Posted on by Kurt Bodling

mystical wisdom builds up

Note: The “wisdom which cometh down from above” (see James, chapter 3) is edifying personally, communally, and universally. That is, it builds us up as individual believers; it builds up the Church; and it builds up the cosmos.

I also resonate to the phrase “an open meadow where wisdom comes to dwell.” Open meadow reminds me of the green pastures in Psalm 23. Wisdom makes me think of so many parts of Scripture, but how about now focusing on Jesus (remember the “O Wisdom” antiphon from Advent?). And to dwell recalls John 1:14 where the Word dwells among us. Putting that all together in the context of the quote for today: Jesus comes to dwell with us and give us nourishing rest in the fruits of our practice of the spiritual disciplines.

Quote:
“Mystical wisdom’s external coordinates are time and experience, while its internal coordinates are method and comprehension. But together–time, experience, theological method and comprehension–constitute an open meadow where wisdom comes to dwell. Wisdom is a gift of the Spirit. Only mystical wisdom, given by the Spirit of God, recognizes and sees the work of the same Spirit–the upbuilding of the kingdom of God. The presence of the Spirit is a ‘silent word’ within us and among us. We hear the sound it makes, remaining in amazement at the Spirit’s creative freedom.”

Source: 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, pg. 51.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Apophatic Theology and True Theologians

“In accord with the ecstatic and negative theology, by means of which God is praised in a way beyond expression and by being silent because of the amazement and wonder induced by His majesty, so that now the worshiper feels that not only every word is less than His praise, but also that every thought is inferior to His praise. This is the true Cabala, which is extremely rare. For as the affirmative way concerning God is imperfect, both in understanding and in speaking, so the negative way is altogether perfect. … Therefore our theologians are too rash when they argue and make assertions so boldly about matters divine. For, as I have said, the affirmative theology is like milk to wine in relation to the negative theology. This cannot be treated in a disputation and with much speaking, but must be done in the supreme repose of the mind and in silence, as in rapture and ecstasy. This is what makes a true theologian. But no university crowns anyone like this, only the Holy Spirit. And whoever has seen this, sees how all affirmative theology knows nothing. But this matter perhaps experiences more things than modesty.”

Luther, Martin. On Psalm 65:1. In “First Lectures on Psalms, I” Luther’s Works, American edition. Volume 10. St. Louis: Concordia, 1974, p. 313. [lectures delivered in 1513-1515]

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prayer bridges space-time

“We live in time and space; God exists beyond time and space. Prayer can best help us toward an in-depth understanding of this mystery of the alliance between the temporal and the timeless. When we pray, we are in time that goes beyond time, and without leaving the space we occupy, we go beyond it. We are in this world, but not of it. All true prayer, whatever its form, admits us  the paschal mystery of Christ who dies and rises again each day in this world.”

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. 63.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

A Quiet Fool for Christ

“The true contemplative is a lover of sobriety and obscurity. He prefers all that is quiet, humble, unassuming. He has no taste for spiritual excitements. They easily weary him. His inclination is to that which seems to be nothing, which tells him little or nothing, which promises him nothing. Only one who can remain at peace in emptiness, without projects or vanities, without speeches to justify his own apparent uselessness, can be safe from the fatal appeal of those spiritual impulses that move him to assert himself and ‘be something’ in the eyes of other men. But the contemplative is, of all religious men, the one most likely to realize that he is not a saint and least anxious to appear as one in the eyes of others. He is, in fact, delivered from subjection to appearances and cares very little about them. At the same time, since he has neither the inclination nor the need to be a rebel, he does not have to advertise his contempt for appearances. He simply neglects them. They no longer interest him. He is quite content to be considered an idiot, if necessary, and in this he has a long tradition behind him. Long ago St. Paul said he was glad to be a ‘fool for the sake of Christ.’ The oriental Church has its holy madmen, the yurodivi, imitated on occasion in the West by men like St. Francis of Assisi and many others. The contemplative does not need to be systematic about anything, even about apparent madness. He is content with the wisdom of God, which is folly to men not because it is contrary to the wisdom of man, but because it entirely transcends it.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003 (pp. 108-109)

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fruit of active contemplation

“In active contemplation, a man becomes able to live within himself. He learns to be at home with his thoughts. He becomes to a greater and greater degree independent of exterior supports. His mind is pacified not by passive dependence on things outside himself–diversions, entertainments, conversations, business–but by its own constructive activity. That is to say, that he derives inner satisfaction from spiritual creativeness: thinking his own thoughts, reaching his own conclusions, looking at his own life and directing it in accordance with his own inner truth, discovered in meditation and under the eyes of God.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003 [the text belongs to 1959!], page 59.

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reaching contemplation thru reading

“While on earth we come, through meditation on the Incarnation and redemption, to a contemplative experience of God that is not, however, a vision of His essence. . . . [F]or Cassian the way to contemplation is through meditative reading of the Bible.”

[And, interestingly, for Martin Luther, too.]

Merton, Thomas. “The Humanity of Christ in Monastic Prayer.” (1963) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013), p. 155.

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Contemplative reading

“Active contemplation is nourished by meditation and reading and, as we shall see, by the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church. But before reading, meditation, and worship turn into contemplation, they must merge into a unified and intuitive vision of reality.

“In reading, for instance, we pass from one thought to another, we follow the development of the author’s ideas, and we contribute some ideas of our own if we read well. This activity is discursive. Reading becomes contemplative when, instead of reasoning, we abandon the sequence of the author’s thoughts in order not only to follow our own thoughts (meditation), but simply to rise above thought and penetrate into the mystery of truth which is experienced intuitively as present and actual. We meditate with our mind, which is ‘part of’ our being. But we contemplate with our whole being and not just with one of its parts.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. (NY: HarperOne, 2003), p. 59. [the text belongs to 1959!]

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The Little Brothers of Jesus

“The followers of Charles de Foucauld have no special pastoral task allotted to them. They do not argue with people, try to convince them, try to convert them, try to make them amend their lives. They seek only to be with them, to share their lives, their poverty, their sufferings, their problems, their ideals: but to be with them in a special way. As members of Christ, they are Christ. And where they are present, Christ is present. Where He is present, He acts. Their being, their presence, is then active, dynamic. It is the leaven hidden in the measure of meal. This of course is a strictly contemplative view of the Christian life, and unless it implies a complete sacrifice of oneself, of all one’s ambitions and worldly desires, it cannot be effective. But once it is properly understood, it is utterly simple. So much so, that it is terrible in its simplicity. It is the simplicity of the Gospel itself.”

The Vatican has announced that Charles de Foucauld will be canonized.


Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. (NY: HarperOne, 2003), page 144. [this text written in 1959]

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two forms of contemplation

“Normally, a life of active contemplation prepares a man for occasional and unpredictable visits of infused or passive contemplation. Also, active contemplation can never attain the depth and the purity of infused contemplation, which, in its purest form, takes place entirely without conceptual meditation. In active contemplation concept and judgment, or at least acts of faith springing from a certain mental activity, serve as a springboard for contemplative intuitions and for states of quietude more or less prolonged.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003), pges 57-58. [the text belongs to 1959]