Posted on by Kurt Bodling

what is the spiritual life about?

Note:
It’s never about what we do. It’s always about who we are, or actually about Who we are not.

Quote:
“Nourished by the Sacraments and formed by the prayer and teachings of the Church, we need seek nothing but the particular place willed for us by God within the Church. When we find that place, our life and prayer both at once become extremely simple.

“Then we discover what the spiritual life really is. It is not a matter of doing one good work rather than another, of living in one place rather than in another, of praying in one way rather than another.

“It is not a matter of any special psychological effect in our soul. It is the silence of our whole being in compunction and adoration before God, in the habitual realization that He is everything and we are nothing, that He is the Center to which all things tend and to Whom all our actions must be directed.”  (pp 45-46)

Source: Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1958. (pbk ed 1999).

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

writing, thinking, and contemplation

Note:
This author is a professor at Northeastern university. And he is definitely not writing here in a Christian or spiritual context. But I’m struck, as you probably are, how when he writes about the conditions he sets himself to improve his writing it sounds as if he is writing about conditions conducive to contemplation.

Quote:
“To avoid the easiest, most comfortable narrative of the moment, I have learned that writing … demands a special discipline.

“It requires clearing away competing noise, reserving time for deep reading and critical reflection, seeking solitude away from the constant churn of today’s argument-fueled culture.

“It requires a writer to quiet the mind, and to stop thinking about possible criticism or praise for what they write. ….

“The price of zipping around on the Web and social media is a loss in our depth of thinking, the essential trait of the intellectual and writer. …

“I choose to spend my days surrounded by the stillness of my office or within the sacred sanctuary of a library, no digital screen in sight, filling Moleskin notebooks with observations, engaged in the type of deep reading and immersion necessary to tie together insights and arguments into a fresh web of analysis.”

Source: ‘The Mindful Climate Change Writer’ by Matthew Nisbet, PhD viewed online at
https://medium.com/wealth-of-ideas/the-mindful-climate-change-writer-102ad432b283

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

thrilled at death

Note:
When death has lost its sting for us, we look differently at death. Christians, especially, should have a lighter-hearted view of death than many of us have. Sure, there’s sadness at the separation, but we know that the deceased is with God. With God! Isn’t that what all our religion and spirituality is all about?

And just for the record, I haven’t gotten “excited” at a funeral as Quenon professes he gets, but I do know the comfort there is in having full confidence in the resurrection. It’s helpful to know that for the recently-deceased “the real fun has just begun.”

Quote:
“This is partly why a strange exhilaration usually comes over me when somebody I have known well in the community dies. It feels like a cutting free and a circling around. The feeling comes strongly at the end of the funeral. After the final blessing, when the bier is lifted and carried toward the west door to the burial ground, I get excited like a boy getting out of school for the summer–a thrill that the training has ended and the real fun has just begun.” (p. 8)

Source: Quenon, Paul. In Praise of the Useless Life: a Monk’s Memoir. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2018.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

rightly knowing God

Note:
How do we really know God? Not through the Law (which holds us at arm’s length) but through the Gospel (which wraps us up in God’s loving arms).

Quote:
“We know God aright when we grasp him not in his might or wisdom (for then he proves terrifying), but in his kindness and love. Then faith and confidence are able to exist, and then man is truly born anew in God.”  (page 13)

Source: Luther, Martin. “A Meditation on Christ’s Passion” (1519) Luther’s Works Vol. 42. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

living in inner solitude

Note:
Living as a hermit but in the world is not impossible. One can live in the hermit’s cell within. John Michael Talbot catches the way this can work for those of us whose station in life requires us to be ‘out and about.’ We can still live the hermit’s spiritual life of reclusion. He calls this being a semi-hermit.

Quote:
“So how does semi-eremitism apply to you? In more ways than you might think.

“On a weekly basis you might go to church only on Sundays and holy days. At the very most you might have one other day or evening dedicated to the work of the church. But all through the rest of the week you choose to find your own rhythm between solitude and communion in the family and the work place. You learn this from studying, praying, and practicing. You cultivate the hermit within. You meditate. You cultivate awareness of your relationship to God and all creation. You trust that you cannot  wrong. Your inner voice is the voice of the Holy Spirit.”  (pages 57-58)

Source: Talbot, John Michael. The World is My Cloister: Living From the Hermit Within. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

growth in solitude

Note:
The spiritual discipline of solitude is one that bears more fruit the longer one persists in it. (Probably all the disciplines are like that.) The myriad distractions that rise up at first, slowly fade away over time. That opens up more and more space for God’s voice.

