Monastic Mumblings has an interesting post for Easter dealing with how the original disciples — raised in a Jewish culture — may have understood the meaning of the empty tomb.

Click here to read the post at Monastic Mumblings.

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most
difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands
greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of
conscience.

I can attest to this myself.  It is much harder for me to be peaceful — or react to situations with love and grace — than it is for me to react  with anger and rage.  But  I know  that Christ calls me to work for peace.  To stand for peace when others are yelling for war — to work for peace when others are working for conflict — to be peace – filled when others are attacking you — that takes true commitment — and even true heroism.

Instead of following my natural inclinations, I need to follow the one who said:

³⁸“You have
heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you
on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as
well; ⁴¹and if anyone
forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile (Matthew 5:38-41)

Until next time – Shalom!  Bill

I also find it hard to find time to just "be" with other people — just sitting and talking — getting to know them.   

The times Sally and I don’t have anything to "do" can be stressful because we find it hard to just "be" with each other without doing something. 

I also find it hard to find time to just "be" by myself.  I always feel I must "do" something — have something to show for my time — or my time is wasted.

I found this quote from Thomas Merton that addresses this issue:

We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have-for their usefulness.

God, help me to take time for You — for others — for Sally — and for myself.  Help me to learn to just be — and not always feel compelled to do. Amen.

Until next time — Shalom!  Bill

"We do not see the way that lies ahead of us. It seems dark, but God is the Master of all destinies and His will is love. Let us then put aside everything else and trust ourselves completely to Him, giving ourselves to His love, asking Him to enlighten and guide us in the way of positive action, if any such action is feasible. For the rest, we must have great patience and sustained fidelity to His will and to our ideals."

So many times we must entrust ourselves to God’s will — and have confidence that God will guide and direct us in the ways we should go.

You can read the post from Monastic Mumblings here.  I am sure a comment of encouragement and prayer would also be appreicated.

Until next time — Shalom!  Bill

Merton once wrote:

A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.

Striving to have our lives shaped by the things of God. That indeed is part of the Christian life.

Until next time — Shalom!  Bill

What we are asked to do is to love; and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbor worthy if anything can.

            Indeed, that is one of the most significant things about the power of love.  There is no way under the sun to make a man worthy of love except by loving him.  As soon as he realizes himself loved – if he is not so weak that he can no longer bear to be loved – he will feel himself instantly becoming worthy of love.  He will respond by drawing a mysterious spiritual value out of his own depths, a new identity called into being by the love that is addressed to him.”

God has found us worthy of love.  We need to find others worthy of love, also.

Until next time — Shaolm! Bill

Yesterday was Christ The King Sunday – the last Sunday in the Liturgical Year (next Sunday begins the Season of Advent, and a new litrugical year) and the Sunday we reflect upon the Kingdom of God — and Christ’s Lordship over all things.

The post on Christ The King Sunday at Monastic Mumblings begins with a quote from Rev. Scott Jones:

"This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday in the church year and the day in which we commemorate that God’s kingdom has not come in its fullness (next week with Advent One, we begin anticipating again)"

and continues with the question: What does the Kingdom of Christ look like?

So many people wonder just what does the Kingdom look like? We ask each other, and try to model different things, however every so often shouldn’t we just look to the King Himself?  Jesus modeled Kingship over His community in a way so unlike the Kings humanity has produced.

The difference between Jesus’ model of Kingship and that modeled by ‘the Kings humanity has produced" is that Jesus’ model is the servant model — the King who serves others rather than merely ruling over others and expecting to be served by others.

Jesus spoke of this many times.

The monk in training writes:

  Servant leadership isn’t something that we humans take to without a clear and compelling Example.  So this Sunday, while we again think of how the Kingdom hasn’t come in it’s fullness, lets look begin to anticipate it once again, by looking only to the Wounded, Servant King.

Indeed, let us follow the example of Christ — our Servant King.

The post at Monastic Mumblings ends with this prayer:

Almighty and everlasting God, Whose will it is to restore all things in Your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under His most gracious rule; Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

All I can add is: Amen.

Read the post from Monastic Mumblings here.

Have you ever agreed with what someone was saying — but they were saying it in a manner that turned people off — even you and others who agreed with them?

The Monk In Training at Monastic Mumblings notes:

I hear people all the time arguing politics, points of view, theology, this, that or the other thing. So many times I agree with some one in theory, but their methods of "sharing" their point of view is so hostile, I simply can not hear them, nor bear to be involved with them

He then gives this bit of wisdom fromthe ancient monastics:

Abbott Agathi said:  “If a man of wrathful spirit should raise the dead to life, he would not be pleasing to God because of his wrath.”

Effective communication is sometimes as much about style as it is about content.  Let’s all be careful that the style in which we communicate helps communicate the content. 

You can read the Monastic Mumblings post here.

This week’s Monday’s Monk

As the post at Monastic Mumblings reads:

A learned old priest and an uneducated blind man celebrate the Eucharist and everyone’s experience is enlarged.  Everyone is included in a new way.  Everyone can see that it is a miracle within a miracle.

Read what the priest did — and how it was truly a miracle within a miracle!

Let us remember before God,
and commend to His sure keeping:
those who have died for our country in war;
those whom we knew, and whose memory we treasure;
and all who have lived and died in the service of our land.

They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

And so before the Almighty God and ever-living God,
we remember those whom You have gathered
from the storm of war into the peace of Your presence;
may that same peace calm our fears,
bring justice to all peoples
and establish harmony among the nations,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Fidelium animae † per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace
May the souls † of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace

All I can add is "Amen" — and let us all pray for peace!