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March 10, 2010
> 10:18 AM
from st. bernard > fear and self-interest Neither fear nor self-interest can convert the soul. They may change the appearance, perhaps even the conduct, but never the object of supreme desire... Fear is the motive which constrains the slave; greed binds the selfish man, by which he is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed (James 1:14). But neither fear nor self-interest is undefiled, nor can they convert the soul. Only charity can convert the soul, freeing it from unworthy motives.Can we see or hear or read something like this over and over again and still not quite get it? I'm pretty sure we can. Fear doesn't change people. It will not, it cannot transform the inner person into the Image of Christ! "Don't do this or you'll go to hell" DOESN'T WORK! Oh, as St. Bernard says, it may well change the conduct, the behavior of a person, at least temporarily, but it cannot effect real, permanent change. We make a very grave error when we depend on that kind of thing to control others or ourselves. Not even "self-interest" can work real transformative change in us. Not even doing it because we want to improve ourselves so that we are "the best" we can be. That doesn't sound right to someone, but I think it's true. These kinds of motivations are ultimately about the self - me, me, me. They have at their root, pride. Can we want to grow further into Christ and it not be pride? Oh, I think certainly we can. But of course, as we go along in this life, all our motives are somewhat broken. We rarely have a perfect desire. But we have to at least understand that at its core, basically this whole thing is about love - Love. God has Loved and does Love us and that effects change in us. It elicits a response from us - a deep one, a real one. And the truest response to that deep drawing is also love - love responding to Love. That's where transformation happens, in the relational interaction of love between us and God. It's the only place it happens. If we keep that in mind, even in the midst of our broken mess of twisted desires and motives, God will see that and that loving relationship will continue to happen and we will truly be changed. Labels: saints, spiritual formation 0 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | February 18, 2010 > 12:39 PM our spiritual attitude Our spiritual attitude, our way of seeking peace and perfection, depends entirely on our concept of God. If we are able to believe he is truly our loving Father, if we can really accept the truth of his infinite and compassionate concern for us, if we believe that he loves us not because we are worthy but because we need his love, then we can advance with confidence. We will not be discouraged by our inevitable weakness and failures. We can do anything he asks of us. But if we believe he is a stern, cold lawgiver who has no real interest in us, who is merely a ruler, a lord, a judge and not a father, we will have great difficulty in living the Christian life. We must therefore begin by believing God is our Father: otherwise we cannot face the difficulties of the Christian way of perfection. Without faith, the "narrow way" is utterly impossible.Underlying attitudes are huge. The way we think about things will "rule" how we are able to live in certain areas. If we believe God is a "stern, cold lawgiver," we will act accordingly. We will have a very hard time indeed being able to live in the Love that Jesus came to bring us. If we have the kind of faith that sees God as loving Father, then we will be working with Him in His own reality - see how that works? Working "against" Him or working "with" Him - which is it? What's unfortunate is that many of us have learned the poor lesson of "God as lawgiver" and lawgiver and judge alone. We have been crippled from the get-go. The Holy Spirit, though, is still able to come in and warm our hearts - to enlighten us as to His real identity - to lift us out of our prison into the freedom of His Love and Mercy. Come Holy Spirit! Come and set Your people free! Labels: merton, spiritual formation 0 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | February 17, 2010 > 3:46 PM lenten thoughts > 1 When I think: "I have lost my foothold,"Oooor not. In my case right now - not. His consolation is not calming my soul as cares increase in my heart. I do not sense His mercy holding me up. I'm falling and there is no net beneath me, no safety cable. I have to read and pray that as if I want it to be true while knowing it is not. Labels: lent 4 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | February 11, 2010 > 4:10 PM a body of broken bones 1 Just wanted to share this amazing quote from Thomas Merton about hatred and love - about this Body of broken bones of which we are a part as Christians. Put your heavy listening headphones on here folks... Strong hate, the hate that takes joy in hating, is strong because it does not believe itself to be unworthy and alone. It feels the support of a justifying God, of an idol of war, an avenging and destroying spirit. From such blood-drinking gods the human race was once liberated, with great toil and terrible sorrow, by the death of a God Who delivered Himself to the Cross and suffered the pathological cruelty of His own creatures out of pity for them. In conquering death He opened their eyes to the reality of a love which asks no questions about worthiness, a love which overcomes hatred and destroys death. But men have now come to reject this divine revelation of pardon, and they are consequently returning to the old war gods, the gods that insatiably drink blood and eat the flesh of men. It is easier to serve the hate-gods because they thrive on the worship of collective fanaticism. To serve the hate-gods, one has only to be blinded by collective passion. To serve the God of Love one must be free, one must face the terrible responsibility of the decision to love in spite of all unworthiness whether of oneself or in one's neighbor.Not much I can add to that. Hear it and know that this is true, to some degree, of all of us. We're broken - broken more than we like to admit. But we will never be "fixed" if we take our brokenness to heart and own it as if it were goodness. God's Grace be with us all. Labels: merton, spiritual formation 1 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | February 09, 2010 > 11:38 AM re-thoughts on prayer and liturgy > 5 Here's a post where I'm talking about liturgical prayer - praying the liturgy of the hours - after I read an article in the Vineyard's church planting magazine interviewing Episcopalian Phyllis Tickle. The gist of my thoughts are about praying because it's "what we do" as opposed to because we feel something when we pray, or to "get something," etc. The ecumenical aspects of liturgical prayer come out as well. -------------------------------------------- Liturgical Prayer > Thoughts (from 06/23/2008) Skimming through a copy of Cutting Edge (the Vineyard's church planting magazine - I'm still on the list apparently) lately