Posted on by Kurt Bodling

what hesychasm is

“The Greek term hesychia means a state of silence, stillness, or tranquility, as a result of the cessation of external trouble and internal agitation. Cassian’s ‘purity of heart’ contains the aspect of ‘tranquility of mind’ and thus, the idea of hesychia. The term also means solitude or retreat. Hermits and cenobites alike seek hesychia as an essential value, but in the earliest sources, the term ‘hesychast’ usually denotes a monk living in solitude, or hermit.”

Wong, Joseph. “The Threefold Good: Romualdian Charism and Monastic Tradition.” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002, pp. 87-88

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Easter silence

“The grace of Easter is a profound silence, an immense peace, and a pure taste in the soul. It is the taste of heaven, away from all disordered excitement. The Paschal vision does not consist in a rapture of the spirit; it is the silent discovery of God.” Thought 205.

Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017, p. 106.

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sabbath purpose

“The Genesis account provides a glimpse of God’s view of biblical shalom, in which the world will be made right as God intended it to be. Observation of the sabbath is one of the mechanisms God uses as a part of the process of restoring shalom.”

Cannon, Mae Elise. Just Spirituality: How Faith Practices Fuel Social Action. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2013, p. 129.

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spending priorities

“To allow governments to pour more and more billions into weapons that almost immediately become obsolete, thereby necessitating more billions for newer and bigger weapons, is one of the most colossal injustices in the long history of man. While we are doing this, two-thirds of the world is starving, or living in conditions of subhuman destitution.”

Merton, Thomas. “Peace: a Religious Responsibility.” (1962) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 139.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

shabbat to shalom

“The Genesis account provides a glimpse of God’s view of biblical shalom, in which the world will be made right as God intended it to be. Observation of the sabbath is one of the mechanisms God uses as a part of the process of restoring shalom.”

Cannon, Mae Elise. Just Spirituality: How Faith Practices Fuel Social Action. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2013, p. 129.

Comment: This can be tricky for Christians. Is it, as Cannon has, “observation of the sabbath”? or is it “observation of sabbath”? By restricting our observation with the definite article, we run the risk of becoming legalists who confine our holiness to that period of corporate worship we have on Sunday mornings. In the New Testament age, we may be called to observe sabbath all week long and every day. If we are to pray without ceasing, we should set aside the hustle-bustle of the world. We should cultivate sabbath and shalom throughout our minutes and hours. We find the sacrament of the present moment.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

technology’s failure

“Though he now has the capacity to communicate anything, anywhere, instantly, man finds himself with nothing to say. Not that there are not many things he could communicate, or should attempt to communicate. He should, for instance, be able to meet his fellow man and discuss ways of building a peaceful world. He is incapable of this kind of confrontation.”

Merton, Thomas. “Symbolism: Communication or Communion?.” (1966) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 247.

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Comment: And he wrote this way back in 1966, years before cell phones, blogs, social media, and the 24-hour news cycle! What would Merton have said about all these things and our continuing incapability of building a peaceful world?

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results of humility

(of the humble person) “He is able to see quite clearly that what is useful to him may be useless for somebody else, and what helps others to be saints might ruin him. That is why humility brings with it a deep refinement of spirit, a peacefulness, a tact and a common sense without which there is no sane morality.”

Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. Introduction by Sue Monk Kidd. New York: New Directions Books, 2007, ©1961, p. 100.

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peace in prayer

“As long as I am content to know that He is infinitely greater than I, and that I cannot know Him unless He shows Himself to me, I will have Peace, and He will be near me and in me, and I will rest in Him.”

Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1958); (pbk ed 1999), p. 97.