Posted on by Kurt Bodling

middle way prayer

“To sum up, in prayer there is the danger of falling into one of two opposite extremes. The first is ‘mythologizing’ (or making into an idol) the external forms, when prayer is reduced to the mechanical following of a rule or a method of praying. The second is the rejection of and allergic reaction toward all forms of prayer and asceticism. Those fall into this sad situation who do not know how to combine the external forms with sincerity of heart.”

Okumura, Augustine Ichiro. Awakening to Prayer. Translated by Theresa Kazue Hiraki and Albert Masaru Yamato. (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1994), p. 52.

As in so very much, the middle way is the way of wisdom. In prayer it is best neither to reject formalized liturgical prayer, nor to avoid all extemporaneous and personalized prayer. Those are the head and heart respectively of prayer life. The golden mean brings together the tried and true traditional forms of prayer with the simple and sincere sighs of the heart.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

avoid the noisy crowds

“Therefore, be slow to speak and slow to go to those places where people speak, because in many words the spirit is poured out like water; by your amiability to all, purchase the right to frequent only a few whose society is profitable; avoid, even with these, the excessive familiarity which drags one down and away from one’s purpose; do not run after news that occupies the mind to no purpose; do not busy yourself with the sayings and doings of the world, that is with such as have no moral or intellectual bearing; avoid useless comings and goings which waste hours and fill the mind with wandering thoughts. These are the conditions of that sacred thing, quiet recollection.”

Sertillanges, Antonin G., O.P. The Intellectual Life: its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1987), p. 47.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

peace in prayer

“As long as I am content to know that He is infinitely greater than I, and that I cannot know Him unless He shows Himself to me, I will have Peace, and He will be near me and in me, and I will rest in Him.”

Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1958); (pbk ed 1999), p. 97.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the really real

“We can study endless maps of the pathways into the silent land. But the map is not the territory. To discover the actual land of silence requires not information but the silence of God that is the very ground of the mind and that causes us to seek in the first place.”

Laird, Martin. Into the Silent Land : a Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation. (NY: Oxford University Press, 2006), page 76.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Zen experience

“The whole aim of Zen is not to make foolproof statements about experience but to come to direct grips with reality without the mediation of logical verbalizing.”

Merton, Thomas. “A Christian Looks at Zen.” (1967) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013), p. 346.

‘I don’t understand Zen; and neither do you’ is about as foolproof a statement as I can make.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

God’s wrath

“Praise God we do not have hearts of stone or spirits of iron either. I do not wish evil on anyone, and no Christian, especially, is supposed to desire the wrath of God for anyone, not even for the Turks or the Jews or his enemy, indeed, not even for the cardinals and the pope.”

Luther, Martin. “To the Saxon Princes” (1545) Luther’s Works Vol. 43. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), page 262.

“Not even”! Late in his life Martin Luther made this declaration that all of us should be able to sign on with: don’t wish evil, don’t wish God’s wrath, on anyone. He had in mind at that particular moment Muslims, Jews, and Catholics – all of whom were his opponents in one way or another. (And why didn’t the Anabaptists or the Reformed make his list?)

Whom would he list today? More importantly, who would make your list of opponents? And most importantly, would you also not wish them evil? Can you love your enemies instead?

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

God, writing, and publishing

“It really should not be necessary for my sermons and words to be circulated widely throughout the country. Certainly there are other books that might properly or profitably serve as sermons for the people. I do not know why God destines me to be involved in this game in which people pick up and spread my words, some as my friends, others as enemies. This has induced me to publish this Lord’s Prayer, previously published by my friends, and to exposit it further in the hope that I may also do my adversaries a favor. It is always my intention to be helpful to all and harmful to none.”

Luther, Martin. “An Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer for Simple Laymen” (1519) Luther’s Works Vol. 42. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), page 19.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

meaningful work, meaningfully compensated

“Is not work worthwhile for its own sake? It is one of the crimes of our age to have belittled it and to have substituted for its beauty the ugliness of fierce self-seeking. Noble souls live a glorious life and expect it to be fruitful in addition. They work not only for the fruit, but for the work; they work in order that their lives may be pure, upright, and manly, like that of Jesus, and ready to be united with His.”

Sertillanges, Antonin G., O.P. The Intellectual Life: its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1987), p. 254.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

good lines for slow reading

“Do not be too anxious about your advancement in the ways of prayer, because you have left the beaten track and are traveling by paths that cannot be charted and measured. Therefore leave God to take care of your degree of sanctity and of contemplation. If you yourself try to measure your own progress, you will waste your time in futile introspection. Seek one thing alone: to purify your love of God more and more, to abandon yourself more and more perfectly to His will and to love Him more exclusively and more completely, but also more simply and more peacefully and with more total and uncompromising trust.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. (NY: HarperOne, 2003), page 97. (NOTE: the text belongs to 1959!)

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

take these one sentence at a time

“Do not, then, stir yourself up to useless interior activities. Avoid everything that will bring unnecessary complications into your life. Live in as much peace and quiet and retirement as you can, and do not go out of your way to get involved in labors and duties, no matter how much glory they may seem to give God. Do the tasks appointed to you as perfectly as you can with disinterested love and great peace in order to show your desire of pleasing God. Love and serve Him peacefully and in all your works preserve recollection. Do what you do quietly and without fuss. Seek solitude as much as you can; dwell in the silence of your own soul and rest there in the simple and simplifying light which God is infusing into you. Do not make the mistake of aspiring to the spectacular ‘experiences’ that you read about in the lives of the great mystics. None of those graces (called gratis datae) can sanctify you nearly so well as this obscure and purifying light and love of God which is given you to no other end than to make you perfect in His love.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. (NY: HarperOne, 2003), pages 96-97. (NOTE: the text belongs to 1959!)