“Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God”
Hebrews 6:1 (NIV)
The central idea here seems to be that there are, if you will, “ages and stages” in the Christian life. There are elementary teachings, and then there is maturity. There’s a foundation, and there is what is built on the foundation.
Read more"Since contemplation is the union of our mind and will with God in an act of pure love that brings us into obscure contact with Him as He really is, the way to contemplation is to develop and perfect our mind and will and our whole soul. Infused contemplation begins when the direct intervention of God raises this whole process of development above the level of our nature: and then He perfects our faculties by seeming to defeat all their activity in the suffering and darkness of His infused light and love.
“But before this begins, we ordinarily have to labor to prepare ourselves in our own way and with the help of His grace, by deepening our knowledge and love of God in meditation and active forms of prayer, as well as by setting our wills free from attachment to created things.”
Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. Introduction by Sue Monk Kidd. New York: New Directions Books, 2007, ©1961, p. 214
Comment: I am pretty sure I know some folks who would read this and shout in their most accusatory voice, “Semi-Pelagianism! Beware!!” But I believe that Merton is not here talking about salvation and conversion. He is, rather, describing the later growth in the faith that should come to Christians as they mature. At that point the human will and effort are certainly involved.
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.
“Once you have faced your own hidden or denied self, there is not much to be anxious about anymore, because there is not fear of exposure–to yourself or others. The game is over–and you are free. You have now become the ‘holy fool’ of legend and story, which Paul seems to say is the final stage (2 Corinthians 11), when there is no longer any persona or project. You finally are who you are, and can be who you are, without disguise or fear.”
Rohr, Richard. Falling Upward: a Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011, p. 134
Comment: Not having to defend, and not having to go on the offense either, means that the game is over. You’re freed from its rules, from its ticking clock, from the intrusive noise of the crowds. Your true self emerges from behind the uniform and protective padding. Take a breath. See what’s up ahead now. Enjoy!
“Since it is generally true of Christians that few are strong and many are weak, one simply cannot place the same burden on everyone. … When a strong man travels with a weak man, he must restrain himself so as not to walk at a speed proportionate to his strength lest he set a killing pace for his weak companion.”
Luther, Martin. “Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague” (1527) Luther’s Works Vol. 43. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969, page 120.
Comment: It is an act of discernment and wisdom to realize the need for variety in practice or requirements because different people have different levels of tolerance. There should, of course, be measures taken to promote growth and build spiritual strength, but when everyone is starting from a different place the means for growth and strength have to be different.
“‘Juniors’ on the first part of the journey invariably think that true elders are naive, simplistic, ‘out of it,’ or just superfluous. They cannot understand what they have not yet experienced. They are totally involved in their first task, and cannot see beyond it. Conversely, if a person has transcended and included the previous stages, he or she will always have a patient understanding of the juniors, and can be patient and helpful to them somewhat naturally (although not without trial and effort). That is precisely what makes such people elders! Higher stages always empathetically include the lower, or they are not higher stages!”
Rohr, Richard. Falling Upward: a Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011, p. 3.
"One of the gifts of solitude, and one of the first to be discovered, is the gift of attentiveness. …
"Related to the gift of attentiveness is the gift of healing. … No one would deny that people play a crucial role in healing. But there is an aspect of spiritual and emotional healing that seems best accomplished alone, especially when tha healing relates to coming to terms with loss or with some significant change in one’s life. …
"Personal clarity, insight, and creativity are other gifts of solitude. …
“The greatest gift of solitude, however, is an awareness of the presence of God. God is often discovered in a very personal way during periods of solitude.”
Moore, Christopher Chamberlin. Solitude: A Neglected Path to God. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 2001, pp. 12-14.
“Even where the contemplative is not expressly forbidden to follow what he believes to be the inspiration of God (and this not rarely happens), he may feel himself continually and completely at odds with the accepted ideals of those around him. Their spiritual exercises may seem to him to be a bore and waste of time. Their sermons and their conversation may leave him exhausted with a sense of futility: as if he had been pelted with words without meaning. Their choral offices, their excitement over liturgical ceremony and chant may rob him of the delicate taste of an interior manna that is not found in formulas of prayers and exterior rites. If only he could be alone and quiet, and remain in the emptiness, darkness, and purposelessness in which God speaks with such overwhelming effect! But no, spiritual lights and nosegays are forced upon his mind, he must think and say words, he must sing ‘Alleluias’ that somebody else wants him to feel. He must strive to smack his lips on a sweetness which seems to be unutterably coarse and foul: not because of what it aspires to say, but simply because it is secondhand.” (p. 77)
Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003, page 77. (NOTE: Merton wrote this text in 1959)
"It is even possible that in solitude I shall return to my beginning and rediscover the value and perfection of simple vocal prayer–and take greater joy in this than in contemplation.
“So that the cenobite may have high contemplation, while the hermit has only his Pater and Ave Maria. In that event I choose the life of a hermit in which I live in God always, speaking to Him with simplicity, rather than a life of disjointed activity sublimated by a few moments of fire and exaltation.”
Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1958. (pbk ed 1999), p.110.
"Here, then are our principles: We are baptized into the whole Christ. Baptism implies a responsibility to develop one’s supernatural life, to nourish it by love of God, to reproduce and spread it by love for other men. All this is ordered to the final perfection of a plan that extends far beyond our own individual salvation: a plan for God’s glory which lies at the very heart of the universe. This mystery we must believe and seek to understand if we would make anything of conversion and vocation.
“I might add that every baptism implies a distinct individual vocation, a peculiar function in the building up of the Mystical Body.”
Merton, Thomas. “The White Pebble.” (1950) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 7.
Pathology: the Study of a Path 