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 The section contains a study guide to the book  Seeking Spirituality.

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Seeking Spirituality

Guidelines for a Christian Spirituality for the Twenty-First Century
by
Ronald Rolheiser

Edited
by
Hodder and Stoughton

ISBN       0-340-65623-9

 

Seeking Spirituality

Sections studied

Pages 3-18                             What is Spirituality?

Pages 43 – 66                        Essential Elements of Christian Spirituality

Pages 105 – 127                    Spiritual images of the Church

Pages 127 – 132                    So why go to Church?

Pages 133 – 157                    A spirituality of the Paschal mystery

Pages 158 – 181                    A spirituality of justice and peace-making

Pages 202 - 228                     Sustaining ourselves in the spiritual life

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

Seeking Spirituality  Ron Rolheiser

Chapter 1      What is Spirituality?

Desire, our fundamental dis-ease

p3            it is no easy task to walk this earth and find peace
                we are at odds with the rhythm of things
                we are forever restless, dissatisfied, frustrated, aching
                it is hard to come to simple rest
                desire is always stronger than satisfaction
                desire is the straw that stirs the drink
                naming and analysing desire lies at the heart all the great
                art,  literature, poetry, philosophy, psychology and religion.

p4            Spirituality is ultimately about what we do with desire

p5            Spirituality is about what we do with our unrest

What is Spirituality?
              few words are as misunderstood as the word “spirituality”
                30 years ago there were few books about spirituality
                today shelves teem with books
                in the past spirituality was the domain of charismatic prayer
                groups
                today spirituality is increasingly mainstream

p6           everyone has to have a spirituality
                we all have a spirituality
                spirituality is more about whether we can sleep at night than
                about whether or not we go to church

p7-9      spirituality is about what we do with our desires
               with our eros ~ urgent longings / love
               what shapes our actions is our spirituality
               examination of Teresa, Joplin and Diana

Teresa
               human bulldozer                   erotically driven
               disciplined
               her dedication to God and the poor was her spirituality

Joplin
              energy                                    excess
              creativity, performance, drugs, etc was her spirituality

Diana
              playboy life style
              no celibate nun
              concern for the poor, or the oppressed
              jet set life style and concern for the poor was her spirituality 
 

p10          spirituality is about what we do with the fire inside us, about how we channel our eros

 The two functions of the soul 

p11          What is a soul?

p12          Our soul is not something we have it is something we are
                 It is the very life pulse within us that makes us alive
                 The soul gives us energy
                 The soul not only keeps us alive, it keeps us together
                 The soul is the glue that holds the body together

p13          At the second of death the hold of the soul breaks and the chemicals of our bodies begin to go their own way

p14          Every soul has a principle of order and a principle of chaos within it
                 Too much order and we die of  suffocation
                 Too much chaos and we die of dissipation

                 Every healthy spirituality will worship  God at two shrines~ chaos and order

                 What is healthy for our souls and unhealthy

                 Is this particular experience healthy or unhealthy for me right now?

p15          examples of legends about souls

Japan
                baby’s soul as vulnerable and strange

Norwegian
               soul kissed by God before birth and holding a sense of that kiss throughout life
               all living things have souls

p16        the bamboo story

p17        we have in us, spirit, soul and what we do with that soul is our spirituality

p18        The struggle with the religious dimension of spirituality is the key question for Christian people

Discussion

[1]           [a]           How easily can we identify the things that stop us from being at peace?

[b]           How do we cope with these things, what can we do about them?

[2]           [a]           Do you have concerns about the word “spirituality” and are you clear about difference with “spiritualism”

                [b]           Does “new age spirituality” cause you concern and why yes or no?

[3]           [a]           Do  you agree that spirituality is about what we do with our desires?

                [b]           How aware are you of your own desires and how do we get to know them?

[4]           [a]           What do you make of the bit about the soul?

[5]           [a]           Does the Church stifle or nurture spirituality?

[6]           [a]           Where does the Bible fit into this issue?

[7]           [a]           Where does prayer fir into this issue?

[8]           [a]           Any other issues you want to raise as a result of the Chapter?

 

Seeking Spirituality  Ron Rolheiser

Page 43-66     Essential Elements of Christian Spirituality?

bulletWhat is essential and non negotiable within Christian Spirituality
bulletWhat are the pillars upon which we should base our spiritual lives?

Page 44           Where have we come from?

