Meditations from Gethsemani

Monday Merton Musings, Oct 31, 2011
Meditations from Gethsemani

It is good to be back with you, my friends. Thank you for understanding my need for a sabbatical. The past few months have been among the most intense and draining of my life. My edges were becoming all frayed and sparks flew whenever I got bent or twisted the wrong way. I was ready for a break and some mending.

Throughout the week I will share some thoughts from a journal kept during the time I spent at The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani. For today, I offer a taste of the visuals and writings that I took in while experiencing a few days of silence there.

Take your time, embrace the quiet, savor Thomas Merton’s wisdom, enjoy the view.

All quotes are from The Sign of Jonas, by Thomas Merton
Click on the pictures for larger views.

• • •

“I got some taste of how much there is to be glad for in the world because of Gethsemani.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“In the average monastery, Trappist silence is an all-pervading thing that seeps into the very stones of the place and saturates the men who live there.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Meanwhile, for myself, I have only one desire and that is the desire for solitude—to disappear into God, to be submerged in His peace, to be lost in the secret of His Face.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“You have made my soul for Your peace and Your silence, but it is lacerated by the noise of my activity and my desires. My mind is crucified all day by its own hunger for experience, for ideas, for satisfaction. And I do not possess my house in silence. But I was created for Your peace and You will not despise my longing for the holiness of Your deep silence. O my Lord…”

 

 

 

“The contemplative life becomes awfully thin and drab if you go for several days at a time without thinking explicitly of the Passion of Christ. I do not mean, necessarily, meditating, but at least attending with love and humility to Christ on the Cross. For His Cross is the source of all our life and without it prayer dries up and everything goes dead.”

 

 

 

“Let me rest in Your will and be silent. Then the light of Your joy will warm my life. Its fire will burn in my heart and shine for Your glory. This is what I live for. Amen, amen.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Internet Monk Annual Halloween Rant

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
From October 23, 2008

Originally published at the Steve Brown, Etc. Guest Room Blog. You also might enjoy “The Great Pumpkin Proposes a Toast,” from deep in the IM archives. Here’s a good post on “How to have a great Catholic Halloween.” No Protestants are harmed. It’s OK.

• • •

As October 31st looms, it’s time for true confessions.

I grew up among Southern Baptist fundamentalist Baptists. The KJV-only, women can’t wear pants, twenty verses of “Just As I Am,” Jerry Falwell, Jack Chick, twice a year revival kind of fundamentalist Baptists.

We were serious about things like beer. By sheer quantity of attention in sermons, drinking beer was the most evil act one could describe. We were serious about movies, cards, and something called “mixed bathing,” which normal people would call “swimming.”

We were serious about the Bible, Sunday School, suits and ties, and walking the aisle to get saved.

And we were big time into Halloween.

No, that’s not a typo. I said we were big time into Halloween.

Continue reading “The Internet Monk Annual Halloween Rant”

What’s the Point?

I’m generally pretty pragmatic.  Before I do something, I like to know that it’s a good use of my time and resources.  I like to be able to anticipate a return for my effort.  I’m aware that I can’t do everything, so I try to choose deeds that will count, will really make a difference.

From the world’s point of view, that’s a good way to be.  Auditors and stockholders, employers and creditors all like to see that sort of attitude in people.

But here’s the question:  If I saw that woman pour out expensive ointment on Jesus’ feet, would I echo Judas’ words and complain about how that just isn’t practical?

I don’t like that question and would prefer not to answer it.  Instead I’ll copy this poem, written by someone, and about someone, who can understand impractical love far better than I.

• • •

Mother Teresa
By Sydney Carter

No revolution will come in time
to alter this man’s life
except the one
surprise of being loved.

It is too late to talk of Civil Rights,
neo-Marxism,
psychiatry
or any kind of sex.

He has only twelve more hours to live.
Forget about
a cure for cancer, smoking, leprosy
or osteo-arthritis.

Over this dead loss to society
you pour your precious ointment,
wash the feet
that will not walk tomorrow.

Mother Teresa, Mary Magdalene,
your love is dangerous, your levity
would contradict
our local gravity.

But if love cannot do it, then I see
no future for this dying man or me.
So blow the world to glory,
crack the clock.  Let love be dangerous.

Saturday Ramblings 10.29.11

 

So, Game 6 of this year’s World Series. What a game! Can you believe it? It was such a tense nail-biter that it actually gave our regular rambler Jeff Dunn a bit of a heart condition, so he had to galumph over to the local hospital for observation. Currently his ticker is lub-lubbing along at a good clip, but you can’t be too careful these days. In other words, you’re stuck with me, your junior rambler, for a hurried edition of Saturday Ramblings. Pile in–there’s plenty of room on this here bench seat.

