Thoughts

The Second Chapter

HUMILITY

Meg: Humility is best when we don't compare ourselves to others, either up or down. Humility just is the way it is. No commentary. God is the judge and we are in the midst of other with our same tendencies. Notice how much peace of heart this right thinking, right acting and right relationship is!

BE NOT troubled about those who are with you or against you, but take care that God be with you in everything you do.

Keep your conscience clear and God will protect you, for the malice of others cannot harm one whom God wishes to help.

BOOK TWO

THE INTERIOR LIFE

The First Chapter

MEDITATION

Meg: Again the worldview is not shared. We would say today that we must renounce all else to go wholeheartedly toward God. This is rewarded in this lifetime with peace and joy.

THE kingdom of God is within you," says the Lord.[8]

Turn, then, to God with all your heart. Forsake this wretched world and your soul shall find rest. Learn to despise external things, to devote yourself to those that are within, and you will see the kingdom of God come unto you, that kingdom which is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, gifts not given to the impious.

Book Two. The Interior Life

Meg: We have been posting the Imitation of Christ for a few weeks. We have completed Book One of the Four Books. I fully intended to move on after the posting of Book One, but the topics of Book Two pose an invitation I cannot resist. These topics are a great introduction into the season of lent.
I will keep my commentary short. As you notice I am trying to bring forward the teachings and to mute the negative worldview that was so much of that culture post the Black Plaque where so many died a very painful death. Towns were lost not just individuals of families.

1. Meditation
2. Humility
3. Goodness and Peace in Man
4. Purity of Mind and Unity of Purpose
5. Ourselves
6. The Joy of a Good Conscience
7. Loving Jesus Above All Things
8. The Intimate Friendship of Jesus
9. Wanting No Share in Comfort
10. Appreciating God's Grace
11. Few Love the Cross of Jesus
12. The Royal Road of the Holy Cross

Lectio Matters Before the Burning Bush

Meg: The book is at Continuum Publishers in London. I will receive a proofing copy before the final publication. The schedule is for this to be a 2010 spring edition. So, it is still in process.

In the meantime I am continuing my own lectio using the process of Lectio Continuae. This method is to slowly and prayerfully read the whole bible from cover to cover. I am only on the Book of Deutronomy Chapter 32. I've been slowly reading the Hebrew Testament since July. At this rate I'll be doing this for the next two or three years.

The long, lingering, sustained lectio is very comforting and anchors my day. It fits nicely with Divine Office and daily mass. It is easier for a monastic to do lectio divina, but can be adapted to any one's time and circumstances. It is a treasure not exclusively for religious, but an opportunity for all seekers.

About Lent

In two weeks we will be having Ash Wednesday and have the opportunity to face our mortality. We are confronted with the need for renunciation. We shift from self to God.

We are also in the season of the winter olympics. We watch the best athletes train and preform at the top of their game.

The Twenty-Fifth Chapter

ZEAL IN AMENDING OUR LIVES
Meg: This teaching is about seeing oneself as an individual and taking the responsibility of action on behalf of one's salvation. These are old concepts that need a hearing today. The zeal we need is to be ready to follow the little impulse of grace that shifts the ego toward the other and toward the explicit Christ consciousness.

BE WATCHFUL and diligent in God's service and often think of why you left the world and came here.

Was it not that you might live for God and become a spiritual man? Strive earnestly for perfection, then, because in a short time you will receive the reward of your labor, and neither fear nor sorrow shall come upon you at the hour of death.

The Twenty-Fourth Chapter

JUDGMENT AND THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN

Meg: Fear of hell has little weight today. Hell seems like a teaching that doesn't fit the post modern worldview. We might need new language about training toward death and having our mind's eye on the next Life. One thing is certain: this lifetime is an opportunity to live in faith what we will know soon by realization of God's Presence.

IN ALL things consider the end; how you shall stand before the strict Judge from Whom nothing is hidden and Who will pronounce judgment in all justice, accepting neither bribes nor excuses. And you, miserable and wretched sinner, who fear even the countenance of an angry man, what answer will you make to the God Who knows all your sins?

Why do you not provide for yourself against the day of judgment when no one can be excused or defended by another because each will have enough to do to answer for her/himself? In this life your work is profitable, your tears acceptable, your sighs audible, your sorrow satisfying and purifying.

The Twenty-Third Chapter

THOUGHTS ON DEATH

Meg: This teaching is great preparation for Ash Wednesday. The fear of pain, the fear of suffering, the fear of taking leave of what is familiar, the fear of going to the next Life is real. Even though I live in a house where death is a natural round of healthy old nuns dying it is difficult to think that it will soon happen to Meg.

VERY soon your life here will end; consider, then, what may be in store for you elsewhere. Today we live; tomorrow we die and are quickly forgotten. Oh, the dullness and hardness of a heart which looks only to the present instead of preparing for that which is to come!

The Twenty-Second Chapter

THOUGHTS ON MISERY

Meg: This cut on the sad side of the human condition has good reminders. 1) we all have the burden of this realm. 2) no one finds it easy who also is awake and not in denial. 3) faith provides the clean energy to quicken the good and refrain from missing the mark.

WHEREVER you are, wherever you go, you are miserable unless you turn to God. So why be dismayed when things do not happen as you wish and desire? Is there anyone who has everything as he wishes? No -- neither I, nor you, nor anyone on earth. There is no one in the world, be he Pope or king, who does not suffer trial and anguish.

