Merton - Pray for your own Discovery

"Finding God"  means much more than just abandoning all things that are not God, and emptying oneself of images and desires.

If you succeed in emptying your mind of every thought and every desire you may indeed withdraw into the center of yourself and concentrate everything within you upon the imaginary point where your life springs out of God; yet you will not really find God.   No natural exercise can bring you into vital contact with him.    Unless he utters Himself in you, speaks his own name in the center of your soul, you will no more know him than a stone knows the ground upon which it rests in its inertia....

Our discovery of God is, in a way, God's discovery of us.   We cannot go to heaven to find Him because we have no way of knowing where heaven is or what it is.   He comes down from heaven and finds us...We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us.

St. Anselm - a Prayer

O Lord my God,
teach my heart this day where and how to see You
where and how to find You.

You have made me and remade me,
and You have bestowed on me
all the good things I possess
and still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that
for which I was made.

Teach me to seek You,
for I cannot seek you
unless you teach me,
nor find you
unless You show Yourself to me.

Let me seek you in my desire,
Let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving You
Let me love you when I find You.

What is Christology?

Christology is Christian reflection, teaching, and doctrine concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Christology is the part of theology that is concerned with the nature and work of Jesus, including such matters as the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and his human and divine natures and their relationship.
Christology is dependent upon, but not identical with, the portrayal of Jesus in the New Testament, and both the four Gospels and the Epistles. The underlying methodological assumption of Christology is that the New Testament contains the authentic and accurate record of Jesus, both explicitly and implicitly. The New Testament is taken to convey that the earliest followers of Jesus were convinced that God was revealed in him and that they attributed a number of titles to him, such as “Messiah,” “Son of Man,” “Son of God,” and “Lord.”

Christian discourse (theology) uses the portrayal of Jesus in the foundational documents of Christianity as a point of departure. Traditionally, Christological reflection has focused on two specific aspects of that portrayal—namely;

(a)  the person and

(b)  the work of Jesus.

It has also sought to clarify and systematize the meaning of the scriptural depiction of Jesus.

Julian & Trinitarian Spirituality

It was on May 13^th 1373 that, at the age of 30, Julian of Norwich received her revelations.  As there is a record of Margaret Kempe (more about whom later) coming to seek her spiritual direction, she must have been still alive as a recluse in 1416. 

The basic facts of her experiences are easy to set down.   Born about 1342, she received her Revelations  (Shewings) when on the point of death having received the Last Rites of the church.   Known to us today as Julian or Lady Julian, her true name remains a mystery.  She is named after the Church to which her hermitage was attached.  Over two days she received 16 revelations and soon after wrote down a short account.  Known as ‘The Short Text’ it consists of 25 chapters.  She produced the ‘Long Text 20 years later – they numbered 86 chapters.

Her prayer was somewhat unusual to our 21^st century ways of thinking.  She had 3 ‘intentions’ or ‘requests’.  They were:

1.      to ‘have mind’ of the Passion of Christ.

2.      to have a bodily illness

3.      to have 3 wounds of contrition, compassion and a longing with her will for God (ST 1, p. 125-126)

She prayed for the first two “be they the will of God”; and they gradually fell into the background with her; for the 3^rd she prayed absolutely.

Julian summarizes the 6 elements of the revelations in chapter 8:   Firstly the Passion and the shedding of Christ's blood; secondly, St. Mary, thirdly the divinity almighty, all wisdom and all love; fourthly all creation that is so little and yet good; fifthly, all is preserved by love; sixthly, God as the source of all goodness and himself the supreme good.

The core of the revelation is described:  “I saw red blood running down from under the crown, hot and flowing freely and copiously, a living stream, just as it was at the time when the crown of thorns was pressed on his sacred head.” (LT4:181.)

LOVE IS THE CONTEXT OF ALL THE REVELATIONS.

In the first revelation it is especially love as revealed in mercy:  "I trusted in the mercy of God.” (LT3:179)  The first revelation immerses us into the Trinity.

                        "Suddenly the Trinity filled my heart full of the greatest joy, and I understood that it will be so in heaven without end to all who will come there.   For the Trinity is God, God is the Trinity.   The Trinity is our maker.   The Trinity is our protector.   The Trinity is our everlasting lover.   The Trinity is our endless joy and bliss, by our Lord Jesus Christ and in our Lord Jesus Christ.   And this was revealed in the first vision and in them all.   For where Jesus appears, the blessed Trinity is understood, as I see it."   (LT 4:181)

Sacred Places and Spaces

Every culture has always felt the need to set aside a particular space for sacred use.  Stonehenge, Newgrange, the Great Pyramids of Egypt and the stepped Pyramids of Mexico are witness to man’s unending desire to have a place where the human and the divine can come together.  For the people of Israel, the Temple at Jerusalem was not just a symbol of this divine union but it was regarded as a true resting place for God.  When the Roman army destroyed it, Israel was forced into the practice of worshiping God who dwells in the human heart.  The early Christians, although also affected by the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, understood that each person is a temple where we can encounter God.  As St. Paul so brilliantly put it: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”  So why then do we continue to build churches, cathedrals, or other sacred spaces?

