“Recognizing the present moment more fully opens us to
otherwise unrecognized moments of profound grace.”
Stay Awake: The Here and Now
August 27th, 2020
A somewhat common thought that I hear expressed from time to time this year is that 2020 will be “a lost year.“ And I’m sure that this idea resonates with many of us, while not clearly elucidating any single idea or point. Not only is the year not actually lost, many of us won’t be able to forget it. It may stick in our memories much more vividly and endearingly than any other year of our life. In our life’s memory, its presence may loom larger than the average year.
Perhaps some of us are referring to the fact that this has been a year of survival and maintenance rather than progress. However one could argue that this year has and is bringing about great possibilities for social progress in our country and in the ways in which we realize more fully and more perfectly than ever before, our country’s founding principle that all are created equal.
Yet still a lot of things have been lost to us this year. We have lost a sense of security in the way things are, we have lost the myth of our economy being more impervious to disaster than any other. Children in their formative years have lost normal interaction and education that we would have normally expected. And of course, that which weighs most heavily on us, the loss of life and loved ones, and the loss of moments of communal support that would normally take place in the midst of such tragedies.
However, this recognition of life’s fragility should not leave us shattered. The knowledge that breakage is possible is not the same thing as being broken. The loss of regular “tried and true“ formation patterns for our children is not the same thing as no formation - or even "worse" formation. And as always, the loss of life is always with us and it is merely the drama in which each death is cloaked that serves to label some as more tragic than others.
Our experience of life happens in the present. It is now. But our awareness (that is, our intentional mindfulness) often drifts to the future and the past. Our awareness can become estranged from actual experience. How often have our days been overrun by worry about the future to the extent that we can’t notice that today has problems that are surmountable and moments that are delightful if we get tomorrow and yesterday out of our heads long enough to notice. In 2020, this may be a more important skill than ever before.
I’ve included a meditative prayer moment within the video (which is not my forte), and the song I’ve included is a recording of our own Alix Corboy playing a favorite Prelude by Debussy. This song has a stillness to it. It is light on motion and heavy on a sense of texture right here in the moment. I hope that as you listen to it you can use it to sense everything that is right and good in just this present moment of listening and experience.
In this time it is possible to find a source of needed strength and calm when and if we can “take a break” from all that has happened and all that might happen, and notice what’s actually happening as it happens. Notice that the (more often than not) grace-filled present can heal and nurture us so we can better face the future as well as the past.
God Bless,
Fr. Pat
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In this same vein, as an accompanying song I went scavenging through my own archives to find a favorite piece that I used to sing fairly often. Not really a church composition, per se, it is a song by Stephen Schwartz about being open and prepared enough to recognize when something amazing comes along and being ready take a chance, make the change necessary and embrace the unimagined possibilities of a greater, joy-filled life.
I hope you are all continuing to be well and to actively and intentionally hunt the good moments and savor them when you can.
God Bless,
Fr. Pat
Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this:
if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
“Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this:
if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,
whom the master has put in charge of his household
to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
whom the master has put in charge of his household
to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
Debussy Prelude performed by Alix Corboy
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