“We are built for contemplation. This book is about cultivating the skills necessary for this subtlest, simplest, and most searching of the spiritual arts. Communion with God in the silence of the heart is a God-given capacity, like the rhododendron’s capacity to flower…”
Laird, Martin. Into the Silent Land : a Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation. NY: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 1.
“Many exegetes have thought about these three gifts, some explaining them in one way, the others in another, but generally they are agreed that they represent three difficult confessions. Of these explanations we will choose those which seem best to us at present. The sacrifice of gold, it is said, signifies their confession that Christ is a king, the frankincense, that he is priest, the myrrh, that he died and was buried. These three aspects, it is said, apply to the humanity of Christ, but in such a way, that he is God and that all this happened to his humanity because of his divinity.” (p. 278)
Luther, Martin. “The Gospel for the Festival of the Epiphany, Matthew 2:1-12” from his Christmas Postil, Luther’s Works Vol. 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, p. 278.
“These magi were carefully prevented from finding Christ by their own efforts or with the aid of men. They found him solely because of the prophet, written word, and the star that shone from heaven in order that all natural knowledge and all human reason might be rejected and every enlightenment repudiated except that which comes through the Spirit and grace. For human reason boasts and claims arrogantly to teach truth and show the proper way, just as the blind men in the universities, of whom we spoke earlier, at present claim to be able to do. Here is determined for all time that Christ, who is the truth that brings salvation, will not permit himself to be taught or found through the teachings or aid of men. The Scriptures alone and the light of God must show him.”
Luther, Martin. “The Gospel for the Festival of the Epiphany, Matthew 2:1-12” from his Christmas Postil (1522) Luther’s Works Vol. 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 194.
The 3 magi went first to Jerusalem rather than directly to Bethlehem. Martin Luther had thoughts on why that was:
“Here we ask why Christ did not lead these magi up to Bethlehem with the star, but instead permitted his birth, which was now known, to be searched for in Scripture. He did this to teach us to cling to Scripture and not to follow our own presumptuous ideas or any human teaching. For it was not his desire to give us his Scripture in vain. It is in Scripture and nowhere else, that he permits himself to be found. He who despises Scripture and sets it aside, will never find him.”
Luther, Martin. “The Gospel for the Festival of the Epiphany, Matthew 2:1-12” from his Christmas Postil (1522) Luther’s Works Vol. 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 171.
“But after all, it is a mistake to be as unsuspecting in legal matters as I am; it brings home to one what a different atmosphere the lawyer must live in from the theologian; but it is instructive too, and everything has its proper place.” Bonhoeffer writing to his parents, Whit Sunday 14 June 1943
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Letters and Papers from Prison. The Enlarged edition. Edited by Eberhard Bethge. “A Touchstone Book.” New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 54.
Comment: Bonhoeffer was writing from prison near the end of his life. Just what good a lawyer could have done him in the face of Hitler’s personal opposition? But, yes, ‘all things in their place.’
“How weary I am of being a writer. How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the rain, in the sun, in the mud, in the clay, in the wind: these are our spiritual directors and our novice-masters. They form our contemplation. They instill us with virtue. They make us as stable as the land we live in. You do not get that out of a typewriter.” (3 March 1951)
Merton, Thomas. The Sign of Jonas. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 1981, p. 321. (originally published 1953)
Comment: When you see how much Merton wrote over his shortened life, you can sort of wonder about snippets like this. He’s right, of course, that even prolific writers like himself need to get out away from the keyboard regularly and connect with creation. Also non-writers and non-prolific ones.
“Why are people so intent on refusing others the right to see a special value in a life apart from the world, a life dedicated to God in prayer ‘on the mountain alone’ when the New Testament itself repeatedly shows Christ retiring to solitary prayer which he himself loved? Certainly one can find God ‘in the world’ and in an active life but this is not the only way, any more than the monastic life is the only way. There are varieties of graces and vocations in the Church and these varieties must always be respected.”
Merton, Thomas. “The Monastic Renewal: Problems and Prospects.” (1966) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, pages 397-398.
Comment: in this new year, may you know freedom to walk the path you’ve been called to travel
“For Luther God exists literally as a vibrant and vigorous force in every creature, also in inanimate creatures, in fire, in water, in a leaf, in a stone. Luther rejects the childishly anthropomorphizing picture of the Creator, who, after creating the world, now sits enthroned in heaven far away from it; he rejects the God of naive preachers, the God who so tormented Jakob Boehme, for example. Mysticism never expressed the idea of God’s immanence in the world more forcefully than Luther did.”
Heinrich Bornkamm. Luther’s World of Thought. Translated by Martin H. Bertram. St. Louis: Concordia, 1958, page 113.
"If devout and thankful souls rejoice when God has permitted them to pass a week in safety, why should they not much more rejoice when under God’s protection they have lived through a whole year? How much suffering may come to us in a single day! how much more in a whole year! Consequently, when a devout Christian beholds the end of the year, he lifts his hands and heart and voice to heaven, and closes the year with praise, thanksgiving, and prayer. …
"Thy goodness and faithfulness have been with me from the beginning to the end of the year. Thy wisdom has led me; Thy love has guarded me; Thy help has gladdened me; thy grace has preserved me; Thy omnipotence has ever upheld me; Thy tender Father-hand has given me all things that I needed; Thine all-seeing eye has kept watch over me, guarded my going out and my coming in, and warded off all harm. …
"If at times Thou didst permit me to experience great distress, Thou didst deliver me again. …
“O Lord God, I now close the old year with thanksgiving and praise and prayer. Remain, I humbly beseech Thee, my Shield and gracious God in the new year also. Keep Thy guarding hand over me. Yea, let me be entrusted to Thy care and love and grace in all time to come. Amen.”
John Frederick Starck. Daily Hand-book in Good and Evil Days, containing all the meditations and prayers of the complete German original edition, together with an appropriate selection of standard English hymns for general use, for the afflicted, the sick, and the dying. Translated by Joseph Stump. Burlington, Iowa: German Literary Board, 1904, pp. 121, 124-125.
“As I have said before, I do not want anyone to feel bound by my words or thoughts. I only want to offer an example for those who may wish to follow it; let anyone improve it who is able to do so and let him meditate either upon all commandments at one time or on as many as he may desire. For the mind, once it is seriously occupied with a matter, be it good or evil, can ponder more in one moment than the tongue can recite in ten hours or the pen write in ten days. There is something quick, subtle, and mighty about the mind and soul.”
Luther, Martin. “A Simple Way to Pray” (1535) Luther’s Works Vol. 43. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969, page 207.
comment: Luther on meditation, strongly advocating it, clearly declaring its benefits. And NOT wanting people to feel bound by his words, he basically says ‘this is the way I pray, but you should pray however works for you.’ I find his words here refreshing.
Pathology: the Study of a Path 