 

All spaces, whether it is our home, our place of employment, or the place we go to worship shapes us either for good or ill.  If our home is run-down, dirty, and disorganized our lives tend to be the same.  If our workspace is cramped, uncomfortable, poorly lit, etc., we will eventually develop animosity towards our job and employer.  Sir Winston Churchill put it best when he said: “We shape our buildings and afterward they shape us.”  The relationship between people and sacred space is so close that one depends on the other.  

By virtue of our Baptism, we share in the life of Jesus Christ and because of this, wherever the people of God gather that place becomes sacred.  Our Churches only have meaning and purpose when we gather in them to celebrate God’s Word, Holy Communion and the other sacraments, and when missionary activity comes from it.  Christ is present in the living Word and in the people assembled there; he’s present in the sacraments and in the art that decorates the place.  Christ is also waiting to be taken from this place to those who have yet to meet him.  In other words, when our church buildings become a place where we can find Christ and a place from which we can bring Christ to others, then it becomes a sacred space.  

Sacred space is space that gives honor to God’s creation, and that is used respectfully; a place that is well designed and pleasing to look at; a place where those who gather are authentic and not trying to be something they’re not, because sacred space allows us to experience God’s presence.  Does our sacred space, our parish, cathedrals, and basilicas allow people to experience God’s presence?  Can people encounter Jesus Christ there?  Do we as a people of God help to make the place we gather sacred?

A Walking Church

(1 Cor 3: 9c-11. 16-17)
An overly pious man lived on our road. He wore several rosary beads and many scapulars hung from his neck. People used to call him ‘the walking church’. Every Christian, according to St. Paul, ought to be a ‘walking church’, though in a very different sense. The Spirit dwelling within us makes each one a living, breathing space for holiness which must never be damaged nor destroyed. Christ is the firm foundation on which everything else rests. Will we survive the damage of present-day scandals and rejection? Whatever our failures, the spiritual core of the church remains untouched. Let us build on that.

New Wine, New Wineskins, New Mindset

A friend is studying theology. He has a background in physics and mathematics. He tells me, with some excitement, that he couldn’t get into it at all at first. Then he realised that a whole different mindset was needed. Now he speaks enthusiastically of new insights and a wealth of understanding previously hidden from him.

There are some extraordinary poetic expressions in the Old Testament. Mountains melt like wax and drip new wine while hills flow with milk – the reward for faithfulness to Yahweh. The enemies of Yahweh suffer drought, inhabit wastelands and are burnt up – the consequences of having shed innocent blood.

In order to receive the riches of the Word of God, I need to open my soul to the music, drama, poetry and story through which it conveys and achieves its divine purpose.

The essence of Christian Spirituality

Christian Spirituality is rooted in the person of Christ. He is at the centre and is the focus of all our striving and searching. This truth has serious consequences i.e. we must come to know him and well as come to know about him. This means that Christian Spirituality is not something we can study at a distance as a phenomenon of the human quest. It means we need to engage with and enter into the Mystery that is God and Christ in union with the Holy Spirit.


The Paschal (Easter) Mystery – that Christ has suffered and died on the cross, and rose from the dead lies at the core of Christian spirituality.

Also Christian Spirituality is deeply dependant on the Word of God. "Ignorance of the scriptures is ignorance of Christ", wrote St. Jerome. Learning to read, understand and love the word of God expressed in the inspired texts of the bible is essential to Christian Spirituality.   Find a good guide or commentary and read your bible.

Many of the contemporary spiritualities emphasis EMPOWERMENT. Now dont misunderstand me please. Empowerment is very important and a necessary ingredient if we are to have a just and inclusive society. But in Christian Spirituality, the ultimate experience is that of SURRENDER.

“If you would be my follower, Jesus said, renounce yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” It is in surrendering to God that we find the goal of our spiritual life. And that practice of surrender is one that is carried out every day in the simplest and most ordinary ways. To be a spiritual person is to surrender to the Mystery that beckons us into the deepest and most fulfilling life in God; to find Christ in one another; and to realise our total and utter dependence on someone who is greater, higher and most holy in whom the goal of all our striving is reached.

What is Morality?

                                                    What is Morality?

