The Caring Catalyst http://thecaringcatalyst.com Who Cares - What Matters Wed, 10 Aug 2022 20:52:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 52309807 MY BOD http://thecaringcatalyst.com/my-bod/ http://thecaringcatalyst.com/my-bod/#respond Fri, 19 Aug 2022 11:00:37 +0000 http://thecaringcatalyst.com/?p=5599

WE ARE NOT ALWAYS THAT PROUD OF OUR BODIES
ESPECIALLY AS WE GROW OLDER
so we have a way of
on purpose
covering up
as much as possible
and maybe even making fun of it
in ways that makes others look away from
THE OBVIOUS
like some grand Vegas Strip Magician.         .        .

Which has made me understand the most profound of all statements uttered by sick and the not so sick alike:
THE WORST BETRAYAL OF ALL IS WHEN OUR BODY’S BETRAY US

I seldom BLOG two book reviews per week and wasn’t planning on doing this but I had just gotten done intermittently reading this book when Richard Rohr wrote about this in his daily devotion this past Tuesday.          .          .and I don’t let CHANCE MOMENTS pass; when they speak to me, I make sure I above whisper them along to others:

Knowing and Loving Our Bodies

After being diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, theologian and author Kate Bowler worked intensively to know and love her body and its ways of both serving and failing her. As part of her spiritual practice, she wrote this letter:  

Dear Body,

Sometimes, I hate you. You ache. You get tired sooner than I’d like to admit. You wake me in the night for no good reason. Your cells duplicate at unpredictable rates. New gray hairs and fine lines and silver stretch marks show up out of nowhere. You let me down just when I need you the most. . . .

Sometimes, I want a break from living with you. I’d prefer to trade you in for a newer model. A model that isn’t in constant pain, that fits better in that pair of jeans, that has more energy. With you, I am limited—bound by skin and bone and thinning hair.

With you, I am fragile. . . .

But God knows what it’s like to live in flesh. . . . If God too lived in a body, then God knows the ache of growing pains and the feeling of goosebumps on a brisk day and the comfort of a warm embrace. He felt the gurgle of a hungry stomach and the annoying prick of a splinter after a day of hard work. He wept over the death of a friend. Ours is a God who sneezed and rubbed His eyes when He was sleepy. Ours is a God who knew longing, heartbreak, excitement, frustration—the full range of what it means to be human . . . [and] live in a body.

So when my own body drags me down, when my muscles ache, when my worries keep me up at night, when my fear for the future leaves me motionless, when I feel lonely and exhausted and burdened, I do not worship a God who is far off.

This is a God who knows my humanity inside and out. God has counted every hair on my head (Matthew 10:30) and bottled up every tear I have shed (Psalm 56:8). Not simply because the Word formed us (Genesis 1:27), knit us together in our mothers’ wombs (Psalm 139:13), was there from the very beginning . . . but because God wore our skin.

By embracing the wisdom of the incarnation, Bowler learned to listen to her body’s messages and be kind to herself:

Dear, dear body, I get it. Or at least I am starting to. You do not have an unlimited supply. You run out, and I need to listen. Maybe I really should go to bed a little earlier or let you off the hook for craving those extra salty chips. I need to sense when you are struggling, and gently acknowledge that you are actually changing. That time and love and grief and life have worn themselves into my skin. Day by day. This is the beautiful, terrible evidence that we have lived.

Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection (Colorado Springs, CO: Convergent Books, 2022), 156, 157–158.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
what we often do
TO NOT SEE THE OBVIOUS
and maybe now know that’s it so much more than
a glimpse worth spying.           .            .
]]> http://thecaringcatalyst.com/my-bod/feed/ 0 5599 REAL COMMUNION http://thecaringcatalyst.com/real-communion/ http://thecaringcatalyst.com/real-communion/#respond Fri, 26 Oct 2018 11:00:26 +0000 http://thecaringcatalyst.com/?p=3703

R    E    A    L            C    O    M    M    U    N    I    O    N

.          .          .What is real  communion.        .         .

When I met her, she asked me to bring her  real communion  and I ask her what is real communion, and she said, “you know the one with wine not with grape juice.” 

It started off an explosion of ideas and memories in me:

a little girl who asked me during a Junior Sermon one Sunday, “When can I have some of that ‘Jesus Juice’

a Deacon offering me the Cup during a recent Mass at an inpatient Hospice unit

a Eucharistic Minister who knew I wasn’t Catholic offering me Communion on a Maundy Thursday during Holy Week

catching a kid taking a hand full of Communion wafers and eating them like tic-tacs

But  mostly:

what  is  r e a l   c o m m u n i o n ?

is it actually symbolic of a piece of bread or broken bread or a way for symbolizes the broken body of Christ.       .       .

is a great juice is it real wind it symbolizes the shed blood of Christ.       .       .

Is it something less religious maybe even more spiritual.       .       .

is it the first time my father looked into the eyes of his newborn child.          .          .

is it the first time a new mom successfully Breast feeds her baby

Is it a couple on their wedding day sharing a Ritz cracker and a sip of Ginger ale because that’s what they shared on their first date in the park

is it a grandmother, literally tearing a loaf of bread in half and passing a piece each of their grandchildren on a picnic and explaining it doesn’t matter how big the piece is as long as it’s a shared piece.          .          .

is it the unspoken language between a husband and a wife of 50+ years sharing that one last look before one of them dies.          .          .

 What.          .          .

What  is  Real  Communion?

And who.          .          .

Who can have it.          .          .

Who can share or distribute it?

Probably safe to say, huh,

there are many different meanings

there are many different definitions

of what exactly is REAL  COMMUNION

is the definition that you give to it

and maybe even greater still

the Priest you are WHO Share it.          .          .

Whatever  Real  Communion  is to you

~~define it~~

share it~~

live it~~

be it…

because whatever real  communion  is,

it’s not a solitary confinement

or singular act

it ultimately is a shared experience

between you and another person

or a group of likeminded OTHERS

and if it’s not SHARED

then  it’s  not  REAL COMMUNION

~~ it’s THEN whatever it is you define as it’s exact snd complete opposite

Maybe the universal definition of real  communion is merely:

The hand who serves

r e a c h i n g

for the hand who receives

and simply

t o u c h

c o n n e c t

h o l d

(repeatedly)

The hand who serves is most like the hand who receives

only when it’s

e             x             t             e             n             d             e             d

Maybe

R E A L     C O M M U N I O N

it’s not so much

something you choose as much as

Y      O      U           L    I    V    E
(As   you   are)

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