Lenten discipline
February 23, 2010, 10:52 am
Posted by Margaret O'Brien Steinfels
Q: Who’s giving up blogging for Lent?
4:27 PM A: Many of you it would seem. Blessings on your endeavor.
Give up blogging? That would be against the natural law.
Can you give us the cite from Aquinas or Aristotle?
I am.
I am too.
“Blogging is to be done and evil avoided.” (1a2ae, 94, 2 ;-)
I tried unsuccessfully to “unplug” last Fall. I’m on sabbatical this year, so I thought it would be a good time to ratchet things down. I cancelled my internet service before taking off on a Summer-long road trip; when we came back, I tried to do without home internet: I would just connect at Starbucks or the local library. (Our branch library is really interesting; all kinds of people hang out there, including several who seem to use it as a full-time office).
My limited internet access lasted about one month. The outside world has seemed to have gotten used to immediate responses- even on non-urgent matters- so I had to reconnect.
I am trying to be more disciplined in how much time I spend online, though; I try to keep it to an hour a day.
Blogging is of two kinds.
Sorry, Aquinas’ letter to St. Bonaventure on the subject has been lost since 1598 when the librarian of the Vatican archives decided it should be suppressed and stuck it somewhere in the correspondence between Erasmus and Luther. It hasn’t been seen since.
Jere’s a reflection on fasting by Rumi for your consideration:
There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness.
We are lutes, no more, no less.
If the soundboxes stuffed full of anything, no music.
If the brain and belly are burning clean with fasting,
every moment a new song comes out of the fire.
The fog clears, and new energy makes you run
up the steps in front of you.
Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry.
Emptier, write secrets with the reed pen.
When you’re full of food and drink,
Satan sits where your spirit should,
an ugly metal statue in place of the Kaaba.
When you fast, good habits gather
like friends who want to help.
Fasting is Solomon’s ring.
Don’t give into some illusion and lose your power,
but even if you have, if you’ve lost all will and control,
they come back when you fast,
like soldiers appearing out of the ground,
pennants flying above them.
A table descends to your tents, Jesus’ table.
Expect to see it, when you fast,
this tablespread with other food,
better than the broth of cabbages.
~ Rumi ~
Ghazal No. 1739 from the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
. http://www.mysticsaint.info/2007/09/rumi-on-fasting-and-jesus-on-spiritual.html
(I wonder what he meant by “Jesus’ table”? The Eucharisic altar? If so, I’m amazed.
Kathy: Good? and Bad?
If you’re not here, raise your hand.
Why would any human give up something so important as communicating with fellow members of our species?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human
“Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving. This mental capability, combined with an erect body carriage that frees the hands for manipulating objects, has allowed humans to make far greater use of tools than any other species.”
(Born to blog.)
“Like most higher primates, humans are social by nature. However, humans are uniquely adept at utilizing systems of communication for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization. Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families to nations. Social interactions between humans have established an extremely wide variety of values, social norms, and rituals, which together form the basis of human society.”
(Blog MORE during Lent.)
Gerelyn, are you suggesting that some who blog here don’t fit the wiki definitions! To wit: “Like most higher primates, humans are social by nature. However, humans are uniquely adept at utilizing systems of communication for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization.”
Me.
But I’m also not supposed to be reading this stuff. Get thee behind me, Margaret…
Ann: “Better than the broth of cabbages.” Definitely
I think all who blog are human. Just like all who talk are human.
To stop communicating with others is to make THEM do penance. Why deprive your fellow bloggers/talkers of your contributions?
Rational for giving it up.. ‘You become what you know’ Aquinas
Rational for continuing to blog (at least at Commonweal) … ‘You become what you know’ Aquinas
Sorry, I don’t think Lent is for”giving up.”
Good lenten exercise – blog without partisanship orv vitriol.
Is it true that Sundays are not officially days of Lent? I just want to make sure it’s ok for me to be my old vitriolic self if I blog on Sundays.
This blog without partisanship! And in a midterm year!
I can’t see the Angelic Doctor condemning any form of messaging. I suppose the same applies to the Seraphic Doctor, since the Seraphim are, like all angels, messengers of God.
So I am taking up blogging for Lent, posting some materials on prayer that I am using to prepare some who wish join in full communion with the Church:
http://dovekind.wordpress.com/
I appreciate any comments or ideas that will help teach us how to pray.
As just a mere commenter, I feel it is penitential for Ms. O’Brien Steinfels, Mr. Gallicho, et al. to resist the urge to delete my absurd comments so for their sakes I think I should continue to comment during this Lenten season over their certain protestations to the contrary.
Is blogging a virtue or a vice? If a vice, then a case for restraint can be made. If a virtue, then a case for strengthening is in order.
Here in GA it is almost time for pruning and planting. The winter has been harsh enough that the perennials planted last year may not have survived. New plantings may be in order.
The company I work for is in the midst of a layoff.
I am thinking of pruning my life of what has not been fruitful, planting a new relationship, and praising God for mere survival.
And wait for the next cardinal pair out the back bedroom window while praying for a blog spell checker.
