Easter Sunday
Monday, April 2, 2012
Saturday,
April 7, 2012 ~ Holy Saturday
What to read for
today.
Chapter 39:The General Dance
Questions for your
personal reflection.
As you complete this reading study, are there any ways that
it gave you insight into “His call and His mysterious, cosmic dance”?
Look back
at your initial hopes and reservations. To what extent were these fulfilled?
Sharing with others:
What caught your attention or provoked your thinking today?
I still
remain confused about Merton’s conception of God. Even though Merton concedes
that Scripture is poetry as opposed to literal history, his God is still doing
things like making humans, revealing himself, confronting people, and living
out dogma by becoming human. I continue
to wrestle with Merton’s insistence that God is a Who, a Person. And yet, when
Merton writes of the “cosmic dance” I am right there with him. I get that we are in the midst of it
and that it permeates everything. And I couldn’t agree more when Merton says we
are invited to forget ourselves, cast solemnity to the winds and join in the
general dance.
Posted by Genevieve
Friday,
April 6, 2012 ~ Good Friday
What to read for
today.
Chapter 38:Pure Love
Questions for your
personal reflection.
What sense do you make of this chapter? Does it contribute to your
understanding or experience of “God”, “contemplation” or “the interior life”?
Sharing with others:
What caught your attention or provoked your thinking today?
Merton seemed to roam all over the place, sometimes speaking
with clarity, sometimes doubling back on himself or contradicting what he had
just written. Perhaps he was using
the chapter to clarify his own confused thinking. Or maybe words simply could not capture what he wanted to
convey.
One thing that did ring true was Merton’s observation that
people seem alienated from their inner selves and are “turned, spiritually,
inside out”. In other words, we
confuse the image we want the outer world to see with the person we are really
intended to be. As far as Merton is concerned this is the Fall of Man described
in Genesis. I think that Joni
Mitchell’s Woodstock lyrics convey the same sentiment:
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
back to
the garden.
Posted by Genevieve
Thursday,
April 5, 2012 ~ Holy Thursday
What to read for
today.
Chapter 37:Sharing The Fruits of Contemplation
Questions for your
personal reflection.
Have you tried to engage others in this Lenten discipline as
you have carried it out? How? With
what results?
Sharing with others:
What caught your attention or provoked your thinking today?
As I re-read this chapter I was filled with horror at the
thought that this Lenten reading study might be an exercise in preaching at
people. “The contemplative who
tries to preach contemplation before he himself really knows what it is, will
prevent both himself and others from finding the true path to God’s peace.” I certainly don’t want to be that
person.
I accept Merton’s observation that spiritual experiences defy
words and cannot be communicated and that even if they can, many people are not
interested in the interior life.
Even so, I think it is worth wrestling with words and offering one’s
thoughts to others. This is how I clarify ideas and
experiences and what prompts growth.
Posted by Genevieve
Wednesday,
April 4, 2012
What to read for
today.
Chapter 36:Inward Destitution
Questions for your
personal reflection.
Do you share Merton’s view that “when we accept what we are
and what we are not, we begin to realize that this great poverty is our
greatest fortune”? If so, in what
way do you see this as fortunate for your interior life?
Sharing with others:
What caught your attention or provoked your thinking today?
When I read this chapter I couldn’t help thinking about the character
called “Lowly Worm” in Richard Scary’s children’s books. Merton’s view of humanity can sometimes
be depressingly negative and, as others have observed, he descends into a rant.
So I am beginning to rebel
or resist. Do I have to accept a
worm-like status to address my own egotism or pursue a path of integrity? Is it really necessary to become
nothing in order to be the something contained in my true identity?
How I wish Merton had lived beyond 1968 because I
would so much like to have followed his thinking, especially after his trip to
Asia and his intended residence with a Sufi mystic in Iran.
Posted by Genevieve
Tuesday,
April 3, 2012
What to read for
today.
Chapter 35:Renunciation
Questions for your
personal reflection.
What would today be like if, just for today, you refrained
from “directing those you have not been appointed to direct, reforming those
you have not been asked to reform, correcting those over whom you have no
jurisdiction”?
Sharing with others:
What caught your attention or provoked your thinking today?
One of the themes in this chapter is humility and false
humility. One can be humble
performing physical tasks like gardening or cooking. But one can be equally
humble by using one’s intellectual powers. The thing to watch out for is vanity. Merton urges us not to claim ownership
of our capabilities but to simply accept them and then to cheerfully carry out life’s
duties.
A related point is to stick to your own knitting,
meaning to spend time improving yourself and stop trying to reform everyone
else.
Posted by Genevieve
Monday,
April 2, 2012
What to read for
today.
Chapter 34:The Wrong Flame
Questions for your
personal reflection.
To what extent is sentimentality, “sensible intoxication” or
“the stimulus of emotion” necessary to your spiritual life?
Sharing with others:
What caught your attention or provoked your thinking today?
I was brought up in a devout, religious family where
sentimentality and acts of piety were confused with holiness. We preferred a
warm interior glow to an encounter with a real human being. I now see that this is a form of
spiritual immaturity. I am
grateful to Merton and others who have helped me see that “holy feelings” have
no essential connection to sanctity and are only momentary “illusions” of
holiness.
Posted by Genevieve
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