Living in a Time of Great Spiritual Awakening: A Conversation Among Friends

Are we living in a time of troubling trends?
• declining church/meeting attendance,
• dissatisfaction with institutional religion,
• the rise of “None” as the most common religious affiliation on surveys
• a feeling that old structures and programs don’t hold the new Life?”

Or, are we in a time of dynamic Spiritual Awakening and renewal?

Want to be part of the conversation??  If so, join us --

"Eyes of the Heart" -- A Review

Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a ChristianContemplative Practice, Christine Valters Paintner’s latest book, is moving, helpful, challenging and inspiring.  Which is not surprising, given Christine’s record of turning out such books (two of my favorites are The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom and Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction).

Christine, besides being an author, is a Benedictine Oblate, writer, artist, spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and teacher. She’s also the on-line abbess for Abbey of the Arts, an amazing site that you should know about, if you don’t already.  I’m a regular visitor to the site and participant in her “Invitation to Photography” spirituality exercises.  She’s going to guest blog here soon!

As a photographer, as soon as I heard about Eyes of the Heart, I knew I wanted to read it.  I was not disappointed.  Christine is a wise writer and grand guide into the idea of combining contemplation and photography.  I appreciate this as I’ve been doing what I call “praying with my camera” for years.  In some ways, Christine’s concept is similar to Sybil MacBeth’s concept of “Praying in Color” -- an active, visual, and meditative form of intercessory prayer.

We find that the title comes from Ephesians 1:18 when Christine writes, “Photography as a spiritual practice combines the active art of image-receiving with the contemplative nature and open-heartedness of prayer.  It cultivates what I call sacred seeing or seeing with ‘the eyes of the heart.’”  Of course, this resonates with me – having written myself about learning to see deeply as a spiritual practice (Mind the Light) and the integration of body, mind, and soul to experience the Divine as we move through this world (Awaken Your Senses). 

Eyes of the Heart is filled with thoughts helpful and inspiring.  “For me, both art and spirituality are truly about tending to the moments of life: listening deeply, holding space, encountering the sacred, and touching eternity.  For a few seconds I touch time beyond time and in that spacious presence my heart grows wider, my imagination frees, my breath catches, and I am held in awe and wonder.  These are the moments that help to make life full of meaning.”  Indeed.  Words such as that are an invitation to experience God breaking through – via the means of a simple tool that many of us have in phones even, a camera.  It’s a gadget that is often thought of just as that – a gadget – rather than a entry into eternity and spiritual experience.  Christine’s book helps us broaden our spiritual horizons whether through phone camera or professional DLSRs. 

Make no mistake.  This is no book solely for photographers.  It is for anyone who desires a fresh way of connecting the visible daily life with the often unnoticed Divine presence in it all.  It opens a new way of seeing God at work in and around us.  We behold beauty, life, truth and love as we learn to notice – as we accept Christine’s invitation to “see with the eyes of the heart.”

Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a ChristianContemplative Practice by Christine Valters Paintner

Sorin Books (2013)

152 pages, paper, $15.95

Quaker Wisdom for Today

I have assumed a name today for my religious principles - Quaker-Catholicism - having direct spiritual teaching for its distinctive dogma, yet recognising the high worth of all other forms of Faith: a system, in the sense of inclusion, not exclusion; an appreciation of the universal and the various teachings of the Spirit, through the faculties given to us, or independent of them.

--Caroline Fox

The Art of Faith: Awkening Your Senses to the Wonder of God

If your faith has flat-lined, if you're bored with church, if you're weary of words -- then come and recharge your spirit by participating in The Art of Faith workshop that Beth Booram and I are co-leading this fall in Indianapolis.

Using a creative blend of artistic elements, contemplative exercises, and interactive activities, The Art of Faith will breathe fresh life into your soul and awaken all your senses to the wonder of God!

The Art of Faith workshop helps people of faith learn how to experience a daily round of beauty through their five senses and the fine arts. Its purpose is to enlarge our souls in a way that cannot happen merely through participating in a weekly worship service. The workshop's aim is to introduce participants to experiences of the God who created us soul and body – and to see our bodies as transmitters of spiritual wisdom and experience.

This is a workshop where participants don't just talk about meeting God, instead they experience the Divine in ways that are sensory and participatory, using various artistic mediums to help them encounter God. The content and presentation are highly creative, utilizing artistic elements, contemplative exercises, and engaging interaction.

The first "Art of Faith" workshop will be held Saturday, October 3, 2009 from 9:00am - 3:00 pm at Trinity Church (6151 N. Central in Indianapolis, IN).

Sessions include:

• I. Sensual Spirituality: Awakening All Five Senses to the Wonder of God
  Activity: Touching, Smelling, Seeing, Hearing and Tasting the Divine
  
• II. Picturing the Face of Jesus, The Face of Welcome
  Activity: Art Contemplation and Imagining Prayer
  
• III. Paying Attention in Love
  Activity: Interactive stations
  
• IV. Picturing the Face of Jesus, The Face of Compassion
  Activity: Collaborative art

The Art of Faith costs $35 if you register before September 26. The cost rises to $45 after September 26.The registration fee includes snacks, lunch, materials, and four workshop sessions. Online registration will begin soon and space is limited.

