A friend of mine just sent me this quote.
“There’s no one so rich that they have nothing to receive and no one so poor that they have nothing to give.
Mother Marina Elisa Prado, a Carmelite in Guatemala.
Blessings on all of you and your families.
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.
I remember when I first started working with the poor 5 years ago. I was afraid that my car would be vandalized in some of the neighborhoods I was going into. I was worried that some of the participants in City House programs would find ways to harm me or my family. I was hearing stories from participants that were so far out of the realm of my experience I was shocked by the reality of them.
Some of this fear was and is justified. It is easy to be naive. Once, I was asked to give a ride to a newly released inmate from the Hennepin County work house. I worked my way through a crowd of inmates being released in the early hours of a cold winter morning. When I found the man I was looking for, he asked, “Would you mind if we gave a ride to some of my friends?” In those early days of doing this work, I wasn’t prepared for setting the right boundaries in the spur of the moment. So, I foolishly said, “yes.”
Four other released inmates got into my car and each paid the guy that I came to pick up $5.00 for arranging to get a ride in my car!!! It wasn’t the first or last time I was conned. Fortunately for me, nothing dangerous happened on the trip.
But, what I have learned in the last five years is that while I need to be careful about boundaries and safety, they can not be my primary focus. If they are, I lose the opportunity to encounter God in the people I meet. I forgo the chance encounter with the Divine.
This was said so well this month by Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, in her sermon at the Anglican Peace Conference, Towards Peace In Korea (TOPIK) in Seoul, South Korea.
How do we perceive the stranger - as threat or as the image of God? There is a part of each one of us that awakens to full alert at the presence of a stranger, an unknown, one who is “other.” That reaction is an instinctual survival skill, and in itself is neither good nor evil. But what we do with that heightened awareness is a moral decision. When we become profoundly aware of the presence of “the other” we are confronted with a series of choices. Is this other a threat, a potential blessing, or do we need to gather more information before we decide? We might do well to remember that the unknown stranger just might be a divine messenger, or an angel. I begin to be convinced that every such stranger may bear a divine message if we are able to discover and receive it. Certainly every encounter brings an image of God, an image we do not yet know, and that meeting must therefore be rich with creative possibility.
Where and in whom did we meet God anew? How will we discover an unknown image of God in this meeting here? That divine image is most certainly here, all around us, and it is found more readily when we receive the stranger with openness, and even vulnerability.
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.
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.
Today I had the privilege of speaking at the adult education hour at Spirit of Hope UMC in Golden Valley, Minnesota. The talk was entitled, “What the Poor Can Do For Us”.
I talked about the role spirituality plays in giving meaning to our pain and suffering, whether we are rich or poor. We reviewed select City House outcome data that shows there is some connection between spirituality and changed social behavior.
Select City House outcomes data
Then we talked about how we can open ourselves to and be changed by those on the margins of our world. To emphasize the point, I played short video clips from the movie Dances With Wolves, starring Kevin Costner.
We also reviewed the 4 stages of spiritual growth that one goes through in working with the poor as postulated by Albert Nolan, a Dominican South African theologian.
Stages of Spiritual Growth in Working With the Poor
Then, Ulysses Snell, a City House program participant told his story and the importance of God and his spiritualty in his life.
Ulysses contended that people think race is the issue, but that in his mind it is really about class differences - the “haves” and the “have nots” - that separate us. He said, “People think that people like me are only about wanting money, but it’s about just being with me, understanding me, and loving me for who I am - that’s what I want.” When Ulysses talked about his deceased mother, he began to tear up and had to stop.
Those in attendance were very respectful, warm, and welcoming. Several people afterwards went out of their way to thank Ulysses for sharing his story. We both felt quite welcomed.
After worshiping with the congregation, Ulysses and I went to lunch. I asked him for feedback about what I had said. He said, “To be honest with you Tom, I was falling asleep while you talked. I really didn’t know what you were trying to say about Dances With Wolves. You were showing them a story about Native Americans…? Whatever…I just decided to go with the flow.” Hmmm…another lesson in humility.
As I reflect on the morning, I feel so graced to have a friend like Ulysses. We just like spending time together.
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.
City House www.city-house.org and Christos Center for Spiritual Formation www.christoscenter.org led an inner cities pilgrimage last Saturday. 22 pilgrims went open to experiencing God in a halfway house for women coming out of prison, a drop in homeless site, a chemical dependency treatment program, and a permanent sober housing program.
I was privileged to be part of that group. The most powerful part of the day for me was when we were hosted and led by the “poor” persons we had come to spend time with. In one instance, 5 women with criminal records, were dressed up and waiting at the door to greet us. They told us their stories as they gave us tours of their temporary home. They were bursting with pride. We heard powerful and emotional stories about working to gain custody of their children again.
In another instance, we were led on a street tour by a man that had not long ago been homeless. It was eye opening to see and experience the streets the way that he has. Midway through the tour, he stopped us, formed us in a circle, and invited us to a time of silence and prayer, in the middle of a bustling city commercial area. Once again, someone on the margins was my teacher.
www.speakingoffaith.org This Sunday, on Speaking of Faith, on public radio, Krista Tippett will interview Matthew Sanford, who has been parapeligc since the age of 13. Now 40, he’s an expert practitioner and instructor in yoga. His book - Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Trascendence
I was moved by some of the quotes from Krista’s e-newsletter. I was struck once again by the wisdom that is so often present in places and persons on the margins of our society - people and places through which we all grow spiritually, and that remind us of the universality of the human and spiritual experience.
From Matthew’s book: “I am forced to feel death - not the end of my life, but the death of my life as a walking person. In principle, my experience is not that uncommon, only more extreme. If we can see death as more than black and white, as more than on and off, there are many versions of death short of physically dying.”
During Krista’s program, Matthew speaks of “silence” he encountered where his mind and body stopped communicating with one another. But this core silence is within each of us, only grown more evident through his injury.
I think this last passage speaks so eloquently to the “still small voice” that is within each of us, that we tend to hear only when we seek the spiritual practice of silence and solitude.
Please share with all of us what wisdom you have learned from a place or person on the margins.
this blog is affiliated with City House, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization tending to the spiritual lives of the poor, inspiring hope.
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