Transformation: Forgetting What Lies Behind, Reaching Forward to What Lies Ahead

Transformation:
Forgetting What Lies Behind,
Reaching Forward
to What Lies Ahead
Retreat at St. Placid Priory
Lacey, Washington
June 3-10, 2019
Edith Bogue, OSB

God help us to change.
To change ourselves and
to change the world.
To know the need for it.
To deal with the pain of it.
To undertake the journey
without understanding
the destination.
The art of gentle revolution.
Amen.
Michael Leunig
PrayerandArtbyMichaelLeunig
Art:PilgrimIIfromhttps://shop.leunig.com.au/collections/all/leunig-print

What to expect
• Introduction
• A mixture of content
• Words and stories
• Images
• Scripture, saints, Rule, tradition
• Various ways to process
• Thinking and pondering
• Creating
• Enjoying (or not)
• Deep stillness
CrocusimagesthroughoutbasedonphotographyfromSTILL
photographyblogathttps://stillblog.net/stills/day/everyone-wins/
3

Transformation:
Letting Go
in Hope
June 3, 2019
4

MichaelLeunig–Pilgrims
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/86/08/59/86085905a61f06241c39c6a4fa0ae336.jpg

TransformationDef:GoogleDictionaryhttps://www.google.com/search?q=
transformation+definition&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS771US771&oq=transformation+
definition&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l3.5796j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Image:http://www.marketingjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-
2018-08-17-at-7.32.22-AM-720x294.png
• a thorough or dramatic change in
form or appearance.
• a metamorphosis during the life
cycle of a living being.
• PHYSICS: the induced or spontaneous
change of one element into another
by a nuclear process.
• MATHEMATICS: a process by which one
figure, expression, or function is
converted into another that is
equivalent in some important
respect but is differently expressed.

Image:http://www.marketingjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-
2018-08-17-at-7.32.22-AM-720x294.png
Why Transformation?
• Push
• Pull
• Call

What Transformation is Not
• Transfiguration
• Sudden
• Self-help
• Solely a decision
• Strategic Plan
Image:http://www.pravmir.com/the-scandal-of-the-transfiguration/

Forgetting
what lies
behind
9Teun Hocks. Untitled.
http://photohab.com/cinematography/teun-hocks.html

“Tradition is the
guarantee of the future
and not the container
of the ashes.
Tradition is like roots
[of a tree], which give
us nutrition to grow.
You will not become like
the roots. You will flower, grow, give fruit.
And the seeds become roots for other people.
The tradition of the church is always in
movement.”
Pope Francis
June 2, 2019
FranciscriticizestraditionalistCatholicswho'safeguardtheashes’
ofthepastbyJoshuaMcElsweeNRCOnline:
https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-criticizes-
traditionalist-catholics-who-safeguard-ashes-past

Transformation Signs
• Misalignment
• Crumbling
• Confusion
• You see your shadow
• Healthy solitude
• Temptation to activity OR
to unhealthy solitude
• You see the Holy Spirit

Now the Lord is the
Spirit, and where the
Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom.
All of us, gazing with
unveiled face on the
glory of the Lord,
are being transformed
into the same image
from glory to glory, as
from the Lord who is
the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
12
Image:TheVisitation,HenryOssawaTanner.

“There is labor and great
struggle for the impious who
are converted to God, but
after that comes inexpressible
joy. One who wants to light a
fire first is plagued by smoke,
and the smoke drives [her] to
tears, yet [she] finally gets the
fire [she] wants. It is written:
Our God is a consuming fire.
Hence we ought to light the
divine fire in ourselves with
labor and with tears.”
Amma Synclectica
14
https://citydesert.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/st-syncletica-4th-century-virgin.jpg

15
ImagefromWallpaperMaidenhttps://www.wallpapermaiden.com/wallpaper/30426/
bonfire-flames-particles-fire-forest-camping/download/1280x1024

Practices for Beginning
• Reckoning (Brené Brown in Rising Strong)
• Farewells (write, draw, dance…)
• One Story, Five Views (Gess in Now Write)
• Call of the Beatitudes (Paintner in The Artist’s
Rule; Matthew 5:3-12)
• Who Am I? in Scripture, Saints, History
• This is My Song! (a back-burner practice)

