Roderick’s Rambles

There is a perhaps inevitable quest for longevity.  Long life by itself however, is just not enough.  Long health is also critical to make long life full and not simply passable.  But equally crucial to well-being is, I believe, meaning. There is an inside to reality that releases its fragrance when nurtured by love.

The awe-inspiring book by the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning: an introduction to logotherapy, was first published in 1946 and then, in a revised and enlarged edition, in 1962 (Beacon press) and 1964 (Hodder and Stoughton). Frankl’s seminal work builds upon Nietzsche’s insight: “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.”

Are you interested in longevity, long health and meaning – and how to make all three available to as many as possible? Your reflections and pointers will be most valuable.

Finding the mystical in the mundane: the deep structure of the everyday

At any great festival we are beckoned to come in closer, to create a pause in our pattern and draw near, to watch and pray with particular attentiveness. But what if we choose not to? What could be missed here?

Woven into the tapestry of Christmas and Epiphany preparations and celebrations may well be three gifts: firstly, threads of pure gold for the tapestry of our being; secondly, a fragrance of God that is so distilled, so purified that if we can but slow the pace to breathe deeply, we shall be astonished; thirdly, an aromatic oil of gladness that manifests even within poignancy and sadness. Gold, frankincense and myrrh: gifted by wisdom bearers – some of whom will be a part of our family or workplace, live in our street, or sell the Big Issue by our supermarket.

Within the fragility of our present state, of every present state – from person to nation, from whole earth economy to local economy of our small group, village, town or city – here is the heartbeat of God.  The mundane, our mundane, is the manger to the miraculous. Christ is being born in the deep structure of everyday. Am I, are you, witnessing the labour pains? Are we perhaps able and willing to lend a hand as apprentice midwives?  Or, to shift the metaphor, are we Mary?

In discerning the new life within the here and now, we may be helped by the scripture, saints and mystics. Below are some extracts, prose nuggets that I find profoundly heartening and intriguing. In our travelling light on this road to the healthy birthing of the now, we may discern that our path and our presence is illumined and graced. How? By the simple and well-honed gifts of others who are dwelling deep.  You may wish to take one of these each day to reflect upon and journal a brief response.

At one point in her study, Sister Elaine MacInnes, Roman Catholic nun, Zen Master and tireless worker over the years for The Prison Phoenix Trust, in Oxford, UK and Canada asked the Zen Teacher, Yamada Roshi, what he thought prayer should be for a Christian.  His immediate response was, “It should be the same as for a Buddhist.  Prayer is light sitting in light.”

This story is told on the intro page to Elaine MacInness’ book Light Sitting in Light: A   Christian’s Experience in Zen, ( Fount, Harper Collins 1996).

• “Enlightened people are…lifted above reason into a bare and imageless vision wherein lies the eternal indrawing summons of the Divine Unity…There, their bare understanding is drenched through by the Eternal Brightness.”

from The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage by Jan van Ruysbroeck, trans by C A Wymschenck, Dom (London: Dent and Sons, 1916) p.185

• Saint Irenaeus, pivotal early church teacher, wrote that Jesus, “on account of his measureless love became what we are that he might make us in the end what he is.”  And again, “For the glory of God is a living person; and the life of humanity is the vision of God.”

from  Sources Chretiennes (1965) Irenaeus 4.20.7

• “The desire for, and capacity to meditate – that is to become quiet and centred around an inner core of meaning – is a gift bestowed upon every human being. It is a dimension of the divine seed sown in the heart of each person, awakening a desire to be centred, re-aligned to the fundamental mystery of existence, at peace with reality, a sense of home-coming to one’s true self.”

from Reclaiming Spirituality by Diarmid O’Muirchu, (Gill and Macmillan 1997) p.178

• “In proportion to the strength and sincerity of the will, in fact, so shall be the measure of success in prayer. As the self pushes out towards Reality, so does Reality rush in on it.  ‘Grace and will’, says one of the greatest of living writers on religion, ‘rise and fall together’. ‘Grace’ is, of course, the theological term for that inflow of spiritual vitality which is the response made by the divine order to the human emotions of adoration, supplication and love; and according to the energy and intensity with which our efforts are made – the degree in which we concentrate our attention upon this high and difficult business of prayer – will be the amount of new life we receive.”

from the chapter “The Place of Will, Intellect and Feeling” in The Essentials of   Mysticism and Other Essays by Evelyn Underhill; (Oneworld Publications, Oxford 1995)  p.85

• Four or five Contemplative Fire Companions on the Way and a clergy colleague have forwarded this youtube link to me in the past few weeks – Christmas Food Court Flash Mob!  It brought a big grin to my heart and tears to my eyes and I can’t resist sharing it with you on this festival of Christ’s birth: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

• To conclude, I use the paraphrase of the end of the third chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians (vv16-20) by the late Mark Gibbard, Anglican monk and member of the Society of St John the Evangelist, Oxford.

“May we be strengthened by your Spirit in the depths of our being.

May Christ live in our hearts by faith.

With love’s deep roots and firm foundations,

may we, in company with each other, discover

the breadth, the length, the height and depth of Christ’s love,

a love beyond all words, beyond all we can ever understand.

May our lives in the world be enriched with his love.

We are confident you will do more that we could ask or think,

through the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

from  Prayer and Contemplation by Mark Gibbard (Mowbrays 1976) p.173

With every blessing this Christmastide and Epiphany

Philip

Philip Roderick, Community Leader, Contemplative Fire.

This Christmastide and Epiphany missive is sent out to all on the Contemplative Fire database.  It complements the series of four weekly Advent Reflections which, like the Lenten Reflections, are composed by and for Companions on the Way. This year, the Advent reflections were designed by a team from the Contemplative Fire community in Toronto. If you would like to explore, for yourself or another, our community, its rhythm of life and resources, do email jill@contemplativefire.org