The Sabbath

The Gospels report that Jesus conflicted with the Jewish leaders several times over Sabbath issues. Jesus rejected the restrictive traditions of the elders. He allowed his disciples to pluck grain, he healed, he taught, and he told a man to carry his sleeping mat (Matthew 12:1-12; Luke 14:1-6; John 5:1-18).  Jesus noted that priests worked on the Sabbath, that animals could be rescued or taken to water, and circumcisions could be performed (Matthew 12:5-6, 11; Luke 13:15; John 7:22). Jesus claimed to have authority over the Sabbath, to set people free on the Sabbath, and to work on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:12; Luke 13:16; John 5:17).


But Jesus did not break the Sabbath, since he was born under the law and lived under the old covenant requirements (Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 4:15). His activities broke Pharisaic rules, but not the law of God. Early Christian writers did not claim that Jesus broke the Sabbath.

The first disciples of Jesus were pious Jews in a Jewish culture. They apparently kept the Sabbath according to contemporary Jewish customs. Luke tells us that some female disciples rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment (Luke 23:56), and that the apostles taught in the temple courts (Acts 3:1; 5:12, 25). Paul customarily preached in synagogues on the Sabbaths (Acts 13:14; 16:13; 17:2; 18:1-11).

We are also told that the disciples met daily (Acts 2:46), and that Paul preached daily (Acts 19:9). There is no record that Paul taught his converts to keep the Sabbath. Actually, he taught that special days were something about which Christians should not be judged (Colossians 2:16), and he asked the Roman Christians to tolerate differences in worship practices having to do with foods and days (Romans 14:5).

The New Testament gives us examples of Christians meeting on the first day of the week. The risen Jesus appeared to the disciples on two Sundays (John 20:19, 26), but there is no mention that he gave any command for a weekly commemoration of the resurrection. Paul’s traveling party once stayed seven days at Troas, and met on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), but this was an unusual farewell meeting, not necessarily indicative of normal practice. Paul told the Corinthians to set aside an offering on the first day of each week (1 Corinthians 16:2), but this may also have been an exceptional practice rather than a normative one. John had a vision on “the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:10), but some debate whether this is a reference to Sunday. Moreover, the verse does not say that this was a day on which Christians should meet.   None of the texts can be used to prove that Christians regularly met on any particular day of the week.
But there is good reason to believe that some Jewish Christians, especially in Palestine, continued to observe the Sabbath.

Contemplation

The secret of Christian contemplation
is that it faces us with Jesus Christ
toward our suffering world
in loving service and just action

Catherine of Siena

________________________________________

The Beatitudes- Glenstal Abbey Ireland

I live, yet do not Live in Me - John of the Cross

The following poem expresses the intensity with which John of the Cross longs to be united with his Love, Father God.  The language is very emotive and calculated to move the reader to understand something of the passion with which John feels about this.   The author of The Dark Night of the Soul conveys something of the searing and tearing existence which separation from union causes him.  He can find no peace, he can know no rest; he is dying because he does not die.


I live yet do not live in me,

am waiting as my life goes by,

and die because I do not die.

No longer do I live in me,

and without God I cannot live;

to him or me I cannot give

my self, so what can living be?

A thousand deaths my agony

waiting as my life goes by,

dying because I do not die.


This life I live alone I view

as robbery of life, and so

it is a constant death -- with no

way out until I live with you.

God, hear me, what I say is true:

I do not want this life of mine,

and die because I do not die.

Being so removed from you I say

what kind of life can I have here

but death so ugly and severe

and worse than any form of pain?

I pity me -- and yet my fate

is that I must keep up this lie,

and die because I do not die.


The fish taken out of the sea

is not without a consolation:

his dying is of brief duration

and ultimately brings relief.

Yet what convulsive death can be

as bad as my pathetic life?

The more I live the more I die.

When I begin to feel relief

on seeing you in the sacrament,

I sink in deeper discontent,

deprived of your sweet company.

Now everything compels my grief:

I want -- yet can't -- see you nearby,

and die because I do not die.


