Posted on by Kurt Bodling

solitude is a place (or several)

“Solitude is a place. It is a place in time that is set apart for God and God alone, a time when we unplug and withdraw from the noise of interpersonal interactions, from the noise, busyness and constant stimulation associated with life in the company of others. Solitude can also be associated with a physical place that has been set apart for times alone with God, a place that is not cluttered with work, noise, technology, other relationships, or any of those things that call us back into doing mode. Most important, solitude is a place inside myself where God’s Spirit and my spirit dwell together in union. This place within me is private and reserved for the intimacies that God and I share. What happens between the two of us in that place is not meant for pubic consumption. It is a place where I can give myself with abandon to the Lover of my soul, knowing that I am completely safe from anyone else’s curious gaze or judgmental glance.”

Barton, Ruth Haley. Sacred Rhythms: Arranging our Lives for Spiritual Transformation. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2006, p. 32.

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living the practices

“Begin by consenting to God’s presence and action in your life, in your heart, in your mind and body. How do we express this consent in real, concrete ways? Traditionally, the means by which mystics have lived a mystical or contemplative life has been through regular spiritual practices. And while different mystics have focused on or emphasized different practices, all in all there are just a few basic ways of responding to the mystical call.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 336.

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centering prayer origins

“The monks who developed Centering Prayer … note that this is not ultimately a technique of contemplative prayer, but rather a way of praying that helps to prepare us for the grace of contemplation, which is always a gift from God. This is a subtle but meaningful distinction.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism : an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis : Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 293.

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Bonhoeffer on spiritual disciplines

“Bonhoeffer expressed his personal piety in his reading of Scripture, daily meditation and prayer. These practices influenced his perception and response to external ‘social and political realities.’ Throughout his life, Bonhoeffer used the Moravians’ daily Bible texts called Losungen (“watch words”) for his daily devotions. Each day included verses from both the Old and New Testaments. These texts had a great influence on his life and greatly influenced his decision to return to Germany in 1939. In addition to meditative reading of Scripture, Bonhoeffer’s most powerful discipline was prayer.”

Cannon, Mae Elise. Just Spirituality: How Faith Practices Fuel Social Action. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2013, p. 44.

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take these one sentence at a time

“Do not, then, stir yourself up to useless interior activities. Avoid everything that will bring unnecessary complications into your life. Live in as much peace and quiet and retirement as you can, and do not go out of your way to get involved in labors and duties, no matter how much glory they may seem to give God. Do the tasks appointed to you as perfectly as you can with disinterested love and great peace in order to show your desire of pleasing God. Love and serve Him peacefully and in all your works preserve recollection. Do what you do quietly and without fuss. Seek solitude as much as you can; dwell in the silence of your own soul and rest there in the simple and simplifying light which God is infusing into you. Do not make the mistake of aspiring to the spectacular ‘experiences’ that you read about in the lives of the great mystics. None of those graces (called gratis datae) can sanctify you nearly so well as this obscure and purifying light and love of God which is given you to no other end than to make you perfect in His love.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. (NY: HarperOne, 2003), pages 96-97. (NOTE: the text belongs to 1959!)

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the fullness of silence

"At first the quiet may feel like just another place of emptiness. We may even feel a sense of dread or fear that we are going to be judged or punished for parts of ourselves we have now brought into the light of day.

“But if we stay in this moment, eventually – like Elijah – we begin to notice that this silence is qualitatively different from the emptiness we experienced before. The silence that comes after the chaos is pregnant with the presence of God.”

Barton, Ruth Haley. Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004, p. 110.

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the entry point

“The doorway into the silent land is a wound. Silence lays bare this wound. We do not journey far along the spiritual path before we get some sense of the wound of the human condition, and this is precisely why not a few abandon a contemplative practice like meditation as soon as it begins to expose this wound; they move on instead to some spiritual entertainment that will maintain distraction. Perhaps this is why the weak and wounded, who know very well the vulnerability of the human condition, often have an aptitude for discovering silence and can sense the wholeness and healing that ground this wound.”

Laird, Martin. Into the Silent Land : a Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation. NY: Oxford University Press, 200, p. 117.

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preoccupied? return to the basics

“We all run the danger of being preoccupied with worldly business and concerns if we neglect the interior life, prayer, the daily face-to-face encounter with God, the ascetical practices necessary for every contemplative and every person who wants to see the Eternal One and live with him.”

Robert Cardinal Sarah, The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017), page 29

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study as a spiritual discipline

“Before all else, our study should aim principally and ardently at this that we might be able to be useful to the souls of our neighbors. By study the brethren consider in their heart the manifold wisdom of God and prepare themselves for the doctrinal service of the Church and of all mankind. It is all the more fitting that they should devote themselves to study, because from the tradition of the Order they are called to cultivate mankind’s inclination toward truth.

“The brethren should contemplate and study divine revelation of which Sacred Scripture and Tradition constitute a single sacred deposit, and from the perennial instructional value of its overall plan, they should learn to discover the many paths of gospel truth, even in created things, in human works and institutions, as well as in different religions.

“The brethren should study attentively the writings of the Fathers of the Church and distinguished witnesses of Christian thought who, with the help of different cultures and the wisdom of the philosophers, labored to understand the word of God more fully. Following their thinking, the brethren should respectfully listen to the living tradition of the Church, seek dialogue with the learned, and open their mind to contemporary discoveries and problems.

“Continuous study nourishes contemplation, encourages fulfillment of the counsels with shining fidelity, constitutes a form of asceticism by its own perseverance and difficulty, and, as an essential element of our whole life, it is an excellent religious observance.”

extracted from: “Study as an Essential Part of Religious Life for Friars” from a web page published by the Dominicans of the Province of Saint Joseph, one of four provinces in the United States. Viewed online at https://opeast.org/about/our-way-of-life/study/ on 6 December 2022.

Note: The Dominicans in many ways seem to embody the spiritual discipline of study. They dig into the sources. They serve the fruit of their study to the Church and the world. These days I’m especially resonating to the thought that “Continuous study nourishes contemplation, [and] constitutes a form of asceticism by its own perseverance and difficulty….”

What are you studying these days? Is it for the good of those around you as well as for your own good?

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

growth in solitude

Note:
The spiritual discipline of solitude is one that bears more fruit the longer one persists in it. (Probably all the disciplines are like that.) The myriad distractions that rise up at first, slowly fade away over time. That opens up more and more space for God’s voice.

Quote:
“Once we have committed ourselves to spending time in solitude, we develop an attentiveness to God’s voice in us. In the beginning, during the first days, weeks, or even months, we may have the feeling that we are simply wasting our time. Time in solitude may at first seem little more than a time in which we are bombarded by thousands of thoughts and feelings that emerge from hidden areas of our mind. … This is the experience of anyone who decides to enter into solitude after a life without much spiritual discipline. At first, the many distractions keep presenting themselves. Later, as they receive less and less attention, they slowly withdraw.” (p. 72-73)

Source: Nouwen, Henri J. M. Making All Things New: An invitation to the Spiritual Life. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981.