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who preaches properly

“Listen again: ‘For to you is born a Savior, Christ the Lord, at Bethlehem in the town of David.’ See there what the gospel is: a joyous sermon concerning Christ, our Savior. He who preaches him properly, preaches the gospel and nothing but joy. What greater joy may a heart know than that Christ is given him as his very own? He does not just say: ‘Christ is born,’ but he appropriates Christ’s birth for us and says: ‘Your Savior.’ Thus the gospel does not merely teach the story and accounts of Christ, but personalizes them and gives them to all who believe in it, which is also (as mentioned above) the right and real nature of the gospel. … If there were something else to preach, then the evangelical angel and angelic evangelist would have touched on it.”

Martin Luther. “Sermon on the Gospel for Christmas Eve.” Luther’s Works. Volume 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 21.

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came and saw and said

speaking of the shepherds at Bethlehem, “Luke reports that they not only came and saw, but that they also proclaimed–not only to Mary and Joseph but also to everyone–the news concerning the child and the message they had heard in the field. Do you not think that there were many people who considered them fools and bereft of their senses because they dared, as uncouth and unschooled lay people to speak of the angels’ song and message? How would they be received today…? But the shepherds, filled with faith and joy, were happy for the sake of God to be considered foolish in the sight of man. A Christian does the same; for God’s word must be considered foolishness and error in the world.”

Martin Luther. “Sermon on the Gospel for the Early Christmas Service.” Luther’s Works. Volume 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 37.

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Gloria in excelsis Deo!

“Ah, we poor people, to be so cold and sluggish in the face of the great joy that has clearly been prepared for us! This great benefaction exceeds by far all the other works o creation; and yet our faith in it is found to be so weak, although it is preached and sung to us by angels, who are heavenly theologians and who were so glad for our sake! their song is very, very beautiful and describes the entire Christian religion. For giving glory to God in the highest heaven is the supreme worship. This they wish and bring us in Christ.”

Martin Luther. from his “Table Talk,” Weimar edition 4, No. 4201; What Luther Says compiled by Ewald M. Plass, St. Louis: Concordia, 1986, #459.

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silence in the cloister of your heart

“The temptations have multiplied; discernment and renunciation have become more necessary than ever. We [Carthusians] have chosen to dedicate our life to the search for God in silence and solitude. Both things must be defended by clear choices, otherwise soon not much of either will be left. Our vocation is very uncommon, but does not every person need a bit of silence and solitude if he wants to be able to stay in contact with his heart? We have a cloister and a Rule that protect us. Someone who lives in the world must find his own cloister and his own rule; this is not something obvious!”

Dom Dysmas de Lassus, the Father General of the Carthusian Order at Grande Chartreuse, quoted in: 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. 229.

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primal urge to pilgrimage

“The ‘sacred journey’ has origins in prehistoric religious cultures and myths. Man instinctively regards himself as a wanderer and wayfarer, and it is second nature for him to go on pilgrimage in search of a privileged and holy place, a center and source of indefectible life. This hope is built into his psychology, and whether he acts it out or simply dreams it, his heart seeks to return to a mythical source, a place of ‘origin,’ the ‘home’ where the ancestors came from, the mountain where the ancient fathers were in direct communication with heaven, the place of the creation of the world, paradise itself, with its sacred tree of life.”

Merton, Thomas. “From Pilgrimage to Crusade.” (1964) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 186.

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tradition enriched and changed

“Tradition is more than the repetition of the past. A wisdom quest or a spiritual practice is something alive; it is enriched and changed by those who receive it, just as a family’s gene pool is enriched and changed through succeeding generations. The very fact that the life we live at Camaldoli today differs from the life lived there by earlier generations is itself a sign that a certain tradition lives on at Camaldoli.”

Matus, Thomas. The Mystery of Romuald and the Five Brothers. Trabuco Canyon, Cal.: Source Books / Hermitage Books, 1994, p. 2. (quoting don Anselmo Giabbani the superior at San Gregorio Camaldolese monastery in Rome)

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what is contemplative silence?

“Contemplative silence is silence with God. This silence is clinging to God, appearing before God, and placing oneself in his presence, offering oneself to him, mortifying oneself in him, adoring, loving, and hearing him, listening to him and resting in him. This is the silence of eternity, the union of the soul with God.” Thought 72.

Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017, p. 55.

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what is the contemplative life?

Here’s one more-or-less traditional view: "“Contemplative life, a life characterized by solitude and prayer, which dispose one toward contemplation. Ancient and especially medieval monasticism perceived its way of life as contemplative; nuns and monks were called contemplatives. Medieval interest in the mystical life perceived the contemplative life as mystical in orientation. For some men and usually women the enclosure was seen as a necessary safeguard of the contemplative life. Post-Vatican II developments have shown an interest in a broader conception of the contemplative life for laity and religious yet one that retains the solitude necessary for living in the presence of God.”

McBrien, Richard P., ed. The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995, page 364.

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freedom in prayer and contemplation

“The great obstacle to contemplation is rigidity and prejudice. He who thinks he know what it is beforehand prevents himself from finding out the true nature of contemplation, since he is not able to ‘change his mind’ and accept something completely new. … And since most of us are rigid, attached to our own ideas, convinced of our own wisdom, proud of our own capacities, and committed to personal ambition, contemplation is a dangerous desire for any one of us. But if we really want to get free from these sins, the desire for contemplative freedom and for the experience of transcendent reality is likely to arise in us all by itself, unobserved. And it is likely to be satisfied almost before we know we have it. That is the way a genuine contemplative vocation is realized.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003, p. 117.

Comment: These lines are worth repeating: “…if we really want to get free from these sins, the desire for contemplative freedom and for the experience of transcendent reality is likely to arise in us all by itself, unobserved. And it is likely to be satisfied almost before we know we have it. That is the way a genuine contemplative vocation is realized.”

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authentic motivation

“To be authentically human and Christian, the hermit’s life must aim at deepening communion with God and neighbor, even when the choice of the hermitage is initially motivated by the need to free oneself from an impossible situation in a monastic community.”

Matus, Thomas. The Mystery of Romuald and the Five Brothers. Trabuco Canyon, Cal.: Source Books / Hermitage Books, 1994, p. 30.