For those of you who don't know Beth, she's is an exceptional communicator who has authored a number of excellent works, including The Wide Open Spaces of God and Picturing the Face of Jesus: Encountering Christ Through Art.

I hope you'll join us on October 3!

-- Brent

PS We hope to take this "show" on the road -- so if you know somebody or someplace you think would be interested in hosting "The Art of Faith" please let me know!

Readin', Writin' and Faith

I just returned from a two-day event at the Alban Institute. titled "Secular and Sacred Story: Finding Connections that Enrich Transformation and Ministry." Participating in the event were folks such as C. Michael Curtis (fiction editor of the Atlantic Monthly), Barbara Nicolosi (founder of ActOne), Heidi Christensen (National Cathedral’s Cathedral College), and Craig Detweiler(filmmaker of "Purple State of Mind") and others. It was a time of ideas and discussion of the power of story, especially as it intersects with congregational life.

I mostly listened (something which faithful reader will find hard to believe), but was asked to lead the "Writers' Fishbowl" -- a time of dialogue about writing as a person of faith. I had (if I do say so myself) some really great questions. They were so good that we only got to two of dozen or I had prepared before time was up. Which made me think -- perhaps others who see their writing as an act of ministry might like to think about them. And share their answers. So ... here they are.

1. Leland Rykins, of Calvin College, wrote that about “Reading and writing as a means of grace” – adding once wrote that, “A means of grace, as I use the phrase, is anything in our lives by which God makes his truth and beauty known to us, and correspondingly anything in our lives by which God's presence becomes a reality to us.”
a. Is it the role of writer to make God’s truth and beauty known to the reader?

2. I heard somebody (and I wish I could remember who… but I’m old) say that Gospel is a uniquely Christian form and so gives some support to the idea of novel as distinctively Christian in origin.
i. Characterization (Mark 1:6)
ii. Scene setting (John 3:1-2)
iii. Dialogue (Matthew 19:16-22)
iv. Shows, doesn’t just tell (Luke 22:39-44)
v. Lack of wasteful adjectives (Mark 1:43) (“strong used just 4 times in all of Mark)
vi. Tension & release cycles (Luke 8:22-26)
vii. Builds towards climax
viii. Resolution (Luke 24:50-53)
ix. Also has primary, secondary & tertiary characters
b. Have you ever thought of the art you’re creating as a sort of Gospel – a telling of good news? If so, in what ways do think of it that way? Likewise, if not, why not?

3. “If I understand the Gospel, it tells us that we are to spread the Good News to all four corners of the world, not limiting the giving of light to people who have already seen the light. If my stories are incomprehensible to Jews or Muslims or Taoists, then I have failed as a Christian writer. ….” Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water
a. Do you think this sort of comprehensibility is also important for writers of other faiths such as Michael Chabon, Dara Horn, Salman Rushdie,etc?
b. Is there any such thing as a Christian screenwriter or Jewish novelist? Or are we merely writers who are informed by a particular faith tradition?
c. What is the role of the audience in creation of art?
d. Does the idea of an audience – say, congregations or adult faith groups – ever enter in to your creative process?
e. How does the audience influence your idea about where a character/scene/idea is working?

4. “Creation is surpassingly wonderful, and God is greater than anyone can possibly imagine. I write about the things I do because I can’t help it. I think flowers bloom to the glory of God. I write stories to the glory of God, to celebrate the privilege and miracle of being alive.” Mary Ward Brown, novelist.
a. So why do you write?
b. What do you wish a congregation using your creation for whatever purpose would know about you?
c. What do you wish a congregation using your creation for whatever purpose would know about the piece they’re using?

5. “At its best, art transfigures the world around us for a brief time, strives to let the radiance of truth, goodness, and beauty flash out for an instant. Art wakes us up, trains our perceptions, and reminds us that when we try to build rigid structures around presence we inevitably lose what we attempt to keep. The purpose of art is not to strand us in an alternate world, but to return us to the realm of the ordinary, only with new eyes. After the light had dimmed and the cloud had dispersed, the disciples found Jesus alone. Seeing their bewilderment, he must have had compassion on them. He must also have known that, though the disciples were temporarily blinded by the light, an image had been imprinted on their hearts that would never be erased.” Gregory Wolfe, Image, #27
a. So how do you see art, in this case story, film, etc as transfiguring the world?
b. What are ways you could see this “awakening” as Wolfe calls it, work in congregational settings?

What sayest ... um, er, writest... thou?

--Brent

Beautiful Faith and A Night at the Opera

Nancy and I went to the opera last night. It was a first for me -- someone who has always mocked (albeit gently) opera as little more than a country-western song that last three hours and is sung in a foreign language. And "Tosca" sort of fit that criteria -- it was long (2 hours and 49 minutes) and very sad (all the leads die -- "There's blood everywhere," said our docent happily prior to the show). Of course, where it differed was that there was no truck or dog or D-I-V-O-R-C-E, just death and sadness.

