Dorothee Soelle: Theologian, Mystic, Social Activist
Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of Dorothee Soelle, a German theologian (1929-2003). Now I own one of her books (Essential Writings), I’m reading it enthusiastically, and I’m posting this blog about her! I thank Robert Ellsberg in the April issue of Give Us This Day for introducing her to me. To understand my sudden fascination with Soelle, let me begin with a little background on her.
Dorothee Soelle was fifteen when World War II ended. As the Nazi crimes became better known, she was filled with an “ineradicable shame”: the shame of “belonging to this people, speaking the language of the concentration camp guards.” Like many others of her generation, she pondered the great question: “How could this have happened?” And “If God is all-powerful, why didn’t he stop this?” At the University of Cologne, she majored in theology, philosophy, and literature, eventually earning her Ph.D. She became a university lecturer at Cologne while also becoming very active in the political issues of her day: the Vietnam War, the arms race, anti-semitism, sexism, and other forms of authoritarianism and oppression. From 1975-87 she also taught 6 months every year at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
What was Soelle’s answer to the question, “If God is all-powerful, why didn’t he stop the atrocities of the Nazis–or all evils, for that matter?” Her answer was: because “God is not an all-powerful King.” This answer shocked some people, because that image of God as an all-powerful king was not only very popular, it was scriptural. She went on to say that God is not far removed from us. Rather, God is in our midst as “one who suffers in us, with us, and through us.” God is suffering along side of us. She viewed Jesus on the cross as the great example of God’s union with all who suffer political violence, oppression, trauma. Furthermore, she said, God needs our hands to heal what is broken in the world.
Soelle’s theology was an embodied theology, one deeply rooted in the world. Every morning she prayed with her Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. She always asked herself, “Where is God in the suffering of the world? And “What does love require of us in our times?” She, along with a few other like-minded friends, organized a weekly ecumenical service called “Political Evensongs.” These meetings were dedicated to prayer and lectures on contemporary social issues. Soelle believed God answered our prayers primarily by “inspiring action in our hearts and hands.“
Soelle criticized traditional Christianity’s idea of sin which confined sin mostly to personal morality. This limited view failed to recognize sin’s social dimension. She wrote, “Sin has to do not just with what we do, but what we allow to happen.” She had been appalled that Nazism arose in Germany, an essentially Christian country–mostly Lutheran and Roman Catholic. How could her fellow country men and women have gone to church every Sunday while simultaneously allowing their neighbors to be rounded up and shipped to extermination camps? (Remember, of course, that not all church leaders and ordinary citizens were silent. In Dachau alone, there were “clergy barracks” that held over 2,700 clergy. And countless non-Jewish neighbors also disappeared into the night for speaking out against Hitler and his policies and for haboring Jews. But some historians say such resistance was too little, too late.)
Solle wrote extensively about mysticism. She believed mysticism was not reserved for a few select people living in desert caves or monasteries. Rather, she “democratized mysticism” as a gift available to all. She defined mysticism not as a new vision of God, “but a different relationship to the world–one that has borrowed the eyes of God.” Soelle also believed that women have special insights to offer the primarily patriarchal theology and spirituality of her day. As the mother of four children, for example, she was well-acquainted with the pains of childbirth. She asked, what enables a woman to endure the labor pains of childbirth? And answered, it is her hope for the life of her child. So too, she believed our pain and suffering can be transmuted into giving birth to something new.
Some say we are known by the company we keep. Four examples of Soelle’s “company” include several Medieval female mystics such as Marguerite Porete (burned at the stake for heresy in 1310), Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (hanged by the Nazis for treason in April 1945), Latin American Liberation Theologian Gustavo Gutierrez, and American “Creation Spirituality” theologian, Matthew Fox.
Susan Rakoczy, a South African professor of theology, called Dorothee Soelle “one of the most important spiritual-political figures of the 20th Century.” I’ll conclude this reflection with four more thoughts by this remarkable woman:
“God does not dominate. God accompanies.”
About excessive consumerism: “If my hands are fully occupied in holding on to something, I can neither give nor receive.”
“Joy, laughter, and delight are so powerful because, like all mysticism, they abolish conventional divisions.”
Some see “a miracle as an external intervention that suspends the laws of nature.” But Soelle says, “Mystical amazement, on the other hand, sees the original miracle in being itself, in creation, in a rose blooming.”
For reflection:
What is your initial reaction to this reflection? Positive? Negative? Somewhere in between? Can you explain why?
Does anything about Dorothee Soelle’s writings, resonate with your own beliefs? Does anything contradict what you believe? Does anything make you say, “Wow!” or “I never looked at it that way before.”