VISION:
What is to Come
June 4, 2019

Bothimages:Leunigcards:https://www.leunig.com.au/shop/cards
19

Forgetting what lies behind
• Relinquishing
• Letting go
• Losing
• Losing all
Image:https://mymodernmet.com/edvard-munch-the-scream-painting/

Christian Hope
“Our trust in man
comes from Christian
hope and it is
stronger than all the
horrors. …Christians
are called to bear
witness to it in the
world. Since we have
been called to Syria,
why leave?”
Sister Monica, OCSO Trappist nuns of Syria

22
Copyrightbyoriginalartistathttp://www.CartoonStock.com

A Big Enough Vision
• NOT
• Settling
• Magical thinking
• Strategic plan
• BUT
• Coming from God
• Sacrificial
• Leads to the
promises of Christ,
of God with us.
Merton,WisdomoftheDesert,ShambhalaPocketClassics,p.85
Image1:https://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/09/15/102623-venerable-joseph-abbot-of-alaverdi-georgia
Image2:Fleshandflame,http://ellipticalglory.blogspot.com/2014/11/fire-and-flesh-midweek-message.html

Encountering Another Way
24
https://media.swncdn.com/cms/CW/42284-heart%20of%20worship.1200w.tn.webp

25
https://i2.wp.com/mattjung.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_2947-header.jpg?ssl=1

26

Who equips us to hear?
• Scripture
• Community
• Spiritual Elders
• Testing
27
Image:“EightRighteousWomen,”iconbymonkat
HolyTransfigurationMonastery,Brookline,MA.

“Today’s world, the needs made
plain in the last fifty years and
a deeper understanding of
doctrine have brought us to a
new situation… It is not that the
Gospel has changed, it is that
we have begun to understand
it better. Those who have lived
as long as I have… know that
the moment has come to
discern the signs of the times,
to seize the opportunity and
to look far ahead.”
St. John XXIII
24 May 1963
28

Practices for Visioning
• My Vision Promises
(inspired by AA, Hinds Feet in High Places)
• Things I Would Never Give Up list
• Possible Futures – 10 years or more,
for yourself and for community
• Who Could I Learn From? in Scripture, Saints,
History
• This is My Song! (a back-burner practice)

URGENCY:
Reaching Forward
June 5, 2019

33
Leunig,fromACommonPrayer,1990,
Image:http://www.leunig.com.au/index.php/component/content/category/13-aboutand
Thereareonlytwofeelings.
Loveandfear.
Thereareonlytwolanguages.
Loveandfear.
Thereareonlytwoactivities.
Loveandfear.
Thereareonlytwomotives,
twoprocedures,twoframeworks,
tworesults.
Loveandfear.
Loveandfear.
AMEN

Paul’s sense of urgency
• straining toward (NIV)
• straining forward (NABRE, NRSV, NJB)
• stretching forth myself (Douay-Rheims)
• stretching forward (ASV)
• reaching forward (KJV)
• reach out for (CEB)
• with hands outstretched to whatever lies
ahead (J.B. Phillips)
34
TranslationsviaBibleGateway

• First step in a transformational change effort
in an organization must be:
CREATE A SENSE OF URGENCY
• Half of transformation efforts fail here.
• URGENCY is a combination of thoughts,
feelings, and actual behavior. ... It's a sense of
coming to work each and every day with a
commitment to making something happen
that's on the important issues.
35

Spiritual Urgency
• “Run while you have the
light of life”
(RB Prologue, from John 12:35)
• “I press on toward the
goal for the prize of the
heavenly call of God in
Christ Jesus”
(Phil 3:14)

The Enemies of Urgency
• COMPLACENCY • FALSE URGENCY
37
FromtheworkofJohnKotterinUrgency.
Leunigh,Goingtosleepfrom
https://www.google.com/search?q=LEUNIG+sleeping&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS771US771&source=lnms&tbm=
isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYt5mH7NLiAhWgJjQIHX6NDRsQ_AUIECgB&biw=1396&bih=612&dpr=2.75#imgrc=
f3UnktC0mrYT5M:

Creating Urgency
• Remember the vision.
• Remind yourself of
the vision often.
• Mind the gap.
• “If today…”
• Who are we for?
38
TreeofLife(Leunig)from
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/00/36/63/003663284c39212efcc205933eae9f98.jpg

