Monastic Musings, Monday, Febuary 7, 2011

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Why do we need to know about our negativities? Because, such negativities surface without our ability to control them at times. Think, for instance, about being in a line at a grocery store. Make it a rather long line, say, with 10 people. Just as your turn is about to come, the manager comes and closes that line and you have to move to another line, which is as long as the first one originally was.


Listen to the feelings that go on within you. Some people can accept such happenings without any kind of negative reaction. Others cannot. The early monks and nuns were well aware that we must listen to our thoughts as they are provoked by our feelings and begin the battle for freedom at that level. In our present culture, there is at times an enormous emphasis on listening to our feelings and honoring them. That can be most misleading to any of us.

Certainly we need to know our feelings and in that sense honor them. Feelings are not yet actions or choices, but they condition our choices very often. It is not easy to resist anger if everyone around you is angry. On the other hand, a person of peace, walking into a crowd of anger, can change the atmosphere incredibly. The peace and love must be very deep, however, to resist the tug of the anger of others.

From Abbot Phillip’s (Christ in the Desert) Notebook, Wednesday, February 2, 2010

Simplicity

"For properly speaking simplicity is a will that is wholly turned toward God, seeking one thing from the Lord with all earnestness, without any desire to disperse its energies in the world. Or again simplicity is true humility in conversion, more concerned with the inner reality of virtue than with a reputation for it. The simple man does not mind seeming to be foolish in the eyes of the world that he may be wise in the sight of God."

William of St. Thiery - The Golden Epistle #49.

“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.”

 Psalm 27:4 (RSV)

I post these quotes because, having read them a few days ago, I can’t seem to get away from them. How difficult it is to keep focused on one thing, it seems our culture today is directed only toward creating distractions. All we see, anywhere we turn, the energy is directed to forcing us, beyond our will, to “disperse our energies in the world.”

So, as Advent begins, I offer these words of ancient wisdom as an aid in remaining focused on this season of hope.