spiritual formation

This is a reflective activity from Henri Nouwen's book, Spiritual Direction.  At the end of each chapter, Nouwen encourages the reader to 'ask the deeper questions of the spiritual life' through journaling.

'...{journaling} is a way of recording how you feel about certain observations, presentations, and idea's and proclaiming what you believe in a context of prayer and listening...'

Nouwen suggests the reader select two trustworthy persons to examine and discuss the following questions/statements. 

Identify and name a persistent question at this time in my life.

Lord,

• Where do you want me to serve you on a regular basis?

• In what area of my life do I need to 'chip away' attitudes or behavior's that stand in opposition to you?

Do I know or perceive where God is active and where He is leading me?

Lord,

• You are leading me into places I'd rather not go (John 21:18). In love and obedience, I will follow even though I don't understand why.

• I am exploring the possibility of obtaining a Spiritual Director. Someone to hold me accountable, to help me explore Your claim on my life, and someone to help me recognize Your activity and say YES to it.

to be continued...
 
How do I listen attentively to God and what am I hearing right now?
What questions would I like to explore with a Spiritual Director?
Where am I prone to self-rejection?
What moments in my life with God stand out as crucial in my spiritual journey?
What persons, books, and idea's have played a significant role in my life?

WORD STUDY: Anupokritos

TRANSLATIONS:

The apostle Paul is calling for the LOVE of God's people to be:

"without hypocrisy" --- NASB and NKJV

"sincere" --- NIV and TEV

"genuine" --- RSV and ESV

"real" --- NCV

"without dissimulation" --- KJV

"Don't just pretend that you love others: really love them" --- LB

"Let us have no imitation Christian love" --- Phillips

WORD STUDY:

Anupokritos appears six times in the pages of the NT documents.  It is used with reference to love three times, faith two times, and wisdom one time. 

Anupokritos literally means without play acting, without playing the part or without hypocrisy.  It is a compound word meaning “without” and a form of hupokrinomai (from which we get our English word, hypocrite), meaning “to pretend” or “to put on a false front.” This word originally referred to the art of acting on a stage. 
An actor portrays someone other than who he or she truly is and that is the meaning of the word hypocrite.





SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:

 ^{1 Peter 1:22}
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.

^Romans 12:9

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good...

^{2 Corinthians 6:6}

 ...in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;

^{1 Timothy 1:5}

 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

^{2 Timothy 1:5}

 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

^{James 3:17}

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.

COMMENTARIES:

"Love is primary, but if it is not sincere, it is not real love but only pretense. The whole of the believer's conduct should be bathed in love. If he fails to love his brother, doubt is cast on his professed love for God" (Expos. Comm., p. 132).

"Christian love is a love which is cleansed of self. It is a pure outgoing of the heart to others" (Barclay, p. 177).

"Have no hypocritical love; let not your love wear a mask; make no empty professions. Love God and your neighbor; and, by obedience to the one and acts of benevolence to the other, show that your love is sincere" (Clarke, p. 139).

I can only keep trying

to be faithful,

even though I feel

faithless most of

the time.

What else can I do but

keep writing about you,

even though I feel numb,

to keep praying to you,

even though I feel dark,

to keep speaking in your name,

even when I feel alone.

Come, LORD Jesus, come.

-Henri Nouwen

Amamchara

Do you have an Amamchara?  The celtic word for 'soul friend' or spiritual director is Amamchara.  St. Brigid, a 6th century saint said, 'A person without a soul friend is like a body without a head.'

A soul friend provides: sanctuary, a safe place to reveal, to ponder, to learn and confess so that the words may be heard in the audible way - making us more aware of our sins and accountibility.

In today's society, we lack safe places and we often grow restless in our spirits. We are afraid to voice our honest questions because of fear of condemnation.  An amamchara can help.

Tracy Balzer in Thin Places, tells the story of a friend who spoke to her students about 'the power of the secret life and the need to break the secret.' Do you have a secret life - is there something you engage in that you fear others will discover?

The amamchara asks questions and listens well.  In essence, they enable a person to hear from God, listen to God, and walk the life of faith better. 

It is not a good thing to be your own guide...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer on 'cheap grace'

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves . . . the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. 

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship.”

“…How can we choose love when we have experienced so little of it? We choose love by taking small steps of love every time there is an opportunity.

A smile, a handshake, a word of encouragement, a phone call, a card, an embrace, a kind greeting, a gesture of support, a moment of attention, a helping hand, a present, a financial contribution, a visit ... all these are little steps toward love.

Each step is like a candle burning in the night. It does not take the darkness away, but it guides us through the darkness. When we look back after many small steps of love, we will discover that we have made a long and beautiful journey…”

~Henri Nouwen

muse ~verb~ mused, mus·ing.

–verb (used without object)
1. to think or meditate in silence, as on some subject.
2. Archaic. to gaze meditatively or wonderingly.

–verb (used with object)
3. to meditate on.
4. to comment thoughtfully or ruminate upon.

Origin:
1300–50; ME musen to mutter, gaze meditatively on, be astonished <>

Synonyms:
1. cogitate, ruminate, think; dream. 1, 3. ponder, contemplate, deliberate.

a prayer

My Lord God
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following
your will does not mean
that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that my desire to please you
does in fact please you.

And I hope that I have that desire
in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything
apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear,
for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me
to face my perils alone.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968), "Thoughts in Solitude"

Question?

Do you desire to please God?

