We will begin this Sunday with the handout from last Sunday. On March 14, we discussed the quotation that Troyanne sent. Her question was about the term "redemption," and what it means. What, in other words, does it mean to be redeemed, and how are we redeemed through our suffering? I'm not sure we came up with satisfactory answers, although we did spend time discussing the passage (see post for March 14). If you would like to expand on our discussion of last week and on the handout, please do so by clicking on "comment" below, writing your comment, and then clicking on "post."
We did reach the conclusion that moving from the agony to acceptance and discernment is best done by prayer and community. What we know from the scripture that we shared at our first "Agony in the Garden" meeting is that Jesus's own acceptance came through prayer, although he was alone, the disciples he brought with him sleeping, others soon to betray him. But, indeed, he did discern God's will through prayer.
There are many ways to form prayer communities. If you do not have the handout from last week, here is the website for group spiritual direction as conceived of by Sr. Rosemary Dougherty (from whom I took my training).
Group Spiritual Direction
Comments, questions?
Friday, March 19, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Sunday March 14: Moving from Agony: Group Spiritual Direction
For March 14, I want to pick up where we left off last Sunday--and that was with the question of how? We agreed that words alone will not help us (as we read the scripture in which Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow because today has troubles of its own). One person mentioned prayer and community, and then I made a suggestion about group spiritual direction.
Troyanne has posted an interesting reading and some provocative questions that I've copied below. Let's begin with her reading and those questions, then move into the introduction for group spiritual direction. I have a handout on it.
From Troyanne Thigpen:
Dear Friends,
Here is an input I read this week that seemed perfectly appropriate for the discussion that we were having when I was last there two weeks ago, on Sunday Feb 28. I hope you agree. Please share with anyone not included on the addressee list; for example, I don't have Don Burt's email address.
It certainly offers some ideas to consider. For starters:
(1) This sounds wonderful, even beatific, but what exactly does he mean?
(2) What do you think of offering this approach to somebody who is suffering? Would it be difficult to present to them? Would it be comforting to them or perceived as unsympathetic?
(3) How does this compare with the traditional Roman Catholic idea of offering up our sins?
from Touchstone, A Journal of Mere Christianity March/April 2010, p.5
The Power & The Suffering, Donald T. Williams
Every one of us has known a measure of suffering. The happiest and most successful person knows from experience the meaning of words like loneliness, fear, disappointment, rejection, and failure. If we live long enough, we will add the death of loved ones, betrayal, ill health, and the feeling of uselessness to the list.
Some people suffer bitterly; some pitifully; some grievously; some needlessly; all inevitably. You cannot avoid suffering. You can muddle through it blindly; you can make it worse by rebelling against it futilely or you can understand it biblically and bear it redemptively. Therefore, we need to learn the joy and privilege of suffering for the gospel There is great power in suffering. There is no more irrefutable testimony to the truth of the gospel than the Christian who bears suffering and affliction joyfully, without bitterness, with love. For only God could produce this kind of spiritual reality, and without suffering, it could never be seen.
I pray that God will grant us continued peace and prosperity and protect us from all unnecessary suffering. But I also pray that when he does send us affliction, he will help us accept and understand it biblically, and bear it redemptively.
Troyanne has posted an interesting reading and some provocative questions that I've copied below. Let's begin with her reading and those questions, then move into the introduction for group spiritual direction. I have a handout on it.
From Troyanne Thigpen:
Dear Friends,
Here is an input I read this week that seemed perfectly appropriate for the discussion that we were having when I was last there two weeks ago, on Sunday Feb 28. I hope you agree. Please share with anyone not included on the addressee list; for example, I don't have Don Burt's email address.
It certainly offers some ideas to consider. For starters:
(1) This sounds wonderful, even beatific, but what exactly does he mean?
(2) What do you think of offering this approach to somebody who is suffering? Would it be difficult to present to them? Would it be comforting to them or perceived as unsympathetic?
(3) How does this compare with the traditional Roman Catholic idea of offering up our sins?
from Touchstone, A Journal of Mere Christianity March/April 2010, p.5
The Power & The Suffering, Donald T. Williams
Every one of us has known a measure of suffering. The happiest and most successful person knows from experience the meaning of words like loneliness, fear, disappointment, rejection, and failure. If we live long enough, we will add the death of loved ones, betrayal, ill health, and the feeling of uselessness to the list.