Roman Catholicism with a stress on religious rules and practices
Protestantism with stress on rules, etc but also practical Christianity with a focus on reading and living the Bible
Secularisation where post Enlightenment, everyone has a spirituality

Page 48           The situation today
Variety and Choice in experiences

Attend a Bible Study                           Go to a prayer meeting
Join a social justice group                  Become a feminist
Join a men’s group                               Sign up for Promise Keepers
Practise variation in prayer               Meditate
Twelve step programmes                   Eastern Religions
Enneagram                                             Marriage encounter classes
Ignatian Retreat                                     Be born again
Return to nature                                    Address the wolf inside you

Books about
Creation and Nature                            Lordship of Jesus
women and the oppressed                 men and their struggles
injustice + God’s new order               meditation and prayer
addictions                                                soul’s angles and demons
mythology + imagination                   pursuit of excellence

 Page 49           Sorting out ~
                                  the search for substance and balance
how do you recognize the right voice?
in the name of Christ what do we ignore or reject?

 Page 50
traditionally Christianity argues a hierarchy of truth
there are essential truths, necessary and non negotiable, that apply to everyone, eg the Ten Commandments
there are also accidental truths that you can choose to accept or reject
There are four essential pillars to every healthy Christian spirituality

  1. private prayer and private morality
  2. social justice
  3. mellowness of heart and spirit
  4. community as a constructive element of true worship

Page 52             Some stories of imbalance

the lady who had a strong sense of private prayer and private morality but no desire for social justice
the man who had a very strong sense of justice but no morality or prayer
strong on prayer, morality and justice but no mellowness of heart
strong on prayer, morality, justice and  mellowness of heart but no community involvement

page 59            The need for fullness and balance

page 59            Private prayer and private morality

an anchor of the spiritual life
be aware of a fundamentalist personal relationship with Jesus
remember it is not just Jesus and me
we will only make spiritual progress if we build on private prayer and personal morality

page 61             Social justice

Christian Scripture contain a repeated fundamental call to reach out to the poor
God cannot be related to without continually digesting the uneasiness and pain that are experienced by looking at the weakest in society, asking how they are faring and how are we affecting them

Page 63             Mellowness of heart and spirit

We can and will do the right thing  for the wrong reason
sanctity has to do with gratitude
sanctity is as much to do with a mellow heart as it is believing and doing the right things
the importance of doing the right thing for the right reason

page 65             community as a constructive element of true worship

God calls us as a community
how we relate to each other is just as important as how we relate God
for a Christian concrete involvement in an historical community of faith [church going] is non negotiable

page 66             To walk on earth like gods

How do Christians walk on earth as gods ~ as persons, in God’s image and likeness, trying to help God save the planet and everything in it
How do we fulfil our God given vocations ~ by being part of God’s ongoing Incarnation

Discussion

  1. Is it worth looking back beyond the Reformation to our catholic roots [ and Benedictine monasticism?]
  1. To what extent does the past influence the present?
  1. Any experiences of variety choice and books?
  1. Reaction to the four pillars of Christian Spirituality?
  1. Is anything missing?
  1. Is private prayer an integral part of contemporary life?
  1. How do you define private prayer?
  1. How do we prevent  the community from blocking  people from finding God because of its rules and practices?
  1. How do we walk  , in God’s image and likeness?
  1. What can we do to  try  to help God save the planet and everything in it?
  1. What are our God given vocations?
  1. How do we fulfil our God given vocations ?
  1. How can  we be part of God’s ongoing Incarnation?
  1. What other issues does this passage raise?

 

Seeking Spirituality  Ron Rolheiser

Page 105 - 127    Spiritual images  of the Church?

bulletThe necessity or the non necessity of the institutional Church
bulletMore and more people are divorcing their search for God from involvement in a  Church community
bulletBad history, lack of Grace, and lack of impact on the world mitigate against the  institutional Church
bulletPeople still want a Church label and use the Church for funerals, weddings, etc
bulletPeople aren’t leaving their Churches they are just not going to them
bulletPeople want a kingdom but not a church
bulletWhat we need is a better spiritual understanding of why we might want and need a Church

Page 107            The Church is the people – apostolic community?
 

bullet

people came before buildings or structures, ministers or moral codes

bullet Jesus formed a community around him, animated it, and then left it his word, his Spirit, and the Eucharist

The Via Negative  ~ the Church is not …

[1]           …like minded individuals gathering on the basis of mutual compatibility

bulletthe church is people bound together by love
bulletthe people of the Church   need love, not  compatibility 
bulletthe people of the Church are different and transcend  theses differences

 [2]          huddled together in fear and loneliness

bulletWhen the Spirit descended on the disciples huddling together in fear, they were free  to move out of their closed room and into the world

