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Silence in the media!
August 8th, 2010I’ve been keeping an eye on a BBC link for a while now, and notice they have finally put up a trailer for a new series coming this Autumn 2010. If you are interest you could save this link somewhere, and keep checking to see when they release the transmission dates. I’ll post the dates as soon as I notice: Silence in the City.
The Interior Life (part 1)
August 6th, 2010
Many Christians experience their conversion or surrender to Christ as a kind of ‘coming home’ experience. The joy of being united with Christ is sublime. However because we are living every day in the present physical world, we all know how easily we can be overtaken by the cares of this life. Quickly that former joy can seem like a distant memory. Developing an interior life restores and maintains that joy of union with God.
Down the ages, apostles and prophets have exhorted us to balance our exterior activities and actions (good works if you will) with a strong development of the interior life. Certain aspects of the Catholic church, the various contemplative Orders, have been faithful to this and it is little wonder therefore that there is a rich heritage of writings about the inner life. I’ve already mentioned some key writers who have influenced my journey (see the entry My beginnings). But I think with regards to the interior life it is Dom Chautard, The Soul of the Apostolate and Richard Foster with Celebration of Discipline, that stand out for me from the last Century. It says it all that we return to these and similar texts time and time again.
Although I consider the development of interior silence through contemplative prayer an extremely important discipline, I do not wish to diminish the disciplines of discursive meditation in all its forms; kataphatic prayer (see link); vocal prayer, such as confession, intercession, supplication, thanksgiving, etc; fasting; or Bible study (have I missed anything out?). They are all a balanced part of the same family, serving a common end – to enrich the interior life.
Jesus is always our teacher and certainly regarding the interior life. He weaves its importance throughout the Sermon on the Mount. I’ll look at the beatitudes another time, but for now I encourage a slow read of Matthew chapter six where he speaks of not doing our acts of righteousness in public (v1), praying unseen (v5), fasting unseen (v16), storing up treasure in heaven (which is hidden) (v20), seeking first his kingdom (v33) which is both among us and is to come. Jesus is our model of developing an interior life (Mt 14:23, 26:36, Mk 1:35, Mk 6:46, Lk 6:12).
In later blogs I will expand on why I think developing this interior life is so important, but for now I want to simply state – we neglect the interior life at our peril. To quote Chautard again ‘good works should be nothing but an overflow from the inner life’, ‘active works must begin and end in the interior life, and in it, find their means’, and ‘the active and interior lives are completely interdependent’.
I’d really appreciate you adding here what has encouraged you to develop the interior life.
Living Reservoirs
August 3rd, 2010
A week and a half ago I was standing looking over Venford Reservoir on Dartmoor. As I surveyed the beautiful scene I was reminded of a comment made by Jean-Baptiste Chautard (a Cistercian abbot who died around 1935) in Soul of the Apostolate. In this beautiful book he speaks of how important it is as a Christian to develop the interior life. He uses the analogy of becoming a “living reservoir of the Holy Ghost”, in contrast with merely being a channel of the Holy Spirit. Venford reservoir looked very deep and wide as I leant on the bridge – I longed to have that kind of inner resource to see me through this spiritual journey. My approach is to commit to regular times of unspoken, silent prayer. It is so enriching and is vital for building the dam to hold this reservoir of the love of God in the silence.
On returning home, suitably inspired, I ‘googled’ to see if I could find out more about Dom Chautard and came across the writings of Fr. Ernest Larkin. I will try and figure out how to upload the particular pdf in which he writes about the Soul of the Apostolate, but for now here is the link.
I also learnt that Larkin finished a book just before he died and his life’s passion is summed up here in the product description for the book:
Product Description: Contemplative Prayer for Today: Christian Meditation gathers some of Fr. Larkin’s earlier scholarship and relates it to his own journey into Centering Prayer and Christian Meditation. He dialogues the spiritual heritage of Mount Carmel with these other contemporary ‘wisdoms of the Desert.’ He has helpful advice for those new to contemplation and reveals hidden depths for those on the way. This work is the swan-song of a life dedicated to God. Fr Larkin died soon after its completion. He felt that there was no greater service one could do than lead people to an encounter with God in their own hearts. This book is his legacy to us and shows the wisdom and love to which he is now fully united. He leaves us a rich inheritance.
Yes! I’m inspired – may this be my legacy too. Better keep building that dam!
