Christian Spirituality for the Final Third of Life
May 28, 2022 Leave a comment
See Revised and updated Word File below and feel free to contact John Cooper for permission to use:
jcooperforpeace@gmail.com
Christian Spirituality for the Final Third of Life: a Small Group Course
October 23, 2021 Leave a comment
REVISED PRINT Binder – Combined Christian Spirituality for the Final Third of Life – Class 1-4 05232022Download
See Revised and updated Word File below and feel free to contact John Cooper for permission to use:
jcooperforpeace@gmail.com
Contemplation on the Mystical Roots of Unconscious Prejudice
June 19, 2020 Leave a comment
(Pix: John Cooper)
(A Spiritual Exercise)
- I make a gesture of reverence like a bow, folded hands in prayer, or the Sign of the Cross.
2. I enter a two minute period of silence and meditation.
3. I think about what I desire, that I desire to discover and be healed of prejudice.
4. I take an item or symbol of my ancestors and hold it in my hands.
5. I enter into silent meditation for two minutes, holding the item and if I am in a group, sharing the item I am holding with others.
6. I read the Prayer Texts below:
Gen 1:31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (NRSV)
Gal 3:28 So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus. (GNBDK)
1 Cor 12:12 Christ is like a single body, which has many parts; it is still one body, even though it is made up of different parts. 13 In the same way, all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free, have been baptized into the one body by the same Spirit, and we have all been given the one Spirit to drink. (GNBDK)
Lev 19:32 “Show respect for old people and honour them. Reverently obey me; I am the LORD.
33 “Do not ill-treat foreigners who are living in your land. 34 Treat them as you would a fellow-Israelite, and love them as you love yourselves. Remember that you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God. (GNBDK)
Deut 5: 9 I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. 10 But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my laws. (GNBDK)
“…so much is hidden in the unconscious…Below all this is the vast unknown world of corporate memories inherited from our families, our culture and our race…However there is a time for amassing information and a time for letting it go into the hands of God to allow him to illuminate, draw out and bind together what we already know…the works of the memory become in some way divine if they are controlled by the Holy Spirit.” (Door Through Darkness: John of the Cross and mysticism in everyday life, pp. 104-105, 133, Sister Eileen Lyddon, New City Press).
7. I meditate in silence, thinking about the prayer texts above.
8. If doing this exercise in a group, I gently share my thoughts in confidence and confess my sins of prejudice and unconscious inheritances I may have received of which I am now aware. I speak aloud my pain, my grief, how I have been hurt and how I have hurt others. If I am privileged, I resolve to give something back, love, prayers, money, or what I may be inspired to pay forward for my future generations. If I am exercising privately, I write these matters down in my Journal when I am finished for future reflection and action.
9. I am silent for two more minutes, this time hoping to enter a state of thoughtless contemplation, allowing God to do His work silently and passively in my heart and mind.
10. I and others, if I am in a group, moan as if we were dying, perhaps even crying out loudly, AGHH! I grieve. I moan…
11. I recite the Lord’s Prayer myself or in my group together in communion with others.
12. I enter silence for 3 minutes and 29 more seconds, making a total of 9 minutes and 29 seconds of silence and resolve to pray in silence about these matters at other times and the exercise ends without comments or additional discussion, but I will discuss what I have experienced with my Spiritual Director, Pastor, or counselor or friends and I resolve to take this exercise again as often as needed. I also resolve to share this exercise with others as appropriate.
John Cooper
Tuscaloosa, AL
Breath of Life
May 29, 2020 Leave a comment
Our prayer is living our lives in your Presence, oh Lord, every breath in, every breath out, given in all places and at all times for Your praise and glory. Breathe on us, holy Spirit; ignite our hearts with Your love, grace, and mercy that we may be one with You!
John Cooper
Cats Go To Heaven
March 7, 2020 Leave a comment
Cats go to Heaven!
This short essay is inspired by my friend, Rennie Jones’ post where he shared a link, https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/do-dogs-go-to-heaven.html about dogs going to Heaven.
Some know of my fondness of St. Francis, who urged nonviolence and the love of all of creation, and that I am a Spiritual Director and promote Ignatian Spirituality, one of whose core tenants is “finding God in all things.” See: https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/ignatian-spirituality/finding-god-in-all-things.