[3]           …”Family”  in the psychological sense

bullet

a “normal” family comprises two people who come together in love and sexual relation and maybe have children

bulletthe Church community is not a functional substitute for emotional and sexual intimacy
bulletlarge churches do not afford warmth and intimacy which we seek, but we are consigned to spend eternity with trillions of others

 [4]          …One roof, one ethnicity, one denomination,  one rule book, or one prayer book

bulletthere is much more to apostolic community than simply the framework and structures

[5]           …A shared task, a common mission

bulleta common mission demands team effort but that is of the “what and how”  ~  we seem to be looking more of  “why”
bulletthe Church is a common focus ~ around  Jesus Christ ~ and a living in the light of His Spirit
bulletthe common mission has hallmarks like peace, joy, love, faithfulness, humility, self control, patience, goodness and long suffering
bulletall who live in Christian virtues are one body with each other and constitute the Church

Page 114

bulletThe church is abstract and a historical as well as concrete and historical
bulletThe church  celebrates the Word of God, the Sacraments, etc  but is more than just Sunday Worship
bulletIn some way the Church means a common life and some achieve this by living in religious  communities
bulletbeing the Church, outwith religious communities, calls for us to share our lives ~ prayer, rites of passage, joys and fears, hospitality, etc
bulletbeing the Church, outwith religious communities, calls for us to share responsibilities of finance and the like to maintain the Church
bulletonce we belong to a Church we longer fully own our lives
bulletwe can’t say “This is my life ~ butt out, that’s none of your business ~
bulletThe Church is the people

Page 115         The Church is the rope ~ Baptism and Conscription

bulletBaptism consecrates us and consecration is a prescriptive rope that takes us where we would rather not go ~ suffering that produces maturity
bulletTo consecrate means to be set aside ~ displace from ordinary usage ~ we loose our ordinary freedom
bulletPage 117 to 118 and the example of families
bulletOnce consecrated we cannot opt in and opt out as we choose

Page 120         The Church is the sarx ~ the blemished Body of Christ

bulletChrist is met in community
bulletthe community is a constitutive element in the Christian Quest
bulletin the community we are taught that “then we shall see clearly”
bulletwhen we meet God within the community we do not encounter God in purest form
bullet Considering Church history, to be a member of the Church is to carry the mantle of the  worst sin and the finest heroism of the soul

Page 122         The Church is the house of many rooms ~ catholicity

bulletThe bosom of God is not a ghetto. God has a catholic heart, in that catholic means wide and all-encompassing
bulletAny church spirituality has to emphasise  wide loyalties  and inclusivity
bulletA healthy member of a church community does not pick  between boundaries and freedom
bulletTo be a member of the church is to choose all and to have hearts with many rooms
bulletThe task is to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who have differences but share a common faith

Page 124          The Church is the banquet table ~ the ointment

bulletWhat is Church? Church, ultimately, whether we do it in a church building or around our table, is about people getting together for no reason other than to take the ointment ~ to offer each other love and affection
bulletwe go to Church to worship God and to tell people we love them and hopefully  hear that they love us
bulletwe go to church to help get each other ready for death   

Discussion

  1. What we need is a better spiritual understanding of why we might want and need a Church?
  1. How do we reach out to those who do not go to Church but who have an active spiritual belief and yearning?
  1. What do we do to keep people away?
  1. Reactions to the Church is not …….?
  1. How can we make our Church more than just Sunday Worship?
  1. How can we enable opportunities to share feelings, etc?
  1. The Church is the people
  1. The Church prepares people for death ~ does it?
  1. Where does love feature on a one to ten scale in our Church with one being the weakest?
  1. The bosom of God is not a ghetto. God has a catholic heart, in that catholic means wide and all-encompassing
  1. Other issues from the passage?

 

Seeking Spirituality  Ron Rolheiser

Page 127 - 132     So why go to Church?

bulletWe need to ask why we go to Church
bulletWhat do we tell others who don’t go about the Church?
bulletWhy might you go if you did not go?
bulletWhat could serve as a vision, a list of reasons, for telling people in the Glens and Kirriemuir Old Parish Church Congregation and Parish why they should attend church?

