Canterbury@ULM

Monday, March 3, 2014

Face Time

Christ Church, St. Joseph, La.

My son has a girl friend. Like an amazing number of young couples today, they met online—on Twitter, to be precise. She lives two states away. But that does not prevent them from “hanging out,” watching television together, even playing video games together.

How do they do that? It’s called “face time.” And it’s possible because phones today have video cameras built into them. And it helps that “long distance” calling is now no different than calling the house next door.

I imagine most of us have had at least one experience something like those described in today’s lessons—a mountaintop experience, a vision or dream that changed our life (Exodus 24:12-18 & Matthew 17:1-9, NRSV). “Face time” with God, if you will, and you don’t have to go to a geographic mountain to experience it.

Of course, there are those among us who scoff at such things. Those who take pride in being realists. Those who believe that dreams are just dreams and visions always frauds, and nothing is real save what we apprehend with our human senses and rational minds.

The human intellect is a wonderful thing and a great gift from God that we should use to its fullest capacity. But in comparison to the mind of God, human intellect is profoundly limited.

I am sorry for those who live so thoroughly inside their own cranium that they cannot find meaning in dreams, visions and mountaintop experiences. Their world is small. They are not available to be transformed by face time with God!

More

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Lenten Lunches

If you're free for lunch during lent, come on down to Grace Church for a free meal and lenten meditation. Your chaplain is the first speaker of the series!

Saturday, February 22, 2014

The Underground Stream

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

The Underground Stream

Simone Weil, the marvellous French philosopher, Christian mystic, and political activist, stood on the edge of Christianity her whole life, between Judaism and Christianity, wanting her very life to be a bridge. She loved both of them and couldn’t choose either of them. She believed that the trouble with Christianity was that it had made itself into a separate religion instead of recognizing that the prophetic message of Jesus might just be necessary for all religions. We were not to be in competition with other religions, but rather to be complementary to their message.

I encourage you not to abandon your own mother tradition; that is where your deepest religious consciousness was first formed, and you have to be surrendered and accountable in one concrete place, as even the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa both insist. Otherwise your ego self is always the decider, and you operate as a loner. You must have a home base that holds you accountable for what you say you believe and a concrete community that every day reminds you that you still do not know how to love.

You have to go deep in one place. When you do, you fall into the underground stream that we all share.

Adapted from Richard Rohr’s talk,
“Sacred Silence: Pathway to Compassion,” presented at Festival of Faiths,
Louisville, Kentucky, May 18, 2013

Gateway to Silence:
That all may be one

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

This Week

Bishop Jake - The Poor 2 from Robert Harwell on Vimeo.

Yes, Canterbury@ULM meets this week.

THURSDAY, 5 p.m.

Student Center 163

We're down in numbers. Cornell has a job now that might prevent him from coming. If you know anyone to invite, please do.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Coming up!

This is a very important event that I will be involved in. Please come!

Canterbury@ULM will meet in the Food Court at 5 p.m. at one of the tables next to the windows across from Subway and Einstein's. I'll buy us some snacks and we'll talk about this event, Interfaith and Lent, which is coming up quite soon.