Jim Mck ==
Wikipedia has a little introduction to Centering Prayer. It includes a short explanation of how to do it. All very simple. Some of your readers might be interested. Go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centering_prayer
I give up unnecessary purchases (though I define coffee at the drive-thru as a necessary purchase if Raber doesn’t leave enough in the carafe for me to fill up my travel sippie cup. I also made an exception in buying a confirmation present for The Boy, as I didn’t know if they’d have his size if I waited until after Lent. Mea culpa.)
Cutting back on blabbering in general is also a secondary goal. Every Lent I have given up one blog or recreational Web site, and have given all of them up for good except this one and YouTube.
The past years have been grim, and some days I need those “lol cats” videos. Fewer side effects than Prozac.
And then there’s stuff like this you don’t want to miss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2aLSat3h0w
Thank you, Jean!
Somebody posted this on the Commonweal list today. It’s from Merton’s talk in California just before he left on his fatal trip to Asia. I wonder whether what he says about young people and monasticism has relevance for today’s remaining rules of fasting and penance.
“Monasticism is an institution — which is not what I am particularly
interested in — and it definitely needs renewal. When I entered Gethsemani
twenty-five years ago, I entered an institutional situation that had been
solidified in the seventeenth century. It was Trappist and it was marked by
very strict rules of silence and so forth. I’m glad for it. I mean, it was
an experience that I wouldn’t have changed for anything. But it was inhuman,
and impossible, for a lot of people. There is no point in trying to carry on
something like this. There is no point whatever in trying to bring in young
people from America now — in this kind of thing — and making them live
that kind of life that we lived, with sign language, no heat, and bad food.
You know, in Lent you get up, you have no breakfast, and you go out and
break rock on the back road, like a convict. This is fine, it’s a wonderful
experience. I’m glad I went through it, but I wouldn’t want to impose it on
anybody else, because it’s useless. It’s arbitrary. It’s a sort of “‘acte
gratis’ that Gide talks about, you know. And if you want to do it on that
kind of basis, you can do it. That’s fine. But you don’t want to get
committed to this for life.”
I wonder whether the Church should be requiring good works rather than penance for Lent. Young people would respond more to that, I think, than breaking rocks on the back road..
Agree with Merton.
That’s why the visitation of nuns is so odd. If Rode is wondering why there are so few women in convents, why doesn’t he investigate the tens-of-thousands who left?
They were actors, complete with costumes/habits, in a never-ending play.
“I wonder whether the Church should be requiring good works rather than penance for Lent. Young people would respond more to that, I think, than breaking rocks on the back road.”
Amen, and even the woefully inadequate confirmation program my son is in has cottoned on to that. The kids have been asked to look for ways they can make a difference to those in the parish or the community during Lent.
Sadly, they’ve decided to put their efforts into busing tables at the Friday Fish Fry. Since we got rid of Bingo, the local parish’s Men’s Club has entered into something of an unhealthy rivalry with the KofC in the larger town 10 miles away, which also runs fish frys. By enlisting the confirmation class (about three-quarters of them are boys) to power-bus tables, which involves getting those plates and cups out of people’s hands ASAP so they don’t linger, making room for more diners, the Men’s Club can crank out dinners faster and feed more people in the allotted time-frame.
These tactics, plus raising the price per person and ditching the once-popular but expensive hush puppies as a side dish, has put the Men’s Club ahead of their hated KofC rivals in net profits.
However, one hears grumblings on the dining floor, and it’s possible that service and pricing efficiencies may backfire. In any case, one hopes for better things (including hush puppies) at the Table of the Lord in Heaven.
On a similar rant about charitable impulses run amok, the middle school recently held a donation drive for Haiti. For every $100 raised, the kiddies would get one free hour of fun, games and pizza. Needless to say, they raised enough to cancel classes for the whole day.
As they say, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and apparently it’s a piss poor earthquake that can’t be turned into somebody’s day of celebration.
Some letters of concern are in the works to appropriate parties.
Does that mean no seconds at the Fish Fry. Sounds penitential.
NO seconds at the fish fry for you, Margaret Steinfels, unless you pay double.
The bus boy will find you a seat (not guaranteed with your friends but based on next available occupancy). Tell him what dessert you want so he can go get it for you because if you’re the typical gray-haired elderly person who attends these types of shindigs, it’ll take you too long to dodder over to the dessert table, make your selection, and you’ll probably waste time talking to your friends on the way back to your seat.
Whaddya think this is? A charity?
Honestly, I wish we had Bingo back.
How about getting a bigger place for such a grand event. Aren’t many such for mackerel snappers.
I hate to intrude a half serious point in this somewhat light hearted exchange but Isaiah 58: 1-12 has a nice reflection on doing good deeds (we get the seven corporal works of mercy from this chapter) in the context of fasting. It is the first reading we meet in the Liturgy of the Hours for the beginning of Lent.
Intrude away, Lawrence Cunningham. As everyone knows, I am, at best, the feeble comic relief on most of these posts until somebody shows up to offer more substantive fare.