Recently our beloved cat, Ossie, passed away. He had quit eating and we took him to the Vet after he had not eaten much for several days. It was found he had a problem in his gall bladder the Vet thought was gall stones, but when we took him to the animal hospital in Starkville, MS, he ended up having E-coli in his gall bladder. For three days he was on intravenous IV and seemed to be doing better and one time seemed to be his old self again and he was released after three days and sent home with plenty of medicine to continue his recovery. We began giving him the medicine but in about a week or so he lost his appetite again. I thought I knew what was happening and begin to make a cat casket for him, although I did not tell Wink until after he died what I was making.
We took him to the Vet again and the Vet worked with him and gave him more medicine and we ordered more from the Mississippi hospital for his little gall bladder, but it was too late for him. His time had come to die. When he got home from the Vet, he was so weak. I took him out on our deck where he used to love to be, but he wanted to come back in the house and lay behind one of our sofas. When he came out to go down the hall, he was so weak he walked a little then sat down to rest. He ended up under my Great-Great Grandfather’s chest of drawers which he had made during the civil war period. It came time to give him his medicine and while Wink was preparing the medicine, I went in to get him out from under the chest of drawers. He groaned and rolled over when I awakened him and rolled over again and groaned. I knew he was dying. I called Wink in and I gently slid Ossie out from under the chest and Wink and I watched him die, both of us crying. I told Wink he is dying, but she held out hope to the end. “Watch out.” I said, “Sometimes a dying animal will bite you.” But little Ossie was always so gentle. “He is still breathing,” Wink said. “He is dying,” I said. Ossie let out one last “Ahhh?” as loud as he could and groaned loudly and his little spirit went to heaven. “His eyes are still open,” Wink said. “That’s the way it is after one dies,” I said.
We are still grieving, especially Wink, and we have not yet put his ashes in his casket. Bill Remmert is to come and bless him and the casket when we are ready to experience more closure. Here is a link to where he will rest:
Notice the oil painting of Ossie Janelle Avery did before Janelle died. Both Janelle and Ossie are gone way too soon, but I believe God knows every sparrow which falls to the ground and he can do all things, including reuniting all our loved ones in Heaven.
Rest in Peace,
John Cooper
We are Not Alone
April 10, 2019 Leave a comment
We are Not Alone
I went to Mass today, Wednesday before Psalm Sunday, 2019 and experienced what I believe to be a consolation without prior cause. As a little background, I pray with the daily readings each morning (See: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041019.cfm) and condense what I think is most important to me for this day into a short phrase to remember throughout the day and try to live out in daily life. My condensations for the last three days are:
I am not alone!
Again, I AM, is in ME, I am not alone.
I am not alone in fiery trials!
These phrases stem from parts of the readings from April 8th, 9th, and 10th, 2019,
“And even if I should judge, my judgment is valid,
because I am not alone,
but it is I and the Father who sent me.” [1]
“”When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,”[2]
“”Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?”
“Assuredly, O king,” they answered.
“But,” he replied, “I see four men unfettered and unhurt,
walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God.””[3]
We often feel alone, even in our own families which may be experiencing times of alienation and stress. We often feel alone in our national identities when rampant unchristian injustices like racism, nationalism, prejudice against immigrants and asylum seekers and peoples of other faiths, such as the Muslims, which desolations rear their ugly heads against our deep desires for peace and harmony and our deepest desire for God. We can feel all alone in our own church groups, even with hundreds of people surrounding us, some of whom we know by name but with whom we may have only a superficial spiritual relationship. We can feel alone when vices of financial or health difficulties tighten around us.
I wanted to tell someone at church today about this matter, to go out to eat with someone and to just talk about spiritual matters, but the occasion did not arise so I thought I would come in and tell you, the reader, about this matter:
We are NOT all alone!
We may be facing religious Pharisees, who want to judge and condemn us, but God is with us, and in us. Even if we face our death, our little daily dying’s, or walk in fiery trials, we are not alone! To begin with, God is in everything, we can find Him in all things, so we are never far from God in whom we live and breathe and have our being.[4] If we are Roman Catholic we may believe God is in the Eucharist in a special way, so God is with us and is in us in that way also, as well as in all in the congregation and in the Communion of Saints with whom we are also joined in a special and mysterious way. We are NOT alone!
