The rhythm of monastic life

*     *     *

A variety of answers

How do you find peace in the midst of trouble? It varies. I’m a visual person, so sometimes I enjoy finding a quiet place near water or hills and just sitting for a bit. I’m also a writer, so sometimes I write—quotations I like, part of an article, or just lists of good friends. I have to admit to a bit of a temper, so, depending on what the “chaos” is, I may just find a private place and punch pillows. Full disclosure: although I’m a theologian, when troubles arise, I don’t immediately do the meditation thing, or the prayer thing. That is probably because I feel closest to the God of the universe in that universe, its mountains and oceans and stars, so, in a sense anyway, I guess I do meditate and even pray in some fashion.
Marie Conn, mconn@chc.edu
Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia PA

*     *     *

The value of hard work

*     *     *

Constructive routines

Typical routines are helpful. Our local parish prays morning prayer from the liturgy of the hours three times a week, and the college where I teach has daily Mass at noon. Once a week, several faculty and staff meet for lunch in the student center. Saturday morning coffee with my wife. Regular walks. Regular reading times in my favorite chair. All these and more are great opportunities for stability in a chaotic schedule.

Also, in the spur of the moment. Talking with my wife. Calling a friend. Going outside and walking. Praying a decade. Turning the radio up loud for a few minutes and closing my eyes. Reading something, etc.
Marc Tumeinski, mtumeinski@annamaria.edu
Anna Maria College, Paxton, MA

*     *     *

Living in the moment when overworked

Yes, I am overworked.  It is a combination of things. I am the Director of Adult Faith and working full time.  It is tough to juggle being the parent of teens and holding a job that requires daytime, nighttime and weekend hours on a regular basis.  Thankfully, our Pastor and staff are very flexible, but it's a constant juggling act but this busy life has sucked away my time to grow in my faith.  I can't remember the last time I went to church and actually prayed.  When your place of worship is your place of work, it presents lots of issues.  I am thinking about details and keeping an eye on how things are going rather than entering into the prayer that is the Mass. 

We had a very difficult year as a family.  We have suffered the very sudden and young deaths of loved ones this past year and our hearts are shattered.  It's hard to feel like you can't be the support to people you love when they are going through incredible pain because you just have too much to do.  It's also hard to be grieving when you are too busy to adequately address that grief.  Add to that the care of a last surviving parent who is struggling with many things. 

My strategy is to truly live in the moment.  That is all I can do right now.  No time to write more right now.  I am off to my son's State gymnastics competition for  the next two days and have a 5K walk in memory of my best friend’s 22 year old son who was killed in a work related accident last summer on Sunday followed by the end of the year gymnastics banquet.  Pray for all working parents.
Mary Whiteside,   mary.whiteside@att.net
Holy Family church, Inverness, IL

*     *     *

The extermination of trouble?

As a mother of six, life has been a series of chuckles, crises, and chaotic events: the chocolate covered first-birthday face, the grand-kid sans marriage or a nine months in utero, the first pot smoker, an F on a paper, a serious illness of a child. We have survived the deaths of parents and close friends, the odious – or is it otiose? – process of writing a dissertation and defending it, the passing on of a beloved hard drive – just this week – and the coming of old age.  Hey, we might even have to survive a Donald Trump presidency!
Certainly we can do things to avoid some of our troubles. We can stop thinking that the world will crash if we don’t fix everything that needs fixing. That mentality is born of bad self-image: the belief that God loves us only when we succeed.  This notion impoverishes God. If we can get beyond this notion, we can let go of having to be God’s only emissary of fix-it. The result is usually bad and always exhausting.  Most of us learn this only in our dotage.  Some call it virtue; maybe it’s just fatigue.

  We can organize our lives to make things less troublesome. When I spend thirty minutes looking for an important paper, it is time to clean the desk top.  When writing is like trudging through mental molasses on a frigid day, it is time to go play, clean a closet, eat some ice cream, hug my husband as I offer him a sip of my wine (he liked that idea!). When serious trouble engulfs our reality, we can remember St. Teresa’s observation that “all things are passing.”  While this statement may not make us feel better, it may be the only life saver we can grab.

In the end the only safe place in a tornado – short of Oz – is in its center. For those who believe, to “offer it up" is not the answer.  That exemplifies a kind of masochistic piety that makes God out to be a monster. Nonetheless, sensing the suffering God holding us close in the midst of the tornado is not only possible but it is the only avenue to peace. I know from experience, God is always there.
Dee Christie, dlchristie@aol.com
John Carroll University

*     *     *

Daily prayer, and food for body and mind

It is the end of the term, the last week, the final days. The stack of papers on my desk, I suspect, threatens the structural integrity of the desk! Additionally my colleagues and I are in the midst of a long season of particularly intense demand in the life of our school. We have in recent years endured a near-fatal financial situation. The new initiatives place greater demands on a relatively small number of fiercely dedicated and faithful women and men who bear considerable loads and have done so for the last six or seven years. So the end of term work brings with it a particular weariness.