Page 127              Because it is not good to be alone

bulletWe are essential social by nature
bulletTo be human is to be with others
bulletOur quest for God must be consistent with our nature
bulletA communitarian element is not negotiable
Page 128              To take my rightful place humbly within the family of  humanity
bulletthree stages to life
Birth                      Growing up                           Adulthood
bulletat birth we are naked, helpless, smelling of the earth and the womb and we are still primordially linked to the family of humanity and we are humble
bulletSecond stage, we wash the smell of the earth of ourselves and we spend years trying to establish our individuality.  We seek independence and we loose our humility
bulletThird stage and adulthood, our task is not to emerge but to merge back  into community and loose our separateness
bulletTo be human is to be part of the group, naked and unmarked
bulletThe church offers us a concrete place to merge
bulletThe church offers a place to die to elitism ~ perhaps its greatest benefit and obstacle

 Page 129              Because God calls me there

bulletNeither God’s call or the Holy Spirit are private property
bullet Spirituality is a communal search for the face of God
bulletThe Call of God is to worship the divinity and link to humanity
bulletLove God and love neighbour
bulletThere can be no real Christian Spirituality without the Church
Page 129               To dispel my fantasies about myself
bulletWe can make religion a private fantasy world
bulletWe cannot lie in the company of people with whom we regularly  share life
bulletIn community the truth emerges and fantasies are dispelled
bulletThe saying that nobody deflates us like our own families can also be applied to the Church
Page 130               Because 10,000 saints have told me to
bulletI go to church because by far the majority of good and faithful persons that I know go there
bulletThe saints of yesterday and today are fairly unanimous about the importance of the Church
bulletThere are good people who don’t go to church but their lives reflect the good qualities of church life

Page 130               To help others carry their pathologies and to have them to help me carry mine

bulletThe primary function of a family is to carry the pathologies of  its members
bulletIn the past when families were stronger there was a lot less need for private therapy
bulletTo go to Church is to seek the therapy of a public life and to be part of the therapy for others
bulletI go to Church so that other people might help me carry whatever is unhealthy within me and that I may in turn help them
bulletWe should not be surprised by what “sicknesses” emerge
Page 131               To dream with others
bulletWhat we dream alone remains a dream but what we dream with others can become a reality
bulletThe power of the individual versus the power of the group
Page 131               To practice for heaven
bulletHeaven will be enjoyed within  the communal embrace of billions of persons of every temperament, race, background and ideology imaginable.
bulletA universal heart will be required to live there
bulletIn life it is good to get some practice of community
bulletIt is good to be in situations that stretch the heart and the Church community does that
bulletRemaining private does not stretch the heart
Page 132               For the pure joy of it
bulletcase study story
bulletWe go to church for the same reason that we gather as a family ~ for the pure joy of it
Why                                              Why not

To live longer                                               Message confronts materialism

Because parents go                                     Because parents don’t go

To be entertained                                         God let them down

For the rites of passage                               Poor Ministers

Spiritual searching                                      Poor presentations

For social status, it looks good                  Irrelevant music and language

Community focus                                          Wrong times for  worship

For help                                                            Church is too bland

To be part of good works                             Other attractions

Discussion

  1.  To what extent do we stop people from coming to Church?
  1. Are we an elitist Congregation?
  1. To what extent do we reveal our own sicknesses and to what extreme do we accommodate and help others reveal theirs?
  1. Should the Church take on a social work /  counselling role?
  1. What dreams do you have for the Church?
  1. In what areas should the Church exercise its collective power?
  1. Do you see the Church either as practice for heaven or a work out for your heart?
  1. Is the Church a place of joy for you?
  1. What others reasons are there for going to Church?
  1. What reasons are there for not going to Church?
  1. What steps can we take to encourage others to come to Church?
  1. What is the perspective through the eyes of those who do not attend?

 

Seeking Spirituality  Ron Rolheiser

Page 133 - 157     A spirituality of the Paschal mystery?

Note
Paschal Lamb
A lamb which the Israelites were commanded to eat with peculiar rites as a part of the Passover celebration. The Divine ordinance is first recorded in Exodus, xii, 3-11, where Yahweh is represented as giving instructions to Moses to preserve the Hebrews from the last of the plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians, viz. the death of the firstborn. On the tenth day of the first month each family (or group of families, if they are small) is commanded to take a lamb without blemish, male, of one year, and keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, and sacrifice it in the evening. The blood of the lamb must be sprinkled on the transom and doorposts of the houses in which the paschal meal is taken. The lamb should be roasted and eaten with unleavened bread and wild lettuce.

The whole of the lamb must be consumed -- head, feet, and entrails -- and if any thing remain of it until morning it must be burned with fire. The Israelites are commanded to eat the meal in haste, with girded loins, shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands "for it is the Phase (that is, Passage) of the Lord." The blood of the lamb on the doorposts served as a sign of immunity or protection against the destroying hand of the Lord, who smote in one night all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. This ordinance is repeated in abridged form in Numbers xix, 11, 12, and again in Deuteronomy, xvi, 2-6, where sheep and oxen are mentioned instead of the lamb.

