Dear All of Us,
Please be patient.
What follows is about
a lot more then
name dropping.
Over the years ,
I have connected
with more than a few
well placed people.
I exchanged hellos with
Eleanor Rosevelt.
In a crowd I shook hands
for about one second with
John F. Kennedy.
I am associated with
the retired CEO of a major
communications network.
Chatted with
G. Mennen Williams.
Mixed and mingled
at an event with
Helen Hayes and
Sidney Poitier.
Had a private visit
with Cardinal O'Boyle.
Have been with Richard Rohr
on numerous occasions.
Had an hour all to myself
with Gerald May.
Nodded and smiled as
Kattie Hepburn and I
were leaving the A&P
in Edgartown,
Martha's Vinyard -
she drove off in a Jeep,
- what a woman!
Worked closely with
Bishop Lawrence B. Casey
(and liked him a lot!).
Exchanged pleasantries
with Eric Sevareid,
pundit at CBS News.
Am on a first name basis
with a number of
United Methodist Bishops.
Rowan Williams, former
Archbishop of Canterbury,
greeted us and held the door
as my wife and I left church
one morning
(lovely fellow).
For all of that,
SO WHAT!
Most of these well placed people
are now placed six feet under.
Many of them
are not widely known,
or have no place
in the public's
orbit of significance.
To fuss over them
would be misplaced
pride of place.
The real pride of place,
- ready for this -
is
YOU
You are one of a kind,
hand crafted by the
Creator
on purpose,
out of sheer love,
brimming with
hope and joy.
The Ultimate,
Love Itself,
God of the Universe
and endlessly beyond,
chooses to be
placed and present
in YOU,
by YOU,
in YOUR body,
where YOU are,
with YOUR personality,
present and active through
YOU
You are the object
of Infinite Passion.
God chooses to do
much good,
uniquely so,
in and through you
in your place and way.
God is the core of
who you are.
Talk about being
"well placed"!
God counts on you.
We do too.
Please be sure you
know and take your
PLACE
******
Next Posting
Wednesday
April 10, 2024
Next Email
Friday
April 12, 2024
Welcome All
with a special greeting
to our many visitors
this week from Cambodia.
******
SPECIAL EDITION
Pray it indeed be a "special" edition.
Pray it indeed be a "special" addition.
ELDERCHRIST
SPIRITUALITY FOR THE LATE LAST YEARS
a read for all ages
We all are invited to bring soul to an unhurried read
over time as we have it.
ELDERCHRIST
is for
those of many years
those helping them
those helped by them
those soon to be elders
those in community with them
those living at home with them
those living a movement
to elderhood some when.
That's pretty much all of us
This is a piece
to Pray Read
to do so in a calm time and place
to return to for reflection
to be Slow Souled over time
This is a piece
for personal meditation
for small group study
for a couple to read/talk through together
for those working with the elderly
for families as an elderly parent
moves in with them
for churches that want
full inclusion for the elderly
for those offering spiritual direction
Feel free to share this with others.
******
ELDERCHRIST
SPIRITUALITY
IN THE LATE LAST YEARS
It’s
happened.
We’re old.
How about that!
What‘s it
going to be like?
How do we do
it?
What about
our spiritual life?
My friend
Sandy has a delightfully spunky approach:
“Old age, well it takes me four times
longer to do nothing.”
“If it don’t hurt, it ain’t working.”
I tease that:
“I forget ever so much, but at least I
remember that I forget.”
How about
the Hasidic wisdom:
“For the unlearned, old age is winter;
for the learned, it is the season of
harvest.”
Then there‘s
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec:
“Youth is the gift of nature,
but age is a work of art”
Job promises positive:
“You will come to the grave in full
vigor,
Like sheaves gathered in season.”
Job 5:26
Sounds a
little like Margarita Magnusson’s
The Swedish
Art of Aging Exuberantly
Many takes
on much ado about aging.
Let’s see what together we can make of
ELDERCHRIST
SPIRITUALITY IN THE LATE LAST YEARS
In the
business world they say “location is everything.”
It sure is
important in the business of our spiritual lives.
