Discover Advent in Everyday Moments: PEACE

Discover Advent in Everyday Moments: PEACE

In this three-part video, orchestra teacher Pat Aaron discusses her musicianship at her church, where she performs either solo, with a pianist friend, or as part of a quartet or trios. She reflects on how performing music provides a deeply spiritual and emotional experience, not just for her, but for those who are listening. The video highlights the beauty of connecting with people through music and the sense of calm and unity it brings within the community.

The conversation takes a deep turn as the priest, the Rev. Dr. Brandt Montgomery, school chaplain, shares his personal struggles of racial prejudice at a previous school, including an incident with KKK literature. Despite these challenges, his story reflects resilience, forgiveness, and an ever-abiding faith in the 'wideness of God's love and community’.

Priest and author the Rev. Mary Luck Stanley reflects on her personal relationship with God, the omnipresent, during times of crisis and happiness. She articulates a theory that during stressful periods, humans tend to experience tunnel vision, making it difficult to see the presence and work of God in their lives. In hindsight, as healing occurs and with the passage of time, the perspective tends to broaden, and God's grace can be seen in those stressful situations. She further talk about her book “Grace in the Rearview Mirror,” being an invitation for readers to retrospectively examine their lives, share those experiences, and see God's work in their past, even in difficult times, providing a sense of catharsis and eventually leading to strengthened faith. The book is recommended for those seeking personal spiritual growth and could be used as part of a book group activity.

Highlights:

00:00 intro

00:43 Pat Aaron

05:25 Brandt Montgomery

09:48 Mary Luck Stanley

16:30 Ending

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Listening for Clues invites you into conversations that discover clues, rather than solutions to life’s problems. Join the journey with Jon Shematek and Lauren Welch, Episcopal deacons, as we explore whatever lies ahead. Check our website Listening for Clues.

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Episode Transcript

Jon (00:49):
thing you mentioned in your bio is that you do perform at your church.
And I'd like to hear a little moreabout that, but also to what extent
your musicianship or your teachingexperience has involved something of
the spirit or your spiritual life,if you're able to talk about that.

Pat (01:10):
Yes I do often play at my church.
I have a pianist friendthat, that I play with.
And, and on other occasions I playin a quartet or a a string trio,
which is piano, cello, and violin.
So I have all those kindof chamber opportunities.
But I do like your question abouthow that affects my spiritual life.
Playing music.

(01:32):
can be a very spiritual thing.
It's a way to kind of lift myselfand, and I think sometimes those who
listen into a spiritual place sometimesplaying it's hard to explain sometimes
playing is, can be a very emotional

(01:56):
I don't know, spiritual experience.
So you, so you play and youlisten and you connect with the
people that are listening to you.
And you kind of can reach themby playing to them and for them.
And No, it is, it is a difficultthing to explain, but, but

(02:18):
not so much to experience.
I often can see that I'm connectingwith, with people as I play.
And And one of the neatest experiences isfinishing a piece and hearing or feeling
the calmness that follows the piece.

(02:38):
And sometimes that's the way thatyou know the feeling within yourself
and then the feeling within thosewho have experienced the music.

Jon (02:50):
Yeah, you know, Pat, I think that is so well said, , you're trying to
find the right words, and I think thatactually was a demonstration that this
kind of connection is beyond words.
It's wordless

Lauren (03:00):
to continue what you're saying, Jon, because I've experienced Pat playing
at retreats and what you were sayingand what I was hearing, Pat, is that you
are bringing community together as one.

Brandt (05:25):
And and you asked how this is has affected me as a black
priest there have at my previousschool before I came to Saint
James there were some issues that Istepped into there that necessarily
weren't good and that, you know therewere some times in which the students

(05:47):
let me know in certain ways that.
They did not want me there.
For example very early on in my time asI was walking to my office one morning,
and this again at my previous school, Ihad KKK literature on my desk found there
and and that was a rattling experienceand went the rector at my previous church.

