Monday, June 30, 2008

Advice from a wise man: What to do with a powerful visitation

http://priorscolumn.blogspot.com/

Brother Bede Thomas Mudge, OSC

"…as we sat there waiting I had, once again very suddenly, one of the most powerful experiences of the presence of the Holy Spirit that I have ever had. I can only describe it as "weighty". It was like having a Mack Truck drive through the Church. There wasn't anything subtle about it. It was just like it says in Acts, "a mighty wind, which filled the whole place where they were sitting." The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, was the principal thing that was real in our Church at that moment. It was both unexpected and unmistakable.Well, that's what happened to me. I'm not feeling the need to have evaluations or analysis, at least at this point. But I do want to say that I think that these intuitive experiences are far more common that we often think. Manifestations of the spiritual part of our being are both real and perfectly natural, and my own belief is that they happen to most people. But living as we do in a society that values the rational over everything else, I think that lots of people completely miss these things when they happen, and those people who do notice them are usually reluctant to talk about them. After all they aren't "normal" (by which we mean rational). But they are, in fact, perfectly normal. These things happen to people, lots of people. But so often they are missed or we hide them.These little explosions of the Spiritual into our daily consciousness are, in my view, just part of what it means to be a human being. They don't make me holy and they aren't an indication that I'm special. They are just what happens because I have a spiritual part to my humanity, as every other human being does. I've learned both from the Christian tradition and from my experience that you have to be very careful about claiming anything about these happenings or making predictions based on them or telling people what they should be doing because of them. Mostly they're not for that. They are usually just moments when the veil is drawn aside and we see more of reality than we are usually open to. After all, the Holy Spirit is with us all the time…. I just happened to realize this at one particular moment.What should I do about it? I should be thankful. I should rejoice in this very nice gift that I've been given. I should be grateful for having had a moment when I became more aware of the fullness of who I am. And then I should get about the business of writing my blog, and finishing my correspondence and loving my neighbor and doing the laundry. I should work at being a Christian and a human being. That's what these things are for. And that's enough."

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

another quote

This time I will put the citation FIRST, to help me develop my new good habit:

This one is by Quaker apologist Robert Barclay and is taken from the Bill Samuel's blog entry for May 16th at

http://billsamuel.net/blog/

Here's the quote:

"If by the Spirit we can only come to the true knowledge of God; if by the Spirit we are to be led into all Truth, and so be taught of all things; then the Spirit, and not the Scriptures, is the foundation and ground of all Truth and knowledge, and the primary rule of faith and manners."

giving proper credit

I forgot to cite the previous entry properly; Carl has been after me to acknowledge where things come from:

The note on Mystical Theology was from a fine review in Books & Culture:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/books/features/bookwk/080623.html

My apologies for the delay in citing this!

Peter

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The embrace of unitive love: Kissing God

In the early 15th century, Jean Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, wrote a two-volume treatise on the subject, the first scholarly study of mysticism. The title alone, On Mystical Theology, shows his view: Mysticism is theology, but more personal and experiential than the scholastic theology of the academy. Gerson defines this mystical theology as "an experiential knowledge of God that comes through the embrace of unitive love," and he offers a robustly evocative account of the mystics' writings: "They talk of a jubilation beyond the spirit, of being taken into a divine darkness, of tasting God, of embracing the bridegroom, of kissing him, of being born of God, of obeying his word, of being brought into the divine cellars, of being drunk in a torrent of delight, of running into an odor of his perfumes, of hearing his voice, and entering into the bedroom, and of finding sleep and rest in peace with him."

from a review by Nathaniel Peters

Monday, June 23, 2008

crossover from previous blog?

I don't write here very often, but today I went into what I thought was my blog and was directed to start this new one. I want to keep continuity with what I have written before.

My previous address was peters-rants@blogspot.com

This address is peter-petersrants@blogspot.com

I hope you can follow these!

Love to all,
Peter

A thought from this weekend

This weekend I heard a preacher quote from the following verses of Proverbs:

"He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment." 12:11

"He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty." 28:19

The question (to myself) that I wrote in my journal in response to this is:

"ARE YOU WORKING YOUR LAND, OR ARE YOU CHASING FANTASIES?"

I see this as applying to a lot of areas of "work" beyond just literal farming...

Peace and love to all,
Peter