Thursday, December 29, 2011

The Ascent Is The Apostolic Sending Out

Agapé is the genuine and natural expression of apatheia: a translucent conscious place of authenticity that requires transit from inauthentic to authentic modes of being. Agapé is the metaphysical existence of absolute reality and perception that places one in a position to be fully present and accept the other in their midst without thoughts of categorization, specificity and prejudice. This place of authenticity requires transit from a self-focused and narcissistic apprehension of reality to a state of conscious being in non-reflective consciousness. But due to imperfection, the self is still object for others to the metaphysical conscious presence of absolute reality that places one in a position to fully perceive and accept the essence of the other in their midst without self-regard or objectification. One can just "be" without imposing their will, feelings, and sensations on others in order to allow the essence of their being to be drawn in by others. Then the pratikos can transcend the need to pull back into the carnal and base way of living bounded to sensational living that objectifies others. In sensational living, the other is not subject to you but becomes for you utility, object, and not the subject of your gift of self. This existence of transcendence is no longer a grasping, possessive, image filled consciousness, but rather a still passivity that is formidable in its presence. This “way of life” is a gift from the desert, a synthesis of disparate sources that seeks to ameliorate suffering man, the unliberated and bound man constrained by compulsions, obsessions and addictions. This is a way that the embodied God can liberate man.

Engaging with the texts of Evagrius is to engage with scripture itself. His work is imbued with scriptural references that he reads in an allegorical sense, typical of the early Patristics that can be classified as typology, and he applies this spiritual reading to his own ascetic praxis and theoria. Evagrius drew deeply from the Origenist theologies as a student of Marcarius the Great and Marcarius of Alexandria. He learned from the Origenist Catechetical Schools the following nuptial theme of Origen justifying the ascetic teaching necessary for the soul - The soul is to give birth to the Word (logos), [with] Mary as its model, ‘And every soul, virgin and uncorrupted, which conceives by the Holy Spirit, so as to give birth to the Will of the Father, is the Mother to Jesus.’ The Will of the Father then is the Son, Jesus Christ, the Power of the Father, begotten as the Will that proceeds from the intelligence. In this procreation of Divine energies into the creation, every soul is therefore feminine and its role is to be receptive in order to procreate the Divine Will. “This birth of Christ in the Soul is essentially bound up with reception of the Word and in a certain way Jesus is thus being continually born in souls.” Here is another answer to the question posed at the beginning of this paper: “How does the embodied God act in a liberating way?” God in our souls wants to give birth to the Will of the Father. And what is the Divine Will? The type of Divine love termed agapé. The incarnation of the Divine Will in the soul is an act of procreation that allows the soul, bearing the Christ within, to ascend to ever higher states of purification (the process of theosis) to manifest the agapé necessary to draw the soul closer to the Divine. However, the Will of the Father as agapé, also transfigures the soul into an incommutable relationship with others as subject and not objects, to procreate divine energies into creation; narcissistic self-focus becomes gift. The ascent is also the apostolic sending out.

A Contextual Theologian for the 21st Century

There is a paradigm shift occurring in today’s role as a theologian. A contextual theologian is no longer just the educated academic or the ordained minister. The theologian in recent decades has moved out the tower and into the streets of the community, investing the community with authority and power. Oftentimes, it is the needs of the communities that determine where the energies of the theologian will be devoted. My argument is that this is in part a result of what is termed, kairos processes, which make the theological point that particular moments in history make special demands on us, usually to stand with those who, through systemic oppression, are reduced to silence. The time we live in today is precisely such a period. And as theologians, are we not called to look for creative methodologies to be receptive to the fiduciary responsibility that exists in an incommutable way to others in our communities? And isn’t our role as theologians to contextualize the period in which we live, give voice to, and interpret the situations present and then formulate methodologies to respond to the dynamic energies at work in creation? And should we not ask of each situation and context - is the embodied God acting in a liberating way and if so, how so? And do we ignore the past? Or can we resource the past in a way that can shape a creative and imaginative methodological answer to present processes?

