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Monday, August 9, 2010
Love of NeighborToday I spent some time reading about the Desert Fathers and Mothers - a group of 3rd and 4th Century
Christians who felt a call to head into the desert to find Christ. They encountered him through lives of simplicity
- prayer, labor, and some form of community. The barren desert landscape and their own unflinching honesty led them
to struggle/wrestle with their own need for inner conversion, peace, and healing. Pretty soon word got out about these
crazy/holy folks in the countryside and people began to go out to learn from them. This gave rise to a type of communal
living, and it's in this that the roots of monasticism are found. The monastery where I am this week, St. John's
in Collegeville, Minnesota, follows the Rule of Benedict. Benedict gave monastic life much of the character, spirituality,
and vitality that continues to be seen today. There are Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and some Lutheran monasteries that
continue to follow the Rule of Benedict. Back to the Desert Fathers and Mothers, also known as the Abbas and Ammas,
I read some commentaries and thoughts about them and their spirituality from a variety of writers today. One person
that really spoke to me was Barbara Brown Taylor. In her book, An Altar in the World, here's what she has
to say:
"The wisdom of the Desert Fathers includes the wisdom that the hardest spiritual work in
the world is to love the neighbor as the self - to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix,
help, save, enroll, convince, or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will
allow it."
What does it mean when Jesus tell us to love neighbor as we love self? How do
you live that commandment? God's peace to you.
Mon, August 9, 2010 | link
Sabbatical Notes, part IIThis week I am blessed to have some time to be on retreat.
I am at St. John's Abbey, in Collegeville, Minnesota. A Benedictine monastery dating back to the 1850's, St.
John's was started by a group of monks who came to this area to minister to native Americans and newly arriving European
immigrants. Over time, this place grew into a large monastic community that is also home to a university and very well
known church publishing firm, Liturgical Press.
Part of our heritage as Episcopalians rooted in Anglican Christianity is a connection
to the spirituality of St. Benedict. This spirituality is lived here in many ways. There is a rich rhythm of daily
prayer here, and retreatants are welcome to join the monks for worship. Hospitality is practiced here in wonderful ways,
and there are many spots for prayer and reflection, inside and outside.
The Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota has a House of Prayer on
the grounds here - very nice and beautiful, quiet space.
The retreat house is on the edge of campus, on a lake, and it includes thousands
of acres of forest - a perfect place for a guy like me to hike and pray... in one of his journals spiritual writer and
monk Thomas Merton writes about being here on retreat and spending time in the woods. I have been doing that, too.
This retreat is going
very well. I am praying through the seven 'signs' that mark Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God in
John's gospel. I am not sure how I got started with this as a format, but I think the Holy Spirit's in
there somewhere. It's been a wonderful lens through which to reflect on God's love and grace. Please keep
me in your prayers and please know that St. Mary's is very much in my prayers.
Gina and I are doing very well. Daniel, Gina and I continue
to learn about God's love and grace as we grow more and more into a family.
I look forward to returning to St. Mary's on September
5!
Mon, August 9, 2010 | link
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