Author: a fool

All alone with Jesus

rule-breaker

It was because of this positive desire for the Kingdom of Heaven which came to dominate their whole lives that they went without things. They kept silence, for instance, not because of a proud and austere preference for aloneness but because they were learning to listen to something more interesting than the talk of men, that is, the Word of God. These men were rebels, the ones who broke the rules of the world which say that property and goods are essential for life, that the one who accepts the direction of another is not free, that no one can be fully human without sex and domesticity. Their name itself, anchorite, means rule-breaker, the one who does not fulfil his public duties. In the solitude of the desert they found themselves able to live in a way that was hard but simple, as children of God.

The Desert Of The Heart: Daily Readings with the Desert Fathers

a rebel

WHAT is a rebel? A man who says no: but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. He Tho a man who says yes as soon as he begins to think for himself. A slave who has taken orders all his life, suddenly decides that he cannot obey some new command.

Albert Camus

Rogation Tuesday

Epistle. James 5. 16-20

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Gospel. Luke 11. 5-13

[And he] Jesus said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

monastic vs religious

Monasticism, in all its varieties, involves withdrawal from society. Monastic life is distinct from the “religious orders” such as the friars, canons regular, clerks regular, and the more recent religious congregations. The latter involves a special work or aim, such as preaching, teaching, liberating captives, etc., which occupies a large place in their activities. While monks have variously labored, in every case this work is extrinsic to the essence of the monastic state. Monks and friars are two distinct roles.

Christian monasticism

This is the Google AI Summary:

Monastic life is a specific, usually secluded, subset of the broader religious life, characterized by separation from the world for intense spiritual focus (contemplation). While all monastics are religious, not all religious are monastics; religious life often involves active, public service (apostolic work), such as teaching or nursing, rather than cloistered prayer.

Key Differences at a Glance:

  • Monastic (e.g., Benedictine monk): Cloistered or semi-cloistered, focused on prayer, manual labor, and stability within a monastery.
  • Religious/Apostolic (e.g., Franciscan, Jesuit): Active, apostolic work in the community (schools, hospitals) while living in a community.

Monastic Life

  • Lifestyle: Ascetic, plain clothing, celibacy, poverty, and obedience to an abbot/abbess.
  • Focus: Continual conversion of life (Conversatio Morum) and communal prayer (Divine Office).
  • Types: Cenobitic (living in a community) or Eremitic (solitary hermits).

Rogation Monday

Today is Rogation Monday – a day of fasting. The 1662 BCP does not have readings for the day but the 1928 UK does. So here they are:

Epistle. James 5. 7-11
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

Gospel. Luke 6. 36-42.
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.

As an aside, it is traditional to say the Litany of the Saints in procession today. Maybe a day to say the BCP Litany?

Fifth Sunday after Easter (Rogation Sunday)

The Collect
O Lord, from whom all good things do come: Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Epistle: St. James 1.22-end
Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

The Gospel: St. John 16.23-end
Verily, verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

more Buber

To leave behind the world of experience is terrifying because the world of experience is predictable, understandable, and easily manipulated, while the world of encounter is none of these things. In order to ready oneself for encounter, then, one must also shed one’s drive toward self-affirmation, the drive toward self-protection and the need to feel that you are in complete control of yourself and the world around you.

SparkNotes. I and Thou

anniversary

Today is the anniversary of my baptism. So here is a collect from the Proposed 1928 Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God our heavenly Father who hast given us the Sacrament of Holy Baptism that souls thereby being born again may be made heirs of everlasting salvation; we yield thee hearty thanks for this thy gift, and humbly we beseech thee to grant that we who have thus been made partakers of the death of thy Son may also be partakers of his resurrection. Amen.