My beginnings (part 1)
July 31st, 2010It feels like I was born with a heart after God (I wonder who was praying for me). I thank my parents for my introduction to the Christian faith at a very young age, and by the time I was 13yrs old a ‘spiritual crisis’ pushed me to ask the help of the minister of the church I attended, the Rev. Reg Spooner! It was he who introduced me to meditation and silence. He gave me a copy of a small book entitled Stillness and Strength and Contemplative Meditation by Marion Dunlop (priced 2s 9d)! At the time I didn’t realise how prolific this author was, but she had founded the Fellowship of Meditation which, by the way, is still offering support today (see link). I began to still my mind by using small phrases like ‘My peace I give unto you’ (Jesus’ words in John 14:27). Then I began to use abstract words like glory or holy which had the effect of not hooking my mind at all, and gradually I developed a sense of God, His peace, the silence beyond my thinking. I began to have what I can only describe as ‘consciousness experiences’ during the day, like a very conscious ‘in the now’ day-dream. If I stopped my thinking as I walked home from school or scouts, I could actually sense the now – a sense that I was actually alive, in my body, right here and now. I could sense the whole of creation around me in a similar reality – it was amazing.
As I developed into my teens so the normal activities and themes of being a teenager took over, but occasionally I would still enjoy practising these intense ‘consciousness experiences’. Later when I went to college to study as a teacher, I pursued and deepened my knowledge and practise of prayer by reading all the classics on prayer at the time (lots of EM Bounds’ books, Brother Lawrence’s Practising the Presence, The Cloud of Unknowing, etc). At times it was like the writer of The Cloud was almost speaking directly off the page to me, the student. I became prayer secretary of our Christian Union. I learnt that to be sincere in prayer meant allowing God to work in you a prayerful life. At 21yrs of age I had a very private but extremely dramatic experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit and suddenly ‘speaking in other tongues’ (ask me about it sometime – very funny story too). This if nothing else made me realise how real God was, and also how much he wanted to communicate with and hear the longing of the hearts of women and men. And we could use His language – of the Spirit and silence…
[For the rest of my story go to part 2, 3 and 4 on the ‘About’ page]
Giving up Christianity
July 31st, 2010It seems interesting timing that on the day that I publish this blog, and in the process declare my allegiance to following Christ’s way, I should read that the bestselling author Anne Rice has reached a decision to renounce Christianity (although not Christ). In an interesting article Michael Rowe tries to put this decision into context and I’m sure many people will echo his words:
“On one hand, her announcement is a profoundly courageous personal declaration of spiritual intent. On another hand, it’s a wakeup call to believers who sit by while unimaginable evils occur in the name of Jesus and say nothing other besides defensively whining that “all Christians aren’t like that,” or that the person reacting in grief and outrage is simply “persecuting Christians” because he’s a “nonbeliever” (whether he’s a nonbeliever or not.)
On yet another hand, it’s a rallying cry for any of us who have held onto our faith by bloody tendons, only to feel the agony when it finally snaps and breaks on the rack that contemporary, virulently politicized Christianity has become.” (see link)
For me it highlights the tragedy that in pursuing God we find it so hard to ‘let go’ of form, and dogmatic ways of thinking, preferring to ‘grasp’ after our interpretation of the message, our world view or revelation. Maybe it’s the mind battling not to relinquish its dominant role? Beyond thinking and beyond the mind we can let go into the silence that is God. This ‘letting go’ provides a space for us to hear God speaking his creative, eventing prophetic word (St John of the Cross, said something about silence being God’s first language).
Hi world!
July 30th, 2010Hi world, welcome to ‘interior silence‘. My intention is to provide a space for dialogue about our spiritual journeys. I have been cultivating an interior silence for many years, but it is only now that I feel the desire to dialogue more openly about such intimate issues. Through various conversations and connections with people it is obvious that there are big changes afoot in what Durkheim called the ‘collective consciousness’, especially regarding spirituality. My explorations, for example, of meditating with groups of like-minded people has brought me a sense of this bigger picture – this growing consciousness – hence the desire to share experiences and insights, and to enter into more of an open and public dialogue. I hope this sits well with you, and some of you will feel free to share your experiences along the spiritual journey. I’d encourage you to take a look at the house rules, so there is a common understanding regarding the spirit of participation.