Relationship is what lies at the heart of morality.  We are social beings, in constant relationships of various kinds.  Around us is weaved an intricate web of relationships with our families, relatives, neighbours, friends, work colleagues and social authorities. It is when we begin to reflect on these relationships that the whole area of morality presents itself to us as something vital and essential to life and which cannot be ignored.  We start to realise our moral obligations in relation to the presence and needs of those around us.  

                                                  

                                                                           What has happened to Authority?

Many of us grew up in time and culture when obedience was a core value. There was an absolute trust and regard surrounding authority.  Today society has largely moved away from this emphasis, although most people would recognise the need for authority, properly used and humanely exercised.  It is often said that today we have “moved from the experience of authority to the authority of experience."  Generally speaking, people don’t follow a particular course of action simply to obey a law but because doing so rings true to their experience.

Personal Freedom

As we think about ourselves and the world about us, we come to realise that we are fortunate to be free to make choices and take decisions about how we will act, how we will live and how we will treat others.  This is because we are both rational and free. 

Rational meaning we can think things out, use our reason to grasp and understand the realities of life, consider alternatives and plan our responses to the demands of our relationships with others.  Free because it is an essential part of being human that we act out of conscious and free choice, discerned from within and not because it has been dictated to us or forced on us.

The Torah

     The Torah is the body of moral, and ceremonial institutions, laws, and decisions comprised in four of the books of the Pentateuch, [First 5 books of your bible] and ascribed by Christian and Hebrew tradition to Moses.  As early as the Davidic era, the name "torah" was popularly used to designate this compilation, which, however, might not then have embraced all that it now contains.


After the captivity in Babylon, the term became synonymous with the Pentateuch, and has been known as this ever since. Side by side with these meanings are others less comprehensive and more ancient. On the lips of the priests and prophets, torah sometimes referred to the moral and religious prescriptions of the Law alone, or again, to the ceremonial part of it, whether in theory or practice; in short, to any direction written or oral, given in Yahweh's name by one enjoying an official capacity.


Quite naturally, when the period of formal codification set in, (formulation etc) each new code was styled a torah, and these separate toroth (plural) were the stepping-stones to, and afterwards the constituent parts of, the "Torah" or Corpus, which has always been identified with the name of Moses.

The Origin of the Torah


The Torah, as a whole, was neither miraculously communicated from heaven, nor was it laboriously thought out and put together by Moses independently of external influences.  It was the primitive condition of Hebrew society that dictated Israel’s first laws, by leading to the establishment of family and tribal customs. Yet it would be wrong to maintain with too much assurance that the same or a similar collection of laws would have resulted spontaneously and independently from the same natural conditions in any other period or clime.


There had been precedents of just such customs and practices as Israel adopted, among other races with which the founders of Israel’s laws had come in contact, and it seems an irresistible conclusion that, since Israel borrowed its language from its neighbours and could be so easily won over to heathen rites as to defy the vigilance of judges, priests, and prophets, it could not but be influenced by the social and political life of the neighbouring peoples.


No matter how much, or how little can be explained in this way, room must always be left for direct, external, and Divine intervention, i.e. for an historic revelation made by God of Himself to the chosen people, in such a way as to guarantee them a special Providence and direction in working out their high destiny.

The Canon of Scripture

             HOW DID WE GET THE COLLECTION OF BOOKS NOW CALLED
                                     THE OLD TESTAMENT?

The ‘Canon’  

The word ‘canon’ is from the Greek ‘kanon’ meaning rule.   The Bible is seen as the text that rules the Christian life.   As a written text, it is an unchanging point of reference in all the centrifugal forces of culture and history in the millennia of Jewish and Christian belief.   Scripture is often called “The Rule of Faith”.

In the formative period of the People of God of the Old and New Testaments the process of selecting books to form the canon was underway.   The task of selecting and ordering the books written in the Hebrew language was probably begun in the early 4^th century BCE, and it was completed only about 70 CE.  It was then that the guiding list, the ‘canon’ of the Hebrew language scriptures of the Old Testament was fixed.

            Benedict Hegarty, The Bible – Literature and Sacred Text, (Veritas: Dublin) 2003, pp 29-30

                          Where did the chapters and verses system come from?

To make it easy to find one’s way around the Bible, Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, had the idea of dividing each book into numbered chapters: this was done in 1226.   During a carriage journey from Lyons to Paris in 1551, the printer Robert Estienne numbered almost every phrase of these chapters: hence our modern division into verses.

           

            Etienne Charpentier, How to read the Old Testament, (SCM Press: London) 1982, p.7

                        How do you look up a passage in the Bible?

Let’s take an example:   You are reading an article or commentary and it says “as we can see in Gen 1:26.   The books of the Bible are referred to in an abbreviated form e.g. Gen for Genesis, Ex for Exodus, Lev for Leviticus, Num for Numbers and Deut for Deuteronomy etc.