That the Paschal Lamb prefigured symbolically Christ, "the Lamb of God", who redeemed the world by the shedding of His blood, and particularly the Eucharistic banquet, or new Passover, has always remained the constant belief of Christian Tradition. 

Just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snow
Lies the seed that with the sun’s love
in the spring becomes the rose

p133       The timeless issues of suffering, death and transformation

bullet

A critical view suggests that Christianity sets itself the absurd task of teaching happy
people to be unhappy so that it can minister to their unhappiness.

bulletFreud blamed Christianity for a neurotic anxiety of mind
bulletNo philosophy of life / spirituality / can be mature without grappling with the haunting, timeless issues of life and death and suffering.
bulletThe mystery of suffering, death and transformation lies at the heart of Christian Spirituality
bulletWe pay lip service to the fact that Jesus did suffer and die for us but we seldom try to understand what that means and how we might appropriate it within our own lives.
bulletWhat is the Paschal Mystery of Christ and how do we enter that mystery and live it out within our own lives?

p134       A theological paradigm of the paschal mystery

bulletstories that give us a flavour of the   paschal mystery
bulletJudith Hearne

dreaming of the perfect life
seeking marriage
finds an unsuitable man who turns her down
alcoholism
recovery
realisation that happiness does not depend upon somebody outside of me but upon being at peace with what’s inside of me

bulletYoung man and dying father voicing “Dad, let go! Trust God, die, anything is better than this
bulletKing David’s son

While the child was alive I fasted and prayed, hoping that God might spare him.  Now he is dead there is nothing I can do to bring him back ~ but  am alive and must go on living in the face of this and must continue to create new life

bulletThe Paschal mystery is the mystery of how we, after undergoing some kind of death, receive new life and new spirit.

 Jesus in his life and his teaching showed us a clear idea of how this could happen

p137       A paradigm [idea / concept] of the paschal mystery

bulletunless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest
bulletin order to come to fuller life and spirit we must constantly be letting go of present life and spirit
bullettwo kinds of death and two kinds of life

terminal death where life and possibilities end
paschal death where life ends  but a new richer and deeper life then opens up
resuscitated life where one is restored to a former life
resurrected life where one is given a radically new life

bulletthe need to distinguish between life and spirit
bulletafter Jesus died the disciples were given the  new life of Christ but it was only at Pentecost that they got the spirit of this new life
bulletPaschal mystery is the process through which we are given both new life and new spirit ~ both are needed in balance

p139       The Paschal cycle

Good Friday: the loss of life ~ real death                             Name your deaths

Easter Sunday: the reception of the new life                      Claim your births

Forty days: readjusting the new /  grieving the old           Grieve losses and adjust to the new

Ascension: letting go the old, letting it bless you             Do not cling to the old, let it go

Pentecost: receiving the new spirit of the new life            Accept the spirit of the new life

bullet

not a once only cycle but a daily routine

bullet

The Paschal Mystery is the secret to life

p 140      Undergoing the various deaths of our lives

The death of our youth

bulletyou are alive at your real age and not the age you once were
bullethow do you cope with your advancing age ~ fight it or embrace it
bulletGood Friday is the realisation of the death of your youth
bulletPentecost is when you begin to live  to the full potential of your age

p141       The death of our wholeness

bulletthe death that occurs when part of us is fractured and dies
bulletthe anger of the woman who had been abused as a child
bulletGood Friday was the time of her abuse
bullether task is to manage her ascension ie, grieve what has died and at the right time, let it go
bulletthe example of the woman who had the double mastectomy who learned to see herself differently and whose husband did the same

p144       The death of our dreams

bulletnot the dreams of the night but the dreams that we nurse in our hearts
bulletthe example of the aspiring pro hockey player and his what ifs
bulletthe “forty days”, 25 years of grieving for a hockey career
bulletascending to receive the spirit of a 45 years old overweight shop keeper
bulletthe story of Jephthah’s daughter and the need for us to mourn what is incomplete and unconsummated within our own lives
bullet ultimately we will all die with dreams still to be realised ~ we all sleep alone ~ and we need to come to terms with this fact

p148       The death of our honeymoons

bulletman woman meet, fall in love, marry, passion, 15 years on they know the honeymoon is over
bullettheir marriage is far from dead
bulletthey have a choice to either yearn for the past or they can grieve the honeymoon and receive the spirit of a couple who have been married for 15 years
bulletthis is true of all relationships
bulletthe downside is that honeymoons die but the upside is that God is always giving us something deeper, richer, fuller

