Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the flight

“Paradoxical as it may seem, for Christians the flight of the alone to the Alone must also be understood as a flight of the community to the Trinity.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism : an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis : Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 139

Comment: I think what this means is that he considers the ancient description of the contemplative life (‘flight of the alone to the Alone’) still to be true. Plus, it is also true that the same contemplative life can be described as a flight of the community of believers to the community of the three persons of the Holy Trinity.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

receiving, not achieving, contemplation

“Contemplation is a gift of God beyond our perception. We don’t go to it, it comes to us. It is pure union of being in Being. As God is simply I AM, so we simply ARE in him when experiencing contemplation. Contemplation happens when we stop thinking of God, and God’s idea takes over!”

Talbot, John Michael. The World is My Cloister: Living From the Hermit Within. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010, page 45.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the contemplative life

“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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knowing creation

“But, it is important to note, close attention to creatures, as also to oneself, will bring with it an understanding of the damage to which they have all been subjected, and so it will provoke lament as well as delight. Lament is the knower’s response to damage just as admiring delight is the knower’s response to creatures being as they should be. Both are instances of knowing’s participation in the known.”

Griffiths, Paul J. Intellectual Appetite: a Theological Grammar. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009, p. 137.

Comment: “Creatures” in this commonplace refers really to any other created being – animal, vegetable, or mineral – coming across your field of notice.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the Camaldolese “three-fold good”

“The classical text of the threefold good, or threefold advantage (tripla commoda), is found where Bruno gives an account of Otto III’s project of choosing some of the more fervent disciples of Romuald as missionaries to Poland. There they were to build a monasterium in Christian territory near an area where pagans dwelt, secluded and surrounded by woods: ‘This would offer a threefold advantage: the cœnobium, which is what novices want; golden solitude, for those who are mature and who thirst for the living God; and the preaching of the gospel to the pagans, for those who long to be freed from this life in order to be with Christ’.”

Wong, Joseph. “The Threefold Good: Romualdian Charism and Monastic Tradition.” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, p. 82.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Thomas Aquinas and exclusion

“Thomas already makes that fatal statement ‘that to be subject to the Roman pope is necessary for salvation.’ In one sentence he is excluding the whole of the eastern Church from salvation.”

Küng, Hans. The Catholic Church: a Short History. New York: The Modern Library, 2003, p. 103.

Comment: …and many others as well!

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Bible reading and being in nature

“By the reading of Scripture I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green, light is sharper on the outlines of the forest and the hills and the whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music in the earth beneath my feet.” (8 August 1949)

Merton, Thomas. The Sign of Jonas. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 1981. (originally published 1953), p. 115-116.

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middle way for prayer

“To sum up, in prayer there is the danger of falling into one of two opposite extremes. The first is ‘mythologizing’ (or making into an idol) the external forms, when prayer is reduced to the mechanical following of a rule or a method of praying. The second is the rejection of and allergic reaction toward all forms of prayer and asceticism. Those fall into this sad situation who do not know how to combine the external forms with sincerity of heart.”

Okumura, Augustine Ichiro. Awakening to Prayer. Translated by Theresa Kazue Hiraki and Albert Masaru Yamato. Washington, DC: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1994, p. 52.

Comment: As in so very much, the middle way is the way of wisdom. In prayer it is best neither to reject formalized liturgical prayer, nor to avoid all extemporaneous and personalized prayer. Those are the head and heart respectively of prayer life. The golden mean brings together the tried and true traditional forms of prayer with the simple and sincere sighs of the heart. (Okay, so maybe not at the same moment. And the balance that works for you may well not work for others, but you’ll figure that out.)

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

everyone a theologian!

“This is the work of theology: to comprehend the mystery of the Christian faith. And every Christian is called to be a theologian, that is, to endeavor to penetrate God’s mystery. For this reason, without theology we cannot do lectio divina well.”

Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, p. 49.