Friday, March 30, 2012
The Bible and Homosexuality
If this is an issue you're seriously interested in, you'll set aside 67 minutes to hear the full lecture. This remarkable young man says everything that needs saying. Dan Savage provides some background:
Matthew Vines is a young gay man who grew up in Kansas. His family is Christian and very conservative. After coming out, Vines took two years off college to research and think deeply about what the bible says—and doesn't say—about homosexuality. You could argue that what Vines has to say is irrelevant to non-Christians. But Vines' argument and his insights are highly relevant to gay Christians, to their families, to Christians who point to the bible to justify their bigotry and the pain they inflict on LGBT people (including their own LGBT children), and to anyone who happens to live in a country that is majority Christian. Vines delivered these remarks at College Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kansas, earlier this month. Watch this video: Vines is brilliant. He has a post up at Huffington Post that gives some context and background. Go read it.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Nostalgia
"One writer accused me of succumbing to Stockholm syndrome because I wrote so benignly about the nun who brainwashed me into thinking diagramming was fun." -- Kitty Burns Florey, on the lost art of diagramming sentences
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Quote for the Day
“If doctors and nurses do not step up and provide these services or if so many obstacles and restrictions are put into place that women cannot access the services, then the stream of women seeking abortions tends to flow toward the illegal and dangerous methods.”
An unnamed physician explains to Frank Bruni why he performs abortions. The full story is here. I abhor abortion but like many Catholics I want it to be safe and legal.
An unnamed physician explains to Frank Bruni why he performs abortions. The full story is here. I abhor abortion but like many Catholics I want it to be safe and legal.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Slain for His Flock
Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, here, some pieces of the homily he was giving in a hospital chapel, cut short by an assassin's bullet:
You have just heard in Christ’s gospel that one must not love oneself so much as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and that those who try to fend off the danger will lose their lives, while those who out of love for Christ give themselves to the service of others, will live, live like the grain of wheat that dies, but only apparently. If it did not die, it would remain alone. The harvest comes about only because it dies, allowing itself to be sacrificed in the earth and destroyed. Only by undoing itself does it produce the harvest....
This is the hope that inspires us as Christians. We know that every effort to better society, especially when justice and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us.... Of course, we must try to purify these ideals, Christianize them, clothe them with the hope of what lies beyond. That makes them stronger, because it gives us the assurance that all that we cultivate on earth, if we nourish it with Christian hope, will never be a failure. We will find it in a purer form in that kingdom where our merit will be found in the labor that we have done here on earth....
Dear brothers and sisters, let us all view these matters at this historic moment with that hope, that spirit of giving and of sacrifice. Let us all do what we can. We can all do something, at least have a sense of understanding and sympathy....
[I]t is worthwhile to labor, because all those longings for justice, peace, and well-being that we experience on earth become realized for us if we enlighten them with Christian hope. We know that no one can go on forever, but those who have put into their work a sense of very great faith, of love of God, of hope among human beings, find it all results in the splendors of a crown that is the sure reward of those who labor thus, cultivating truth, justice, love, and goodness on earth. Such labor does not remain here below but, purified by God’s Spirit, is harvested for our reward.
The holy Mass, now, this Eucharist, is just such an act of faith. To Christian faith at this moment the voice of diatribe appears changed for the body of the Lord, who offered himself for the redemption of the world, and in this chalice the wine is transformed into the blood that was the price of salvation. May this body immolated and this blood sacrificed for humans nourish us also, so that we may give our body and our blood to suffering and to pain --- like Christ, not for self, but to bring about justice and peace for our people.At that, a postscript reads thus: "a shot rang out in the chapel and Archbishop Romero fell mortally wounded. He died within minutes, on arriving at a nearby hospital emergency room."
Let us join together, then, intimately in faith and hope at this moment of prayer....
http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2012/03/in-memoriam.html
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Rabindranath Tagore
"When man's consciousness is restricted only to the immediate vicinity of the human self, the deeper roots of his nature do not find their permanent soil, his spirit is ever on the brink of starvation, and in the place of healthful strength he substitutes rounds of stimulation. Then it is that man misses his inner perspective and measures his greatness by its bulk and not by its vital link with the infinite, judges his activity by its movement and not by the repose of perfection -- the repose which is in the starry heavens, in the ever-flowing rhythmic dance of creation."
The Gift of Silence
Meditation is our effort to be silent --- but in meditation we experience silence as something that is given to us, a gift. The silence of meditation is rich and full. It is more than the absence of sound because the silence we ourselves create is only a prelude to the deeper silence that is given to us.