Quote:
“Once we have committed ourselves to spending time in solitude, we develop an attentiveness to God’s voice in us. In the beginning, during the first days, weeks, or even months, we may have the feeling that we are simply wasting our time. Time in solitude may at first seem little more than a time in which we are bombarded by thousands of thoughts and feelings that emerge from hidden areas of our mind. … This is the experience of anyone who decides to enter into solitude after a life without much spiritual discipline. At first, the many distractions keep presenting themselves. Later, as they receive less and less attention, they slowly withdraw.” (p. 72-73)

Source: Nouwen, Henri J. M. Making All Things New: An invitation to the Spiritual Life. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

silence teaches us

Note:
Maybe it’s just the contrast between the noise of the world and the silence of the soul, but it seems clear that silence teaches us to pay attention, to notice, to focus. Both to God and to the people he puts in our lives.

Quote:
“We’re constantly distracted, forever listening to a subtext that keeps us from focusing. There is so much noise in our lives–emails, texts, phone calls, Twitter notifications, Instagram notifications, Facebook updates–that we are unable to hear, to listen. Our attention is always being interrupted.

“Silence actually teaches us to listen. It helps us learn how to listen to the voice of God, a voice we maybe have not been able to recognize. It helps us listen to the people in our lives who speak loving, truthful words of correction or affirmation to us. In silence we hear the truth that God is not as hard on us as we are on ourselves.” (p. 171)

Source: Heuertz, Christopher L. The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2017.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

our relationship with God

Note:
The relationship analogy can be a strong and useful one. And it would be stronger and more useful if our own human relationships were more Christlike. Still, our poor relationships with other people can teach us that our relationship with God is weak and poor if we treat it the same way. I hope, too, that even people who have never been in a fulfilling personal relationship with another person can at least imagine what it could be like and how it could become stronger and richer over time.

Quote:
“Relationships develop when people spend time together. Spending time with God ought to be the essence of prayer. However, as it is usually practiced, prayer is more like a series of email or instant messages than hanging out together. Often it involves more talking than listening. It should not be a surprise that the result is a superficial relationship.” (p. 37)

Source: Benner, David G. The Gift of Being Yourself. Expanded ed. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2015.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

holy mother Church

Note:
Bishop NT Wright (an Anglican) brings in John Calvin to support the thought that community is necessary for Christian life. Well, yes, but…. Wright here equates “a Christian” with “a newborn baby”. St. Paul, however, did speak of passing beyond childish things, and switching from spiritual milk to spiritual meat. Certainly in the beginning a convert needs the Church community as a baby needs direct, personal nurture. But later on, I believe that “community” can be understood in a more cosmic sense. It’s still there, the Church is, but may not have to be there in the form of the local congregation. Maybe the Church shows up for some people as “the whole Christian Church on earth.” Maybe the Church can show up as the “great cloud of witnesses” and the “whole host of Heaven.” At least for some Christians.

Quote:
“‘If God is our father, the church is our mother.’ The words are those of the Swiss Reformer John Calvin. Several biblical passages speak in this way (notably, Galatians 4.26-27, echoing Isaiah 54.1). They underline the fact that it is as impossible, unnecessary and undesirable to be a Christian all by yourself as it is to be a newborn baby all by yourself.” (p. 180)

Source: Wright, Tom. Simply Christian. London: SPCK, 2006.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

is solitude abnormal?

Note:
Solitude on any kind of long-term basis may well be abnormal (I didn’t say pathological!). Even religious hermits recognize that. But the fact of abnormality can just call into question what we are otherwise calling ‘normal’. Are the world’s usual ways of living really good? Just because they are the norm? Not necessarily. In this case, I would maintain that abnormal is good, and even better.

Quote:
“Of course, being by yourself is often very desirable. … Differences in temperament, upbringing, and other circumstances have a large part to play in this. But most people do not want complete, long-term solitariness. In fact, most people, even those who are naturally shy and introverted, do not normally choose to be alone all the time. Some do so for religious reasons, becoming hermits. Others do so to escape danger, as when a convicted criminal chooses solitary confinement rather than face prison violence. But even those who make such choices are usually conscious that this is abnormal.” (p. 26)

Source: Wright, Tom. Simply Christian. London: SPCK, 2006.