Posted on by Kurt Bodling

what is freedom

"Since true freedom means the ability to desire and choose, always, without error, without defection, what is really good, then freedom can only be found in perfect union and submission to the will of God. …

“Therefore, the simplest definition of freedom is this: it means the ability to do the will of God. To be able to resist His will is not to be free. In sin there is no true freedom.”

Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. Introduction by Sue Monk Kidd. New York: New Directions Books, 2007, ©1961, pp. 200-201.

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breadth of Christian scholarship

“So comprehensive are the labors of the ministerial calling, and at so many points do they touch human life, that there is hardly conceivable a domain of human knowledge which may not contribute its quota to the efficiency of pastoral labor. This is, indeed, a wonderful thing.”

Graebner, Theodore. The Pastor as Student and Literary Worker: Lectures Delivered at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Second, revised edition. St. Louis : Concordia Publishing House, 1925, p. 44.

Consecrating the study of virtually any subject (done in the service of the Gospel), Graebner broadens the fields of labor for Christian scholars and encourages us to follow our interests because one never knows how bits and pieces (or chunks and whole slabs) of knowledge can later be used for Christ by pastors. He then gives practical examples.

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growth in solitude and community

“There is a world of difference between primarily need-based living and engaging in the transformative energy of communal life, just as between being isolated and separate–living in fear that we are or will be abandoned–and embracing the life-altering power of solitude intentionally engaged.”

Healey, Bede. “Psychological Investigations and Implications for Living Together Alone.” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, p. 120.

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simul justus et peccator

“We Christians affirm the communion of saints in the Nicene Creed, but I think there should be an equal belief in the ‘communion of sinners.’ We are all fully a part of both groups.”

Rohr, Richard. Immortal Diamond: the Search for Our True Self. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2013, p. xix.

The Lutherans call this idea the “simul justus et peccator” (which, being interpreted, means ‘at the same time, saint and sinner’). In other words, while in this life, we are in a constant cycle of sin and forgiveness, one that moves such that we are always in both states simultaneously.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the death of self

“If your spiritual guides do not talk to you about dying, they are not good spiritual guides!” (p. 85)

Rohr, Richard. Falling Upward: a Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011.

Death, both physical and metaphorical, should find its way into our conversations, especially in spiritual circles, in Christian churches. There are both the death of the Old Adam in us, and the death of our bodies. Both are “real death.” Talking about either can make people feel uncomfortable, but it is so much better to have them out in the open than to hide them in the closet or under the bed.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Saint Paul the scholar

“More than this, we may say that Paul was the heir of two civilizations. On the one hand, we have, not only in these distinct references, but in his wonderful mastery of Greek, the scholarship of one who lived in the bright after-glow of Greek civilization. On the other hand, his mind was steeped in the Rabbinical learning of his age. … Thus Paul stands forth as the ideal Christian scholar. Ideal, not only as a man who had received into the compass of his mind the treasures of contemporary culture, but who placed all knowledge and every element of intellectual power into the service of the body of Christ, the Church.”

Graebner, Theodore. The Pastor as Student and Literary Worker: Lectures Delivered at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Second, revised edition. St. Louis : Concordia Publishing House, 1925, p. 34-35.

Graebner holds up Saint Paul as “the ideal Christian scholar” because of the way he straddles two civilizations, two cultures, serving as a bridge of communication between them for the good of the Church – and thereby helping create a new civilization and culture.

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stability amid fear

“This skill of observation and discernment, which the ancients call ‘vigilance,’ has three elements. First, turn around and meet the afflictive emotion with stillness. Without a dedicated practice this won’t be possible. Second, allow fear to be present. Third, let go of the commentary on the fear. This third element is the most challenging.”

Laird, Martin. Into the Silent Land : a Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation. NY: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 104.

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texts and the student

“The student who fears God earnestly seeks his will in the holy scriptures. Holiness makes him gentle, so that he does not revel in controversy; a knowledge of languages protects him from uncertainty over unfamiliar words or phrases, and a knowledge of certain essential things protects him from ignorance of the significance and detail of what is used by way of imagery. Thus equipped, and with the assistance of reliable texts derived from the manuscripts with careful attention to the need for emendation, he should approach the task of analysing and resolving the ambiguities of scriptures.”

St Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Teaching Book 3, paragraph 1. Translated by R.P.H. Green (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), page 68.

Augustine thought it important for students (especially students of Holy Scripture) to have ready access to good quality texts. This is really a foreshadowing of the Renaissance humanists’ call to return to the sources (ad fontes).

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living in the silence

“In L’Humble Présence, Maurice Zundel said that ‘silence is the only thing that reveals the depths of life.’ The great works of God are the fruit of silence. God alone is witness of them and, along with him, those who see from within, who keep silence and live in the presence of the silent Word, like the Virgin Mary.”

Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017. Thought 216; page 113.

Zundel, by the way, was a Swiss Roman Catholic theologian, and friend of Pope Paul VI. He died in 1975.

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hold on for now

“You cannot imagine a new space fully until you have been taken there. I make this point strongly to help you understand why almost all spiritual teachers tell you to ‘believe’ or ‘trust’ or ‘hold on.’ They are not just telling you to believe silly or irrational things. They are telling you to hold on until you can go on the further journey for yourself, and they are telling you that the whole spiritual journey is, in fact, for real–which you cannot possibly know yet.”

Rohr, Richard. Falling Upward: a Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011), page xxvii.

There were so, so many places along the Appalachian Trail which I’d read about for decades and had very clear pictures of in my mind that turned out–when I finally got there–to be nothing at all like I’d pictured them. The inner journey of the spiritual life has been surprising me like that. Heaven will no doubt turn out the same way.