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A few photos over there to let you in on what goes on around here. I haven't posted on here in a while. Our last meeting was a good one. Lester visited with us. We prayed our evening prayer, had a good discussion on the James passage from the Reading on "be a doer of the word and not a hearer only..." - good insights. We had our first "tele-church" meeting as well. Robert and Molly, who've moved to Tulsa, called us and took part in our discussion time via the speakerphone. That was very cool - good to hear from those guys. We miss them. They're still on the blog - they should be on here telling you what's going on with them themselves - we'll work on 'em.
Then at the end, we celebrated the Eucharist. This is two weeks in a row where we've had a literal "spilled blood of Christ" thing happen. One of the kids bumped into the chalice and spilled some of the wine - the blood. It was kind of cool really. The last time it happened before last week, I had just said the words "spilled blood" and it went down - that was good.
What about the discussion: it was a good one - talking alot about the "doing it anyway" thing that Debi mentioned down there. We talked also about the process - hearing > orienting yourself to God > transformation > doing that comes as a matter of that transformation. Good stuff. We're growing as a community I think.
| posted by + Alan | 9:40 AM | |
Sunday, October 20, 2002
I started to post this on The Scriptorium, but decided it was better here instead. I'm catching up on my blog reading after my "hiatus", and got to Alan's entry of October 16th re: transformation in the context of community. The highlighted phrase "do it anyway" reminded me of a song I've not heard in a while by Ceili Rain, entitled (oddly enough) "Do It Anyway". I thought it might be edifying to share it with the rest of you:
You're scared to put your face in the water--
Do it anyway
You're scared to color outside the border--
Do it anyway
You're scared if you say that they will laugh at you--
Do it anyway
You're scared of what I say 'cause it might be true
Do it anyway--do it anyway--do it anyway
You're scared if you join up you still won't belong--
Do it anyway
You're scared that if you leave--you'll be gone--
Do it anyway
You're scared to let your friends depend on you--
Do it anyway
You might surprise the both of you--so
Do it anyway--do it anyway--do it anyway
What if you're wrong--and what if you're right
What if you walk the walk--and fight the fight
You're scared that that next peak is too high for you to climb--
Do it anyway
Afraid that they will start to laugh if you start to cry--
Do it anyway
You're scared to tell the world what you're doin' here--
Do it anyway
You're scared to say "I love you" right in my ear--
Do it anyway--do it anyway--do it anyway
| posted by #Debi | 12:40 PM | |
Thursday, October 17, 2002
Had a good talk with my roommate the other day about worship. We were talking about how much of our own worship experiences have been more sentimentality and less meeting with God. We do the "thing" whatever that is & expect God to bless us. It can even protect us from meeting with God - because we all know that an encounter with God can often result in some kind of awareness of our own sinfulness & need for change. Or at the very least, just doing the routine helps us keep up the good image. Later that morning, I opened up the next chapter in Thomas Merton's book, Contemplative Prayer and read this. He's talking about meditation, but still a very similar experience. Pretty cool stuff.
All methods of meditation that are, in effect, merely devices for allaying and assuaging the experience of emptiness and dread are ultimately evasions which can do nothing to help us. Indeed, they may confirm us in delusions and harden us against that fundamental awareness of our real condition, against the truth for which our hearts cry out in desperation.
What we need is not a false peace which enables us to evade the implacable light of judment, but the grace courageously to accept the bitter truth that is revealed to us; to abandon our inertia, our egoism and submit entirely to the demands of the Spirit, praying earnestly for help, and giving ourselves generously to every effort asked of us by God.
A method of meditation or a form of contemplation that merely produces the illusion of having "arrived somewhere," of having achieved security and preserved one's familiar status by playing a part, will eventually have to be unlearned in dread - or else we will be confirmed in the arrogance, the impenetrable self-assurance of the Pharisee. We will become impervious to the deepest truths. We will be closed to all who do not participate in our illusion. We will live "good lives" that are basically inauthentic, "good" only as long as they permit us to remain established in our respectable and impermeable identities...Such "goodness" is preserved by routine and the habitual avoidance of serious risk - indeed of serious challenge. In order to avoid apparent evil, this pseudo-goodness will ignore the summons of genuine good. It will prefer routine duty to courage and creativity.
| posted by Matt | 11:29 PM | |
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Abbey of Gethsemani...Aaah...3 days of silence. OK it was more like 2 1/4 days because on Monday God knocked all my nice "duckies in formation" all over creation. I reacted poorly. Became an ass. Became? OK, maybe I just went to new levels of assdome. Anyway, fumed (pouted?) the whole way to Trappist, KY because things didn't go my way. Great start for a spiritual retreat. Oh well.
