Author Archives: Patrick Cole

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About Patrick Cole

Husband, parent and writer. Sharing stories with a little humor and wisdom along the way.

Apr 23 – Repost of Richard Rohr’s The Spirituality of Letting Go

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Fr. Richard Rohr, and his staff, remind us that “Now, in the last season of my life, I realize that what’s in front of me is still largely darkness—but it doesn’t matter anymore.”

Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation

The Spirituality of Letting Go 
From the Center for Action and Contemplation

The Spirituality of Letting Go

God asks only that you get out of God’s way and let God be God in you.
—Meister Eckhart, sermon on 1 John 4:9   

Father Richard describes the spiritual discipline of detachment as the practice of “letting go”:  

In the larger-than-life people I have met, I always find one common denominator: in some sense, they have all died before they died—and thus they are larger than death, too! Please think about that. At some point, they were led to the edge of their private resources, and that breakdown, which surely felt like dying, led them into a larger life. They went through a death of their various false selves and came out on the other side knowing that death could no longer hurt them. They fell into the Big Love and the Big Freedom—which many call God.  

Throughout most of history, the journey through death into life was taught in sacred space and ritual form, which clarified, distilled, and shortened the process. Today, many people don’t learn how to move past their fear of diminishment, even when it stares them down or gently invites them. This lack of preparation for the “pass over,” the absence of training in grief work and letting go, and our failure to entrust ourselves to a bigger life, have contributed to our culture’s spiritual crisis.  

All great spirituality is about letting go. Instead, we have made it to be about taking in, attaining, performing, winning, and succeeding. True spirituality echoes the paradox of life itself. It trains us in both detachment and attachment: detachment from the passing so we can attach to the substantial. But if we do not acquire good training in detachment, we may attach to the wrong things, especially our own self-image and its desire for security. [1] 

Each time I learn to let go of what I thought was necessary for my own happiness, I invariably find myself in a larger place, a larger space, a deeper union, a greater joy. I’m sorry I can’t prove that to you ahead of time. We only know it after the fact. I used to read every book I could as a young man thinking if I understood good theology, good philosophy, good psychology, I’d know how to live the so-called perfect life and it would show me how to open the door in front of me. Now, in the last season of my life, I realize that what’s in front of me is still largely darkness—but it doesn’t matter anymore. That’s because letting go has taught me that I can look back, not forward, back at the past of my life and I can truthfully say, “What have I ever lost by dying? What have I ever lost by losing?” I have fallen upward again and again. By falling I have found. By letting go I have discovered, and I find myself in these later years of my life still surprised that that is true. [2] 

[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Essential Teachings on Love, selected by Joelle Chase and Judy Traeger (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018), 199. 

[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of Saint Francis (Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2010).  

Apr 21 – Good One, Mark Twain

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https://www.onthisday.com/people/mark-twain

Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) born November 30, 1835, in Missouri and died April 21, 1910, in CT, at the age of 74 from a heart attack. An American author most known for his classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in 1885.

Known for his humorous and insightful quips, here are a few of my favorites:

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

“When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.”

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”

http://www.azquotes.com/author/Mark_Twain

Today’s senryu: Good One, Mark Twain

enjoy life today

tomorrow too, if it comes

humor helps a lot

Apr 18 – RIP Albert Einstein

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https://www.onthisday.com/people/albert-einstein

The world’s most famous theoretical physicist (E=mc2), Albert Einstein was born March 14, 1879, and died April 18, 1955.

“On 17 April 1955, Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which had previously been reinforced surgically in 1948 …

Einstein refused surgery, saying, “I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.” He died in the (medical center) early the next morning at the age of 76 …

Einstein spoke of his spiritual outlook in a wide array of original writings and interviews. He said he had sympathy for the impersonal God of Baruch Spinoza’s philosophy. He did not believe in a personal god who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings, a view which he described as naïve. He clarified, however, that “I am not an atheist preferring to call himself an agnostic, or a “deeply religious nonbeliever”. When asked if he believed in an afterlife, Einstein replied, “No. And one life is enough for me.” …

In a memorial lecture delivered on 13 December 1965, nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer summarized his impression of Einstein as a person: “He was almost wholly without sophistication and wholly without worldliness … There was always with him a wonderful purity at once childlike and profoundly stubborn.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

Today’s senryu: RIP Albert Einstein

knowing when to go

living and dying your way

profoundly childlike

Apr 17 – Erato, to you, too

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Erato, in Greek mythology, is the goddess of lyric poetry and her sister Calliope is the goddess of epic poetry and eloquence, both were one of the Muses. Apollo is the Roman god of the sun, healing, music, and poetry. Bragi, son of Odin, is the Norse god of poetry and music, revered for his wisdom, his eloquence, his ability to compose and recite. He was also the god of ceremony.

So many gods and goddesses of poetry. So many words.

Today’s senryu: Erato, to you, too

one more chance to say

i love you, Erato, i

really, really do

Are you a logophile, too?

Apr 16 – Animal Theology

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Linzey

Andrew Linzey (born 2 February 1952) is an English Anglican priest, theologian, and prominent figure in Christian vegetarianism. He is a member of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford, and held the world’s first academic post in Ethics, Theology and Animal Welfare, the Bede Jarret Senior Research Fellowship at Blackfriars Hall.

