from the sayings of the Desert Mothers and Fathers (a paraphrase by Merton)…

The Desert Mothers and Fathers sayings have been gathered in numerous anthologies by the Orthodox and Roman church. These hermits of the Egyptian desert formed the basis for the formation of formal monasticism and give us a glimpse at a literal following of Jesus’ teaching. The sayings of our spiritual ancestors which I will share on Wednesdays for the for-seeable future are primarily taken from the hermits of Scete who fled the “worldly” habitation of the Roman Empire during the 3rd and 4th century.

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“Once two brothers were sitting with Abbot Poemen and one praised the other brother saying: ‘He is a good brother, he hates evil.’

The old man said, ‘What do you mean, he hates evil?’

And the brother did not know what to reply. So he said, ‘Tell me, Father, what it is to hate evil?’

The Father said, ‘That man hates evil who hates his own sins, and looks upon every brother as a saint, and loves him as a saint.’”

[from The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton p. 70-71]

Over the past few weeks I have been preparing for some teaching that I will be conducting on the topic of Developing A Rule of Life. It is a topic that both intimidates and excites me. I have never been part of a community that has adopted a rule of life. So it puts me in a great disadvantage to speak on the topic.

I have read widely and I have a personal rule of life - so that is somewhat helpful - but I lack the communal aspect — so I often wonder, “do I get this at all?”

None-the-less, long ago I learned if it is worth doing, it is worth doing imperfectly. So I trudge ahead.

When we hear this word rule, many think of it as a set of regulations or a list of prohibitions. While that is the popular definition, rule in this context is maybe the older understanding of, “a straight edge to draw straight lines and to measure.” A rule of life is more of a guide to help us measure and line up our life - it helps us answer at least two critical questions:

1. Who do I want to become?

2. How do I want to live?

Based on this answer we develop some ways to head toward that end. Great rules of life have drawn many into community with others who feel called to the same aspirations. A great case in point is Benedict’s Rule. His rule is built on helping others become stable and yet ever converting in their faith; to model Christian hospitality; and to live a life marked by unceasing prayer. Thousands have made the Rule of Benedict, there own (even this day I am considering officially adopting his rule as an Oblate of St. Benedict).

Answering those two questions is never easy. I have been struggling as I have re-assessed my answers over the years. I think at this point my answer would be:

Who do I want to become? I want to become more fully human - following Jesus as a more engaged human. (To my ears this means I desire to be more present [aware and attentive] to myself, others, creation and God).

How do I want to live? I want to live my life authentically - in a manner that is appropriately vulnerable and accepting, hospitable and available - that others might find encouragement and hope from the well of my life.

Tomorrow we will look at how we might incorporate behaviors and practices into our lives to make our rule a reality.

I have been asked what is so great about St. Benedict. From my perspective I really find the following fascinating:

1. St. Benedict was trying to reform the church from it’s laxness and compromised position of being wed with the state. He was trying to regain the counter-cultural-ness of Christ’s Kingdom. I love that radical spirit and that passion for bringing an alternative way of life - and wait for it - he bases his model for radical Christian living on the family!

2. St. Benedict is a Church Father all can relate to and emulate. He was a layman (not a priest); he desired to reach out and minister to and with whomever God brought along his path (ie - Benedictine hospitality); and no one tradition can call him their own (Benedict is pre-Great Schism and pre “reformation”).

3. St. Benedict makes the four Gospels the model for directing our life. His way forward was thoroughly Christological. In the prologue of the Rule he invites the reader to follow a new life and to “make the Gospels our guide.”

4. As I mentioned yesterday - I also like the extremes, even paradox, that Benedict weaves into the lives of those who follow his rule - stability and constant conversion; work and leisure; flexibility and asceticism; cloistered yet hospitable - and of course his commitment to guiding the day by the liturgy of the hours (the work of God) and the recitation of the psalms.

5. St. Benedict is not for those who are “really serious” or some graduate level spirituality for the “super pious” - St. Benedict was writing for the average Christ-follower. He again writes in the Rule that his purpose is, “to erect a school for beginners in the service of the Lord.”

Benedict is for beginners!

For the past five or so years I have been enamored, intrigued and maybe a bit obsessed with things benedictine. There is something about it that just “feels right” to me. There is something about the push toward “always changing” and stability; prayer and work; and this intensive spirituality that is both mystical and everyday that is alluring. I have had the pleasure of visiting with benedictine sisters and have also read extensively from their great tradition. I am even considering following this “passion” into a more official relationship (becoming a benedictine oblate).

I was reading the other day and came across this interpretation of Benedict’s view of silence, and I must say I find it to be one of the most profound, relevant and challenging paragraphs I have had the pleasure of reading. Michael Casey quotes the following in Strangers to the City as he considers the topic of “Leisure”.

