Open Hands – Raised Catholic 158

The following is a transcript of a Raised Catholic podcast episode.

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Today is episode 158: Open Hands

Hi friends. I wonder if you have had the opportunity since last week’s episode to choose your word for the year ahead. It’s not too late, you know and, if you have, you know I would love to hear about it – just leave me a comment over on substack at kerrycampbellwrites.substack.com and maybe we can chat and even pray about your word together there. But as my word for 2024, springtime, settles in this January, I am realizing that it incorporates so much more than a word. In my case, springtime is really more of a posture.

Every organized faith practice includes prayer postures that are specific, meaningful, sometimes even scriptural and these postures can become like the very air we breathe. Those of us who were born and raised Catholic are well acquainted with the sit-stand-kneel of it all, the genuflecting before the altar, the ‘cupping’ of our hands with the non-dominant hand over the dominant one to receive communion, among many other postures. Our Buddhist friends pray and meditate with a variety of specific hand positions called mudras which signify a range of differing needs and states of being. Our Muslim friends practice the beautiful choreography of the Salat five times a day. Our Jewish friends have their own prayer postures, from deep bows to swaying to movements based on specific scriptures. And if you’ve ever been to an evangelical church, you’ve certainly seen our Protestant friends praying and worshipping with their hands in the air as the Spirit moves them. I’ve even done that from time to time myself. Some prayer postures are pretty consistent across many faith traditions, and here the practice of blessing comes to mind. So many faith people across the globe raise their right hand in blessing over someone or something or a couple or a group, and this is kind of a beautiful natural overlap of our faiths, don’t you think?

One thing is for sure. When it comes to the practice of our faith, our posture matters.

As I hold up ‘springtime’ as the lens through which I will see and experience the year ahead, I find it is just one link in a chain of where God has been leading me for quite a while now. If you listened to episode 118: What I Learned This Lent – An Owl’s Surprising Appearance, then you will know the origin story of my obsession with owls, but you will also know that that story is linked to a quote by Thomas Merton about the Cosmic Dance. I’ll read the whole long quote for you here, it is so gorgeous.

“What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as “play” is perhaps what he Himself takes most seriously. At any rate, the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance. We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that game, and of that dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashō we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash–at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the “newness,” the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.

For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity, and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.

Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.”

Gosh, I love that.

Well, these days, when I see an owl or a reference to an owl, which honestly now happens all the time, I see it as an invitation from God to join Him in this cosmic dance which is always happening whether we see it or not. And since this is not a dance that I can control or lead, accepting this invitation requires me to open my hands and trust that where God is leading me is good. And, friend, that is not always so easy for me.

Though ‘springtime’ may seem like a hopeful, easy-breezy kind of a word, I find I am experiencing it, at least at first, as a certain kind of work. Because as a good friend of mine says, “you can’t make a flower grow by pulling on its stem.” Similarly, you can’t ‘make’ springtime happen, you only have to ‘allow’ it and to trust that in the cold dark of winter, ‘springtime’ is already under way, already in process, and that when you finally see evidence of it, it will be right on time. All of that requires a posture of open hands.

You might remember that a couple of episodes back, I talked about ‘open hands’ as one of my recent retreat takeaways. Keeping my hands open, trusting that God will fill them with good things, is a spiritual practice all its own as I fast from control or trying to move puzzle pieces into place either in my life or in the lives of my dear ones, even in the world. This can be especially challenging during a time in the world like we are in right now in which so much seems up in the air. Practicing open handedness in general can sometimes feel to me like inaction or like ‘sitting on my hands’ and that is not my favorite thing, as I said, but it is good, appropriate, and healthy in my faith life because I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know what’s on the way this year, but my loving God does, and so for sure, open handedness is the way to both my participation in the cosmic dance and to the springtime that I want to see.

Okay so all of that to say, friend, what is your prayer posture these days? Are your hands open or are they closed? Do you find yourself rooted into the ground, kneeling, blessing, running, maybe a combination of all of these and many more? And as you reflect on your posture, what does it tell you about the state of your soul today, about who you are and about what you most want? I guess I would encourage you and I to bring that to God today, to be intentional about where we are and about where we need to go. In an open, frank conversation with God who is always both listening and speaking, we might just find a new word, or a new posture, or something else that we can’t even imagine yet. And that might be exciting or even a little scary, I know. But as I think of it, that is kind of the way the cosmic dance goes, after all, isn’t it? An adventure for sure. And so, when it comes down to it, friend, I guess I’m wondering, are you ready to dance?

Thanks so much for being with me today, friend. If you need me, you can find me on Instagram @kerrycampbellwrites, at Substack at kerrycampbellwrites.substack.com, or on my website at kerrycampbell.org. Thanks so much for rating, reviewing, subscribing and most importantly, sharing this podcast with a friend. That makes a real difference in growing our community, so thanks. If you would like to support this podcast financially, there are a couple of ways for you to do that in the show notes, along with some resources related to today’s episode, so do check all of that out, but before we go, let’s pray together.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

God, you know what the year ahead will bring for us and our dear ones and our world, and you are never far from us. Draw us close as the beloved children we are, so that we can tell you just where we are and where we want to go. We know that you’ll help and guide us at every step along the way as you lead us in the cosmic dance. In the name of Jesus and wrapped in the mantle of our mother, Mary, we pray, amen.

Thanks so much for listening today, friend. Have a good week ahead. Let’s keep dancing, and I’ll see you next time.

Show Notes

This week we are exploring prayer postures as an indication of the state of our souls. As we enter a new year, it’s a good time to check in on where we are and where we want to go, always trying to let God lead us. I pray this episode is a blessing to you.

Thanks as always to my friend, Peter Vaughan-Vail, for providing the beautiful harp music you hear in this and every episode.

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week’s topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1. ⁠Raised Catholic ep. 118: What I Learned this Lent – An Owl’s Surprising Appearance⁠ (transcript and link to episode)

2. Book: ⁠New Seeds of Contemplation⁠, by Thomas Merton

3. ⁠Raised Catholic ep. 155: Retreat Takeaways – Bells, Time & Open Hands⁠ (transcript and link to episode)

4. Song: ⁠In the Sanctuary⁠, by Kurt Carr

5. Song: ⁠Open Hands⁠, by Sara Groves

6. Song: ⁠The Clearing⁠, by Amanda Cook

7. Song: ⁠Springtime⁠, by Chris Renzema