Communicating with GOD on the trail

Some people are enjoy with the adventure including myself. From my young age I have been in the field of adventure. I joined a group of mountain climbers since my high school, which was not just a hobby but a spiritual journey that allows me to see God in the created world. The experience that always awaited by the climbers is when it comes to the peak. Where we can see the landscape below and welcome the sunrise before us is the most amazing thing what I called a mystic experience of the tremendous universe. Each one may have different feelings but to me that’s the experience of adoration.

Spend time in and with Nature

I believe being in nature, and in particular just listening, is one of the most important things we can do in life. Spent my time immersed with the natural world, observing, listening, and communicating are the most precious moment. You can’t look up the real world on your phone, you need to experience it. There is no other way except you experiencing it, it’s an emotional thing on all levels and it’s vital. Human being becomes a different person if they cannot experience love and be part of the natural world. Nature is not only give us tremendous comfort and connect with it but helps us to heal and liberate us to the next level of our life journey. From the self separateness to self participation and from the partial self to the whole self and the self that is part of the whole.

Many people today are suffering from fear and despair about others thing including the environment, and its called eco-anxiety.  Depression, anxiety, grief, despair, stress. The environmental damage isn’t only counted in lack of clean water and wildfire in the poor countries, but its likely eroding mental health on the society, reports the American Psychological Association (APA). They says the changing environment is the source of distress and already affecting many people and it has potential to be psychologically destabilising, causing a mental health, strain on relationships, as well as addiction, aggression and violence. Even though we may be suffering, but being in nature is what will help us find peace, healing and liberating.  

Relationship with the living being

Experience hike, bike, climb in the woods or mountain is an experience where humans and other creations are one. We cannot separate from the ground where we step on, our lives depend on it and in our bodies all elements are in it.  From the trees around us we breathe. We are no longer two separate things or two subject realities but in our consciousness flow between human and other creation are one.

Along the way relationship between human and other creation remind me the incarnational living. The body of the Christ that becomes our spiritual meal is made of other being the grain from the earth. Reflecting more closeness, intimate and abiding between the body of Christ and our bodies. All is one. Spiritual and physical food becomes inseparable.

Life Lesson

Hike, bike, climb the mountain or woods and spent time with the nature can be an experience of the sacramentality and of communicating with the creator and creation. Everytime I did the hike in the foreign country with the different bioregion, plants and trees and other beings is always give me an amazing lesson. Knowing the kind of plants grow in a specific area shows the significant of the soil. Where there are wild leak overgrown in the land shows that the soil is rich in calcium. So that the water content beneath it is very beneficial to the human body. From a piece of land we learn lots of things. It isn't amazing? God has specific ways and putting things in order according what its needs. Everything has a purpose in the life circle. God doesn’t create junk. Every corner of the trail reflect the spirit to awaken me. Their mystery filled me to overflowing and spoke to my heart in ways I am still working to understand. I learned that the pain and struggle give me a new perspective as I walk on the ground and the ground of my being.  

I discover the life journey with the natural world is a way to let go of the mess and some mistakes inside me, to get in touch with my vulnerabilities and fragility. Each journey help me to learn more about what is really formost in life and the significant for life it self. Seeking for a new self understanding from separate entity to intimately intertwine with other human and the entire universe.  What ever comes, the willingness to be vurnerable and surrender to the signs of the Great Maker that speak to my heart when I am willing to listen and learn. 

Apa yang kita pilih? "

 Matius 13: 44-46

Apa yang kita rindukan untuk melihat dan alami lebih dari yang lain di seluruh dunia? Pernahkah terpikir oleh kita: "Saya akan memberikan apapun untuk itu?"

Jika ya, apa itu?

Misalnya....maukah kamu memberi sesuatu untuk melihat semua orang lapar diberi makan?

Maukah kamu memberi sesuatu melihat semua peperangan akan berakhir?

Dan bagaimana dengan kebencian?