p150       The death of a certain idea of God and church

bulletthe example of the change in the liturgy of the  RC Church over the past 40 years
bulletthe choice of clinging to the church of our youth or looking back to the church that gave me faith, recognising that it has died, grieving its passing, letting it bless me, letting it go and then receiving the spirit of the church within which I am actually living

p153       A note on grieving and on letting ourselves be blessed by the past

bulletHenri Nouwen’s call to mourn
bulletunless we mourn properly our hurts, losses, life’s unfairness, shattered dreams, inconsummation, and all the life we had once but that has now passed us by, we will live either in an unhealthy fantasy or an ever intensifying bitterness
bulletthe example of the older brother in the Prodigal Son
bulletthe need for critical awareness and ownership of the reality of our lives
bulletthe example of how we can let the past bless us either by owning our roots or denying them 

No matter how bad your father and mother have been, some day you will stand by their graveside and  recognise what they gave you, forgive what they did to you, and receive the spirit that is in your life because of them.   Making peace with the family depends upon proper mourning and letting the ascension and Pentecost happen.

ISSUES, ETC

  1. GENERAL REACTIONS AND POINTS FROM THE CHAPTER?
  1. HOW CAN THE CHURCH MINISTER TO THE FULL POTENTIAL OF EACH AGE GROUP?
  1. EXAMPLES OF THE DEATH OF WHOLENESS?
  1. THE NEED FOR DREAMS SO THAT THEY CAN DIE
  1. THE HONEYMOON PERIOD OF THE MINISTER
  1. WHAT OF THE CHURCH OF OUR YOUTH  DO WE HOLD ON TO?
  1. THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT LETTING OUR ROOTS OWN US

 

Seeking Spirituality  Ron Rolheiser

p158 - 181   A spirituality of justice and peace making

Strength without compassion is violence
Compassion without justice is mere sentiment
Justice without love is Marxism
And … love without justice is baloney
Cardinal Sin

 God asks only one thing of us, that we
“act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with our God”
                                                                                                                             
Micah 6:8

What does it mean to act Justly?

p 159            What is Christian Social Justice
Justice is beyond private charity

bulletThe story of the bodies in the river 

Justice is systematic conversion

Difference between private charity and social justice

bulletPrivate charity responds to the victims
bulletSocial justice seeks to change the system that causes injustice
bulletThe example of Ted Turners 1 billion dollar gift to the UN and his claim to put the rich on notice
bulletJesus put the rich on notice 2000 years ago
bulletThe abortion illustration of the deeper systematic issues that underlie the problem and the point that abortions will only stop when the system that leads to their need stops
bulletThe emphasis on social justice today “because we know more”
bulletSocial Justice demands a new world order

page 165       A Biblical Foundation for Social Justice

bulletGenesis roots

Ø           affirmation that God made all people equal in dignity and in rights

Ø           that the earth and everything in it belongs equally to everyone

Ø           that all human beings, equally, are co-responsible with God in helping to protect the dignity of everybody and everything

Ø           that the physical earth has rights and needs to be respected in an of itself, and not just as a stage for human activity

·                               The prophets deepened this understanding

·                               The quality of our faith depends upon the character of justice in the land and that
character can be measured by  how we treat the least in society.

·                     Jesus argues that we will be judged before God on the basis of how we have treated the poor in this life

·                     Jesus argues that there are immense spiritual and psychological dangers in being rich and privileged

Page 166      Social Justice and the Church

bulletCommon principles allowing for difference of interpretation

[1]           all people have equal dignity and should enjoy equal access to resources and opportunity
[2]           God intended the earth for all people equally
[3]           The common good comes before the right to private property
[4]           No person / group / nation should have a surplus while others are in need
[5]           We are morally obliged to come to the aid of those in need.  Giving aid is serving justice and not charity
[6]           No one has the right to earn as much as he or she can without concern for the common good (even a celebrity)
[7]           The earth has rights
[8]           The imbalance of wealth and opportunity goes against the basic teachings of Jesus and must be redressed
[9]           The Church must condemn injustice as part of its preaching and prophetic role
[10]         Movement towards the poor is a privileged route towards God and towards spiritual health

bulletThe world has changed ~ the family unit is no longer as strong  ~ the global community is now in vogue
bulletThe quote from Elizabeth Johnson

p169       Non-violent Peace-making

bulletWe are naive of what is asked for us if we are to challenge the world order
bulletOur naivety based upon six fallacies which expressed in their prime analogies sound like

