#sleeping with bread

[bobacupcake]

good night

[exithibernation]

SoCe: Discernment, Obedience, and Love Part 4 By Matt

Great news! We’ve finally laid the groundwork to begin talking about discernment!

The model of discernment we’ve been practicing in SoCe is based on the book “Sleeping with Bread” by the Linn family (which I would highly recommend), and was taught to us by Elaine Heath. The steps I am about to describe are a modified version from this source that Catherine and I have been working on together. Feel free to modify them even more.

Each night, we ask ourselves two sets of questions: 1. For what am I least grateful from today? Or what was draining 2. For what am I most grateful from this day? or what was energizing? Those questions alone can work wonders in helping us to see the patterns of our lives. They help us to be more honest with ourselves. And they help us to recognize the provision God has brought into our lives--even in the midst of struggle. This stance of feeling “provided for” is a hallmark of a person living in the reality of the kingdom of God.

In addition to answering these questions, sometimes we will jot down a short note based on our reflections from the night. This helps us at the end of a week, or month, to look back and see if there were any bigger patterns happening in our life that we had not noticed.

Quick aside: regarding things that are energizing or draining. These terms can be tricky at times because there are short-term ego gratifications that are pretty darn energizing, which might be a gift in the midst of life, but are not necessarily an indication of where the Spirit is leading us. To move deeper with this language of being energized consider the areas of your life where other resources seemed to come to your aid, or there was synchronicity. I find these moments feel like I have stepped into the flow of a great river which is bigger than me, and yet carries me where I need to go. In contrast, draining situations feel like I’m fighting the river current, and there is no peace in my heart about it.

Now, this is where community comes in, because we also need other people to help us sort out when we were floating along with the current of the Spirit of God, and when we are fighting that current. A discerning community needs to be pretty mature in their understanding of and relationship to God. A discerning community also needs to focus on encouraging each other to grow, instead of aiming to fix or change anyone. And a discerning community needs to be able to listen deeply to what someone shares, and then simply reflect back with good questions and perhaps potential observations.

Such communities are rare in life. I’ve been very fortunate to have a few, including the SoCe group of Catherine, Myrna, Ashley and Adam. Together, this group is helping me listen more deeply to the Spirit’s movement in my life and figure out how to respond accordingly. If you can’t find this type of community, another possible option would be working with a spiritual director. While spiritual directors cannot offer the friendship component of a group like SoCe, they can offer everything else, and may even have suggestions for spiritual exercises to help free you up to respond to God.

Floating in the river of life!

[vapriestess]

Give us this day our daily bread.

Proper 12C Sermon

July 28, 2013

The Rev. Anne Lane Witt

Immanuel Episcopal Church

  Hosea 1:2-10

Psalm 85

Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)

Luke 11:1-13

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

  “Lord, teach us how to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

    As someone raised in the Episcopal Church, I am used to structured prayers.  I remember the particular challenge my seminary friends and I faced when asked to pray off of the top of our heads.  We were used to beautifully scripted prayers that follow certain formulas; how would we know what to say?

    Lord, teach us to pray, the disciples ask, and Jesus does.  He does not give them a complicated checklist to follow, particular posture to adopt, or require certain words for their prayers to be valid.  Instead, he gives them words to pray, simple words that engage the everyday reality of humanity with God’s will.  They are to ask God for what they need to keep them fed and in right relationship with God and the world.  They are to ask God for help in avoiding troubles.

    The words Jesus gives to the disciples and to us as well have come to be formed into the Lord’s Prayer.  So often, these words come out without much thought, so I am thankful to have them as a part of our lessons for today.

    There are so many good phrases in the Lord’s Prayer; sometimes a certain one will jump out at us.  For me, asking for our daily bread has been on my mind and my heart.  Give us this day our daily bread.  These words are an integral part of our prayer life, both in the context of public worship and private life.  Give us this day our daily bread.  Not yearly bread, not monthly bread, not weekly bread.  Daily bread.  For so many years, this phrase meant nothing to me; now that I’m making sure that I have food and preparing my own meals, it really means something.  Give us this day our daily bread.

    Now that I’ve worked with food banks and farmers, those growing for personal consumption and those growing food for sale, daily bread speaks to what we need right now.

    What is ripe.  Eating it while it’s fresh and at the peak of its nutritional value, or canning it so that it will provide in cooler days ahead.  Give us this day our daily bread.  It is asking for enough, trusting that there will be more in the next day and the next and the next.

    When Moses was leading the Israelites through the desert on their way to the promised land, they asked God for food, and God gave them manna from heaven to eat.

The manna was tricky: there would be more than enough for each person’s daily needs, but they were only to gather what they needed for that particular day.  If a person gathered more than he or she needed for one day, it would go bad overnight; the only exception to this was the day before the Sabbath, when each person was to gather enough to eat for that day and for the Sabbath so they would not have to work on the Sabbath.  As the psalmist wrote, “So mortals ate the bread of angels; he provided for them food enough.”[1]  Enough.  Daily bread.  Their needs were met, and God’s grace was fresh each day, ready to be harvested.  Give us this day our daily bread.  Give us enough, Lord.

    But how often is it hard to know what is enough?  Sometimes the harvest pickings seem slim; other times, the baskets are overflowing.  What to do?  Give us this day our daily bread.  Give us enough.  So simple, yet so hard.  Daily bread provides nourishment, body and soul.  It provides a sense of security.

    During World War II, many children ended up in refugee camps after their homes had been bombed, and often they had been left orphaned.  These children were fed and cared for, but many of them had lost so much that they could not sleep; their measures of security had been taken from them.  Someone in the camps figured out that these children needed some reassurance, a bit of security to which they could cling; if the children had something to hold on to when they went to sleep, they would wake up feeling safer.  The children were given a piece of bread to hold as they slept.  Because they had the bread, the children had a tangible reminder that they had eaten that day and would eat again the next day.[2]

    Give us this day our daily bread.  It is a tangible sign of security.  As we come to the altar rail to receive communion, we have tangible signs of God’s love for us. We do not receive large portions, but they are additional daily bread to remind us that God cares for us and for the world.  In receiving our daily bread, we are freed to share our abundance with the world.  Just as we do with the Garden of Grace, the carefully tended abundance goes further when we share it.  Give us this day our daily bread.   

[1] Psalm 78:25, from a translation used at the General Theological Seminary

[2] From the book Sleeping with Bread by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, and Matthew Linn.

[philipchircop]

SLEEPING WITH BREAD

One way to examine life is "the examen of consciousness", a popular method of prayer from St Ignatius Loyola and his followers. One book about this life-giving exercise is Sleeping with Bread. It begins with this story:

During the bombing raids of WWII, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All through the night the bread reminded them, “Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow.”

This book is basically about asking ourselves two questions:

For what am I most grateful?

For what am I least grateful?

These questions can help us identify moments of consolation and desolation in our lives.

You can also phrase the question in any of the following ways:

When did I give and receive the most love? The least love?

When did I feel most alive? Most drained of life?

When did I have the greatest sense of belonging? Least sense of belonging?

When was I most free? Least free?

When was I most creative? Least creative?

When did I feel most connected? Least connected?

When did I feel most fully myself? Least myself?

When did I feel most whole? Most fragmented?

These simple question pairs, when regularly reflected upon, will draw out our inner motivations, values and true calling. The examen, used regularly, has the power to deepen our spiritual life.