Although I find my pleasure, Sir,

in hope of someday seeing you,

I see that I can lose you too,

which makes my pain doubly severe,

and so I live in darkest fear,

and hope, wait as life goes by,

dying because I do not die.

Deliver me from death, my God,

and give me life; now you have wound

a rope about me; harshly bound

I ask you to release the cord.

See how I die to see you, Lord,

and I am shattered where I lie,

dying because I do not die.

My death will trigger tears in me,

and I shall mourn my life: a day

annihilated by the way

I fail and sin relentlessly.

O Father God, when will it be

that I can say without a lie:

I live because I do not die?

Always begin with a prayer

We must begin with a prayer before everything we do, but especially when we are about to talk of God. We will not pull down to ourselves that power which is both everywhere and yet nowhere, but by divine reminders and invocations, we may commend ourselves to it and be joined to it.



(The Divine Names, Pseudo-Dioynsius, late 5/early 600 CE) cf. Acts17:34)

Sudden Death, Sudden Mercy

Anyone who has heard of the terrible tragedy on the roads of Donegal last Sunday evening will feel their heart go out the parents, families and friends of the 7 young men and one man senior in years who died.  One other young person, the driver of one of the vehicles, is in a serious condition in hospital.   It is a 'head-shaking heart aching' tragedy of enormous proportions. The wider communities in which these men lived have been devastated by what has happened.  Inter-twined and close knit, many many people know the families if not the lads themselves.

When something like this happens, it is natural that we ask questions?  How and why could this terrible thing happen?  Why does God allow tragedies such as these happen?  Couldn't God have prevented this needless suffering of such magnitude?     There are no easy answers.  In fact there are no answers that can satisfy our natural sense of shock and questioning adequately.   We are left saddened and bereft of meaning and purpose.

We live in a Universe that is free to unfold and take its course.  We believe it is free just as we believe reality and human existence takes place within a context that everything is radically free from pre-determination or manipulation.   Could it be that the price we pay for existing in this radically free universe is that the possibility of tragedy, personal and corporate suffering must be included in the nature of reality?

We do know that God understands suffering from the inside.  The Son God sent to redeem and save us was cruelly rejected, tried and crucified. We believe that our own suffering somehow is linked to the suffering of Christ which in turn touches the suffering of the whole world.  The cross is the only emblem needed to show how God experienced suffering and that we have a suffering God who suffers alongside the broken and bereaved.

But full, convincing and satisfactory answers as to why things like these happen remain unavailable to us.  It belongs in the realm of mystery and that which we will only fully grasp at a later point in our journey.   In the meantime, it may help to remember the old saying - 'sudden death, sudden mercy' to reassure us that, whatever else remains unexplained, the mercy of God must surely be granted instantaneously in circumstances such as these.  May they have Eternal Rest.

Scripture

All scripture is inspired by God and can be profitably used for teaching, for refuting error, for guiding people’s lives,

and teaching them to be holy.

2 Timothy 3:14–16

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

The Quest

High, hollowed in green

above the rocks of reason

lies the crater lake

whose ice the dreamer breaks

to find a summer season.

'She will plunge like a plummet down

far into hungry tides'

they cry, but as the sea

climbs to a lunar magnet

so the dreamer pursues

the lake where love resides.

              by Denise Levertov

Come to me (Matt 11:28-30)

28 Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

What is 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 as well as come to know about him. This means that Christian Spirituality is not something we can study at a distance as simply 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.

There are more but I will leave them to another time. But I want to mention something I feel is very important in the whole debate about spirituality.

Many of the contemporary spiritualities emphasis EMPOWERMENT. Now dont misunderstand me please. Empowerment is very important and a necessary element 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 to be found.

The Context of the Spiritual Search Part I

One evening I opened the local newspaper and I saw a full-page advertisement for a health and beauty clinic which read – “Get Pampered, Get Treated, Get Spiritual”!!


So why is there this huge interest in spirituality at the present time?

