Thomas Merton The Serene Disciple

When in the Soul of the Serene Disciple

When in the soul of the serene disciple
With no more Fathers to imitate
Poverty is a success,
It is a small thing to say the roof is gone:
He has not even a house.

Stars, as well as friends,
Are angry with the noble ruin.
Saints depart in several directions.

Be still:
There is no longer any need of comment.
It was a lucky wind
That blew away his halo with his cares,
A lucky sea that drowned his reputation.

Here you will find
Neither a proverb nor a memorandum.
There are no ways,
No methods to admire
Where poverty is no achievement.
His God lives in his emptiness like an affliction.

What choice remains?
Well, to be ordinary is not a choice:
It is the usual freedom
Of men without visions

                                                                           Thomas Merton

PhD Research Scholarship in Glouchester

RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP IN THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALITY
Dept of Humanities
University of Gloucestershire

The Department proposes to offer a studentship for a PhD in the area
of the Bible and Spirituality. The studentship will be held within a
three-year project sponsored by the Department’s Research Centre for
the Bible and Spirituality in conjunction with the Bible Society. Its
aim is to explore forms of spirituality that find expression in the
Bible, and the relation of these to other contemporary concepts of
spirituality.

The studentship, which is designed to cover a substantial part of the
student’s costs, may be awarded to a suitably qualified candidate who
proposes to work in any area of biblical spirituality, Old Testament
or New Testament, within the terms of the project. The studentship
will begin in February or September 2011, and is renewable annually.
Further details are available on request from:

Mrs Patricia Downes
Humanities Courses Administrator
University of Gloucestershire
Francis Close Hall
Swindon Road
Cheltenham
GL50 4AZ

Tel: 01242 714570
pdownes@glos.ac.uk

Rumi’s "The Guest House"

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

—translated by Coleman Barks

Contemplative in Actions

I have been reading James Martin SJ 's wonderful book The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life for my online Book Discussion Group. James Martin is an excellent writer with the ability to poke fun at himself and his order, The Society of Jesus or the Jesuits. The SJ which comes after his name stands for Society of Jesus (SJ) but also as he relates it was applied to him as Stupid Jerk!

Basically the book is an overview of Ignatian spirituality. He defines Ignatian spirituality as
1. Finding God in all things
2. Becoming a contemplative in action
3. Looking at the world in an incarnational way
4. Seeking freedom and detachment
which is an excellent summary of the main teachings of the Jesuits.

With no offense to the Jesuits, I always think that it should be "contemplative in actions" rather than "becoming a contemplative in action." I guess it is a matter of which is the object and which is the subject or which is the one where the emphasis is. I can understand why the Jesuits chose "contemplative in action" because of the misconceptions that contemplatives are navel gazers who does not contribute to the real world by being involved in real "action". Contemplatives are those who are closeted in the monasteries, protected by thick walls from the corrupting influences of the unwashed masses and spend their time in beautific communion with God.

That is a misconception of contemplatives. First a definition. A contemplative is a person whose inner life is lived focused on God with imputed grace resulting in love overflowing into every aspect of their being. Note the definition does not specify where the contemplative lives. That person may live in a monastery or with 7 million other persons on the tiny island of Singapore. Not all contemplatives are insulated from the mainstream of human life. I am always inspired by the examples of contemplatives like Bernard of Clairvaux who started hundreds of monasteries, became a Doctor of the Chruch, advised Popes and even started the Second Crusade, and Thomas Merton who became an anti-war activist, ecumenist and spiritual writer. So the focus on the contemplative seem to imply that the Jesuits are encouraging contemplatives to be involved in "action."

However, not all of us are contemplatives. Many of us, by temperament are activists. We are trees cutters rather than navel gazers. Hence "contemplative in actions" where the emphasis is on the "actions." We can act contemplatively rather than be contemplatives who acts. Another definition: a contemplative action is one that is done to please God and to fulfill his perfect will. This action may be something "spiritual" or "religious" or as simple as making a cup of coffee. God created coffee and who is to say that He does not have pleasure in seeing his creature enjoying the aroma of a full-bodied dark coffee?

Now where is my coffee?