Each community will determine its normative sacred texts and traditions. As theologians our conversation and interpretations of these texts and traditions should be to dialogue with the community in a way that promotes harmony, peace, stability and identifies the kairos processes at work. Our task is to endeavor to shoulder oftentimes opposing views in tension with one another – that of theology, doctrine and dogma on the one side with the prophetic voices of senses fidelium on the other. It will be there in the sacred space created within the conversation between community, text and tradition that Divine energies can incarnate and procreate a way forward.

Turning then to the ancient context, can the texts and traditions of the fourth century aid us to correlate a “way of life” that can be interpreted for contemporary forces at work in the 21st century? I believe they can. Drawing from the theodocian strain of Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and seeded with the theology of Gregory of Nazianzus, the monastic theology that emerged from the Egyptian desert is particularly encapsulated in the writings of Evagrius Ponticus (345 – 399) and John Cassian (360 – 435). Evagrian and Cassian tenets of compassionate engagement with Divine energies, with self, one’s soul and the community, teaches the lesson of learning to listen with the ear of the heart in order to create Divine silence between self and other that is incarnational. The focus was on contemplation of the Divine, a sense and practice of prayer that could listen not only to others, but to Divine answers for daily questions. Perception and being could then be transformed by a transfiguration of reality through renunciation of the intrinsic motivation of fear and replaced with the intrinsic motivation of agapé through contemplative prayer. Contemplative prayer was the motivating force behind the process of theosis. And what is theosis? It was the lived process of sanctification whereby one can become progressively conformed to the Divine. It is a process of moral and ontological ascent lived as graced existential energy. It is through theosis that one can allow the radical hospitality and acceptance of every other as Christ in your midst. Is this the first answer to how the embodied God acts in a liberating way?

Agapé as an Expression of Apatheia: Contextualizing the Texts of Evagrius Ponticus and John Cassian in the 21st Century

Presented at LEST VIII Leuven, Belgium

The 21st Century immersion in individualism can be transformed by a transfiguration of reality through renunciation of the intrinsic motivation of fear and replaced with the intrinsic motivation of agapé through contemplative prayer. Contemplative prayer is the motivating force behind the process of theosis. In the later fourth century CE an Egyptian desert monastic, Evagrius of Ponticus, systematized a way of thinking, feeling and living so the soul of one’s existence could ascend to the Divine. Evagrius taught purity of heart, purity of intention, a way of loving the Divine and others that was the access to natural science, theology and final happiness. His Christological contribution created a school of the praktikos, a student of the inner life, to teach a process for conversion of heart, a daily conversation with the Divine that sought to purify humanity of its intrinsic link to fear and show the desert monastics a way to overcome fear with love with eyes opened to the deifying light. This process of temporal renunciation termed theosis strove to attain the metaphysical state of apatheia, a freedom from compulsions, obsessions and addictions to that which exists outside of us. The goal of apatheia was to strip the praktikos of extrinsic interference, rendering one receptive to Divine grace to mediate a life of agapé, an incommutable responsibility to the other in our midst. John Cassian, expanding on Evagrius, wrote The Institutes and The Conferences which contain an ethos of transfigurative methods to purify one's “outward appearance” (exteriorem ornatum) to heal “inner worship” (interiorem cultum). The monastic praktikos was to liberate individualism by cultivating humility through praxis and theoria to inculcate the intrinsic motivation of agapé through mysterical prayerfulness, the primary locus of theology.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Glendalough... never was grief like thine



I was happy I was asleep when the news was announced from the USA on May 1st... On Dublin time, I have early morning memories of being awakened at dawn by light drifting in, the caw of a faroff bird sounding forelorn that reminded me of the oak tree owl that hooted night after night just before my mother's heart attack. I turned over wanting more sleep in a haze of dreams and past memories. I don't know why I never checked my email that morning when I finally placed feet on the floor and chose to pray as the phone rang and I let it go to voicemail. I didn't hear the news until I stepped into a car and was told.

I said not a word about that day nearly ten years ago when somehow everything changed for me. A soul shattering silently when you are defined by a moment in time that you cannot explain. The echo was with me in a car ride to Glendalough. A most perfect place for a most unperfect bit of news as your mind travels back and you wrestle to stay in the present.

