WALKING MEDITATION

I am feeling very grateful today for the many habits and techniques of seeking God consciousness that I learned from the Eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism.

With apologies to the respected spiritual teachers of those many traditions, it is my experience that walking meditation is one of those things that can easily be adopted and adapted to the needs of spiritual seekers of all faiths.

There is only one ultimate creator God or original cause of the universe. However you envision Him/Her/It or even if, for you, there is nothing but emptiness, whatever your tradition or practice at the moment, walking meditation, and other types of meditation combined with movement, is something we can all do with great benefit.

Sufi Dancers

Famously, the Sufis have their highly ritualistic ecstatic dances, and Brother Lawrence used to say that he was as much with God, while washing his pots and pans, as he would be while singing in the choir stall, which was considered a high status activity.

Brother Lawrence

among his pots and pans, in the kitchen

Granted, the higher reaches of ecstatic union with God, such as what the saints, sages and mystics have experienced and described, would probably be a challenge, in concert with walking or other activity, but it is probably fair to say that, for most of us, these high ecstatic states are not a daily occurrence, nor a constant one, when they do arise.

Saint Theresa of Avilla,

in ecstatic union with Christ

- statue closeup -

Lately, I am particularly recommending "walking meditation" to all my disabled and elderly friends, partly because it takes us much longer to accomplish our daily tasks than it did when we were younger and/or more fit and healthy, thus challenging us to find the lengthy periods of uninterrupted meditation while sitting in our schedule.

For myself, as a quasi-hermit on a very limited budget, operating a body that has started to deteriorate, I find that, when I previously waited for a break in my daily tasks in order to meditate in a formal way, there were some days when very little was possible. Doctor appointments, cooking, cleaning, dog walking, ate up my time, while the silence I would prefer was also eaten by other beings in their quest to accomplish their life goals.

"Busy Street Scene"

by Phill Burrows

Living in an apartment community with more than 100 other beings, on a main thoroughfare through town, is not particularly conducive to quiet meditation! I long ago gave up trying to create an oasis in my apartment. Instead, I am working within the noise and the chaos.

I realized, at some point in my journey through pain and disability, that the purpose for spiritual "practices" was, at least in part, to train the mind and body to always be aware of its at-one-ment with the Lord. Formal sitting meditation practice is just that - practice! It isn't the goal. It is A practice for the real thing - continuous God consciousness: the state of awareness of continual connection and identification with Deity (or "original cause" or whatever your tradition / understanding / language provides.)

Jesus meditating in the forest

Those who are unfamiliar with walking meditation are encouraged to do some reading about it, look for local sources of information, watch some videos, hear some talks, and then seek out a venue for the practice of this valuable technique. If you were here with me, I could train you, and I suppose I could write more detail about it in this blog, but why reinvent the wheel? Others have already done this far better than I could.

I will tell you that sometimes I use what is called a "mantra." My favorite is the "Jesus Prayer" sometimes called "centering prayer" I believe:

"Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God,

have mercy upon me, a poor sinner."

You could even just say "Lord" or "Jesus" or something similar. In the Hindu faith, there are a lot of considerations about this mantra, as in the Buddhist zen tradition, that it should be transmitted to the student by an ascended master or guru, but we do not have this tradition, per se, in Catholicism. In any case, let's not let perfection become the enemy of the good by drawing too many demands around this practice, as much could be lost if one felt that contemplation or meditation was essentially impossible without the presence of some elevated teacher-saint to "give" you a magic pill that would open your heart, etc. Once you start along this path, a teacher does sometimes appear, but don't worry about that right now. Just get started.

The addition of a mantra, recited interiorly, is typically what I do when I am having trouble focusing. Usually, I just put my consciousness at the feet of the Lord and hang onto that while I perform whatever household function or life task I have to perform at the moment. If you are new to meditation, you'll want to start with mantra. Eventually, this drops away of its own accord.

Granted, there are times when your full attention is required and you just can't hold God's hand while you do it: important conversations that carry crucial information, that sort of thing, but if you expand your concept of meditation to include a lot of your daily tasks, you will be surprised at how much peace and blessedness this will introduce to your life.

Anyway, I am finding the walking meditation very helpful these days. Also the dish washing meditation, dog walking meditation, grocery shopping meditation and painting meditation. You get the drift.

Old Woman Meditating on the Scriptures

by Gabriel Metsu

If this sort of meditation is a new thing for you, please feel free to write me and tell me about it. I may be able to answer some questions, but I recommend you get a local teacher, if a teacher is what you are looking for.

Primarily, I am writing this to encourage you to give walking meditation a try. I know that I personally experienced some frustration when I found that my life circumstances continually prevented me from enjoying a quiet, meditative life, and I got a lot of benefit from falling back on my training in walking meditation. I had to learn to embrace the reality of my situation and adapt. After many years of formal meditation practice, I found the transition seamless. You can also!

God bless us all.

