G-D in the Scriptures because they both begin with intention and attention. 

The method is the same with small changes.  Reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation are the same EXCEPT we are outside in nature and using all of our senses.   

 We begin right where we are by standing outside in a moment of stillness. If we close our eyes and breathe deeply several times, we can begin to feel ourselves breathing and our hearts beating.  We might notice our feet standing upon the earth and that our bodies are oriented in space, surrounded by all that is around us.  Although this is always true, now we are especially aware of it.   Beginning in this way cleanses the slate of our souls for a new reunion with the Divine.  Since we are already a part of G-D and G-D is already one with us, we are re-meeting with intention.  We might silently speak an intention for this time, perhaps asking G-D what she desires that we should know at this moment and in this place and time.   

 We then open our eyes and begin to walk. There are moments when we stop, look, and listen; we sniff the air and feel its temperature on our skin. We breathe and observe WHAT IS.   We do this without mental comment by being truly present. We are reading the landscape. 

 At some point along the way, something catches our attention; it makes us wonder; we might even say to ourselves, “WOW, I never noticed THAT before.”  Whatever it is, it causes us to stop and bring our full attention to this thing that has called to us. G-D has whispered; we are listening. 

 We begin to meditate upon this thing, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral. It may be a leaf, an ant, a tree, a worn path, or someone’s yellow windbreaker as they pass us by the way, but we use all of our senses to observe it in its fullness.  What does it bring to mind?  What is it saying to us?  Does it raise a certain passage of Scripture from memory?  Is there an image of a place or person that comes to mind or drops in? We begin to connect the dots. This is the fodder for our meditation as we ruminate and chew on the possibilities of what Spirit may be speaking into our lives now.  

 Through meditation, we can respond directly to the G-D’s Spirit in prayer, asking for clarity, insight, and increased understanding.  We can begin to converse.  If we ask questions, we will receive answers.  The stillness of our hearts keeps us open and receptive, allowing us to feel and express gratitude for the gift of the present moment.  With this new insight, we might ask for whatever we need to move forward into the rest of the day— or even into the rest of life. 

 Finally, there is a point of STILLNESS as we sit and simply breathe, allowing ourselves to be ONE with the Mystery of ONENESS, whom we call G-D, the Source of all of Creation and of ALL that is.  This is the miracle beyond miracles that the Oneness that Jesus speaks of in John 17 for himself is ours, too, when we can finally receive such a gift.  

 If you ever have an opportunity to explore lectio terra in a workshop or at a retreat, please DO IT.   If you love the outdoors anyway, research it for yourself.  What a great spiritual practice to remind me that I am part of the ONE who IS and to feel that PRESENCE. You will be glad you did!   

With Love,
Freda Marie+ 

“Our daily experience of life, God and God’s world are meant to inspire us with awe and wonder. Our failure to notice the miracles around us is a failure of the spirit as well as the senses.” – (Christine Aroney-Sine) 

My son Ben and I recently enjoyed watching (again) a musical romcom movie called Yesterday. If you haven’t seen it, here’s its plot summary: “A struggling musician realizes he is the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where they never existed.”

Imagine. One day, the music of The Beatles and the genius of Lennon & McCartney are part of the fabric of reality as they always have been. The next day, you wake up, and there is no trace or whisper of them having ever existed in the history of the world (Google searches for “The Beatles” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” yield pictures of insects and Dr. Pepper soda), except in your own memory and imagination!

Parallel universes aside, life has its ways of turning on a dime, or throwing you that curveball when you’ve been hitting fastballs all day. Sometimes, these “alternate realities” are relatively benign, or perhaps even welcome, like when you discover you have overpaid your taxes and will be receiving a significantly larger tax refund than you anticipated, allowing more breathing room in your budget. Or when you’ve been expecting a child and then learn you’re carrying twins, which fills you with joy after initial feelings of anxiety and overwhelm.

Other times, the alternate reality you find yourself suddenly navigating can knock you off your feet, perhaps even take your breath away and make you feel like you’re gasping for air. You lose your job out of the blue, without any warning. Your child or your partner becomes very ill. A bridge collapses. You lose your best friend.

What do you do, when the sands beneath your feet, or the frame or lens through which you view the world, suddenly shift?

Our guy Jesus has something to say about this. Something about building your house on a foundation of rock, so that when storms and unkind weather blow their way into your world, things don’t come crashing down.

Our new Diocesan Bishop Carrie offered another image when she visited us this past weekend, that of a tree and the three sections you can see in a cross section of its trunk: its core, where it was a sapling, which she likened to God’s Love, always there at the center. Then, on the outside of the trunk is the layer of cambrium cells, the cells that are flexible and allow for new growth, allowing for change and bending and flexing. Between the core and the cambrium layer is the heartwood: those cells that used to be the outside as cambrium but have now become part of the structural foundation of the tree, helping it to stand secure on the inside even as the outer layer bends.

