Today I was reading one of this week’s reading from the book A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals. I find his discussion intriguing as we continue this journey of Sabbath rest we continue to rediscover our quiet spiritual center and that is a good thing.
Merton wrote about the unhealthy ways that the ancient monastic community approached their life of faith in his journal entry on February 22, 1948. In his study of the early monastic communities he said the following about the craziness of the extreme actions they took in order to be faithful to God: trying to starve and beat your way to sanctity and of assuming that your own efforts and energy are practically everything—beating your head against a brick wall at the end of a dead end in order to fulfill some particular negative ideal. (The Journals of Thomas Merton, Vol. 2, 1941-1952: Entering the Silence – Becoming a Monk & Writer)
I have read about the early monastic practice of wearing spiked belts around their waist under their habits and self-flagellation (whipping yourself enough to draw blood). What a way to prove one’s devotion to God 😳
While those practices are only distant memories in history books (for the most part) the church has other over-the-top ways of proving how some are so much more pious than others.
For years I have tried to humbly serve the Lord with Micah 6:8 and Matthew 22:37-39 as my guides.
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8 Bible Gatway link)
He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:37-39 Bible Gateway link)
I understand Merton’s struggles and truly do appreciate the way he responded to the “unusual” ways of proving one’s devotion. In his own life and ministry Merton often struggled with the reality of his fame and rather healthy ego.
I am happy that I can at least want to love God. Perhaps that is all I’ve got, but it is already all that is essential. And He will take care of the rest.
Perhaps that is one of the lessons to be learned during this time of rest, healing, and reflection. I am humbled and honored that you, dear reader, walk this journey with me. May it be a blessing to you.
Hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines. . . . The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances; free also to leave and follow their own vocations. Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adore the lifestyle of the host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his own.
Verse of the day
You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you[.] – Isaiah 43:4
Voice of the day
The sun will never return the same way. Find one small thing to love today. – Angie Weiland–Crosby
Prayer of the day
Let me honor and marvel at the intricacies of your creation.
My dear friend, sister, and mentor Christine Valters Paintner wrote this poem which can be found in her book “Dreaming of Stones” (Amazon link).
Dreams
To
willingly
descend the long
dark staircase is an
act of trust that something
worthwhile waits for you there
in the cellar with its cobwebbed boxes
piled high with discarded things, the scent
of a mouse long dead and naphthalene balls.
Some days you clamber around, eyes not yet adjusted
to this night territory, so everything you bump startles
you. But some days your pupils widen and you wander
in amazement, seeing just how much light is contained
in darkness, like stones shimmering in moonlight,
and rather than return with a pile of them,
you choose one to carry back up the stairs,
back into the comfort of your home,
where this tiny gift splits open
the foundation. You look out
where the window once
was, and instead of
the brick wall of
the house next
door, you
realize
you can now see to the horizon.
Dreams by Christine Valters Paintner
She invited retreat participants to reflect on the poem and write about what shimmered for us. This was my prayerful response. Thank you, Christine, for this opportunity ♥️☘️
To
willingly
descend the long
dark staircase
As I spend more time in silence and reflection alone and with Denise
as we take this journey of Sabbath rest
I remember when
silence used to scare me
At first I blamed it on tinnitus
a “gift” from my time in the military
But the true reality revealed
a deeper, darker reality
A fear of what I would encounter
My past that wasn’t pleasant
My wrong turns in life
The people I had hurt
The ones who had hurt me
It was like military exercises or deployments
The moonless nights were worrisome
What enemy lurked in the darkness
Now more than a decade later
Sister Moon is my constant companion
Her fullness guiding us through the night
Even in darkness she is there in the glimmer of starlight
A gift offered to me through this time of Sabbath rest and time spent within the Abbey
A thoughtful reflection from my dear sister joy 💜
My latest poem describes poetry acting like a lens, a prism through which we see life and understand thoughts. It might look distorted sometimes, …
prism: seeing life through the lens of poetry
In our world full of strangers, estranged from their own past, culture, and country, from their neighbors, friends, and family, from their deepest self and their God, we witness a painful search for a hospitable place where life can be lived without fear and where community can be found. Although many, we might say even most, strangers in this world become easily the victim of a fearful hostility, it is possible for men and women and obligatory for Christians to offer an open and hospitable space where strangers can cast off their strangeness and become our fellow human beings. The movement from hostility to hospitality is hard and full of difficulties. Our society seems to be increasingly full of fearful, defensive, aggressive people, anxiously clinging to their property and inclined to look at their surrounding world with suspicion, always expecting an enemy to suddenly appear, intrude, and do harm. But still—that is our vocation: to convert the hostis into a hospes, the enemy into a guest, and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.
Verse of the day
O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. – Psalm 96:1
Voice of the day
The present was an egg laid by the past that had the future inside its shell. – Zora Neale Hurston, Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939)
Prayer of the day
As the past brought forth this present, remind us that our actions hold tomorrow’s potential — dormant, expectant.
“What we do is so little we may seem to be constantly failing. . . . But, unless the seed falls into the earth and dies, there is no harvest. And why see results? Our work is to sow.”—Dorothy Day
“Nonviolence is not a set of tactics but a force that is inherent in the human spirit. To fully understand it requires a change in consciousness and a recommitment to a set of core values. To restore our democracy, save the planet, and remind us of the possibility of peace we long for, we require a dramatic cultural shift wherein we each take ownership of our own actions and the principles of nonviolence.”—US Representative Pramila Jayapal, in Foreword to The Third Harmony by Michael Nagler
Verse of the day
“I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”
– John 16:33
Voice of the day
Nobody should have to hide who they are inside to please people on the outside.
– Terry McMillan, It’s Not All Downhill From Here (2020)
Prayer of the day
With peace and courage, may I live just as I am, just as you designed me.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 