Wisdom-Sayings

WE have to constantly bear in mind what has happened and discern what we are called upon to accomplish in life in the here and now history of the world. +++++++++++++++ Contact: vmalpan@gmail.com

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MYSTICAL IMAGE

Mystical Images for Our Religious Quest by Fr. Ronald Rolheiser OMI - There are few things as powerful as a poetic image. The nation with the best poets will ultimately triumph because poetry is more powerful than armies. An army can beat a nation into submission, but only a poetic image can change a people's vision. That's not an exaggeration. To offer a small example: Centuries ago, Leonardo da Vinci painted a picture of the Last Supper. No historian in the world would suggest that the actual Last Supper of Jesus looked anything like da Vinci's painting, but his image of the Last Supper has so branded and stamped itself into our universal consciousness that today we cannot not picture the Last Supper, except as he painted it.

With this in mind, I want to highlight two images from the Gospel of John, mystical images that we would do well to brand into our consciousness, like a da Vinci painting. They are images for the religious quest, for true pilgrimage, for discipleship. Unlike the other Gospels, where Mary, the mother of Jesus, is presented as the ideal disciple, John's Gospel gives Mary a different role, that of being Eve, the mother of all creation. It then gives us two powerful images of discipleship, one male and one female: The Beloved Disciple and Mary of Magdala.

The Beloved Disciple, whom we commonly, though perhaps naively, identify with John himself, offers one image of what means to be a disciple of Jesus. John presents this figure in various guises, but all have this in common: The Beloved Disciple has a unique intimacy with Jesus. Perhaps the single most powerful picture of this is that of the Beloved Disciple reclining at the Last Supper with his head on Jesus' breast.

What is contained in this image? This is a mystical image, of intimacy and of listening. Simply put, the image is this: If you place your ear on someone's chest, you can hear that person's heartbeat. The Beloved Disciple, then, is the person who is so intimate with Jesus that he or she hears his heartbeat and, from that perspective, looks out at the world. To be a disciple of Jesus is to have your ear attuned to his heartbeat as you gaze out into the world. For John, if you do this, you will always be at the right places, will always have the right perspective, and will always have the courage to do the right thing. You will also be driven by love.

And this, to be driven by love, is John's other mystical image for discipleship, the figure of Mary of Magdala. John presents her as the restless, driven figure from the Song of Songs, a woman unable to sleep until she finds her soul mate. And, like the image of the Beloved Disciple reclining on Jesus' breast, it is an image of a unique intimacy.

To help grasp the strength of this image, it is helpful to first read the Song of Songs. Its early chapters, speaking through a woman's voice, present us with an image of an inconsummate, driven lover whose yearning for her soul mate relativizes everything else in her life. She has only one thing on her mind and in her heart, to find the one who can still her moral loneliness:

On my bed at night I sought my beloved, sought him but could not find him.

So I got up and went into the city; in the streets and in the squares, seeking my beloved.

I sought but could not find him!

I came upon the watchmen, those who go on their rounds in the city: "Have you seen my beloved?"

Barely had I passed them when I found my beloved.

I caught him, and would not let him go, not until I had brought him to my mother's house and to the very room and the bed where my mother had conceived me.

There are no images more intimate than these. And, for John, true discipleship is driven by precisely such yearning, both in terms of its earthy intensity and in terms of the depth of intimacy it desires. But we rarely think like this religiously. Such language strikes us almost as sacrilegious, unfit for pious ears.

The quest for God and the hunger for this kind of consummation form different categories, two distinct worlds, inside of us. Our quest for discipleship and religion is emotionally all but completely divorced from our yearning to find a soul mate, divorced from our sexuality, and divorced from our fantasies, whatever they are, of what ultimately makes for consummation. For us, religion and our psycho-sexual world rarely, if ever, intersect at that level. Religion is understood as a duty we do, a categorical imperative that in our better moments we recognize as important, but it isn't something that drives us out on a Sunday morning, as it did Mary of Magdala, to restlessly prowl gardens, which we tend to call churches, looking for a God to fill an emptiness that we consider only emotional, psychological, and sexual. -

Courtesy: http://www.ronrolheiser.com

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Evaluating One's Life

SIGNS OF A PERSON'S GROWTH IN SPIRITUAL LIFE

Spending a few moments to reflect prayerfully on the following points and finding where one actually is with regrad to them can give her/him a sense of realism and discovery.

Compassionate;

human; loving; caring;

in harmony with God,

the other, the cosmos and the self;

happiness and joy;

conten­tment;

taking life seriously in order to grow;

making prayer as part of one's life;

standing for justice and

being ready to sacrifice one's life for it;

responsibility;

sense of personal com­mitment and accountability;

love of interior silence;

patience; external decorum and interior humility;

radiating Jesus' love to others;

gentleness;

maturity in interpersonal rela­tionships;

courage to face the difficulties of life;

psychologically and emotionally well-balanced;

holistic approach to life;

living in love; concern for the other;

no dichotomy between spiritual life and social life;

spirit of forgiveness and tolerance;

experience of the Fatherhood/Motherhood of God and

common fellowship of human beings;

self control;

promoting values of life, love and peace;

positive attitude towards others;

tolerance towards and acceptance of other religions;

openness to the divine;

optimistic about life;

faithfulness to God's grace and call;

humbly striving for the experi­ence of God;

willingness to read the Sacred Scripture, and reflect on its message;

readiness to get direction/guidance when required;

desire to be holy;

humility to accept as one is;

using the resources of nature in a responsible way;

following Jesus more closely;

sense of obedience/listening to the Spirit and to the legitimate autho­rity;

constant effort to grow;

consis­tency in words and actions;

cultivation of a sense of justice

and preferential option for the poor;

ever growing ability to discern between good and evil;

readiness to serve and give cheerfully;

ability to recognize and accept

the wonderful providence of God in nature;

appreciation of the beauty of the universe and

concern for nurturing its harmony;

unfailing hope and trust in God... and

Please feel free to add your reflections!

