|
|
  |
 |
 |
 |
 subscribe to my site  Name: Ron Henderson Birthday: August 16, 1960 Gender: Male Interests: Piano, reading, web retail, nature photography, golf, operating a Kingdom Business Expertise: Web marketing Occupation: Leading a Family Business Industry: Retail, Crafts and Jewelry Website: visit my website
Get trial subscription Rpglegend hulsey jcmelordy SpiritusNaturae Rabbitwhisperer SugarBlue2 thedailylist BeadingSusie karlabead JAM4the1Lamb Bluemustangpride
previous - random - next ! Christian Thinkers previous - random - next Mere Lewis: For Readers of C.S. Lewis previous - random - next Christians Who Write previous - random - next Beading previous - random - next Grown-ups with Content WORTH being Featured previous - random - next IN SEARCH OF TRUTH previous - random - next jesus is not religion previous - random - next Auntie's Beads previous - random - next Browse other blogrings...
|
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Because They Have No Ears Early in the Moon of Making Fat, the Hunkpapas had their annual sun dance. For three days Sitting Bull danced, bled himself, and stared at the sun until he fell into a trance. When he rose again, he spoke to his people. In his vision he had heard a voice crying: "I give you these because they have no ears." When he looked into the sky he saw soldiers falling like grasshoppers, with their heads down and their hats falling off ... Because the white men had no ears and would not listen, Wakantaka the Great Spirit was giving these soldiers to the Indians to be killed. - Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee If you can stand the truth, read this book. If you are on the side of justice and against oppression you will cry many times, as I did. I believe suffering with those who suffer involves knowing the truth of the past and refusing to shrug and look the other way. Many of the great leaders among the Native Americans sought the guidance of a Great Spirit, understood that all men are equal, and that the earth belongs to God and should be taken care of instead of exploited. The motive for breaking treaty after treaty was always greed. If there is gold in the hills where they lived, well, just move the Indians and take the gold without compensation. If the railroad needs to go through hunting grounds, kill the buffalo. If a village is in the way, kill every man, woman and child. It happened ... again, and again, and again. Did it happen because it was God's will, that in this way we would spread Christianity? No, it happened because we had superior weapons and numbers. God is not on the side of people who take what doesn't belong to them by force, people who can bring themselves to kill others because they believe the others aren't quite as human as them. I don't believe in a God who sides with injustice. The only Manifest Destiny that is in play is that God will one day manifestly establish justice and end oppression. He might sometimes use a mighty Assyria as a tool. But what happens when he finishes with them? Suffice it to ask this: do you know any Assyrians today? So that leaves me pondering two things. First, how much of this "might makes right" mentality remains in my psyche as an American white man and must be rooted out? For example, can I accept passively an economic system that creates such extreme winners and losers and is mindlessly self-justifying -- "if I have the power to take it, it belongs to me." How much do I blindly accept this social Darwinism in the little transactions of daily life and merely run over people when I am able to, putting my needs above theirs? Second, whether we like it our not, this is our legacy and it should not be minimized or forgotten. As Americans, a big dose of humility will take us a lot further in the world today than will calling other nations "evil empires." Remove the plank from your eye before playing eye doctor for the rest of the world. God endures injustice for only so long. Those who have ears to hear should listen . "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." - Jesus Saturday, February 23, 2008
Courage
As Paul said, let us set aside every weight or burden, and run the race with courage. A rolling stone gathers no moss! Sunday, February 17, 2008
Beads The word for bead comes from the Anglo-Saxon word 'bede,' their term for prayer. Prayer beads or rosaries have a long tradition. The basic purpose is not a mechanical completion of a repetitive task, but a slowing down to a pace that allows contemplation to occur more naturally within a framework that includes the consideration of the various 'mysteries' based on the life of Christ:
* The assumption and coronation of Mary are of course not mentioned in the gospels. Nevertheless, the passages given serve as great meditations on our own hope to follow Jesus into his glory. As Paul says, "And as we have born the likeness of the man of clay, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven." How did we go to Venice and not see Tintoretto? Most of his works are in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco (Confraternity of St. Roch). We have to go back.
Monday, February 04, 2008
As I was reading Thomas Merton's autobiography I found myself wishing he had waited a little longer to write it. He began writing it in his late 20's, shortly after entering a Trappist monastery in Kentucky. It seems way too young to be writing the story of your life, and I was more particularly interested in his life and reflections while in the monastery. I suppose I can get a lot of that from his other books; so far I've only read The New Man. Regarding the logic of worldly success, Merton writes: "A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!" Indeed, the real me is not the image someone else has of me, or even the image I have of myself. The real me is the one that exists in God's imagination. That's what I want to become. There is a related point in the epilogue, where Merton takes up the question of what is the fruit of the contemplative life. He stresses that it's not merely personal, and the sharing of it is not limited to writing books or giving seminars. It doesn't even require direct contact in all cases. He says "Prayer can do the work wonderfully well, and indeed the fire of contemplation has a tendency to spread of itself throughout the Church and vivify all the members of Christ in secret without any conscious act on the part of the contemplative." He says that regardless of who you are, "you are all called to a deep interior life perhaps even to mystical prayer, and to pass the fruits of your contemplation on to others." If not by word, then by example. The effect of having this "sublime fire of infused love" burning in your soul is viral. The radius of those touched by your word or example is always larger than we imagine, and probably includes souls yet unborn. Thomas Merton's contemplative life is a first rate example of that fact. Friday, February 01, 2008
Real World Monasticism The early church was a community characterized first and foremost by a κοινός βίος, a "common life." They were constantly together, sharing life and goods in common, meeting daily in homes and in public meeting places. As the fourth century monk John Cassian said, the church was meant to be a monastic institution. We should look for ways to share a common life, including at times even common living arrangements. For example, adult Christians might want to consider "spending the night," like we used to do as kids, or vacationing together, forming a business together, or even settling in a particular area of the world with a missional intent as an outgrowth of life together. Anything to break down the walls of individualism and secularism that so pervades our life. Once we arrive at our virtual monastery, we might wonder what it is we should spend our time doing. Cassian answers this, too. A cornerstone practice of the monastic life was a constant and intentional awareness of the presence of God. One way to do this is the constant repetition of a single short verse. For example "O God, come to my aid; Lord, make haste to help me," from Psalm 70. This heartfelt plea (if, indeed, it is heartfelt) can be a kind of daily bread for the soul, sustaining us, reminding us of our dependence on God, and reminding us of his presence in every moment and in every circumstance. Cassian also speaks of praying the Psalms in such a way that they conform to our experience. The idea is to choose a psalm that reflects a mood with which you can identify, perhaps based on what my be happening in your present life. But instead of just reading it, try to evoke the feeling and emotion of it as if it were the outpouring of your own spirit. "We become, as it were, its author, anticipating the meaning rather than following it," says Cassian. Everything is judged by its fruit. If we seriously practice some of the things traditionally associated with monasticism or the common life of the early church, there is the real possibility that it might change us. We are essentially inviting the Spirit to change us rather than trying to do it ourselves by seemingly more direct means. If we find ourselves less enamored by the things of the world, less narcissistic, more gentle -- and more, if we see fascinating new relationships developing all around us based on a common love in Christ -- well, then, maybe that mystical, monastical stuff wasn't so crazy after all! 
|
