Posted on by Kurt Bodling

deep presence

“Just as all sane men instinctively seek, in some way or other, the awakening of their true inner self, so all valid social forms of religion attempt, in some manner, to provide a situation in which each member of the worshiping group can rise above the group and above himself, to find himself and all the rest on a higher level. This implies that all truly serious and spiritual forms of religion aspire at least implicitly to a contemplative awakening both of the individual and of the group. But those forms of religious and liturgical worship which have lost their initial impulse of fervor tend more and more to forget their contemplative purpose, and to attach exclusive importance to rites and forms for their own sake, or for the sake of the effect which they are believed to exercise on the One Who is worshiped.” (Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003, pp 25-26)

Both the hermit and the Church should be seeking and allowing the inner true self. But, as Merton says, some ways of being/doing church have forgotten this central purpose. Those congregations, denominations, and individuals tend more towards legalistic re-creation of stale, static forms, towards the parroting of formulae. That is, they tend away from contemplation.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

what is mysticism?

“Hence, the Christian mystical experience is not only an awareness of the inner self, but also, by a supernatural intensification of faith, it is an experiential grasp of God as present within our inner self.”  (Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003, p. 12)

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the Bible in solitude

“The Psalms are the true garden of the solitary and the Scriptures are his Paradise. They reveal their secrets to him because, in his extreme poverty and humility, he has nothing else to live by except their fruits. For the true solitary the reading of Scripture ceases to be an ‘exercise’ among other exercises, a means of ‘cultivating’ the intellect or ‘the spiritual life’ or ‘appreciating the liturgy.’ To those who read Scripture in an academic or aesthetic or merely devotional way the Bible indeed offers pleasant refreshment and profitable thoughts. But to learn the inner secrets of the Scriptures we must make them our true daily bread, find God in them when we are in greatest need–and usually when we can find Him nowhere else and have nowhere else to look!” (Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1958. (pbk ed 1999), pp. 126-127)

Merton tells us that reading God’s Word changes from a work we do and becomes a refreshment God does for us as we go deeper into solitude. Without other voices telling us “Look, here is Christ” or “There he is” we can become more comfortable and familiar with God through the Bible than before.

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becoming a solitary

“To love solitude and to seek it does not mean constantly travelling from one geographical possibility to another. A man becomes a solitary at the moment when, no matter what may be his external surroundings, he is suddenly aware of his own inalienable solitude and sees that he will never be anything but solitary. From that moment, solitude is not potential–it is actual.”

Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1958. (pbk ed 1999), page 77.

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let’s take a moment

“Since God is at the depth and centre of your soul, why not then pause from time to time at least from that which occupies you outwardly, even from your spoken prayer, to worship him inwardly, to praise Him, to offer Him your heart and thank Him? What can God have that gives Him greater satisfaction than that a thousand, thousand times a day all His creatures should thus pause to withdraw and worship Him in the heart.” – Brother Lawrence

from an 1981 translation by E.M. Blaiklock quoted in Celtic Daily Prayer, book two. (London: William Collins, 2015), page 1476.

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The King

The King shall come when morning dawns
And light triumphant breaks,
When beauty gilds the eastern hills
And life to joy awakes.

Oh, brighter than the rising morning
When Christ, victorious, rose
And left the lonesome place of death
Despite the rage of foes.

Oh, brighter than that glorious morn
Shall dawn upon our race
The day when Christ in splendor comes
And we shall see his face.

The King shall come when morning dawns
And light and beauty brings.
Hail, Christ the Lord! Your people pray:
Come quickly, King of kings.

hymn text by John Brownlie (1859-1925)

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silence and humility

“The ninth step of humility is achieved when a monk, practicing silence, only speaks when asked a question, for, ‘In many words you shall not avoid sin’ (Prov. 10:15). And, ‘A talkative man shall not prosper upon the earth’ (Ps. 140:11).”

Saint Benedict. The Rule of St. Benedict. Translated, with introduction and notes by Anthony C. Meisel and M.L. del Mastro. NY : Doubleday, 1975, Chapter 7, page 60.