How we went
about them when puberty popped on us
was way
different than when we were adding pounds
and losing
options in the Mid-Shift Forties.
Over the
years we find ourselves in a variety of life locations –
childhood,
adolescents, twenty something, adult,
mid-life,
older adult, undeniably old.
Each has a
distinct terrain and climate.
It’s like
moving from Florida to North Dakota to New Jersey,
and not
stopping there.
As with all
of them, old age keeps us busy adjusting to our
NEW NOW
LOCATED LAST LATE YEARS
We want to
get the lay of this land.
We want to explore
this life location,
understand
its terrain and adjust to its climate.
We want to learn
this “work of art.”
We want to embrace
this ”season of harvest.”
We want to
age living “In full vigor.”
Paul helps
us get our bearings.
He locates
us all living “in Christ.”
He does it 164
times in his various letters.
Now, that’s
what you call emphasis.
Paul puts a
point on the pencil.
Speaking of
the Risen Christ,
he maps out the
terrain of our spiritual life:
“In him we live and move and have our
being.”
(Acts 17: 28)
“I live now not I but Christ lives
in me.”
(Galatians 2:20)
That
presents and propels variously
as we move through
the quite different
landscapes
of life.
It is particularized in each,
and most
assuredly in these late last years.
In a
curious and paradoxical way
they are similar to and then often
just
the flip of puberty.
“What’s
going on with my body?”
“Why do I
feel so…?”
“People
don’t treat me like they used to.”
“I
really hate that.”
“Sometimes it’s pretty cool.”
“How do
I do this?
“Where
do I fit in?”
“Can I
fit in?”
“Where’s God in all this?”
“Where
am I with God in all this?”
Our powers,
prowess, positions shift big time.
For a while
we feel like a foreigner even to ourselves.
A lot of our
preferences and patterns cash out.
In both
puberty and old age we are forced to let go of a lot -
activity-wise,
in relationships, with the familiar, the bodily, our self-sense,
purpose, independence,
prayer, spiritual practices and patterns.
We knew our
way around as kids, but then that adolescent scene,
well, it
just wasn’t same so at all.
The whole drill
is repeated in old age and that with some new wrinkles.
It’s our living
out the pascal mystery, death and resurrection “in Christ,”
in our skin
and now.
There is
loss and what gain!
We have to
let go to be gotten and given.
It’s like a
child deeply attached to a rag doll.
They are
together always.
Letting go
is a loss and it happens
again and
again and anew
over the
span of years and life locations.
It is also
an opening for one day
the intimacy
and union of a Life Lover.
It means
loss to be filled to a new fullness.
Spirituality
In the late, last years is
Diminishment Unto Fullness
A more subtle fullness here and
readiness for an infinite fullness hereafter.
In many
cultures the elderly are prized and respected.
In others,
the elderly are shunted off, sidelined into storage.
It makes a
world of difference in living the last lap.
In the first,
the elderly are central to family and community.
Their
well-aged wisdom is sought and supportive.
They
compliment community and are comforted in it.
In the other,
they are dulled in loneliness, devalued, discarded.
Each
location tones and tempers late life aging.
One well.
One
terribly.
Spirituality
For The Late Last Years
is
maximizing the first and
refusing to
be stopped by the second.
In earlier
life locations we are busy
creatively
growing/developing
self and
society:
mind and
body,
skills and
competencies,
career, relationships,
communities,
positive impacts.
As we age
the creative flow and emphasis
are as vital
as ever.
Their
intensity and our activity
shift more
subtle and serene.
Doing is
slowed.
Being warmly
widens.
“Fewer more”
is motif and
manner.
Fewer things
are more profoundly lived.
We can take
time and taste breakfast like never before.
A poached
egg on toast is allowed to share all it is -
a God Good
Gift, connection to chickens and farmers, wheat fields,
transport, workers,
store to table – the underlying unity of Creation.
In prayer we
revisit hurts and sin.
We forgive
and welcome that sense in soul.
We sit still
long enough for God to hug us One.
We joy in
the miracle of a child’s growth.
We hurt, not
like, but with the suffering.