Bishop Carrie used the metaphor above as one way to understand and view a vibrant community of faith, a unity of both change/adaptability and stability/structure with God’s Love at our core. It could also be used, perhaps, to imagine how each of us as human beings might live and grow, as individuals who comprise such a community.

Back to Yesterday: without giving too much more away, it turns out that the main character is actually not the only one who remembers John, Paul, George & Ringo (there are two other humans who remember them too!). So if you wake up one day and no one around you has ever heard of The Beatles (or another musical genius, that you can’t imagine the world without), keep breathing and know you are not alone. Lean on those around you, who you love and who love you. Take just the next step before you, and then the next, and then the next. Do just what you’re able to muster up the energy to do (even if all you can do in a particular moment is cry, or sigh, or breathe), and surrender the rest to the Mystery and Ultimate Reality that is God.

Love,
Cristina

Dear Redeemer Community,

It is hard to believe that it has been 15 years since I made the decision to join the Parish Day School faculty as a kindergarten teacher. It was the perfect opportunity at that juncture in my life. I was thrilled to be teaching in a community I loved in a position that was conducive to the growth of my young family. With the majority of my experience as a fourth-grade teacher, at the time I thought it would be a brief stop before I would return to teaching older elementary students. While I had been a teacher for over ten years, I did not understand the enormous value of a high-quality early childhood education.

What I learned after arriving at Redeemer was crucial to my journey as an educator. The early years are an explosive time of growth, and the teaching and learning styles at Redeemer exemplify how children learn best. In a learning environment that is a little messy and a little noisy, exploring the outdoors is as important as what happens in the classroom. Together students and teachers question, experiment, and wonder. This type of active, collaborative, hands-on learning leads to greater curiosity, engagement, and positive development.

Research tells us that early childhood education is an extremely important period in child development. Ninety percent of brain development happens between birth and third grade, and those years are the most sensitive and critical in a person’s life. The alignment and continuity from preschool through third grade are crucial to positive student outcomes. I am grateful for all I have learned at the Parish Day School over the past 15 years and am honored to currently be the Head of School, leading an incredible faculty of 27 who are dedicated to the full spectrum of early childhood learning.

Our growth through the third grade these past four years has been rapid, exciting, and full of gifts. While we are proud of all we have accomplished, we have more work to do. We need an enlarged and improved facility to house our elementary students, ensuring greater collaboration among the team of teachers who educate them, as well as furthering our sense of community, a crucial building block in student development. We need a larger, updated multipurpose room to accommodate the existing needs of extended day programming, lunch for our growing number of students, our vibrant music program, and the day-to-day activities that enhance our outstanding school. Our existing preschool building and playground need renovations and updates to respond to our 21^st century learners, and finally, we need to add to the Heritage Trust Fund to support our new and improved buildings which house our program.

The Parish Day School has an outstanding team of educators dedicated to our youngest learners and families excited to experience our unique model firsthand. We are committed to maintaining a comparatively affordable tuition rate, need based financial aid, and establishing a faculty enrichment fund to meet the needs of our growth. As we embark on the Parish Day School’s Capital Campaign, the first fund raising effort in school history, we are thrilled to have each one of you at our side and hope all members of our community will find meaningful ways to offer support.

The Parish Day School has been a primary mission of The Church of the Redeemer for 72 years, and our recent growth has attracted a more diverse group of families who are excited about our work in early childhood. With our first class of third grade graduates, we have truly seen the positive benefits of our early childhood model and growing school program, especially as it enhances our school, parish, and Baltimore.

With a vibrant church and school community, Redeemer is a gift to our city and future!

Warmly,
Mary Knott
Head of Parish Day School

Dear Folks,

Last September I began a training program in Spiritual Direction at the Haden Institute in Hendersonville, North Carolina. To be honest, I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into. As we went around the circle in our first small group session, my cohort members shared compelling stories of relationship stress, career changes, personal loss and growth. “Spiritual direction is a portal to what’s now and what’s next,” said one person. Our mentor added, “This work will strip you naked. It’s hard and it’s good. And the human being you discover is always so beautiful.” My group laughed when I admitted I thought I’d signed up for a long weekend instead of a two-year course— “I wondered how we were going to get all that work done in four days!” But whatever had brought us to each other, I was thankful for the company and the challenges ahead.

Spiritual direction involves deep listening. The “answer” to whatever question one might bring is waiting to be discovered within the directee, by the directee. Because our lives are often chockablock full of distractions or appointments, what one is seeking can be obscured by words and old habits, or by the judgments we carry about the feelings we feel or the thoughts that we think. Deep listening, on the other hand, honors the individual’s soul and trusts its capacity to embrace whatever it finds. It begins with the assumption that the human is precious, that the divine is present with her and within her, and that this Soul is eager to be found.

For thousands of years mystics have discovered and refined practices that develop a relationship to God (or Spirit or Presence) and that deepen this connection within an individual. Spiritual direction, then, is an ancient path for seekers, religious and otherwise, who long to find themselves, or meaning, or purpose by searching for the divine. The practice might include periods of silence, intentional breathing, keeping a journal, walking as prayer, or inviting an image to speak.

