Beloved St. John’s community,
This coming Sunday, John Bellaimey and Lynnell Mickelsen are going to lead the Community Forum (the education hour in the Parish Hall at 9:00am before the service) on the topic of spiritual practices, and I hope to see many of you there. Christian spiritual practice is a meaningful way one can experience the presence of God and interpret the teachings of Christ in one’s own life, from one’s own perspective. Ancient monastic traditions created what they called a “Rule of Life” that established such practices as a way to remember God at predictable intervals throughout the day, week, month and year. Personally, I don’t find the word “rule” super appealing, but there is another word I resonate with because it is rooted in nature: rhythm. A rhythm of life can mimic the many cyclical rhythms that occur in our universe: the rising and setting of the sun, the phases of the moon, the four seasons, one’s heartbeat and breath.
Indeed, our liturgical year follows some of nature’s rhythms: for example, Easter always occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. As auspicious a day relating to spring and new beginnings as one can imagine, to the ancient way of thinking! Each natural rhythm carries with it some themes: sunrise relates to new beginnings, the return of light; summer relates to abundant growth and heat; and breath and heartbeats speak about an endless cycle of expanding and contracting, of giving and receiving, a reciprocal relationship between each living being and the whole. And each natural rhythm has a different time cycle—from the impossibly long time it takes for ice ages to come and go, to the nanosecond between each breath.
I sometimes find it helpful to combine traditional Christian spiritual practices (like centering prayer or fasting or tithing) with a theme of natural rhythms that is meaningful to me. For example, in periods of life that are the most difficult—when I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the next hour, let alone the next day—I sometimes link a short prayer, such as the Jesus Prayer (“God have mercy on me”), with each outbreath. When life is a grind, and I’m just slogging through each day waiting for the chance to rest, I can use the examen at the end of each day, seeking to find moments that were life-giving and let go of those that were not. When I have a need for transformation that can’t be accomplished in a day, I can borrow the themes of the seasons (both natural and liturgical)—spring for new beginnings, summer for growing and flourishing, fall for letting go and winter for resting and allowing some things to die—to support and inform my relationship with God and the transformation I seek.
To make a “rhythm of life” involving Christian spiritual practice your own, consider beginning with the following:
- What rhythm is your own life in right now—things clicking along at breakneck speed, a long slow period where nothing much seems to change, a time of suffering when you don’t know how you will make it through the next hour?
- What natural rhythm most relates to the rhythm your personal life is in right now—fast or slow? A breath, a day, a month, a year, the impossibly long climate cycles?
- What Christian spiritual practices most appeal to you right now—prayer practices, practices relating to action and service, practices tied to the arc of the Christian life such as Jesus’ Way of Love (turn, learn, pray, worship, bless, go and rest)?
Consider finding a Christian spiritual practice that you can tie to the natural rhythm you resonate with the most. Consider that God created the rhythms of sun, moon and earth, and that knowledge of these is in our very bones, in our DNA. Ask God to help you—perhaps you need to watch each sunset and as the sun slips below the horizon, ask God to help you let go of some behavior that no longer serves you, or to let go of something you cannot control. Perhaps you might set aside a day each season and devote it to prayerfully reflecting on the themes it presents.
However you end up engaging your own spiritual practice, my prayer is that you are strengthened and bolstered by the rhythms of the earth itself, which God created and called good. Amen.
Lisa
