Listening to Tradition, The Desert Fathers

The way of humility is this: self-control, prayer, and thinking yourself inferior to all creatures.

                                                                                              Abba Tithoes

Listening to Tradition, Maritain

To this true God the saint is entirely given. But there are false gods; even, as I shall shortly say, there is a spurious and distorted image of God that can be called King or Jove of all false gods, the great god of idolators. With regard to this god, the saint is a thorough atheist, the most atheistic of men – just because he adores only God. (Italics in original).


Jacques Maritain, The Range of Reason

The Week, March 20, 2010

When I was a Presbyterian living in Texas, I attended a church whose pastor was a very learned, scholarly, and sadly, alcoholic preacher from Glasgow. He had been at that church over 20 years and had preached on every conceivable text from Scripture. A couple of times, toward the end of his tenure there, he would get up and confess, in his still deep Scot’s brogue, that he was tempted to simply read the days text and admit that he had nothing new to add to what he had already preached on many times. He saw no reason to waste everyone’s time. There are times when, facing a blank page, I feel the same way. Could there ever be anything new to say that I likely haven’t already said many times over? However, in the name of obedience and stability, since I have undertaken to maintain this blog, I offer a few comments on the past week.

The Weather

The week began with the first hint of spring so far this year. By mid-week we were having temperatures that I think reached the low 70’s – life was good. Then, reality reasserted itself. Thursday we saw increasing clouds, Friday cold and snow with a 30 degree drop in temperature. It snowed more or less all day. This morning dawned clear, a deep Colorado blue sky, and cold; it was 14 when I awoke.

It often seems no one is happy with the weather in Colorado Springs, with people almost evenly divided between those wishing for constant blizzard conditions from mid-November through April, and those who wish for snow only in the two week period beginning December 15th and ending on New Year’s Eve. I wonder many times why people move to Colorado Springs, it’s as if they had no idea that this area is really high-desert, tending to be a bit dry, but certainly subject to receiving our share of snow, depending upon either El Nino or El Nina conditions in the Pacific. If you don’t like snow and colder weather, ever, this isn’t the place for you.

The Week

I have come close to the end of a very busy time at work. I thought back on Thursday evening and realized I had been “busy” since the middle of December; it seems it was a time of almost constant pressure to meet deadlines and get things done. This period has come close to ending rather abruptly and it’s a bit of a let-down. I have to regroup and reorient myself to establish a routine not driven by pressure but by trying to recognize the important, creative things I now have some freedom to accomplish. This kind of thing, if you are an accountant, is an annual occurrence, but oddly, after a career of almost, well, let’s just say many years, I am just now recognizing. It’s something I seem more attuned to.

Is there any conclusion from any of this? I keep thinking of Chapter 31 of the Rule, “Qualifications of the Monastery Cellarer.” Benedict begins that chapter with the following:

“As cellarer of the monastery, there should be chosen from the community someone who is wise, mature in conduct, temperate, not an excessive eater, not proud, not excitable, offensive, dilatory or wasteful, but God-fearing, like a father to the whole community.”

 As the accountant, the “business manager” or “cellarer” of the company I work for, I believe I should strive to live those qualities that Benedict sets out in the Rule. Being mature, temperate, not offensive, means accepting the circumstances in which I find myself on a day to day basis. Not only accepting, but seeing the gift in the moment, whether it’s in a Rocky Mountain spring snow storm and the beauty of its passing, or a transition from a time of much activity to one of a slower pace, each moment is a gift that is too often taken for granted. Benedict would want that from each of his monks.

I think he would appreciate the point of a story my father, also a Scot born near Glasgow, used to tell as he got older. He went to the doctor, yet another Scot, complaining of a cough. The doctor examined him, asked him his age, and said, “Ach, Willie, gae home and be glad you’re able to cough.”

Listening to Tradition, Thomas Merton

Our God also is a consuming fire. And if we, by love, become transformed into Him and burn as He burns, His fire will be our everlasting joy. But if we refuse His love and remain in the coldness of sin and opposition to Him and to other men then His fire (by our own choice rather than His) becomes our everlasting enemy and Love, instead of being our joy, will become our torment and destruction. 
When we love God's will we find Him and own His joy in all things. 

Merton, Thomas, New Seeds of Contemplation. New York: New Directions, 1961, p.124

Listening to Tradition, The Desert Fathers

Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self-condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. A penitent is an undisgraced convict. Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience. Repentance is the voluntary endurance of all afflictions. A penitent is the inflicter of his own punishments. Repentance is a mighty persecution of the stomach, and a striking of the soul into vigorous awareness.

St. John Climacus

Good Stewards

I was in the doctor’s office the other day waiting for my appointment and picked up a car magazine, Car and Driver, to be specific, to while away the time. I don’t often read car magazines, I haven’t subscribed to any in years, even though I am a bit of a car nut. I grew up in Detroit after all. The first story I spotted was a column by David E. Davis, whom I have always enjoyed reading simply because he is a good writer.

Davis’ column started on cars his family had owned when he, too, was growing up in Michigan, I remember mention of a 1939 DeSoto, which does date Mr. Davis a bit. However, he soon turned to the topic of last year’s “Cash for Clunkers” program. When I realized that, I almost flipped the page; I’m getting more than fed up with political news and stories at the moment. Still, I read on and Davis was making a good point. He pointed out that, while he was growing up, used cars were something of a blessing (he didn’t use the word, but it was implied) for his family. Used cars represented affordable transportation that would not otherwise be available to them. He points out that, for many families around the world, not just in the U.S., used cars represents the same blessing, the opportunity to have enough mobility to travel greater distances to find work, having the freedom to move beyond the limits of a village or small town, or just the expansion of markets beyond those limits. If new or only slightly used cars were all that was available, those benefits would be lost. 

The “Cash for Clunkers” program, by taking thousands upon thousands of perfectly good autos off the road, needlessly denied them to people who could benefit from their use. It was hugely wasteful. Reading this, of course, I thought immediately of St. Benedict. What would he say about that? One way to know is to turn to The Rule. In Chapter 32, he writes:

Chapter 32: On the Tools and Property of the Monastery

For the care of the monastery's property
in tools, clothing and other articles
let the Abbot appoint brothers
on whose manner of life and character he can rely;
and let him, as he shall judge to be expedient,
consign the various articles to them,
to be looked after and to be collected again.
The Abbot shall keep a list of these articles,
so that as the brothers succeed one another in their assignments
he may know what he gives and what he receives back.
If anyone treats the monastery's property
in a slovenly or careless way,
let him be corrected.
If he fails to amend,
let him undergo the discipline of the Rule.

Benedict is pretty clear on how monastery property is to be treated, they should be “looked after . . . to be collected again.” He also says, “if anyone treats the monastery’s property in a slovenly or careless way, let him be corrected, if he fails to amend, let him undergo the discipline of the Rule.”

Destroying useful tools, and as much as I hate to say it, an automobile is a tool, deserves correction, even punishment. What does it say about us, as a society, that we condone such wanton waste?

Listening to Tradition, Staretz Silouan

“Love takes to itself the life of the loved one.



The greater the love, the greater the suffering of the soul.


The fuller the love, the fuller the knowledge of God.


The more ardent the love, the more fervent the prayer.


The more perfect the love, the holier the life.”

Staretz Silouan