Posted on by Kurt Bodling

hearing God

“The silence of the Church’s life, it seems to me, is connected to the mystery and gentleness of the divine voice. In order to hear it, you have to turn your ear because the Holy Spirit does not speak loudly, nor do Jesus and his Father. When the Word became man and came to live in Nazareth, for thirty years the Nazarenes saw nothing! It takes time and silence, therefore, to discern the voices of heaven, which are discreet and infinitely respectful.”

Dom Dysmas de Lassus, the Father General of the Carthusian Order at Grande Chartreuse in: Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. Translated by Michael J. Miller. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017, pp. 221-222

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the greatest love story

"The beautiful promise of Christian mysticism is that, by choosing love over all the other potential blessings that life can give us, we are embracing the best possible life; a life in which all blessings can flow, but always in accordance with love.

"… Whether the topic is love won or lost, love thwarted or misunderstood, comic romance or passionate tragedy, there is nothing so fundamentally human as a good story about love. And Christian mysticism is just that. It calls us to become part of the greatest of love stories. And that’s why it matters.

“That’s why people like you and me are drawn to mysticism. Far from being merely a ‘head trip,’ mystical Christianity is the ultimate ‘heart trip’–a journey into the sacred nature of love.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 123

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beginning to write

“A writer has to pass through a certain apprenticeship; and the cure for this natural vagueness is to choose small precise subjects, to say all we have in our minds about them, and to stop when we have finished; not to aim at fine writing, but at definiteness and clearness.”

Benson, Arthur Christopher. “Authorship” in From a College Window. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1906, p. 212

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saints as family and in the mirror

“This is our family in the spiritual order, the family of saints. And we also are saints. You may not think of yourself as exactly a saint, but if you are a sincere seeker after wholeness, then you belong to this community. I’m sure that not all the Romans and Corinthians Paul addressed as ‘saints’ were paragons of virtue, but it was their vocation, and is ours, to strive to fulfill Jesus’ command to love him by loving one another. We should believe in ourselves as saints. If we celebrate November 1 as All Saints’ Day, we should claim it and enjoy it as our feast day. If we recite the Apostles’ Creed, we should turn our attention seriously to believing in ‘the communion of the saints’ and asking what that means.”

Bruteau, Beatrice. Radical Optimism: Practical Spirituality in an Uncertain World. Boulder, CO: Sentient Publications, 2002, p. 104

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hermit monks

“There exists a long tradition of Benedictine hermits back to the time of Benedict himself. It is admittedly a good solution but it affects only a few individuals. These have the advantage of a solitary life and of freedom to develop according to their own needs and personal vocation. They have a minimum of concern about temporalities, and they are able to continue their monastic life as members of the community where they made profession. Normally, however, monks have neither the desire nor the grace to live this particular kind of life, and the real problems remain to be solved in the context of common living.”

Merton, Thomas. “The Monastic Renewal: Problems and Prospects.” (1966) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 390

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solitude and community

“Christianity has never promoted an individualistic ‘me and Jesus’ spirituality. Such thinking is an anomaly and an aberration. Even as early as the fourth century, when hermits started retreating into the desert to live solitary lives in radical devotion to God, the Christian tradition remained consistently adamant: love, charity and hospitality are absolutely essential, expected and required. As one desert hermit taught, the charity shown to a sick brother is worth more than a lifetime of penitential practices.”

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. 25

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silence comes in time

“If we walk toward God, there comes a moment when speech is useless and uninteresting because [of all things] contemplation alone has any importance. And so, more than any other reality, monastic life enables souls to contemplate God. The silence of the monasteries provides the best earthly setting for the person who wants to ascend toward the One who awaits him.” Thought 124.

Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. Translated by Michael J. Miller. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017, p. 72

Comment: On the other hand, Merton wrote about how noisy monasteries are and, therefore, unsuited to contemplation.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

temptation and contemplation

"The urge to seek a path of spiritual light can be a subtle temptation to sin. It certainly is sin if it means a frank rejection of the burden of our age, an escape into unreality and spiritual illusion, so as not to share the misery of other men.

“The contemplative life today must be a life of deep sorrow and contrition, but a pure sorrow, a healing and life-giving repentance such as we find in some of the characters of Dostoyevsky.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003. (NOTE: written by Merton in 1959), p. 121

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clear thinking

“Where there is no critical perspective, no detached observation, no time to ask the pertinent questions, how can one avoid being deluded and confused? Someone has to try to keep his head clear of static and preserve the interior solitude and silence that are essential for independent thought.”

Merton, Thomas. “Events and Pseudo-Events Letter to a Southern Churchman.” (1966) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 300

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false self

“Your false self is your role, title, and personal image that is largely a creation of your own mind and attachments. It will and must die in exact correlation to how much you want the Real.”

Rohr, Richard. Falling Upward: a Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011, p. 85