Do you ever pray with scripture placed alongside the news of the day? If so, what happens when you do? If you’ve never tried this, would you like to try this?
Does just being alive ever seem like a miracle to you? Have you ever experienced something in nature that you would readily call a miracle? If so, could you share that experience with us below?
Soelle often referred to St. Theresa of Avila’s prayer, “Christ has no hands on earth but yours.” Here is that prayer set to music and sung by John Michael Talbot, “St. Theresa’s Prayer.” I love this prayer/song so much, I use it for nearly all my retreats.
I invite you to share your thoughts below. Your fellow readers and I always enjoy reading the comments!
Join the “Revolution of Tenderness”
Sometimes I come across a phrase that stops me in my tracks. It’s a phrase I find startling, intriguing, seemingly contradictory, but definitely worth pondering. One such phrase came from Pope Francis when, in 2017, he made a surprise appearance at a TED conference and called for a “revolution of tenderness.” He cited Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate the type of tenderness he was talking about.
Pope Francis said our contemporary technological and consumerist culture leaves behind “thousands of human beings, or entire populations, on the side of the road.” He exclaimed, “How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us.” He added, “And what is tenderness? It is the LOVE that COMES CLOSE and BECOMES REAL. It is a movement that starts from our HEART and reaches the EYES, the EARS, and the HANDS.” He added, “Tenderness is not weakness, it is fortitude.”
These words raised a couple of questions for me: How can I join this revolution of tenderness? What small, daily things can I do to follow the example of that Good Samaritan whose love was close and real? Here are a few suggestions focused on those four words heart, eyes, ears, hands.
Heart: We can nourish tenderness within ourselves by fighting against the natural tendency to shield ourselves from pain and sorrow, to run away from all “bad news,” or to harden our hearts to the suffering of others. Instead, we can intentionally and regularly expose ourselves to things, people, and experiences that tend to arouse our tenderness: holding an infant, playing with a child, caring for a garden, doing a small favor for someone, baking a special dessert, helping an elderly neighbor, playing with our cat or dog, watching a movie that might bring tears to our eyes, or listening to music that feeds our “softer side.”
Eyes: We can look into people’s eyes when we’re talking with them–people such as the check-out clerk, the receptionist, the security worker, the person who takes our order at the fast food place, the person cleaning the public restroom–or anyone else who is “orbiting around us.” Every day we can look for people around us doing a good, right, or generous thing. We can intentionally watch or read the news to expose ourselves to what is happening in the larger world–even the heart-wrenching stories we might prefer to avoid.
Ears. We can practice the art of really listening to the people we encounter in an ordinary day: our spouse and family members, our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, our boss, the people we are “in charge of,” the people who may be “in charge” of us, the priest giving his homily, the clients we serve, the child who keeps asking questions, the person we find annoying or hard to listen to. As I’ve quoted before, listening is so much like loving, it is hard to tell the difference.
Hands. We can take an inventory of what we do with our hands on a typical day. Do we “lend a hand” to someone? Do we open a door for someone or hold a door open for the person behind us? Do we offer to carry something for someone who is struggling? Do we wave to a neighbor? Do we type an email to a congress member about an issue we feel passionate about? Do we cook supper, care for a child, wipe away the tears of someone who mourns, hold the hand of someone who is afraid, crochet baby blankets or prayer shawls for people we’ll never meet, serve a meal at a welcome center, coach a kids soccer team, fold our hands in prayer everyday for our brothers and sisters in need?
One psychologist said that the true hallmark of human maturity is tenderness. Would that more of us all over the world would join in this revolution of tenderness, a revolution of small daily acts of love that “come close and become real.”
For reflection:
What are some of the things, people, or experiences that help to arouse tenderness within you?
Do you remember being the recipient of the tenderness of another person–a parent, grandparent, teacher, coach, priest, friend, stranger? What effect did their tenderness have on you?
Who helped teach you to be tender? How did they help you?
Some people say tenderness is a “feminine virtue.” To what extent do you agree or disagree–and why?
What are some of the stories in the gospel that show the tenderness of Jesus?
PS: Once again I ask your prayers for a retreat I will be leading at the Shrine of Our Lady of Snows in Belleville, IL from July 13-19. I will let the participants know that you are praying for their retreat. Thank you very much!