We let The
Spirit show us around the beginnings of heaven.
From deep in
our being we do our giftedness in
“The unforced rhythms
of grace”
Matthew
11:29
The Message
We cook, we
call, we smile, we listen, we host, we support, we visit,
we share
what we have of wisdom, humor, compassion, we help out.
More and
more we open and delight in a lived union with God.
“I live now
not I but Christ lives in me.”
We are one.
We are and
do together always and in everything.
We see,
experience and respond as One.
We drive,
make the bed, shower, sleep, read,
visit,
exercise, together.
We get lost
in a poem.
We spend
time aglow in sun scapes.
We let a
house plant silently sing God for us.
We “be’”
One, doing all together.
Together we
are One with all that is,
Creation so
far with infinity more
forever
rolling out.
In these
late last years we accept
freedom from
being in control and
the
consequent freedom to be gifted more fully.
It does take
some getting used to for sure.
That is
faith.
Faith is
trust.
We trust God
to move us from
what has
been to what opens before us.
We are like
babies in the womb getting ready
to move
through the birth channel.
As life this
side of the womb has been
so much more
than wombed life,
so, and so
much more will life
beyond the
womb of world life be.
(Hey, that’s
pretty much “so.”)
The
transition can be rough at times.
Ah, but the
transition is to an infinite,
well, we really
don’t have
adequate words
for it.
Another way
to stammer it is this.
Watch logs
on a bonfire.
All they are
is released and transformed,
rises to the
heavens.
Between now
and when, we have a great gift to give.
It is so
needed in our confused and conflicted world just now.
“Is not wisdom found among the
aged?
Does not long-life bring
understanding?”
Job 12:12
Sometimes
that’s done in words.
Mostly it is
done by example and in quiet support.
“In Christ”
we suffer the aches and pains that gang up on us as we age.
They break
our illusion of dominance, self-sufficiency and control.
Rather than
fuss and fury, we can experience a widening of soul,
oneness with
Christ suffering across history, in our next-door neighbor,
in the victims
of violence, poverty, injustice,
in the those
dis-eased of body or mind.
We can’t
make sense of it because there is no sense to it. Something is wrong.
We are One
“In Christ” righting it the way Jesus did – bringing Real, Rightness,
Love,
Compassion to it. We are One with the hurt, the limited.
This same sensitivity
of soul allies us with all of Creation that is in travail.
We weep at
what war does, actually undoes.
We ache at
what air, water, earth suffer from selfish abuse.
We care for
the masses duped by materialism, commercialism, “Me-ism,”
fashion
fads, violent sports, stupefying entertainments, gross politicians, fascists.
For it all,
a hearty sense of humor helps big time.
I laugh like
heaven that my little Grand Son and I both need diapers
and that he
will be the only one to out grow them!
That same
sensitivity of soul frees us to delight in Godness beautiful and brilliant
all about,
within, above, below, wraparound.
We savor
food and wine. We watch children play and we are joyed.
We rejoice
that lovers found each other.
We are
exuberant riding through the mountains.
We let music,
poetry and literature lift us.
We get
pretty pleased that we have dinner each evening.
We marvel
that we can facetime with our children and friends.
We luxuriate
sitting in the sun.
These and
endlessly more are the moments, places and ways of
our
contemplative prayer,” our Oneness “In Christ.”
That Oneness
“In Christ” blends and binds us in a holy com-union.
We thrill in
our down deep union as family, friends, neighbors,
peoples of
the world.
We don’t yet
live it out fully, but it’s there and so are we.
We delight
that all of us are the same, unique and varied.
We each a drop of water,
We all One in the sea of existence.
This is most
intimately experienced as The Church.
We are The
Body of Christ.
We are “The
Gathered” (L. Ecclesia) “in Christ.”
Church is
not a building, an organization, a religious system.
Well,
actually it is too often, sad to see/say.
That’s why
in our late last years we are courageous enough
to seek,
find or found and share a real community “In Christ.”
It is never
perfect. It can must be real!!
Speaking of
real, we are ever more and more than ever before careful about
our real estate
and all the elements of our life style.