I went to a place of music whispering through the trees and skipping across water rippling in the near quiet. Voices of happy children looking for fairies in the hills. Walking past St. Kevin's Cell and hearing the lyrics pass through me still, "Here might I sing, no story so divine; never was love, dear King, never was grief like thine! This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise, I all my days could gladly spend." And I wondered, if He walked here with me now would He be filled with sorrow?

We can be so wonderful and so terrible both. Do the angels really envy us? I would think not. So in the midst of the colors of life in green and blue in this sacred place of old, I traced footsteps of times past and recollected my life in the presence of new friends. I left the memories on a trail up a hill in Glendalough and will let the divine spirits catch them and keep them for me, I have let them go.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Crucified

This inauguration and this growth are both symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of a crucified Jesus,(5) and are foretold in the words of the Lord referring to His death on the Cross: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself".(6) LG 3

Arms in Surrender by Lynn O’Gorman Latchford

Listening to you as all color drained from the room
exhaling the breath of me.
Eyes stinging from a tortuous life of eighteen years
etched in a stricken face.
Watching you eviscerate a suffering self
until devoid of humiliation.
Raising your arms in surrender seeing the crucified Christ
in your tearing eyes.
Grief pouring from you in an endless stream covering a vast floor.

Words from you lie at my feet feeling them enter my skin
crawling to the heart of me.
Too familiar the refrain of violence echoed from your mouth
as you seek solace.
Wanting comfort from an audience of near apathy save one,
who hears and understands.
Arms aching with the emptiness that exists
wanting to cradle your head in warmth.
Loving you as I do from afar caught between words of comfort and restraint.

Captured by your distress and agony wanting only to soothe you
as you speak on.
This floor of dark suffering, this abyss of horror that strikes terror
into a fractured soul.
Watching you prostrated in this place of unspeakable torment
and abject anguish hoping,
Hoping you see the doors of escape that exist and are there
for throwing open to relief.
You speak of forgiveness of the unforgivable and I can finally breathe routing for you.

The purist of truths emanate from your mouth as you forgive
the evil that can exist in life.
Wondering do you know that seeing love in all, loving everything in everyone
is the key.
Unlocking the secrets to a life of peace and joy
repairing your heart with love.
Stitch a soul worth mending with the colors of life that exist
in unguarded love.
Embrace yourself gently, inhaling kindness, pull it around you as a mantle to evil,
arms in surrender to the Love that draws all things to it.


All things and people are meant to be drawn up into God. It is precisely why out of compassion for His wounded and suffering creatures, He came to us, died on a cross for us. It is why in others' suffering we see Him clearly in their face. He wants us to know He is with us. We are not alone. He has drawn us to Him at our worst moments.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Hospitality of the Heart

Being-the-Other... in Armagh from 12 to 14 April as the young theologians strove to embrace a place of Divine silence and space to reach across divides and listen with the ears of our hearts. We spoke, we listened, we engaged both the mind and the heart of our fellow brothers and sisters. We were evocative, creative and allowed the winds of change to blow silently through our souls and heard much of what happens in the world happens also here in this place, this room of "others," no longer other, but part of us.

We are no longer strangers... and as I sit now in the sunshine at a desk covered with papers and books and utensils of academia as the songs of spring and the breezes of spring and the fragrances of spring drift in through the window... but more importantly, I reflect on the mind of spring within me, as I feel nourished and loved by the presence of each of you - your gifts of self. I will treasure these memories of words spoken, glances met and eyes locked in common recognition that we go to God through each other. We are souls in journey that have proffered heaven's gifts to each other. How beautiful, how lovely, how joyful.

God bless each of you! I pray that courage is always our guide to be open and vulnerable and intimate with the Divine that exists in and for each of us. Hospitality of the heart...


Courage

A soul in journey
must depart,
before life’s favors
can impart.


The joy offered
to bestow,
from heaven’s gifts
to man below.

Embrace a future with
arms aflung,
to hang your silver
star upon.

When destiny meets you
on the path -
welcome the stranger.
Don’t let him pass.

