About SPACE & INTERSPACE
RE-SOURCE #1 — February 2, 2023
On the Welcome page, RE-SOURCE is called a “space” that is “virtual, occasional and experimental.” It has also been described as a “dedicated” space where sisters and friends can probe their understanding of Incarnation. Whatever adjective may precede the word “space,” the essential purpose of this webpage is to make space — for being, breathing, seeing, wondering … about the mystery of God with us.
Often, when we make space for whatever it is we need, we discover that one kind of space leads into another. Maybe we started out with a theological question and found ourselves reading poetry in the process. So there’s interspace as well as space because spaces overlap and together make a new space. A good image for this is the mandorla. When one circle partially overlaps with another, a new, almond-shaped space is created, as in this picture. It will be good to keep that possibility in mind as you begin to explore this webpage and even consider contributing something of your own, eventually. Here are three excerpts from other sources to stir further thinking about space and interspace:
SPACE
1. We can draw inspiration from Image, a journal of art, faith and mystery published both on line and in print. The editors say it’s their business to “make space for timeless conversations” through the pages of Image. One editor recently described Image’s mission in this way:
“Most writers I know have “secret rooms” of faith and doubt. These emotional and intellectual “rooms” are often the spaces from which their creativity arises; places of tension, illumination, and discovery. Yet many writers hesitate to engage those rooms directly in their work. Their reasons range from the personal to the professional. Image, invariably, is the magazine where great writers feel comfortable—and perhaps confident—to reveal those secret, beautiful rooms of belief and wonder. Within the pages of Image, writers can ponder their truths and doubts.” Image, December 27, 2022
2. Rowan Williams (theologian, poet and former Archbishop of Canterbury) speaks of space in the sense of making space for others who are denied space and voice to be the carriers of God’s word that they’ are created to be. He spoke at the Swindon Festival of Literature, May 3-9, 2021. The whole talk is called “Look East in Winter,” available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a2sPJOovLg. Of special interest to us are the four minutes from 31:32 – 35:12, which are transcribed here:
“We’re not to be acting from the top down; we’re all receivers as well as givers. Christians are supposed to be parenting other people into life, so that we can receive life from them, not just giving life to them. Every Christian is in a mutual relation of bringing people to life. So often we think of our love and service as what we generously try to give to the less fortunate. The world we’re trying to build is the world in which everyone shares, gives. We don’t have this active love and a passive recipient, a generous donor and a poor receiver.
mandorla
In working for a more inclusive church, especially on the racial front, we’re saying “here are voices that have been silenced, gifts that have never been allowed to be given.” How do we actually make space for them to act and give and speak as they’re supposed to? Every created being, not just human beings, carries a word from God, is balanced on a word from God, almost like surfing on a communication from God. When we encounter another person we’re encountering that word that is sailing towards us – encountering something of love that is from God’s communication – something of love, and intelligence and vision and energy pouring out toward us.
So, how do we make space for that to be received, not just for us to be giving, but for us to be sharing in that exchange? The ordinary circulation of life in the body – that’s what we should be pushing for, and it’s hard work because we like to be in control, and be the generous givers. Being nice to other people isn’t what it’s finally about; it’s about being part of a world which together is reflecting the abundance of God and together building something new in the world.”
INTERSPACE: an example: the space between theology and poetry
Also from Image, Issue No. 115, 2023 – In a conversation with theologian Rowan Williams and poet Shane McCrae, the Image editor asks these questions about the intersection of their perspectives:
“It’s a treat to have the two of you in a room together: a theologian who is also a poet, and a poet who is well versed in theology. How do you each see this space between theology and poetry? Are there ways that poetry informs a theological imagination? Are there ways that theology is a fund for poetic reflection and creativity? Is there a kind of chemical reaction between the two in your lives and work?”
You can read more at: https://imagejournal.org/article/obliqueness-and-extravagance-a-conversation-with-rowanwilliamsand-shane-mccrae/
RE-SOURCE #1— February 2, 2023 Some helps for continuing our conversations
Recent Society-wide Conversations
The whole Society enjoyed inter-provincial conversations during Advent and some of our associates and other friends joined with us to talk together about the images or names of Christ that touch us most deeply. On January 15th, Cornelia’s birthday, the SLT launched a 25-minute video called WATCH THIS SPACE — https://vimeo.com/789359862/2a9d368c2c — in which eight sisters shared their experience of the conversations and feedback posted on shcj.org. At the end of the video Pauline Darby announced the opening of a new “portal,” also called a “dedicated webpage,” a “virtual space” where we can continue to probe the mystery of Incarnation as the 2022 General Chapter called us to do. So, the door is open to exploring the mystery in every way we can imagine, including by good conversation, be it in local, national or international circles. Here are some excerpts, references and links that should be helpful for all those who want to organize some good conversation, or simply to help all of us to sharpen our awareness of the dynamics and possibilities of any impromptu conversation:
1. The quote below is from a 13-minute video about spiritual conversation, offered by John Dardis, SJ, in which he explains the key elements of spiritual conversation and offers a simple process for engaging in it; the whole video is well worth a watch:
“Intentional speaking: I’m listening to myself; what’s the spirit saying to me on this issue. Spiritual conversation is about very real practical things. Our God is incarnate; God became incarnate, involved in the world. Spiritual conversation can be my faith sharing, but it’s also for discussing controversial issues, something we don’t agree on that’s conflictual. I do that by listening to you and respecting that the Spirit is speaking through you, and speaking through me. I listen to myself. I’m ready to show feelings, thoughts, reactions — this is becoming a contemplative in action.”