Well. One could point to the prevalence of Materialism in Society and 21st century living in general. While we have and own so much “stuff”, there is a malaise, an uncomfortable sense that things are not right; that there is more to the human being than our capacity to possess and consume. We have a gnawing awareness that none of this will help us to address some of the more fundamental, central questions of human life and experience. Equally, people are looking for depth, guidance and wisdom in the way they live their lives to counterbalance the emphasis they find, on material comforts and possessions.

Another factor is the opening up of geographical and ideological barriers through the broadening of mind sets that has taken place from exposure to alternative lifestyles, philosophies and moral values. (There is a story about a man living in a remote area of Donegal who claimed that in his time, it would have been impossible for him to commit adultery since he didn’t own a bicycle).

Some would point to the process of Orientalization which has swept across western Europe, bringing knowledge of Eastern values, its vision of life and its’ purpose, and practices such as Zen meditation and Taoism. Forms of exercises, discipline and sources of healing such as Tai’chi, Reiki, Qigong and types of head and body massage have now also become familiar features and experiences in our part of the world.

There is little doubt that the steady decline of traditional religious faiths, ideologies and practices has been a strong influence in the rise of interest in spirituality. It is very common today to hear people say, “I am spiritual, but I’m not really religious.” This is usually intended to convey that while the person has departed from or rejected the notion of ‘organised religion’ i.e. attendance at a service or celebration of the sacraments in church; acceding to a set of moral principles and lifestyle promulgated by an authority; or the embracing of dogmatic and normative beliefs held in common with a likeminded community or organisation; they nonetheless hold ideals, principles and a way of life which is the result of reflection, appreciation of nature and the environment; and perhaps, the guidance of a spiritual leader or teacher whose teachings offer a further dimension to their lives.

The present scandals and revelations about the abuse of children by some priests and members of religious orders and congregations and by some workers and the regimes in state homes and institutions, has led to people leaving the Catholic Church and seeking their salvation elsewhere. Disturbed and dismayed by what has become known of the actions or lack of actions on the part of bishops and leaders in dealing with these issues, many people are shocked and stunned and confused as to what is happening to their faith and religious world.

In the middle of all this we have all of the troubles and challenges of living in this moment in history, the 21st century. When we look around we become conscious of the struggles and defects of the postmodern world. (Or as some say, the post-postmodern world.) - Fragmentation, alienation, lack of meaning, loss of community and cohesion; and a sense of being alone in a God-forsaken Universe. The meta-narrative by which we understood our existence and were supported in our vision of life, has disappeared. Some would attribute the rise is crime against the person, particularly with the kind of cruelty or finality which is everyday news now, to this vanishing of the glue which held things together for so long.

Surrender!

God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher.

We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfil God's will in us.

 (Teresa of Avila, 1515-1582)

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me

Eucharist is to give thanks. It is a recognition of our dependence on God and our lack of the ability solely on our own part, to find salvation. It is to remember Jesus in the paschal mystery, in his passion, death and resurrection. Our experience of the gift of his saving love leads us to recall his sacrifice and receive his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. And to offer him back to the Father.


“In memory of his death and resurrection, we offer you father, this life-giving bread this saving cup.
We thank you for making us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you.” In his Presence we are healed.

Eucharist is a process of being made worthy to stand in the presence of God.

There was an old man named Bob, stayed in our village in the 1970’s. He was a man of the roads, and in his late sixties, though he looked a lot older. As he made his way along, pushing the old pram in which he carried his meagre possessions, he was followed by children and dogs, who seemed to extract an excitement out on its own, when Bob went walkabout. He often dropped in to the Priory church beyond when it was relatively empty, and would walk around praying muttering indistinctly at the statues and crucifixes. But when he reached the altar, his prayer changed. He would announce his intentions in a loud voice: “Five Hail Mary’s now that Bob will get a job”. Having completed this obligation, he would then announce, “10 Hail Mary’s now that Bob WON’T get a job.”

