Lightly edited copy of an email I sent to my spiritual director today in advance of our session for September. I’ve been writing these for several years now, primarily in order to help me focus my mind before we talk. It’s not a record or an agenda of our sessions. (Often enough, we start discussing something else and never get back to it.) I archive them to the blog so I can go back later and see what I was thinking about a given topic at the time I posted them. 

Sat, Sep 7, 9:36 PM (2 days ago)

Hi Sister —

How did it get to be time for our monthly Zoom session already? I know, I know, time flies when you’re … reading about the third chapter of John? 

Ever since I learnd at last month’s Dominican associates’ retreat that early Celtic Christians compared the Holy Spirit to a wild goose (more about that later), I’ve been thinking and reading about it. And something — the spirit? my better angels? — has been nudging me back to John, and journaling about Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in Chapter 3. The wind blows where it wills […] so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nothing ready to uplink, though, and I suspect I’ll be asking you about the Holy Spirit when we get together Monday at 6.

Since the retreat I feel like I’ve been off my game, anyway. A combination of health issues and a political squabble on Facebook that I didn’t get under control soon enough have kind of knocked me off balance. But my FB feed has simmered down. (One good thing came out of it: A friend commented something like, “Model kindness”; good advice, I think, in any circumstances and especially on social media!) And I think the medical saga will work out. So I’m left thinking about the Holy Spirit and the gospel of John, which isn’t such a bad place to be.  

Not much on the blog for you to look at, in any event. I was busy getting ready for the retreat during most of August, and caught up in the FB kerfuffle toward the end. 

Social justice/Palestine

At the time of the Democratic National Convention, I posted a journal to my blog that combined those interests, plus a longstanding regard for the Black church. It’s dated Aug. 22, under the headline “Warnock’s inclusive, almost pastoral convention speech calls Democrats to work for peace and justice, to ‘heal the land’.” I wound up writing it like a news story — because it was about a political speech and I reverted to type? — with the main point in the lede: 

For a long time I’ve been saying the only thing that can lift us up out of our spiritual crisis in America is the transformative witness of the Black church. We had a vivid foretaste of what that might look like Monday when Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., addressed the Democratic National Convention. I found it especially heartening that he had a kind word for the humanity of the Palestinian people.

Warnock is the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s church, and it should come as no surprise his speech was electrifying. Nor that it ended with what sounded to me like a political altar call. Most political speeches build up at the end to an ask — get out and vote, let’s elect so-and-so — but Warnock’s swept through the hall like rolling thunder. And it left me, even watching it on the internet, inspired, even called, to “stand together” with him and “heal the land.” 

Warnock’s conclusion, the altar call, began with an odd — yet, I think, calculated and very effective — appeal to common humanity. Odd because it harkened back to the COVID-19 pandemic, a subject many politicians find divisive. But in the pandemic Warnock found a message of healing. https://ordinaryzenlutheran.com/2024/08/22/warnock-2/

My current interest in Palestine, in a way, grows out of the parish book study sessions on Lutheran churches and NGOs in the occupied territories that Debi and I co-facilitated back in the summer.   

The Retreat: Wild Geese

It was wonderful, and inspiring, to attend the retreat in person, after so many years of isolation due to the pandemic and cancer treatment. In one of the talks, or homilies, I heard for the first time that one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit in Celtic spiritual tradition is the wild goose. (I think it was Sr. Mary Paul McCaughey’s talk, but I wasn’t taking notes so I’m not sure). I immediately liked that — I could tell you stories about my encounters with a neighbor’s dometic goose when I lived in rural East Tennessee! Debi liked it too, she Googled it on her iPhone and shared this (or something like this, again I wasn’t taking notes):

The Wild Goose is untameable, uncontrollable, sometimes frightening, a dangerous creature! The Wild Goose invites us to let go of all that is static, to live life on God’s terms rather than from our preconceived and safe ideas of how life should work out. This alternative image of the Holy Spirit beckons us toward the unexpected, to life’s ultimate questions, to fresh horizons and perceptions, to grow into the dynamic world of the Spirit.  (Link below.)

That’s in a meditation for Pentecost by Sr. Mary Rowell, CJS. There’s also a column  titled “Why Did Early Christians Call the Holy Spirit the ‘Wild Goose?'” I want to check it out. The author, Kathy Schiffer, even cites John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

I have a feeling I’m not done with this!

Commitment Statement(s)

Reviewing my commitment statement from May 2022, when Debi and I became associates, gave me an opportunity to look over what I *thought I was going to do* and compare it to what *I actually did.* The exercise strengthened my hunch that, to my surprise, I’ve gotten much more out from the Dominican community than I’ve contributed.

But I was pleasantly surprised by how little I had to change my original statement. In revising it, I struck through deletions and underlined additions to the language (once a legislative reporter, always a legislative reporter, I guess). The revised statement reads:

I, Peter Ellertsen, responding to my Baptismal call, desire to share in the spirit and mission of you, the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois. I agree to join you in preaching the Word and witnessing Gospel values by:

  • Co-facilitating faith formation and bible study meetings over Zoom at my parish,  Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield; and seeking other opportunities to expand our outreach by electronic means.
  • Being guided by the Dominican pillars of prayer, study and ministry, as I maintain my spiritual formation blog for a diverse ecumenical and secular readership; and seeking opportunities to publish my research on immigrant church history to share the Gospel through the witness of my life by means of the written word.
  • Deepening my understanding of the Dominican charism, especially by learning more about the Laudato Si’ Platform, Jubilee Farm and continuing to take part in the Associates Committee of SDART; supporting other initiatives of the Springfield Dominican Sisters; and contributing as needed to all of those initiatives.
  • Continuing to work on my prayer life, becoming more aware of the presence of God in my life and deepening my connection with the Springfield Dominican community as I continue spiritual direction with Dominican Sisters.

Links

https://ordinaryzenlutheran.com/2024/08/22/warnock-2/ “Warnock’s inclusive, almost pastoral convention speech calls Democrats to work for peace and justice, to ‘heal the land’.”

https://www.csjcanada.org/blog/welcoming-the-wild-goose-an-invitation-for-pentecost Sr. Mary Rowell, CJS, “Welcoming the Wild Goose: An Invitation For Pentecost,” Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada, May 29, 2020

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/wild-goose Kathy Schiffer, “Why Did Early Christians Call the Holy Spirit the ‘Wild Goose?’,” National Catholic Register, Jan 10, 2021

Journals on discernment questions for Aug. 24 retreat:

See you Monday at 6 p.m.

— Pete

[Uploaded Sept. 15, 2024]

Unknown's avatar

Published by Pete Ellertsen

Leave a comment