Maukah anda memberikan apapun untuk memberantas kebencian dari dunia kita?

Maukah Anda memberikan sesuatu untuk menghentikan orang agar saling menyakiti?

Maukah anda memberikan sesuatu untuk mengakhiri semua penderitaan?

Perumpamaan yang baru saja kita baca, kelihatannya ada banyak kedalaman.

Tuhan menyerahkan segalanya untuk menyelamatkan apa yang dikasihi Allah - manusia, orang-orang yang Dia ciptakan menurut gambar-Nya.

Tuhan turun dari surga.

Dia menjadi salah satu dari kita.

Dia mengajari kita apa yang penting dalam hidup - untuk mencintai Tuhan dan untuk mencintai orang lain.

Dia menunjukkan kepada kita, sebagai contoh, bagaimana kita menjalani hidup kita. Dan akhirnya, Dia mati agar kita bisa hidup.

Mengumpulkan kembali "harta karun tersembunyi di lapangan" ...

Membeli kembali "mutiara yang sangat berharga".

Dan Tuhan memberikan semua yang Tuhan miliki untuk menyelamatkan Anda dan saya dan semua orang yang akan percaya.

Sekarang apa hubungannya dengan dua perumpamaan yang baru kita baca pagi ini?

"Kerajaan surga seperti harta tersembunyi di ladang.

Ketika seseorang menemukannya, dia menyembunyikannya lagi, dan kemudian dengan sukacitanya ia pergi dan menjual semua yang dimilikinya dan membeli ladang itu. "

Dengan "sukacita" dia menjual semua yang dimilikinya untuk membeli ladang itu sehingga dia dapat memiliki harta karun itu.

Perhatikan seberapa cepat pria dalam perumpamaan itu pergi dan menjual semua yang harus dia beli di ladang itu?

Saat kita melakukan sesuatu "dalam sukacita" itu bukan beban.

bukan hal menyedihkan dan menyedihkan yang kita rasakan seperti yang harus kita lakukan. "

Ini bukan pengorbanan-ini adalah "sukacita".

Ya...Yesus telah melakukan nya lebih dulu. Dia telah memberikan contoh lebih dulu apa itu harta tersumbunyi di ladang.

Sangatlah kontras dengan dengan pemuda kaya dalam injil matius pasal 10,

seorang pemuda kaya bertanya kepada Yesus: "Hal baik apa yang harus saya lakukan untuk mendapatkan hidup yang kekal?"

Setelah percakapan singkat, Yesus mengatakan kepadanya bahwa ada satu hal: "Pergilah, juallah milikmu dan berikan kepada orang miskin, dan kamu akan memiliki harta di surga.

Lalu datanglah, ikuti aku. "

"Pemuda kaya itu pergi dengan sedih, karena dia memiliki kekayaan besar."

Ini sebuah pilihan bebas. Seperti Kristus memilih utk membeli mutiara berharga dengan nyawanya sendiri. Ya mengikuti Kristus berarti melakukan seperti apa yang dia lakukan, mengikuti Kristus berarti komitmen total.

Pertanyaan nya....

Apa yang akan kita pilih?

And so our work begins

And So Our Work Begins

“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence…”    Thich Nhat Hanh

There is a time of year in which people are coming home. College students finish exams, workers head home for Thanksgiving, Christmas or other occasions. Airports are crowded with children of all ages who are on their way back to their families. A few weeks ago, I joined the community of Green Mountain Monastery. Embracing religious life, in this place, I found a “home” for my soul and being. Coming home is one of life’s sweet gifts. Coming home is more than a holiday vacation. 

It reminds me of when I return home to Indonesia to visit my mother, brother and sisters. The spirit of welcome is there and it is such a joy to meet and be together, to share stories and greet one another. As we come together we garden, cook, and clean, recreate and play with the children. 

We are not only playing, we discuss many things about God, the Universe and life. My presence gives joy to them in the spirit of reunion and welcome.

