The Fanatic

 It is said that a fanatic is someone who conceals a secret doubt.  So if you feel attacked for your beliefs, not to worry.  If you talk about recovery or your faith commitment make sure you witness it by your life.  Be forgiving and accepting of the attack upon your beliefs.  Many a person who said, “I don’t need that stuff,” eventually came through the door.  They remembered how you acted as well as your words.  

Faith

 A lot of non-believers in religion think that faith is all about doctrine teachings, which they reject.  But faith is about experience.  Experience is what changes a person’s life.  Hypocrisy happens when faith is only about doctrine.  It becomes very individualistic, me and my God.  But when faith is an experience then it connects, touches the heart, takes us beyond our individualistic secular culture.  God is a God for all and especially for the down and out.  Jesus was born in a manger in a cave or stable outdoors.  The Eucharist is a paucity of food, a thin wafer, that contains God.  All this, as an experience, connects us to others, especially those who are in want.  Faith drops a culture of comfort and indifference.  It picks up responsibility.  It is why vibrant worship faith groups are seen as “do-gooders.  It is the same in Recovery Programs.  Service is key to keeping the groups united and focused on a primary purpose.  A truly sober person never lives in isolation or indifference to the sufferings of others addicts.  

Pregnant Power

 I try to keep sobriety, my spiritual practice, my priesthood, pregnant with God, the Power that sustains me.  Why?  Well, pregnancy is about the time and energy to bring something to life where others can experience it.  My meditation, for instance, feeds and nourishes this inner life.  How and when is it born into the world?  When I am of service without self-promotion, egocentricity, self-focus, selfishness to name a few of my shortcomings.  Give time and energy to others.  Maybe be part of their becoming pregnant with this Power.  Then they will be of service too.  

Advent

 I look back on the four weeks before Christmas, called “Advent.”  It means Coming.  I reflect now that it was not just about Jesus coming to be born in backyard shed, though it is that.  That alone does not change me.  What I see now is that every day is an Advent for me, being of service, spiritual reading, household tasks and work done well, are all ways in which this spiritual power that I call God in Christ, seeks to come to life in me. I might say, “I am too shabby, the wrong setting, full of sin.”  And so forth.  Well even if this is so, God came into a shabby manger in a shed.  It was good enough for God, so I guess maybe I am good enough for God.  And so are you if you give this Power half a chance.  

Hell

 There is this part of the Christian Creed that says, before Jesus rose from the dead, he descended into hell.  Resurrection is a handful of belief for many, but what is this about going to hell before heaven or resurrection?  Just ask anyone who has been through a deep conversion experience from darkness, mess, onto the path of love.  A deep conversion experience is one that knows hell and has experienced their own resurrection to a new life.  They did not do it on their own.  Just ask anyone who is a recovering addict.  Not a dry or abstaining addict, but a spiritually recovering one.  Recovery is packed with spirituality.  Ask a one-time atheist or agnostic who has found a God of Power in their life and a worship place, tradition, to deepen the connection.  They all knew hell and it was there that they were found.  Now that is a powerful Power. 

The Why

I hear people say that they began to practice meditation so that they could get to know God, or whoever they think is going to show up.  There is this so-called spiritual obsession with knowing.  This attitude says, “I will believe if I know.”  But meditation is not about knowing God.  God cannot be known by thought, the mind, science.  The reason to meditate is to get out of our own way, such as the obsession to fill the mind with knowing thoughts.  We are the obstacle.  But if we can let go of all our thinking apparatus, fears and such, then we allow God, the spiritual Power, to go to work.  The Power, God, is courteous and does not force itself upon those preoccupied with knowing.   

Silence

 In meditation the sign of a presence other than yourself is given in silence.  The presence shows up as silence.  That is why we are silent in meditation.  We want to be able to hear with the “inner” ear, the Presence, Power that is always within, but obscured by our loud busyness, worry, fear, ego and such.  Silence, like any language takes time and practice.  Give it that time each day.