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I will be making some more cookies however.  We’ve managed to nibble our way through the cookies we made the week after Thanksgiving.  There are no cookies left to give away…and I always give away some of our favorites that are only baked at this time of the year.

I’m aware of being able to ‘sense’ Christmas in a way that’s impossible when holiday obligations have me in a strangle hold. There have been ordinary moments, doing just ordinary things that have seemed like a gift.  This morning even the late arriving sunrise of daylight savings time is a gift as I sit at my computer looking out the french doors which face east. The sky is ocre, on its way to sherbert, after which I expect a Florida blue sky.

My sensing moves beyond that which I can see to the mysteries of what we celebrate. I accept with gratitude the stray thought that the God of the Universe chose to become human for a while; that He didn’t drop in as a successful entrepeneur but as a helpless infant born to poor parents; that God chose to use a weak, obscure form to inhabit and from weakness and not strength to change the world.

For years (from my busy-ness) I pleaded with folks in my congregations to slow down and let themselves be apprehended by Christmas. I invited them to let Christmas speak to them without words which, I knew at least on an intellectual level, was possible. I suppose it was difficult for them to hear my call to stillness when I was moving so fast! LOL

And so this year, in God’s goodness and generosity Christmas is coming to me as the gift that I have an inner memory of it being. My heart is receiving the lights and sounds and smells and quiet as divine acts breaking into my life inviting me to consider the Gift Giver. 

So maybe this year, from the silence, I can invite you to sense the gifts God has placed all around in your life to draw your attention to Him.  And together we’ll be partakers of the mystery of God coming to lowly folks like us, in the form of a lowly child like Jesus. And together we’ll be filled with good news of great joy.

Merry Christmas from THE CELTIC MONK

“Our faith ought to be capable of filling our hearts with a wonder and a wisdom which see beyond the surface of things and events, and grasp something of the inner and “sacred” meaning of the cosmos which, in all its movements and all its aspects, sings the praises of its Creator and Redeemer.”  Thomas Merton

As I’ve made my twice weekly trip, first north 100 miles to Bradenton and then south 150 miles to Naples, I’ve watched with great interest the outside temperature gauge on my dashboard instrument panel.  For instance, this past week when I left home at 5:45 Sunday morning it was a chilly 50 degrees. As I crossed the Peace River, I lost three degrees. As I reached the Sarasota County line, I lost three more degrees, even though by then the sun was up and the fog was burning off.

    When living in Indiana, Sam and I would often comment on the climate line that seemed to run right through the city of Terra Haute.  That was where the weather changed from what we were coming from in Chicago… to what we could expect another hour or so south in Washington. 

     I’m not a meteorologist, but I imagine there are more accurate ways to measure and/or predict those invisible lines that exist from one climate area to another, other than my car instruments and our musings as we drive. For example on the Big Island of Hawaii, they are very willing to boast about their dozen micro climates… distinctly different patterns of weather all contained on one island.

     My life right now feels as though its being led from one climate to another very much like those invisible micro climates that came to mind this week. It’s as if I’m driving away from people, places and things I’ve long depended upon – individuals and communities that helped me to define who I am. And with them in my rearview mirror, I’m driving into a new climate; one, however, I don’t know anything about.

     The questions I’m asking myself go something like this… Will it be warmer or cooler?  Will it be sunny or overcast? What will grow in this new environment? Am I prepared…and do I have everything I need? Will it look and feel like home?  Will I recognize it when I get there?

     My certainties are few. I’m confident that there is One who prepared the way before I had any idea I was going anywhere.  I believe that my awareness of this movement from one micro climate to another is part of the experience.  I know that the journey is a process of losing to gain.  I’ll admit it’s disconcerting to see the temperature continue to drop.  Yet there are grace-filled moments of certainty that a path has been cleared for my good; for a future and a hope. [Jeremiah 29]

     And so in the this season of Advent, a season of journeying, waiting and preparing, I do all of these things in earnest. They are not just pious metaphors but have become personal convictions to lead me beyond where I can see.
 
     Are there micro climates that you are traveling through this Advent season? Does this time hold for you some unknowns…or more of them than usual?  Are trepid-ation and anticipation twin companions?  Are you journeying this Advent into more that is unknown than predictable?   Then my friend, we travel in good company with Mary, Joseph and little children everywhere.  So along with them let’s seek the “great joy” the angels proclaimed and rejoice in all that God is birthing in us. Blessings of Peace and Joy!  THE CELTIC MONK

I’ve spent the past few weeks reading and researching burnout in people who minister to others.  While most of the research focused on ordained clergy, anyone in ministry, anyone whose livelihood puts them at the service of others, fit the criteria and the potential for living focused outside of themselves.  After a while, that’s what causes the deep tiredness that makes us wonder if we really want to continue or if we might be ready to throw in the towel.

One of the significant causes of burnout for people in helping professions is called “Vision Conflict.”  That’s a really fancy phrase that simply means: what I see and desire is not what you see and desire.  The result is tension and stress; the perpetual kind like the little pebble in your shoe. 

Another cause is “Compassion Fatigue.” Compassion fatigue happens when we keep helping others even when we are no longer able to help ourself.  While it works for a while, maybe, sooner or later we become so empty we can’t go on. When that happens we end up on the casualty list.  What comes to my mind are the folks who tirelessly helped in the aftermath of 911, or of Katrina. Who then is there to help the helpers?

Next is the common predicament in a ministering person’s life of trying to “go it alone” or similarly “just me and God.”  The problem of trying to work tirelessly or endlessly alone is that it’s not the way we were made.  In the opening of the Book of Genesis we have the seeds of what we know as the Trinity.  There we find God, His Word, and His Breath working together… Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Even God experienced fellowship in His work and took a rest when His work was reasonably finished.

