Miscellaneous Ramblings on the First of September

I’ll offer a bit of self-congratulations regarding the general silence both here and over at my photo blog, Colorado Shots. I’ll try to pass off to you that I’ve been very Benedictine in spirit and, having nothing to say, have kept silent. I won’t say anything that might lead you to believe I’ve just been lazy or anything like that, oh no. But, since I can’t seem to maintain enough decent concentration to do a single, focused post, I’ll hit on a few topics of recent interest.

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I have had a spot of ill health that has set me back a little. About a month ago, I went to the dermatologist with a spot behind my ear that was somewhat open, bleeding, and a bit painful. He did a biopsy and it was a basil cell carcinoma and had to come off. This was done last Friday under what is called Moh’s surgery where they take one layer at a time until the cancerous growth is removed. It took two rounds and some 18 or so stitches to close it up. It knocked me for a loop for a few days, but I’m getting back to normal. My right ear is now pinned back ever so slightly; I think it an overall improvement.

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I’ve been doing a good bit of reading on monastic spirituality recently and it suddenly came to me that such reading has been focused on Cistercian and Trappist writers. I’ve read a book by the late Abbot Francis Kline, one by Abbot Andre Louf. I am also a big fan of Fr. Michael Casey, an Australian Trappist and am about to begin reading William of St. Thierry’s Golden Epistle, a book I’ve dabbled in recently. I’m beginning to wonder if I am, indeed, called to become a Lay Cistercian, it’s too big a coincidence. I’ll offer a little background on why I am wondering about this.

I was born a Presbyterian and for 5 to 10 years prior to my coming into the Church, I was quite active in First Presbyterian Church in El Paso. I was ordained a deacon and, during the last year of my term, became Moderator of the Board of Deacons. One of my duties was to present a 15-20 minute meditation on some spiritual topic. After my term was over, I one day went back to those meditations and, to my very great surprise, I had chosen passages almost exclusively from Catholic authors as the theme of each one of them. It was a bit of a shock, but it got me thinking. Hmmm.

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There was a story in the paper this morning about the death in a car accident of a high school hockey player from one of the local high schools. He had graduated in 2008. There was prominent mention that grief counselors had been made available to both staff and faculty at the high school. It didn’t say anything about priests or ministers which might have been the preferred route back in my high school days, if the high schools did anything like that at all. They didn’t. I think the reason is, they probably assumed most staff and faculty had regular contact with either a priest or minister and didn’t have much need for a psychologist. It’s just another example of how things have changed.

Purity of Heart

EVERYTHING should be done and sought after by us for the sake of this [purity of heart]. For this we must seek for solitude, for this we know that we ought to submit to fastings, vigils, toils, bodily nakedness, reading, and all other virtues that through them we may be enabled to prepare our heart and to keep it unharmed by all evil passions, and resting on these steps to mount to the perfection of charity, and with regard to these observances, if by accident we have been employed in some good and useful occupation and have been unable to carry out our customary discipline, we should not be overcome by vexation or anger, or passion, with the object of overcoming which, we were going to do that which we have omitted. For the gain from fasting will not balance the loss from anger, nor is the profit from reading so great as the harm which results from despising a brother. Those things which are of secondary importance, such as fastings, vigils, withdrawal from the world, meditation on Scripture, we ought to practise with a view to our main object, i.e., purity of heart, which is charity, and we ought not on their account to drive away this main virtue, for as long as it is still found in us intact and unharmed, we shall not be hurt if any of the things which are of secondary importance are necessarily omitted; since it will not be of the slightest use to have done everything, if this main reason of which we have spoken be removed, for the sake of which everything is to be done. For on this account one is anxious to secure and provide for one's self the implements for any branch of work, not simply to possess them to no purpose, nor as if one made the profit and advantage, which is looked for from them, to consist in the bare fact of possession but that by using them, one may effectually secure practical knowledge and the end of that particular art of which they are auxiliaries. Therefore fastings, vigils, meditation on the Scriptures, self-denial, and the abnegation of all possessions are not perfection, but aids to perfection: because the end of that science does not lie in these, but by means of these we arrive at the end. He then will practise these exercises to no purpose, who is contented with these as if they were the highest good, and has fixed the purpose of his heart simply on them, and does not extend his efforts towards reaching the end, on account of which these should be sought: for he possesses indeed the implements of his art, but is ignorant of the end, in which all that is valuable resides. Whatever then can disturb that purity and peace of mind--even though it may seem useful and valuable--should be shunned as really hurtful, for by this rule we shall succeed in escaping harm from mistakes and vagaries, and make straight for the desired end and reach it.