Creating Urgency
• Remember the vision.
• Remind yourself of
the vision often.
• Mind the gap.
• “If today…”
• Who are we for?
39
TreeofLife(Leunig)from
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/00/36/63/003663284c39212efcc205933eae9f98.jpg

Does it make the boat go faster?
40
Image:https://washingtonrowing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/16.jpg
Willitmaketheboatgofasterstoryat
https://www.willitmaketheboatgofaster.com/who-we-are/

Does it make the boat go faster?
41
Image:https://washingtonrowing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/16.jpg
Willitmaketheboatgofasterstoryat
https://www.willitmaketheboatgofaster.com/who-we-are/

Practices for Urgency
• My Vision Tagline
• Vision images and quotes surround yourself
• Vision-oriented Examen – What did I do that
speeds up the boat? Were there opportunities?
• Who moved their boat faster, and how?
in Scripture, Saints, History
• This song moves me! (a back-burner practice)

GOD’S REIGN:
Already & Not Yet
June 6, 2019

When the Heart from Poems by Michael Leunig http://www.leunig.com.au/works/poems. Art by Tahlia Jayde https://flic.kr/p/ngA8Zs

46

Effort of TransformationFunk,DiscernmentMatters,Ch1
“When I first engaged in this interior
work, I underestimated the
effort entailed. I didn’t take
up the edges that words like
“combat” and “athlete”
connote… I thought those
military words were not
necessary… The trick is to be
focused and ready like a
warrior or a world-class athlete,
but at the same time be meek
and docile like a fawn at daybreak.”
Mary Margaret Funk, OSB

48
“We are all beggars trying to show
other beggars where wefound bread.”
Attributed to Martin Luther

Transformation is messy
• What happens?
ImagebySuzanneD.Williams,
fromUnsplashhttps://unsplash.com/photos/VMKBFR6r_jg
HowDoesaCaterpillarTurnintoaButterfly?ScientificAmericanat
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/caterpillar-butterfly-metamorphosis-explainer/

• What happens?
• Is it inevitable?

• What happens?
• Is it inevitable?
• What is it like
to emerge?

53YouTube https://youtu.be/F2nH0fMyQ54

Already and Not Yet
ChrisKeatsfromUnsplashhttps://unsplash.com/photos/ahiPjoaBcEw
“The shadow side of
monastic life is complacency,
or mediocrity and comfort.”
Mary Benet McKinney, OSB

Practices for Not Yet
• “Rumble” – Take apart what’s happening, bit
by bit. Trust God enough to let it be messy as
long as necessary, until the Spirit moves.
(from Brené Brown, Rising Strong)
• Formation – Practices are tools for the journey.
They don’t do the work – they help the work be
done in you. Find and use good tools!
• Confession – speak your struggles to others,
asking for prayer. Also Reconciliation.
• Hope – “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as
we wait for adoption…” (Rom 8: 23)

Practices for Already
• “Revolution” – As you see the image of the new,
act to bring it into being, one piece at a time.
(from Brené Brown, Rising Strong)
• Gratitude – be alert for special moments, whether
they come in the natural realm or beyond.
• Petition – Pray ardently for needs large and small,
aware that the Spirit is present and active. Pray for
yourself and for others. When you don’t know how
to pray, ask the Spirit to show you.
• Celebration – Rejoice! Whether for God’s action in
your life or the world. Let songs of praise spring
forth! Give your Alleluia and your Amen so all can
see. This, too, is part of the monastic call.

59
“Not that I have already reached the goal
or am already perfect, but I make every
effort to take hold of it because I also have
been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.”
“Sisters and brothers,
I do not consider myself
to have taken hold of it.”
“But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind
and reaching forward
to what is ahead,
I pursue as my goal the prize
promised by God’s heavenly call
in Christ Jesus.”
https://unsplash.com/photos/URXoswgLc44
https://unsplash.com/photos/QTTtvXR3k9o

Transformation: Forgetting What Lies Behind, Reaching Forward to What Lies Ahead

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (20)

Similaire à Transformation: Forgetting What Lies Behind, Reaching Forward to What Lies Ahead

Similaire à Transformation: Forgetting What Lies Behind, Reaching Forward to What Lies Ahead (20)

Plus de Sister Edith Bogue

Plus de Sister Edith Bogue (20)

Dernier

Dernier (19)

Transformation: Forgetting What Lies Behind, Reaching Forward to What Lies Ahead