How do I survive and find peace? I have no great wisdom, but share only how I find myself functioning as a Baptist theologian I seek to maintain a consistent rhythm of times of prayer. I pray the morning and night offices, using Celebrating Common Prayer, the prayer book of the Society of St. Francis (Anglican). On Wednesday, members of the seminary pray Sext from the Benedictine Breviary or Mid-day Prayer from Celebrating Common Prayer. At noon, a small group gathers at Church of the Good Shepherd, between campus and my home. We pray Noon Prayer from the BCP. On Thursday, there is a Eucharistic liturgy. These are anchor points for me, week in and week out. I also find ways of incorporating prayer into my course planning. I include lectionary readings and artistic interpretation of the readings in my educational websites. In introducing the week’s work, I share musical interpretations of the theme we will study. This makes my work more intentionally prayerful. I also take a few minutes each day to read and ponder good poetry.

I work out three or four times a week. When the workload is particularly heavy, I make sure I don’t go “all out” and so leave myself depleted. Twice a week I run, once a week I lift weights. I listen to podcasts of lectures and good conversations about important topics when I run. I try to keep the caffeine intake moderate. Emotionally, I listen to good music as I work (though sometimes must have silence). One thing that I have particularly focused on is how fortunate I am to have so many bright and faithful students. More and more I feel a kind of parental pride and satisfaction in students having new questions about things they’d never considered before, and writing prose with deep insight that renews my hope that the hard work is worth it.
Philip E. Thompson, pthompson@sfseminary.edu
Sioux Falls Seminary, SD

*     *     *

Leisure & Self-discipline

We all need a structure.  That was and is the beauty of the monastic life with its set times for pray, eating, working, and recreation.  It is basically what is lacking in a number of lives for a lot of young students and busy middle age working parents.  Self-discipline and structure seem foreign from their life experiences.  You have to relax from something, not relax in some excessive way by partying all the time.
As a retired person with little responsibilities, the idea of leisure hits a new level.  I have a self-imposed task to do research and write, with some unspecific deadline.  Other than that, I should keep my body in shape by walking and working out.  I keep a fairly strict schedule of writing in the morning, walking in the afternoon, and relaxing in the evening.  Plan, relax, and expect the unexpected.  Enjoy your life.  It is the only one you have.  
Eugene Finnegan, efinne1540@gmail.com
Calumet College of St. Joseph

*     *     *

The first step is to stop

My first reaction was, “I don’t have time for this!”  The next thing was “Wait!”  Waiting, stopping to get a bit of perspective helps me sort out what to say yes to and what to say no to.  In our introduction course I give students an assignment to introduce theological reflection.  I have them unplug for 30 minutes.  No computers, no phones, no earplugs, no nothing.  Afterwards they have to write one page on what it was like.  Over the years it is getting weirder and weirder to read these.  We have a lot of eighteen year olds who never have been alone with their own thoughts.  We are a distracted, rat raced group.
So here is what helps me.  Same advice as the railway crossing: stop, look, and listen.  Then it gets a bit clearer what to say yes to and what to say no to.  As one of my mentors would say, you are going to have to say no to something noble.   You cannot do it all.  Another mentor said, “The twelve-steppers have it right.  Let go and let God.”  The first step is to stop. 
 Dan Finucane, djfinuc@aol.com
Saint Louis University

*     *     *

Peace in the midst of trouble

This is more or less my "research question" for the last six months or so, after unexpectedly ending up on a heart transplant list.  Three chest surgeries and 2+ months of hospital stays later, I've answered questions like, "How are you coping?" more often than I can count. My usual answer: I've been surprised how peaceful I've been amidst all the challenges.  I haven’t been asking, "Why me?" or trying to figure what I should have done differently, and I’ve maintained good humor with my many caregivers.  But I've experienced this calm as a real gift, not using “special skills” or "trying hard" not to get upset.  Oddly, I'm even finding that my usual prayer practices are, if anything, less satisfying than before.  

Instead, I’m aware of the incredible support I've received from colleagues (guiding my students and advisees and picking up both my fall and spring semester courses), from my religious community ("being there" for months for visits, deliveries, drives, or bandage changes), from family and friends (visiting and staying in touch like never before), and from former students, parishioners, and others who’ve graced my life.  If there is "skill" involved in all of this, it’s as much or more theirs than mine.

