St. Francis

 People in Recovery Meetings sometimes say the “St. Francis Prayer” in their spiritual practice.  This October celebrates the 800 anniversary of Francis of Assisi, “Transitus.”  That is, his death and transition to the next life.  Though he founded a group called Franciscans, he never told them to become just like him.  Rather, he said he had found out what God wanted of him.  So to follow him, find out what God wants for you.  The Franciscan commitment was to give each person a community practice in which they could find out their specific way to follow Francis’ vision.  He was a person of unity and within that, there can be a variety of ways to bring us all together.  Read the St. Francis Prayer.  

Spark

 Where do you see a spark?  One place is in smoke, or stubble.  That is, there is no fire, yet a spark may be hidden.  You can be the hidden spark.  How do you light the fire?  You don’t do it just as a spark.  You need the breath of prayer, quiet breathing in the silence and solitude.  The Higher Power, God, spiritual force is what will breathe into you, the spark.  It will light the fire.  So many people live the stubble life, but your example, your spiritual practice can make a difference.  You don’t change the world, but you do change yourself, or get changed, by prayer and then action.  

Action

 You may find it hard to talk about your beliefs, but as St. Francis of Assisi says, you don’t have to use words.  Use action.  This avoids hypocrisy.  I can be pretty good with words and this helps others on my blog since they don’t see how I act.  But action is for those who do see me.  And some of my best action is when I am selfless and no one sees it.  Oh, forgot.  God sees.  Oops!

Evolution

 There is a spiritual evolution as well as a physical one.  The spiritual evolution takes place in the short time of our physical life.  What is it?  As Jane Goodall says, we have to evolve from the ordinary, everyday humans, into saints or mini-saints.  Well, that is a tall order.  But just as physical evolution is slow, so is spiritual evolution.  We may not even notice it developing, but it will if we have a daily spiritual practice and spiritual reading that helps direct our daily lives.  Slowly, we move from being all about “me” into being for others without worrying about results or payback.  There can be setbacks, as we aren’t perfect.  But setbacks help us to stay humble.  

Preoccupations

Why do I forget Spiritual Powers in my life?  Preoccupations take up too much space.  It is not the same as something “really important.”  There I would call upon my Power, my God.  It is preoccupations that I make bigger than they merit.  Why?  Ego of course.  I have to attend to this and that because I need to prop up my ego.  The ego never gets excited about God stuff because God stuff sets the ego aside.  The self, falsely, only calls upon spiritual forces, when the self feels like it is in the foxhole, stuck.  Then the ego makes a deal and promises to pray better…tomorrow, or later.   

Give To Keep

If you want to possess something try giving it away.  Say what?  Yes, I keep my faith or grow in it by trying to share it with others in one way of another.  I try to keep to the contemplative life by telling others about it in teachings now and again.  In Recovery Programs, people keep their sobriety and grow in it by sharing it with others.  They “give away” what got them sober in the first place.  You are diminishes by simply holding on.  Faith and Recovery become merely dry and so many people thirst for a better life.   

The Journey

Retirement is not a stop altogether.  Life is a journey with change and growth.  Retirement is the outer garment we wear as we journey.  We are always on the way, but retirement is being on the way in a different pace, manner, surroundings.  There will be new paths opened to us.  We go down them at a slower pace, measured energy, wisdom from the past.  Retirement is like going away from what we know, its old surroundings, pace and practice, routines.  It is a somewhat connected path, but new at the same time.  It takes a getting used to type of life.  But it is life.  It is movement.  Just less frantic.