[1]           The urgency of my cause allows me to be disrespectful, arrogant and ugly  towards those who oppose me
[2]           Only the truth of the cause is important.  My private life is of no relevance
[3]           I do not need to talk to God or Jesus.  I do not need to pray for peace.  I only need to work for it
[4]           I am more interested in short term, political and social gain.  The long term does not concern me.
[5]           The situation allows me to corrupt the truth, distort the facts
[6]           I am a victim and thus outside the rules

p170        Painful Truth

bulletOur actions for justice often mimic the very thing they are trying to challenge
bulletThe aggression, etc of many peace groups will not achieve  a new world order

p171      A prescription of non violence

bulletAll  actions must be rooted in the power of love
bulletJim Wallis advocating  non violence ~ Merton and the root of war is fear
bulletThe need for hope in the power of God to change things
bulletThe OT example of Susanna and the NT example of Jesus and the adulterous woman

p174      A non-violent god who underwrites justice and peace

bulletHow we conceive God will colour how we conceive everything else
bulletToo often we see God as a force of redemptive violence eg the bully being crushed by the hero 
bulletBerrigan story of the young cancer patient and the  point that God lies in the world, silent and helpless
bulletGod’s power in the world has a specific look and feel

[1]           If you have ever been overpowered physically and been helpless, 
[2]           If you have ever dreamed a dream which was never able to be realised
[3]           If you have ever been cursed for your goodness or never given a chance to speak
[4]           If you have ever loved someone and not been loved back
[5]           If you have ever felt the world slipping away and you were unable to turn the clock back
[6]           If you have ever felt in a minority of one

bulletThe difference between the power of the world and the power of God
bulletGod’s power is often more muted, more helpless, more shamed, more marginalized
bulletGod’s power is a far deeper kind of power
bulletTo work for peace and justice is not to move from being Mother Teresa to being Rambo or Batman or Superman

p178     Sustaining ourselves the long haul

bulletThe struggles for justice is not about winning or loosing but about fidelity
bulletJesus demands that we work for peace and justice but does not demand that we win
bulletLong term fidelity to personal conscience, personal faith, personal charity are central
bulletIn the struggle for peace and justice our true Christian weapons are not ideology and guns but lit candles, hope, personal integrity, charity and prayer

 p179    A Lord’s Prayer for Justice

 The Lord's Prayer

Our Father
standing with the weak, powerless, poor, sick, aged, very young, unborn, and those who by circumstance bear the heat of the day
who are in heaven,
first will be last, all  ill be well and ever manner  of being will be well
Hallowed be thy Name.
your standards and not our standards where reverence for God’s name pulls us to action
Your Kingdom come.
a world where we will do justice, love tenderly and walk humbly with God and one another
Thy will be done
open our freedom to let God
in earth, as it is in heaven.
may the work of our hands reflect the glory of God
Give
l
ife and love to us and let us see all as a gift so that we want to give to the poor
us
all people, equally
this day
deal in the present, now
our daily bread.
enough clean, good  everything for everybody
And forgive us our debts,
our blindness towards our neighbour
as we forgive our debtors.
help us to forgive those who victimise us
And lead us not into temptation,
do not put us to the test now, but give us time to try to mend our ways
but deliver us from evil:
from all that lets us continue to participate in anonymous systems within which we need not see who gets less as we get more
For thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever.
Amen

 Issues

  1. Where do you start?
  1. In what ways can we try to “act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with our God”?
  1. Are we just making excuses when we say that, well that is the system
  1. On a blank sheet of paper, what can we do as a Church to address the injustices of the world?
  1. What the examples of injustice in Kirriemuir?
  1. Any other points?
     

Seeking Spirituality  Ron Rolheiser

p202 - 228       Sustaining ourselves in the  spiritual life

p202       The need for sustenance, not just clarity of truth

bulletKnowledge alone cannot save us
bulletThe conversions of Augustine as a model … head and then heart#
bullet Spirituality is about both head and heart
bulletHow do we develop the heart to sustain ourselves on the long road?
bulletWhat practices and exercises can help us to live spiritual lives?