I am a Spiritual Director in the Jesuit tradition and it is my job to help others connect directly to the Creator, who will work directly with the Creature, you, that is. A big part of being a Spiritual Director is to listen, not just to the directee, but to listen to God too. Let us listen for God in each other, in the wind, in the trees, in the birds, in animals, in children, in those we have been told are our enemies, in those of other Faiths, and in refugees and asylum seekers, in the poor, and in those of other races besides our own. There are plenty of places NOT to be alone if one can listen like this. Listen and silence are spelled with the same letters. Maybe a little silent reflection on the daily readings will help us to listen to God speaking to us, to hear His voice, His call and His cry from the Cross where even the human side of Jesus thought he was all alone and forsaken, but it turned out He was not all alone, at least not for long. No man is an island. No man is all alone.
John Cooper
Tuscaloosa, AL
[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/040819.cfm
[2] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/040919.cfm
[3] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041019.cfm
[4] 1 Cor 8:6; Acts 17: 28-30
I Can’t Breathe!
April 18, 2018 Leave a comment
I Can’t Breathe!
I can only imagine how a drowning person may feel. My Uncle, Bill McCulley, taught me to swim on his farm in Illinois, in a pond on the Wilt Place. He was a Navy veteran, and an excellent swimmer, and I trusted him to save me if anything happened to me. The fish and snakes brushing up against my legs did not seem to matter. One of Bill’s attributes, besides being very strong, was his ability to go under water, without breathing, of course, for a long, long time. I know he loved me enough to save me if I went under water. Jesus died because he could not breathe under water. I can only imagine the suffering he felt. I know Jesus loves me, and will save me, just like my Uncle, Bill would have. We will get back to Jesus, and breathing under water later.
I am writing this reflection about Breathing under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, by Richard Rohr, a well know Franciscan teacher and priest. We are discussing addiction and will also draw upon Addiction and Grace, by Dr. Gerald May as appropriate. I am specifically selecting one concept, extant in both books, concerning our addiction to war. Refusal to submit to Satan’s political ploy, to fall down and worship Satan, cost Jesus His life, as we will see as we go along. Because of our addictions to “oil, war, and empire; the church’s addiction to its own absolute exceptionalism;” (Breathing Underwater, p. xxii), among other addictions, Jesus had to die. Because He died trying to breathe under water, Jesus is able to save us from our own addictions, all of them.
When we cannot breathe, and are under water for a long time, we must eventually surrender, or give up our life. As Ignatian students we are aware we should give up everything to live only in God’s love and grace. Step three of the twelve steps in Breathing Underwater is about our decision to give up to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understand God (p.17). We have not been taught this surrender by our nationalistic political systems, nor have our institutional religious systems as a whole taught us this surrender, but Jesus teaches us (Matt. 5: 39) (p. 19). Bye, bye ego. Addiction to the ego and to power must go (p. 21). The devil wants to make us a great “deal”. The art of Satan’s deal is to give us instantly the power without pain and without self-surrender (p. 21). This was Satan’s third temptation which most institutional religions have accepted even to this day. It is a myth, a myth of redemptive violence that we can personally save ourselves by violent means. For thousands of years this myth has never worked. Rohr calls it the “myth of heroic sacrifice” (p. 21). It is the American “way”, and the way of most every nation. We have learned well and are addicted to this myth of self and violence and our society, our nation, (p. 22) and in too many ways our churches are co-dependents to help us believe in this myth and be self-glorified as martyrs of the church (p.23). True believers, we are giving up our body to supposed chastity, poverty, and obedience to look good, to fool many people, and to puff up the self (p.24).
To give up this puffed up, narcissistic self, as individuals, politicians, nations, and institutions including business and religious institutions is to realize we are sinners, yet loved sinners surrendered to the lover (God the Higher Power) who loves us (p. 24, 27). As the Holy Spirit helps us, we are infected by the Spirit of Jesus (p.25). Rohr says the Holy Spirit “sneaks in through the ducts and the air vents (p. 25). In some ways we would rather just have someone tell us what to do, to manage our sins for us in the confessional booth or church sermons than surrender our will and accept God’s radical grace freely. This grace is given to us by a higher power we understand to be God, as much as we understand Him, who loves us without expecting to be paid back. He loves us because He is love (p. 27). Only grace given in love can cure addictions.
Both Rohr and May speak of nonviolence and trust in a higher power for our salvation. Jesus spoke Truth to Power when He refused Satan’s third temptation to fall down and worship Satan and did not accept the “deal” to be given earthly kingdoms before it was time. As a result, Jesus had to suffer and die to save us, who are addicted, and complicit with this warmongering society.
