Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the Camaldolese “three-fold good”

“The classical text of the threefold good, or threefold advantage (tripla commoda), is found where Bruno gives an account of Otto III’s project of choosing some of the more fervent disciples of Romuald as missionaries to Poland. There they were to build a monasterium in Christian territory near an area where pagans dwelt, secluded and surrounded by woods: ‘This would offer a threefold advantage: the cœnobium, which is what novices want; golden solitude, for those who are mature and who thirst for the living God; and the preaching of the gospel to the pagans, for those who long to be freed from this life in order to be with Christ’.”

Wong, Joseph. “The Threefold Good: Romualdian Charism and Monastic Tradition.” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, p. 82.

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Thomas Aquinas and exclusion

“Thomas already makes that fatal statement ‘that to be subject to the Roman pope is necessary for salvation.’ In one sentence he is excluding the whole of the eastern Church from salvation.”

Küng, Hans. The Catholic Church: a Short History. New York: The Modern Library, 2003, p. 103.

Comment: …and many others as well!

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Bible reading and being in nature

“By the reading of Scripture I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green, light is sharper on the outlines of the forest and the hills and the whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music in the earth beneath my feet.” (8 August 1949)

Merton, Thomas. The Sign of Jonas. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 1981. (originally published 1953), p. 115-116.

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middle way for 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.

Comment: 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. (Okay, so maybe not at the same moment. And the balance that works for you may well not work for others, but you’ll figure that out.)

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

a poet’s voice within

“So even the most prosaic of mystical writers often have something of a poet’s voice within them.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism : an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis : Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 73.

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everyone a theologian!

“This is the work of theology: to comprehend the mystery of the Christian faith. And every Christian is called to be a theologian, that is, to endeavor to penetrate God’s mystery. For this reason, without theology we cannot do lectio divina well.”

Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, p. 49.

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true self and one’s vocation

“Body and soul contain thousands of possibilities out of which you can build many identities. But in only one of these will you find your true self that has been hidden in Christ from all eternity. Only in one will you discover your unique vocation and deepest fulfillment. … We all live searching for that one possible way of being that carries with it the gift of authenticity. We are most conscious of this search for identity during adolescence, when it takes front stage.”

Benner, David G. The Gift of Being Yourself. Expanded ed. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2015, p. 16.

Comment: Benner unites the true self with one’s vocation. He also says here that there is only one single possible identity where a person can find his or her unique vocation. Out of the “thousands of possibilities” you’re born with.

This sounds narrow and exclusionary to me. Unless the true self is simply the saved self and the true vocation is simply the vocation of being in love with God. Then the true self and vocation can blossom and be freely expressed in myriads of ways, different from anyone else and even different from myself in the past or future. They are at the same time quite specific to the individual and not at all specific.

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what silence is for

“Silence is the privilege of courageous persons. They may fall and lose hope; silence will unceasingly be able to lift them up again because it bears within it a divine presence and a divine origin. Silence is a conversion that is never accomplished easily.” Thought 129.

Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. Translated by Michael J. Miller. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017, p. 74.

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“Contemplation is not a kind of magic and easy shortcut to happiness and perfection. And yet since it does bring one in touch with God in an I-Thou relationship of mysteriously experienced friendship, it necessarily brings that peace which Christ promised and which ‘the world cannot give.’ There may be much desolation and suffering in the spirit of the contemplative, but there is always more joy than sorrow, more security than doubt, more peace than desolation. The contemplative is one who has found what every man seeks in one way or another.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003, pages 116-117 (NOTE: the text belongs to 1959!)

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contemplation and virtue

“Contemplation should not be exaggerated, distorted, and made to seem great. It is essentially simple and humble. No one can enter into it except by the path of obscurity and self-forgetfulness. It implies also much discipline, but above all the normal discipline of everyday virtue. It implies justice to other people, truthfulness, hard work, unselfishness, devotion to the duties of one’s state in life, obedience, charity, self-sacrifice. No one should delude himself with contemplative aspirations if he is not willing to undertake, first of all, the ordinary labors and obligations of the moral life.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003, page 116. (NOTE: the text belongs to 1959!)