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Confucian Spirituality

Tu Wei-Ming was born in mainland China, studied in Taiwan, and pursued an academic career at Princeton and UC Berkeley. Now a professor of Chinese history and philosophy at Harvard University, he teaches and writes about Confucianism. He is a proponent of "the theory of Cultural China," an attempt to be Chinese within a global context.

To Invoke a Blessing

Invoke a Blessing

What is a blessing? A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal, and strengthen. Life is a constant flow of emergence. The beauty of blessing is its belief that it can affect what unfolds.

To be in the world is to be distant from the homeland of wholeness. We are confined by limitation and difficulty. When we bless, we are enabled somehow to go beyond our present frontiers and reach into the source. A blessing awakens future wholeness. We use the word foreshadow for the imperfect representation of something that is yet to come. We could say that a blessing "forebrightens" the way. When a blessing is invoked, a window opens in eternal time. . . .

We never see the script of our lives; nor do we know what is coming toward us, or why our life takes on this particular shape or sequence. A blessing is different from a greeting, a hug, a salute, or an affirmation; it opens a different door in human encounter. One enters into the forecourt of the soul, the source of intimacy and the compass of destiny.

Our longing for the eternal kindles our imagination to bless. Regardless of how we configure the eternal, the human heart continues to dream of a state of wholeness, a place where everything comes together, where loss will be made good, where blindness will transform into vision, where damage will be made whole, where the clenched question will open in the house of surprise, where the travails of a life's journey will enjoy a homecoming. To invoke a blessing is to call some of that wholeness upon a person now.

— John O'Donohue in To Bless the Space Between Us

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Candlelight Perception

Practice Candlelight Perception

The light of modern consciousness is not gentle or reverent; it lacks graciousness in the presence of mystery; it wants to unriddle and control the unknown. Modern consciousness is similar to the harsh and brilliant white light of a hospital operating theatre. This neon light is too direct and clear to befriend the shadowed world of the soul. It is not hospitable to what is reserved and hidden. The Celtic mind had a wonderful respect for the mystery and depth of the individual soul.

The Celts recognized that the shape of each soul is different; the spiritual clothing one person wears can never fit the soul of another. It is interesting that the word revelation comes from re-valere, literally, "to veil again." The world of the soul is glimpsed through the opening in a veil that closes again. There is no direct, permanent, or public access to the divine. Each destiny has a unique curvature and must find its own spiritual belonging and direction. Individuality is the only gateway to spiritual potential and blessing.

When the spiritual search is too intense and hungry, the soul stays hidden. The soul was never meant to be seen completely. It is more at home in a light that is hospitable to shadow. Before electricity, people used candlelight at night. The ideal light to befriend the darkness, it gently opens up caverns in the darkness and prompts the imagination into activity. The candle allows the darkness to keep its secrets. There is shadow and color within every candle flame. Candlelight perception is the most respectful and appropriate form of light with which to approach the inner world. . . . Candlelight perception has the finesse and reverence appropriate to the mystery and autonomy of soul.

— John O'Donohue in Anam Cara

McColman on Ordinary and Extraordinary Mysticism

Carl McColman whose The Big Book of Christian Mysticism I am impatiently waiting to arrive so that I can read it on the long plane ride to South Africa defines "ordinary" and "extraordinary" mysticism in his blog post here. I find his definitions very illuminating and similar to my own perspective. This is especially useful for Evangelicals who for some unknown reasons find mysticism threatening.