Referencing May’s book, Dr. May echoes rule 98 of Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises when he states “detachment does just the opposite. It seems liberation of desire, an enhancement of passion, the freedom to love with all one’s being, and the willingness to bear the pain such love can bring.” (Addiction and Grace, p.15). This can be freedom from political slavery too, and freedom to love even our enemy, one of Jesus’ primary commandments (Matt. 5: 43, 44). The Spiritual Exercises, rule 98, promotes the willingness to bear all wrongs. It is this suffering love that brings detachment and personal freedom as it is greased by the wheels of grace.
See:
(098)
Eternal Lord of All Things
Eternal Lord of all things, in the presence of Thy infinite goodness, and of Thy glorious mother, and of all the saints of Thy heavenly court, this is the offering of myself which I make with Thy favor and help. I protest that it is my earnest desire and my deliberate choice, provided only it is for Thy greater service and praise, to imitate Thee in bearing all wrongs and all abuse and all poverty, both actual and spiritual, should Thy most holy majesty deign to choose and admit me to such a state and way of life (http://spex.ignatianspirituality.com/SpiritualExercises/Puhl#marker-p101)
True freedom is the freedom to love one another, including our enemy. If we maintain our addictions to war and killing this is what May describes as a security addiction (p.31). May states, “we can and should trust in God for our ultimate security” and he speaks of relaxing our grip about lessor sources of security.
It is Jesus, who is our ultimate source of security. Rohr states “only people who have suffered in some way can save another” (p. 123). Jesus died and suffered on the Cross. He did not die of blood loss. In excruciating pain, His feet nailed to the cross, and His hands too, Jesus couldn’t breathe unless He pushed up on His pierced feet, and said, “I thirst.” He was given the fourth cup via the hyssop branch which should have been given at the Passover meal, and He surrendered just for you, and just for me, to save us from our addictions to sin. His lungs had filed up with water and blood. He could not breathe. He had to die; He could not breathe, but now He saves us, we who think we can breathe, but are underwater with all our addictions.
John Cooper
Jesus Dies Everyday
March 13, 2018 Leave a comment
Jesus Dies Everyday
This morning I greeted one of my church friends at St. Francis who has cancer. He recently began chemotherapy. Today we said good morning, but I did not recognize him immediately until he passed by because either is hair had fallen out or he had his head shaved. I exclaimed his name, when I recognized him. He had just walked a long way from the parking lot into the church in order to faithfully worship with us, as is his habit.
Part way through Mass, he got up with two people, one on each arm to go out. I was serving as an usher this day and I recognized the problem and started up to help, but seeing two people already helping, I sat back down. He collapsed to the floor, the people helping him not able to hold him up. I rushed across the room, but he was already surrounded with others in his seating area helping him. Silently I prayed, with tears, and assisted a woman who had called 911 in flagging down the fire trucks who arrived before the ambulance to help. The ambulance arrived and he was put on a stretcher while conscious and rolled out of the sanctuary with applause by the congregation.
Later, after church, several of us held hands and prayed for him, and recited the “Our Father” at the end. As I write, I don’t know how he is doing, but as I am doing my Examen this night a thought occurred to me: Jesus dies every day!
What do you mean, John, that Jesus dies every day? He died only once, on the cross, for all of mankind and Jesus said, “It is finished.” Jesus also lives in each of us and the image of God lives in every man. We can find God’s presence in everything that exists, in every sparrow which falls to the ground which God knows. Why? Because He lives, and in Him we live and move and have our being. God is in all things.
By now you may have figured I am not going to thump on the Bible for scripture references concerning what I am writing, and what I am imagining. Let’s just think about it, and if I imagine something wrong, I stand corrected.
Thus, I imagine that God who lives in us also dies with us when we die. When we are in pain, so Jesus is in pain. He knows. We are supposed to die daily to ourselves, putting away the old man of sin. Why would a little of God not die when we die too, to be later resurrected?
Jesus promised to draw all men unto himself. Even if Jesus does not do that in our life time in this physical body, what prevents Him from drawing us to Himself at our (our and Jesus’) death? He could just show us in brilliant light, in a love filled way, what with God is really like and let us choose life. If you want to live forever as He draws us to the loving light and unto Himself, now is the time to believe. Don’t count on the unknown future. I will overlook the objections that Jesus cannot save us immediately because we have to pay for our sins, or be purified in purgatory. I wonder if Jesus does not in a way die again with us, experiencing our pain, our suffering, His hands held out in compassion and love for those who live in Him and Him in us, and if we fall, to raise us up again?