regular prayer                                                                             [both communal and private]
the practice of charity and self sacrifice                              [both and home and in the world]
some concrete involvement with the poor
involvement with some Church community
a willingness to be vulnerable for love                                [as Christ was vulnerable]

p204       Commandments for the long haul

bulletBe a mystic ~ the time is fast approaching when one will either be a mystic or a non believer
The need for a personal act of faith
bulletTo sustain faith is to stand outside the dominant consciousness
bulletOne can simply no longer roll with the flow of one’s own particular community, even one’s faith community, if one wishes to have a living faith
bulletTo often what we have is not Christianity but an ideology of Christianity
bulletTo have a living faith today one must at some point in his or her life make a deep, private act of faith  [this act equates with becoming a mystic but is very hard to make]
bulletThe myriad little innocent blocks to faith

comfort                                                        restlessness
laziness                                                        envy
self indulgence                                           consumerism
ambition                                                      greed
lifestyle                                                        refusal to live in tension
busyness                                                      over extension
constant tiredness                                    obsession with celebrities
sports                                                            sit coms and talk shows

p206       Personal faith depends upon prayer

bulletPrivate prayer is the road to mysticism
bulletIn order to sustain your faith you should spend a regular [daily] extended time in prayer
bulletThere is  no way to stay in touch with one’s soul and to keep a balance there, outside of regular private prayer
bulletPage 207 Henri Nouwen describes this time of prayer

p208       A mysticism for our age – prayer as pondering, carrying tension

bulletPrayer is more than just saying prayers
bulletPondering means living with tension
Mary kept these things in her hearts and pondered them

Sexual Tension                          Sense and Sensibility                         Infidelity

bulletAccepting to carry tension for the sake of God, love, truth and principle is the mysticism that is most needed in our day
bulletDo not attempt to solve the great tensions of life too prematurely

p213       Sin Bravely                                           Honesty within boldness

bulletGod helps us after we have sinned, namely, in a state where we honestly admit our sin
bulletExample of the two nuns
bulletLuther argues that the problem is not so much sin, but that we  do not sin boldly
bulletWe rationalise and harden our hearts and we do not declare our sins
bulletThere is only one sin that God cannot deal with, the sin against the Holy Spirit
p214       The unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit
bulletSet in the context of exercising a demon
bulletThe only sin that puts us outside of God’s mercy is not wanting to be forgiven
bulletSpiritual health is 90% about honesty

p217       Honesty as letting us see the colours again

bulletThe example of the alcoholic ~ sex addict
bulletThe challenge of the Gospel is about seeing colours again
bulletDo not lie, be weak if you must, but sin boldly

p218       Gather ritually round the Word and Break the Bread
In every circumstance in life, gather ritually in Prayer

bulletThe Christian life is not sustained only by private acts of prayer
bulletThe Christian life is sustained by the worshipping community

 p219       The meaning of ritual and our current struggle with it

·         Ritual is something for the most part we no longer understand

bulletWe are ritually time deaf in the sense that we do not trust what we can’t rationally explain
bulletRitual is growing in New Age, Feminist, Men’s Circles
bulletExamples of ritual

women rape victims                  father abuse of sons            Quaker silence     Mass

bulletWe just have to gather in God’s name around simple clear ritual and God will do the rest

p225       Worship and serve the right God

bulletTo have a distorted concept of God, no matter how sincere,  is to worship an idol and break the first commandment
bulletWhat does God look like, what kind of God did Jesus reveal?
bulletJulian of Norwich’s description of God

relaxed          happy     courteous              peaceful              

beautiful face               radiating measureless love

·         In the past many have had a concept of God that was a projection of personal anger and an incapacity to forgive

·         God had a recording book containing all our sins and demanded payment for them

·         God had drawn up some very strict criteria for salvation

·         Hellfire awaited and people live din fear of God

·         Today people try to change that picture but have not developed a better one

·         The conservative wing have created a God of orthodoxy

·         The liberal wing a worried, hypersensitive, workaholic, politically correct, whining God

·         The Buddhist parable about the pig

·         Ultimately in the spiritual life we are called to be forgiving, caressing and compassionate

·         We are meant to radiate both the masculine and the feminine side of God

·         Given that we live under a smiling, relaxed, all forgiving God, we should mirror God

ISSUES, ETC

  1. GENERAL REACTIONS AND POINTS FROM THE CHAPTER

  2. HOW DO WE REFLECT THE HEART AND THE HEAD IN WORSHIP?
  1. DO WE DO THE PRACTICES OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE [PAGE  202]?
  1. WHAT WOULD A DEEP PRIVATE ACT   FAITH LOOK / FEEL  LIKE?
  1. IS PRIVATE PRAYER THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP IN TOUCH WITH ONE’S SOUL?
  1. HOW IMPORTANT IS LIVING IN / WITH TENSIONS?
  1. DO / SHOULD  WE  FOCUS ON SIN?
  1. HOW IMPORTANT ARE OUR RITUALS?
  1. WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO JULIAN’S DESCRIPTION OF GOD [PAGE 225]?
  1. OTHER POINTS?