Residents of North America as far south as Georgia were treated to an unusual site this week: Aurorae. There were, like, lights in the sky and stuff. Neato.

A new study from the University of Hong Kong indicates that “complex organic compounds can be created in space even when no life forms are present.” That’s right–that interstellar dust out there in the cosmos? Possibly swirling with organic life. What does this mean for your theological worldview?

NFL quarterback and outspoken Christian Tim Tebow led his team to a big comeback victory last Sunday, but apparently he’s not just inspiring poor defense from the worst team in the league–he’s also inspired a new movement. And yes, it really is called “Tebowing.” Your thoughts?

Since this is a rushed version of Saturday ramblings, let’s skip ahead to this part…

Happy birthday this week to: mouseketeer Annette Funicello (who turns 70 next year!), Ryan Reynolds, national treasure “Weird Al” Yankovic, Johnny Carson, temperamental iconoclasts Bobby Knight and Pablo Picasso, John Cleese, Julia Roberts, and Bill Gates.

In honor of Mr. Cleese’s birthday, as well as that of the argumentative Mr. Knight, enjoy this classic Monty Python sketch:

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teMlv3ripSM’%5D

 

 

Bride Of Top Ten Things People Hate About The Catholic Church

Welcome back for another go at telling me what you think is wrong with the Catholic Church. This is the second half of my top ten list of reasons I have heard or read or, maybe on the rare occasion, voiced myself about the Church. March on, dear reader, and give me your best shot.

5.  Yes, we do think we’re the boss of you.  All of you, even if you’re not Christians.

From “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church “Lumen Gentium” Solemnly Promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964”, Chapter II, On the People of God:

14.  This Sacred Council wishes to turn its attention firstly to the Catholic faithful.  Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation.  Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church.  Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved….

15.  The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter.  For there are many who honor Sacred Scripture, taking it as a norm of belief and a pattern of life, and who show a sincere zeal.  They lovingly believe in God the Father Almighty and in Christ, the Son of God and Saviour.  They are consecrated by baptism, in which they are united with Christ.  They also recognize and accept other sacraments within their own Churches or ecclesiastical communities.  Many of them rejoice in the episcopate, celebrate the Holy Eucharist and cultivate devotion toward the Virgin Mother of God.  They also share with us in prayer and other spiritual benefits.  Likewise we can say that in some real way they are joined with us in the Holy Spirit, for to them too He gives His gifts and graces whereby He is operative among them with His sanctifying power.  Some indeed He has strengthened to the extent of the shedding of their blood.  In all of Christ’s disciples the Spirit arouses the desire to be peacefully united, in the manner determined by Christ, as one flock under one shepherd, and He prompts them to pursue this end.  Mother Church never ceases to pray, hope and work that this may come about.  She exhorts her children to purification and renewal so that the sign of Christ may shine more brightly over the face of the earth.

Continue reading “Bride Of Top Ten Things People Hate About The Catholic Church”

Computer Wanted

Well, I guess it had to happen. My trusty MacBook has seen better days. It is on the cusp of giving up the ghost. This is the computer I use to keep iMonk up and running. It sees pretty heavy usage each day. But now … well, I am having to do all kinds of “work-arounds” just to get anything accomplished.

You all have been so incredibly kind and generous in your giving to our site (with most of the money going to pay for monthly hosting and upkeep) that I hate to ask you to once again consider giving for the purchase of a computer. But … I am asking.

Would you be willing to give even a small amount so that I can keep doing whatever it is I do here? Thank you so very much. Don’t feel obligated. If you are in a financial crunch (and, oh!, I know how that is), then please just sit back and read. We love you being here.

Thank you.

Top Ten Things People Hate About the Catholic Church

Top Ten Things People Hate About the Catholic Church, or, “I’ve suffered for my art, now it’s your turn”.  Oops, sorry!  Wrong quote!

shuffles through notes

“Rum, sodomy and the lash”?  That’s the British Navy.  Or a cracking album by the Pogues.  Still not quite there.

rustle of papers

Ah, here we are!  “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion”!  Speaking as a rum-sozzled (and you’ll see the application of that later on as you read down, since this was conceived and partly written whilst partaking of Captain Morgan’s and Coke), rebellious (remember: when in doubt, blame the Brits!) Romanist, I have to ask: Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?