Some people suffer bitterly; some pitifully; some grievously; some needlessly; all inevitably. You cannot avoid suffering. You can muddle through it blindly; you can make it worse by rebelling against it futilely or you can understand it biblically and bear it redemptively. Therefore, we need to learn the joy and privilege of suffering for the gospel There is great power in suffering. There is no more irrefutable testimony to the truth of the gospel than the Christian who bears suffering and affliction joyfully, without bitterness, with love. For only God could produce this kind of spiritual reality, and without suffering, it could never be seen.
I pray that God will grant us continued peace and prosperity and protect us from all unnecessary suffering. But I also pray that when he does send us affliction, he will help us accept and understand it biblically, and bear it redemptively.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Sunday, March 7: Acknowledging the Agony
I am posting Anne Doyle's comment on this summary page of our session on March 7. During our time together, we talked about ways that we emerge from agony into acceptance. I mentioned my friends whose son died las September. While I had offered to go see them then, they declined, saying: "We can't see anyone now. We will let you know when, if ever, that will change. I understood completely, even the "if ever" part. And then, last week, a message in my mail box: "We remember your kind offer to come. we are emerging from that first awful trauma, and now think it would be good to see old friends." I made my plane reservations immediately. They are emerging from agony.
I had brought in a copy of Henri Nouwen's book, The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey through Anguish to Freedom. I had planned to use his writing on "Going into the Place of Your Pain'" but we got there with Anne's and others' comments about understanding the need for feeling the pain before healing the pain. The quotation Anne provides below says it well.
From Anne Doyle:
At our gathering on Sunday, 7 March, I mentioned a reading from Fr Richard Rohr's daily meditation. I thought folks might like to read what it actually says instead just hearing my summary:
"Our remembrance that God remembers us will be the highway into the future, the straight path of the Lord promised by John the Baptizer (Luke 3:4). Memory is the basis of both pain and rejoicing: We cannot have one without the other.
Do not be too quick to heal all of those bad memories, unless it means also feeling them deeply, which means to learn what they have to teach you. God calls us to suffer (read 'allow') the whole of reality, to remember the good along with the bad. Perhaps that is the course of the journey toward new sight and new hope. Memory creates a readiness for salvation, an emptiness to receive love and a fullness to enjoy it.
Strangely enough, it seems so much easier to remember the hurts, the failures and the rejections. It is much more common to gather our life energy around a hurt than a joy, for some sad reason. Remember the good things even more strongly than the bad, but learn from both. And most of all, 'remember that you are remembered by God.'"
This is the reference provided: Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 26, day 25 (Source: Sojourners, “The Energy of Promise”)
I especially like the idea of "learning what they [the bad memories] have to teach you."
Anne
We have often talked about the need for community in healing; on Sunday the 14, we will talk about group spiritual direction.
I had brought in a copy of Henri Nouwen's book, The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey through Anguish to Freedom. I had planned to use his writing on "Going into the Place of Your Pain'" but we got there with Anne's and others' comments about understanding the need for feeling the pain before healing the pain. The quotation Anne provides below says it well.
From Anne Doyle:
At our gathering on Sunday, 7 March, I mentioned a reading from Fr Richard Rohr's daily meditation. I thought folks might like to read what it actually says instead just hearing my summary:
"Our remembrance that God remembers us will be the highway into the future, the straight path of the Lord promised by John the Baptizer (Luke 3:4). Memory is the basis of both pain and rejoicing: We cannot have one without the other.
Do not be too quick to heal all of those bad memories, unless it means also feeling them deeply, which means to learn what they have to teach you. God calls us to suffer (read 'allow') the whole of reality, to remember the good along with the bad. Perhaps that is the course of the journey toward new sight and new hope. Memory creates a readiness for salvation, an emptiness to receive love and a fullness to enjoy it.
Strangely enough, it seems so much easier to remember the hurts, the failures and the rejections. It is much more common to gather our life energy around a hurt than a joy, for some sad reason. Remember the good things even more strongly than the bad, but learn from both. And most of all, 'remember that you are remembered by God.'"
This is the reference provided: Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 26, day 25 (Source: Sojourners, “The Energy of Promise”)
I especially like the idea of "learning what they [the bad memories] have to teach you."
