Dear All of Us,
Please pop
a patience pill or two.
Here comes some hefty
name dropping
Over multi anni
(eighty-six of them)
I've greeted/chatted with
a variety of public notables.
To a person they exuded a
formattable
PRESENCE
Elenore Roosevelt,
Muhammed Ali,
Bishop Fulton J, Sheen,
Eric Sevaried,
Daniel Berrigan,
a bevy of bishops,
a couple of governors,
Cardinal O'Boyle,
Dorothy Day,
Rowen Williams,
Gerald May
Richard Rohr
and
I shook hands
with
JFK
Each unique.
All definitely a
POWERFUL
PRESENCE
and
you could
feel it.
After my Mother
and my Wife, though,
the most
consequential
Presence
in my life
hasn't been at all like
those public notables.
It's an altogether
different presence.
And you could feel it,
gentle, understated,
subtle, warm,
quietly real.
It was Brother John.
Brother John
was a simple
Trappist Lay Brother,
the guesthouse cook
at the monastery.
I met him when
I made a retreat there
back in 1957.
(Yah, that's pretty "back"!)
The monks observed silence.
In that silence
Brother John bespoke
a simple, serene, quiet
Wholly - ness.
He was absorbed in
The Presence of God
and was so with a
down to earth
ease and practicality.
He let God
be present to him
in the immediacies
of his daily life.
in washing the dishes,
in setting out bread for the birds,
in roasting a chicken for our dinner,
in caring for the vegetable garden,
in spiritual reading,
in praying The Hours,
in setting the table,
in tidying up.
Ordinary things
that he let be the
extraordinary things
they actually are,
Gateways Godly.
Brother John
didn't stress out
seeking God.
He calmed down enough
to let God get ahold of him,
enfolding him into loving union.
He welcomed God taking the lead.
As God presented
Brothr John lived a
"yes"
That could be baking a cake to
mystical intercourse.
Brother John didn't try to
force fit his way
to some sort of supposed
superior spiritual status
(camouflaged arrogance).
He put his energy into accepting
God as God offered Himself
in the actualities of his life.
I tell you,
I have never once
met a person
who so simply
let God have him,
let God love him
as God chose to do that.
Brother John just
relaxed into that Love.
He and God were
gently inseparable,
genuinely and clearly
One.
A WHOLLY HARMONY
They did everything together.
There was an unhurried,
soulful symmetry
of trust and union
with God
about Brother John.
It was as if two dear friends
were tending a garden together.
God presenced Himself,
God presented Himself
to
Brother John
where he was,
as he was,
as guests needing
a peaceful place and pace,
needing an unassuming
"at homeyness".
God presenced to him
as tastes, touches,
scents, sights, sounds,
as tasks and surprises,
as suffering,
all suffused with God -
all moments and motions
of
Divine
Presence and Oneness
I once watched
Brother John
eat an apple.
He did not do that
with music on
while checking out
a magazine.
It was rather a slow,
appreciative venture,
reverential,
accepting God's presence
in the gift of an apple,
every bite, texture and taste of it.
About now I'll bet
some of us are thinking
that all this is fine and dandy
for a monk
BUT
we live in the real world.
We have to be busy
making a buck and more,
changing diapers,
shopping,
getting the car serviced,
doing "nice-nice" with in-laws,
coaching soccer,
negotiating rush hour traffic,
mowing the lawn,
having the boss and spouse
over for dinner,
shuttling grandpa around
the medical maze,
- endlessly, frenetically more.
In short, we're short on serene.
It might be a big help to strap on
A Spiritual Heart Monitor
for a month of testing
and then explore
some appropriate retooling
of day and way.
That's a blog for another time.
However it is,
God is in our day,
as it is,
as we are,
how we are,
where we are.
We really can't
think, drag or draw
God into it.
God is already there
wanting us to be there
With Him
suffering a headache,
changing that diaper,
doing the taxes,
lost in ecstasy.
That is the
Divine Difference
and
Presence
Brother John lived.
So much so often
people either
obsess about trying
to spiritualize the moment
(that puts them in charge)
or saying
"Forget it. It' too complicated.
I'll check in with God
Sunday at church."
(see who's still in charge?)
Two swinging strikes
for the count that most counts.
As God presented,
Brother John said yes
and let God make them
ONE
We can as well
and oh so well it is in
THE PRESENCE
******
THANKS TO EACH OF US
FOR MAKING POSSIBLE
THIS
ALL OF US
ONLINE POSTINGS
WEDNESDAYS
LATE AFTERNOON
EAST COAST USA TIME
RECENT POSTINGS AVAILABE
BY
SCROLLING WELL DOWN
BENEATH
THIS POSTING
SEE YOU NEXT WEEK
LOVE TO ALL
GOD BLESS
JOHN FRANK
"Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it"
MARY OLIVER
"Make your home in me
just as I do in you."
JESUS
John 15:4-11
The Message
Translation
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
******