Okay, here is where I (as a representative of my Church, God help us all) set myself up as an Aunt Sally for you lovely, lovely people out there to throw sticks at.  Anything and everything that has ever annoyed, or currently is annoying, you about the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church – here’s your chance to get it off your chest.  Don’t worry about political correctness or holding it all in or even common courtesy (to an extent – nothing too vicious that will cause the moderators to ban your backside until the Second Coming, please!).  I won’t be offended by anything up to and including “Your cult is not a Christian church, you’re all pagan goddess-worshipping idolaters and you’re going to burn in Hell along with your father the Devil and his servant the Anti-Christ, or as you call him, the Pope”.  This is also equal-opportunity bashing; don’t feel obligated just because you had the water poured over you at Our Lady of the Perpetual Bingo Nights to keep things under your hat out of some sense not washing dirty linen in public or not fighting in front of the neighbours (family rows are the best free entertainment!)  Whether you come from the Society of St. Pius V (who broke with the Society of St. Pius X for being too liberal) or the Giant Papier-mâché Puppets of Doom wing of Holy Mother Church, this is an opportunity for you too to get stuck in to your co-religionists.  I’m not going to reply to any comments (I may make further comments of my own, because when did you ever know me to be able to keep my beak shut?), do any further explaining of abstruse theological points or popular devotional practices, or use this as a teaching opportunity – I’m not trying to draw anyone out, I’m not laying back in the snipe grass waiting to pounce, I’m not making any kind of a point.  This is your excuse to vent without fear or favor.  I’m just going to sit here with an objectionable grin plastered on the front of my big turnip head, unassailable in my sense of Romanist superiority to the lot of yez.

Continue reading “Top Ten Things People Hate About the Catholic Church”

Welcome To The World (Atheist Remix)

Last week Craig Bubeck took at look at a video that has been making the rounds, a video prepared by the Thinking Athiest.  Craig then gave us his counter-narrative. Today, Liturgical Gangsta Daniel Jepsen looks at Welcome to the World–the atheist remix.

By Daniel Jepsen

My child, welcome to this world. Before you grow up, there are a few things we must tell you.

First, you are the chance, random result of certain biological processes, and nothing more.  Your father and your mother were inborn with a desire to spread their own genes, and thus, you are here.  This is why they “love” you. In turn, your parents are also solely the result of the same impersonal drive of their ancestors to competitively reproduce their own DNA.  In truth, just as a chicken is an egg’s way of making more eggs, you are your gene’s way of making more genes.

Oh, you will have false, deluded people who insist on making up stories about life having a purpose beyond this, but they lie. The cosmos is a closed system of matter. There is nothing outside it. Nothing.  The universe simply is. It has no purpose. And your own life, as part of this material universe, likewise simply is. It has no purpose.

Again, because there is nothing outside the universe (or at least nothing that could conceivably affect the universe), then matter is all there is.   You may someday wonder about the “why” of this.  “Where did the matter come from? Why is there something rather than nothing?” But there is no answer to that. The matter simply always existed.  There is no reason why.

Continue reading “Welcome To The World (Atheist Remix)”

The Punchline

Many of you who read my post on Sunday night have been kind enough to ask about my health, encouraging me to get to the doctor for a follow-up. One of my close friends even said, “See? All of those people on iMonk are telling you to go to doctor. You need to listen to them.” I was told to especially listen to Pattie for some reason.

Our own First Lady Denise Spencer sent me a very angry note—well, a very kind note with a picture of an angry nurse—urging me to get my backside to the doctor without delay. So I did. I went to see Ol’ Sawbones yesterday and told him of my fun ride in the ambulance on Saturday, but he had already heard about it. (Tulsa is not that big, but still…) He agreed that what I am suffering is most likely not an effect from the medications I have been taking. We talked about three things it might possibly be: TIAs, or mini-strokes; a problem with my carotid artery; and anxiety.

For the TIA possibility, he is setting me up with a trip to a neurologist. To look at the carotid, he wants me to have a Doppler x-ray on my neck. (Looking for tornadoes?) And for the anxiety, he put me on a low dose of some anti-anxiety pill whose side effects are the exact symptoms I am already dealing with! Oh, you have got to love medical science.

My doctor is a very good and thorough doctor. He is wanting to find the cause of the weakness, dizziness and numbness I have been dealing with. Please pray he has wisdom in all of this. And that he can put up with me a little bit longer.

I will continue the series on the Naked Emperor tomorrow, but until then … In my post on Sunday I said something about a joke, a joke that was not even a complete joke at the time, but nevertheless many of you have been wanting to hear the punchline. So, without further ado …

A young earth creationist, an evangelical megachurch pastor, and an iMonk walk into a bar. The YEC says to the bartender, “I believe the earth was created in six literal twenty-four hour days. If you don’t believe that way, I don’t think you can be a Christian.”

The megachurch pastor said, “I believe that if you will give God your best, then God will give you his best in return.”

The bartender looked at the iMonk and said, “So? What do you believe?”

The iMonk thought for a minute, then another minute, then one minute more before saying, “Well, I believe …”

Oh look, I’m going to let you all supply the punchline. There might even be a prize in it for the best submission. Strike up your funny bones, iMonks, and finish this joke for all of us.