Got there in time to eat, go to Compline & hear Father Matthew's talks. (Yes, Alan, He ROCKS!) He spoke of living in God's favor and easing into the rhythm of life rather than trying so hard to make things fit. (Ducks in a row?) It reminded me of the 1st time going skiing. At first I hated that stupid ski lift. But I learned once I relaxed & went with it, rather than trying so hard I was able to jump right on & go with it. Set the pace for the next couple of days.
The rest of the trip seemed to be all about "the journey". I started reading Eugene Peterson's A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. It's meditations on the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134 the songs sung by Hebrew Pilgrims on their way up to worship in Jerusalem). Really great stuff that flies in the face of our instant society.
Had this beautiful experience walking up one of the wooded trails to the Hill of Statues. I walked it very slowly trying to take it all in. Beauty of the setting. Statues and signs all along the way. It's actually like walking through worship installations. I stopped at each point, took pictures, spent time meditating, writing down my thoughts & prayers. Through the whole experience God spoke very clearly about living in his grace. In a very simple way God reminded me over & over about how far reaching His grace is. The Abbey bell tolls every 15 minutes. All along the way (I took about 3 hours on this "journey") I could hear the bells. No matter how far I got I was always within the sound of the bell. Even at one point when I got off the path, stuck in these thorny plants taller than me I heard the bell. Great image of my life story!
I loved attending the prayer offices. Yes, I even did the Vigils at 3 am both days. Of course unlike the monks I went back to bed! God neatly wrapped the whole journey thing together on Wed during the prayer offices. We chanted Psalms 120-134.
One last thing, ran across a cool little book in the library. A Celtic Benediction by J. Philip Newell. Heard of it, Debi? I think you'd like it. It's a book of morning & night prayers based on the 7 days of Creation. Here's one of the prayers:
For the first showings of the morning light
and the emerging outline of the day
thanks be to you, O God.
For earth's colors drawn forth by the sun
its brilliance piercing clouds of darkness
and shimmering through leaves and flowing waters
thanks be to you.
Show to me this day
amidst life's dark streaks of wrong and suffering
the light that endures every person.
Dispel the confusions that cling close to my soul
that I may see with eyes washed by your grace
that I may see myself and all people
with eyes cleansed by the freshness of the new day's light.
| posted by Matt | 10:24 PM | |
Tuesday, October 08, 2002
One of us is playing monk this week. I even got to cut Matt's hair before he left for his retreat - I told him it was his novitiate vow. Hopefully he comes back and shares his collected wisdom with us.
He went to the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, KY. It's the former earthly home of Thomas Merton - only about an hour and a half from here. My friend Kevin said I should put up a Gethsemani retreat primer for those whove never been. Here's the short version:
- if you're a guy try to get in the Monastery wing - much more monk-like
- go to Vigils (night prayer office at 3:00am) at least once while you're there - very cool
- the guest library is a great resource - spend some time in there
- make SURE and go to Father Matthew's talks after Compline (last prayer office at 7:30pm) each night in the side chapel - not to be missed - a great character - lots of wisdom stored up in his 80 something year old frame.
- go walk in the woods
- don't try to do too much agenda wise - rest, pray, eat, rest, take naps, read, pray, etc.
More later...
| posted by + Alan | 8:34 PM | |
Thursday, October 03, 2002
Good time last night. We talked about our lives, about the Anam Cara "soul friend" celtic tradition a little - good stuff. We prayed together an abbreviated Evening Office from the Liturgy of the Hours - we start in a time of silence - one Psalm, the antiphons, the Gloria, the NT reading - we listen as we read and pray - then we talk about what we heard. We've done this a few times now and the conversations always end up very good.
Although it's very liturgical in one way, it ends up very organic as a way to meet. The Evening Office is just there, for that day. I didn't pick it. We pray that - we listen to that, to hear what God is saying - we talk about it. It's very cool. I think this is turning into the default way for us to gather when something else isn't planned. I think it's a good thing. It's regular. It's steady. It's intentionally focused on God and what He says to us in His Word. It listens to His Spirit. It doesn't depend on the charisma of a man - of any of us.
Last week was my birthday. We met (it was our monthly potluck - we did Brian's b-day like this too) and had a little "thing." They gave me.... a bell. Yes, a big black iron bell worthy of a monastery church tower (not quite that big) - an awesome gift. I can't wait to get it set up so I can ring it. I can see that ringing thing happening on a regular basis. You might even be able to hear it if you try hard enough...
| posted by + Alan | 9:42 AM | |