Throw back Thursday Post: Spilled Coffee

We've had a several requests to repost older blogs or to explain again things we've previously written.  So beginning today NHA Blog will repost previous posts on Thursdays.

Our Blog will try to follow the following schedule for posting, give or take a few days.  But don't hold us down too tight to the schedule - we have a lot of responsibilities in which to attend.

Sunday Post: Spirituality, Tuesday Post: The Outreach in Sierra Leone update, Thursday: Review of a previous post.

Coffee Spilled...

I recently came across an article of Seraphim's, written many years ago about the time he spent in India.  He was invited to a Christian Ashram in the Himalayas for dialog on the enculturalization of prayer.  

 Written by Fr. Seraphim 

❖Coffee spilled into my lap as I heard, "Oh, I'm sorry, please forgive me."  Grabbing a napkin, I assured the person who had bumped into me that it was okay.  As I refilled my cup, I was reminded of a day on a dusty street in New Delhi, India, and how I learned one of the great spiritual lessons of my life.  

Some years ago, I travelled to the Jeevan Dhara Ashram located in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains.  I went to pray and spend time with the head of the ashram.  My cell looked out on the majestic peaks which were breathtakingly beautiful.  The air was fresh and scented with mountain flowers; it was a truly idyllic setting.  Each morning I would rise at 3 AM to pray the Divine Office, remaining in prayer as the sun ignited the majestic peaks with heavenly golden light. 

Jeevan Dhara Ashram in Himalayas (India)    ©2012 NHA, All Rights Reserved 

Then, with Jesus beads in my hands, I would take a prayer walk which would eventually lead me to the chapel of the Ashram.  My time in the mountain paradise seemed to blend into one continuous, ongoing prayer.  One day I was talking to a pilgrim who had just arrived from Germany.  As we discussed the beauty and calm of the ashram I said "It sure is easy to be holy in a place like this," and he said, "Yeh, it sure is," as we gazed on the valley below. 

Statue of sitting Christ in the Ashram Gardens, India                ©2012 NHA, All Rights Reserved 

A week later I made my way to New Delhi, where I spent my days walking the streets, silently praying the Jesus Prayer.  I was still swimming in the holiness of the ashram when a motorized rickshaw ran up on the walk, heading straight for me! As the driver was bearing down on me I thought, surely he wouldn't hit me on purpose! How wrong I was - I bounced off the front of the rickshaw.  I landed on the ground and yelled, "You idiot!" as he drove off waving his arms and blowing his horn.  Dusting myself off I said, "Oh well, forget it," and walked on, keeping careful eye open for ricks. 

Streets of Delhi, India (1980's)    ©2012 NHA, All Rights Reserved 

Suddenly the noise of the city faded as my thoughts turned inward to the space where God speaks to us beyond words and images.  A week before I had been in a Himalayan bliss, so "close" to God, so spiritual and saying, "It's easy to be holy in a place like this."  Now, the first time I"m with someone since then I get angry and call him an idiot! I suddenly realized it's easy to think you can be holy in a place like an ashram.   The test of holiness, however, is not being in an ashram, on a mountain, or in one's set times of prayer.  The real test is carried out in the marketplace where life bumps us literally and figuratively.  

Looking at this old photo, it proves that there was a time when Seraphim actually was young!  (Tall man, back roll, left)     ©2101 NHA

Back in the present, as I took another sip of coffee, I thought, the reason coffee was spilled on me was not because I was accidentally bumped but because there was coffee in the cup to begin with.  What's inside a person is what comes out when they are bumped.  We are to be filled with Christ so that when we  are bumped, out come forgiveness, understanding, encouragement, compassion, love and whatever the present moment demands. (Col. 1:27). ❖

During this Lenten Season, as we fast, prepare our hearts, deepening our prayer lives, and attempt to take our spiritual disciplines more seriously,  - its easy to think we are holy.  But its what we do when life knocks us around and we get jolted.    

We will get bumped.   What is inside?  What will come out?  anger? revenge? mean-spirited, hurtful words? jealousy?  If that is what is inside you, then that is what will come out.  

However, if forgiveness, love, words that offer redemption, ...if those are the things that are inside you - then that is what will be unleashed on whatever jars us out of our comfort zones.  May this Easter Season be one in which the overflow within us is emptied of everything that isn't rooted in love. 

Prayer Path

Today Seraphim had went out to walk the grounds while saying his rosary and I was out on the deck at Anna House sweeping off the hundreds of ladybugs.   I glanced over toward the Chicken Coop to see what the chicks were doing.   With the Spring sunshine heating up the grass,  I expected to see the chickens darting about chasing bugs, scratching and pecking.  But instead, I came across a sight that took me back.