Silence, however, stands outside the world of profit and utility; it cannot be exploited for profit; you cannot get anything out of it. It is “unproductive.” Therefore it is regarded as valueless. Yet there is more help and healing in silence than in all the “useful things.” Purposeless, unexploitable silence suddenly appears at the side of the all-too-purposeful, and frightens us by it very purposelessnes. It interferes with the regular flow of purposeful. It strengthens the untouchable, it lessens the damage inflicted by exploitation. It makes things whole again, by taking them back from the world of dissipation into the world of wholeness. It gives something of its own holy uselessness, for that is what silence itself is: holy uselessness.” - Max Piccard from The World of Silence pp. 18-19

Casey builds on this by saying - “[The tradition of Benedictine leisure] means living gently; it is the opposite of being driven or obsessed It involves getting on with the job at hand and detaching oneself from it when it is time to move on to something else. To some extent leisure invites us to cultivate the virtue of inefficiency.”

Holy uselessness… the virtue of inefficiency… what a prescription for 21st century westerners (and churches) who seem to lift up and celebrate being driven by purpose, vision, effectiveness and efficiency.

Them benedictines! What a breathe of fresh air… breathe it in - leisure, silence, doing nothing, holy interruptions that move us into holy uselessness.

I have been thinking about my own attitudes about life. I have decided that I can be a very selfish individual. We keep a few animals on our property and I will sometimes feel resentful on the inside when their feeding schedule or such interferes with what I would like to do. I think - what an inconvenience to have to stop my activity or change my plans to meet this responsibility (sounds silly just to write it?!)

You see where I am going?

I have come to realize that just as the liturgical year, the liturgy of the hours and other symbols, traditions and ceremonies interfered or interrupted the schedules of those who have gone before us - that God has placed animals and seasons and weather into my life to remind me that I need to submit my wishes, desires, and my schedule to the real Author of the Story. I would love to script my own life - but as a follower of God it is a daily duty and privilege to surrender my will to live within God’s unraveling epic. It is so much easier to think of Christianity as a religion of destination - really concerned more about eternity than the here and now. A convenience that we take care of now to ensure a life in eternity with God (and than go on living our lives).

Clearly this is distortion. While we hear much about eternity in the pages of the Old and New Testament - it is clearly not the intention of the Gospel to merely take care of eternity while we are here on the Earth. I think instead Christianity and the Gospel that Jesus came proclaiming was a message of transformation and restoration which is an intrusion into our lives. A message that screws up and destroys or plans that we might be transformed into people who are fully human as we cooperate with God’s will, in the here and now.

How are we approaching our lives? Or better asked, what am I laying down that I might pick up the cross, surrendering to the Author of the Story?

Gotta run - a dog is needing to go out.

I just finished Ian Morgan Cron’s, Chasing Francis - what a DELIGHT.

It is a quick read. A well-written story. A refreshing little book. A great introduction to Saint Francis. It also happens to be a wonderful prescription for our churches in the west (at least from where I sit). I hope you will take time to join the chase! You won’t be disappointed as you follow after the “little poor man.”

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I have been invited by my friend over at Calacirian to participate in Lynn Hallewell’s “synchroblog” entitled “How I Pray.” So here it goes.

For me the following are the most regular prayer practices that inform and form my prayer life.

The Jesus Prayer - about 5 or so years ago this practice of praying became a very regular part of my life. It remains to be my “go to prayer.” I can pray this prayer 100’s of times in a day. It is so portable. Powerful. Meaning FILLED. I repeat it gratuitously. I repeat it fervently. It rolls in the back of my mind on some occasions like the surf on the beach. It has in some ways become a part of my pattern in living.

The Jesus Prayer is a simple prayer from the Eastern Church and the prayer while incredibly profound is merely a simple sentence (that most can remember upon hearing just once.). The scriptural intent behind this prayer is to help the Christian Pilgrim fulfill Paul’s admonishment to “pray without ceasing.” (I Thessalonians 5:17) The words themselves that make up the Jesus Prayer also come from the words of Scripture - Luke 17:13 and Luke 18:14.

The words I use for the Jesus prayer (there are shorter and longer versions) come from what I understand to be the Anglican Tradition. The version I say, regularly is:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.

I find myself often praying it in the following manner - focusing my prayer on the bolded word each time.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
God, have mercy on me a sinner.
God, have mercy.
Have mercy.

Praying the Hours has been the other way in which I have learned to pray. Joining with the Church universal several times a day to pray and read the Psalms has been a life line in my life with God. I have not been as regular in my habits the past year in this endeavor. I have been real hit and miss, actually. But, that foundation has made my prayer life the richer. I long to be part of a community which has a habit of practicing the hours. Nonetheless I journey on in my attempt to keep the hours of Morning Prayer (Matins), Mid-day Prayer (None) and Evening Prayer (Vespers). The prayer books that have been most enriching for me are St. Benedict’s Prayer Book; Celtic Daily Prayer and For All The Saints.

I have blogged about this before - so for the roots of this practice and some reviews of the books I mentioned above and maybe a couple of others - check out this post - Using A Prayer Book

Besides some spontaneous prayer during idle times during the day - it is the Jesus Prayer and Praying the Hours that inform and form my prayer life.

Others who have participated in this synchroblog -

Calacirian
Lyn Hallewell
Cindy Bryan
Brother Maynard
Lew A
Jonathan Peres
Out Of The Cocoon
Alan Knox
Rick Meigs
Barry Taylor
decompressing faith

I have a dream for the churches that I have known - a dream that one day we will be known as a place not of words, great sermons, expert teaching and wonderful activities (not that this would be a bad reputation) but that we would be known for being a place of quiet, stillness and a place of tranquility.