and ran into an excerpt from a 2002 interview with Phyllis Tickle about prayer - specifically about praying the office. The quote I want to share is just a great, brief synopsis about praying in this way from Phyllis as she answers a question from the interviewer. I'll include both question and answer. Talk a little bit about the nature of praying with fixed-hour prayer.That's a great quote. Phyllis is a member of the Episcopal Church and has done a ton to promote the practice of praying the office. She developed a prayer book called The Divine Hours which helps people do this. I've prayed with people using her book but I don't use it myself. I use the 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours. I need to "use" it more. The term "fixed-hour prayer" doesn't quite fit with me yet on praying the office. There isn't a specific time Liz and I, or just I pray. I'm sure in the future more set times will emerge in our practice but right now that's not the case. It's the rhythm of doing it that's probably more important I would think. I love that answer to the reporter's question - "Not one damn thing." Awesome. Here's what she basically means - we don't pray this way in order to get something out of it - not to feel anything or sense how amazing we're becoming. We do it because that's what you do. You have a rhythm of prayer in your life because you have His Life inside you. You keep in flowing. The water moves and it keeps moving. Technically, in the end, I suppose we do get something out of it - being in the flow of contact with God in His Word, with the Church - just not in the way people think when they ask a question like that. So, if you pick up this habit (and it takes a while), don't expect to have a very exciting experience as you pray. Now, it may feel like something every now and then, but that's not what its about. And yes, there's an Episcopalian talking to a Vineyard magazine about practices that have been a part of her Anglican heritage and of the ancient Catholic heritage for a long time. This way of praying is catching on all through the whole Church's proverbial circulatory system, down the capillary ends. Most Catholics barely know what praying the office is, it has so long been only something that the clergy or monks did, even if the Catholic Church has stated a desire that the entire membership pick up habits of prayer like this and pray them together. I doubt most Anglicans or Orthodox take advantage of the deep, liturgical prayer traditions in their arenas either. Saying that is not about dissing anyone - it is simply, for me, sad. It's spreading out, though, and that's a very good thing. We can pray in this way together, all of us. It can be a unifier of sorts. It's a deep, fruitful river we can all connect ourselves to and allow it to irrigate us as one common crop of God. Labels: liturgical prayer, prayer, re-post 0 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | February 03, 2010 > 10:20 AM re-thoughts on prayer and liturgy > 4 Since we are... back in Ordinary Time at the moment - here's another post I wrote in 2008, talking about a liturgical spirituality based in the ordinary. I re-read this just a few minutes ago and I say, it is good. There are, for some perhaps, a couple of radical suggestions toward the end. I'm still 110% with those. Good stuff - regular rhythm of everyday life - love and not fear - Peace to you. -------------------------------------------------- Back to Ordinary (from 01/14/2008)  Back to the brown book, back to Ordinary Time. I'm pretty sure this is my favorite liturgical season. I'm not sure it's considered a "season," per se, but it's my favorite time block on the calendar. Weird, you say? Maybe. I think I just prefer the regular rhythm of everyday life as opposed to the somewhat intense focus on a particular event or Truth in the life of Christ and the Church.I don't mean to say that I don't appreciate the celebration of say, Lent or Advent or Christmas or Easter. I think we need those constant reminders interrupting the rhythm of our lives. Over and over, year after year, to live that in and out, up and down of the calendar is good. I believe that. I wonder, though, if sometimes we don't get a little carried away with the celebrations such that they become things that we wait for during Ordinary Time, just tolerating things until November or February. I've heard some people say they wish we'd back Advent up into October to make it longer. Mmmmmmm, I don't think I'd be in favor of that. If anything, make it shorter. I don't think it's the healthiest thing to live our lives waiting for big, spectacular events. If we can't "feel spiritual" or close to God during the ordinary part of the year, we have some problems. And nobody's asking for my vote, but strip out all the "obligation" attached to any of these feast days, and to any fasting or abstinence attached to them. That is not to say there shouldn't be an encouragement to do certain things or to gather with the whole Church to worship at certain times. Certainly there should be, but attaching an ultimate penalty to these things is counter-productive to real spiritual development. Yes, I really do think so. Would you rather your children obey your rules out of love and respect or from fear of being punished - and not just punished but kicked out of the freakin' house? I hope our answer would be, love. And fear does not produce love. I don't think so. Anyway, we should all develop a rhythm to our spiritual lives that is solidly entrenched in Ordinary Time. The special seasons should be pleasant interruptions in an already solid rhythm of life focused on our Life in Christ. Christmas is wonderful, and waiting for it in Advent is great, but the now is that Christ is alive, as God and Man, and living in us. Easter is amazing and the relative darkness of Lent is a helpful thing, but now, He lives forever in eternity and is constantly inviting us into His present Life. Let's do what we can to constantly be hearing that invitation and saying yes to it. Labels: church year, liturgy, re-post 5 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | January 29, 2010 > 10:31 PM re-thoughts on prayer and liturgy > 3 Here's some stuff I used in my recent retreat talks as well. This is a sort of fleshed-out outline of a homily I taught/preached at the Easter Vigil of 2007 - done in cooperation between the faith community I used to lead and our friends, St. Patrick's Anglican church here in Lexington. I both sung the Exultet and preached the homily - yes I did. :) I took a bit of a perhaps unusual tack by not talking particularly about Easter, but about the liturgy of the Church in general, how it forms us, living in the rhythm of it, etc. So, even though it's not even Lent yet, much less Easter, it fits. Have at it... ----------------------------------- Vigil Homily (from 04/14/2007) I said a bit back that I might put up the outline (most of it actually) of the homily I gave at our Easter Vigil celebration. And so here I am doin' it..
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