The theme of this week’s Prayer Service was “Thirsting for Meaning”, reflecting on our callings and the thirst for meaning in the important areas of our lives; our work, our relationships, the issues that we are passionate about. How do we know to what we are called? In a reading from Rev. William A. Kolb, a calling was described as “that which we need most to do, or love to do and it flows from us rather than being pulled from us like wisdom teeth.” While some people may experience a calling that is very clear, most people experience callings with a degree of ambiguity. Rev. Kolb offers this marker to help in the discernment of a true calling. “Do I sense the presence of peace, even though there is conflict or thread overshadowing the circumstance?”
Mark Scannell also offered his reflections on the topic of callings. He reminded us that, growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, the term calling was understood to mean a call to religious vocation. Now, it has a broader meaning. Our calling can be thought of as what happened to us at our baptism. How are we called to bring about the Kingdom of God? Calling is also about listening. How are we hearing God speak to us? Calling is connected to meaning because we are all thirsting to live meaningful lives.
“Who is God? How do we find God?" Those were the topics of conversation in the adult forum, led by Jane Leyden Cavanaugh and Laura D’Ambrosio. The two St. Joan’s parishioners both recently received graduate degrees in theology from St. Catherine’s. They began by presenting some historical thinkers and their struggle with the existence of God. Two themes were the cosmological approach – trying to explain God by understanding the cosmos, and the anthropological view, in which we experience being personally affected by God. They spoke of the “God of the Gaps”, where, historically, God was used to explain phenomenon for which there was no scientific understanding, such as thunder and lightening. Paradoxically, as the scientific gaps have become smaller, the mystery of God in our cosmology grows even larger.
We also watched a video called “Act 2: The Face of God” that was produced shortly after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Towers. The documentary interviewed people, most of whom had lost loved ones in the tragedy, about how their view of God had changed. They also interviewed clergy from many denominations about how those events changed their faith. Many people expressed disappointment that God did not intervene that day, or anger that God had taken their loved ones. There were as many different reactions as there were people. The video ended with a rabbi chanting a litany of messages left by people who were on the planes or in the towers and knew that their end was near. It was an eerie litany of love and good-byes that left the room silent when it ended.
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The adult formation series The Riches of Our Spiritual Heritage will follow the soup suppers and prayer services on the Wednesdays of Lent.
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