The Twenty-First Chapter

SORROW OF HEART

Meg: This is a stark teaching. Again, the worldview is negative, but the point is without question. In my own words, I'd say: "When the heart is pierced (not if) kneel with head bowed to the ground. Descend your mind into your heart and remain before the Lord. This respectful sorrow takes seriously the need for mercy and the willingness to change habits that go up the chain of arrogance and forgetfulness rather than descend to the inner cell of adoration and praise to our Creator.

IF YOU wish to make progress in virtue, live in the fear of the Lord, do not look for too much freedom, discipline your senses, and shun inane silliness.

Sorrow opens the door to many a blessing which dissoluteness usually destroys.

The Twentieth Chapter

THE LOVE OF SOLITUDE AND SILENCE

Meg: This chapter is great teachings for a desert day. Why solitude and why of silence in the solitary cell! The photo is last week's trip on the train from Indianapolis to Chicago. Many, many miles of this beautiful hue and non-color with the winter dormant trees, snow covered cornfields. We have what we need to pray and to pray always, we just need to stay awake!

SEEK a suitable time for leisure and meditate often on the favors of God. Leave curiosities alone.

Read such matters as bring sorrow to the heart rather than occupation to the mind.

If you withdraw yourself from unnecessary talking and idle running about, from listening to gossip and rumors, you will find enough time that is suitable for holy meditation.

The Nineteenth Chapter

THE PRACTICES OF A GOOD RELIGIOUS

Meg: Inside and outside ought to be same character. This is more difficult than meets the eye. Often religious, so attuned to inside work, rationalize that the above the river labor is not as necessary. All must be same purity of heart.

THE life of a good religious ought to abound in every virtue so that s/he is interiorly what to others s/he appears to be.

With good reason there ought to be much more within than appears on the outside, for the One who sees within is God, Whom we ought to reverence most highly wherever we are and in Whose sight we ought to walk pure as the angels.

The Eighteenth Chapter

THE EXAMPLE SET US BY THE HOLY FATHERS and Mothers

Meg: This reads like a cheer. Yesterday afternoon I went with Funk Family to the Colts game against the New York Jets. The loud boasting energy that pushes the agenda is the same as this chapter out of the Imitation. In our day there is no talk of "saints" except the New Orleans football team. I read this twice before posting. It is no accident that today is also the Conversion of St. Paul. He had this kind of passion. It can be ours, too.

CONSIDER the lively examples set us by the saints, who possessed the light of true perfection and religion, and you will see how little, how nearly nothing, we do.

The Seventeenth Chapter

MONASTIC LIFE
Meg: Again the world view is negative, but the teachings are timeless. We strive to give other's of our very own self.

IF YOU wish peace and concord with others, you must learn to break your will in many things. To live in monasteries or religious communities, to remain there without complaint, and to persevere faithfully till death is no small matter. Blessed indeed is s/he who there lives a good life and there ends his/her days in happiness.

The Sixteenth Chapter

BEARING WITH THE FAULTS OF OTHERS

Meg: Our house is undergoing an outbreak of the flu. At least 20 of us have had it last week or this week. It calls for switching jobs, stepping back or stepping up when you don't feel like it. Benedict's line is to bear one another's burdens whether of body or of character.

UNTIL God ordains otherwise, a we ought to bear patiently whatever we cannot correct in ourselves and in others.

Consider it better thus -- perhaps to try your patience and to test you, for without such patience and trial your merits are of little account. Nevertheless, under such difficulties you should pray that God will consent to help you bear them calmly.

The Fifteenth Chapter

WORKS DONE IN CHARITY

Meg:This chapter is practical training in doing the better thing. Always for the good of another and check the subtle tendency to prefer the self over the other. Charity is always to be preferred.

NEVER do evil for anything in the world, or for the love of anyone. For one who is in need, however, a good work may at times be purposely left undone or changed for a better one. This is not the omission of a good deed but rather its improvement.

The Fourteenth Chapter

AVOIDING RASH JUDGMENT
Meg: habits are hard to break. We see things from our point of view. The desire for God can actually dismantle habitual judgment. We refrain from commentary, all comments good or bad. It just is.

TURN your attention upon yourself and beware of judging the deeds of others, for in judging others we labor vainly, often make mistakes, and easily sins; whereas, in judging and taking stock of ourselves we do something that is always profitable.

We frequently judge that things are as we wish them to be, for through personal feeling true perspective is easily lost.

The Thirteenth Chapter

RESISTING TEMPTATION

Meg: Notice temptations rise often, subtle at first and then fierce. It is best to watch and take action to restrain free-fall thoughts.

SO LONG as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and temptation. Whence it is written in Job: "The life upon earth is a warfare."[3]

Everyone, therefore, must guard against temptation and must watch in prayer lest the devil, who never sleeps but goes about seeking whom s/he may devour, find occasion to deceive him/her. No one is so perfect or so holy but s/he is sometimes tempted; man cannot be altogether free from temptation.

The Twelfth Chapter

THE VALUE OF ADVERSITY
This teaching is important and reminds us to keep perspective on our life right now in the light of the next realm after death, but if one is depressed or has negative afflictions this concept can be dangerous and self-destructive.