What I didn't expect, though, was to be so completely drawn in and mesmerized by "Tosca." It was beautiful -- the sets, the symphony, the singers, the music. Captivating. The time flew by. At each intermission, Nancy and I looked at each other with eyes that said, "Wow." No words were needed. It was amazing. And while I didn't run out and buy season tickets, you can be sure that we'll be back. It was too beautiful an experience not to enjoy again.

Which made me think about faith and attracting people to it. Lots of congregations try lots of things to bring people in the doors. We hear that conservative churches are growing, and so a group of us decides the way to growth is to be more theologically conservative. Or an expert says that "contemporary worship" is attracting new folks -- so we rip out the organ and put in a praise band. Or seeker-sensitive services. Or Saturday night services . Or Cowboy Church (I'm not making this up!). Or... whatever. Lots of congregations try these things and don't see much in the way of results.

What we don't seem to try is making faith beautiful. I've been thinking about that a lot after reading Tony Jone's The New Christians. Especially the passage where he says:

"... why in the world would you think that you can do anything to get people to come to church? Instead, why don't you worry about being faithful -- living out a beautiful Christianity -- and see what the spirit does in your midst? I think that people will be more attracted to the Spirit than anything you could ever do to "hook" them. (p. 201)

After going to the opera last night, I am more than ever convinced of the wisdom under girding Jones' thinking. My preconceptions of opera were shattered -- but not by rational arguments by leading critics, not by a pledge of rigid adherence to Puccini's original score or staging, and not because they provided an "opera-seeker-sensitive listening experience with cup holders at each seat, watered down content, and sit-com length. No. Instead they simply made it beautiful. And that beauty made me long to experience more. Our souls hunger for beauty where ever they can find it. As Jim Croegaert's song says:

Frost on the window never the same
So many patterns fit in the frame
Captured in motion frozen in flame
And in the patterns is there a Name
Why do we hunger for beauty?
("Why Do We Hunger For Beauty" ©1989 Meadowgreen Music Co./Heart of the Matter Music )

That hunger for beauty is part of who we are -- and what calls us to beauty and to God. Dare we -- conservative, liberal, seeker-sensitive, praise-band oriented, Bible-based, emergent, or whatever, dare to live a beautiful faith and thereby call people to God? Dare we not?

-- Brent

Nice Guys Finish First

The city of Indianapolis and its environs are deep in the grip of icy cold weather and Colts fever. Blue and white (some provided by Mother Nature) is in evidence everywhere. Colts flags whip in the wind as cars sprout them from clip on flagholders. Downtown buildings leave specific office lights on so giant horseshoes appear in the night. One of my rural neighbors has festooned his front yard trees and house with blue and white lights. And even conservative dressing me has dumped my button-down and tie for long-sleeved white Colts t-shirt -- at the office even. The game is taking on almost mythic status for our little town.

Much has been made, regarding this Superbowl, that the two head coaches are African-American. And rightly so. This is an historic moment and it's wonderful that Dungy and Smith are the ones to crack that racial barrier. But what pleases me even more is that these are two men of faith. They speak of their faith openly. More than that they live their faith -- it's more than words. They let their lives speak, as we Quakers say, putting their faith into practice in daily life. They don't confuse their belief in God with being some kind of mandate from God -- to either win the Superbowl or, like some politicians, start a war in a far off country.

So, it appears that no matter which team winds up victorious , contrary to Leo Duroucher's famous dictum, a nice guy will finish first. Which is great. But, truth be told, I hope it's our nice guy -- Tony Dungy of the Colts.

So to that end, I share with you this prayer, offered by my little Jewish brother, Rabbi Aaron Spiegel, which was given on-air this morning on a local station --

"Our God and God of our ancestors – we give thanks to You for all miracles in our lives. While we are not so presumptuous to think you were on OUR side in the AFC Championship, the Colts’ defeat of the Patriots was a miracle, and we’ll take the win!

Dear God, we come to you again to ask your favors for our Indianapolis Colts. God, this is the Superbowl. This is it – the show – all the marbles – Peyton’s chance at redemption. For us humble, mortal citizens of Indianapolis – this is a big deal!

Dear God, my last appeal included requests for wisdom for Coach Dungy and his staff, fleetness of foot and sureness of hand for Marvin, Reggie, Ben and Dallas, superhuman strength for Tarik, Raheem, Antoine, Bugar, and Dwight, and the depths of passionate play for Nick and Bob. God, forgive me for repeating myself – but we need all these again, and more! And I know I said Manning only needed to get Viniteiri in field goal range – but they both need Your favors to beat the Bears.

Lord – this is the Superbowl (did I say that already?). Chicago is a wonderful city and their fans deserve our admiration and praise. But this is the Superbowl – and they are now our enemy (at least until Sunday). Frustrate the hopes and designs of those who plot against us. Be merciful to the righteous people of Indianapolis – and let our Colts pound those Bears.

Let all the players stay safe and healthy. Let all those who travel to the game do so safely and return home in peace. May it be Your will our God and God of our ancestors to bring our Colts home victorious. Amen, Go Colts!"

--Brent