Month: June 2024
Cartoon courtesy of cute fly free clipart
Like children playing…
Darting in and out
like children playing,
chasing, sweeping
the air joyfully.
Warm sun caresses their bodies
they become signs
of hovering heat.
They have no cares
as they giggle and squeal,
only delight.
We name them for their movement
yet we view them uncertainly,
for they are flies.
17th June 2024
[Mr G]
My friend Joyce.
The photograph with text, above, was one of a regular series of photographs and thoughts which Joyce Smith sent to me most weeks. The photographs were her own and she also made the choice of text.
I published many of them either on this Blog or in postings to a group of friends. I looked forward to receiving each week’s offering which began at the time of Covid and the hardship it brought to our lives. The ‘tweets’ continued until her death, two years ago at the end of May.
Her life was one of dedication both to God and to people. Her ministry was widespread and for many, she was both an inspiration and, when in need of care and friendship, she was a comfort. I know many of her friends still miss her, as do I.
Each of us needs a place of ‘sanctuary’, a when things get hard and often, that ‘sanctuary’ comes from others whose hearts God has touched with love and compassion. People who can be channels of God’s grace to others. Our bolt-hole.
For me, Joyce was such a person. We worked together in ministry but most of all we shared friendship. She was a very wise person and, of course, I miss her. She knew how to care and hold and make a space for us to rest in.
At this time of her second anniversary of her entry into heaven, at the end of May, I looked through her photographs, mostly of birds and nature and, quite often puffins! A lot of her time off was spent in Northumberland where, around the Farne Island she found joy among the puffins.
As, I looked at her tweets I thought of the timeless quality of them, so from time to time, they will reappear on this blog.
Mr G.
Evelyn Underhill – remembered in the prayer of the Church of England, today, 15th June.
In the first five decades of the twentieth century, Evelyn Underhill was, perhaps, one of the most widely read writers on prayer and the spiritual life. The first woman ever invited to give a series of lectures in religion at Oxford, she was a fellow of Kings College, London, and in 1938 received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Aberdeen University. She wrote two of the most definitive books on Worship and on Mysticism which are still classics today. She was influenced in her writing by her spiritual friend and mentor, Baron Friedrich Von Hugel.
It was, however, as a retreat director and spiritual guide that she became best known and loved.
Evelyn made her first retreat at Pleshey Retreat House in the Diocese of Chelmsford. This was during Ascensiontide in 1921. She led her first retreat at Pleshey during Lent in 1924. The invitation for her to so came from the then Warden, Lucy Menzies, a personal friend. For the next decade or so she was, arguably, the most distinguished Retreat Conductor of that time. She loved the Retreat House at Pleshey which, she wrote after her first retreat here, ‘seems soaked in love and prayer,’ and many of her retreats each year were conducted here.
A prolific writer, many first editions of Evelyn’s work can be viewed at Pleshey, and today there is a great resurgence of interest in her work and teaching on spirituality. Evelyn may take credit for establishing the place of retreats in the spirituality of the Anglican church in this country, and still today, many people come to the tiny Essex village from all over the world to see the place she loved, breathe the prayer-filled air she breathed, and, perhaps, sense her presence still in the great communion of saints which is so important to our past and our future.
Of the Saints, Evelyn wrote,
“If we ask of the saints how they achieved spiritual effectiveness, they are only able to reply that, insofar as they did it themselves, they did it by love and prayer!
That is a good and apt reflection on her.
Growing in Prayer
Do not entertain the notion that you ought to advance in your prayer. If you do, you will only find you have put on the brake instead of the acceleration. All real progress in spiritual things comes gently, imperceptibly, and is the work of God. Our crude efforts spoil it. Know yourself for the childish, limited and dependent soul you are. Remember that the only growth which matters happens without our knowledge and that trying to stretch ourselves is both dangerous and silly. Think of the Infinite Goodness, never of your own state.
– Evelyn Underhill
{There is much information about Evelyn Underhill on the Web. Try the Pleshey Retreat House Website.
The website of the Evelyn Association has a wealth of information.}
All those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted (Luke 14:11)
In his poem, East Coker (one of the 4 Quartets), T S Eliot said:
“The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility. Humility is endless.”
Earlier this week the current writer of the Church of England’s Daily Reflection, Chine McDonald, was reflecting on the passage from St Luke’s Gospel (14: 1-11). The section included a story Jesus told about guest at a dinner who grabbed the superior positions at the table. Jesus suggested that if more important people came, the host might have to ask the others to take a lower seat. That would not only be embarrassing; it would be humbling.
Humility was the subject of Chine’s reflection and is at the heart of the story Jesus told. The passage ends with the quote above.
My further reflection brought to mind the quotation from Eliot’s poem.
It comes just after Eliot says, Quiet voiced elders have deceived us. Do not let me hear of the wisdom of old men but rather of their folly. The only wisdom we can acquire…is Humility.
Humility and its practice as humbleness is often mistaken for the kind of grovelling we find in Uriah Heep in Charles Dickens’ novel, David Copperfield. In one episode, Heep was ringing his hands and wiping them on his handkerchief. It was a gesture of how he wished to present himself to David Copperfield as what he described as being “a very umble person” He went on to reiterate. “I am well aware that I am the umblest person going, said Uriah Heep, modestly; “let the other be where he may. My mother is likewise a very umble person. We live in an umble abode…
Taking pride in false lowliness is not what Jesus was speaking about.
Humility before God is not, as is so often presented, about feeling a complete lack of worth. It is not about making us feel bad about ourselves. It’s actually the reverse. It’s about recognising that all the potential we have, all the gifts we can offer, all the love we can share, all the joy we can bring, all the things we can achieve – owe their origin to God. And we are called to use our lives and all God has given us, in His service.
Humility is about recognising and celebrating that.
Jesus was, however cautioning us against another false trait, opposite of the one taken by Uriah Heep, of thinking ourselves better than others. This leads to a view that some of us have rights and privileges over others. Our view of humanity then becomes warped. It leads, ultimately to nations trying to lord it over others. We do not have to look far to know what I mean but before we sweep our vision towards the Holy Land or Ukraine, let’s not forget to look nearer to home at the boat people, refugees, the poor and homeless.
Chine McDonald in her reflection widens the story Jesus told. She says, “Jesus words reflect the nature of the Kingdom of God. This is a place where the usual rules do not apply. What applies, she says, is humility because we are dealing with the upside-down nature of God’s Kingdom.
By contrast, she says, “We live in a world where we are asked to measure ourselves against others; where we pride ourselves in our achievements and what we have, whether that is family, a great job or great car – are what matters.”
Jonathan Sacks, the late Chief Rabbi,in his book To Heal a Fractured World, makes the point that no one ever speaks in praise of someone who died, about the car they drove, the house they owned, the clothes they wore, the exotic holidays they took. He says that the things we spend most of our time pursuing turn out to be curiously irrelevant when it comes to seeing life as a whole.
After death, he says, “what was important was the kind of life people led; the qualities they showed; the good things they shared in; the responsibilities they took within community life; who they were as people.”
Chine McDonald places this in context by saying that the Kingdom of God is a place “where human wisdom is replaced by divine wisdom. It is a place in which the status quo cannot be assumed. It is a place of newness and wholeness, where we see things as they should be.”
The way to inhabit this Kingdom is to embrace the kind of humility which translates into seeking the well-being of others; of putting service of others before self; of behaving towards others with respect and love, no matter who they are or the circumstances of their life; of encouraging others and being generous towards them; and to be examples of hope and gentleness. Most of all, of course, it is about embracing the Will of God for us and for others.
[Mr G 14th June 2024]
Mr G's Ponderings 