On the Last Day of July

Sad I am to see it go.
More than anything
I know:

School just around the bend;
Summer fun about to end.
They wait not for Labor Day.

This journey never ends;
Happy I am for friends.
They help me walk the Way.

Along with you my present-day friends, we have friends from days, years, centuries gone by: even Benedict of Nursia and the Wesley brothers. Today I came across something about Benedict, taken from the Prologue of Book Two of the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great.

There was a man of venerable life, blessed by grace, and blessed in name, for he was called "Benedictus" or Benedict. From his younger years, he always had the mind of an old man; for his age was inferior to his virtue. All vain pleasure he despised, and though he was in the world, and might freely have enjoyed such commodities as it yields, yet he esteemed it and its vanities as nothing. more

After reading it I was reminded of a verse in one of Charles Wesley's hymns.

Dead to the world
And all its toys,
Its idle pomp and fading joys,
Be Thou alone my one desire.

See you this Sunday for another time together, and bit more on the Wesleys, before we move on to the 20th century and C.S. Lewis for our last two meetings. In short, we will meet three times in August: the 3rd, the 17th, the 31st.

A Marker Along the Way

I took a glance at Esther de Waal's Seeking God, The Way of St. Benedict, and thought this little comment from her Intro (p. 13) was a good reminder to all of us:

I have one hope in writing this book and that is that it may serve as a first step to an encounter with the Benedictine Way, for reading about it is no substitute for living it.

Reading about it is no substitute for living it....well, amen, and amen, to that, sister! In all our studies and all our reading, amen to that!

The Wesley Brothers

We had an excellent meeting this past Sunday, building on ground we have covered about the Benedictine way of spiritual growth and then moving on about 1200 years to John and Charles Wesley and the Methodist Revival.

We started with a quote from Norvene Vest's book on the Rule of Benedict:

There is a very important connection between true listening and deep obedience; both suggest a turning in order to receive more fully that which is being given.

Turning is really what the whole Rule is about. It presumes the first turning, or conversion, of baptism; and it is then deeply interested in the second and lifelong turning, of daily conversion to Christ. The question always in Benedict's mind is the question of Christian maturity: "how can we live out our commitment to the Lord in daily life?"

I then pointed out that this question is a thread, or a stream, that runs through every century of the life of the church. Every century hungry hearts have sought to find ways to answer the question, and when they have found something that works, inevitably revival follows. At least that it was I have observed from my reading of the history of the church. And so we can jump 1200 years ahead and find John and Charles Wesley, students at Christ Church College, at Oxford University, seeking to answer the same question. Their answer was the Holy Club, gathering like minds and hearts together to seek after God and live holy lives. I shared a photo I took in Christ Church Cathedral last summer:

I came upon that tile as I wandered the glorious interior of Christ Church Cathedral. Look closely and you'll see something deep red in the upper right corner. That is the first step leading up to the pulpit; how appropriate to have this tile placed there, a reminder to all who approach to bring a word to God's people, John and Charles Wesley, both great men of the Word, John the preacher, Charles the hymn-writer.

Click here for few more shots of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, taken during my visit there in June 2007.

Well, they did not come into the fullness of their callings at Oxford nor as members of the Holy Club. They set out from there to change the world in Georgia, the American colony, and both encountered failure. Going over they had observed the calm serenity of a band of Moravian brethren in the midst of an awful storm. Some time after their return, tails between their legs as it were, they encountered Peter Bohler, a Moravian leader, and in time their 'hearts were strangely warmed' and they entered into the fullness of that life they had longed for since their days at Oxford.

From that brief overview, we moved on into the hymns of Charles Wesley as an avenue to understand some of what animated these men. Our sourcebook was Hymns of Eternal Truth. I read a bit from the Preface:

...these hymns give expression to the unspeakable yearnings within in a manner which beautiful poetry and utmost piety unaided cannot accomplish, for many have produced such hymns but have failed of that 'something' that so permeates the writings of the Wesleys as to place them in a class above all others.