Coming home in the spirit is making a place where  I can embrace the reality of my family, my community, my society and my being as well. I experience coming home, when I accept God’s grace in many forms. 

My community is cultivating love, compassion and the mercy of God in this time of uncertainty after the election in this country. We commit to the practice of energy balancing every morning after our morning prayer. It seems we are trying 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to be a space of balance and coherence for the world by becoming ourselves the wholeness the world so desperately needs.  

We welcome whatever circumstances of life arise with a spirit of gratitude, love and abundance.

We uphold the sacred community of life in all its forms.  We give our lives to the following of Christ and the power of love which he has shown us.  We pledge to go forward as a Single Sacred Community, and see the dwelling place of God everywhere, offering us a deep welcome-

Forests, rivers, fields, animals.....they all say welcome!  You are part of us and we are part of you. 

One family, one single, sacred community! 

Changing Growing and Moving

Living several months here at Green Mountain Monastery, I am one with nature and learning from the Earth Community about change. So many changes to deal with in coming from a very different culture - changes in language, food, customs, new ways of acting and being, very different from what I am used to, from the ways that keep me in my own comfort zone. I am learning to stretch and adapt like all the beings in the natural world.

Nature in all its beauty also has to adapt to constant change. When I arrived from Indonesia at the beginning of April, this land was white and covered with snow. The ground, the leafless trees and the temperature were all so unreal for me, as I come from a tropical country.  When the summer finally arrived, it gave me lots of energy! I began to work in the garden and take care of the life community here on this land. The softness of the soil and rich smell of earth gave me a feeling of aliveness. I looked in wonder at how the landscape went from snowy white to vibrant green!

Change requires patience! Tending to the seedlings and working gently with the baby plants has taught me patience. Weeding too requires patience! The weeding has become part of my meditation and connects me with the deep silence of this land. The sound of the birds in the wind gives me sense of oneness with them.  Harvesting also calls for patience, to wait until the plants are ready and know when to take them from the earth. All through this growing season I have felt so humble to find myself in the middle of the abundant grace of the fruits that mother Earth gives to us. The whole summer has energized me and all of us here. “Gratitude is the memory of heart”.  Fall is upon us now and change is in the air! Leaves are beginning to fall and soon the garden will be put to rest for the winter. It is going to be hard for me to say good bye to the garden and to allow the soil to rest for its winter sleep, as the garden has been so much a part of my experience these months, and it has given so much of itself. I am full of gratitude for this garden. Yet it is really true, everything is changing and moving. There is no such thing as staying fixed.  

We are in the new decade of the 21st century. Living in a world of interconnectedness. Our aim is to bring about the vision of one earth, one world. All – is – one.    We are challenged to be creative and dynamic in bringing about change. We are changing and we are moving...... bringing about something new by witnessing with our lives what we want to proclaim.

We Are Part

Recently I learned the genesis of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si -Praise Be, Care Our Common Home. It began with this incident- Two years ago typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) which took place in the Philippines on November 2013, brought huge damage to the city of Tacloban. Many lives were lost, people went missing and properties were destroyed. This global climate catastrophe, became the inspiration for Pope Francis to do something seriously and address climate change.

In the Encyclical, Pope Francis says simply that if we destroy creation, it will destroy us. This line sounds so similar to what Fr Thomas Berry often said when speaking to groups of people - “We will go into the future as single sacred community, or we will perish in the desert.” I guess Pope Francis was inspired by the writings of Father Thomas Berry, perhaps Thomas Berry was a ghost writer for the encyclical! With these insightful words we are aware of our mission, expressed through our lives of service and dedication for the healing of our planet Earth.