Our song for today is a “classic revival hymn” called “Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling.” It was written by Will Thompson in 1880. Thompson was a composer who studied at Mt. Union College in Alliance, Ohio as well as in Boston and Germany. This song is one of the most widely translated and sung songs in the Christian tradition. It was sung at Martin Luther King’s funeral and was recorded by many popular artists such as Johnny Cash, Reba McEntire, Amy Grant, Alan Jackson, and Kelly Clarkston. Thompson said he based the song on the parable of the Prodigal Son. Jesus, like the father in the parable, is watching and waiting for his wayward son to return. The father tenderly pleads, “Ye who are weary come home.” Here the song is sung by the Altar of Praise Chorale. Lois, to whom the video is dedicated, is the ill mother of a reader of the blog by the video producer, SE Samonte.
I invite you to share some of your thoughts with us below. I LOVE hearing from you!
Prayer for the United States of America
This year we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States of America–for many of us, our cherished country. But anniversaries are not merely a time for nostalgia and celebration. As Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore wrote: an anniversary “calls us to consider not only who we have been, but who we are becoming…and by God’s grace, who we are called to be.” With that in mind, I offer you this prayer.
God and gracious God, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we offer you this prayer for our country, a country that is good, beautiful, and beloved… and a country that is wounded, flawed, and always in need of your help.
We are grateful for the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence… that all people are created equal… that they are endowed by You, our Creator, with certain unalienable rights… among these rights are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. May we never take these rights for granted or forget the responsibilites these rights bestow upon all of us, especially the need for our vigilance and our participation to preserve these sacred rights into the future.
We thank you, Creator God, for the countless natural gifts of this land we call home: for rivers and lakes, mountains and valleys, forests and farmlands, oceans and grasslands and the wide diversity of animal life these resources support and sustain. Help us to remember this proverb from our Native American brothers and sisters: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” May we continue to work untiringly for the preservation of our precious natural gifts for generations to come.
We thank you for the people who were here long before most of our direct ancestors set foot on this land. We are grateful for their rich spiritual traditions and their deep respect for “the land.” And we ask forgiveness for the grave injustices these people endured–and in some places, still endure–from those of us who came much later to this land.
We thank you for the wide diversity of peoples who immigrated to this country throughout our 250 years–and who continue to come today. They came here fleeing religious persecution, wars, famine, and violence of all kinds. They came here seeking a better life for themselves and their families. And sadly, we remember those who were brought here in shackles, enduring brutal and inhumane conditions. We ask forgiveness for what some have called our country’s “national original sin,” the sin of slavery. And we ask your help to continue to remove barriers that prevent some of us from enjoying the rights our Constitution assures for all of us. May we as a nation incarnate more and more that word “United” in the official name of our country, the United States of America.
We thank you for the unique gift of our republic, our democracy, whereby the leaders of government derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We are justly proud of all those leaders throughout our history who served our country with personal integrity, courage, wisdom, justice, compassion and with a cooperative spirit. We ask for these same qualities in those who serve us in leadership today.
We thank you for the so-called “common man,” that is, for the countless ordinary men and women throughout our history who displayed qualities we like to say define “the American spirit,” qualities such as diligence, resilience, courage, hopefulness, generosity, and care and concern for one another. May we who follow them in time, follow them in spirit by continuing the hard work of insuring the rights of all.
We pray also for all other nations today. May we always remember that our nation is part of a world community, a global community. We are grateful for the ways our country in the past has worked hand-in-hand with other countries to preserve peace, to build beneficial partnerships, to care for our common planet, and to provide aid to those nations plagued by poverty, illness, food shortages and violence. May we continue our tradition of reaching out and sharing our wealth with our global community.
And finally, God, we pray that we may become the nation we pledge our allegiance to: “The United States of America: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Amen.
For reflection:
Is there anything that stands out for you in this prayer?
If you’re an American, what do you love the most about the USA?
If you could ask God for one thing for the USA today, what would it be?
How do you plan to celebrate this 250th anniversary?
PS: I will NOT post a blog next week on Monday June 29. My next post will be Monday July 6.
PS #2: Thank you for your prayers for the retreat last week for the SSJ’s in Erie. Special thanks to the retreat team, (Nancy, Mary Ann, Susan, and Linda) for helping to make the retreat such a blessed experience!
I chose “American the Beautiful” for our song today, a hymn written in 1905. It is based on a poem by Katharine Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, a women’s college in Massachusetts. Samuel Ward, an organist and choir director at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, composed the music. About 75 other composers set Bates’ poem to music, but Ward’s soon became the favorite. Bates and Ward never met. He didn’t live long enough to see how popular the song became, but Bates did. Bates always said she was inspired to write her poem as she traveled by train from Massachusetts to Colorado. Along the way she was mesmerized by the beauty of the country–the greenery, the tall buildings of Chicago, the rivers, the wheat fields, and the mighty Rocky Mountains. I chose this version below because it has all four verses plus the lyrics.