It took me back several years to another place and time - a difficult time  except for this one fond memory.

At our former place, in the middle of the city, we built a grotto.  This provided the perfect setting to say the Rosary.  Night after Night, Day after Day we said the rosary at the grotto.

As America went into Iraq during the war, Seraphim began Walking around the Grotto praying the rosary. The deeper and more difficult the war became, the more Seraphim walked in prayer, walking the path he prayed and praying the path he walked.

Soon a visible path began to surface, a path made completely out of prayer.   The prayer path hadn't been planned, it just happened.

Saying the rosary while walking engages all the senses, the movement, the sights and sounds around you, verbalizing the clauses out loud, breathing the air - it all helps to deepen your prayer, and in the case of the Rosary it deepens the Life of Jesus within you.

"If you want to understand the Rosary, its praying the Life of Jesus.  If you want to understand Mary, its saying "yes" to that Life.  Therefore the Rosary is praying the Life of Jesus in union with Mary who said yes to that Life." - Seraphim.

Later we were excited to find out that John Bradburne the Franciscan, martyred during the war in Zimbabwe,  also had a prayer walk he called the Prayer Track up on top of Chigona Mount.

At certain times, others began to come to walk the Prayer Path and the Grotto Area became a Sacred Space in an Urban Place.

There were a lot of struggles, battles won and lost at that former place but the Grotto Enclosure was the biggest source of comfort to a lot of us.   Walking into that Sacred Space felt secure, like climbing up onto the lap of Jesus and taking a big sigh of relief.  You could breathe easy there.  It has been the one thing I have missed since we moved to the skete.

From time to time, we've talked of building a grotto.  But that takes, time, labor, money and energy.  A project sitting on the "back burner" waiting to bubble forth.

But today, as I swept the deck ...

I peered through the trees I saw that old comforting sight -  Seraphim was walking a large circle...

beads clicking one after another.  In his hands (as is always the case when he says the Rosary - thanks to Fr. Gabriel Harty) his rosary and his Bible.  The Bible and the Beads.

We, at St. Simeon Skete, have taken to heart the words of Fr. Gabriel, "If you want to get back to the source of the Rosary, to its origin we would need to open the Scriptures.  That is why I like to bring together the Bible and the Beads, the two together." Fr. Gabriel Harty, O.P.

Upon Seraphim's return to Anna House, without any other words I asked "Are we starting the prayer path?"  "Maybe", he said, "maybe we will."  

And so this time around the prayer path will come first and as we can, we hope to add the Grotto, but for now it is enough to watch as the prayer reveals the path.  "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." - Psalm 16:11.  

Mary, Messenger of Peace

The following Litany was written by Seraphim just prior to his first trip to Africa. 

 “Mary, Messenger of Peace”

Her right hand raised in a gesture of peace.  

Left hand held out in a gesture of offering but there’s nothing in her hand. 

Her hand is empty because we already have all we need to love and be God’s people. How many more churches do we need; how many more denominations do we need? Most of “religion” is the result of: not finding God; not finding Him to be enough; and not wanting Him to be enough. Much of religion is not about God, its about control and to a large degree political parties are not about good government, they’re after control.  

Not finding God to be enough, not realizing we have what we need to live out the Shema (Mark 12:29-31) breeds greed and violence. Some years ago a reporter interviewing Seraphim asked “What happens if you’re captured by the rebels and shot?” Without a blink of hesitation he responded: “I have absolutely everything I need in order to be shot and killed and conversely I absolutely have everything I need to continue on living in this body.”

The Litany of Mary, Messenger of Peace ©2003 NHA

"Lord Jesus, we thank you for giving us Mary, Messenger of Peace, to be our Mother.  Great warmth fills our hearts as we take refuge in the tenderness of your Mother's gaze; Grant that we might receive her message of peace by realizing what we have and who we are is enough, as we pray and live Your Way, Name and Life in union with Mary, Messenger of Peace." Amen 

©2003 NHA Litany Mary, Messenger of Peace 

Easting

When  traveling in Africa, at prayer times, Seraphim enters a village and the villagers
always offer him a prayer mat to use as he faces East to pray. 

The late Fr. Alexander Schmemann remarked that the history of the West is a history of radical discontinuities while the history of the East is one of radical continuities.

Every spiritual force inevitably decays as it moves away from its original source.  Living a life hidden in prayer brings us back to the original Source.  The Prayer Rope is our spiritual umbilical cord keeping us connected to our source and destination.

St. Simeon Skete's Three-Stranded Prayer Rope constitutes the very essence of religion and is the environment in which that essence is best expressed.