What about my friend who collapsed in church today? He has lived a good life already. Every day is a gift to him from God who gave him life and who lives in him. Maybe God will answer his and our prayers and miraculously heal him, or maybe not.
Either way, God knows how to die, every day. He knows how to raise from the dead and how to take care of those whom He loves. In the interim, if there is an interim, let us trust in Him, as does my friend.
Grace & Peace,
John Cooper
Jesus, You Here?
November 4, 2017 Leave a comment
Jesus, You Here?
It was a beautiful day yesterday, a fall day at the end of October in 2017. Leaves are changing and I am at St. Ignatius House in Atlanta, GA, for a class in Spiritual Direction. I arose very early this morning intending, I thought, to do my daily reflections with Scripture and do some review of material for the class, but I didn’t.
It came to me to go first into the Adoration Chapel to just sit with the Host and Jesus (Catholics believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist). I did some centering prayer, trying not to think of anything, just breathing in, “Yah” and out “weh” or “Yahweh.” I did that a while and since I was very close to the Monstrance,[i] I got up just to be sure the Host was actually in there.
Now I believe that God is in all things and all things are in God. The Apostle Paul noted a Greek poet, “In Him you live and move and have being.”[ii] I believe that, but some theologians don’t believe Paul really believed what he quoted. I recently talked to one of them who does not believe that. But I do.
I was reminded while I sat in meditation of the last complete sentence my Uncle, Bill McCulley, said to me as I, my wife, Wink, my sister Janelle Deblois, and I heard as we put him to bed toward the end of his life and Bill looked up in a fleeting glimpse of his old self and asked, “John, you here?” Bill soon died of Alzheimer’s, an insidious disease. Bill didn’t know anything much, even most of the time what his name was. Of course I “know” a lot more how to talk, how to add and subtract, how to read and write, etc. Bill did not know anything. It was like he was in a vast cloud of unknowing[iii] But as I looked down on him and heard the words, “John, you here,” it was so precious to me. I hope to remember those words all my life. Maybe he is looking down on me now as a part of the vast cloud of witnesses or the Communion of Saints.[iv] Maybe he will welcome me again when we meet again and I arrive wherever he is, in God, in heaven, wherever, and Bill greets me in a loving voice, with the words, “John, you here.”
Now I was not supposed to be thinking of anything in my centering prayer, attempting to enter the vast cloud of unknowing, the Divine union with the Mystery, the One God, but my prayer turned into meditation and I went up to the Monstrance and looked closely, knowing not to touch it, and looked to be sure the Host was present there, it was, and I asked, “Jesus, You here?”
I sat back down and wept silently since other people here are in a silent retreat, although I was all alone in the Adoration Chapel, excepting with Jesus, of course. Jesus was there too. If you don’t believe that, believe Jesus was is in me and He is in you, at least the image of the Divine and Mysterious One is in us all. I thought that as little as I know, and all the religions and religious institutions of the world know, including Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic, if all poured together in a bucket, would know nothing, being just be a drop in the ocean compared to what God knows. God knows how to talk in all languages including Angelic ones, He knows how to read and write in all languages too, and how to order and create the whole universe, how to create life and how to take life, just at the right time, like he took my uncle Bill’s life and received him unto Himself.
I know God heard me when I asked, “Jesus, You here?” I know He was looking down when I asked Him that, thinking I am precious in His sight, that I am a beloved sinner and He knows all of my sins since He lives in me, and I live in Him. I love you Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Divine One, and you too, Bill McCulley, and you too, the reader whom God loves, and is in, at least by His image inside of you.
Please ask yourself, if you do not believe, or if you do believe, “Jesus, You here?”
John Cooper
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monstrance
[ii] Acts 17:28
John Cooper was born in Paris, Illinois in January, 1949. He was born Roman Catholic and grew up on his father’s and uncles’ farms. After graduating from Marshall, IL High School he attended Samford University in Birmingham, AL. He left college and became a cabinet maker, having his own business for about 45 years. About 7 years ago he returned to the Catholic Church of his youth. Having recently passed along his business to a younger person, John attended Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL and obtained his CSD degree in Spiritual Direction.
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