We are
SoulSmart and don’t buy into the fake out of commercializing
our
remaining time and means.
It’s that
devilish drill:
“You
worked hard and now deserve
every unblessed thing you want.”
Baloney!
We take a
happy pass on being reduced to self-indulgent children
demanding
more and more toys in a playpen of self-centered confinement.
Given our
givens, we give as much as prudently possible to others –
our time and
attention, our assistance, all the “stuff” we will never need
or use
again, our funds. If possible, we visit the alone, we organize get togethers
in our
community (book groups, prayer gatherings), we tutor children and …
One way and
many we are givers more than getters.
It takes
tons of patience.
Barbara
Johnson puts it like this way:
“Patience is the ability to idle your
motor
when you feel like stripping your
gears.”
Jesus puts
it like this:
“By patience you will possess your
soul.”
Luke 21:19
However we
put it, we need to put it into practice.
Patience and
its cousin humility
are front
and center as we age.
Think how patient
humas and vine
mellow
mature choice wine -
(L) humus = earth
Think of the
difference when we are patient
(L) patior = wait,
slow down to
experience the now,
wait, even
suffer, certainly delight.
Patiance and humility
grease the
creaky gears of late life:
What
we used to be able fix in an hour
now
takes a repair person a week to show up
and
fix in two high priced hours
We reach for the salt and our hand decides
to tip over a glass of water on the way.
As a child we excelled at potty training.
Now we fail the course.
It
seems everybody has decided to whisper
rather than “SPEAK UP!!”
It
takes a few tries to remember our spouse’s middle name.
The whole
thing rachets up as more and more we can do less and less.
Waiting is
now derigeur, and not just for the bus.
That span
can be a caldron of agitation.
Better yet,
it can be a work out in learning how not to control things
and going
with the cadence and gift of now.
In that
waiting there is spaciousness for prayer, a pliability of soul,
noticing
what God’s Now is presenting rather than
fuss and
fume trying to put our command control on life support.
As kids we were
taught that a lot had to be taken on faith.
It was a
head trip and mostly a lot of trip up:
Three
distinct persons, yet only one God.
Definitely a try at a higher math than
we could climb and calculate.
Those raised in the RC and Orthodox
Churches were taught/told that
Jesus is bodily present in the bread and
wine in communion.
We puzzled what kind of a human body can
be shrunk and stretched to fit
into lock boxes on altars all over the
world all at the same time,
and into a pocketed pyx for home delivery and
still be a human body?
These elder
days we operate way more from the heart of the matter.
We fuss less
with head stuff.
We’re more
than good with scripture’s snapshots of God pictured as
Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier,
Dad, Lad and their Spirited Love
It’s like
picturing a person who is married, parent and bus driver,
same one
snapped as variously seen and experienced.
Scripture’s word
pictures of the One God are angled and partial –
those of the
one picturing.
We’re so
grateful to have them as we do so viewing them
from our
angled and partial perspective.
We’re good, too,
with the real presence of Jesus in us, the Body of
Christ,
gathered in a holy communion of God Love lived and shared.
It is our
sustaining soul food and drink.
We are too
busy and excited living faith to play head games with it.
Faith is
lived more than conceptualized.
Faith is the
air in our tires
whether rough
ride, smooth glide.
It’s how we
go.
Faith is
trust.
Faith is a
lived cohesion.
That trust
radiates from intense intimacy.
“In Christ”
we are.
More
and more
we are
“All
In.”
We still
deal with religious head trips some, but
“In God We Trust”
is coin of our realm.
Whether we
understand or not,
whether
things are easy or not,
we live faith.
“All things work unto good for those
who love and serve the Lord”.
Romans 8:28
Love and serve – team “in Christ”
The Lord – intimacy “In Christ”
Please let
me tuck this in before I forget,
because forgetting
is getting to be my middle name!
In our late
last years we more and more depend on others.
Our
spirituality calls for ever increasing patience with them
and ever
deeper gratitude for their care of us.
It’s our God
Love Lived, personal and gracious.
Heraclitus,
that wise old Greek philosopher,
saw and said
it straight:
“The only constant in life is change.”
