Monday, March 19, 2012
What to read for today.
Chapter 22:Life in Christ
Questions for your personal reflection.
Can you identify anything that you are trying to escape from as a means of evading your own true nature and countenance?
Sharing with others: What caught your attention or provoked your thinking today?
This chapter did not evoke any sense of escape for me. Instead, I was caught by the idea that nothing is more important than one’s interior life and that the only things that matter are ones that support that life. “If I have divine life in me, what do the accidents of pain and pleasure, hope and fear, joy and sorrow matter to me?” And then Merton points out that this divine life gets radiated back out to others so that we benefit each other. I do not think that one has to be a “believer” in Christ or anything else in order to find this compelling.
Posted by Genevieve.
Posted by Second Thoughts
ReplyDeleteI did not notice the reference to escaping, so I went back to look for it. It is actually a rather violent image. Merton compares the soul to wax and says that if we try to escape the divine heat that is seeking to imprint itself on our souls, the seal will ultimately crush us. In other words, there’s no escape. It will get you one way or the other. Just like the relentless Hound of Heaven. That's creepy not comforting.
Posted by Genevieve
ReplyDeleteToday one of the things that caught my attention was Merton’s description of the Eucharist. That it is a social event (something we do together) that conveys sacred significance but effects a religious transformation in the worshipper. I like the thought that what we do collectively each Sunday could at the same time have a profound, personal impact on each individual. I don’t know what that impact or experience might be, nor should I even be curious to know according to Merton. He says it’s personal thing that cannot be expressed in words and “it is nobody else’s business”.
I was struck by two things in this reflection- how to decide what is important in life - and how our modern society has completely messed this up and the importance of the eucharist in the expression of the divine and the recognition of god in all things and especially the cycle of being born , living, dying and being born again
ReplyDeletethe bread and the wine - a great metaphor!
post by william