Tag Archives: religion

This Pilgrim’s Progress

Posted on February 16, 2010 by | 3 Comments

I am participating in a discussion group (for me online; for others, either online and/or IRL) with the First Lutheran Church of Jamestown, N.Y. on the book, Holy Conversation: Talking About God in Everyday Life by Richard Peace. I was invited to the group by Tara Lamont Eastman, with whom I have become acquainted through the blog Sleeping with Bread and now her own blog Uphill Idealist. This will be my second post as part of that group. The first post can be found here.

The second discussion point is based on the questions: “What was your pilgrimage to God like? Consider the phases you went through in your pilgrimage of faith. What helped you move toward God? When you think of all the stages of your own transformation, what does that do to your perspective on other people’s pilgrimage?”

In talking about my pilgrimage to God, I don’t like to talk in the past tense. It’s not what it “was” like, but what it is like. It is a continuing pilgrimage toward God Much like my namesake for this blog, unfinished person, I am not complete.

That said, my pilgrimage to God began at a young age, as I believe I mentioned last week, when I recited the Sinner’s Prayer at the age of four. Through elementary school and early high school, it continued in the Assemblies of God denomination. Later in high school, it branched out ever slightly into other independent Pentecostal-like churches.

In college, I can disenchanted with the “Pentecostal movement” and eventually doubted my faith in God even though I attended a Christian liberal arts college. Throughout my four years in college, I bounced from church to church, at first among  Pentecostal churches, then moving out wider to evangelical and finally more “structured” churches like Lutheran and Episcopalian.

Before graduating, I met a “cradle Catholic” at our school who began me on my journey, again which is ongoing, toward Catholicism. In addition to him, I later met a young woman, who also graduated from my alma mater, who converted to Catholicism. Through the help of that young woman, who later became my wife, and the assistance of the “cradle Catholic,” I began to learn more about the Catholic faith. In April 1995, I was confirmed in the Catholic Church and have been continuing that journey ever since.

For more on my journey into the Catholic Church, I have written about it previously here and here on my now-defunct blog, Journeying with the Saints, the posts from which eventually will be transferred to this blog.

Considering all the stages of my own continuing transformation, and that I continue to have close contacts with members of my immediate family who are Protestant, I tend to look at other people’s pilgrimage toward (and even away from, and no journey at all toward or away from) God in an ecumenical or catholic (small “c”) light. I count among my friends those of other faiths beside the  Christian faith, including Muslims, Jews and those with “no faith” at all in a “Higher Power.”

As Dolly sings in this song:

Questions I have many, answers but a few
But we’re here to learn, the spirit burns, to know the greater truth

or as Bono (well, in this case, The Boss) sings in this one (one of so many great versions of this song available on YouTube):

I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes I’m still running

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Sleeping with Bread: I’m good enough. I’m smart enough…

Posted on March 2, 2009 by | 11 Comments

During the bombing raids of WWII, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All through the night the bread reminded them, “Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow.”

Linn, Dennis et. al, Sleeping with Bread

Each Friday, I participate in the meme Sleeping with Bread, started by Mary-Lue and based off the book. As Mary-Lue describes it in her introduction, just as “the orphans held on to what nourished them and were thus able to sleep peacefully at night, the examen, based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, helps a person hold onto what spiritually nourishes him by looking at what is giving him consolation in his life or causing him desolation. It allows someone to express his gratitude to God for the good stuff and turn to him for solace for the bad stuff.”

So with that in mind:

Instead of backdating as I have done in the past, today I am just going to be honest and start from where I am. Or like Stuart Smalley, I’m going to turn to the mirror and say to myself, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.” Or “I am a worthy human being.” Or “…and that’s…okay.”

For what I am least grateful this past week

1. Procrastination. No, not just for blogging, but for more important things. For example, last week I finished a  project for a newspaper for which I write on Friday. While the deadline was technically yesterday, but editor asked for it on Friday. Instead of working on the project the previous week, I waited until the last couple of days last week to write it. If I had done the work the previous week, I would have had a better story than I did.

2. Continued wasted time on the computer. This weekend, with my wife away for the weekend, I became addicted to another online application, blip.fm (I’m not going to provide the link, you can go there to get addicted for yourself if you’d like). Anyway, as a result, this morning I woke up and organized my online application time. I belong to too many online groups and applications from Facebook to Twitter to just reading blogs on my Google Reader. This way by organizing by days, I can more effectively manage my time online. At least, this is the plan. Day 1: so far, so good.

3.  Lack of sleep. Because of 2, I have slept in too late and not done things I need to do, like continue searching for a full-time job and also getting up earlier in the morning to run. This morning in relation to the latter, I have set up a schedule to get me prepared for the 25K  trail run/hike I am doing on April 19. Now to stick to it.

For what I am most grateful this past week

1. My wife. After returning home from a business trip downstate (Pennsylvania, I live in upstate Pennsylvania) and a visit at her mother’s (in New Jersey) last night, my wife not only cleaned the kitchen floor on her hands and knees (from a spill I had earlier in the weekend, but did a half-assed job at cleaning up), but also then sat down at the kitchen table with me and talked honestly about our need for Lenten devotional time together. We also talked about our job situations and what we can do to seek God’s direction in those areas, namely pray, but also actively work with others toward that end: me as a writing instructor in a college setting and she as a licensed practitioner.

