{"id":22350,"date":"2023-04-20T09:57:16","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T13:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22350"},"modified":"2023-04-20T10:22:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T14:22:44","slug":"the-weeping-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22350","title":{"rendered":"The Weeping Mode"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Brighter Days - Blessing Offor (lyric video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mvc_cLfQL_M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Through studying Francis of Assisi, Richard Rohr learned that weeping is a mode of being that relinquishes any need to be in control:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I was a Franciscan novice in 1961, I only went to my novice master once with a complaint. Every month, we had been encouraged to read another life of Saint Francis. I kept reading about Francis going off into a cave and crying. These books said he spent whole days in tears, weeping. Frankly, this made no sense to me, so I went to my novice master. I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s he crying about all the time? I don\u2019t get it. I don\u2019t know if I want to be a Franciscan.\u201d My educated, rational mind already resisted that kind of losing, weakness, vulnerability. My novice master told me, <strong>\u201cYou won\u2019t understand it now, but I promise you will later.\u201d&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The mode of weeping, of crying, is different than the mode of fixing. It\u2019s different than understanding. That\u2019s why we often cry when we forgive. I\u2019ve given up trying to make rhyme or reason or blame or who\u2019s right or who\u2019s wrong. The dualistic mind just goes back and forth seeking justification, seeking the right reason to hate or reject another person.<\/strong> We never find home base. Now I understand why Francis wept so much. When we go to the place of tears, and I don\u2019t mean necessarily literally\u2014I still don\u2019t cry very easily myself, I\u2019m sad to say\u2014i<strong>t\u2019s an inner attitude where when I can\u2019t fix it, when I can\u2019t explain it, when I can\u2019t control it, when I can\u2019t even understand it, I can only forgive it. Let go of it, weep over it. It\u2019s a different mode of being. [1]&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>After her father\u2019s death, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie captures the embodied experience of \u201cthe weeping mode,\u201d in which no attempts to \u201cfix\u201d or \u201cmove on\u201d will do:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language.<\/strong> Why are my sides so sore and achy? It\u2019s from crying, I\u2019m told. I did not know that we cry with our muscles. The pain is not surprising, but its physicality is: my tongue is unbearably bitter, as though I ate a loathed meal and forgot to clean my teeth; on my chest, a heavy, awful weight; and inside my body, a sensation of eternal dissolving. My heart\u2014my actual, physical heart, nothing figurative here\u2014is running away from me, has become its own separate thing, beating too fast, its rhythms at odds with mine. This is an affliction not merely of the spirit but of the body, of aches and lagging strength. Flesh, muscles, organs are all compromised. No physical position is comfortable. For weeks, my stomach is in turmoil, tense and tight with foreboding, the ever-present certainty that somebody else will die, that more will be lost. [2]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>____________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young Jesus Listens<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almighty God, <strong>Your Word tells me that You will fight for me; I need only to be still. Lord, You know how weary I am. I\u2019ve been struggling just to keep my head above water, and my strength is running low. I need to stop trying so hard\u2014and just let You fight for me. This is very difficult for me to do because my feelings tell me I must keep striving in order to survive.<\/strong> But I know You\u2019re working on my behalf, and You are calling me to rest in You. So please help me to be still and know that You are God. <strong>Trying to calm my mind is even more challenging than quieting my body. In my battle to feel secure, I have relied too heavily on my own thinking. As I\u2019ve struggled to feel in control, I\u2019ve unwittingly elevated my mind to a position of self-reliance. Forgive me, Lord!<\/strong> <strong>I desperately need Your Spirit to work within me\u2014controlling my mind more and more, soothing me from the inside out. While I spend time resting in the shadow of Your Almighty Presence,<\/strong> I\u2019ll rejoice that You are fighting for me. In Your invincible Name, Jesus, Amen EXODUS 14:14; The&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;will fight&nbsp;for you; you need only to be still.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PSALM 46:10 NKJV; 10<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!&nbsp;11 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROMANS 8:6; The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God\u2019s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PSALM 91:1; He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Young, Sarah. Jesus Listens (p. 115). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Through studying Francis of Assisi, Richard Rohr learned that weeping is a mode of being that relinquishes any need to be in control:&nbsp; When I was a Franciscan novice in 1961, I only went to my novice master once with a complaint. Every month, we had been encouraged to read another life of Saint Francis. [&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\/22350"}],"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=22350"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22353,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22350\/revisions\/22353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}