The first figure indicates the chapter, and the second, which is separated by a colon (:) or sometimes a full stop, indicates the verse.

So the passage we want to read (Gen 1:26) is:

And God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth’.

Several passages in continuity over a number of chapters will be referred to in this way:   Num 4:11 – 5:16

Lev 2:13, 14 means read these two verses that follow from each other.

Deut 16: 12, 17, 21 is The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 16 and verses 12, 17, 21.

Ex 14:7f. means read Chapter 14 of the Book of Exodus and the following verse.

Gen 7:6ff means read Chapter 7 of The Book of Genesis, verses 6 and so on….

                    Is the Bible a Book?

It is often referred to as ‘the Good Book’ but it is in fact a library, consisting of seventy three books, written over a span of a thousand years.  But it is more than a fixed library.  It is a world we have to enter for ourselves, an adventure to which we are summoned; for a people seized with a passion for God.

     Who wrote the Book of Genesis?

There was no one author, but several.  The people of Israel were formed through time by the gathering of nomadic tribes which neither knew how to read or write.  They brought along with them the memories of their forebears and the signs God realized among them; these memories were orally transmitted.

When these tribes settled in Palestine, they gradually entered into a new culture of writing. Scribes surrounding the king wrote the laws and the beliefs of the nation. During King Solomon’s reign (10^th Century B.C.) and unknown writer called “the Yahwist” wrote a first history of God’s people.  In doing so he freely used Babylonian literature and its poetry about the first couple and the Flood.  The author used a part but deeply transformed them, so that these stories, as comparisons, would express God’s plans for his creation.

Later this old account was supplemented with others coming from different traditions. As a result we sometimes find repetitions.  Much later, when the Jews returned from exile in Babylon (5^th century before Christ), their priests added many paragraphs.  The priests were the authors of the poem about creation in seven days, where Genesis and the Bible begin.

            -Introduction to The Christian Community Bible. Catholic Pastoral Edition, (Claretian Publications: Phillipines) 1999 p.3

  
  Is there Myth in the Bible?

Let us first examine what we mean by ‘myth’.  The ancient myths appear as stories presenting gods, goddesses and ancient heroes.  They are concerned about the great questions that we ask ourselves. Where did this world come from?  Why do men and women exist?  Why is there suffering and death?   What relationship do human beings have to the Divine?

The Bible took up this powerful way of examining and expressing our efforts to deal with these profound questions, but the biblical authors took some myths and gave them a whole new meaning and context that centered on their faith in Yahweh/Elohim as the all-pervading presence in the world and in their lives.  All of these mythical stories are extremely important and not to be dismissed as ‘just myth’.  Inspired by these great myths, notably in the creation stories, the Bible rethinks them as a function of its faith in a sole God who intervenes in our history and wills for us to be free.

For your Own Reflection and Enrichment of Spirit

1.         Read Gen 7: 1 – 8:22

            What image of God do you find reflected in these two chapters?

2         Read Gen 11: 1-9

What do you think lies behind this passage?

What characteristics of Yahweh does it bring to the fore?

3.          Take some time out to reflect on some of the questions raised in your mind from

        this week’s session.  

       Write down the question which concerns you most.

For Consideration

The Jewish Antiquities – by Flavius Josephus  (c.37 - 100 AD)

“Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works; a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.   He drew over to him, both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles.  He was the Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold, these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place - Psalm 84

How lovely is your dwelling place, 

   O Lord of hosts! 

My soul longs, indeed it faints

2

   for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and my flesh sing for joy

   to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home,

3

   and the swallow a nest for herself,

   where she may lay her young,

at your altars, O Lord of hosts,

   my King and my God. 

Happy are those who live in your house,

4

   ever singing your praise.

         

Happy are those whose strength is in you,

5

   in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 

As they go through the valley of Baca

6

   they make it a place of springs;

   the early rain also covers it with pools. 

They go from strength to strength;

7

   the God of gods will be seen in Zion.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;

8

   give ear, O God of Jacob!

          

Behold our shield, O God;

9

   look on the face of your anointed.

For a day in your courts is better

10

   than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

   than live in the tents of wickedness. 

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

11

   he bestows favour and honour.

No good thing does the Lord withhold

   from those who walk uprightly. 

Prayer is to make us Ready

• The purpose of prayer is not to inform our Lord what you desire, for He knows all your needs. It is to render you able and ready to receive the grace which our Lord will freely give you. This grace cannot be experienced until you have been refined and purified by the fire of desire in devout prayer. For although prayer is not the cause for which our Lord gives grace, it is nevertheless the means by which grace, freely given, comes to the soul.


o Book I, ch. 24 (p. 28)

(The Ladder of Perfection, Walter Hilton, English Carthusian) (1494)