Courage meets
those in flight.
Spread your wings
and welcome
day to night.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

New Monasticism Response to Criticism by Historians

This Blog Post was posted on 2011 5 March at
http://gratefultothedead.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/new-monastic-jonathan-wilson-hartgrove-retells-monastic-history/
in support of Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove's stance on New Monastcism in refutation of a critique by a truly awesome website dedicated to history (and the like) called "Grateful for the Dead." There are many interesting topics to be discussed at this site. So have a look. But I couldn't let the blog post go without comment.

The term “new monasticism” was actually coined by Basil the Great. He wanted to distinguish his monastic foundation which was contemplative and active (service to caring for the poor and ill in local hospitals) from the extreme eremeticism of the Egyptian monastics. Some of his most faithful followers however, rejected this new monasticism for the asceticism displayed by Antony the Great, such as Evagrius Ponticus. It should be noted that the desert monastics followed the Essenes and Therapuetae, those who led a life set apart and of holiness that was an expression of the Levitical Holiness Code to care for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, the resident alien of the communities. What W-H, as well as many “new monastics” are replicating, is this same call to holiness, that is an ancient practice that continuously and dynamically renews itself to be expressed as a soul’s eremetical state of being – that society and institutional churches still fail to heed as a need of its participants. This spiritual calling to live the Gospel of the Mount, which is reconceptualized by Jesus from the Levitical Holiness Code and imparted to his Jewish followers and disciples, continues to be necessary even today. W-H is attempting to reanimate this tradition, as “our neighbor” still continues to be marginalized by ideologically politicized agendas. As the homeless, the poor, the “orphans” of our society continue to be oppressed by society at large, it will be the “monastics” who pick up the pieces of society abandoned to the periphery. And why? The monastic aim, from the Gospel’s time, Basil’s time, Antony’s time throughout history was to cultivate purity of heart. Purity of heart is found by those points of insertion a person wants to make Gospel contact, either with self or those in need. There is a reason why when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist that the heavens opened and it was heard, “This is my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Beloved was not a title, but a command to be love in the world. Purity of heart calls one to be love in the world. Monasticism is the call to be pure of heart and love in the world. New Monasticsm is the echo from the Jordan. Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove heard the call. I think we can all forgive a bit of historical lapse in his work as the aim is not to teach history but to call those to a way of life that is Beloved.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Laity and New Monasticism

One should never forget that the history of monasticism and its original rules calling for asceticism and a life of prayer were for the laity. Those men and women called to a consecrated life of the heart. A heart set apart for God to do God's work in the world. A life of ora et labora, lived simply and in community with one another. The tenets of the beauty of this life were adopted by the Christian Church at large after seeing how successful a life lived in Gospel truth could be; having a profound effect on the community at large that surrounded these men and women of prayer and stillness. When reflecting on the words below of consecrated life, let us not forget that this is a state of the heart, mind and soul oriented to God. It is a life for everyone. We are all called to be monks at heart. It will lead to harmony of the heart and peace in the world. It is a life for you and for me.

Vita Consecrata (Consecrated Life) Pope John Paul II, 1996.

[Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata of the Holy Father John Paul II to the Bishops and Clergy Religious Orders and Congregations Societies of Apostolic Life Secular Institutes and All the Faithful on the Consecrated Life and its Mission in the Church and in the World. Rome, March 25, 1996]

"Monastic life in the East and the West

"6. The Synod Fathers from the Eastern Catholic Churches and the representatives of the other Churches of the East emphasized the evangelical values of monastic life, which appeared at the dawn of Christianity and which still flourishes in their territories, especially in the Orthodox Churches.

"From the first centuries of the Church, men and women have felt called to imitate the Incarnate Word who took on the condition of a servant. They have sought to follow him by living in a particularly radical way, through monastic profession, the demands flowing from baptismal participation in the Paschal Mystery of his Death and Resurrection.

