“Social and public prayers hold groups and religions together, but they do not necessarily transform people at any deep level. In fact, group certitude and solidarity often becomes a substitute for any real journey of our own. Hear this clearly. I am not saying there is no place for public prayer, but we do need to heed Jesus’ very clear warnings about it.”
Rohr, Richard. The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2009, pp. 72-3
“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)
"Silence is an attitude of the soul. It cannot be decreed without appearing overrated, empty, and artificial. In the Church’s liturgies, silence cannot be a pause between two rituals; silence itself is fully a ritual, it envelops everything. Silence is the fabric from which all our liturgies must be cut. Nothing in them should interrupt the silent atmosphere that is its natural setting.
“Now, celebrations become tiring because they unfold in noisy chattering.” Thought 250.
Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017, p. 130.
“Consequently, every Camaldolese (as in deed every Christian) should focus their spirituality on Eucharist: ‘Each monk and the community as a whole are to orient their life in such a way that it is preparation for, and an extension of the Eucharistic action’.” [quoting from the Camaldolese Constitutions]
Hale, Robert. “Koinonia: The Privilege of Love.” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, p. 102.
“The better we know the Bible, the more we are coming close to the windows, so that, without the windows having got any bigger, we can glimpse the entire sweep of the biblical countryside. Even the simplest acts of Christian worship ought therefore always to focus on the reading of scripture. Sometimes there will be space for the congregation to meditate on one or more of the readings. Sometimes there will be opportunity to respond; the church has developed rich resources of material, taken not least from the Bible itself, which we may sing, or say, by way of pondering what we have heard and continuing to thank God for it. That is how basic liturgy begins to be constructed: a showcase for scripture, a way of making sure we are treating it with the seriousness it deserves.”
Wright, Tom. Simply Christian. London: SPCK, 2006, p. 130.
Comment: Tom Wright also taught and wrote as “N.T. Wright”. I like how this paragraph clarifies how liturgical worship is scriptural worship; how if you honor the Bible, then you have to honor the liturgy. The historic liturgy in Christianity focuses on God and God’s word, not on me or how I’m feeling or what I’m bringing or what I’m thinking or doing, not on what I need or want.
“To sum up, in prayer there is the danger of falling into one of two opposite extremes. The first is ‘mythologizing’ (or making into an idol) the external forms, when prayer is reduced to the mechanical following of a rule or a method of praying. The second is the rejection of and allergic reaction toward all forms of prayer and asceticism. Those fall into this sad situation who do not know how to combine the external forms with sincerity of heart.”
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. 52.
Comment: As in so very much, the middle way is the way of wisdom. In prayer it is best neither to reject formalized liturgical prayer, nor to avoid all extemporaneous and personalized prayer. Those are the head and heart respectively of prayer life. The golden mean brings together the tried and true traditional forms of prayer with the simple and sincere sighs of the heart. (Okay, so maybe not at the same moment. And the balance that works for you may well not work for others, but you’ll figure that out.)
“In our spirituality, then, there is not to be an opposition between ‘liturgy’ on the one hand, and ‘contemplation’ on the other, with the former being merely communal and outward, for beginners, and the latter being solitary and truly mystical, for the advanced, or something like that. Rather, in the one Christian koinonia our contemplative life is also to be eucharistic and liturgical, and our Eucharist and liturgy are also to be contemplative.”
Hale, Robert. “Koinonia: The Privilege of Love.” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, p. 102.
“Since God is at the depth and centre of your soul, why not then pause from time to time at least from that which occupies you outwardly, even from your spoken prayer, to worship him inwardly, to praise Him, to offer Him your heart and thank Him? What can God have that gives Him greater satisfaction than that a thousand, thousand times a day all His creatures should thus pause to withdraw and worship Him in the heart.” – Brother Lawrence
from an 1981 translation by E.M. Blaiklock quoted in Celtic Daily Prayer, book two. (London: William Collins, 2015), page 1476.
In the liturgical churches within the western Christian tradition, we’re still only in the first week of Easter. I feel sad for folks in congregations that practice an Easter that is over and done as you head out the door to a tasty Easter brunch.
Easter, in the narrowest sense, is that Sunday Christians celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from death. But in the fuller sense Easter is a season that stretches from that holiest day up to the Day of Pentecost. Starting the count with Easter Sunday itself, that makes 7 Sundays in the Easter season. That’s a lot of “Hallelujahs” and a lot of “He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!!”
And that’s the kind of Easter I grew up with. That’s the kind of Easter in which we sang the hymns I’ve been posting this week, and many others I’ve skipped over. They’re good hymns with biblical texts and strong spiritual theology, paired with stirring tunes. Singing these hymns year after year after year was a richly upbuilding experience. You might say I sang the truths into my heart. The truths, yes, but also the reassurances of forgiveness, the declarations of grace, the promises of my own resurrection.
Look back over this week’s posts if you dare and re-read the hymn texts. Let God’s love wash over you again. Know and feel the peace that passes all understanding. And allow yourself to continue your Easter celebration through the next 6 Sundays.
(We may talk later about how each and every Sunday is best viewed as a kind of ‘little Easter.’)
Note:
Luther here uses ‘contemplation’ and ‘meditation’ as synonyms. But the main point here is that meditation, by whatever name, is of more benefit to us than any amount of external works can be. Meditation changes our hearts. Even just 15 minutes of real meditation on Christ’s betrayal, arrest, trials, torture, crucifixion is way more beneficial than any spiritual disciplines, says Luther.
Quote:
“We say without hesitation that he who contemplates God’s sufferings for a day, an hour, yes, only a quarter of an hour, does better than to fast a whole year, pray a psalm a day, yes, better than to hear a hundred masses. This meditation changes a man’s being and, almost like baptism, gives him a new birth.” (page 11)
Source: Luther, Martin. “A Meditation on Christ’s Passion” (1519) Luther’s Works Vol. 42. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
Pathology: the Study of a Path 