John Cassian, Conferences, Chapter 7

Some Monastic Wisdom on Lectio

At fixed hours time should be given to certain definite reading.  Haphazard reading, constantly varied and lighted on by chance does not edify but makes the mind unstable.  Taken into the memory lightly, it leaves it even more lightly.  You should concentrate on certain authors and let your mind grow used to them . . .

Some part of your daily reading should be committed to memory every day, taken as it were into the stomach, to be more carefully digested and brought up again for frequent rumination – something in keeping with your vocation and helpful to concentration, something that will take hold of the mind and save it from distraction.

The reading should also stir you affections and give rise to prayer, which should interrupt you reading – an interruption which should not so much impede the reading as to restore to it a mind ever more purified for understanding.

For reading serves the purpose of the intention with which it is done.  If a reader truly seeks God in the reading, everything he reads tends to promote that end, making the mind surrender in the course of the reading and bringing all that is understood into Christ’s service.

William of St. Thierry

The Golden Epistle 1.120-124

What’s You’re Heart Rate?

I’ve taken, inadvertently, an extended holiday from posting here and on my photo blog, Colorado Shots mostly due to lack of time.  I’ve been hooked up to a heart rate monitor.  No, not the medical kind, the exercise kind. 

It’s been pretty obvious to me that over the last year or two I’ve let myself get severely out of shape.  I put on weight, had no energy and survived on a poor diet.  On top of that, the shoulder that I dislocated and fractured a couple of years ago was becoming increasingly immobile.  The kicker was, on the John Fielder workshop, I was having trouble carrying the camera gear and getting to a couple of the locations where we were taking pictures.  I decided, enough was enough.  I knew that I had to try to turn this around.  So, I engaged a personal trainer, dusted off the old mountain bike, and started eating better and getting more exercise, a lot more. 

 The only problem is this regimen takes a lot of time.  If I’m not doing strength training, aerobics, or stretches, I have to make time for work and sleep.  Blogging, or even much reading, has gone by the board.  The time crunch, though, surfaced another issue for me to deal with, a real time consumer.  Simply put, too much time spent watching stupid television shows and surfing the Internet.  All that has to stop.  So, I view that as a positive too.

 Anyway, this is just an update.  I hope to get back to regular posting over the next week or so.  In the meantime, what have you gotten your heart rate up to lately?

An interest quote I came across today:

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

In taking a general survey of the concerns of our beloved country, with
reference to subjects interesting to the common welfare, the first sentiment
which impresses itself upon the mind is of gratitude to the Omnipotent Disposer
of All Good for the continuance of the signal blessings of His providence, and
especially for that health which to an unusual extent has prevailed within our
borders, and for that abundance which in the vicissitudes of the seasons has
been scattered with profusion over our land. Nor ought we less to ascribe to Him
the glory that we are permitted to enjoy the bounties of His hand in peace and
tranquillity--in peace with all the other nations of the earth, in tranquillity
among our selves. There has, indeed, rarely been a period in the history of
civilized man in which the general condition of the Christian nations has been
marked so extensively by peace and prosperity.

John Quincy Adams, State of the Union Address, December, 1825

Benedict's Business Manager

Chapter 31: What Kind of Man the Cellarer of the Monastery Should Be

As cellarer of the monastery
let there be chosen from the community
one who is wise, of mature character, sober,
not a great eater, not haughty, not excitable,
not offensive, not slow, not wasteful,
but a God-fearing man
who may be like a father to the whole community. 

In St. Benedict’s day, there were no business schools, thus, no Harvard MBA’s working on Wall Street, or CPA’s coming in every year to perform audits in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.  Yet, even for monasteries, the need existed for people who could help the institution to prosper and thereby gain some small measure of financial stability in very uncertain times.  So, as part of his Rule, and lacking the resources of a modern business school, Benedict devoted one chapter of his Rule to the qualities necessary for the man entrusted with the business affairs of the monastery.