"In this way, by becoming bearers of the Cross (staurophoroi), they have striven to become bearers of the Spirit (pneumatophoroi), authentically spiritual men and women, capable of endowing history with hidden fruitfulness by unceasing praise and intercession, by spiritual counsels and works of charity. In its desire to transfigure the world and life itself in expectation of the definitive vision of God's countenance, Eastern monasticism gives pride of place to conversion, self-renunciation and compunction of heart, the quest for hesychia or interior peace, ceaseless prayer, fasting and vigils, spiritual combat and silence, Paschal joy in the presence of the Lord and the expectation of his definitive coming, and the oblation of self and personal possessions, lived in the holy communion of the monastery or in the solitude of the hermitage.

"The West too from the first centuries of the Church has practiced the monastic life and has experienced a great variety of expressions of it, both cenobitic and eremetical. In its present form, inspired above all by Saint Benedict, Western monasticism is the heir of the great number of men and women who, leaving behind life in the world, sought God and dedicated themselves to him, "preferring nothing to the love of Christ".

"The monks of today likewise strive to create a harmonious balance between the interior life and work in the evangelical commitment to conversion of life, obedience and stability, and in persevering dedication to meditation on God's word (lectio divina), the celebration of the Liturgy and prayer.

"In the heart of the Church and the world, monasteries have been and continue to be eloquent signs of communion, welcoming abodes for those seeking God and the things of the spirit, schools of faith and true places of study, dialogue and culture for the building up of the life of the Church and of the earthly city itself, in expectation of the heavenly city."

---- Pope John Paul II, 1996
Vita Consecrata (Consecrated Life)

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Study of Liturgy

The study of liturgy is like an enormous umbrella that integrates every aspect of prayer and worship: a thorough grounding in the Scriptures along with familiarity of the Fathers, a sense of rite and ritual and esthetics and all that goes into the beauty of holiness. We are so fortunate as Benedictines that we have liturgical prayer throughout the day shaping and forming our lives. And to be actively engaged in liturgical prayer does require an intimate presence of the Holy One and the revealer of the Mysterium, Jesus the Lord, the Paschal Mystery. Knowing the Real Presence, it is a knowledge, a gnosis, that is almost ineffable. Still, we have to pursue the many ways that Christ is present in the liturgy, all liturgy, not just the Mass, and that is why ecumenical liturgies are so important. This is where we can communicate with one another, bonded by the Word, Incarnate, proclaimed, and lived, without being entrapped by a myopic understanding of Eucharist that divides and separates. Returning to the early Church Fathers, liturgy was the primary locus of theology. It was in liturgical, sacramental celebrations that the real theological UNDERSTANDING of God, Christ, Mary, the angels and saints took pace, as it still does in the Eastern rite liturgical traditions. In the West, it is the letter, the law, that has been allowed to dominate: the mystery has been pushed aside. The liturgy is also the primary locus for mystical prayer, the hot plate and spring board for personal mystical prayer and experience. In this regard, the word mysterical prayer should be substituted for liturgical prayer. Mystical emphasizes what is latent, hidden in light inaccessible; mysterical emphasizes what has been revealed and then, experienced in a truly salvific way.

Paraphrased from Fr. Gabriel Coless, OSB, PhD, St. Mary's Abbey

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Prophet Priest and King We Praise

Entomb Him we must obey.
Take Him down from the cross,
on our hearts to gently lay.
Rest in us dear sweet King,
as your praises thus we sing!
How are we to be your fruit?
Unless the harvest of you gains,
the hearts of those we have not slain,
but loved in mercy by your grace.

Let us remember in each our days,
that Resurrected we must proclaim.
Only then, then are you gift to sing,
as we render you ready - forever King.
Forgive our failing, forgive our fear,
the world is harsh and ever plunges,
in us, as in your side, the piercing spear.
But we are ready, ready to die,
for you our King through the veil of tears.

Let us not forget that we are yours,
tasked and asked to be with all.
Open their ears and hearts to listen,
as we whisper your Word as sung,
knowing then our work, it has begun.
Teach us, ever merciful Lord,
that we should humbly pray and raise;
our voices to all, exhorting the tune-
of Prophet, Priest and King we praise.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

You are what you eat!

