Category: ReligiousLife
the desert and the west
Holy Hesycgia: The STillness that knows God
… the heritage of the Desert Fathers had never been fully assimilated by the Western church,
monasticism?
Monasticism, that is individuals devoting themselves to an ascetic life in a monastery for devotional purposes, was an ever-present feature of the Byzantine empire.
Byzantine Monasticism
The above, I think, is a great working definition. Also, a working definition of “universal call to holiness”.
sacrifice
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:1-2 (KJV)
The above is from Second Evensong for Candlemas. It reminded me of one of the post-communion prayers In the Second Order in APBA:
Father,
we offer ourselves to you
as a living sacrifice
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Send us out in the power of your Spirit
to live and work to your praise and glory.
What does “sacrifice” mean in these two texts? Not death. Perhaps we could define it as the surrender of a good (body in Romans) for a greater good (life in Jesus).
BTW: Augustine makes the opposite his definition of sin:
On account of all these, and such as these, is sin committed; while through an inordinate preference for these goods of a lower kind, the better and higher are neglected — even You, our Lord God, Your truth, and Your law.
Confessions 2:5:10
So, the choice between higher and lower goods is the root of sin and sacrifice.
Anyway …
more rebellion …
What is the rebellion of the religious life? Perhaps this quote from Camus:
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
silent rebellion
AM Allchin’s The Silent Rebellion is a book on religious life in the Church of England. I do not have a copy but I am looking for one.
It is often pointed out that the title, The Silent Rebellion, highlights the need for solitude for religious life. Yet, why “rebellion”? In what sense is it “a violent uprising“?
While I do not have an answer, this quote may help:
Their name itself, anchorite, means rule-breaker, the one who does not fulfil his public duties.
And maybe this one by Kierkegaard:
…Of this there is no doubt, our age and Protestantism in general may need the monastery again, or wish it were there. The “monastery” is an essential dialectical element in Christianity. We therefore need it out there like a navigation buoy at sea in order to see where we are, even though I myself would not enter it. But if there really is true Christianity in every generation there must also be individuals who have this need…
And from Fear and Trembling:
Faith is exactly this paradox, that the single individual is higher than the universal, but in such a way, mind you, that the movement is repeated, so that after having been in the universal he now as the particular keeps to himself as higher than the universal.
The tragic hero resigns himself in order to express the universal; the knight of faith resigns the universal in order to become the single individual.
The knight of faith, the rebel, stands with Jesus alone even against institutions. There is nothing higher than the individual’s relationship with Jesus – not even religion!
Anyway …
upon this rock
the decision
In baptism, God calls us out of darkness into his marvellous light.
Common Worship – Baptism
To follow Christ means dying to sin and rising to new life with him.
Therefore I ask:
Do you reject the devil and all rebellion against God?
I reject them.
Do you renounce the deceit and corruption of evil?
I renounce them.
Do you repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbour?
I repent of them.
Do you turn to Christ as Saviour?
I turn to Christ.
Do you submit to Christ as Lord?
I submit to Christ.
Do you come to Christ, the way, the truth and the life?
I come to Christ.
Great Schema
Day 627 – reform
Ordericus Vitalis on the Cistercian life.
All go without trousers and lambskins. They abstain from the eating of fat and meat… They have a care for silence all the time and wear no dyed clothing. They work with their own hands to provide food and clothing for themselves. They fast from 13 September until Easter, except on Sundays. They bar their entrances and allow no access to the interior [of the monastery]… By their own work they have founded monasteries in deserts and wooded places.
“Go without trousers”? So glad there was a habit for them to wear.
this solitary life 