Glory be to the father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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Wisdom from the desert

Prayer and Sleep... 1

Some old men went to Abba Poemen and asked,"If we see brothers sleeping during the common prayer, should we wake them?"Abba Poemen answered,"If I see my brother sleeping, I put his head on my knees and let him rest."Then one old man spoke up,"And how do you explain yourself before God?"Abba Poemen replied,"I say to God: You have said, 'First take the beam out of your own eye and then you will be able to remove the splinter from the eye of your brother.' "

====================== Wisdom from the Desert: How to live religiously?

Abba Peter, the disciple of Abba Lot, said, One day when I was in Abba Agathon's cell a brother came in and said to him, "I want to live with the brethren; tell me how to dwell with them." The old man answered him, "All the days of your life keep the frame of mind of the stranger which you have on the first day you join them, so as not to become too familiar with them." The Abba Macarius asked, "And what does this familiarity produce?" the old man replied, "It is like a strong, burning wind, each time it arises everything flies swept before it, and it destroys the fruit of the trees." So Abba Macarius said, "Is speaking too freely really as bad as all that?" Abba Agathon said, "No passion is as worse than an uncontrolled tongue, because it is the mother of all the passions." Accordingly the good workman should not use it, even as he is living as a solitary in the cell. I know a brother who spent a long time in his cell using a small bed who said, "I should have left my cell without making use of that small bed if no one had told me it was there." It is the hard-working Monk who is a warrior.The brethren also asked Abba Agathon "Amongst all good works, which is the virtue which requires the greatest effort?" He answered "Forgive me, but I think there is no labour greater than that of prayer to God. For every time a man wants to pray, his enemies, the demons, want to prevent him. For they know that it is only by turning him from prayer that they can hinder his journey. What ever good work a man undertakes, if he perseveres in it, he will attain rest. But prayer is warfare to the last breath.The same Abba said "a man who is angry, even if he were to raise the dead, is not acceptable to God"

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CHRIST'S PEACE

THE PEACE THAT CHRIST BRINGS... Inspirational Christmas MESSAGE seems to get more difficult each year. The sadness and nervousness from the evil in the world is so overpowering that for many life represents little more than crowded shopping malls, financial challenges and LIFE-DENYING QUESTIONS. If you are among the many that view life in this way I recommend that you plan a quiet moment of stillness and repose in order to ask yourself ... "When did the true meaning of life escape me?" And better yet: "How can I rediscover the spiritual feelings of the times when life was filled with positive, joyful experiences, fellow-feelings and happy times?" "How can I bring back the spirituality that should be part of of my Christian life?" Once we are adults, each of us has our own memories of past experiences. We tend to revisit those memories with their joy or its pain as we recreate and relive the season. We take a moment to examine our beliefs, our expectations and touch upon remembered disappointments only to wallow in the negative memories of the past. Re-birthing of Ourselves But we are also offered the gift of new consciousness with each yearly re-birthing of our spiritual selves. We have the option to accept and make good use of this gift or to practice the mulling of old experiences that hinder our soul’s growth. CHOOSE THE POSITIVE RATHER THAN NEGATIVE Focusing on the stressful aspects of the holidays will snuff out the power that the magic of Christmas can work in your life. If you allow yourself to be conditioned by the power of negativity instead of the power of positive thinking, you are insulating yourself from what what is good and holy. We are reminded every day that we have a choice about priorities and where we choose to place our energy. Can we focus on seeking inspirational Christ- encounters and accept the boundless love that this experience offers you or be left feeling alone and lacking. Make a promise to yourself to search for uplifting moments or better yet create and share them with others. WHERE TO LOOK FOR INSPIRATION? Finding inspiring images and acts often takes nothing more than to train yourself to see the good in people and your surroundings. Join a charity group that offers aid to those less fortunate to see good works in action. Form a shell around your spirit that only allows positive thoughts to grow and prosper. Give yourself the gift of a few moments of quiet prayer to lead your higher self on ways to offer your unfortunate brothers and sisters real peace of Christ. While deep in prayer, affirm the courage to be open to a new way of thinking about gift giving and the holidays. The illumination of spirit you experience from this simple exercise may amaze you, but they will also bless you. Where your mind goes, often the condition of the body follows. The magic may bring peace to areas that were previously tense and aching. By embracing the inner peace this season offers, you invite the magic of Christ’s love to lift you up. Prepare yourself to experience the liberative potential of Christ! "He comes. comes, ever comes!"

(Adapted from inspirational Christmas stories)

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