Spirit On The Margins

Tomorrow there will be another great program on Speaking of Faith, hosted by Krista Tippett. She will interview the Canadian philosopher and Catholic social innovator, Jean Vanier, who founded a community centered around people with mental disabilities, L’Arche, that has now become a global movement.

“He has spent his life practically exploring the most basic, paradoxical teachings of Christianity — notions about power in humility, strength in weakness, and light in the darkness of human existence — that resonate as Christmas draws near.”

“He follows Gandhi’s good advice, he tells me, that none of us can change the world; what we can change is ourselves. Vanier has always insisted that L’Arche communities are not a ’solution’ to the fact of disability in our world, and the human challenge of that, but a ’sign’ of another way forward.”

“His movement works with people with mental and intellectual disabilities — and does not treat them as problems to be solved. They are honored as a mystery of the human condition — the simple fact that some human beings have been and always will be born with brokenness that is physically rooted, visibly debilitating.”

“But Jean Vanier the philosopher and wise soul has long seen through the true challenge humanity faces before this mystery. He asks, ‘How do we stand before pain? Why are we frightened of people with disabilities?’ After a lifetime steeped in these questions, he answers, it is because we all struggle so fiercely to subdue, deny, and hide the suffering and imperfections in ourselves. Core members at L’Arche are often transformed by the practical love and care they receive. But equally dramatically, the able-bodied, strong-minded individuals who come to share life with them quickly learn that they too are being healed, made whole.”

I get excited every time I hear Jean Vanier speak or read his book. He articulates so clearly the value system to which we ascribe and attempt to live in our work with the poor at City House.

Synopsis of Becoming Human

Here is a story that one of our volunteer spiritual companions shared recently:

“I just met with this man who is in recovery.  Awhile back he was having a really bad day and he decided to go to a bar.  On his way, he ran into someone who asked him, ‘Do you have God in your heart?’ He said, ‘That made me stop and think, but I continued on to the bar, one I had been to a million times.’ 

‘But a strange thing happened. Even though I looked for a long time, I couldn’t find it.  I finally gave up and went back to the treatment center. I know this was a spiritual experience, but I’m still trying to figure it out.’”

This conversation is representative of the conversations we have, day after day, at our 25 City House sites of service, where we now serve at the rate of 4200 visits per year. In this case, as in countless others, the volunteer supported the individual in sorting out the meaning of this spiritual experience for himself, articulating it as a source of strength and hope in his life.

We are so honored to be invited to do this work and to be stewards of people’s sacred stories.

There was great article in the Tuesday, November 20 Source Section of the Star Tribune by Jeff Strickler, about the use of centering prayer in prison. Sister Mary White, a Beneditine sister at St. Paul’s Monastery in Maplewood, is teaching inmates at Stillwater Prison “how to find their own private freedom.”

She says in the article, (Centering Prayer) “teaches people how to go to a place in themselves that is wise, stable and infinitely spiritual. People who have been wounded in life often react violently unless they know that there is a place they can go to not carry out behaviors they have learned and automatically produce.” 

Definition of Centering Prayer 

Centering Prayer facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer — verbal, mental or affective prayer — into a receptive prayer of resting in God. It emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God. At the same time, it is a discipline to foster and serve this relationship by a regular, daily practice of prayer.

It was distilled into a simple method of prayer in the 1970’s by three Trappist monks, Fr. William Meninger, Fr. Basil Pennington and Abbot Thomas Keating at the Trappist Abbey, St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.

In the Star Trib article Jeff Strickler says, “Her (Sister Mary White) approach is based on Locked Up and Free, a program that has been heralded for reducing anger and frustration among inmates at Folsom Prison in California.”  I found this site with a compelling first hand description of someone leading Centering Prayer in that environment.

Locked Up and Free Newsletter 

And so we sat in silent prayer, in the lap of God, in prayer beyond words or thoughts, in pure faith, totally at the service of the Holy Spirit. After our first 20-minute prayer meditation, the silence breaks, a voice shares, telling of a life of craving, of chasing happiness outside of himself, chasing a God outside of himself, feeling disconnected, separated from everyone. He says he is finally getting it; God’s inside him, happiness comes from inside. Others nod in affirmation.

A lump rose in my throat that I could not choke back, I just stared misty eyed and nodded as he witnessed in such a gentle, placid and transformed voice.

He went on to tell of how he finally understands the clichés he’s heard his whole life. Forgive your enemies; do not judge others; to receive you must give. Of how he came to realize this in the past week during prayer, in an instant, snapping his fingers, of how there will be no more useless chasing, of how he doesn’t believe he will need to drink again, of how he feels so unconditionally loved, and connected, of how he trusts, of the feeling of being reborn… of being so free.