For "the partaking of the body and blood of Christ does nothing other than make us be transformed into that which we consume". (55*) LG 26


The fruit of the Eucharist is personal presence. Christ present. Christ re-presented in this small wafer. Consecrated out of love, our ingestion takes place in one single time and place but transcends this moment to join all the other moments with every other host offered everywhere, every time, with everyone. And so with our acceptance and receipt of this gracious gift of Christ, we become Him and He draws us up to Him. Everyone who partakes of Christ in the Eucharist joins as one body to unite ourselves to Him and to each other. He looks down on our suffering and out of compassion and tenderness for our sinfulness, He transforms Himself into this small wafer of wheat to meet us in our pilgrimage of faith. And so, as we are drawn up to Him, we are transformed by the grace of His presence. Our sinfulness forgotten, He welcomes us into His loving presence, to fill us, and meet us and reunite us to each other, living and dead. A true communion of saints. Our transformation is that call to become saints. In consuming, we are consumed by Him, the Bread of Life.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Ecumenical Noise

Is it more important to focus on living the Gospel in our midst than the arguments of our creedal faith and its liturgical expression? Is it more important to remember the historical development of the Sermon on the Mount and its etiology in the Hebrew Scriptures' Levitical Holiness Code. Its expression also in the Qur'an? Isn't the fact that we believe in One God the only point that really matters? And why do we in our human perspectives with all its frailties, believe that we can know the mind of God who searches the heart of all? Is this place, this place of believing in One God, the place of unity between us, that supersedes all other experiences and expressions of religion? Creedal or Liturgical, Dogmatic or Doctrinal? Is this the place where we begin to live, "Love God and love thy neighbor as thyself?" Isn't this the goal of all religions?

So what does a monastic heart, purity of heart, or new monasticism have to say about this? It is precisely in cultivating this purity of heart within us, this stripping away of the vanities we feel comfortable with in order to feel safe within ourselves that we are asked by God to surrender. We are asked to let go of the things of the world, the feelings of the world that would take us anywhere or anyplace other than an expression of love. We are asked to strip away the hardness of our hearts, to smash (horeb) our human hearts to allow the seeds of faith and love to flourish within and around us. This love will thrive to tear away the disingenuous, distracted and detached person to purify and flower the authentic, attached and attuned person whose heart is oriented to God, the Divine, and thereby all divine and godly things in others. Only then can we recognize any other and all others as neighbor. It is the achievement of harmony of heart and therefore the achievement of peace. A way of practicing radical hospitality to others.

Until we welcome within this new purified heart, our neighbor, and love them as ourselves, while loving ourselves in the God we believe in, our religions and their expressions will continue to divide our hearts and us. We are each created unique and good, as different as the wild flowers in a field. Each flower follows the sun with its roots intermingled with the roots of the flower next to it, yet all depend on the same "living water" to exist. Why in the world would we choose to see that as something to be changed, to become standardized, and thereby eliminate the natural beauty that exists?

All in the Ecumenical dialogue will be "noise" until we recognize and accept that the way someone else loves God will always be different than us. We are all fed from the same spring and nourished from the same source. The way another expresses their love of God and neighbor may actually be better than my own. How wonderful this celebration of love should be exhorted and not maligned. Harmony of heart, harmony in our houses of either Church or domestic church or sacred place is the expression of new monasticism... a state of being... not a destination point. It is a place of balance, within us, between us and among us. God Bless.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Cliffs of Moher

Climbing ever farther into a cloudless sky,
Reaching out across a stone cathedral.
Blueness meets the music of waves as
Hearts crash into steep cliffs -
Aghast with wonder and awe!

Stone slopes for sure footing.
Winds glide souls together
As seabirds caw their delight.
Effortless in a quest for union -
Precipice breached by pods of nature.

Stillness

A small stone-like thing
waiting, waiting
to be touched.

The soul plummeting,
plumbing to depths
unreachable.

From the blue midnight
of eternal skies falling
to water.

Tearless slack-jawed
shock fills a quiet room
in screaming.

Time is a cruel tutor
of limitless emotion,
awed in silence.

Stillness, paralyzes
a lost self to awaken
to brutal reality.