Reflection for March 28, 2012

The Physics of Attention

First comes the sitting. You should be relaxed

but comfortably straight as you align

your head and torso, shoulders, neck and spine,

your leg right-angled: soles are roots, feet flexed.

In this position you will find your head

afloat, not heavy. Rest there. Now begin

attending to your breathing, out-and in-

the street noise there but filtered, edited.

Quiet the voice that asks: That's all? Just sitting?

Just being there and breathing? Breathe. Align

your body with the earth, your flitting mind

with all that flies, and welcome, in the One

in whom you live and move and have your being,

things as they are: this chair, this you, this time.

MARY O'CONNOR

Mary O'Connor, R.S.M., has taught literature and writing

in the San Francisco Bay Area and in South Dakota. She

now conducts writing retreats.

Reflection for March 21, 2012

Ancestors

my ancestors surround me

like walls of a canyon

quiet

stone hard

their ideas drift over me

like breezes at sunset

we gather sticks

and make settlements

what we do is only partly

our own

and partly continuation

down through the chromosomes.

……………………………Harvey Ellis

Reflection for March 7, 2012

Hope has two beautiful daughters---

their names are anger and courage;

anger at the way things are, and

courage to see

they do not remain the way they are.

St. Augustine

Reflection for February 29, 2012

Jesus clearly says the kingdom of heaven is among us (Luke 17:21) or “at hand” (Matthew 3:2, 4: 17). One wonders why we made it into a reward system for later, or an evacuation plan for the next world. Maybe it was easier to obey laws and practice rituals for later than to actually be transformed now.

The price for real transformation is high. It means that we have to change our loyalties from power, success, money, and control (read: “our kingdoms”) to the Lordship of Jesus and the kingdom of God. Henceforth, there is only one thing that is Absolute and in relationship to that, everything else is relative – everything – even the church, even our nation, even national security, even our wealth and our possessions, even our identity and our reputation.

Your god is whatever you trust to validate you and secure you, and the Gospel is saying, “Will the real God please stand up?”

Richard Rohr, O.F.M.