Contemplative Haven

“The way of loving him is so very simple: the diapers, the baking, the laundry; sitting quietly, telling stories to the children, holding the hand of one’s spouse. All are little acts of love, directed not only to one’s family but to God. This is what he wants.

The farmer plowing his field, the plumber doing repairs, the husband spending time with his wife and children, all realize this is what God asks. The stenographer who is in love with God knows that documents done perfectly are acts of love. The nurse, the taxidriver – everyone, everywhere! – can absorb this fourth paragraph of the Little Mandate. [note: Catherine Doherty, The Little Mandate, paragraph four is: "Do little things exceedingly well for love of Me."] It’s so simple. It’s a song of love.

Listen to the dishes. Listen to the laundry. Listen to the work of the gardener or the farmer. A great and beautiful chorus is rising up from the hearts of men and women who believe. And the love of Jesus Christ responds to that chorus of love, because that is the way he worked for many years, writing us love letters.”

[Catherine Doherty: Sobornost. Experiencing Unity of Mind, Heart and Soul, pgs. 84-85]

Volume 10 (Jesus Speaks to His Apostles) Message Dated October 8, 2004

 [From:  The Call, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer]

“…I see and am with the fears that hook me into wanting things to be different from the way they are, fears that pull me into the belief that a different location or situation – a more creative job, a home in a more natural setting, more money or time or other resources, a relationship with someone who has the same “spiritual” goals or daily practice – is needed if I am ever to find deep abiding peace, if I am ever to learn how to love well.  These beliefs are rooted in deeper if intermittent fears:  the fear that I am not now and never will be able to hear the call at the center of my life accurately or fully enough to know how to consistently live who and what I am; the fear that the Beloved, tired of my inability to get it right, will simply stop calling, stop sending out the voice that can guide me home…

This is what I learned on my quest:
There is simply no place, no location or situation, that cannot be used to wake up to and live all of what and who you are, if you are willing to show up, to be present in the only place you ever have access to:  here.”
[pgs. 77-78]

“And you can’t trick the universe into giving you what you want by pretending to be at peace with how things are, by imitating what you think it would look like to be fully present where you are, all the while looking over your shoulder to see if some higher power has noticed and is about to deliver you from where you are and put you where you really want to be.”  (pg. 82)

“Give freely of thy spirit and judge not; be longsuffering and patient, for when you are kind with the kindness of the spirit to those who are unregenerate, the act frees your own unregeneracy as well.  Blessed is he that sees and understands and forgives.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Do not take on too much the suffering of the world, for the concept is not only too large to understand but is now beyond us. Trusting is part of your role; trusting in high hope, in peace and confidence. Wear these garments of joy without fearful anticipation, look upon the quiet of the hills, of a candle untroubled by the wind; be very, very simple, very uncomplex, very natural in the eternal sense. Keep in the storm center, safe, a power for victory, healing and peace.”

[From: Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood, edited by Mary Strong, 1948]

[By: Leonard Cohen]

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will.

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing.

From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing.

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well.

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will
If it be your will.

Direct to YouTube for this video is here.

[Excerpt from "Heart of the World", by Hans Urs von Balthasar]

Or I can postpone guilt until tomorrow.  The eye that looks at me fixedly always says “today.”  “It is now that I want to be loved.”  But I lower my eyes and say:  “I will love you tomorrow.  Tomorrow you’ll see what I’m capable of doing for you.  You’ll see the sacrifices I’ll bring to you.  Tomorrow I’ll pay you twice over if you’ll only grant me this one hour today.  I must yet pluck the rose before it fades away, but the rosehips I’ll bring you for sure.  Give me the spring and I’ll let you have the autumn, maybe even late summer.  Just for today turn away your gaze, and starting tomorrow you’ll be able to look at me all you like.”  “I’m coming now, I’m coming right away!” the child cries up to his mother when she calls him in, and he finishes playing his game, thinking that surely obedience includes a certain period of grace – a human margin.  Who could all at once make a clean break with his life?  Why, God, do you want to jump steps in my case?  You want the whole thing all at once:  one’s whole heart, whole soul, whole mind – all my strength…

It is difficult when the outside is hard pressed by the trouble in the world to keep the inside serene, but it is only difficult when you think that you can make it serene. The serenity will be given you; that is the benediction and the reward for those who sought and knocked and found.

If you could for one hour be with your divine self – that is, your outer you and your inner you together in the presence of God – you would change the whole mood of our generation, so powerful is this light.