I wept throughout the second 20-minute prayer meditation and most of the way home. What a God of infinite mercy we have. I need to learn how to trust in his mercy always. 

A City House volunteer that works with a group of men in a chemical dependency treatment program recalled the following discussion. In that group, the men take turns leading.  Whoever was leading that night noted that he was someone who had a lot of drama in his life. In fact, he said, “I think I am as addicted to drama as I am to drugs.”  If drama in his life was missing, he created some to “get his fix”.

RS Eden 

 He went on to say, “But I have discovered a new way to get high without the drugs and without the drama. Now, giving to someone else gives me the same feeling.” The light bulbs in the rest of the guys in the room went on. They all shook their heads with vigor that this was true for them as well.

Anyone else heard constructive ideas about replacing an addict’s high?

Above left: Lutheran Church of the Reformation church council 

Center: Carol Cushman, City House volunteer spiritual companion

Above right: Violet Johnson, City House participant

Lutheran Church of the Reformation (in St Louis Park) http://www.reformationslp.org/  is exploring ways in which they might do outreach into the community. They asked City House to attend their recent council meeting to talk about a possible partnership.  The church council was very welcoming and hospitable and we were grateful for the opportunity.

Violet wanted the church council to know that the clothes she was wearing were all donated to her - that she had nothing when she came out of prison. She described how difficult it is to find a job with a felony on your record. She said, “If you looked just at my criminal record you wouldn’t understand that there was a lot more to my story.” Violet’s voice cracked with emotion at times as she described the life circumstances that led up to her time in prison. She made it clear that she was accepting responsibility for her actions that landed her there, but it wasn’t hard for me to understand some of her life choices as I listened to her.

Violet was incredibly courageous to make herself so vulnerable in front of a group of strangers. She talked with passion about the role that God has played in her life. She expressed appreciation for the 2 City House volunteer spiritual companions that visit with her, Carol Cushman and Cathy McDonald. Violet beemed with pride when she talked about the job that she now has at a local church and all the ways she now gives back to her community.

 Carol described how uncomfortable it was when she first served at a halfway house for women coming out of prison - because of the perceived differences between herself and the women there. Carol went on to say that now when she enters that site, she fully turns it over to God, and how blessed she feels whenever she leaves after an evening with these women.

Carol described a recent inner cities pilgrimage she had been on,  sponsored by City House and Christos Center for Spiritual Formation.  

http://www.christoscenter.org/ 

She heard a story told by one of the persons on that pilgrimage that sounded a lot like the experiences of some of the women she serves at the halfway house. Having been on that pilgrimage myself, I remembered that I too was struck by the fact that we can’t always tell the story of a person just by looking at them or making assumptions about them based on their current station in life. She said, “At the moment I suddenly knew that we are all the same.”

Carol happens to be a member at Lutheran Church of the Reformation.  Pastor Tom Mundahl has been serving there for only 3 months. Carol is an introvert and tends to be quiet. Pastor Tom expressed to her his surprise that she was in their midst, a person of such strong faith, doing this kind of work, and that he had not yet heard about it. I have a feeling that Carol will be telling her story to the congregation real soon.

City House described several ways in which we could possibly support the congregation in their outreach efforts: Helping them better understand the culture of poverty; Leading them in a discernment process about whether and how they might want to reach out to the community; Training members in how to support the spirituality of the people who are poor; Supporting church members in understanding and articulating how they are being transformed spiritually in their work with persons on the margins. All of these activities might include inner city pilgrimages, reading and reflection, workshops, and more.

I left the evening feeling amazed and awed by the stories told by Violet and Carol, being keenly aware at how active God is in this ministry, and grateful for the opportunity and hospitality of Reformation Lutheran Church.

www.wcco.com  WCCO television did a segment last night: “Good Question: Can We End Homelessness?”

 Ben Tracy reported on a group of Hennepin County leaders who say they will end homelessness in the Twin Cities in the next 10 years.  Mark Peterson, the President and CEO of Lutheran Social Services insists it is possible.

Cathy ten Broeke, leading a Hennepin County task force claims that “The number one reason that people are homeless is that they can’t afford a place to live.”

I’ve heard enough in this community to know that this is true, and I applaud these leaders for their courage and vision. But, what is so often overlooked is the change in heart that is needed for anyone of us to take advantage of resources with which we have been gifted.  So often, an internal shift is needed before an external transformation in behavior and circumstances is possible.

What do you think?