Spirit On The Margins

I was privileged to hear Vie Thorgren the executive director of Center for Spirituality At Work, from Denver Colorado, present at the Spiritual Director’s International Conference at the end of March.

Center For Spirituality At Work

Spiritual Directors International

Don’t let the name of Vie’s organization fool you. The core of her work is about training spiritual directors in the context of working with persons who find themselves on the margins of society. It is the only program in the country that does this, that I can find. The distinction is that City House takes spiritual directors who are already trained and places them in relationships on the margins. Vie actually trains them there.

At any rate, Vie made statements that I had never heard before, and yet struck me as totally true as soon as I heard them.  She defined “the marginalized” of society as: problems that we think need to be dealt with or fixed; objects of our concern; and yet who are not at the table when decisions are being made about them.

She also said (and this struck me as so true when I heard it), “The energy from the stuff we don’t want to deal with as a society goes to those that are marginalized who suffer it on our behalf.  They carry our individual and collective wounded souls and they will reveal it to us. If we allow them, they will pull our faces off and show us to ourselves. They will cut through our persona.”

Vie went on to say, “Our time with marginalized folks fosters contemplative awareness and interior freedom. They move us into liminal space - that space where the imagined veil covering the sacred is very thin.”

For Vie, and for me, “There is nothing like being accepted by someone on the margins to reduce one’s own need to find acceptance and esteem from those in power in society.” Such paradox and so true.

I felt blessed to be present during her presentation.

This week I had the opportunity to visit the men’s spirituality group that one of our volunteers leads at PPL Industries. It is a work site in which ex-offenders get an opportunity to transition their way back into the workforce.  I heard one of the more interesting stories I have ever heard in the past five years of doing this work.

PPL Industries Web Site

One of the men in the group that day announced that we was retiring because he didn’t need to work anymore. That caught my attention right away, because the men working in this facility generally have all they can do to get by on the $6.00+ per hour wage they get.  In fact, most will talk about the near impossibility of getting a job once you have a felony on your record, and it doesn’t generally matter how long ago that it happened.

He was serving a 100 year sentence in Texas for armed robbery in which gunshots were exchanged. He talked vividly about feeling the gunshots going through his body. While he was serving his sentence, he had a spiritual awakening, which according to him, led to a dramatic change in his behavior and lifestyle. He became a different man because of his surrender to God.

Nine years into his sentence, he wrote an article for the prison newsletter. A woman in Minnesota happened to see the article and was so touched by what he had said, that she began to write to him. She came to visit him in prison. They ended up falling in love.  And somehow, through the grace of God, he ended up being released from prison and placed on 25 years probation. He moved to Minnesota and ended up marrying this woman. Last year, after 22 years had elapsed, he was released from the remaining 3 years on his probation.

One of the most unusual aspects to this story is that the woman he ended up marrying is well off financially. That is highly unusual to see persons who find themselves in this situation to be able to move from poverty to a middle or upper class lifestyle. So, he hasn’t had to work, but he has because he wants to make a contribution to society. Unfortunately, with a felony permanently on his record, the best that he has been able to manage all these years is minimum wage jobs.

He is an incredibly affable man. You can’t help but like him as you hear him tell his story. He is so grateful for everything God has done in his life, including the amazing miracle of this woman he loves and who loves him, the early release from such a long sentence, and the miraculous twists and turns he has lived through.  What a privilege to hear his story.

A friend of mine, Beth Gaede, has just published a book with William O. Avery through Alban Institute, entitiled If This Is the Way the World Works - Science, Congregations, and Leadership.  It explores the application of Margaret Wheatley’s work on new science and leadership in a congreational setting. It is a good read and I recommend it highly. There are some particular quotes that capture the essence of City House.

“The theology of the cross states, in part, that God is always active in this world but in the same way God was active on the cross. In other words, God’s acting in this world is always hidden under its opposite: weakness, helplessness, and powerlessness. When we look to see God overcoming death on the cross, what we “see” instead is defeat and death.  Martin Luther talked about this phenomenon as God’s mask. God’s power is always hidden in weakness; God’s strength is always concealed behind the mask of impotence.” (Page 7)

It is my experience and that of many others to encounter the reality of this in our relationship with the poor. God’s presence is mysteriously encountered in the weakness that one finds there, both theirs and mine. Somehow, it leads to an experience of union and communion with them and with God at the same time - a mystery indeed.

Emily Wilmer, a gifted spiritual director and workshop leader in the USA and UK led a retreat for City House volunteers at Colonial Church in Edina.

Colonial Church 

Emily made the point that in serving the poor as spiritual companions, that City House volunteers are honoring the God seed that is in each of us. She asserted that we experience the mystery of God as being “Other” than ourselves, and that by abandoning ourselves to the poor, that we are in fact abandoning ourselves to God.

She talked about the radical nature of abandoning ourselves to God, that it goes beyond surrendering.  That sentiment was captured so eloquently in phrases of Prayer of Abandonment by Charles de Foucauld - “I abandon myself into your hand”; “I am ready for all, I accept all.”; “to surrender myself into your hands, without reserves and with boundless confidence”

Emily went on with passion and depth about the mysterious force that drives our desires, of which we are unaware - that is beneath our desires. It was again captured so beautifully in phrases from “A Prayer Before Silent Prayer” by Ed Hayes - “Divine and Hidden Friend”; “your Spirit’s silent song, ever flowing like a river deep within”

Emily shared a video with us “A Human Thread” - a documentary on Lisa Kristine - an incredibly talented photographer that takes stunning photos of persons around the world, many of whom are from third world countries. Lisa talked with a deep sense of call about the way she abandons herself to her work.

Lisa Kristine 

I left the retreat feeling more alive and more wonderous, keenly more aware of God at work in the very depths of my being, beyond my awareness, and yet trustworthy.