Mennomystic

The saying goes, "The more you learn, the less you know." But from my Old Colony Mennonite heritage, the saying is a bit different, "The more you learn, the more you're wrong." This saying, in itself, has a few different meanings. One is that, the more you expose yourself to knowledge the more responsible you are for  that knowledge. From ultra orthodox Mennonite colonies in Latin America, I have heard stories of women running from the room if someone started to read the Bible. One woman told me that her mother would chastise her husband if he took out his Bible to read it, "Put that book away!" I never grew up part of the Old Colony, but it's funny how a generational way of thinking snuck in to my consciousness. Paradigm shifts are not easy. No Staples big red button here. Gaining knowledge that contradicted what I had been taught cause inner turmoil and struggle as the tectonic plates beneath me shifted. I remember at times thinking, "I wish...

Yesterday I read the Center for Action and Contemplation's daily meditation about the myth of the hero as a means of understanding the path of transformation. And I thought perhaps this was a good opportunity to reflect a bit about the journey I undertook last summer using Richard Rohr's threefold hero's journey template: leaving, encounters, and the return. Through a working group on Maya-Mennonite Relations, I went to Campeche as a guest of a Maya collective of farmers and as a Low German interpreter for two other delegates among the Mennonite colonists. I had been in the area twice in 2009 as a researcher getting stories on the history of the Mennonites in that area. This time, I would meet those I could not and learn the stories I was unable to obtain at that time due to language barriers (I don't speak Spanish), that is, the Maya's own story of their lives and how the Mennonite's intersect with theirs. The heroic myth first involves a leave taking from home...

 I am BOTH - Mary and Martha   Luke 10:40-42 "Martha, who was busy with all the details of hospitality, came to Jesus and said, 'Rabbi, don't you care that my sister has left me all alone to do the household tasks? Tell her to help me!' Jesus replied, ' Martha, Martha! You're anxious and upset by so many things, but only a few things are necessary - really only one. Mary has chosen the better part, and she won't be deprived of it.'" A few months ago, I had the privilege of performing Laura Funk's Midrashic monologue, "Mary's Martha" - based on Mary Schertz's commentary on the passage above. I got to share the stage with Steve Bell and his sister, Dorothy Fontaine for the launch of Laura's book People and Places of Sacred Interior Spaces - Midrashic Monologues and Guided Meditations.  In preparation, I opened my own heart to the monologue to experience what Spirit was speaking to me, and in the process I found a...