Spiritual Reflections

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
-- Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, open and receptive, so that I may embrace the many ways you choose to visit my life.

Create in me a clean heart, cleared of the refuse of old battles with others and deadly opposition with myself.

I came upon an old lean-to on one of my mountain hikes. A few pieces of wood had been nailed together and set up in a remote pasture. As I looked at the lean-to, I imaged cattle, horses, and sheep seeking shelter, finding comfort from the harsh storms that can come so quickly to the high places.

I could also see how we humans need our lean-tos in the storms of life which come upon us when our bodies are too weary to work, our spirits too hurt to struggle and our hearts too pained to care.

Imagine you are an archbishop going for a walk in a spacious cemetery. It’s a chilly Lenten day. You’re weary from a long day’s work, and haven’t even taken time to get out of your work clothes because of yet another meeting in the evening. Soon after you settle into a comfortable pace, a poorly dressed man walks in your direction. As he draws close to you, he stops. The next thing you know he’s thrusting a knife at your neck, demanding “money or your life.”

Karen Armstrong, the author of several excellent books on religion, makes an intriguing observation when she says that for many people religion has become just another consumer item or service. How many people use their religion to undergo a transformation, and how many expect attending church or synagogue will provide them with a little moral uplift?

The question “Where Have I come from?”
rises up and haunts me;
lingering, it floats like a flower
in the backwaters of my mind.

A Psalm of Icy Awareness

The earth around my home
is now locked in a winter wrap
of bone-chilling snow and ice.

O you who showered sacred stars
on the tiny town of Bethlehem,
I thank you for guiding artists’ brushes
to create cards of beauty,
bursting with blessings.

“The root of religion,” said Rabbi Abraham Heschel, “is what to do with awe, wonder and amazement.” Wonderful insight since from the root of wonder and awe grows religion, even if you are not religious. From that same root of wonder grows the flowering plant of prayer and adoration of God.

Life is perpetual communion. First, you are constantly in communion with your feelings, thoughts, and yourself. Further, you are endlessly in communion with others in conscious and unconscious ways. You are also in living communion with the created world in which you are immersed, even if you, like most of us, view creation simply as stage scenery for our little human dramas.