whoa

i have difficulty commenting on this postblog
it's like trying to drum on a log

creating community

is community created?
or found?

it appears that st benedict
set about creating community
rather deliberately

on the other hand
maybe that was just a response
to those guys who kept following him around
who wouldn't leave him alone
when he went off alone to pray

reading st benedict's rule lately
reignites my passion for christianity
at least a little
what is it about his words
that inspires me
to want to be good
to want to seek god?

i feel like i'm skating on two skis
i had a long glide
on the track of buddhism
for the past nine months or so
finding there some tools
to deal with life's disappointments
tools that were not easily accessible to me
in christianity
and an inkling of community
among like-minded spirits

but i never shook off
the ski of christianity from my other foot
am i ready now for a long glide on that ski
finding there an inspiriation
a personal call from the mystery behind it all?

am i called to work to build community
among the christians who are already in my life?
or rather to seek out other christians
with whom i might have more in common?

i think there is much in the rule of st benedict
that would appeal to my evangelical friends
would they join me in seeking inspiration there?
or would i be better off seeking out those
who already are drawn to the rule?

just some musings
on a saturday morning

thinking about starting
some sort of group in our home
benedict advises to begin
every good work with prayer

pray for me brothers and sisters

thinking of santiago de compostela

on this feast of st james
the first apostle martyr
we sang at mass this hymn
to the tune from Melchior Vulpius
and lyrics by George K. A. Bell

Christ is the King! O friends rejoice;
Brothers and sisters, with one voice
Let the world know he is your choice
Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia

O magnify the Lord, and raise
anthems of joy and holy praise
For all the saints of ancient days.
Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia!

O Christian women, Christian men,
All the world over, seek again
The way his faithful followed then.
Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia!

So shall God's will on earth be done,
New lamps be lit, new tasks begun,
And the whole Church at last be one.
Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia!

i noted the lyrics because they echo my morning reading
looking into the chapter entitled
eternal life in the book by
Henri de Lubac sj
Catholicism
de Lubac insists that the notion of community
alive and working in the early church
was marked by continual prayer
for all the followers of christ
and ultimately for all men and women
that the justice of christ might be realized
in a recognition of unity
this lends itself to the further awareness that
the hammering out of the creeds and
the theology which accompanied all that
was really an effort to assure unity

perhaps the greatest catholic awareness
of the 20th going into the 21st century
has been the importance of mending bridges
building them again
and opening doors of sincerity and charity
for all those living in the spirit of christ
even to those who don't
much of this based on our being reacquainted
with the literature of the first few generations
of believers after the apostles

before the hymn during communion
i recognized a few people in the area around the altar
with whom i have grown uneasy
one might even go so far as to say suspicious
yet i deem to share in the same body and blood

the hymn beckons me on in hope

to walk to the altar with hands out is a way
of making community
not by my design but in openness to
a mystery
far greater than what i know

the title of the Vulpius hymn
is
GELOBT SEI GOTT
beloved of god

who can put a limit on that idea

the apostle james had conceived (or at least his mother did)
of the possibility
of being installed as a high government official
in the kingdom brought about by christ
it was not long until he realized
perhaps after making it to the northwest coast
of what is now spain
that his inclusion in the kingdom
would be ratified by a death much like that
of the one he chose to follow

i like to think that one day i will walk
to santiago de compostela church
and watch the largest
thurifer in the world
swing swing swing

longing for community

ok it's about time
for someone to post something here

i find a disturbing lack of genuine community
in my christian life
not a complete lack
but a sparsity

it is hard for me to find much depth
at church or at other christian gatherings
i know or expect that many of the people at these gatherings
have a deep spiritual experience
but the gatherings don't seem to offer
an opportunity to acknowledge that
or to reflect on it or to encourage one another in it

i sense more of what i am looking for
in the buddhist sangha that i attend
where people are willing
to sit with each other in silence
allowing space for each to approach God
and then sharing things learned
on the pilgrimage
of course they don't use words like God
or pilgrimage
but that is my sense of what we are doing there

i do get this same sense
when i visit christian monasteries
where monks or nuns are on a pilgrimage together
where there is a sense of desire
to grow into the image of God
that we are meant to be
and also a sense that we are
dependent on the community
in order to do this

i wonder whether and how
this type of community
can be fostered outside of
a monastery?
i know that some christians have it
most often in small groups
of two or three or four
who meet together to pray

i'm going to be on the lookout
for ways of fostering
christian community

theme for the day

at the beginning of his great tome
catholicism henri de lubac sj
invites the reader into the mental world of the
generation just after the apostles
that of clement of A athanasius
basil gregory gregory nazianzens
hilary and cyril d jerusalem not to mention augustine a little later on
the precise insight sustained through 500 yrs of church teaching and revived in a vital way today

what is this insight
for gods' sake

god created human kind with the inherent understading of unity
that our awareness of our likeness to everyother human
is the context for our understanding our likeness to god

something militates against this inherent knowledge
what

when we find out
perhaps we could begin to build something
that looks like a community

the plaster that holds community together
is often cracked and crumbling
patch work is no mean craft

amen

common-unity

i read this morning
an interesting break-down
of the word community

common-unity

this way of looking at it seems obvious now
but had never occurred to me before

the same author
(Dom Augustin Guillerand)
states that this union is attained
in the worship of the same truth
and the love of the same good

the return

what is it like to return to a place where one has learned to pray
to experience the phenomenon of going away
and then returning

i must first state that i do not have the words to describe this
i cannot even begin to try
anyword i may speak or write is closer to a tear
the comfort one gains from the depths of the monotonous
continual repetitive antics of the monks is something
that defies proper explanation
many have tried
it all sounds rather maudlin after awhile
i mean people pick up on these monastic chant things and go all agog agaga

it is something like being a little river duck who steps out of the river for awhile
to walk around in the grass and find some insects or some sweet grass to chew on gets lost for awhile confronts a coyote and a turtle and then scurries back into the water to ride the current for awhile
someday you think you may just fly away but you know yphooou'll always
long to return to the current in the middle of the river

what other idea could i use to illumine the experience
for the vast readership of communitas dies

it is like knowing when the stormy winds blow and the air is cold you have a cape you can put on and it will keep you very warm

if one has never travelled away from a praying community
it would be almost impossible to describe to that someone what it is like
but i should think it is not too terribly different than returning to
the arms of the person you love most
embracing there in the quiet of infinity
and agreeing to be companions along the dusty trail once again

i guess this is the place where tom mixx meets
the hiearchy of the roman catholic church

on your knees tom no more shootin 'em up
get your kicks
with tom mixx
on route sixty six

we all long for our own bed

think of that feeling and then try to translate that feeling to
what it might be like to return to the community

we're suffering over here at communitas dies from various forms of apathy
it's bound to happen

everywhere the spiritual doldrums persist

the tedium of perseverance

!