Spirituality
Following are links to the main spiritual practises of Wood Hath Hope.
Below the links are some poems, reflections and prayers we have developed over the years.
Eucharist
Trinity Yoga
A NEW THING
Here and Now,
No pie in the sky time,
no other place,
no request for
“Beam me up Scotty”
but here and now
a new thing,
where security lies
not in our wars
but in an ever evolving
mercy and justice
that enables all peoples
to be part of
a peaceable kingdom,
not in a hereafter,
but here and now.
Carola Shave. Dec 2010
In the following Jon Scouten tells how a different understanding of who and what Jesus is became entirely personal for him.
Icon of the Cross
I was seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus, even in a more vivid way - like an icon that I keep before my mind imaginatively. There was an experience I had several years ago when I was in utter disappointment/frustration: In that disappointment I focused all my energy on Jesus, meaning exactly to nail him to the cross - placing my hostility on him. In that moment I could not conceive of the possibility of Jesus compassionately encompassing my disappointment and my violence directed at him. The very idea is almost inconceivable: after all, how could one reasonably expect such a response to violence? Well, this past week I came into a graced insight that's proving to be fundamental, transformative and healing.
Rene Girard contends that we human beings usually create community by identifying an outsider, treating the outsider as our scapegoat. Now, I'm well aware of how I point my finger in criticism, even in the smallest ways - in my thoughts as well as my conversation at times. Pointing a finger and scapegoating does have the effect of creating a provisional alliance with others at someone else's expense. The theological implication, in brief, is how Jesus restores wholeness (at-onement) of both self and community by standing as the scapegoat made necessary, not by a vengeful God, but by our less-than-noble way of treating each other (as outcasts and outsiders). As Jesus appears as the Presence of God among us, hostility is in effect encompassed by his great compassion. The crucifixion then is active sign of God's compassion and unbroken engagement with us, even at the height of our violence and rejection of him. The extraordinary turn of events in my spirit last week consists in this: I see how Jesus' presence on the cross is a living dynamic of God's personal being inasmuch as I cast my "stones" of disappointment, etc on him and discover his immense capacity to encompass this with compassion and unbroken engagement.
In order to come into this I had to work through a moment of doubt, "Could I be so loved? Can it be that I cast violence against myself even as I level it against the one who loves me so greatly?" While seeing again the very heart of Christian faith, I was shocked by what seemed to be something scandalous and left unspoken in the Church: Jesus wants and invites me to hurl my "stones" or nail him to the cross, if this is what I need to do for there to be any wholeness. The scandal consists in how any reasonable (and "upstanding") person could do such a thing as harm someone innocent and undeserving. Doubt appears as a more "polite" way of handling the question (Could I...? Can it be...?) rather than believing that Jesus, however innocent and undeserving, invites and calls us to cast our "stones" on him so that there can be wholeness. Amidst all this, I sense how this insight gets at the heart of Saul/Paul's conversion. Paul was transformed, I would guess, by none other than Christ's immense compassion for him even as he journeyed out of his violent past. There is blinding light in the transition from a belief in righteousness as one encounters agape.
In the last few days, the insight has extended in meaning: Jesus who is the least deserving of our wrath is the most capable of encompassing it precisely because he is agape. Also, Jesus stands more readily with the outcasts than with us as we reject and ostracize them. He challenges us to encounter them beyond righteousness as he restores community. The crucifixion is not merely a historical event, but a living dynamic in God's plan, in how he encounters the world even now. Hence as painful as the image is, Jesus on the cross stands at the center of the Kingdom, eschatologically and now.
That face of Christ or the icon that I sought last summer, one which I could hold in mind is now the image of Jesus dying on the cross. What has opened up for me is deeper encounter with Jesus, his immense compassion and my wholeness.
* * * * *
This prayer is from Heather Scanlon
Something Hidden And Small
Precious Jesus, you are showing us the way, moment to moment, breath by breath,
a new way to be human.
We are coming to understand that the fullness and depth of who we are
is changed and transformed when we contact the fullness and depth of who you are.
Your humanity touching our humanity
this is God's Kingdom within us and coming to Earth.
You are opening to us so deeply.... always available now.
It is too easy to forget you. Too easy to not see you.
Our lives are habitually forgetful of you.
We live fueled by our ignorance and judgement. Mostly trying to survive. Our minds are preoccupied with wrong and right.
Fear overwhelms us. We're swallowed up in the pressure of not being enough. We feel lost, weak, cut off and we hurt one another.
But...You are that lost and rejected one; crucified risen one. You reach out and meet us completely. You break the cycle of endless violence
In your eyes that never look away
we are seen for who we are and there is only endless love.