Silver

CONTEMPLATING FATIMA

Today is one of my favorite celebrations of our Lady in the Catholic calendar, the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima. It memorializes one of the few modern, "certifiable" and certainly the most documented series of miraculous occurrences confirmed with objective proofs.

We actually have photographs of "the Miracle of the Sun" which appeared in the skies of the country of Portugal. Thousands of people experienced this phenomenal event, which was reported upon in the newspapers of the day.

Thousands of people watch "The Miracle of the Sun"

near Fatima, Portugal

Today marks the first of a series of apparitions seen by three children who lived in the tiny neighborhood of Aljustrel, which was part of Fatima Township. The apparitions began on May 13, 1917 in a place called Cova da Iria, part of the land that belonged to the parents of Lucia dos Santos. Lucia, age 10, was playing with Francisco (9) and Jacinta Marto (7) when the children suddenly saw two flashes like lightning, the announcement that something cosmically important was about to happen.

Jacinta Marto, Francisco Marto, and Lucia dos Santos

Seers of the miracle of Our Lady of Fatima

During that first apparition, Our Lady floated above a giant Holm Oak tree (which still exists today) and spoke to the children, specifically Lucia, and explained that she was from Heaven and had come to ask the children to come back to that same spot on the thirteenth day of the month for six months, at the same hour.

She told them many things, including the disposition of the souls of loved ones and extracted a very special promise from the children, that they would "offer themselves to God to endure all the sufferings that He may be pleased to send them, as both an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended and an act of supplication for the conversion of sinners." They were promised that they would have much to suffer, but that God, by his grace, would comfort them.

The Holm Oak

At such a young age, to agree to such a life of suffering, is really a remarkable thing, in my mind, and highlights the unique temperament of these children. God doesn't pick these people randomly, you see.

Now, I could stop this story right here, and we already have a substantial orientation for contemplation and meditation. First, we would circle our mind around the tableaux of the three children encountering the Blessed Mother unexpectedly in an out-of-the-way place; their breathless, rapt attention to her image and her words and requests; and the astonishing agreement to live a life of suffering in reparation of the sins of the world. Could we make such an agreement?

The three child seers, intent upon the image of

Our Lady

Imagine oneself as one of the children, gazing upon the image of Our Lady, and place Her in your heart, gazing upon her there. Focusing upon her image, sit with Her and wait for Her to speak to your heart. If distracting thoughts come, put them aside and return your attention to our beautiful Lady within yourself.

There is much more to this story, as I've mentioned, including "The Miracle of the Sun" witnessed by thousands, and you can read about all these in the internet articles and the books written about this remarkable series of events. In fact, I encourage you to do so, partly because the astounding appearances HAVE been verified by so many and we have newspaper pictures and accounts. Thus, we can absolutely rely upon the veracity of the story and can safely take guidance and inspiration from it.

Enjoy this beautiful day!

Silver "Rose"
Copyright (c) 2019
All rights reserved

BRING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH SOME QUIET SAINTS

SAINT EUPHROSYNE

Although today is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of God, there are more than enough books, articles and blog posts about our Blessed Mother, so that I don't feel I have much to offer on that score. But I DO like to highlight the little known saints, as you know - and talk a little bit about them, especially if they are female and monastic, because I relate personally to those stories.

Saint Euphrosyne of Alexandria

As is the case for many saints of the early church, especially FEMALE saints, we know very little about Euphrosyne, other than she was the virgin daughter of Paphnutis, a merchant of Alexandria, Egypt, sometime in the early 5th century. Rebelling against her father, she took to monastic life and went about in the disguise of a monk, in order that no one would know who she was. She used the name "Smaragdus," a name which means "emerald" and which has some significance.

I that think one reason she sought to hide the fact that she was female was that it was particularly dangerous for women to flout societal expectations of marriage and motherhood. Obviously, she did not wish to be caught by her relatives and forced to marry against her will, and the only loose association of monastics nearby was all-male.

Saint Euphrosyne of Alexandria

Euphrosyne fits into the paradigm of a storyline repeated about several of these early female saints, i.e., that her own father didn't know her, her disguise was so expert, and that he consulted with her on many occasions. Finally, as she was about to die, she divulged her true identity to him, and he was so overcome by the revelation and all that it meant, that he took her place in her hermitage after her death and continued as a monastic from that day forward.

This story about her is not considered specifically valid for her, but the underlying paradigm of the wealthy man who seeks and receives spiritual instruction from a person of lesser social status and then becomes confirmed and abandons his wealth to follow Jesus is a type of parable that Christians continue to tell one another since the early Christian era. The message, therefore, is bona fide, even if the details of the story and the participants are not.

An old fresco, depicting portions of Saint Euphrosyne's life

Euphrosyne WAS likely a female hermit of Alexandria. Many other things are inferred, such as her surreptitious taking of the veil without her father's consent, since NO ONE was consenting to their  young daughter throwing away her life (at least substantially shortening it) by devoting herself to a life of prayer and meditation, least of all the fathers of prosperous merchant class families. If Euphrosyne was a monastic, chances are good that her father didn't approve.