In our daily living we engage in work with care and consciously work the land with our hands, daily praying for the earth. We live our lives simply with the seasons. We know very well what is happening to our planet today. Coming from Indonesia, a third world country, I know my country has the third largest area of rainforest in the world but now more than 70% our forest in Indonesia is being destroyed by logging companies. It is very sad, even then the poor become poorer. Our children have no place to play. Most of them don’t know anymore the big trees in the forest which has become bald, the rivers are polluted, and the meadowlands have become sub divisions, condominiums and malls. Humanity consciously and unconsciously wants to be superior and dominate everything in life. Yet nature is stronger than us humans. Its remind me of Thomas Berry and the story of when he was a child experiencing the meadow across the creek. This experience became the guiding force for his consciousness. “Whatever preserves and enhances this meadow in the natural cycles of its transformation is good; whatever is opposed to this meadow or negates it is not good”.

We in many different cultures, with different ways are all part of the meadow. We have the same responsibility in caring for our common home as we move toward the future as a single community. Just like the meadowland not only lilies but also the insects, the water, the sky, everything and everyone, every group of people and community in the community of life participates in the dance of differentiation. We are not alien to each other. We are part of the differentiation, part of the community of life and part of the cosmic universe.

Let us be one heart and mind with our sisters and brothers in Oklahoma with their crying for their love ones in this terrible tragedy. We pray that our loving Shepherd gives consolation to them and may the generous peoples more coming offering help. We are one with you.

The joyful Zeal

This word was come to my mind on my recollection last Sunday. What does it mean by the joyful zeal? Zeal is the fourth vows of the religious of the Good Shepherd. This vow was the legacy from our Foundress Saint Mary Euphrasia. The vow of zeal which we believe is the special trade mark of the Good Shepherd sisters.  Not all religious order has fourth vows like us. Normally vows of chastity, poverty and obedience are the common vows for religious and priests; but not the diocesan priests they only have two vows chastity and obedience to the bishop.  The vow of zeal is also the ecological vow because the vow of zeal is symbolized with the burning fire and the fire is one of the seven elements; earth, fire, air, water, human, plant and animal. On my personal reflection the vow of zeal is the center of the others tree vows. I am not saying that the others three vows; chastity, poverty and obedience are not center.

 I will give the example of the computer. When we say the computer, does not mean only monitor, or key board, mouse and CPU, all those gadgets we call computer but the one running or moving the computer is the CPU. It is the one makes the computer working. It’s almost the same with the vow of zeal. Zeal keeps burning in our heart so that we can move on for our mission. Zeal is not simply working hard or done many things. Zeal symbolized with the fire can be too demanding sometimes does indeed pain and purify. We may unwilling to move out from our comfort zone and to risk the unknown and security of change. We might be fearful or afraid to the changes of our lives and yet with the zeal we can over come.

According to Saint Mary Euphrasia love and zeal were always united, and loving person is joyful. What does it mean? And what is the connection? There are characteristics of a joyful person. First is Present, our loving God is present all the time. We can only enjoy when we are present to God what ever circumstances. Our life is always mixture joy and affliction. We can give what we have. We can give joy and love to others if we have joy and love. Self giving means acceptance. When we accept something is not acceptable sometime cause pain. When we continue giving our self that is zeal. 

Secondly is creativity. Joy is creative. When I am doing creativity, I will not show my frown face or murmuring. I will do with a joyful heart. Living in the community with the different personalities is very challenging. Sometimes our creativity is not accepted. But when we are responded creatively that is zeal.

Third is Acceptance. Joy leads us to self acceptance and the acceptance of others. When we accept ourselves, we will easy accept others. Actually we could not accept what is in us that is why we hardly to accept others. Sometimes what is unacceptable for us will shadow in others. We have to accept all things; persons, things and circumstances from God. Successes and failures become opportunity for growth. Zeal is the spirit on the person to move on and to grow. When we become a present, creative and acceptance person automatically we are enjoy life. When we are enjoyed life that is zeal. When we do something unfamiliar and unknown situations and moments with a great enthusiasm that is zeal and must be a joyful zeal. The happiness of our calling and look forward with joy to all the good we are destined to accomplish. 

bykristprast