Posted on by Kurt Bodling

real knowing

“The life of increasing interiority has as its hallmark what I call contemplative knowing. This knowing comes about only by sitting with, and working through, the various experiences of our lives. Both the sitting with and working through are essential to the process, allowing for the development of resilient, open vulnerability, so necessary for our way of life.”

Bede Healey. “Psychological Investigations and Implications for Living Together Alone.” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), page 121.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

spiritual role models

“Great spiritual men are often speechless and spend their days in silence. They live in the revelation of the mystery. They live in what takes them out of themselves so as to make them enter into the mystery of God.” Thought 92. (p. 60)

Sarah, Robert Cardinal. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017), page 60.

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true self and contemplation

“When we give ourselves to contemplative practices marked by solitude, silence, and stillness, our souls are nurtured, our Virtues blossom, and our True Self comes forward. Contemplative spirituality calms the body, stills the emotions, and quiets the mind. And in so doing, it liberates us from ego addictions, thereby giving us the freedom to make major corrections to our behaviors informed by our True Self.”

Heuertz, Christopher L. The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2017), p. 183.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

not just break time

“Two classic practices spiritual seekers have used through the ages to open themselves to knowing and hearing God more deeply. Solitude and silence are not self-indulgent exercises for when an overcrowded soul needs a little time to itself. Rather, they are concrete ways of opening to the presence of God beyond human effort and beyond the human constructs that cannot fully contain the Divine.” (p. 31)

Barton, Ruth Haley. Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004) page 31.

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just doing it

“The most important thing about solitude and silence is, at some point, to stop talking about it and reading about and thinking about [it] and ‘just do it!’ as the Nike commercial admonishes. But a little guidance can be helpful….”

Barton, Ruth Haley. Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004) page 37.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Elijah’s solitude of refreshment

“God’s intention was not for Elijah to stay in solitude forever; it was that he return to his prophetic ministry rested and recalibrated through the wisdom he had received. Now Elijah had guidance for how to go back more wisely with consideration for his true limitations. He was able to reenter life in the company of others with staying power that sustained him until the end of his life on earth.” (p. 118)

Barton, Ruth Haley. Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004) page 118.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

smile, but avoid the crowds

“Therefore, be slow to speak and slow to go to those places where people speak, because in many words the spirit is poured out like water; by your amiability to all, purchase the right to frequent only a few whose society is profitable; avoid, even with these, the excessive familiarity which drags one down and away from one’s purpose; do not run after news that occupies the mind to no purpose; do not busy yourself with the sayings and doings of the world, that is with such as have no moral or intellectual bearing; avoid useless comings and goings which waste hours and fill the mind with wandering thoughts. These are the conditions of that sacred thing, quiet recollection.”

Sertillanges, Antonin G., O.P. The Intellectual Life: its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1987) page 47

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right solitude

“I will never be able to find myself if I isolate myself from the rest of mankind as if I were a different kind of being.

“Some men have perhaps become hermits with the thought that sanctity involved some kind of escape from other men. But the only justification for a life of deliberate solitude is the conviction that it will help you to love not only God but also other men. Otherwise, if you go into the desert merely to get away from crowds of people you dislike, you will not find peace or solitude either; you will only isolate yourself with a tribe of devils.

“Go into the desert not to escape other men but in order to find them in God.”

Merton, Thomas. Seeds of Contemplation. (NY: Dell, 1949) pages 35-36