I wanted to offer a reminder and a caustion of these common potholes in the life of a caring person. They are an instant recipe for burnout, especially now.  Less than a week from Thanksgiving, many of us have already heard the announcement:  “Gentleman [and ladies] start your engines.”  Some of us will be tempted to not even take time to breathe until after January 1 — we’ve done it before.

But let me encourage you this year to be kind to yourself.  It’s been a tough year for our country and our world.  One in three of us know someone who’s lost their job or their home.  Almost 90 percent of us don’t think next year will be any better for us financially than 2009. People who professionally care for others in any capacity are carrying a heavier burden because of the sheer number of people who are living on the edge.

While it is true, that with God anything is possible…we ned to remember  <em>we ain’t Him.</em>  Be gentle with yourself.  Schedule a walk, a bike ride, a swim. Choose meditation over the morning paper(or email). Stop each day and look into the eyes of a family member or someone you love. Say ‘no’ to that one more thing that you usually say ‘yes’ to.  If you don’t have a good support system, now’s the time. Remember to breathe. Plan to stay off the casualty list this Chrsitmas season by caring for yourself.

I told the group who came to the workshop that I was uniquely qualified to teach “avoiding burnout” because I was likely the one closest to it!  So I’ll be following my own advice in the weeks ahead. It’s an old learning, but let me remind you that God cares first about your being. Don’t destory yourself in doing.  Cherish yourself, my friend. God does.
BLESSINGS AND JOY, THE CELTIC MONK

There’s a program running on my computer called “Progress Thru Processors.” It silently, usually invisibly runs in the background. It runs all the time. If my computer has been idle for a while the program comes up as a screen saver—to show me just what its doing.

It’s easy to sign up for the opportunity to allow this program to run on a computer anytime its not in use. I was able to pick from a list of worthwhile agencies all needing processor time to do huge studies requiring millions of hours of computer time. It would not be feasible, or cost effective, for them to buy all the computers it would take…so they simply ask folks to ‘lend’ them time on their personal computers. To date, these silent programs have logged over 5,000 hours of processor time on my computer alone. It’s mind-boggling.

Three different agencies use my processor while I’m not using it. Rosetta@ home is studying proteins & their affect on disease like Alzheimer’s and HIV. Climateprediction.net is a project to produce predic-tions of the Earth’s climate up to 2080 and to test the accuracy of climate models. Malaria Control.net runs simulation models of the transmission dynamics and health effects of malaria to determine the optimal strategies for delivering mosquito nets, chemo-therapy or new vaccines which are currently under development and testing. It is somehow gratifying to be a small part of so much good.

This whole idea of a ‘program’ running in the background that pops-up occasionally… seems to be closely related to the spiritual discipline of meditation. As I’ve chosen to spend disciplined time in meditation, (which can look quite like idle time) I’ve often been surprised when its fruits “popped-up” in my daily life in various ways. Most of the time my practice of meditation is something that is unseen and unheard; but then I’ll get an insight, or a vision, or some other kind of spiritual nudge that reminds me of how God is working in me and through me, though unseen and quite undetectable to others. Like the ever present “Progress Thru Processing” program on my computer, the mind of Christ which I seek through meditation, is always running and governing my thoughts, hopes, desires, actions.

I’ve had various responses to the practice of meditation from my Reformed friends some of whom are suspicious of anything that sounds “Eastern” or New Age. But I can’t help but realize that for all those many times the New Testament tells us Jesus went away alone to pray…we have no recorded words. I rather think Jesus went to a quiet place where He could gaze on the Father and God could gaze back at Him – which is the perfect descrip-tion of Christian meditation.

Let me encourage you to begin, or to begin again your practice of meditation. And if you’re a little stuck, or don’t know how to begin, email me… and let me help you get started in this sacred discipline of meditation. I want you to be amazed, as I am, what God can do with the gift of our attentive silence. Blessings and Joy, THE CELTIC MONK

I wrote my first reflection paper today which begins in earnest my Benedictine Oblate candidacy.  The topic was holiness.

In his Rule, Benedict only wrote briefly on the subject RB 4:61 “Not to wish to be called holy before one is holy; but first to be holy; that one may be truly so called.” 

Most interesting to me in trying to discern Benedict’s meaning was what came immediately before and after in the Rule.  Line 61 reminds monks to obey the Abbot/Abbess line 62 is a call to fulfil God’s commands in daily deeds. You can read the Rule of Benedict for yourself by following this link to St. John’s Abbey.   “http://www.osb.org/rb/text/toc.html#toc”></a

While I am not a scholar on Benedict, it seems to me that at least somewhere in his thinking was the fact that how we respond to people within our community (RB4:60) and how we live in response to God (RB4:62) are the very fabric of our holiness. That holiness is not a goal of the life of a follower of Christ, as much as it is a fruit of living as Christ lived.

What a relief (at least to me) that holiness is not something obscure that I need to seek to do or be…but rather in living in humble submission to God and others holy is what we become in the process. There is no piety or religious practice that will make me holy in isolation.  Relationships are required; right relationships with God and others. And as such it is a way of life a path that we will walk on always.

Having spent a good deal of time yesterday pondering this idea, I awoke in the middle of the night with this scripture in mind:  “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21   Isn’t that what holiness is all about…living as Christ lived, dying to self…living in Christ’s strength, dying to any pridefullness that seeks its own way.

May God continue to work in me and in you the grace of right relationships, that others may some day truly call us holy.   BLESSINGS AND JOY, THE CELTIC MONK 
P.S. I’ll have more to share about Philippians 1:21 soon!