The gift of silence means freedom -- freedom from the worried and the cares, the anxious hopes and the deep regrets that burden our soul. This freedom is genuine. It is not an escape from reality but rather a liberation from unreality. We spend most of our lives looking back on the past or anticipating the future. Meditation roots us, instead, in the present moment, the only moment that really exists. It enables us to appreciate every moment of our life for what it truly is -- a fresh, new gift from our Creator.
The gift of silence also means freedom from the din and the noise that are clanging in our heads. "Free me, O Lord," wrote Saint Augustine, "from the chatter that I suffer deep within my soul." In meditation, the busy thoughts that plague us are stilled. The raging storm within is calmed. "Be still and know that I am God," wrote the Psalmist -- and in the stillness of meditation we come to experience God as a source of hope in the midst of our disorder and chaos.
The gift of silence is unity, harmony. We are at one with everyone and everything that exists because we have let go of whatever divides us, whatever separates us -- every barrier that we've built up around our small, frightened ego. In meditation we just be -- with God's own being -- and so we are at one, we are in harmony, with God and with all that shares, as we do, in God's own being.
The gift of silence means being yourself, without excuses to yourself or to anyone else. Silence banishes the "tempters" and "accusers," the distractions that take us off our course and the fears that prevent us from moving forward. In meditation we neither boast of our virtue nor grovel because of our sinfulness. We stop doing anything and allow God to continue to shape us in God's own image and likeness. By simply being ourselves we come to discover who we really are, and since all that God made is good, we discover our own essential goodness. We can delight, as God delights, in the unique creation that we are. Like the Psalmist we can exclaim, "I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made!"
From the tradition:
"A brother came to Abbot Pastor and said: Many distracting thoughts come into my mind and I am in danger because of them. Then the elder thrust him out into the open air and said: Open up the garments about your chest and catch the wind in them. But he replied: This I cannot do. So the elder said to him: If you cannot catch the wind, neither can you prevent distracting thoughts from coming into your head. Your job is to say No to them."
"Abbot Pastor said: Any trial whatever that comes to you can be conquered with silence."
The gift of silence means freedom -- freedom from the worried and the cares, the anxious hopes and the deep regrets that burden our soul. This freedom is genuine. It is not an escape from reality but rather a liberation from unreality. We spend most of our lives looking back on the past or anticipating the future. Meditation roots us, instead, in the present moment, the only moment that really exists. It enables us to appreciate every moment of our life for what it truly is -- a fresh, new gift from our Creator.
The gift of silence also means freedom from the din and the noise that are clanging in our heads. "Free me, O Lord," wrote Saint Augustine, "from the chatter that I suffer deep within my soul." In meditation, the busy thoughts that plague us are stilled. The raging storm within is calmed. "Be still and know that I am God," wrote the Psalmist -- and in the stillness of meditation we come to experience God as a source of hope in the midst of our disorder and chaos.
The gift of silence is unity, harmony. We are at one with everyone and everything that exists because we have let go of whatever divides us, whatever separates us -- every barrier that we've built up around our small, frightened ego. In meditation we just be -- with God's own being -- and so we are at one, we are in harmony, with God and with all that shares, as we do, in God's own being.
The gift of silence means being yourself, without excuses to yourself or to anyone else. Silence banishes the "tempters" and "accusers," the distractions that take us off our course and the fears that prevent us from moving forward. In meditation we neither boast of our virtue nor grovel because of our sinfulness. We stop doing anything and allow God to continue to shape us in God's own image and likeness. By simply being ourselves we come to discover who we really are, and since all that God made is good, we discover our own essential goodness. We can delight, as God delights, in the unique creation that we are. Like the Psalmist we can exclaim, "I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made!"
From the tradition:
"A brother came to Abbot Pastor and said: Many distracting thoughts come into my mind and I am in danger because of them. Then the elder thrust him out into the open air and said: Open up the garments about your chest and catch the wind in them. But he replied: This I cannot do. So the elder said to him: If you cannot catch the wind, neither can you prevent distracting thoughts from coming into your head. Your job is to say No to them."
*
"Abbot Pastor said: Any trial whatever that comes to you can be conquered with silence."
from Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert
Monday, February 27, 2012
Meditation Is Not Complicated
It may be difficult for newcomers to believe that meditation is as simple as it seems. The temptation is to complicate it. But people who have meditated for a while say that it gets simpler as they go along. Learning to meditate means learning to do less and less.
So don't pay attention to the meaning of your mantra, Maranatha. Just pay attention to the sound of the word repeated silently in your mind and heart.
Ma-ra-na-tha. Repeat your word slowly. Stress each syllable equally. Listen to the sound of the word.