Note: Interesting to note that, while chapter 6 of the Rule is about Silence, St. Benedict includes this point about silence in chapter 7. Chapter 7 is on Humility.

There are so, so many times when it would have been better to bite our tongues and not say something that sprang to mind. Oh, yes, there absolutely are times when we should speak out, when we should call someone out, when we should ask hard questions, name names, and so on. Mostly in defense of someone else. But the way of humility sometimes is the way of silence. And humility doesn’t mean meekly accepting abuse.

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St. Benedict on silence

“Let us do as the prophet says: ‘I have said: I will keep my ways so that I will not offend with my tongue. I have guarded my speech. I have held my peace and humbled myself and was silent, even from speaking good things’ (Ps. 39:1-2). Here the prophet demonstrates that if we are not to speak of good things, for the sake of silence, it is even more vital that we should not speak of evil lest we sin, for we shall be punished for that as a sin. No matter how perfect the disciple, nor how good and pious his speech he rarely should be given permission to speak for: ‘In much speaking, you shall not escape sin’ (Prov. 10:19). The master should speak and teach, the disciple should quietly listen and learn. No matter what must be asked of a superior, it must be done with humility and reverent submission. We always condemn and ban all small talk and jokes; no disciple shall speak such things.”

Saint Benedict. The Rule of St. Benedict. Translated, with introduction and notes by Anthony C. Meisel and M.L. del Mastro. NY : Doubleday, 1975, page 56.

Note: This is the whole 6th chapter; but not the only thing Benedict says about Silence in his Rule. He would today have included some proscriptions about social media, I’m sure. Including, no doubt, blogs that quote the Rule.

His condemnation here of levity probably strikes us as too harsh. But haven’t you noticed that so much of what passes for comedy and joking is done at the expense of someone else? It can really hurt and isn’t necessarily assuaged with an “Oh, I was only joking.”

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the source and norm

“There is only one God, brethren, and we learn about him only from sacred Scripture. It is therefore our duty to become acquainted with what Scripture proclaims and to investigate its teachings thoroughly. We should believe them in the sense that the Father wills, thinking of the Son in the way the Father wills, and accepting the teaching he wills to give us with regard to the Holy Spirit. Sacred Scripture is God’s gift to us and it should be understood in the way that he intends: we should not do violence to it by interpreting it according to our own preconceived ideas.”

Hippolytus. “A treatise against the heresy of Noetus.” Quoted in the Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings for December 23 (Vol. 1, p. 370-371) and cited there as: Cap. 9-12: PG 10, 815-819

Note: Saint Hippolytus, who lived in the decades either side of the year 200, writes that people learn about God only from sacred Scripture. Which sounds to me like a sola Scriptura thought. He also here makes clear that interpreters need to get from the Bible what God intends us to get, and not what our preconceived ideas tell us is there.

Holy Scripture is, in other words, the source and norm for all our talk about God. Or it should be.

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seeing God

“By his own powers man cannot see God, yet God will be seen by men because He wills it. He will be seen by those He chooses, at the time He chooses, and in the way He chooses, for God can do all things. He was seen of old through the Spirit in prophecy; He is seen through the Son by our adoption as his children, and He will be seen in the kingdom of heaven in His own being as the Father. The Spirit prepares man to receive the Son of God, the Son leads him to the Father, and the Father, freeing him from change and decay, bestows the eternal life that comes to everyone from seeing God.

“As those who see light are in the light sharing its brilliance, so those who see God are in God sharing His glory, and that glory gives them life. To see God is to share in life.”

Saint Irenaeus. Adversus Haereses or Against Heresies. Quoted in Office of Readings for Wednesday of the Third Week in Advent, (vol. 1, p. 288) and cited there as: Lib 4, 20, 4-5: SC 100, 634-640.

Note: Seeing God isn’t usually physical seeing, just as knowing God isn’t intellectual knowing. But understand that God was seen, is seen, and will be seen.

Saint Irenaeus also makes an interesting flip by saying that the former was through the Spirit, the middle in the Son, and the latter in the Father. (I think we usually say of old through the creating Father, then in the incarnate Jesus, and ultimately in the Holy Spirit’s leading the Church. So I suppose we’re the ones making the flip.)