{Excerpts from:  Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood, Anonymous.  Edited by Mary Strong, 1948.}

We’ll be heading out in a couple of days for our summer vacation (we left it a tad late, didn’t we) and then it will be right back into the school year and those glorious autumn days. So this post will wind things up at the Haven until sometime in early September. Your intentions will be travelling with me, and I’d like to leave you with a heartfelt wish, that you will “let nothing disturb you”. Ah, easier said than done, you say. Absolutely. But let’s all give it our best, with His grace.

The direct link to YouTube is: HERE for a beautiful interpretation of St. Teresa of Avila’s, “Nada te turbe”.

Let nothing disturb you;
Let nothing frighten you;
All things pass away;
God never changes.
Patience attains all
that it strives for;
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing.
God alone suffices.
(St. Teresa of Avila)

Excerpt from:  Abandonment to Divine Providence (Jean-Pierre de Caussade)

“It is true that a canvas simply and blindly offered to the brush feels at each moment only the stroke of the brush.  It is the same with a lump of stone.  Each blow from the hammering of the sculptor’s chisel makes it feel – if it could – as if it were being destroyed.  As blow after blow descends, the stone knows nothing of how the sculptor is shaping it.  All it feels is a chisel chopping away at it, cutting it and mutilating it.  For example, let’s take a piece of stone destined to be carved into a crucifix or a statue.  We might ask it:  What do you think is happening to you?  And it might answer:  Don’t ask me.  All I know is that I must stay immovable in the hands of the sculptor, and I must love him and endure all he inflicts on me to produce the figure he has in mind.  He knows how to do it.  As for me, I have no idea what he is doing, nor do I know what he will make of me.  But what I do know is that his work is the best possible.  It is perfect.  I welcome each blow of his chisel as the best thing that could happen to me, although, if I’m to be truthful, I feel that every one of these blows is ruining me, destroying me and disfiguring me.  But I remain unconcerned.  I concentrate on the present moment, think only of my duty, and suffer all that this master sculptor inflicts on me without knowing his purpose or fretting about it.”

I have absolutely no interest in pop psychology, nor the latest “gurus” being touted by the media.  I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen even a segment of Oprah’s show, for instance.

What I am interested in, and desire to share, is anything that can bring the truth and the teachings of Catholicism into better focus for people.  The media can label Eckhart Tolle any way they please, but there is no question in my mind that he is a mystic.  One of my pet peeves (well, deep frustrations, actually) is that, because the secular media and also many “spiritual practitioners” themselves have no knowledge of our Catholic contemplative/mystical tradition, they have no foundation, no basis, no frame of reference in which so-called “new” knowledge and practices can be properly placed.  Ultimately, everything and everyone gets slotted into ”New Age”.  It would be laughable if it weren’t so very sad.

Quite frankly, and I am not ashamed to admit it, I had never heard of Eckhart Tolle before I accidently came across some sound clips, which prompted me to check for YouTubes.  I had no idea he was even popular let alone famous, and I had no idea he was being touted by the celebrities as the “new” spiritual guru, because I don’t watch television and rarely frequent anything other than Catholic bookstores.  I simply recognized him as a mystic; I recognized the Catholic contemplative/mystical teachings within his message, and realized he was someone I could “use”.  I have no qualms about using a teacher from any religious tradition or even no religious tradition if I can do so to elucidate our Catholic faith.  If celebrities are embracing Tolle, so be it; perhaps it is an indication that their spirits are crying out for a deeper relationship with the Divine.  Perhaps, through Tolle, they may experience a conversion of heart, experience metanoia; perhaps even find their way to Christ our Lord.  I cannot even say that I would embrace Tolle’s message in its entirety, because I do not know it in its entirety.  What I have used on my blog I have used for a specific purpose.

I did a bit of googling late last night, afraid that perhaps I had gone offtrack, been deceived, and was perhaps leading others to be deceived.   Many places I looked, Tolle popped up with the label “New Age”.  But not everywhere.  For instance, we can find Eckhart Tolle’s, “The Power of Now”, listed on the Basilian Fathers’ website as Recommended Reading.  They write:

“This book is quite similar in concept to “Practicing the Presence of God” ; however, it does approach our ability to live in the “now” using a more intellectual and scientific method.  It could best be summed up like this:  Start with Brother Lawrence for the spiritual understanding, then turn to Tolle for the “how”.”

The Redemptorists also list Eckhart Tolle’s, “A New Earth”, on their website under Recommended Reading.

I opened my previous post with quotations from The Cloud of Unknowing and from Abandonment to Divine Providence.  I did not use these Catholic writings in order to validate Eckhart Tolle.  I used Eckhart Tolle, because he is here and now and available on YouTube, to help explain our own Catholic contemplative/mystical teachings.