Posted on by Kurt Bodling

praying the 10 Commandments

[The 10 Commandments] "are intended to help the heart come to itself and grow zealous in prayer. Take care, however, not to undertake all of this or so much that one becomes weary in spirit. Likewise, a good prayer should not be lengthy or drawn out, but frequent and ardent. It is enough to consider one section or half a section which kindles a fire in the heart. This the Spirit will grant us and continually instruct us in when, by God’s word, our hearts have been cleared and freed of outside thoughts and concerns.

“Nothing can be said here about the part of faith and Holy Scriptures [in prayer] because there would be no end to what could be said. With practice one can take the Ten Commandments on one day, a psalm or chapter of Holy Scripture the next day, and use them as flint and steel to kindle a flame in the heart.”

Luther, Martin. “A Simple Way to Pray” (1535) Luther’s Works Vol. 43. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969, page 209)

Comment: Prayers shouldn’t be wordy, wearisome affairs. Make them short. Let them set your heart on fire. And (although he doesn’t use the Latin phrase) use lectio divina. Why don’t more Lutheran pastors know this and teach this? Because they haven’t read it and been taught it, I suppose. When I was in seminary, other concerns were at the forefront.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

a heart-touching whisper

"The greatest of God’s secrets is God Himself.

“He waits to communicate Himself to me in a way that I can never express to others or even think about coherently to myself. I must desire it in silence. It is for this that I must leave all things.”

Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1958 (pbk ed 1999), p. 123.

Since God reaches out to and loves each of us individually, it makes sense that He reveals Himself to each of us in individual ways, personal ways, ways that are hard for us to talk about because they are so deeply meaningful. We all need to pay attention.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

a showcase for scripture

“The better we know the Bible, the more we are coming close to the windows, so that, without the windows having got any bigger, we can glimpse the entire sweep of the biblical countryside. Even the simplest acts of Christian worship ought therefore always to focus on the reading of scripture. Sometimes there will be space for the congregation to meditate on one or more of the readings. Sometimes there will be opportunity to respond; the church has developed rich resources of material, taken not least from the Bible itself, which we may sing, or say, by way of pondering what we have heard and continuing to thank God for it. That is how basic liturgy begins to be constructed: a showcase for scripture, a way of making sure we are treating it with the seriousness it deserves.”

Wright, Tom. Simply Christian. London: SPCK, 2006, p. 130.

Comment: Tom Wright also taught and wrote as “N.T. Wright”. I like how this paragraph clarifies how liturgical worship is scriptural worship; how if you honor the Bible, then you have to honor the liturgy. The historic liturgy in Christianity focuses on God and God’s word, not on me or how I’m feeling or what I’m bringing or what I’m thinking or doing, not on what I need or want.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the necessary voice

“So even the most prosaic of mystical writers often have something of a poet’s voice within them.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 73.

When describing the indescribable, it’s probably better to come from the direction of poetry than from prose. At least that gives one a better chance of coming close to the point. And in fewer words.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

contemplative knowing

“I would like to call contemplation ‘full-access knowing’–not irrational, but prerational, nonrational, rational, and transrational all at once. Contemplation refuses to be reductionistic. Contemplation is an exercise in keeping your heart and mind spaces open long enough for the mind to see other hidden material. It is content with the naked now and waits for futures given by God and grace.”

Rohr, Richard. The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2009, p. 34.

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unity in contemplation

“The very first step to a correct understanding of the Christian theology of contemplation is to grasp clearly the unity of God and man in Christ, which of course presupposes the equally crucial unity of man in himself. For the soul and body are not divided against one another as good and evil principles; and our salvation by no means consists of a rejection of the body in order to liberate the soul from the dominance of an evil material principle.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003, pp. 39-40.

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a view of prayer

“The final dynamic of spiritual disciplines is prayer. Prayer is the outgrowth of both silence and solitude. In silence we let go of our manipulative control. In solitude we face up to what we are in the depths of our being. Prayer then becomes the offering of who we are to God: the giving of that broken, unclean, grasping, manipulative self to God for the work of God’s grace in our lives.”

Mulholland, M. Robert, Jr. Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation. Foreword, Practices and Study Guide by Ruth Haley Barton. Expanded edition. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016, p. 161.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

presence of God

“God is everywhere. The purpose of meditation and prayer is to become aware of that presence and live in relationship with God. It is not so much that ‘God fills us,’ even though scripture uses that language to describe it from our perspective. God is already here. We simply enter into a relationship by being in the Presence of the One who Is.”

Talbot, John Michael. The World is My Cloister: Living From the Hermit Within. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010, page 107.

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contradictions and paradoxes

“Before long it occurred to me to do what historians are professionally equipped to do. Live with a cluttered mental attic; run a spiritual antique shop; resist the impulse to throw anything away. Hang on after the avant-garde rejects. Save, shuffle, classify, enjoy the relics. Eventually shapes emerge. One learns to live with contradictions and paradoxes, but what is new about that in theology?”

Martin Marty in Theology Today, January 1972, p. 472.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

first steps in spirituality

“The stage of purgation is characterized by the struggle of two selves: the self that is not yet all it has been created to be in God’s will for our wholeness, and the wholeness of self that God holds out before us. The old, anxious, egocentric self is called to increasing mortification in order that the new, peace-filled, God-centered self may come more and more into being.”

Mulholland, M. Robert, Jr. Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation. Foreword, Practices and Study Guide by Ruth Haley Barton. Expanded edition. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016, p.108.