Posted on by Kurt Bodling

solitude is a place (or several)

“Solitude is a place. It is a place in time that is set apart for God and God alone, a time when we unplug and withdraw from the noise of interpersonal interactions, from the noise, busyness and constant stimulation associated with life in the company of others. Solitude can also be associated with a physical place that has been set apart for times alone with God, a place that is not cluttered with work, noise, technology, other relationships, or any of those things that call us back into doing mode. Most important, solitude is a place inside myself where God’s Spirit and my spirit dwell together in union. This place within me is private and reserved for the intimacies that God and I share. What happens between the two of us in that place is not meant for pubic consumption. It is a place where I can give myself with abandon to the Lover of my soul, knowing that I am completely safe from anyone else’s curious gaze or judgmental glance.”

Barton, Ruth Haley. Sacred Rhythms: Arranging our Lives for Spiritual Transformation. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2006, p. 32.

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koinonia in liturgy

“Consequently, every Camaldolese (as in deed every Christian) should focus their spirituality on Eucharist: ‘Each monk and the community as a whole are to orient their life in such a way that it is preparation for, and an extension of the Eucharistic action’.” [quoting from the Camaldolese Constitutions]

Hale, Robert. “Koinonia: The Privilege of Love.” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, p. 102.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

living the practices

“Begin by consenting to God’s presence and action in your life, in your heart, in your mind and body. How do we express this consent in real, concrete ways? Traditionally, the means by which mystics have lived a mystical or contemplative life has been through regular spiritual practices. And while different mystics have focused on or emphasized different practices, all in all there are just a few basic ways of responding to the mystical call.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 336.

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spending priorities

“To allow governments to pour more and more billions into weapons that almost immediately become obsolete, thereby necessitating more billions for newer and bigger weapons, is one of the most colossal injustices in the long history of man. While we are doing this, two-thirds of the world is starving, or living in conditions of subhuman destitution.”

Merton, Thomas. “Peace: a Religious Responsibility.” (1962) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 139.

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deep meaning of Baptism

"Here, then are our principles: We are baptized into the whole Christ. Baptism implies a responsibility to develop one’s supernatural life, to nourish it by love of God, to reproduce and spread it by love for other men. All this is ordered to the final perfection of a plan that extends far beyond our own individual salvation: a plan for God’s glory which lies at the very heart of the universe. This mystery we must believe and seek to understand if we would make anything of conversion and vocation.

“I might add that every baptism implies a distinct individual vocation, a peculiar function in the building up of the Mystical Body.”

Merton, Thomas. “The White Pebble.” (1950) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 7.

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knowledge and wonder

“Appetite is rooted in wonder and has intimacy with some creature or ensemble of creatures as its end. Knowledge, in turn, on its Christian construal, is a particular kind of intimacy between one creature and another.”

Griffiths, Paul J. Intellectual Appetite: a Theological Grammar. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009, p. 125.

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stillness teaches

“Stillness teaches us restraint, and in restraint we are able to discern what appropriate engagement looks like.”

Heuertz, Christopher L. The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2017, p. 172.

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a man for all seasons

“Eckhart remains ‘a man for all seasons’ not because he rejected the deepest sources of spiritual wisdom in the Christian tradition, but because he embodied them.”

Woods, Richard. Meister Eckhart: Master of Mystics. New York: Continuum, 2011, p. 186

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openness

“And it’s been my experience that mystical or contemplative Christians tend toward an openness to the wisdom of other religions; however, this openness remains–at least for Christians–rooted in the central wisdom teachings of Jesus, the Bible, and the Christian mystics. Contemplative Christians explore the wisdom of other faiths not to dilute or weaken the wisdom teachings of Jesus, but to strengthen and deepen our appreciation of those teachings.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 22.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

no books in the woods

“If one takes anything to the woods to read, he seldom reads it; it does not taste good with such primitive air.”

Burroughs, John. “A Bed of Boughs” in “Locusts and Wild Honey” Volume 4 of The Writings of John Burroughs. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1907, p. 176.

Comment: I’ve read of new hikers taking along a weight of books and not reading them. One thinks one will have all the time in the world to read, but doesn’t reckon on being weary at the end of the day and still needing to collect water, prepare a meal, and so on. Burroughs, I think, was reaching back to something even more basic: that the idea of books clashes with the raw vibrancy of the woods. Maybe it was the idea of paper – the remnants of dead trees – up against the throbbing life of still standing trees.