And so it is.
A sperm
changes an egg and together
they
constantly change across the years all the way to
these late
last years and our speeded up slow down.
We climb
aboard and do well in a new way,
or
We refuse to
get on board and are left behind
in a land of
frustrated futility.
We can’t
change old age away.
We can’t
travel trip after trip old age away.
We can’t Botox
it away.
We can’t
tummy tuck and hair color it away.
Slowed down
we see and sense more than ever before.
The deep-down
goodness of Creation comes into clearer focus.
We one in
wonder as a potted daffodil radiates colorfully open.
Going to the
supermarket becomes an outing in isles of abundance.
Slow timing
meals treats us to a wider palate of taste and texture.
Scripture
words God in new never before noticed awareness.
Prayer isn’t
something we do.
Prayer is
Soul Snuggle.
Some days
gentle quiet.
Some days
hot passionate.
We watch the
puffy clouds shy dance God.
It’s all endlessly
God Good.
Slowed down
we see and sense
more than
ever before
the chaos
and pain
of sinful
systems,
of the soul
sick,
of citizens
Empire resident:
a congress minority ruled and out of order
gutless politicos,
media moguls manipulating fact to fiction,
fouling heads and hearts.
the possibility of a fascist head of state
in more than a few states,
mind management in education,
being opposed to killing yet executing killers,
paying ball players millions upon millions,
entertainments spiraling sick and shallow,
profit overriding The Common Good
Soul
Sensitive we deeply feel the real and the unreal.
As ELDERCHRISTS
we are called to be light in a dark world.
Just now
things are the darkest and most dangerous they have ever been.
All through
history there have been social strata twisted evil –
a controlling
few on top, controlled masses under their cruel, unjust heals.
What’s
dangerously different now are
a proliferation of nuclear weapons,
a destabilizing climate,
an unregulated, unpredictable and
possibly rouge AI
a global instability - economically, militarily,
governmentally, religiously, culturally,
with massive migrations and decided resistance to them,
our Mother Earth being raped.
Aware that
in all human history there has never been an available weapon that
has not been
used means we are living in a dark tinder box
that could at
any moment ignite to possible annihilation.
Aware that sickly
many inept, delusional to diabolical people
control much
of media, money, military and governance,
igniting to
annihilation is more probable than not.
We don’t
want to know it.
We must.
It is in
this deadly dark that we live “In Christ” and Jesus Christ is
“The Light of
the world.”
John 9:5
Nothing can
keep us from living light in dark,
Kingdom Bright.
As elders
“In Christ” it is ours to live that light,
to speak it,
to model it, to encourage it, to share it.
We do that
as we can, as we are and where we are.
Please
permit the personal.
This is no
way normative.
May it
encourage vigor of living in all our unique selves.
I am an eighty-four-year-old retired pastor and educator.
My mobility
and energy are somewhat restricted.
There’s a
lot I can’t do.
There’s
plenty I can do.
Writing this
freight and light piece right here is one of them.
I pray my day-to-day
living reflects at least a little of “The Light of Christ.”
I pray it
from my heart continually.
I write a
weekly blog on spirituality.
Over seven
plus years now it has been circulated to people
in a hundred
and twelve countries.
That’s not
to brag.
That’s to do
what I can and to thank God I can and open
to what God
can do in this ELDERCHRIST.
Grandma
Moses painted in her eighties.
Grandpa Me
writes in mine.
I actively listen
and share as best I can with my children, friends, and colleagues.
I support
every flicker of light among my family and friends, church, culture,
government, in
stores and on the street.
I am just
one little old man in a pleasant neighborhood of Washington, DC
who goes
around lighting little candles.
“Better to light one candle than
curse the dark.”
The
Christophers
Their
founder, Father James Keller, knew the wisdom and hope that is
“In
Christ”
“The Light of the
World”
In
Christophers
In Christ Bearers of
That Light
He gave us a
way to go - us, just ordinary folks across the globe.
Even if we
knew it before, knowing it deeper now is a light to live.
Father
Keller pictured a totally dark Yankee Stadium at night.
