inward/outward

Fully Human Saints

admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:00:01 +0000

By William Stringfellow

In truth, all human beings are called to be saints, but that just means called to be fully human, to be perfect—that is, whole, mature, fulfilled. The saints are simply those men and women who relish the event of life as a gift and who realize that the only way to honor such a gift is to give it away.

Source: Simpler Living, Compassionate Life, edited and compiled by Michael Schut

Prophetic Vision for a Transformed World

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:00:00 +0000

By John B. Cobb, Jr.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). That proverb has a frighteningly literal application to our time. We simply will not move forward to the vast changes that are required without an attracting vision. But such vision is in short supply. There are still proposed visions of a future of increasing global affluence, but they are irrelevant to our present situation and encourage the wrong attitudes and expectations. There are catastrophic images aplenty, but they breed a despair that is worse than useless. We need a prophetic vision of a world into which God might transform ours through transforming us.

This means that one particularly important response to our situation is openness to the transformation of our imagination. We live largely in and through our images. Where no adequate images exist, we cannot lead full and appropriate lives. In recent centuries church people have not been in the forefront of image making. We have increasingly lived in and from images fashioned by others.

Our traditional Christian images have been crowded into special corners of our lives. Recognizing our poverty, we need to find Christ at work in other communities in the new creation of images by which we can be enlivened. We can hope also that as we confess our nakedness and gain a fresh appreciation for the creative imagination, the sickness of the church in this respect may be healed and our Christian faith can be released to share in the fashioning of the images so urgently needed.

Concretely, we in the United States need a prophetic vision of an economic order that is viable and humane with respect to our own people without continuing economic imperialism and environmental degradation. We need a vision of a global agriculture that can sustain the health of an increased population in the short run without worsening the opportunities of future generations or decimating other species of plants and animals. We need a vision of urban life that maximizes the social and cultural opportunities of cities while minimizing the destructive impact of our present cities both upon their inhabitants and upon the environment.

We need a vision of personal existence in community that brings personal freedom into positive relation with mutual intimacy and individual difference into positive relation with mutual support. We need a vision of how the finest commitments of one generation can be transmitted to the next without oppression and so as to encourage free responsiveness to new situations.

Bits and pieces of the needed vision exist. In my personal search I have found the most impressive breakthrough in the work of Paolo Soleri. But in all areas most of the work remains to be done. Vision in no sense replaces the need for rigorous reflection on details of both theory and practice. Instead, it gives a context in which hard work of mind and body takes on appropriate meaning.

Without vision the other types of response I have mentioned degenerate into legalism and self-righteousness. As the bearer of prophetic vision, the church could again become a center of vitality in a decaying world. But to bear prophetic vision is costly. It is not possible apart from some of the other responses noted above.

Perhaps for affluent Christians the deepest level of response to the awareness of limits is the recognition that we cannot free ourselves from guilt. We are caught in a destructive system, and we find that even our will to refuse to identify with that system is mixed with the desire to enjoy its fruits. None of us is innocent, either in intention or behavior. At most we ask that we may be helped to open ourselves to re-creation by God, but we also depend on grace in another sense. It is only because we know ourselves accepted in our sinfulness that we can laugh at our own pretenses, live with a measure of joy in the midst of our halfheartedness, and risk transformation into a new creation.

This writing is an excerpt of a longer essay in the book Simpler Living, Compassionate Life, edited and compiled by Michael Schut, which is available at the Potter’s House.

A Spiritual Journey

admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:00:01 +0000

By Wendell Berry

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,
no matter how long,
but only by a spiritual journey,
a journey of one inch,
very arduous and humbling and joyful,
by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,
and learn to be at home.

Source: The Collected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1957-1982

Work, Outward and Inward

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:00:01 +0000

By Meister Eckhart

The outward work can never be small if the inward one is great, and the outward work can never be great or good if the inward is small or of little worth. The inward work always includes in itself all size, all breadth and all length.

Source: Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart’s Creation Spirituality in New Translation, by Matthew Fox

Going to a Bigger Place

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:00:02 +0000

By Richard Rohr

Finding one’s soul is always leaving one’s comfort zone, letting go and going to a bigger place…. Jesus creates the ecclesia, literally, “the called-out ones.” The Church should be that group of people who have moved to a place of freedom and are willing to ask the big questions of the extended family, not only the questions of the natural family…. Jesus broadens our vision. “Family values” is sometimes a cover for a very self-protective and narrow agenda…. Jesus requires his first disciples to call into question even their “family values.”

Source: Jesus’ Plan for a New World

What We Really Want

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:00:01 +0000

By Gordon Cosby

All of us had best find out what we really want to do and start doing it, with whatever it involves. If you have to give up your responsibility, give it up; if the church goes to pieces, so be it. But we must find out what we really want to do because nothing else is going to help anybody.

Source: Quoted by Peter Renner in “Good Is a Timely Word”

may my heart always be open to little

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:00:01 +0000

By e. e. cummings

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it’s sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there’s never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

Source: www.poemhunter.com

Getting Away From It All

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:00:00 +0000

By Marcus Aurelius

People try to get away from it all—to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like. By going within.

Nowhere you can go is more peaceful—more free of interruptions—than your own soul. Especially if you have other things to rely on. An instant’s recollection and there it is: complete tranquility. And by tranquility I mean a kind of harmony. So keep going away from it all—like that. Renew yourself. But keep it brief and basic. A quick visit should be enough to ward off all … and send you back ready to face what awaits you.

What’s there to complain about? People’s misbehavior? But take into consideration: that rational beings exist for one another; that doing what’s right sometimes requires patience; that no one does the wrong thing deliberately; and the number of people who have feuded and envied and hated and fought and died and been buried; and then keep your mouth shut.

So keep this refuge in mind: the back roads of your self. Above all, no strain and no stress. Be straightforward. Look at things like a human being, like a citizen, like a mortal. And among the things you turn to, these thoughts:

That things have no hold on the soul.
They stand there unmoving, outside of it.
That disturbance comes only from within—from our own perceptions.
That everything you see will soon alter and cease to exist.

Marcus Aurelius (121-180) was Roman emperor from 161-180. This an excerpt from a collection of his writings called Meditations, a classic text of philosophy and history. Background information at www.answers.com says he “was known to be a humane ruler, despite his brutal persecution of the followers of Jesus Christ.”

Invitation

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:00:00 +0000

By Mary Oliver

Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude—
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

Source: Red Bird: Poems

We Have Enough

admin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:00:01 +0000

By Cecile Andrews

Being mindful is hard for us because we are always anxious about time…. Learning that we have enough—money, time, love—may be our most important lesson. Even when we eliminate the apparent obstacles of working and consuming too much, we still have trouble relaxing and enjoying the present moment. So the problem is not just the scarcity of time, it’s our attitude toward time. That little voice always creeps in: You’d better hurry, you’ve got a lot to do, you’re not getting enough done, time is running out. What does this mean in terms of feeling alive? Surely, if things keep on this way, when we come to die, we will discover that we have not lived.

Source: The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life, quoted in Simpler Living, Compassionate Life edited and compiled by Michael Schut