Link: “Introduction to Spiritual Conversation” by Fr. John Dardis, S.J. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EDySgbWogU
2. The exchange between St. Augustine and his mother Monica at Ostia, just days before she died, is a classic in the genre of spiritual conversation. In this excerpt from The Confessions of St. Augustine, he talks to God as he looks back on an experience of talking with his mother. For both of them, conversation began in a simple, ordinary way, and unfolded into a stunning, shared vision and taste of heaven. It reminds us not to under-estimate the power of good conversation!
“… She and I stood alone, leaning in a certain window from which the garden of the house we occupied at Ostia could be seen. Here in this place, removed from the crowd, we were resting ourselves for the voyage after the fatigues of a long journey.
We were conversing alone very pleasantly and ‘forgetting those things which are past, and reaching forward toward those things which are future.’ We were in the present – and in the presence of Truth — discussing together what is the nature of the eternal life of the saints: which eye has not seen, nor ear heard… We opened wide the mouth of our heart, thirsting for … ‘the fountain
Talk?
Can We
of life’ which is with you, that we might be sprinkled with its waters according to our capacity and might in some measure weigh the truth of so profound a mystery.
And when our conversation had brought us to the point where the very highest of physical sense and the most intense illumination of physical light seemed, in comparison with the sweetness of that life to come, not worthy of comparison, nor even of mention, we lifted ourselves with a more ardent love toward the Selfsame [sic], and we gradually passed through all the levels of bodily objects, and even through the heaven itself, where the sun and moon and stars shine on the earth. Indeed, we soared higher yet by an inner musing, speaking and marvelling at thy works.
And we came at last to our own minds and went beyond them, that we might climb as high as that region of unfailing plenty where you feed Israel forever with the food of Truth, where life is that Wisdom by whom all things are made, both which have been and which are to be….
And while we were thus speaking and straining after her [Wisdom], we just barely touched her with the whole effort of our hearts. Then with a sigh, leaving the first fruits of the Spirit bound to that ecstasy, we returned to the sounds of our own tongue, where the spoken word had both beginning and end. But what is like your Word, our Lord, who remains in himself without becoming old, and ‘makes all things new’?
St Augustine’s and St Monica’s shared vision at Ostia — Confessions, Book 9, Chapter 10
Does something on this page move you to want to have a conversation with others about something related to our focus on Incarnation? Think about inviting them to a conversation; if it’s to be a virtual conversation, you are welcome to ask Carmen Torres (ctorres@shcj.org) or Sam Strike (sstrikeshcj@gmail.com) to help you set it up.
Incarnate Mystery — instrumental edition 2
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BEAUTY and INCARNATION RE-SOURCE #1 — February 2, 2023
The Catholic Church has long been a great patron of the arts for profound reasons. Pope after pope has told artists that their service of beauty is essential to the good of the world.
Pope Paul VI — to the world’s artists — December 8, 1965
“We now address you, artists, who are taken up with beauty and work for it: poets and literary men and women, painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, men and women devoted to the theatre and the cinema. To all of you, the Church of the council declares to you through our voice: if you are friends of genuine art, you are our friends … This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair. It is beauty, like truth, which brings joy to the heart of humankind and is that precious fruit which resists the wear and tear of time, which unites generations and makes them share things in admiration. And all of this is through your hands.”
Pope John Paul II — Letter to artists, 1999
“To all who are passionately dedicated to the search for new “epiphanies” of beauty so that through their creative work as artists they may offer these as gifts to the world…. From [artistic creativity] has come a flowering of beauty which has drawn its sap precisely from the mystery of the Incarnation…. From the Nativity to Golgotha, from the Transfiguration to the Resurrection, from the miracles to the teachings of Christ, and on to the events recounted in the Acts of the Apostles or foreseen by the Apocalypse in an eschatological key, on countless occasions the biblical word has become image, music and poetry, evoking the mystery of “the Word made flesh” in the language of art.”
Pope Benedict XVI — to clergy and artists in the Sistine Chapel, December 26, 2012
“Dear artists ... You are the custodians of beauty. And indeed, an essential function of genuine beauty is that it gives humanity a healthy shock! It draws us out of ourselves, wrenches us away from resignation and from being content with the humdrum — it even makes us suffer, piercing us like a dart, but in so doing it ‘reawakens’ us, opening afresh the eyes of the heart and mind, giving us wings, carrying us aloft. Thanks to your talent, you have the opportunity to speak to the heart of humanity, to touch individual and collective sensibilities, to call forth dreams and hopes ....”
Pope Francis — at an audience attended by the Diakonia of Beauty, February 17, 2022
“Beauty, said the Pope, can create communion even through the years, since art is not limited to a certain time period. ‘The artist is not even limited in space, because beauty can touch in each person that which is universal—especially the thirst for God—overcoming the frontiers of language and culture.’ Authentic art, he added, can speak eloquently of the beauty and goodness of God.”
Recalling Pope Benedict’s “healthy shock of beauty,” Richard Rohr, OFM had this to say about art, beauty and Incarnation — December 2018:
“Pope Benedict XVI, who addressed 250 artists in the Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo’s half naked, and often grotesque, images, said quite brilliantly: ‘An essential function of genuine beauty is that it gives humanity a healthy shock!’ And then he went on to quote Simone Weil who said that ‘Beauty is the experimental proof that incarnation is in fact possible.’
If there is one moment of beauty, then beauty can indeed exist on this earth; if there is one true moment of Incarnation, then why not incarnation everywhere? The beauty of Christmas is enough healthy shock for a lifetime, and it leaves the shocked ones dumbly struggling for utterance. Once the Eternal Word has become human flesh it is very hard to put it back into words—only music, poetry, and art can begin to suffice.”