If but one
person there lite a candle
there was a
flicker of light in darkest Yankee Stadium.
If everyone there
lite a candle
the dark
would be flamed bright,
Yankee
Stadium would be aglow.
There is
dreadful dark.
You are a
candle in Christ.
I am a
candle in Christ.
Together
with other “just little lights”
we live “In
Christ”
“This
Little Light of Mine, I’m Gonna Let It Shine.”
Many of us
will be more and more restricted physically and socially
as we
continue to age. It will be ours to quietly and peacefully relax
in God’s
embrace. More and more we will join God in loving union
with all of
Creation.
We will hold
others in trustful prayer.
If we suffer
it will not be in isolation.
It will be “In
Christ” as God Good fills the painful voids in us and our world.
Ours will be
a spirituality of presence and prayer.
Being out an
about gets shifted.
If for years
we delighted
to encounter
God’s Goodness travelling,
we now
delight to do it from home,
with Rick
Steves and such,
internet
transported.
If we can’t
get to church,
the church
streams to us.
Museums,
concerts, lectures as well.
FACETIME and
ZOOM shrink distance,
connect in
communion.
If we can’t
manage a lot of cooking,
we invite
others over for dinner anyway
and together
enjoy take out.
For select
interests there are
recorded
offerings.
One of the
best I know are
The Great
Courses
and are they
ever!
No, I don’t
get a commission,
just
outstanding intellectual expansion.
I have treasured
recordings of
Joseph
Cambell, Thomas Merton,
Richard Rohr,
Gerald May.
Whatever our
zones of interest,
they are in
some form or other
ready to
come to us right at home.
Ours days
become different.
If we will
accept them as they are,
there’s a
lot of daylight in our days.
Inevitably one day will be our last day here
and like this.
Death
Karl Rahner
was a holy and brilliant theologian of my youth.
He said that
death is not something that happens to us.
Rather,
death is something that we and God do together.
We are
active partners.
That makes a
world of difference as we transition from this world.
Trust and
patience are front and center as mentioned above.
There’s a
lot of unknown to it all.
In Christ we
will be shown along our way
and I
imagine extraordinarily surprised.
Our prayer
is that of Jesus:
“Father, into your hands I commend
my spirit.”
Luke 23:46
Depending on how sassy spirited we are,
we may say it something like:
“OK
God, you want me, you got me.
Come and get me. I want you!
Can’t
wait!”
In all cases
our prayer rest in the promise of Jesus:
(this merits Slow Soul Deep
Hearing)
“Do not let
your hears be troubled.
Trust in
God; trust also in me.
In my Father’s house there are many rooms;
if it were not so, I would have told you.
I am going
to prepare a place for you.
And if I go
and prepare a place for you,
I will come
back and take you to be with me
that you
also may be where I am.”
John 14:1-3
HOME SAFE
I remember
my Mother and her death.
Mom was an outstanding
nurse,
extraordinary
Mother,
at home
saint – a love!
As the first
born it was up to me
to share
with Mom the doctor’s word
that we were
ready for Hospice.
We cried.
Mom asked
for a little alone time.
I returned
about an hour later.
After having
prayed things through Mom said:
“Joe, I’m going
to the Lord. Let’s do it.”
Calm,
steady, trusting, one with God’s will and way.
Some days
later she awoke in the middle of the night,
smiled and
died.
I hope it
can be so for me, for you.
Mom had a
way to go and was ready to go.
She knew and
trusted that:
“But our citizenship is heaven.
And we eagerly await a Savior
from there,
The Lord Jesus Christ,
who, by the power that enables
him
to bring everything under his
control,
will transform our lowly bodies
so that they will be like his
glorious body.”
(Philippians 3: 20-21
)
As for me, I tell you flat out how I feel about dying.
It’s like
just before the first time you make love.
A little
scary and can’t wait!
“Let’s do
it”
THE END
THE BEGINNING
******
Highly Recommended
The
Gift of Years
Growing
Older Gracefully
Joan
Chittister
Blue
Bridge
2008
On the Brink of Everything
Grace,
Gravity & Getting Old
Parker J. Palmer
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
******