Along with this there are two simple yet profound practices of the Skete that keeps us in that "east continuity" :

Pictured is the compass that Seraphim has carried since a boy and used to find the direction of East while praying 

1.  Easting

Your prayer space should be such as you're facing east.  We go about the world saying Office, reclaiming real estate for God with a certain direction in mind, east:

"Look toward the east and behold that

joy that cometh unto thee from God. For

as the lightning cometh out of the east, 

and shineth even unto the west; so shall

also the coming of the Son of man be.

Lift up your heads; for your redemption

draweth nigh" - Baruch 4:36; Mt. 24:27; 

                                         Lk. 21:28

From apostolic times Christians have turned in prayer toward the east and in facing that direction have bowed to God.  St. Basil the Great (329-379) stated: "Therefore we all look to the east during prayer, but few know that we are in search of our original home, Paradise, which God planted in the Garden of Eden, to the east" (Gen. 2:8).  The invoker's compass points unwaveringly to a direction from which our expectation of hope is to appear.  A single geographical direction for prayer transforms the entire earth into one vast place of prayer.  Ultimately, we face not a direction, but toward a place of surrender - the heart (Mt. 6:6; Lk. 17:21). The heart bowing itself in this direction experiences a profound singleness. As the intellect gives way, the heart is raised to God, seeing all prayer as turning this way in surrender. 

May we go throughout the world creating sacred space through our "yes" to God; may we with right intention face east, say the words, perform the actions with care and say, "It is good for us to be here" (Lk. 9:33) 

2. Entering and Leaving a Sacred Space

Enter with your left foot saying: 

"I've come to remember the Name"

"I've come to take refuge in the Name" 

(Ps. 20:7; Ex. 20:24; Zeph. 3:12) 

Leave with your right foot saying: 

"I go in the Name of the Lord,

 IAM sends me as a chosen vessel 

to bear His Name and you shall call

His Name Jesus..."

(Ps. 124:8; Ex. 3:14; Acts 9:15; Mt 1:21) 

The left side is closest to the heart so we bring our heart into the place of worship first.  We leave on our right foot so that the heart is the last to leave (the first to enter and the last to leave) reminding that our heart is always there - always at the place of worship. 

May you as you can, take up this practice. 

The Bible, the Beads and the Bowl

When Seraphim was in India, he took up the concept of the bowl.  From that experience he learned:

1. Whatever is placed in the bowl is your nourishment for the day
2. Jesus says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35), hence there is a place for the beggar and his bowl. The beggar gives birth to the giver, the bowl is a story about relationships. 
3. "Ultimately, the bowl teaches us that God is enough.  Unfortunately, most of "religion" is the result of not finding God, not finding God to be enough or not wanting God to be enough."
4. From "The Thousand Day Nazareth" (The St. Simeon Skete's Rule of Life) the following is to be noted:    

The Five Faults of a Bowl: ©1999 NHA 

1. If we don’t listen to the teaching, we are like an overturned bowl, nothing can enter in  (Isa.28:12; Mk 8:18).
2. If we don’t put the teachings into practice, we are like a bowl with a hole in it, everything leaks out (James 1:22; 4:17).
3. If we are double minded, this is similar to using an unclean bowl, corrupting what it holds (James 1:8, Mt. 23:25).
4. If we are full of ourselves, we are like a bowl - "Inn” – where there is no room for Him (Luke 2:7; Rev. 3:20).
5. If we are untrusting then what is placed in our bowl will never be enough (Luke 2:25-32; Mt. 6:33).

We go about receiving what is placed in our day (our bowl), good or bad, this then becomes our offering to God and God’s nourishment to us.

Finally, these words from Seraphim: 

"The Lamb came forward to take the scroll from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne, and when he took it, the four animals prostrated themselves before him and with them the twenty-four elders; each one of them was holding a harp and had a golden bowl full of incense made of the prayers of the saints" (Rev.5:7b -8).  "Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar.  A large quantity of incense was given to him to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that stood in front of the throne; and so from the angel's hand the smoke of the incense went up in the presence of God and with it the prayers of the saints" - (Rev. 8:3,4) 

I've often anointed my prayer beads with sweet smelling oil that my prayers might be pleasant smelling to our Lord God.  These verses touch the hem of this, especially (5:8).  I've kept a begging bowl as a symbol of my life and I can see the bowls that the Elders are holding to be begging bowls, begging for the prayers of the saints and that these prayers are the incense of Heaven.  I visualize the angels with these bowls "running" to the edge of Heaven to wait for our prayers to ascend into their bowls as they then hurry to the altar of God in offering and then back again for more ever saying to us "more prayers, more prayers, more prayers!" 