I welcome your comments below.
Quotes on Rest, Leisure & Play
It’s summer time here in the northern hemisphere. And when we think “summer,” we usually think vacation or enjoying more lesisure time–especially outdoors. Consequently, I thought it would be fitting to give you 20 quotations on rest, leisure and play from a variety of individuals. I invite you to reflect on these “leisurely.”
1) The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. G. K. Chesterton
2) Play is called recreation because it makes us new again; it re-creates us and our world. Stuart Brown
3) The Chinese pictograph for “busy” is composed of two characters: heart and killing. Br. David Steindl-Rast
4) Cease a moment, stop your work, and take a look around you. Leo Tolstoy
5) The opposite of play is not work. It is despondency… One imaginative interpretation of “God rested” is that on the seventh day God kicked back, opened arms wide, and laughed and laughed, making all things whole and holy. Rose Marie Berger
6) For five years I raced around digging ponds, chopping trees, clearing paths, pulling rocks, unclogging channels, planting–always making lists, plans, agendas; always “improving” things. One day, after finishing yet another important project, I made a list of all the things I had left to do. According to my schedule, I could begin enjoying my land twenty-five years down the line. Something was dreadfully wrong. John Taylor Gatto
7) Forget about productivity once in a while and give yourself permission to goof off. Amy Morin
8) Jesus knows we must come apart and rest awhile, or else we may just plain come apart. Vance Havner
9) A saint was once asked, while playing happily with his companions, what he would do if an angel told him that in a quarter of an hour he would die and appear before the judgment seat of God. The saint promptly replied, “I would continue playing, because I am certain that these games are pleasing to God. St. John Bosco
10) Cartoon character to a friend: “I’ve tried relaxing, but–I don’t know–I feel more comfortable tense.
11) Many church ministers see themselves as a lasting exception to the need for play and rest. They act–and often speak–as if… all the work of God rests on their Atlas-like back alone. Wayne E. Oates
12) I’ve lived too much of my life where people can reach me. Rumi (13th century Persian poet)
13) The most valuable thing we can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room, not trying to be or do anything whatever. May Sarton
14) Eutropalia is the virtue of being able to rest and play and have a good time. Anonymous source
15) There is no music in a “rest,” that I know of; but there’s the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life-melody. John Ruskin
16) Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Susan Ertz
17) We don’t stop playing because we grow old… we grow old because we stop playing. George Bernard Shaw
18) Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning. Diane Ackerman
19) Together with the culture of work, there must be a culture of leisure as gratification. To put it another way: people who work must take time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, read, listen to music, play a sport. Pope Francis
20) What do I want to take home from my summer vacation? Time. The wonderful luxury of being at rest. The days when you shut down the mental machinery that keeps life on track and let life simply wander. The days when you stop planning, analyzing, thinking and just are. Summer is my grace period. Ellen Goodman
For reflection:
Did any of the quotes or pictures stand out for you? Let us know below. You don’t even have to tell us why–but you can if you want to.
What grade (from A to F) would you give yourself for how well you balance work and leisure in your life today? What about in your past?
What are some of the ways you rest, have leisure, or play?
Do you ever play with God?
Did Jesus ever rest, have leisure, or play?
PS: Next Sunday is Father’s Day. I want to wish all you fathers out there a beautiful day and thank you for all the love you put into your “vocation” of fathering! I hope this Father’s Day your celebration may include lots of rest, leisure, and play!
PS #2: I ask your prayers for a retreat I’m giving this week to the Sisters of St. Joseph and their associates in Erie, PA. Thank you very much!
Growing up on our small farm, we kids were lucky to have a beautiful woods in the back of our property as well as across the road from us. During summer especially, those woods were one of our favorite places to play and explore. So, the video I chose today is called “Through the Woods” by the Okee Dokee Brothers, two talented men who write mostly children’s songs. I hope you enjoy it!
For captions, click cc.
I’m eager to hear from you below! So are our readers!
The Peregrine Falcon Live Camera
(Please note: I am typing this Monday evening. This blog was posted Monday morning as usual, but for some unknown reason, it wasn’t sent out to our subscribers. Our IT department is looking into this glitch. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.)
For the past two years, I have been been watching the Peregrine Falcon live-cam on top of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. I became acquainted with their falcon program while I was giving a retreat a couple of years ago for the Franciscan Sisters in Rochester. They are the Sisters who partnered with the Mayo brothers to establish the world-renowned Mayo Clinic. I wrote a blog on their incredible story. To access that post, go to the search box on the top right and type in “Mayo Clinic.”