The spiritual director acts as a mid-wife—not causing the new birth or even bringing it—but present to the directee’s labor and encouraging it, knowing when to wait and when to push, creating as much safety as possible in an inherently risky situation. Soul work, like being born, moves through the dark. Spiritual direction is to hold space and time for the one who is giving birth and for the one who is being born. The director resists the temptation to control or manage the work that the directee has brought, choosing instead to tend a space of compassion for the directee to do what only she can do.

The curriculum at the Haden Institute is grounded in the work and writing of Karl Jung, and so a significant dimension of spiritual direction is dreamwork. Here’s the frame: each human is made up of the conscious (waking reality), the personal unconscious (memories and experiences that for whatever reason are not available to the conscious mind), and the collective unconscious (the realm of archetypes, images, and the poetic which is older than time and shared by all human beings). Dreams are a gift from the dream maker (God, Spirit, Creation) and they intend our wholeness, seeking to integrate the unconscious with the conscious. Images are the language of dreams, and the individual dreamer is the only one who can know what the images mean for him or her, though dreams can be worked in a group setting. And because the collective unconscious is shared by all human beings, one can be trained to receive another’s dream and invite its images to speak to you, as well.

Would you like to know more about the divine spirit that lives and moves within you? Contact Thomasina Wharton at the Center for Wellbeing  or me.

Love,
David

Inscribed on a column of the Temple of Apollo in the ancient Greek city of Delphi was the philosophical axiom: know thyself. These words are attributed to Socrates when asked about the totality of ALL philosophical axioms.  He supposedly replied, “The unexamined life is not worth living. Know thyself.”  I am reminded of Our Lord’s response to the scribe who asked about the “greatest commandment.” Jesus replied with the Shema, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.^[a]  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^[ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[c] There is no commandment greater than these.”

Even though we know that Christianity was formed in the crucible of Greek philosophy, what could the words of an Aramaic-speaking Jewish man of the first century CE and a Greek-speaking man of the fourth century BCE have in common?

A hint lies in the second chapter of the Gospel of John, where we read how the people who encountered Jesus in Jerusalem during Passover were enamored of him and the signs he showed. Yet, the Scripture says that Jesus was not moved by their admiration and pleasure because he understood human beings’ fickle nature. (cf. vv24-25) In other words, they “believed” in him, but he did not “believe” in them.  The same Greek word, pisteuo, is used for “entrust” and “believe” in this verse:  Jesus knew that the likes and dislikes of unenlightened human nature shift like the sands of time.

It is important to know who we are at our core because that is all that remains of us.  We are each “one heartbeat away from physical death,” as one spiritual teacher puts it.  To know ourselves is to recognize our multi-dimensional nature, usually accessed only in dreams and visions, meditation, or deep prayer, and to identify with that nature instead of the one we usually attach ourselves to (roles in life, material possessions, people, places, or other things).

If G-D, the Creator of all things, is ONE, then all that is created is a manifestation of that creator’s Oneness in a variety of forms—animal, vegetable, or mineral. We humans are also of oneness—a spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical whole. Studying and learning to understand who we are enables us to understand why we are here, ordaining purpose for living in this place and at this time.

Do not be fooled; we are each as much a part of all (the good, the bad, and the ugly) that occurs on this planet as any person we could choose to point a finger at. We, members of the human collective, are ONE and manifestations of the Unity, the very fabric of all that IS.  Likewise, being expressions of the DIVINE ONE makes us, at our core, lovers, just like G-D.  It is the imago dei within us.  In this dual reality, we live betwixt and between love and hate, war and peace, joy and sorrow, life and death.  Our earthly learning is about balance and harmony of all we think, do, or say.

To know ourselves is to hold our loving, generous, kind, peaceful, patient, and whole (holy) natures as well as our anger, fears, insecurities, manipulations, avoidances, and feelings of inadequacy, worthlessness, and doubts simultaneously—with compassion.  No small work, but Jesus did it, and we can do it too.  The Spirit of G-D lives in that inner-dimensional space to help us when (if) we ask. We have our whole lives to become as Jesus was (is) because there is always more.

It is this possibility of more that can be our catalyst into the unknown and to seek to shift and change from what is to what can be.  In the book, Prayers of the Cosmos, we understood the ONE Jesus called “Father” as total all-encompassing POSSIBILITY.  This dynamism is so out of alignment with our feared need for stability and unchangeability that it shuts out the Mystery of what can be.  But, this may be the only place left to stand in at the end of this present darkness.

The season of Eastertide in the Christian church is a wide-open door to celebrate LIFE in its fullness, even after so-called “death.”  Like Christ Jesus, the stories we listen to during our current adult forums talk of rebirth and new, true life, where the old life is surrendered for something new and amazingly GOOD!  We can honor the feelings of fear, loss, and darkness with compassion for ourselves while expecting and looking forward to the Light of the new life to erupt within us and in the world around us, just like winter inevitably cycles into spring.  Know yourself.  You are SO LOVED!

Freda Marie+