In reading these over in Chapter 31 of the Rule, it’s striking how different they are from those demanded of modern MBA students.  There’s no demand for courses in financial and statistical analysis tools, no marketing studies, no demand to study current laws on taxation or business law. He doesn’t even say that the candidate for the cellarer should have any kind of innate business sense or be able to drive a hard bargain.  Benedict doesn’t focus on any of the financial or managerial abilities or background that we require of a business manager today.  There’s none of that. 

“… one who is wise, of mature character, sober . . .”

So what does Benedict want?  He tells us right up front – he wants his cellarer to be a man of character, specifically, he must be “wise, and of mature character.”

In my experience, wisdom is not an easy thing to define.  As in the oft quoted Supreme Court decision on pornography, “I don’t know how to define it, but I know it when I see it.”  What could Benedict have in mind when he calls for wisdom?  I think it’s helpful to turn to Scripture, a source Benedict would almost subconsciously have had in mind, for the answer.   There we find wisdom often associated with virtue.  For example, consider this from chapter 7 of the Book of Wisdom: 

24 For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.

25 For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.

26 For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness.

27 Though she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets;

28 for God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom.

29 For she is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior,

30 for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail.

                                                                                    Wisdom 7:24-30 RSV

It might not be going too far to say that Benedict wants a man who is pure, one of such virtue that he “lives with wisdom,” so much so, that we sense that he is, in turn, loved by God (v28).  As I’ve pointed out at other times, this is a very different standard than prevails in the world today.  Many people would probably say that Benedict was being hopelessly idealistic, even for his own time, and even if this may have worked in the 6^th century, in our world such a man would eaten alive by the tough minded managers who run corporations today.  He would never succeed.  You simply can’t use “religious” standards in today’s workplace, it would never work.

However, if you look a the record many of these “tough minded” managers in the news over the last 5 years or so have not done so well following modern precepts.  One thinks of General Motors, Merrill Lynch, Lehmann Brothers, Madoff, and on and on and on.  Companies and managers that have failed so spectacularly, and hurt so many people in the process, are the very ones where Bendict’s “idealistic model” is most foreign.  Compare this record to the record of Benedict’s own monastery, Monte Casino, which has survived despite invasions, bombings, so much else for over 1,500 years.

Yes, in Benedict’s time, there were no Harvard MBAs or CPA’s performing annual audits, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all.

Antiquarian?

Chapter 30: How Boys Are to Be Corrected
Every age and degree of understanding should have its proper measure of discipline. With regard to boys and adolescents, therefore,or those who cannot understand the seriousness of the penalty of excommunication,whenever such as these are delinquent let them be subjected to severe fasts or brought to terms by harsh beatings, that they may be cured.

There are many chapters in Benedict’s Rule that seem, at best, antiquated, and worst much too primitive. It certainly is out of fashion to subject young children to “harsh beatings”, this kind of conduct could get our Holy Father arrested in this day and age. So, this is, at first glance, one of those chapters that we have difficulty understanding.

Still, I think the key point is found in the first sentence quoted above. “Every age and degree of understanding should have its proper measure of discipline.” For there to be a community at all, there must be some measure of discipline, both internal and external. In other words, a successful community, for that matter a successful culture, depends on the self-disciple of its members. There must be at least a sensed of mutual responsibility and individual members cannot each go their own way. When this fails, there must be an external form of discipline, today we would call it justice, that helps the community maintain order. And it can’t be denied that it may, at times, require some form of punishment in order to restore the necessary order.

Fr. Terrance Kardong points out that, when discipline is necessary, for it to be effective it must be administered in a form that can be understood. Very young children may not understand separation from the community as a form of punishment, therefore some other measure may become necessary. Today, that may take the form of separation not from the family or community, but from a cell phone or particular video game, or some form of “detention.”

There’s nothing new in what Benedict has written in Chapter 30 of the Rule. He may not have phrased it quite the way we would like, or even in the way we would expect from a great saint. Given all this and even though Benedict wrote over 1,500 years ago, it doesn’t mean he didn’t know a thing or two about what it takes to build a community.