The bit about her father becoming a hermit after her death and occupying her monastic cell for the last ten years of his life is what stretches the imagination. Few genuine tales are that neat, and grand spiritual conversions in which the wealthy abandon their money for the sake of God remain few and far between. Even the young, wealthy man couldn't bear to part with his gold and possessions in order to follow Jesus. We aspire to this high spiritual metamorphosis, however, which is why we really like this paradigm and have used it in many stories about the saints.

Saint Euphrosyne of Alexandria

Saint Euphrosyne of Alexandria's story is authentic because it stirs authentic Christian feeling in our hearts and pushes us toward Jesus and away from filthy lucre. It is a "true" story because it is true to the Christian message.

SAINT ZDISLAVA OF LEMBERK

1220-1252

Here is another female saint who is not terribly famous, but a bit more well-known than Euphrosyne of Alexandria, and I am enjoying learning about her. She was ALSO the daughter of a well-to-do and aristocratic family, this time in Czechoslovakia, in the middle ages. 

Like Euphrosyne, she longed to become a hermitess and went to the forest at the age of 7, resolved to do just that, but her family tracked her down and brought her back to the castle, from whence she later married a nobleman, the Count of Lemberk.

Lemberk Chateau

Zdislava and her husband had 4 children, but her domestic life did not dampen her religious ardor, since she received Holy Communion every day, as much as was possible, and she experienced regular ecstasies and visions.

Of special interest for Zdislava was the care of the poor, the sick, and the homeless. Her husband wasn't too thrilled with having to share his personal space with the many destitute people she invited to live with them while she treated their illnesses, and even threatened to throw a sick beggar into the street, on one occasion, but when he approached the beggar's resting-place, all he found was a crucifix among the bedsheets. The beggar was nowhere to be found.

Whether that apocryphal story is accurate or not is also up for debate, but it is cited as the reason why he allowed Zdislave to contribute money to a foundation for the new Dominican convent nearby.

Please note the echo of the similar story to the first saint I discussed in this blog post. A person of lower social stature (the beggar) causes a high-born and/or wealthy person (Count Lemberk) to relent in his persecution of the saint's activities, and even assists the saint in accomplishing some aim, becoming converted to our Lord's work in the process.

Saint Zdislava's resting place

Basilica of St. Lawrence and Saint Zdislava

Zdislava was still fairly young when she died on January 1, 1252, and her husband is said to have experienced a vision of her "in glory" upon her death.

BASILICA OF SAINT LAWRENCE AND SAINT ZDISLAVA

Zdislava's remains are housed in the Basilica of Saint Lawrence in Jablonne, to which they had been transferred in 1731. The Basilica endured many hardships and operates as a type of museum for sacred art.

The Lemberk Chateau, where Zdislava lived with her family, is also located in Jablonne and can be toured during certain parts of the year.

Lemberk Chateau - the home of Saint Zdislava

Zdislava is the patron saint of the Czech nation, and her visage can be seen throughout the country, in various public venues. Here is a picture of her, emblazoned on a well, which I found in Wikimedia.

I hope my readers will pay special attention to this saint, since I hear from many women that they too wish to live a life completely devoted to God, but it is hard to do when the demands of domestic life come into play. My position is that an intense spiritual life is still possible in the bosom of the family. It may not reach the mystical heights of a monk or nun whose entire day is devoted to prayer, meditation, and serving the Lord in a monastic institution, but it can come darn near to it.

Keeping in mind that this particular saint (and others of the upper classes) most assuredly had servants to do the hard work of domestic maintenance. Others were cooking and cleaning, no doubt, leaving time and space for the saint to care for the sick and the poor. We shouldn't be too ambitious for ourselves, as far as establishing monasteries and serving large numbers of poor people.  Experiencing ecstasies and floating around the house like angels are also not reasonable to expect, since most of us live rather pedestrian lives that make ordinary demands upon our time, but we CAN devote every action to the Lord by an action of the will and the heart, reminding ourselves to remain humble in our aspirations.

In my life, these saints help inspire me to stay focused on the Lord and his service, and to develop more kindness to the poor, sick, and disadvantaged. I highly recommend them.

Saint Zdislava, with child

Today, it is snowing in Albuquerque, and it is rather fun, since we don't get much of the white stuff and, when we do, it rarely sticks for long. While writing this post, I saw a large flock of Canadian geese walk across the snow-covered grass in single file, in their own gray version of the yearly Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena. I prefer the quiet, stately walk of the geese.

House keeping duties of cooking, cleaning and laundry occupy my day, between the prayers, meditations, and episodes of dog walkies.

I pray for a much improved year in 2019, in every respect.

God bless us all

Silver Rose