Live Among Outcasts – Christine Valters-Paintner 

“Francis wrote of his monks, ‘They should be glad to live among social outcasts.’ This reminds me of a saying by the desert father Abba Nilus, ‘Happy is the monk who thinks he is the outcast of all.’ . . . When we commit to the contemplative path, we are called to spaciousness and presence rather than rushing and productivity, choosing a simple life in the midst of an abundance of riches rejecting the pervasive consumer message. To be an outcast means that we don’t align ourselves with the dominant way of thinking.”
 — Christine Valters Paintner, PhD Illuminating the Way: Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics 

In what ways are you an outcast? What messages in the pervasive consumer culture in which we live do you reject? What choices do you need to make in order to live a simpler and more contemplative life?