Thoughts will come -- good thoughts, bad thoughts, "urgent" reminders, or even grand spiritual insights. Ignore them all. Just keep saying your word. Let go of thinking completely. Don't stop repeating your word.
Images, too, will come and go. Ignore them, let them go. Let your eyes relax, and continue repeating your word.
Once you come to see that meditation is prayer, you will stop "trying to pray" when you are meditating. You won't say your word to a God whose image is somewhere in the back of your head. You'll simply repeat your word as you pay attention to its sound: Ma-ra-na-tha.
Don't misunderstand me: "Simple" doesn't mean "easy." (I'll say more at another time about the difficulty of meditating.) "Simple" means uncomplicated, not composed of parts. Your goal is one thing only: to listen to your word as you repeat it.
From the tradition:
So don't pay attention to the meaning of your mantra, Maranatha. Just pay attention to the sound of the word repeated silently in your mind and heart.
Ma-ra-na-tha. Repeat your word slowly. Stress each syllable equally. Listen to the sound of the word.
Thoughts will come -- good thoughts, bad thoughts, "urgent" reminders, or even grand spiritual insights. Ignore them all. Just keep saying your word. Let go of thinking completely. Don't stop repeating your word.
Images, too, will come and go. Ignore them, let them go. Let your eyes relax, and continue repeating your word.
Once you come to see that meditation is prayer, you will stop "trying to pray" when you are meditating. You won't say your word to a God whose image is somewhere in the back of your head. You'll simply repeat your word as you pay attention to its sound: Ma-ra-na-tha.
Don't misunderstand me: "Simple" doesn't mean "easy." (I'll say more at another time about the difficulty of meditating.) "Simple" means uncomplicated, not composed of parts. Your goal is one thing only: to listen to your word as you repeat it.
From the tradition:
"A person still subject to physical impulses has not yet been crucified with Christ,
and if he still drags natural thoughts along with him,
he has not yet been buried with Him.
How then can he be raised up with Christ
to live in newness of Life?"
Ilias the Presbyter
Saturday, February 25, 2012
How to Meditate
However unfamiliar this way of meditating may seem, it's deeply rooted (as we'll see) in Christian tradition.
Sit down. Sit still and upright. Close your eyes lightly. Sit relaxed but alert.
Silently, interiorly -- in your mind, not aloud -- begin repeating a single word. We recommend the ancient prayer "Maranatha" ("Come, Lord"). Recite it as four equally stressed syllables: ma-ra-na-tha. Listen to it as you repeat it, gently but continuously.
Do not think or imagine anything, spiritual or otherwise. Do not think of the meaning of your word. If thoughts and images come, these are distractions at the time of meditation, so return to simply repeating your word.
Meditate each morning and even for 20 to 30 minutes.
The best guide to meditation is the writings of Fr. John Main, OSB, especially Word into Silence.
From the tradition:
Sit down. Sit still and upright. Close your eyes lightly. Sit relaxed but alert.
Silently, interiorly -- in your mind, not aloud -- begin repeating a single word. We recommend the ancient prayer "Maranatha" ("Come, Lord"). Recite it as four equally stressed syllables: ma-ra-na-tha. Listen to it as you repeat it, gently but continuously.
Do not think or imagine anything, spiritual or otherwise. Do not think of the meaning of your word. If thoughts and images come, these are distractions at the time of meditation, so return to simply repeating your word.
Meditate each morning and even for 20 to 30 minutes.
The best guide to meditation is the writings of Fr. John Main, OSB, especially Word into Silence.
From the tradition:
"When you are praying,
do not shape within yourself any image of the Deity,
and do not let your intellect be stamped with any impress or form;
but approach the Immaterial in an immaterial manner,
and then you will understand."
Evagrios the Solitary
High Desert?
"High desert" refers to a desert climate at high altitude (that was easy, wasn't it?), which in Santa Fe is 7,000 feet. The altitude and the cooler temperatures mean that the flora and fauna are different from what you find closer to sea level -- for example, you'll find none of the noble saguaro cacti here. (If Google Images is accurate, the cactus at the top of this page does grow here.)
And we do have a real winter, with daytime temperatures often in the 40s. Fortunately, the sun usually shines brightly. At night, the temperature is likely to drop down to the 20s.
This blog is likely to focus on matters spiritual rather than political, but I can't swear I'll always resist the temptation to share some "far left propaganda," as my conservative friends call it. ("Far left" is better applied to my roommate, who's convinced the government is out to get us. I just listen and smile; disagreement would be pointless.)
And we do have a real winter, with daytime temperatures often in the 40s. Fortunately, the sun usually shines brightly. At night, the temperature is likely to drop down to the 20s.
Downtown Santa Fe
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