From an old journal of Seraphim's, he writes: 

Photo taken by Seraphim on the streets of Delhi. 

"Just returned from a long, hot and dusty day on the streets of Old Delhi. Each day I go forth with my prayer rope and a pocket full of rupees for the many beggars with their bowls.  As always, I run out of rupees early and I then have to say 'no'.  Today something happened, I was drawn into the 'no' of the poor that is their life.  But it didn't stop there, that 'no' became mysterious as it became the 'no' of God composed of humankind's refusal to give what He asks.  God asks for Himself in us".  

-Seraphim 

One of the most hopeful verses in the Bible: "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" - Rev. 3:20

One of the saddest verses in the Bible: "He came unto His own, and his own received him not." - Jn. 1:11

Blessed Silence

The Second Sunday of Lent is known as "Blessed Silence Sunday" at St. Simeon Skete.  In the readings for tomorrow it says "But He answered not a word" (Matthew 15:23).  

"Invoke the Name of God, that's all we can do on our side until God responds and leaves us wondering in silence.  But that moment of silence changes all sounds.  After a certain time, we were embellished by misery and certitude grew." 

- Seraphim (concerning our time in Egypt). 

 For more practices and information on Holy Silence 

please visit our previous blog post at

 http://blog.nazarethhouseap.org/2012/06/holy-silence.html

Spring Break at St. Simeon Skete

A gentle rain is falling at the skete, the skies are dark, snow is predicted and the winds are kicking up.  This morning as we walked to the Chapel it was 61℉.   The meteorologists say it will be 18℉ when we walk to the Chapel on Thursday morning.  This Winter's weather has been intense, to say the least.

It is quiet here, very quiet.  Rosary Class has just ended and afterward we had a wonderful time of fellowship as we broke bread together around the table at Anna House.

Just an hour before Rosary Class begun, our Spring Break Guests were leaving.   Anna and Jeff left for the North and Fr. Paul, Grant, Bethany, Carolyn and Vincent returned to the South.

James and Anna last Autumn at the Skete 

Anna and Jeff are part of the skete, coming here as often as their schedule allows.

Discussion of the Kiddush Cup used at Morning Mass at the Skete 

They know the routine and the skete has become "home away from home" to them.

Fr. Sterne also is a familiar figure around here and has been a part of Nazareth House for many years. He is one of the few people who have traveled to Sierra Leone with us.  This Spring break he brought with him (through the CS Lewis Student Center & St. Theodore's Chapel, Columbia, South Carolina) some kind souls who wished to offer themselves in any service they could.  I wasn't sure how to deal with such an offer of generosity or what exactly they had in mind.

  We've had many come through these doors.  We've had those who came out of curiosity to "check things out", we've had those who come to offer their opinion of how things should be done and we've had those who want to learn the ways of the skete to incorporate them back home and/or in the marketplace.   There have been those who have come to deepen their prayer life, and even some that come here we still haven't figured out why.  But here this week, we had people focussed on being of service to NHA and to the skete.

The trimming of the "monkey" grass  by Vincent and Carolyn 

Vincent continually asked for us to give him work "I am full of energy, give me manual labor," he expressed.  And that he did.  With Carolyn, he trimmed down all the unruly dried up "monkey grass" so that its new shoots could resurface green and lush.  They even cleaned out the chicken coop!

Supplies available at very reasonable prices at SOS 

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, they all volunteered to sort medical supplies in the name of Nazareth House Apostolate at Supplies Over Seas (SOS) in Louisville.  This is the Non-Profit Organization that makes it possible for organizations like us to provide the much needed medical provisions in Sierra Leone.  After completing a full days work at SOS, the group from The C.S. Lewis Student Center & St. Theodore's Chapel returned to the skete with a box full of wound care supplies and blood pressure cuffs to be sent to Sierra Leone ASAP.

We did manage to get one night around the campfire

Compline around the fire pit

including launching a trance balloon

Named "trance balloon" because you stand still and watch it fly into the distance 

but other than dinner each night together and Compline we didn't get to see as much of each other as we would have liked - because everyone was working.

While the group from South Carolina were working at SOS, Anna cleaned Anna House

and Jeff got all my printers and gadgets hooked up and synced.

Jesús put up the Lamp Post Posters along the driveway.

Spring Break Week at St. Simeon certainly helped us "Spring Forward" and we are most grateful for the tremendous help from everyone this week.

...and with everything in working order in my office there is much administrative work I must tend to so for now I bid you goodbye.  Look for another post toward the end of this week.


Cheers!
Vicki