But he had one prayer which he repeated time and time again in front of the altar. It was very simple yet as these things often are, very profound. “I’m very thankful to Jesus”, he would pray. “Im very thankful to Jesus.”

His prayer reminded me of the prayer of the Pilgrim in "The Way of a Pilgrim."
 (Image Books:Doubleday) cf Amazon.com

Who can fail to be struck by the opening words of "The Way of a Pilgrim"?

“By the grace of God I am a Christian man, by my actions a great sinner, and by calling, a homeless wanderer of the humblest birth who roams from place to place. My worldly goods are a knapsack and some dried bread in it, and a Bible in my breast pocket. And that is all.”

And the advice the starets or holy guide gives him on how to pray what became known as “The Jesus Prayer”;

Sit down in silence. Lower your head, shut your eyes, breathe out gently, and imagine    yourself looking into your own heart. Carry your mind, that is, your thoughts, from your head to your heart. As you breathe out, say, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." Say it moving your lips gently, or simply say it in your mind. Try to put all other thoughts aside. Be calm, be patient, and repeat the process very frequently.

A wonderful school of prayer in itself.

The Do-It-Yourself-Mass

It is Sunday morning in a small “church”, in Maraval, near Port of Spain in Trinidad. It is 8.00 am and the church which consists in an old derelict garage with many holes in the roof to let in the rays of the early sun is already almost full to its crumbling walls. Led by a choir and a single guitarist, the congregation are singing and praying as they have for the past half hour. Down at the makeshift sacristy which doubles as a confessional, the liturgical leader is filling me on who will be doing what during the celebration. I am still in a state of mild bewilderment having been driven at speed up the narrow mountain passes by an enthusiastic sister whose concept of a jeep does not seem to include the presence of a break. As I approach the altar the choir and congregation are just moving into 3rd gear. How great thou art – a difficult one to do at any time of the day – resounds among the tiny houses and sparse hills of the surrounding heights. I am overwhelmed by a sense of occasion – that this act about to begin is very important to the people gathered. Looking down at this congregation, despite the early hour, I see ladies smiling and their shrill and happy voices fill the church. The men, more subdued, dot the landscape of the further reaches, quiet but attentive and ready to join in a sacrament they hold most dearly. I will let the liturgy speak for itself this morning too. Only on this occasion I will have the much valued opportunity to let it speak to me too, as I hear the Word of God read and see the ministries of care and service being enacted before me and to me. Whatever we may be at other times, this morning we are the Christian, Priestly people of Maraval and we are all in this – together.   Its a do-it-yourself-Mass because everyone is playing their part and understand the celebration as theirs.  It won't happen unless they do. 


As you will read below, I describe two very different experiences of a Sunday celebration. There are cultural difference and practices but one aspect comes home to me quite deeply. While in Tallaght, as priest, the task of animating the gathering is mine, in Trinidad, I slot in to the preparation and prior planned roles, organised by the representatives of the community and experience a sense of Church which I believe is, if not lost, then very much diluted in the Ireland of today.

"I'm very thankful to Jesus"

It’s Sunday morning in St. Dominic’s. Its 11.20 and I am in the sacristy getting vested for Mass. Outside in the church there is an audible buzz of low conversation as people meet and greet one another as they wait. The Folk Group are tuning up and the collectors , who double job as ushers are busily plying their trade with pride and importance. Then one of the altar servers trips over the bell and everyone stands up as the folk group break into a startled and hasty first verse of “Here we are, all together as we sing our song, joyfully.” The procession stumbles majestically into the church and the 11.30 is underway. On reaching the sanctary, I reverence the altar and head over to the chair from which I will open the Mass. Looking down, I see a few faces that are actually ‘joyful’ looking. Many are tired, impatient with the cries and wandering of the children around their seats and kneelers, and most are probably anxious with me to get on with it. Those who were coming on time are now ‘late’ and they look around with annoyance for a pew. Where will I find the words to acknowledge; encourage; inspire; renew these good people’s faith and Christian Life? I will try to let the liturgy speak for itself.

Continued above

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.