Sister Wendy Transcript and Story Circle Prompt

From Sister Wendy in Conversation with Bill Moyers: The Complete Conversation (1997)

(Here's the link: YouTube page with all six sections of the complete 60-minutes video.)

 

Wendy discusses her prayer practice and her practice of deep looking at art.

(From ‘Early Life and Being a Nun’)

Sister Wendy -  . . . . it took me some time to realize that I had to integrate Wendy, the real Wendy, that silly creature, with my religious life, because what God wanted was me, not a pretend-me. .. . . .

Bill Moyers - When you took that step, when you said, “I’m giving myself to God,” what exactly did you think you were doing?

Sister Wendy - I thought I was setting myself into a context in which God could take possession of me in a way I had not been free to let him do before. If I had been different, he could’ve done it always, but I was so weak that I needed that orderly set-up. You know, that’s the sign of a good vocation: you need it. Not that you want it, but this is a life that you actually need if you are to be fully human.

(From ‘The Contemplative Life’ – some sections below are not included on the video.)

Bill Moyers: - Tell me what life is under those circumstances [living in her trailer on the grounds of the convent]. What do you do every day?

Sister Wendy - Well, I pray a lot. I mean, basically, that’s what I do. I pray. I live in the sunshine of God’s presence. It’s absolute bliss!

. . . . .

Bill Moyers - What form does that prayer take?

Sister Wendy - Well, no form, really. I just let God shine upon me, without words or images or thoughts. I think all that matters in prayer is that we should want God to take possession of us. And if that wanting is deep enough, then anything we feel we want to do in prayer will work. I don’t think that there’s any sort of set forms. Occasionally, I’ve sung a bit, making up words to God. But, otherwise, there are no words and no images. I just stay there.

(a bit further in the interview)

Bill Moyers  - . . .  I think people are curious about how many hours a day you spend in this contemplation, and what happens to you in the process?

Sister Wendy - Well, I feel it’s God’s process, that God is more me than I am. And that what goes on is God’s business. My business is just to be attentive to Him, just to be waiting for God, God to be what he wants.

Bill Moyers - There’s no petition. You’re not supplicating. You’re not. . .

Sister Wendy - No.

Bill Moyers - You’re just there?

Sister Wendy - Well, if an idea came into my head to supplicate, I would, but it doesn’t usually. I’m just there and completely content. I’m not to know what is happening, because it’s God’s business.

Bill Moyers - And how many hours a day do you do this?

Sister Wendy - About seven hours.

(Later in interview, from section on Sister Wendy’s instructions on how to look at art.)

Bill Moyers – You talk about surrendering to the wonder of the story. What do you mean by that, “surrendering”?

Sister Wendy - . . . it means that you’re not going to have labels, you’re not going to defend yourself by the ramparts of your own ego, you’re going to open yourself to what this has to give you, and that’s not easy to do.

Bill Moyers – So when you ask me to give myself, to surrender to a work of art, what are you asking me to do?

Sister Wendy – I’m asking you to let this work speak to you without you setting up preconditions, without you, in any way, defending the fragility of your ego, because works of art can often teach us things about ourselves we would rather not know. They’re going to take you into another’s vision, only to bring you back to your own truth. The art will increase your own integrity, which is something, perhaps, that people only may be paying lip service to desiring.

Bill Moyers – I’m not sure what you mean by that, “it increases your own integrity.”

Sister Wendy – Well, our desire should be that we are men and women of integrity, of truth, that we are what we were meant to be, with nothing fake about us. Now, art is a great tester of the fake, because it must be the real you that responds. And the more the real you dares to respond, the more the real you is there. You’re exercising the muscles of your own individuality, as opposed to your ego.

. . . . .

Bill Moyers - What does, has art done for you, other than make you an international celerity, which you didn’t want to be? What has art done for you? What has art done for you?

Sister Wendy - Well, I suppose it’s given me enormous joy. It’s also increased my capacity to accept darkness and pain, and not be too bewildered by them. It has, I hope, made me a more sensitive and alert person. The one fatal thing is to be a zombie. And I think we’re all in danger of living part of our lives at zombie level. But I think art helps one to be perpetually there, as it were.

Bill Moyers “There” is?

Sister Wendy - There, alert, constant.

Bill Moyers - In the moment?

Sister Wendy - Yes, in the moment, because God’s coming every moment, but we’re not receiving Him every moment; of course, we’re not even noticing that He’s coming. We’re drifting through. Well, you see, in art you can’t just drift; art is demanding of your attention. And I would hope that it helps me to be a more attentive person all the way.

Prompt:

Dig back in your memory and think of a time when you discovered a practice that helped you to be more attentive and “perpetually there,” alert and alive as opposed to being a zombie – a practice that has made a real difference in your life. Tell us the story of how you came to this practice. Feel free to mention any effects this practice has had on your life or work.

More on spiritual practices will get posted later. For now, two published books with compiled resources are these:

Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life, Marjorie J. Thomas (often used in seminary courses)

Listening Spirituality, Volume 1: Personal Spiritual Practices Among Friends, Patricia Loring

(often used in Spiritual Nurture programs among Friends)

Four Prayers

 

(I copied this from a Facebook post - I don't know who posted it. It is a traditional Buddhist practice of "metta", a form of prayer not requiring the belief that there is a Supreme Being, but simply wishing the release from suffering for self and others.)

Thirst – Mary Oliver (from the book Thirst) 

Another morning and I wake with thirst
for the goodness I do not have. I walk
out to the pond and all the way God has
given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord,
I was never a quick scholar but sulked
and hunched over my books past the
hour and the bell; grant me, in your
mercy, a little more time. Love for the
earth and love for you are having such a
long conversation in my heart. Who
knows what will finally happen or
where I will be sent, yet already I have
given a great many things away, expect-
ing to be told to pack nothing, except the
prayers which, with this thirst, I am
slowly learning.



Celtic Prayer

You are the peace of all things calm
You are the place to hide from harm
You are the light that shines in dark
You are the heart's eternal spark

You are the door that's open wide
You are the guest who waits inside
You are the stranger at the door
You are the calling of the poor

You are my Lord and with me still
You are my love, keep me from ill
You are the light, the truth, the way
You are my Savior this very day.
 
you are god - celtic oral tradition - 1st millennium
 

The Peace Prayer of St. Francis 
c. 1915 A.D. Peace Prayer (originally written in French, possibly by a French priest; later attributed to St. Francis)

Lord make me an instrument of your peace

Where there is hatred,
Let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, Joy.

O Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled
As to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
(Note: you can easily search for prayers from many faith traditions on this fairly new site: http://www.worldprayers.org/index.html.)

Falling and Rising

“If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.” 

Juliana of Norwich