Posted on by Kurt Bodling

everything is available

from the epilogue of this book: "To desire the Parousia, all we have to do is to let the very heart of the earth, as we christianize it, beat within us.

"Why then, O people of little faith, do you fear or repudiate the progress of the world? Why foolishly multiply your warnings and your prohibitions? ‘Don’t venture . . . Don’t try . . . everything is known: the earth is empty and old; there is nothing more to be discovered.’

“We must try everything for Christ! We must hope everything for Christ! ‘Nihil intentatum!’ (‘Leave nothing unattempted!’) That, on the contrary, is the true christian attitude.”

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Divine Milieu. Translated by Siôn Cowell. Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 2012, p. 117

Comment: Looking at this now, quite some time after I first read it, I see again how thick Teilhard’s writing can be. Or can appear. I’ve found in the little of his work that I have read that I need to take it in small mouthfuls and sit with it quietly before moving on. Also, yes, grabbing a few sentences from the end of his book and sharing them without all the underlying and preparatory thought is not the best introduction.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

source of inerrancy

“The insistence on an ‘infallible’ or ‘inerrant’ Bible has grown up within a complex cultural matrix (in particular, that of modern North American Protestantism) where the Bible has been seen as the bastion of orthodoxy against Roman Catholicism on the one hand and liberal modernism on the other. Unfortunately, the assumptions of both those worlds have conditioned the debate. It is no accident that this Protestant insistence on biblical infallibility arose at the same time as Rome was insisting on papal infallibility, or that the rationalism of the Enlightenment infected even those who were battling against it.”

Wright, Tom. Simply Christian. London: SPCK, 2006, p. 157.

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what good does it do?

“Although God lives in the souls of men who are unconscious of Him, how can I say that I have found Him and found myself in Him if I never know Him or think of Him, never take and interest in Him or seek Him or desire His presence in my soul? What good does it do to say a few formal prayers to him and then turn away and give all my mind and all my will to created things, desiring only ends that fall far short of Him?”

Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. Introduction by Sue Monk Kidd. New York: New Directions Books, 2007, ©1961, p. 43.

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prayer is not obsolete

“It’s important to remember, however, that contemplation does not make other ways of praying obsolete or superfluous. If we abandon the more word-centric ways of praying, we are acting like sailors who launch a boat into the open sea without bothering to bring a compass or a GPS. Contemplative prayer needs to be anchored in an overall spiritual practice just as a successful journey needs to be guided by useful and effective navigation tools.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, pp. 286-287.

Comment: Bear in mind that the Irish monks of old launched their coracles without compass or GPS. Bear in mind that they were making an act of faith. Bear in mind that abandoning your “more word-centric ways of praying” might be an act of faith on your part.

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.

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hold on for now

“You cannot imagine a new space fully until you have been taken there. I make this point strongly to help you understand why almost all spiritual teachers tell you to ‘believe’ or ‘trust’ or ‘hold on.’ They are not just telling you to believe silly or irrational things. They are telling you to hold on until you can go on the further journey for yourself, and they are telling you that the whole spiritual journey is, in fact, for real–which you cannot possibly know yet.”

Rohr, Richard. Falling Upward: a Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011), page xxvii.

There were so, so many places along the Appalachian Trail which I’d read about for decades and had very clear pictures of in my mind that turned out–when I finally got there–to be nothing at all like I’d pictured them. The inner journey of the spiritual life has been surprising me like that. Heaven will no doubt turn out the same way.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

birth into maturity

“There is a time for warmth in the collective myth. But there is also a time to be born. He who is spiritually ‘born’ as a mature identity is liberated from the enclosing womb of myth and prejudice. He learns to think for himself, guided no longer by the dictates of need and by systems and processes designed to create artificial needs and the ‘satisfy’ them.”

Merton, Thomas. “Rain and the Rhinoceros.” (1965) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 221.

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God’s schedule

“As we have taught so often, we should not tempt God, that is, we should not determine the when and where and why, or the ways and means and manner in which God should answer our prayer. Rather, we must in all humility bring our petition before him who will certainly do the right thing in accordance with his unsearchable and divine wisdom. But by no means doubt that God hears our prayer, even if it may appear that he does not do so.”

Luther, Martin. “Appeal for Prayer Against the Turks” (1541) Luther’s Works Vol. 43. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969, pages 230-231.

God answers our prayers on God’s own schedule. Not ours. And in God’s own way, not ours. Our schedule for praying should be ‘without ceasing.’ And our way of praying should be believing that God hears us.

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the Holy Spirit is given in faith

“Faith creates godliness and drives out all sin, grants strength in sickness, enlightens in all blindness, heals all evil inclinations, guards against sin, and performs every good deed. In brief, the fruit of such faith is that never can there remain any frailty; for in faith the Holy Spirit is given, and thereby a man loves God because of the abundant goodness received from him. A man becomes cheerful and glad to do all that is good without the compulsion of the law and command.”  (page 175)

Luther, Martin. “Sermon on the Worthy Reception of the Sacrament” (1521) Luther’s Works Vol. 42. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.

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what the Church is and does, part 2

“I believe no one can be saved who is not in this gathering or community, harmoniously sharing the same faith with it, the same word, sacraments, hope, and love. And that no Jew, heretic, pagan, or sinner can be saved along with this community unless he becomes reconciled with it and unites with it in full agreement in all things.”

Luther, Martin. “Personal Prayer Book” (1522) Luther’s Works Vol. 43. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1968, page 28.