I'm also aware, though, of the amount of time I've spent thinking about "the meaning of life."  I've realized that my faith orients me toward a spiritual stance that finds its material analogy in gazing out at the "billions and billions" of galaxies and understanding both that the universe is incomprehensibly larger than I am, and that I am an intimate and integral part of its immensity.  This is not "natural theology" for me – it has its origin in revelation – but still, Hubble telescope photos tend to put me right where I need to be these days.  The "peace that passes understanding" is for me the gift of a God who both cherishes my life as it has been and as it will continue to be (for however long), yet also invites me into its infinite implications.
Fr. Bill Clark, SJ,   wclark@holycross.edu
Worcester, MA

*     *     *

Overworked and loving it.

Perhaps being retired has something to do with it. Everything I have to do, I have decided to do. And any time I miss a deadline, I do not have to apologize to anyone.

At the same time, my idea of the perfect vacation is NOT doing nothing while lying on a beach or sailing on a cruise ship. I have usually planned my own vacations with plenty to do while traveling and after getting there. Flying to Florence one summer, I read Dante’s Divine Comedy. When taking road trips with my wife, we listen to recorded books. When I was much younger, I spent a good deal of time meditating. Eventually I found a still point amid the turmoil. After that, meditation did not seem to make much difference, so I stopped mediating. The turmoil does not get to me—at least, not often. St. Benedict advised orare et laborare. My life is blessed with a healthy mixture of headwork, heart work, and hand work. The head work includes reading and answering email, playing the stock market with my retirement account, and running an informal news service for about 160 subscribers. This entails scanning about 100 articles every day and selecting about 10% that I think are worth reading. I try to find stories that are not covered by the major media and that provide some insight into what is going on in the world. This was originally a heart work (I like following the news), but I found that collecting news stories and passing them on did not take much additional time, so I did it.

The heart work is researching and writing, which I love to do, especially when I am breaking new ground. Researching my latest book on deconstructing sacramental theology was like doing archaeology, discovering one thing after another that kept the enterprise energized. One of my discoveries was that the Holy Spirit is not in the New Testament. I am still looking for a way to get that news out.

By early afternoon, I have spent enough time at the computer, and it is time to get into my work clothes. We own seven large Victorian houses that have been converted into apartments. Something is always breaking down, and people are always moving out, so there is always work to do. Not that I do it all myself, but I handle all of the minor plumbing and electrical problems, and I do some of the plastering and painting, in addition to supervising all of the cleaning and grounds keeping. By supper time, I am ready to put down my tool box and sit in front of the computer again.

A happy home life and a rewarding marriage keep the system running smoothly, besides providing rewards of their own.
Joe Martos, TheSacraments@Gmail.com
Louisville, Kentucky

*     *     *

Overworked for God’s reign at his pace

Am I overworked?  Yes, though much of it is of my own making.  I direct both an M.A. and a Th.D. program in Theology and Ministry.  I teach one graduate and one undergraduate course each semester.  As with many institutions there are cuts while everyone is expected to do a bit more.  Being a Catholic priest, I assist at various parishes on weekends, preside at weddings, help couples prepare for the sacrament, administer Baptisms, etc.  Additionally I serve as an adviser to a Greek social fraternity on campus.  There is nothing in particular that I would like to give up.

At the same time, I wish I had more time for reading, could do some more research and writing, give more time for creative presentations in undergraduate courses, exercise more, pray more, and sometimes not to feel the worry of how I am going to get everything done on time.  Am I overworked? - possibly not.  As the many commitments tend to be of my own making, I do not believe I am as overworked as colleagues who must balance the multiple tasks of caring for family - children, elderly parents, college tuition, young adults with debt and less than ideal jobs, etc.  One really doesn't have much of a choice about such things.

What I find most helpful when feeling particularly stressed is the experience of "privilege" that comes with being asked to enter people's lives to help them celebrate marriage, welcome children to the church, bury their dead; the "privilege" that comes with being asked to speak God's word and to provide the gift of Eucharist for life's journey - with all of its many blessings and challenges.  When stressed I remind myself that prayer is not obligation, duty, or burden, but a gift from God - to be reminded of God's presence in all of the moments of life; to be reminded that the work of God's reign is ultimately God's work, and God will get it done as God needs to get it done.  When stressed, I remind myself to pray.  When stressed I remind myself to write of God's daily blessings in a journal.  While I forget the artist, and I'm writing from home, I like to look at a print in my office - an abstract human being in bright colors - with a text that reads something like "Everything was fine when he remembered there is enough time in each day for everything that is really important."
Frank Berna, berna@lasalle.edu
La Salle Unive