The truth about your Kingdom is that all fear and limitations
can and will be redeemed through you, even death.
Your relationship to all people and all things
is a relationship of undying love and compassion.
Pouring out always towards us
Setting us free
Breaking through all barriers
We come together to practice remembering you
To pay attention to you
to pay attention to the lost, the rejected, weak, and small things
to see their value in and through your Kingdom
where the first are last
and the last are first
where the poor are blessed because
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Transform the way we think.
Break free our compulsive minds.
Pour your love into our wounded hearts.
Precious Jesus,
May we be deeply available to you now
deeper than words
deeper than feelings or memories
May we give ourselves fully to you
into your mysterious, hidden presence
May we be willing to return to you again and again
with open and receptive hearts.
Breathing, relaxing, feeling and opening ourselves
to something deeper within us.
Something hidden and small, something lost and beautiful
something teensy-tiny but with the power to change the world.
* * * * *
God's Honeycomb
The love of God drips through the universe like honey through a honeycomb.
We do not see it because we look with the
unqualified mind, not with the heart.
My life is all of a heap, trying to understand itself with God’s eyes.
But it’s impossible. All it sees are the cell walls it inhabits, time after time, the shape of the world as its stands, again and again.
But in the heart, yes, there is
honey. God like a faithful bee
drips honey through all our many
cells, transforming them into his
honeycomb.
Why would we want to see things in
any other way?
* * * * *
Life After Death, Same As Before!
Which is the most important question: What is death, or what is life?
At any rate, we feel we know some answer to the latter. But not to the former. So we fear it.
What is it exactly that we fear in death? Annihilation, punishment, absolute solitude?
What is it not to fear death? Peace, comfort, enduring relationship?
And what about resurrection? 
Is resurrection simply to come, an abrupt, external act of divine power after everything is already said and done? When our souls are already either in bliss or torment?
Or is “the soul” already a thought of resurrection?
Surely it is.
Surely our cultural confidence in life after death (heaven, for our relatives and for us) is simply a form of resurrection, of this earthly life not being destined to annihilation. And the way we express that is in traditional terms of “the soul” continuing to live after death "in heaven”.
But what if the thing which is really happening is that we are already in resurrection because Jesus is risen from the dead? We are all of us, living and dead, in relationship to his risen bodily deathless humanity. And we relate to the dead because of that. Almost like a wavelength of life which he establishes, and we can be in contact or communion on that frequency.
In other words, because of Jesus the dead cannot really be dead. Through Jesus they are already in relation to resurrection, moving forward in time and space, their stories and personal energy gathered toward him, the Omega point already pervading creation. Their life stream was already caught up toward the Risen One at the point of death.
And if this is the case for the dead it is also true for us. We are in relation to the Risen One and his endless life of love and joy. The only difference is that our death is a daily one, in all the surrenders of violence that our human relationships require. And again, underlying this and making it possible, is our relationship to the most perfect, loving, life-giving humanity—Jesus the Risen One.
* * * * *
Celebrate!
What does it take to make the world happy? To give our world life and peace?
Is it for everyone, each to have everything? A mind-boggling concept. And yet it seems the principle we collectively go on.
Or, is a happy world a real party where everyone shares everything? Jesus worked on this latter model.
He demonstrated it in practice, calling people together around his table, around the food he provided. He was the master of the feast, giving everyone a seat, and through his attitude of unconditional welcome he brought about a world where everyone shared everything.
There was always enough and more. And when there just plainly wasn’t enough, just a few loaves and fishes, he worked a miracle, bringing forward a new cosmos of limitless gift.
This was where he was, in his mind and his body, in the Father’s kingdom of endless giving. And so, now and again, he brought it forth to view in the world of hard facts. With a feast in the desert.
What happiness that must have been! To be there among the stones and thorn bushes where only scorpions lived and migrating animals might pass, and suddenly an absolute abundance, a feast for kings and queens! A real holiday, a Sabbath!
And the same thing happened for the outcast, the worthless ones, those excluded from the righteous kingdom. Jesus welcomed them for no reason except this was the character of his Father's kingdom. Reaching out in absolute giving to those who had nothing to give. The only condition, that you joined in the same thing, the giving, not trying to rebuild a personal castle in this new grace-filled terrain.
Then, on the last night of his life, he sat down to eat one final time. He turned the sign of the feast to what it always implied, his presence at table, his love for all who came. See this bread, it is me! And now it is me in a new way. Because of tomorrow I give you everything of myself, with nothing held back. An endless feast of love.
Come, come, let us eat and drink. Let us learn this wisdom and live!