Category: Religion

Jesuit Padawan Learner

I “finished” my Exercises several months ago and it has taken me some time to reflect and digest what’s happened. I would say that no great vocational insight struck me. What happened was I received a capstone to a very long process of knowing who I am and whose I am.

The Jesuits have a handbook for this search. It is The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, composed by the saint before he was even a priest. Often described as Ignatius’s greatest gift to the world, these exercises unfold a dynamic process of prayer, meditation, and self-awareness. The basic thrust is to make us more attentive to God’s activity in our world, more responsive to what God is calling us to do. Ignatian spiritual directors accompany or guide people through the exercises in retreat houses, parishes, and other settings.

via Ignatian Spirituality | Finding God in All Things.

I “finished” my Exercises several months ago and it has taken me some time to reflect and digest what’s happened. I would say that no great vocational insight struck me. What happened was I received a capstone to a very long process of getting to know who I am and whose I am on a deep level. What I am to actually do is simple: the “slow work” of God. Day to day. Minute to minute. I’ve learned to be open to God directing my life. My direction becomes clear as circumstances arise and preparation makes for opportunity.

Qui-Gon Jinn
Qui-Gon Jinn

I’m mindful of the Living Force so to speak.

“Use your opponents’ strategies against them and you take away their power. […] Get your opponents to lose their grace, and they will lose their purpose, Padawan. […] Do not meet hate with hate. Meet it with purpose.“―Qui-Gon Jinn teaches Obi-Wan Kenobi how to win a battle.[src]

The Church of No-God: Blasphemy Day Edition

R. Joseph Hoffman brings it.

What I miss about the old atheism–even though I still find its central premises wobbly and unconvincing–is that thinking was permitted. The conversation continued. There was no infallible source of confidence. Skepticism reigned.

The new atheism is a catechism of conclusions reached, positions taken, dogmas pronounced. It is more like the Catholicism I giggled to see parodied, a church too sure of itself and its exclusive ability to save souls and reveal the kingdom.

via Atheist Tantrums: The New Loud | The New Oxonian.

 

How hard do bishops have to listen?

Perhaps most interesting about the document, Hinze continued, is that it recognizes that some priests and bishops might not have figured out exactly what the church should be teaching on a particular subject.

“I thought it was pretty judicious that the hierarchy has to recognize that they may not have it right yet,” said Hinze, referring to a passage in the document that states that Catholics may “deny assent” to church teaching “if they do not recognize in that teaching the voice of Christ.”

via Vatican considers: How hard do bishops have to listen? | National Catholic Reporter.

Finally.

My Principle and Foundation

The reason Jesuit spirituality has been so profound for me is that it has given form to the substance of my spiritual life.

The reason Jesuit spirituality has been so profound for me is that it has given form to the substance of my spiritual life. So often I find myself saying, “Yes! Exactly!” when I read books on Ignatian spirituality or being moved by a particular poem or prayer. The Jesuit Principle and Foundation forms naturally the core of their spirituality. It is both poem and prose. It describes my core. Enjoy.

Principle and Foundation: Contemporary Translation

God who loves us creates us and wants to share life with us forever. Our love response takes shape in our praise and honor and service of the God of our life.

All the things in this world are also created because of God’s love and they become a context of gifts, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily.

As a result, we show reverence for all the gifts of creation and collaborate with God in using them so that by being good stewards we develop as loving persons in our care for God’s world and its development. But if we abuse any of these gifts of creation or, on the contrary, take them as the center of our lives, we break our relationship with God and hinder our growth as loving persons.

In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some responsibility. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a more loving response to our life forever with God.

Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening life in me (SE 23).

-Translation by David L. Fleming, SJ, in Draw Me into Your Friendship: The Spiritual Literal Translation and a Contemporary Reading.

Quoted in Father Kevin O’Brien SJ. The Ignatian Adventure: Experiencing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in Daily Life (Kindle Locations 576-585). Kindle Edition.

God Wrote the Bible, Literally!

I wrote this post to try and elucidate, at some length, why I believe the Bible is

1) A human, historical book,
2) Rightly called holy and sacred,
3) But neither an idol nor a magical talisman.

(Version 1.5)

I’ve recently had occasion to discuss with my Christian brothers what the proper understanding of the Bible is. Is it the Word of God? Is it proper to read it literally? Is it infallible? And so on. As I reflected on the conversation, I noticed at times we were speaking past each other. Despite being intelligent, sensitive individuals, our vocabulary got in the way of understanding one another. This happens all too often to me, and that inspired this post.

Specifically, I believe the Bible is

  1. A human, historical book,
  2. rightly called holy and sacred,
  3. but neither an idol nor a magical talisman.

Continue reading “God Wrote the Bible, Literally!”

The So-Called War between Science and Religion

Dr. Chris Impey basically shows why this war is simply not real but a mythical football for it’s belligerents.

AZPM – Science for Monks

A Model to Follow

John 13:1-15

The Washing of the Disciples’ Feet.

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
So when he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

Period.

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Walking the Jesus Walk

St. Ignatius’ Prayer for Generosity

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will.

I began the Spiritual Exercises today and while I’m fearful of the unknown, I’m drawn by poetic prayers like this. They cut right to my core and say something beautiful and profound. Serving Christ as He deserves is to carry the cross with him. To give of oneself without condition or reservation. This is a very dangerous theology. It rebukes the pragmatism and cynicism and nihilism in this world. No wonder Ignatius was arrested by the Spanish Inquisition!

I’m excited about the journey.

On Aquinas

Aquinas’ proofs are nothing of the sort and it’s fallacious to think so. But they are ways of thinking of God reasonably which is a double-edged sword.

Karen Armstrong’s discussion of Aquinas

Few thinkers have made such a lasting contribution to Western Christianity as Thomas Aquinas (1225–74), who attempted a synthesis of Augustine and the Greek philosophy which had recently been made available in the West.

Continue reading “On Aquinas”

What happens when Jesus is not the answer?

Doing good cannot be an optional extra for Christians, but must be at the core of our existence.

What happens when Jesus is not the answer?:

Doing good cannot be an optional extra for Christians, but must be at the core of our existence. For our faith is not measured by a list of sound doctrine, but instead by the fruit it produces in doing good.

(Via Red Letter Christians)

Amen. Read the whole post. It’s worth it.