{"id":20263,"date":"2021-06-21T09:34:44","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T13:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20263"},"modified":"2021-06-21T09:41:24","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T13:41:24","slug":"a-midwife-for-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20263","title":{"rendered":"A Midwife for the Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-ZK2wljuBxs\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>Tend only to the birth in\nyou and you will find all goodness and all consolation, all delight, all being\nand all truth. Reject it and you reject all goodness and blessing. What comes\nto you in this birth brings with it pure being and blessing. But what you seek\nor love outside of this birth will come to nothing, no matter what you will or\nwhere you will it. \u2014<\/em>Meister\nEckhart, Sermon on Matthew 2:2<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The role of the \u201cmidwife\u201d to the soul is a\npowerful metaphor for the ministry of spiritual direction. Drawing on Meister\nEckhart\u2019s text, Margaret Guenther writes about the comfort and guidance that\ngood directors can offer those who are \u201cgiving birth to the soul.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Eckhart is to be believed, we give birth\nand are born ourselves again and again: the birth of God in the soul is our own\ntrue birth. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are those who feel that something is\nhappening to and within them. Their tastes are changing, and their balance has\nshifted. Sometimes they are brought up short by a crisis: an experience of\nconversion, a tragic loss, a period of great pain, a sharp awareness of being\non a threshold. As they approach midlife, women especially may feel impelled to\nexplore their spirituality as they discover their new and unexpectedly\nauthoritative voice. Men and women of all ages and life experiences may sense a\ncall, not necessarily a vocation to the ordained ministry, but simply the\nawareness that God expects them to do something with their lives. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a spiritual midwife, the director\u2019s task is\nto pay attention, to listen to what is not being said\u2014or to what <em>is<\/em> being said but minimized.\n. . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spiritual direction is not a crisis ministry,\neven though the initial impulse to seek out a director may arise from a sense\nof urgent personal need. The midwife of the spirit is not an expert called in\nfor the dramatic moments, either a crisis caused by pathology or the final,\nexciting moment of birth. Like a midwife, she works with the whole person and\nis present throughout the whole process. She \u201chas time\u201d\u2014unlike the tightly\nscheduled physician who is concerned with specifics, complaints, and pathology.\nOr, for that matter, unlike the tightly scheduled parish clergy, who are\nconcerned with program, administration, and liturgy. Instead she offers support\nthrough every stage and waits with the birthgiver when \u201cnothing is happening.\u201d\nOf course, there <em>are <\/em>no\ntimes when nothing is happening. Spiritual growth can be gradual and hidden;\nthe director-midwife can discern or at least trust that something is indeed\n\u201chappening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a people,\nwe are not comfortable with waiting. We see it as wasted time and try to avoid\nit, or at least fill it with trivial busyness. We value action for its own\nsake. . . . It is hard to trust in the slow work of God. So the model of\npregnancy and birth is a helpful one. . . . There are times when waiting is\ninevitable, ordained, and fruitful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Importance of Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No matter the religion or denomination in\nwhich we are raised, our spirituality still comes through <em>the first filter of our own life\nexperience<\/em>. We must begin to be honest about this instead of\npretending that any of us are formed exclusively by the Scriptures or our\nchurch Tradition. <em>There is no\nsuch thing as an entirely unbiased position. The best we can do is own and be\nhonest about our own filters.<\/em> God allows us to trust our own\nexperience. Then Scripture and Tradition hopefully keep our personal experiences\nboth critical and compassionate. These three components\u2014Scripture, Tradition,\nand experience\u2014make up the three wheels of what we at the CAC call the learning\n\u201ctricycle\u201d of spiritual growth. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Historically, Catholics loved to say we relied\nupon the Great Tradition, but this usually meant \u201cthe way we have done it for\nthe last hundred years.\u201d What we usually consider \u201cofficial teaching\u201d changes\nevery century or so. Most of our operative images of God come primarily from\nour early experiences of authority in family and culture, but we use teachings\nfrom the Tradition and Scriptures to validate them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we try to use \u201conly Scripture\u201d as a source\nof spiritual wisdom, we get stuck, because many passages give very conflicting\nand even opposite images of God. I believe that Jesus only quoted those\nScriptures that he could validate by <em>his<\/em>\n<em>own<\/em> <em>inner<\/em> <em>experience.<\/em> At the same time,\nif we humans trust <em>only<\/em>\nour own experiences, we will be trapped in subjective moods and personal\npreferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It helps when we can verify that at least some\nholy people and orthodox teachers (Tradition) and some solid Scripture also validate&nbsp;our\nown experiences. Such affirmation makes us more confident that we are in <em>the force field of the Holy Spirit<\/em>\nand participating in God\u2019s sacred work in this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus and Paul clearly use and build on their\nown Jewish Scriptures and Tradition, yet <em>they\nboth courageously interpret them through the lens of their own unique personal\nexperience of God<\/em>. This is undeniable! We would do well to follow\ntheir examples. I will admit that the experiences we have of God\u2014and of our own\nlives and desires\u2014can be confusing and sometimes even contradictory to one\nanother. This is why it is so helpful to have someone to walk with us as we\nuncover the deeper meaning of our experiences and what they might reveal to us\nabout God and ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christians have always relied on wise individuals to companion them in the process of coming to know who God is for them and who they are in God. As my friend Tilden Edwards, founder of the Shalem Institute writes, \u201cWe yearn for a soul-friend with whom we can share our desire for the Holy One and with whom we can try to identify and embrace the hints of divine Presence and invitation in our lives.\u201d [2] Such soul-friends are sometimes called \u201cspiritual directors,\u201d the subject of this week\u2019s meditations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>June 21 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WAIT\nPATIENTLY WITH ME<\/strong> while I bless you. Don\u2019t rush into My\nPresence with time-consciousness gnawing at your mind. I dwell in timelessness:\nI am, I was, I will always be. For you, time is a protection; you\u2019re a frail\ncreature who can handle only twenty-four-hour segments of life. Time can also\nbe a tyrant, ticking away relentlessly in your mind. Learn to master time, or\nit will be your master. Though you are a time-bound creature, seek to meet Me\nin timelessness. As you focus on My Presence, the demands of time and tasks\nwill diminish. I will bless you and keep you, making My Face shine upon you\ngraciously, giving you Peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MICAH 7:7; But as for\nme, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>REVELATION 1:8; I am the Alpha and the Omega,&#8221; says the LORD\nGod, &#8220;who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ECCLESIASTES 3:1; 3:1 To everything there is a season, and a time\nto every purpose under the heaven: 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a\ntime to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3:3 A time to\nkill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NUMBERS 6:24\u201326; \u201cThe Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face shine on\nyou. and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn his face toward you and give you\npeace.\u201d\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling Morning and\nEvening Devotional (Jesus Calling\u00ae) (p. 356). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tend only to the birth in you and you will find all goodness and all consolation, all delight, all being and all truth. Reject it and you reject all goodness and blessing. What comes to you in this birth brings with it pure being and blessing. But what you seek or love outside of this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20263"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20263"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20267,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20263\/revisions\/20267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}