I think one of the great spiritual needs of our world (anxiety, busyness and stress related sickness I think are symptomatic of this) is the need for quiet, silence, being, and stillness. I think this is true for teens, as well. Our students could wrongly walk away from our churches thinking that God is pleased by noise, busyness, and much activity. That God is found in the big, the event, the extravaganza and the emotional response. Of course (as well as being a bit overstated) we know this isn’t true.

So I have a dream that we would recover the muscle to reinstate periods of stillness, silence, and quiet into our church gatherings.

Why? (that is a fair question) - consider and think on these quotes extolling what others have found in the practice of silence:

Anonymous:
“Do not speak unless you can improve the silence.”

Catherine Doherty:
“True silence is sometimes the absence of speech–but it is always the act of listening.” (from Poustinia)

“Before you can find peace outside yourself, you must have silence and quiet in your heart and in your mind.” (from Welcome Pilgrim)

Henri Nouwen:
“It is a good discipline to wonder in each new situation if people wouldn’t be better served by our silence than by our words.”

John Michael Talbot:
“As long as the pond is agitated, it remains unclear. Only through stillness does the water begin to clarify so that you can actually see what is in the pond, and so that the waters of the pond are able to reflect an image. Our spiritual life is like a pond. Anxiousness about worldly things and possessions stirs the waters of our soul, making it impossible for us to see the reality of what we are actually made of on the spiritual level, or to really reflect the Divine Image as we were created to do…. We must still our environment, with its many possessions and cares, before we can really be reborn to a whole new way of life.” (from Come to the Quiet)

Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta:
“We cannot find God in noise or agitation. Nature, trees, flowers, and grass grow in silence. The stars, the moon, and the sun move in silence.”

From The Simple Way
UPDATE!

6/21/07
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There is a new way to donate to the cause of rebuilding The Simple Way…

Donate using this link.

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6/20/07 12:30PM
This morning(Wednesday June 20, 2007), a 7-alarm fire consumed an abandoned warehouse in our Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia. The Simple Way Community Center at 3200 Potter Street was destroyed as well as at least eight of our neighbors’ homes. Over 100 people were evacuated from their homes, and 400 families are currently without power. Despite this developing tragedy, we are incredibly thankful to share that all of our community members and every one of our neighbors is safely out of harm’s way.

This fire will forever change the fabric of our community. Eight families are currently homeless, and in many cases have lost their vehicles as well as their homes. One of our neighbors, the Mahaias Family, lost their three cars as well as the equipment one family member uses for her massage therapy business. Teenager Brian Mahaias is devastated not because he has lost his belongings, but because he fears that this fire will force him to move away from this neighborhood that is his family as well as his home.

The Simple Way has lost a community center that was home to our Yes! And… afterschool program, community arts center, and Cottage Printworks t-shirt micro-business as well as to two of our community members. Community members Shane Claiborne and Jesce Walz have lost all of their belongings, Yes! And…’s after school studio and library were ruined, and community member Justin Donner’s Cottage Printworks equipment and t-shirts were destroyed.

We are thankful that we are able to help each other during this time of need, and we will continue to keep your informed about today’s events.

We have established funds to support the families who have lost their homes, the Yes! And… afterschool program, and the Simple Way community.

A fund to support the families has been established through a partner organization, EAPE. Tax-deductible donations can be made at https://www.tonycampolo.org/online_donation.php . Please make sure to put “Kensington Families Fund ” in the memo section.

Donations to the Rebuilding Fund can be made via PayPal to contribute@awip.us.

-The Simple Way Community

Who are the individuals in your life that help to refresh, renew and revitalize your connection and union with God? This is a personal question I have been struggling with myself. I went through a geographical transition about two and a half years ago and I haven’t found people in close proximity to me who help me make sense of my journey with God and His people.

I have found that I need others in my life - folks who have access to my inner life and my real struggles or I can drift and become inauthentic. I long for people in my life that help me stretch my thinking and ways of looking at and considering life. I need that one special relationship with another person who can act as a spiritual counselor or director. I need some friends who I can be real around (and they will still accept me) and who also have permission to kick my butt (lovingly mind you) when I really need it (and I obviously can play the same role in their lives). I am at a point where this void in my life is one that I am noticing and it needs attention (it’s beginning to become a dull ache).

Who are the soul friends in your life? Who is the individual (or individuals) who act as Spiritual Guides in your life?

I have begun to really pray about this in my own life. I am taking to heart the following quotes I ran across from the desert fathers…

“Basil (d. 379), bishop of Caesarea, urged Christians to find a suitable person ‘who may serve you as a very sure guide in the work of leading a holy life,’ one who knows ‘the straight road to God.’ Basil warned, ‘To believe that one does not need counsel is great pride.’”

And this saying of the Celtic Christians, “Anyone without a soul friend is a body without a head.” (as quoted in Bruce Demarest, Spiritual Guide p. 46)

May we be diligent in praying for and seeking relationships that refresh.