Channeling Grace

Tami Simon and Caroline Myss

In this podcast, Caroline and I talk about how the ultimate holy language is prayer, as well as the creative power that comes when we learn to pray with God instead of to God. We also discuss:
• Prayer as a request for how to see with greater clarity and truth
• How, according to Caroline, “law is the ultimate nature of God,” and how this insight led to the discovery of what she calls “Divine Organics”—the ways our bodies act lawfully, as does everything in the universe
• The shift that occurs in our lives when we choose the power of love over the love of power
• Language as part of the backbone of healing and developing a vocabulary that invites insight, transformation, and healing
• How every choice we make has creative consequences
• Channeling grace for the benefit of others as “Grace First Responders” in the world

Where do nuns come from?

Pope Francis with Franciscan nuns

 

Today is the birthday of St. Clare of Assisi, born 1194. As the eldest daughter of a wealthy family, she was expected by her parents to marry well, and they began trying to fix her up with eligible bachelors when she was only 12. She managed to convince them to wait until she was 18, but by that time she preferred to go and listen to the young and radical Francis of Assisi preaching the gospel. One Palm Sunday, she ran away in the middle of the night to give her vows to Francis. He cut her hair, dressed her in black, and brought her to a group of Benedictine nuns. Later, he moved her to the Church of San Damiano, where she embraced a life of extreme poverty, after the example set by Jesus. Claire’s sister Agnes eventually ran away to join her, and so did other women, and the order became known as the “Poor Ladies.” They spent their time in prayer and manual labor, and refused to own any property.
Throughout her tenure as abbess, Clare fought for the right to adopt her Rule of Life as the official governing policy of the Poor Ladies, rather than the Rule of St. Benedict, which was more lax. She was the first woman to write the rule for a religious order, and Pope Innocent IV finally granted her request just two days before she died at the age of 59. She was canonized two years after her death, and eventually the Poor Ladies became known as the Order of St. Clare, or the “Poor Clares.”

touch

in 1978 Owen with John

 

This AM

my daughter went to the farm store

and left her phone in the Ghent Homestead.

I tried for an hour and with 6 calls to 5 people to find her

all to no avail.

I was lost in cyberspace

and had to turn to prayer.

 

Evidently,

no touch screen –

and I’m out of touch

with the whole village.

 

Even the wind

was silent.

Only my soul sang.

 

(from now on, I’m holding all of them in my lap)

( we are there in the lap of my creator)

S     A    F    E   

Soothing

design by Yamamoto

Perhaps as a child you had the chicken pox
and your mother, to soothe you in your fever
or to help you fall asleep, came into your room
and read to you from some favorite book,
Charlotte’s Web or Little House on the Prairie,
a long story that she quietly took you through
until your eyes became magnets for your shuttering
lids and she saw your breathing go slow. And then
she read on, this time silently and to herself,
not because she didn’t know the story,
it seemed to her that there had never been a time
when she didn’t know this story—the young girl
and her benevolence, the young girl in her sod house—
but because she did not yet want to leave your side
though she knew there was nothing more
she could do for you. And you, not asleep but simply weak,
listened to her turn the pages, still feeling
the lamp warm against one cheek, knowing the shape
of the rocking chair’s shadow as it slid across
your chest. So that now, these many years later,
when you are clenched in the damp fist of a hospital bed,
or signing the papers that say you won’t love him anymore,
when you are bent at your son’s gravesite or haunted
by a war that makes you wake with the gun
cocked in your hand, you would like to believe
that such generosity comes from God, too,
who now, when you have the strength to ask, might begin
the story again, just as your mother would,
from the place where you have both left off.

“Prayer” by Keetje Kuipers from Beautiful in the Mouth. © BOA Editions, 2010. Reprinted with permission.

Prayer (A Silence in which another voice may speak…)

A field of weeds

Praying

It doesn’t have to be

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones: just

pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try

to make them elaborate, this isn’t

a contest but the doorway

 

into thanks, and a silence in which

another voice may speak.

Mary Oliver

Definition #16 Prayer

Then dusk, and someone calls a child’s name…
as though they named their loss. Carol Ann Duffy

Although I cannot

pray, the bird sings, the truth flies –

perches in my heart.

Prayer of St Bonaventure

Saint Bonaventure Franciscan Monk

I dedicate this prayer to my daughter Quenby on her 38th Birthday and to her father a Trappist monk who took the name: Bonaventure.

Father Bonaventure aka John Poland 1961

Pierce my soul with your love, calm and charity.
Let my soul long for you and your home.
Let my soul be dissolved in you, hunger for you.
Bread of Angels, refresh me with holiness, super sustenance, sweet bread.
Let me feed on you, angelic host, fountain of life, wisdom and knowledge, torrent of pleasure, fullness of the house of God.
Let my soul compass you, find you, run to you, meditate on you,
do all for the praise and glory of your name, with humility and discretion, love, delight and perseverance.
Be my confidence, riches, delight, joy, rest, wisdom, portion, passion and treasure.
Fix my mind and heart immovably, Amen.

To see the original prayer by St Bonaventure, go to:
http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/667/Prayer_of_St_Bonaventure.html