Grow Mercy

Passion Hierarchy and Van Gogh

2 comments March 31st, 2007

Some time ago I heard a preacher say, "Our passion for God must be greater than all our other passions." And I got to wondering:

No doubt, for a Christian, Moslem, Jew…passion for God is a touchstone, it is fuel. As the author of Ecclesiastes implies, passion is the energy that weaves together and creates the whole brocade of life.

But the thought that our passion for God must be greater than all other passions begs for me this question: Is it true that my passion for art, for a good book, a companion, a camp fire, or a walking stick and a well fitted back pack is separate from my passion for God?

My passion for a walk in the woods is not the same thing as my passion for God, but neither is it different. It’s a mystic thing, a Zen thing. Passion for God informs all my passions and any passion that makes me flourish informs my passion for God.

J. E. H. MacDonald - Group of Seven

So when we try to be more passionate about God, we unconsciously pit our passion for family, for life, for the smell of cut grass after a rain, against a love and passion for God. This is what allowed the Pharisees to twist passion into a duty, and abandon their obligation to family and supposedly devote all their time to God. A ruse for which that Jesus had words.

No, when it comes to the things that put wind in your sails, there can be no passion hierarchy. I’m with Van Gogh, "To love God, it is necessary to love many things."

Technorati Tags: Van Gogh, Passion, Beauty, Christianity, Spirituality

On learning to not give a rat’s ass

6 comments March 29th, 2007

It’s been strange and shaky week. I’ve gone from not sleeping to sleeping in. The weather has been moody to suit. Never had this much trouble coming off a holiday. Wanting to care, but not. Caring too much, wanting not to care. And so it’s come to this rumination:

I suppose if there was one item not worthy of either retention or divestment, it would be a rat’s ass. It’s just one of those things most of us can get through the day without giving or having.

The complicating issue is that in order not to give a rat’s ass, one must first be in possession of a rat’s ass. Of course most of us deal with this as follows: I could give a rat’s ass, but I don’t; but if I did, I would, if I had to, go and find a rat, remove ass, and not give it.

Zap your rats humanely

Procuring rats’ asses so as to then be in a position of either giving or keeping a rat’s ass is a messy and rabies-ridden business. Better to stay clear of the whole Rat’s Ass business.

But as I outlined earlier I think we can handle the whole not-giving-rats’-asses in the abstract. With the exception of exterminators, this works for most of us.

So here’s my admission: Over the years I’ve given countless rat’s asses. I’ve found that the spiritual discipline of not giving a rat’s ass–or if you prefer, "So do not worry about tomorrow…, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own."–is the hardest to cultivate and the easiest to give up on. I find myself not giving a rat’s ass about not giving a rat’s ass. And that double negative brings a big weighty positive.

I need help and I admit it. First step.

I remember a church baptismal service, where, during the prerequisite testimonial, one candidate, after a few preliminary remarks he was trying to read off of a sheet of paper, remarks he had obviously been coached in, simply threw up his hands and said, "The reason I’m here is because God has me by the short and curly’s!" The pastor blanched and the audience cleared their throats. Besides being a great testimony, it was a wonderful moment of not giving a rat’s ass.

Technorati Tags: Rat’s ass

Men in Black Dress

2 comments March 26th, 2007

For reasons that are often beyond me I feel a kind of beneficent breeze every time I go out to St.Peter’s Abbey, in Saskatchewan.

But there is nothing romantic about this monastery. Most of the twenty five or so monks who remain are old, many are tired, and a couple are infirm. Young monks enter, but it’s unlikely their numbers will overcome the attrition rate.

Brother Pius

Sometimes it feels to me that perennial winter has set in on the Abbey. And yet they remain, living together, wearing their black habits, working at their given tasks. And then at the sound of the bell, five times each day, from Lauds to Vigils, they drop what they are doing and walk to the chapel for another half hour of chanting and praying the Psalms. And it is prayer they hope to be shaped by.

Brother Francis, afflicted with Alzheimer’s towards the end of his long life, was, until his death, always wheeled to the chapel by the brothers for prayer. He would often startle visitors by suddenly shouting out bits of the Psalms. The Psalms remained when everything else was gone.

It’s this counter attitude that attracts me and keeps bringing me back to the monastery. I am more than curious by their belief that being cloistered within a monastery, while sharing everything and owning nothing, is a freer way of life, and that before anything else it is a good way of living the gospel.

I too long to be schooled in love and service, as St. Benedict rejoins in his Rule. I too long for emancipation from the unspoken dictates of culture and its slavery to fashion and "correct thought". But I’m not that stable, open to conversion, or obedient (the three vows). Just thankful for the guys in black scapular’s who are.

With Father James in his hermitage

My mentor, Father James OSB

Technorati Tags: St. Peter’s Abbey, Benedictine, Christianity, Peace, Religion, Spirituality

St. Peter’s Abbey

Add comment March 24th, 2007

To navigate is to know. There is no knowing beyond the bounds of what has been navigated. But there are shadings, outlines, possibilities.

I’ve been navigating the monastery for six years–four years as an Oblate. And this weekend I’m here at St. Peter’s Abbey for another "Oblate day."

Summer at St Peter’s Abbey

Here’s my overly romantic notion of the monastery:

For me St. Peter’s Abbey is a little ship. It slips in and out of ports, staying clear of the clutches of commodification. It usually only docks at night. And so its silent inconspicuous presence is only noticed by lovers that might be strolling the harbour or the moonlit shores.

