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.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

silence isn’t empty

Note:
The spiritual discipline of silence is not an empty void. Emptiness like that could be viewed as a lack, a dearth, a gap, something missing. Spiritual silence, however, is richly full of the presence of God. In the Bible we read that Elijah seriously needed refreshment. He went off by himself (solitude!) and eventually heard the Lord speak to him in that “still small voice.”

Quote:
“At first the quiet may feel like just another place of emptiness. We may even feel a sense of dread or fear that we are going to be judged or punished for parts of ourselves we have now brought into the light of day.

“But if we stay in this moment, eventually — like Elijah — we begin to notice that this silence is qualitatively different from the emptiness we experienced before. The silence that comes after the chaos is pregnant with the presence of God.”  (p. 110)

Source: Barton, Ruth Haley. Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

what we should study

Note:
Connected to yesterday’s post, French Dominican Antonin Sertillanges is clear that pretty much any field of study can be consecrated in the Christian scholar. There is freedom and responsibility in choosing.

Quote:
“It is not possible to give any exact advice as to what should be studied, and still less as to the proportion of the different elements to be included in a plan of work. St. Thomas makes no mention of these things in his Sixteen Precepts. In reality, this is a matter of personal vocation, closely dependent on the object in view.” (p. 101)

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

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Christian scholarship

Note:
Christian scholarship could mean scholarship of Christian topics. Or it could mean scholarship carried out by Christians. Theodore Graebner here first means study of Christian subjects (Bible, church history, doctrine, etc.) as carried out by pastors — he was writing at a seminary to pastors and to future pastors — but he also means their scholarship of any subjects OR that by any other faithful people.

Quote:
“Christian scholarship is but organized and well-proportioned knowledge, imbued with lofty purpose and spiritual ideals. And to treat it as if a contrast existed between its acquisition and practical usefulness is in itself an indication of undisciplined thinking.” (p. 42)

“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.” (p. 44)

Source: 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.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

irreconcilable differences

Note:
Yesterday the commonplace carried a hopeful note that because Lutherans and Catholics do theology in the same way and are both careful to write theology precisely, the two have made progress on bridging the gap between them. He specifically referred to the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification as evidence. The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) didn’t sign on to the Joint Declaration and today’s author knows better than to make the same kind of hopeful praise.

So, in a slight counterpoint to yesterday’s post I note that, as a respected seminary professor in the LCMS, Charles Arand clearly knows of what he speaks, but I sure wish he hadn’t called the differences “irreconcilable.”

[And, as I don’t know who is reading this post, perhaps I need to explain that “second and third articles” below refers to the second and third parts of the Apostles’ Creed, which confess our faith in Jesus and justification, and in the Holy Spirit and the Church, while the “first article” confesses our faith in the Father and his act of creation.]

Quote:
“We have irreconcilable differences with Rome on the second and third articles related to the work of Christ and justification by faith alone that date back to the sixteenth century. But we share a number of common convictions regarding the first article of the creed as it relates to the moral issues of society and God’s continuing work in creation (creatio continua).” (p. 308)

Source: Charles P. Arand, “Tending Our Common Home: Reflections on Laudato Si’.” Concordia Journal Fall 2015, vol. 41, no. 4,