Posted on by Kurt Bodling

shabbat to shalom

“The Genesis account provides a glimpse of God’s view of biblical shalom, in which the world will be made right as God intended it to be. Observation of the sabbath is one of the mechanisms God uses as a part of the process of restoring shalom.”

Cannon, Mae Elise. Just Spirituality: How Faith Practices Fuel Social Action. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2013, p. 129.

Comment: This can be tricky for Christians. Is it, as Cannon has, “observation of the sabbath”? or is it “observation of sabbath”? By restricting our observation with the definite article, we run the risk of becoming legalists who confine our holiness to that period of corporate worship we have on Sunday mornings. In the New Testament age, we may be called to observe sabbath all week long and every day. If we are to pray without ceasing, we should set aside the hustle-bustle of the world. We should cultivate sabbath and shalom throughout our minutes and hours. We find the sacrament of the present moment.

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human care movements

“From ancient times to today, mystics have been on the forefront of movements to care for their fellow human beings, often leading social reform movements or other works of service and care. In her book Mysticism, Evelyn Underhill describes mystics as often embodying practical roles in society, as artists, teachers, social reformers, and even political leaders, providing examples…”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis : Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 97.

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maturing from chatty to silent

"The beginner’s dryness in prayer is actually God’s grace and invitation to simpler prayer. John of the Cross offers some signs that the beginner is called to a simpler form of prayer: discursive meditation becomes hard and wearisome; our interior and exterior images of God no longer inspire devotion; we find pleasure in being alone and feel the attraction to wait with ‘loving awareness of God,’ without any particular meditation and inner peace, rest and quietness.

"In light of John of the Cross’s signs, we must never become a slave to any prayer technique and allow it to get in the way of our relationship with God. …

“As in any other relationship, as we grow and become more and more comfortable with God, we become more and more comfortable with silence. The silence is not empty or dead in any way whatsoever; it is a silence pregnant with a loving history between lover and beloved. And so we should always follow the silence whenever God’s grace offers the invitation.”

Haase, Albert. Coming Home to Your True Self: Leaving the Emptiness of False Attractions. Foreword by M. Robert Mulholland, Jr. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2008, pp. 158-159.

Comment: to quote another theologian, “this is most certainly true.”

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

chatty beginners

"The prayer of the beginner is often chatty, filled with intellectual words and images. We night have long monologues with God. We might ‘chew’ on a Scripture passage, mining its depths and challenges. We might have a long list of petitions for which we pray. We might think over the past twenty-four hours and see how God sent grace and angels into our lives. These kinds of prayer, in which we do all the work, are traditionally known as discursive meditation.

"Teresa of Avila makes clear that if we commit to such prayer on a daily basis, within three months, we will find it hard to maintain. Indeed, it will become more and more dissatisfying. We will experience boredom and dryness. …

"Our continual response to any form of dryness, aridity or boredom in prayer is fidelity, fidelity, fidelity. We are challenged to stay faithful to the daily practice. …

“The beginner’s dryness in prayer is actually God’s grace and invitation to simpler prayer.”

Haase, Albert. Coming Home to Your True Self: Leaving the Emptiness of False Attractions. Foreword by M. Robert Mulholland, Jr. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2008, p. 158.

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our greatest sin

“Let me be quite succinct: the greatest sin of the European-Russian-American complex which we call ‘the West’ (and this sin has spread its own way to China) is not only greed and cruelty, not only moral dishonesty and infidelity to truth, but above all its unmitigated arrogance towards the rest of the human race.”

Merton, Thomas. “A Letter to Pablo Antonio Cuadra concerning Giants.” (1961) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 119.

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centering prayer origins

“The monks who developed Centering Prayer … note that this is not ultimately a technique of contemplative prayer, but rather a way of praying that helps to prepare us for the grace of contemplation, which is always a gift from God. This is a subtle but meaningful distinction.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism : an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis : Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 293.

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our cynical world

“Ours is a cynical world, shaped by pessimism, skepticism, and disdain. It’s a world where if your mother says she loves you, you ought to verify that independently.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism : an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis : Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 118.

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Camaldolese place in Benedictine tradition

“This movement joined the spirit of the early desert monastic tradition to the Benedictine way of life. ‘Based on greater solitude, silence and fasting, the Romualdian system of life imitated the ancient Egyptian anchoritism in the penitential ascetical sphere; for the rest, if faithfully referred to the observance of the Benedictine Rule. It was organized eremitism.’ ‘This reform movement within the Benedictine world was not antagonistic to Benedictinism, but it wanted to extend the influence of the Rule of Saint Benedict to those drawn to solitude’.”

Belisle, Peter-Damian. “Overview of Camaldolese History and Spirituality” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, p. 9.

Comment: if ‘herding cats’ sounds hard, try organizing hermits! But that’s what the Camaldolese order does. Men with the vocation of solitude gather together, train for some years in spiritual disciplines and what it means to be a monk, and then can move into solitary living while still under the protective and organizing wing of the monastic order. Of course, the Carthusian order moves men into their hermitages more quickly, as I understand it.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

mysticism and the Holy Trinity

“Christian mysticism, grounded in the trinitarian understanding of God, fosters an openness to receive the gift of divine union that overflows from the loving relationships found within the Trinity. The union of God and God’s beloved creation, as understood in the Christian faith, is actually a communion, in which we are invited into the loving unity with the Spirit, with Christ, and, through them, with the infinite mystery of the infinite Creator–the fullness of the one triune God.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism : an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis : Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 141.

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the word most people are afraid of

"We increase and deepen our participation in the life of the Body by the activity of our minds and wills, illuminated and guided by the Holy Ghost. We must therefore keep growing in our knowledge and love of God and in our love for other men. The power of good operative habits must take ever greater and greater hold upon us. The Truth we believe in must work itself more and more fully into the very substance of our lives until our whole existence is nothing but vision and love.

“What this means in practice is summed up by one word that most men are afraid of: asceticism.”

Merton, Thomas. “The White Pebble.” (1950) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, pp. 9-10.