Inspired after meditating in front of the health sanctuary at Viveros de Coyoacan.

http://www.franciscanaction.org/Upload_Module/upload/2011.05.22_FANEasterFifthSunday.pdf

That’s right, they didn’t have the green thing in her day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled – but they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to thegrocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine very time they had to go two blocks – but she’s right. They didn’t havethe green thing in her day.  Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts – wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing – but that elderly woman is right, they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house – not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a pizza dish, not a screen the size of the state of Nebraska. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operated on electricity – but she’s right, they didn’t have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled pens with ink, instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull – but they didn’t havethe green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus, instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from

satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint – but they didn’t have the green thing back then!

(Disclosure – I almost always write these newsletters myself but this crossed my desk and in sending it out I would certainly give appropriate attribution but I have no idea who originated it but it came to me from my friend Donnie Dann and his Conservation Alert)

http://www.franciscanaction.org/Upload_Module/upload/2011.05.01_FANEasterSeason.pdf

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/you-are-the-light-of-the-world-2.html

In a burning forest you can run for cover, but if you begin to pray there is no escape, no place you can hide from the raging fire of God

At least that’s what happened to the saints when they prayed. All of them will testify that their encounter with God was like gold being tested in a furnace, seven times refined.

St. Teresa of Avila warns: “authentic prayers changes us-unmasks us-strips us.”

What she means is that sitting in the presence of a passionate God purges away all the dross, all the impurities of selfishness, pride, falsehood, hypocrisy, meanness, until only the gold remains.

It’s no wonder, then, that many kneel just outside the furnace door- close enough to keep warm, far enough to keep from getting consumed- and call it prayer. Certainly this is a comforting and consoling exercise, but it is not prayer.

The ancient desert elders said it this way: “Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said,  ’Abba, as much as I am able I practice a small rule, all the little fasts, some prayer and meditation, remain quiet, and as much as possible I keep my thoughts clean. What else should I do?’ Then the old man stood up and stretched out his hands toward heaven, and his fingers became like torches of a flame. And he said, ‘If you wish, you can be turned into fire.”

And there’s the crux: Do you wish? Do you wish to be turned into fire? By praying this prayer, you have already stepped into the furnace. But to melt into pure gold you must hold fast as the temperature inside continues to rise.

To be turned into fire, you must believe that if you knock, God will answer.

To be turned into fire, you must move forward toward a forgiving heart, working through any legitimate anger against those who have hurt or harmed you.

To be turned into fire, you must be patient and persistent, knowing that God will give you what God knows you need in God’s good time.

To be turned into fire, you must pray only for daily bread for yourself.

To be turned into fire, you must spend time with God, getting to know and love what God fashioned in your mothers womb.

To be turned into fire, you must give without counting the cost, “good measure, pressed down and running over.”

To be turned into fire, you must act on what you pray; your life must be consistent with the word of God. You cannot, in other words, pray to be forgiven and harbor resentment; pray so that God’s reign may come on earth and not do all in your power to eradicate poverty, to stand against injustice, to protect human rights.

How do you know you are becoming fire? How do you know you are melting into pure gold?

Blessed are the pure ones, Jesus said, for they shall see God. And Saint Magdenburg said, “The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw all things in God and God in all things.”

Being turned into fire, being melted into pure gold, then, has something to do with seeing God in every man and woman, in all created things and being transformed into a person so transparent that others see the flame of God shining through you.

Picture the three young men from the Book of Daniel, dancing and praising God, unharmed, in the midst of the blazing furnace. What the onlookers see when they look in is “a young man with the face of God.”

The hope of this prayer is that it may help each of us dance in the flames of love until we become burning love itself.

(Adapted form “Introduction” in The Fire of Peace, by May Lou Kownacki, OSB)