Lovers are there because as lovers they have taken time to slow down their souls and seed their passion. They see the ship…still and berthed.

The little ship leaves just before dawn, long before the malls open. It is missed by most. There’s no memory of its stay on the surface of the salt water. It only lingers in the minds of the lovers who later that night will tell their friends in the café.

Technorati Tags: St. Peter’s Abbey, Oblates, Benedictine, Christianity, Spirituality

More on Evangelicals and the Gay thing

5 comments March 22nd, 2007

On some level you have to give the president of the leading Southern Baptist Seminary credit for listening to the scientific research and conceding that homosexuality has some form of biological cause.

Of course the admission won’t sit well with the majority of conservative Christians-like the Focus on the Family and Christian Coalition types-because they’ve been out there in the heat, expending all sorts of energy making banners that read something like, homosexuality is a conscious choice that can be cured through counseling and prayer.

But not to worry, the SB president hasn’t sold out. He still purports that even if same-sex behaviour is biological, it’s still a sin. Because it’s still condemned by the Bible. The good news is that apparently the Bible has nothing against going in and jimmying with the genes so as to switch, that is, to "correct" the sexual orientation of an unborn baby.

And this is what the good SB president is proposing. Don’t worry that there’s nothing medically wrong with the fetus, just know that gayness is abhorrent and needs to be headed off at the pass.

And certainly don’t worry about any biological experts that say the nuances of orientation are so complex that even if genes were identified, those vary genes would also be responsible for contributing to someone’s whole matrix of social interaction, including affection and love. What do they know.

Technorati Tags: Rev. Albert Mohler, Southern Baptist Seminary, Homosexuality, Christianity, Religion, Spirituality

Forgiveness Management

Add comment March 20th, 2007

Anger eats us. Forgiveness releases us. But all the stuff we’ve been taught about forgiveness needs a closer look.

In the end our bodies are indelibly etched by the interaction of both anger and forgiveness. Check out this trenchant article on the ways our understanding of forgiveness and our feelings of anger effect our bodies and emotions. You’ll be emotionally wiser and your body will thank you.

(And be merciful to yourself!)

Technorati Tags: Vue Magazine, Connie Howard, Spirituality

Whitbey Island and Coupville Coffee

1 comment March 19th, 2007

A lone seagull appears at the first of three rectangular windows. It floats for a moment and disappears. A grey horizon, bleak as dust, is splayed across the three openings, breaking itself up in equal measures. Three horizons, all the same and different.

Off to the right, in the rough fir rafters, a sign reads, "Loitering is encouraged." We’ve been here all morning. The coffee is more than adequate and I can help myself to free refills.

The Coupville coffee shop on Whitbey Island is like a big old living room. There are heavy dark green rugs on a plank floor that is black with wear. It’s full of worn wood furniture, mis-matched tables and chairs, with various styles of lathe-turned legs.

A wall of dogeared books on bowed shelves rises up behind two yellow sofa chairs. This is where we sit and spend the morning.

Beside me there’s one four-outlet wall-socket. The knot of cords sprawl like spaghetti around chair legs and run to various lamps from the 50’s and 60’s. On my left there is a four foot square steel safe that was made in Portland at the turn of the century by the Webb Lock and Safe Co.

There’s local art on the wall. Paintings: Bold-blue swirls that look like Herons. Big-lipped fish jumping. Entangled lobsters obviously in love. A sea scape.

There are maps on a red wall; old mariner maps with ships in the corners.

Everything makes me want to stay here, sunk deep in this half settee, smelling coffee and hot banana bread, breathing the salt air coming up through a knothole in the pine floor, reading, and gazing out on a triple horizon.

A few Whitbey Island pictures:

Our Cottage

Our view

Technorati Tags: Coupville, Whitbey Island, Beauty, Peace, Spirituality

Finding Dawn Letter

1 comment March 16th, 2007

I was encouraged that while the Edmonton Journal didn’t show up at the "Finding Dawn" event, they at least published my letter.

Technorati Tags: Finding Dawn, National Film Board, Edmonton Journal Letters, Politics, Spirituality

Mr. & Mrs. Blender go to Church

1 comment March 14th, 2007

Pastors, plebeians, all..to get something of the undercurrent of what goes on in the minds of folk on the margins of church, who were once not on the margins, but who still care enough examine things, you need to digest this exposé. It’s the latest "Mystery Worshipper" account, from Ship of Fools–the magazine of Christian unrest.

Don’t let the rollicking read distract you from Mr. Blender’s insights and keen observations.

Technorati Tags: West Edmonton Christian Assembly, Ship of Fools, Mystery Worshipper, Christianity, Politics, Spirituality

Condition of Justice

3 comments March 12th, 2007

Postmodern philosopher Jacques Derrida said:

"To address oneself to the other in the language of the other is, it seems, the condition of all possible justice, but apparently, in all rigor, it is… impossible…"

I believe he’s exactly right about this being the condition of justice. But I hope with everything that’s in me, that he’s wrong about it being impossible. Except that the weight of evidence seems unassailably in his favour.

But if the Incarnation happened, the condition has been met. It just hasn’t been seriously applied.

Technorati Tags: Jacques Derrida, Justice, Incarnation, Christianity