He is most often quoted as saying

Animals are God’s creatures, not human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor commodities, but precious beings in God’s sight. … Christians whose eyes are fixed on the awfulness of crucifixion are in a special position to understand the awfulness of innocent suffering. The Cross of Christ is God’s absolute identification with the weak, the powerless, and the vulnerable, but most of all with unprotected, undefended, innocent suffering.

https://web.archive.org/web/20141029033113/http://www.jesusveg.com/index2.html

Today’s senryu: Animal Theology

sacred in her sight

interbeing – kin we are

thank you, Etta Pearl

https://www.strayrescue.org/

Apr 14 – The Beauty of What Remains

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https://www.steveleder.com/about

https://www.steveleder.com/books

Just finished, Steve Leder’s book, The Beauty of What Remains; what a wonderful book for understanding how

  1. suffering and love inter-are,
  2. the deep connection with ancestors who give meaning to our lives, and
  3. our honor and responsibility to recognize and pass on life’s lessons.

I am so grateful for Katya Lidsky, Life Coach for Dog People, for recommending this book. I now highly recommend it to you, dear reader.

Today’s senryu: The Beauty of What Remains

hard-working parents

see and share the joie de vivre

embrace the beauty

Apr 13 – Life Continues On

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http://www.judycannato.com/index.html

Judy Cannato was an American Catholic author, retreat facilitator, and spiritual director. She died from a rare form of cancer in 2011, at the age of 62. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Cannato.

Fortunately, before her death, she gave us these encouraging words:

“[Jesus] engaged death with every bit of consciousness and freedom that were his, and what we all discovered as a result is that death—while inevitable, while altering our dreams and causing us to let go of everything—does not have the final word. There is always—always—resurrection. And what is resurrection for us, in the context of the new universe story? It is a transformation in consciousness, an experience of transcendence in which we live out of the connectedness that is our truth. As we continue to evolve in consciousness, continue to emerge as more and more capable lovers, we share in the resurrection of Christ. We not only walk in the Light, we become light for others. Even little resurrections that come after choosing to die to fear and egocentricity release the Spirit. When we engage in a lifetime of death and resurrections as Jesus did, we become ever more empowered to do the work God asks us to do.  

Life and death are a single mystery. That is what the Paschal Mystery teaches us. Death is inevitable—but so is resurrection. We can be sure that dyings will intrude upon our lives, and we may have some choice about how we can respond to their coming. We can be awake and watchful for the resurrections as well, for the creative ways that new life streams into our lives even in the midst of death. Like supernova explosions that shatter every recognizable fragment of life [and scatter elements for new stars], we are capable of transcendence, capable of never allowing death to have the final say.” 

Judy Cannato, Radical Amazement: Contemplative Lessons from Black Holes, Supernovas, and Other Wonders of the Universe (Notre Dame, IN: Sorin Books, 2006), 122.

————————————————————————————————————  

Judy’s words remind me of the often-quoted wedding ceremony quote: “Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”  1 Corinthians 13:13.

What is the difference between the three? “Faith is grounded in the reality of the past; hope is looking to the reality of the future” and love is understanding and acting in the present moment. https://www.gotquestions.org/difference-faith-hope.html

Here’s today’s senryu: Life Continues On

little deaths, big deaths,

many deaths come and always

life continues on

Going Down, Down, Down

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Today’s senryu: Going Down, Down, Down

in hindsight, it’s clear

we made the wrong decision –

just saying, slow down

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE TITANIC

Titanic, British luxury passenger liner that sank on April 15, 1912, en route to New York from Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage.

The largest and most luxurious ship afloat, the Titanic had a double-bottomed hull divided into 16 watertight compartments. Because four of these could be flooded without endangering its buoyancy, it was considered unsinkable. Shortly before midnight on April 14, it collided with an iceberg southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland; five compartments ruptured and the ship sank. Some 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers died.

After the disaster, new rules were drawn up requiring that the number of places in lifeboats equal the number of passengers (the Titanic had only 1,178 lifeboat places for 2,224 passengers) and that all ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch for distress signals (a ship less than 20 mi [32 km] away had not heard the Titanic’s distress signal because no one had been on duty). The International Ice Patrol was established to monitor icebergs in shipping lanes. https://www.britannica.com/summary/Titanic

Apr 10 – After Easter – Now What?

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Below is a repost of a provocative reminder from Sr. Joan Chittister.

https://joanchittister.org/

What Easter is Really About

“The true division of humanity,” Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables, “is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness.” Victor Hugo, it seems, understood Easter.

We love to think of Easter as the feast of dazzling light. We get up on Easter Sunday morning knowing that the sorrow of Good Friday is finally ended, that the pain of the cross has been compensated for by a burst of brilliant victory from the gates of the grave, that Jesus is vindicated, that the faith of the disciples is confirmed for all to see, and that everyone lived happily ever after. We love fairy tales. Unfortunately, Easter is not one of them.

On the contrary, Easter is raw reality. Easter stands in stark witness, not to the meaning of death, but to the meaning of what it is to go on despite death, in the face of death—because of death. To celebrate Easter means to stand in the light of the empty tomb and decide what to do next. Until we come to realize that, we stand to misread the meaning not simply of the Easter gospel but of our own lives. We miss the point. We make Easter an historical event rather than a life-changing commitment. We fail to realize that Easter demands as much of us now as it did of the apostles then.

Most of all we miss the very meaning of the Easters that we are dealing with in our own lives, in our own time. 

Easter is the feast that gives meaning to life. It is the feast that never ends. After Easter, the tomb stands open for all of us to enter. If Jesus is risen, then you and I have no choice but to go into the tomb, put on the leftover garments ourselves, and follow Jesus back to Galilee where the poor cry for food and the sick beg to be taken to the pool and the blind wait for the spittle on their eyes to dry. All the fidelity in the world will not substitute for leaving the tomb and beginning the journey all over again. Today. Every day. Always.

That’s what Easter is really about. It is the “division of humanity” to which Hugo refers in his dramatic rendering of the struggle between light and dark. Yes, Easter is about dazzling light—but only if it shines through us.

              —In the Light of the Messengers: Lenten reflections by Joan Chittister, OSB