The difference surely lies in the fact that these hymns were born in revival, and come from the Spirit of Life then breathing through the land.

From there I passed out a different hymn to each person and suggested we use lectio divina as a tool to better understand them. We spent some time alone doing that and then re-gathered to share out insights.

Some of the folks were interested in knowing what the melody settings were, so yours truly broke into song in a delight that singing these hymns always brings.

The hymns we covered were the following:

1. Come, Holy Ghost, all-quickening fire...
2. Now I have found the ground, wherein...
3. My God, I am Thine...
4. Jesu, Thy boundless love to me...
5. Spirit of Faith, come down...

I think everyone felt it was a rich time together and we will pick up from there on Sunday, August 3, at 5:00 PM in the Parish Hall. See you then.

Final Recap on Benedict

Well, here's a little bit of a recap of our June 6 meeting:

We went around the table sharing what we did as a general rule day in day out in terms of a spiritual discipline. I shared Linda's post on that subject, and also the comments from Virginia, since neither of them could be there.

Based on what was shared it appears the primary challenge everyone faces is drifting off, getting easily distracted, and just mouthing words, both during prayer and even when reading the Bible. We all embraced the Benedictine response: "I fall and I get up....I fall and I get up." We also all like the idea of the accountability we share with others: we all have a need for some sort of accountability, however that takes shape.

Several ideas we all liked:
1. read outloud; it engages the ear and tongue in addition to the eye and mind
2. follow a daily devotional like Forward Day by Day, both in English and in Spanish
3. try journaling to record what is quickened to you during a particular time of prayer or study
4. set aside a space in your home for devotions that helps you unplug from all the pressing duties of the day

Finally, recapping good resources for going deeper with the Benedictine model:
1. Chittister's The Rule of Benedict, Insight for the Ages
2. Vest's Preferring Christ, A Devotional Commentary and Workbook on the Rule of Saint Benedict
3. Esther de Waal's Seeking God, The Way of St. Benedict.

During the Series we drew specifically from the first two noted above, and briefly talked about the third. Some said that they found de Waal a bit more difficult to grasp than Chittister. But I highly recommend it. Although it may be a bit more challenging, her book opens up the Benedictine way, and helps us see how it can work in the midst of our busy lives "of continuous interruption."

So this is not the work of an academic or a theologian. It comes from the lived-out experience of a wife and mother with many commitments, and it springs from a conviction that the Rule speaks to those who like myself are seeking God in the midst of a busy, often confusing and exhausting daily life.

p. 12, 1984 edition.

Read, mark, study and inwardly digest what she serves up; it will undoubtedly do your soul some good! The Thoughts and Prayers, and the Notes, at the end of each chapter are both an added bonus.

One Last Word on Prayer

A quote from Joan Chittister's The Rule of Benedict, Insight for the Ages
(pp. 89-90):

Prayer in the Benedictine tradition, then, is not an exercise done for the sake of quantity or penance or the garnering of spiritual merit. Benedictine prayer is not an excursion into a prayer-wheel spirituality where more is better and recitation is more important than meaning. Prayer,..., if we "sing praise wisely," or well, or truly, becomes a furnace in which every act of our lives is submitted to the heat and purifying process of the smelter's fire so that our minds and our hearts, our ideas and our lives, come to be in sync, so that we are what we say we are, so that the prayers that pass our lips change our lives, so that God's presence becomes palpable to us. Prayer brings us to burn off the dross of what clings to our souls like the mildew and sets us free for deeper, richer, truer lives in which we become what we seek.

Comments?

Contemplatio

Continuing excerpts from Norvene Vest's Preferring Christ:

4. Contemplatio (contemplation): turn the whole process back over to the Giver, allowing oneself to be deepened, guided, and transformed by the Spirit.

(p. 2)

Oratio

Continuing excerpts from Norvene Vest's Preferring Christ:

3. Oratio (prayer): apply the meaning to the present situation in one's own life, allowing the word to penetrate the heart, evoking prayerful response.

(p. 2)