You are my Beloved

"For many years I had read, reflected on, and taught the gospel words in Luke 3 in the story of Jesus's baptism, but only in my later years have they taken on a meaning far beyond the boundaries of my own religious tradition.

God's words "You are my Beloved" reveal the most intimate truth about all human beings, whether they belong to any particular tradition or not. The ultimate spiritual temptation is to doubt this fundamental truth about ourselves and trust in alternative identifies."

--Henri Nouwen

Why let what others say about you
---good or ill---
determine who you are?

God is Looking for Us

God is seeking us...
We do not find God, but God finds us.

God is the good shepherd who goes looking for the lost sheep. God is the woman who lights a lamp, sweeps out the house, and searches everywhere for her lost coin until she has found it. God is not the patriarch who stays home, doesn't move and and expects his children to come to him, apologize for their sinful behavior, beg for forgiveness, and promise to do better. God is the father who watches and waits for his children, runs out to meet them, embraces them, pleads with them, and begs and urges them to come home. It might sound strange, but God wants to find us as much, if not more, than we want to find God.

---Henri Nouwen

Fear of the empty space...

...we suffer from a fear of the empty space. We are so concerned with being useful, effective, and in control that a useless, ineffective, and uncontrollable moment scares us and drives us right back to the security of having something valuable to do.


...we know that God's mercy is a severe mercy that does not coddle or spoil but cuts to the heart where truth resides. And although we are unsatisfied and unfulfilled, we are not so sure that we want to go in the direction God might call us to go. We are not sure our self-image is the same as the image God wishes to form in us.


...resistance in the form of preoccupation and distraction often prevents us from seeing the truth of our lives, hearing God's voice, and living a spiritual life. To listen with obedience to the voice of God requires building up a resistance to all the other voices that compete for our attention.

A Psalter (also known as the Psalms of David) is a volume containing the book of Psalms and often other devotional material.

In the early middle ages, Psalters were amongst the most popular types of illuminated manuscripts, rivaled only by the Gospel Books.

Medieval Psalters often included a calendar, a litany of saints, canticles from the Old and New Testaments, as well as other devotional texts.

Many Psalters were lavishly illuminated with full-page miniatures as well as decorated initials.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church the Psalter is divided into 20 kathismata, for reading at Vespers and Matins. Kathisma means sitting, since the people normally sit during the reading of the psalms.

Book of Hours:

A book of hours is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript. Each book of hours is unique in one way or another, but all contain a collection of texts, prayers and psalms...

The Latin word hours is horae, the English term primer is usually only used to refer to books of hours written in English. Books of hours were usually written in Latin, although some are entirely or partially in vernacular European languages. Several hundred thousand books of hours have survived to the present day, scattered across libraries and private collections throughout the world.

The book of hours can be thought of as an abbreviated breviary, the book containing the Divine Office recited in monasteries. The books of hours were composed for lay people who wished to incorporate elements of monasticism into their devotional life.

One of the most famous books of hours, and one of the most richly illuminated medieval manuscripts, is the Très Riches Heures painted sometime between 1412 and 1416 inFrance for John, Duke of Berry.

Food for thought...

Ask yourself why you are attracted to the idea of understanding God.

What’s the motive?
Then find out the real motive. Pray God doesn’t have to bring you to the abyss to see the truth about why you do the things you do.

My journey is this: If I understood God, then he would do what I understood he was supposed to do.

Instead, Job was right. God does what he wants to do and you won’t understand it.

The Gospel tells you all you can understand about God and there are no strings attached.

The only happiness we are promised is promised by Jesus, and I doubt that many people want to get involved with that, because none of it has to do with the study of theology. Jesus basically told the theologians of his day they were going to hell and little children knew more than they did.

Anyone who claims to “just be studying and interpreting” with no personal agenda or bias is not being truthful.

--- TommyMerton

New writing about old ways

Monasticism remixed seems to be a recent, but worthy trend. Young disciples are gathering to pray 24/7, breathing prayer and living in community in the UK, the US and across continents not known for coalface faith. These new monastics may sport tattoos and roll with tiny speakers in their ears, but they are discovering & expressing the beauty of Benedictine & Ignatian spirituality.

You may not be called to be a monk or a nun, but have you considered being an oblate? Possibly not. But it is a viable option without quitting your day job.

With whispers of Francis Schaffer and idealistic initiatives, communities are exploring what Jesus possibly considered everyday realities of how faith should be lived.

"Every generation of Christians has this problem of learning how to speak meaningfully to its own age. It cannot be solved without an understanding of the changing existential situation which it faces. If we are to communicate the Christian faith effectively, therefore, we must know and understand the thought forms of our own generation. These will differ slightly from place to place, and more so from nation to nation. Nevertheless there are characteristics of an age such as ours which are the same wherever we happen to be. It is these that I am especially considering in this book. And the object of this is far from being merely to satisfy intellectual curiosity. As we go along, it will become clear how far-reaching are the practical consequences of a proper understanding of these movements of thought."
(Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason, Introduction)

One example of this new wave is Scott A. Bessenecker's The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World's Poor. In highlighting five characteristics of effective ministry to the impoverished: incarnational, devotional, communal, missional & marginal, Bessenecker ushers in the same spirit as found in St Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, the Moravians & others.

Consider the simple way community and the boiler rooms and see if you hear the whispers of the old saints, their robes dragging on the ground behind them as they sought opportunities to serve and practiced the rhythm of prayer as the bookends of their days.