I’ll begin by sharing a little history of the Mayo Clinic’s Peregrine Falcon program. In 1987, the Clinic partnered with the Midwest Peregrine Society to help save the peregrine falcon from extinction. The Mayo Clinic was a good site to put a nesting box. The tall buildings mimicked the falcon’s natural cliff habitat. In addition, there was ample food in the area–mostly pigeons and small birds–to raise a falcon family. So, a nesting box was placed on the roof of a 22 story Mayo Clinic building. The current falcon parents, Hattie and Orton, have been together for 11 years. During that time they have raised over 30 chicks. In fact, the couple likes their location so much, they no longer migrate. Instead, they stay in the area even during winter to prevent other birds from taking over their nesting site. Falcons usually claim a several mile radius around their nest.
the nesting box on April 7, 2026.
Last year Hattie and Orton raised two chicks. This year they have four. The live-cam runs 24/7 from February till about August. It features two alternating camera views: one from inside the nesting box looking out, and another from the outside of the box looking in. At three weeks, the “peregrine professionals” who operate the program, remove the chicks temporarily to assess their health, band them for future studies, and name them. This event is aired live. It takes considerable courage to remove chicks from a nest while their mother or father is screeching and swooping down on you with those razor-sharp talons. But everyone involved wears a hardhat and carries an umbrella to prevent the parents from doing them harm. The chicks are returned to the nest as quickly as possible to minimize the stress on the parents.
I enjoyed watching the banding and naming event. First, the chicks are weighed and their gender is determined. This year we have two girls and two boys. The chicks are then checked for parasites or infection. All four birds were deemed in fine health–a tribute to their hard-working parents who are providing excellent care 24/7. I enjoyed the naming ceremony too. Over 5,000 names were submitted from all over the world. This year’s names are (drum roll, please!): The two females: Vega meaning “bright star” and Belle in honor of the 100-year-old Clarrion at Mayo Clinic. The two males are: Mylo meaning “guardian” and Zephyr meaning “western wind.” The four chicks or nestlings pictured above now have many of their brown feathers.
Occasionally, I’ll visit other live-cams. I especially like the Big Bear Valley eagle cam in California. This year, the parent eagles are raising two females, Luna and Sandy. Their nest is perched 145 feet up in a tree, and the tree is on the side of a mountain overlooking Bear Lake Valley below. If you want to see a “house” with a million dollar view, just check out the information at the end of this post. Or you can also choose to watch tawny owls. There are live-cams for other animals such as beavers, fox, otters and many others.
You might be wondering, why do I devote a few minutes to watching these birds on a regular basis? Don’t I have more important things to do? I make time because the cameras allow me to get really close to wildlife–a closeness I couldn’t get in any other way. At the same time, the cameras do not interfer with the raising of the chicks. The birds get used to the cameras quickly. Watching live-cams also gives me a greater appreciation of how much time and effort it takes to raise a clutch of chicks successfully. (It also gives me a greater appreciation of the many years it takes for human parents to raise their baby homo sapiens!) And it feeds my sense of wonder just to watch the chicks go from little yellowish-white puff balls, totally dependent on their parents, to gorgeously feathered adult raptors. Then the parents have to teach them to fly and hunt for food (to make a living!) as fully independent adults ready to raise a family of their own. These life-cams unite me with a global audience too. Some sites tell you how many other people all over the world are viewing the website at the same time you are! Fascinating!
For reflection:
Did anything catch your attention in this reflection?
Do you ever watch live-cams? Or do you have a camera by your bird feeder? Or do you enjoy watching your bird feeder? If so, please share some of you experiences below.
How do you gain access to wildlife–in a park? while on vacation? in your neighborhood? in your own yard? or even outside your window?
Do you set aside regular time to connect with the natural world beyond the human world? If so, why? If not, why not?
Here’s what to google to go to the websites for Peregrine falcons, eagles, and tawny owls:
Falcons: search Mayo Clinic Falcons
Eagles: search Big Bear Valley Eagle cam
Tawny owls: search Tawny owl live-cams (Tawny owls [they’re so cute!] are found in Europe [except Ireland] Central Asia, and northern Africa. Alas, they are not found in the U.S. or Canada…)
Today’s video (5. mins.) is from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It captures ordinary backyard birds landing on bird feeders. Their landings are too fast for the naked eye to see or appreciate, so much of this video is shot in slow motion. I think you might be as amazed as I was!
I’m looking forward to your comments below about this reflection, the pictures and video, and your own experiences with observing wildlife!