Anne
We have often talked about the need for community in healing; on Sunday the 14, we will talk about group spiritual direction.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Feb. 28: Agony in the Garden: From Suffering to Acceptance
Here are the scripture readings we discussed on Sunday, as we looked at Christ's own agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. We discussed the meaning of the word agony--agonia, which in the Greek relates to a physical preparation for a coming event. For example, athletes before the Olympics exercised agonia in preparation for the athletic event the next day. How does this meaning of the word relate to Christ's agony and to our own?
We focused on the sentences in the three Gospels, a variation on: ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’ I have suggested that we, as sufferers, often exist in the space between the two sentences--a desire to end the suffering--and yet not ready to hand it over to God.
For the remaining Sundays in March, let's talk about specific agonies and suffering. What will these topics be?
Agony in the Garden: March 2
9:15am: classroom
Today we look at Christ’s own agony and suffering as we try to find something there that will guide us in and through our own agonies.
1. Read the passages of the Gospels on Christ’s agony in the garden (see attached sheets). As you’re hearing these passages read aloud, underline or make a quick note about whatever it is you see in each passage that you want to talk about. After each passage, we will have silence for you to make some notes, bring up some questions, offer some insights.
Perhaps these questions might be helpful:
a. If Christ’s suffering and acceptance are our spiritual guides to our own suffering, what are we to do? How are we to find peace and acceptance?
b. What is agony? Passion? What are its physical manifestations? What is Jesus’s specific agony (noting that he has come from table fellowship—the “last supper” with his disciples?
2. Jesus did not suffer in silence, and we take that as a sign we are not meant to do so either. Please write in the space below what agonies you wish to offer to this group as we, all of us, seek a peace that passes understanding in those situations we live through daily. I have mentioned physical illness, mental illness, adult children. How might these Sundays in Lent offer a safe, Christian community as we each seek the transformation of suffering in our lives
Matt 26: 36-44
Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ 37He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. 38Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ 39And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’ 40Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial;* the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ 42Again he went away for the second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ 43Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words.
_______
Mark 14: 32-36
Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
32 They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ 33He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. 34And he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.’ 35And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36He said, ‘Abba,* Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.’
_____
Luke 22: 41-46
41Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, 42‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’ [[ 43Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 44In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.]]* 45When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, 46and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’*
John 18: 7-11
7Again he asked them, ‘For whom are you looking?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’* 8Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am he.* So if you are looking for me, let these men go.’ 9This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, ‘I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me.’ 10Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. 11Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?’
We focused on the sentences in the three Gospels, a variation on: ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’ I have suggested that we, as sufferers, often exist in the space between the two sentences--a desire to end the suffering--and yet not ready to hand it over to God.
For the remaining Sundays in March, let's talk about specific agonies and suffering. What will these topics be?
Agony in the Garden: March 2
9:15am: classroom
Today we look at Christ’s own agony and suffering as we try to find something there that will guide us in and through our own agonies.
1. Read the passages of the Gospels on Christ’s agony in the garden (see attached sheets). As you’re hearing these passages read aloud, underline or make a quick note about whatever it is you see in each passage that you want to talk about. After each passage, we will have silence for you to make some notes, bring up some questions, offer some insights.
Perhaps these questions might be helpful:
a. If Christ’s suffering and acceptance are our spiritual guides to our own suffering, what are we to do? How are we to find peace and acceptance?
b. What is agony? Passion? What are its physical manifestations? What is Jesus’s specific agony (noting that he has come from table fellowship—the “last supper” with his disciples?
2. Jesus did not suffer in silence, and we take that as a sign we are not meant to do so either. Please write in the space below what agonies you wish to offer to this group as we, all of us, seek a peace that passes understanding in those situations we live through daily. I have mentioned physical illness, mental illness, adult children. How might these Sundays in Lent offer a safe, Christian community as we each seek the transformation of suffering in our lives
Matt 26: 36-44
Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ 37He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. 38Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ 39And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’ 40Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial;* the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ 42Again he went away for the second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ 43Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words.
_______
Mark 14: 32-36
Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
32 They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ 33He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. 34And he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.’ 35And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36He said, ‘Abba,* Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.’
_____
Luke 22: 41-46
41Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, 42‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’ [[ 43Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 44In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.]]* 45When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, 46and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’*
John 18: 7-11
7Again he asked them, ‘For whom are you looking?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’* 8Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am he.* So if you are looking for me, let these men go.’ 9This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, ‘I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me.’ 10Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. 11Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?’
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