(06:13):
When he found out about it,he said, Brandt, you are fine.
I'm glad that you're here.
I've got your back.
The church has got your back.
We are glad that you are here.
So he definitely supported me throughthat cuz I almost said, okay, okay, if
they don't want me here, I will leave.
But he had my back and a very goodthing, you know, in connection to that.

(06:34):
It was about a year ago now, I would say.
I had the student who was one of thepeople that did that, he called me and
he said, Father, that was one of thestupidest things I ever did in my life.
Mm, it has, yeah, it hashaunted me ever since.
And I just had to callyou and say, I'm sorry.

(06:54):
And so, and, and he said that, youknow, the way that I still loved him
through all that remained with him.
And so I would say as a blackpriest, that's one of the things
that I've seen later on thathopefully I've been able to help.
You know, just other people see justthe wide breadth and diversity and

(07:19):
just the wideness of God's mercy.
The wideness of God's love,the wideness of God's community

Mary (09:48):
I'm starting to...
have kind of an overarching theoryabout how the book came together for
me and, and answering the question why?
Why did we construct the book this way?
Why did we write it?
How would it be helpful to people?
And so what I think is that if youstart with the understanding that every

(10:10):
human being yearns for to connect withsomething greater than themselves.
And you can call it differentnames, higher power, God whatever.
But if you start with that, andthen you also have an understanding
that God is omnipresent and is allaround us all the time, then...
The question is, why is it that peoplesometimes feel like it's so hard

(10:33):
to experience God, to connect withGod, to be in the presence of God?
In some ways, it's really easy to bepart of feel connected to God when you're
looking out at the ocean, or you'rehiking a mountain and seeing gorgeous
views, or when you witness the birthof a child, or you're falling in love.

(10:54):
It's harder in our lives to see Godwhen we're right in the midst of
a crisis or a very stressful time.
And so I've had that experience whereduring a stressful time involving grief
and, and illness and death, that itfelt like God had left the building.

(11:17):
It felt like I was abandoned by God.
And That presented a lot ofquestions and problems for me.
I think that what happens is that whenwe're in a crisis, We get tunnel vision.
You know, we know that cortisol isa chemical that is a crisis response
that help us to focus, but I alsothink that cortisol can help us or,

(11:42):
or create a sense of tunnel vision.
And when you get tunnel vision,you're very focused on solving a
problem to get out of the crisis.
But also, you can't see theperspective around what that
tunnel vision has focused you on.
And so I have this, this theory,and it's not my theory, it's, it's

(12:03):
based on psychology and thingsI've read and my experience, is
that sometimes it takes time.
like years of healing to get to the placewhere you can look back on a stressful
situation and not still have tunnelvision, but be able to mine that and look

(12:25):
around and ask the question, where wasGod in the midst of that awful time when I
just felt like God had left the building?
And so my experience is thatLooking back on those kinds of
memories is a healing process.
And it's funny that a lot of peoplewho've read the book have talked not

(12:46):
only about having tears as they readthe book, but also raucous laughter.
And I wonder sometimes about thecathartic and medicinal benefits of
both laughter and tears when we goback and we, we look at our memories.
We need to have somekind of movement there.
So what I hope is that this book isan invitation To people, when they're

(13:12):
ready, to look back on their lives.
To consider writing a spiritualautobiography, or just sharing stories
with whoever their trusted people are.
It'd be great for a book group.
And I hope that that's cathartic forthem, and that somehow they say, Oh, wow,

(13:33):
it felt like God was absent from thissituation, but really I see God's grace.
at work now and
the great thing is that now thatI've been thinking about it and I've
had that experience enough times,the next time I get into a really
horrible phase of my life, I thinkI'm going to have more confidence.

(13:56):
That I'm gonna know.
I have tunnel vision right now.
It feels like God's not herebecause I'm suffering too much.
But if I wait long enough, Iwill gain perspective eventually.
And I know that's a long answer, butthat is my perspective and and the way
that I've been thinking about this book.