• Ordinary Mysticism is what I understand Rahner to mean when he says “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all.” This is, in essence, an experiential spirituality which seeks union with God, in the heart of the mystery of God, which transcends a merely rational or intellectual relationship with God. This mysticism basically has three characteristics: it aims for, and hopes for, the felt experience and conscious awareness of the presence of God, and union with God. But of course, since such experience can only by the gift of God, the seeker must recognize that sometimes God is “known” only in darkness or unknowing — the felt experience of the seeming absence of God. This is where faith is essential, for only a lively and well-nurtured faith can sustain the seeker through times when God seems absent. In addition to experience and faith, the third element of ordinary mysticism is practice: the disciplined engagement with historically recognized spiritual practices, including lectio divina, meditation, prayer, and contemplation, which do not cause the experience of God, but dispose the seeker to be open and receptive to receive whatever experience God may choose to bestow. One who engages in such practices can be called a “contemplative,” even though the highest, most mystical form of contemplation is, itself, purely a gift from God.
• Extraordinary Mysticism, like ordinary mysticism, entails the conscious awareness of the presence of God, and/or sustaining faith in God’s presence even when only aware of God’s seeming absence, and a life ordered to spiritual practices aimed at fostering greater intimacy with God. However, it is extraordinary in the sense that the mystic experiences phenomena or events that cannot be explained by ordinary human science: such as miraculous healings, visions, locutions, levitation, the ability to survive on no food other than the Eucharist, the stigmata, and the body remaining incorrupt after death. Such phenomena, of course, is controversial, and many devout Christians may remain skeptical about such things. I would argue that even a person who is skeptical about allegedly supernatural phenomena may still be an “ordinary” mystic.

I strongly hold that mysticism has a place in Christian spirituality because mysticism prevents Christians from placing God in a box.

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Standing at Crossroads

Crossroads are busy places. They are chaotic places of noise and busyness. Often at the junction of four or five feeder roads, crossroads are where the traffic of people and cars merge and disengage, for a fleeting moment meeting, and then going their separate ways. Many of us find ourselves standing at crossroads, some more frequent than others, at different times in our lives. We stand in the chaos, amidst the noise, confusion and uncertainty, as we scan the various roads that lead away to decide which one to follow. Crossroads are places of decisions. They are scary places because we know decisions have consequences.

How do we find our way out of the crossroads of our lives? Jeremiah the prophet offers a profound advice from the Lord. Addressing the people of Judah who had lost their way at the crossroads of idolatry, religiosity and self-interest, Jeremiah suggests that that they

"stand at the crossroads and look;

ask for the ancient paths,

ask where the good way is,

and walk in it,

and you will find rest for your souls..." (Jer 6:16).

In the hectic pace of modern techno-culture, often we struggle to find the "one thing needful" and not be carried away by the tsunami of change that engulf us and carry us along in its flow. We must to look around our crossroads, looking for the ancient paths, the good way, that will leads us to the "one thing needful" and find rest for our souls. The "one thing needful" in our lives is to sit at the feet of Jesus: To behold his glory and bask in his presence. Our souls need rest. Our souls need healing. Our souls need refreshing. The aridity in our souls needs the "living water" of Jesus Christ.

I enjoy the songs of Don McLean. One of his more famous songs is American Pie. However there are many of his other relatively unknown songs that have made an impact upon me. One of them is "Crossroads" from his 1971 American Pie album.

"But there’s no need for turning back
`cause all roads lead to where I stand.
And I believe I’ll walk them all
No matter what I may have planned.

Can you remember who I was? Can you still feel it?
Can you find my pain? Can you heal it?
Then lay your hands upon me now
And cast this darkness from my soul.
You alone can light my way.
You alone can make me whole once again."

The lyrics and music spoke to me of the times when I had found myself at crossroads: Of the pain, the hurts, the uncertainties, and the loneliness. It also reminded me that at these times, I do not stand alone. Jesus has always been there with me, supporting me and tending to my wounds. "Ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls" Sound advice of an ageless truth.

Kyrie eleison

The Inner Wellspring

You can never love another person unless you are equally involved in the beautiful but difficult spiritual work of learning to love yourself. There is within each of us, at the soul level, an enriching fountain of love. In other words, you do not have to go outside yourself to know what love is. This is not selfishness, and it is not narcissism; they are negative obsessions with the need to be loved. Rather this is a wellspring of love within the heart. . . .

If you find that your heart has hardened, one of the gifts that you should give yourself is the gift of the inner wellspring. You should invite this inner fountain to free itself. You can work on yourself in order to unsilt this, so that gradually the nourishing waters begin in a lovely osmosis to infuse and pervade the hardened clay of your heart. Then the miracle of love happens within you. Where before there was hard, bleak, unyielding, dead ground, now there is growth, color, enrichment, and life flowing from the lovely wellspring of love. This is one of the most creative approaches to transfiguring what is negative within us.

— John O'Donohue in Anam Cara