2. I think that’s plenty for this week for which to be grateful, don’t you? Well, I do.

Lord, thank you for my wife, Kim. Help us to find the jobs that you would want us to have and in which we would be the most satisfied, because where we are now, it isn’t working. Also help me to be better about my use of time in all areas so that I can get done what I need  to get done daily. Amen.

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Sleeping with Bread: Looking toward Lent

Posted on February 20, 2009 by | 2 Comments

During the bombing raids of WWII, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All through the night the bread reminded them, “Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow.”

Linn, Dennis et. al, Sleeping with Bread

Each Friday, I participate in the meme Sleeping with Bread, started by Mary-Lue and based off the book. As Mary-Lue describes it in her introduction, just as “the orphans held on to what nourished them and were thus able to sleep peacefully at night, the examen, based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, helps a person hold onto what spiritually nourishes him by looking at what is giving him consolation in his life or causing him desolation. It allows someone to express his gratitude to God for the good stuff and turn to him for solace for the bad stuff.”

So with that in mind:

For what am I most grateful this past week?

1. Registering for the Hyner View Trail Challenge, a 25K trail race in the Sproul State Forest, Hyner View State Park, near Lock Haven,  Pa. (more on this in an upcoming Motivation Monday post).

2. Being able to visit with friends. On Saturday, my wife and I will be going to dinner with friends from where we used to live. As we don’t have a lot of friends where we live, it is good to be able to get out of the house and spend time with friends. Being that my wife and I don’t have children and many of the people, for example, in our parish have children, we don’t have a lot of common ground with them. Also with children, the people at church often are understandably busy with doing things with them.

3. That said, being able to reconnect with friends online via such applications as Facebook has been a good thing– even if neither one of us (me or my friends) always do a good job of keeping in contact as well as we should even with the tools at our disposal.

For what am I least grateful this past week?

1. Not progressing on a story on which I’m working for a daily newspaper for which I work as a correspondent. I made no phone calls for the story and didn’t do one thing for the story besides get a list of photos of businesses that I need to take next week. I really don’t know what happened, but my motivation went out the window somehow.

2. Not sticking to my commitment to not be on the computer on Wednesdays each week, except for work-related (newspaper-related) things. Sometimes I just need to be away from the computer, because I’m either blogging myself or reading other blogs or playing games on Facebook so much that it’s almost like information overload. As a result, I don’t make time for most importantly my wife, reading books like I want to do or even myself, just being able to think about life, for example, a change in my career, which brings me to…

3. Not progressing on a change in career by pursuing anything to that end. For the past 12 years, I’ve been working in the newspaper field. However, it’s more than time for a career change, not just because newspapers are “going under,” but also because it’s just not where I want to be. Where I want to be: teaching writing at a collegiate level or being a writer/editor in another capacity besides newspapers.

I’ve also considered trying to work toward becoming a librarian, even though like newspapers, libraries are dying too, especially for lack of resources. One silver lining: this past week, I did talk to the head librarian at the local library about talking to her about what she does, and what I would need to do to pursue a career as a librarian.

Lord, first, thank you for friends that we have and also for enabling me to enjoy running (something I have been negligent in my training, but that I know you will assist me in the upcoming weeks and months).

Second, please help me cultivate those friendships we have and look to develop new ones that we might have thought of previously.

Third, help me to stay focused this week on those things which I need to get accomplished: the story and photos for the paper for the special assignment with which the editor has entrusted me; my quest for a new career, especially in setting up a person weekly to contact to help hold me accountable.

Fourth, help me to keep my commitment to stay off the computer this Wednesday, unless necessary for the  paper. With Wednesday being Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent, let this be part of my fasting this week and in the coming weeks of Lent.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. †

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Truly journeying with the saints

Posted on October 20, 2008 by | Comments Off

Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul: it seems that no other name fell from his lips than that of Jesus, because the name of Jesus was fixed and embedded in his heart. Once I had come to understand this truth, I carefully considered the lives of some of the saints, the great contemplatives, and found that they took no other path: Francis, Anthony of Padua, Bernard, Catherine of Sienna.

– St. Theresa of Avila

When I began this blog, it was to track my progress through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and thus was called Journeying with St. Ignatius. After that, I explored The Spiritual Canticle by St. John of the Cross with reflections on the 40 stanzas of that poem, and changed the name of the blog to Journeying with the Saints. Now with the new name, and in light of what I’ve already started here– focusing on not just St. Ignatius of Loyola, but other saints as well, that it is time to continue in that vein.

To that end, on feast and memorial days of saints, I will highlight each saint with a short biography and a short reflection of my own. On other days, I will highlight readings from the Liturgy of the Hours from Church Fathers and, of course, the Bible. My sincere hope is that by sharing about these lives of the saints and readings from the Liturgy of the Hours, you will be drawn closer to God, especially since I am a Christian, His Son Jesus Christ. However, regardless of your faith, or lack of faith, I hope you are still drawn closer to God, through the work of His Holy Spirit.

Lord, let us learn through the lives of those who have gone before us, through Your Word and the words of holy men and women both past and present, so that we may live more fully in Your grace. Amen.

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