Vatican II teaches that we are all "everyday mystics" who participate in the sensus fidelium, i.e., within the living faith of the People of God, we can discern God's intentions for ourselves, i.e., our personal vocations. And we are "everyday prophets," i.e., we can and must proclaim and act on what we discern, i.e., we must use our graced vocations on behalf, not only of ourselves and our families, but also of our society and culture. This means bringing the life-giving dynamics of our faith into the marketplace.
For example, my wife was an elementary school teacher. She and I discerned how to apply our faith to her public school first grade, without imposing our religion upon anyone. We listed such internal qualities as justice, peace, trust, joy of life, communion with others, love, etc., and she used these qualities to animate and vitalize everything she taught and did. Her class flourished beyond all the other classes in the school.
I was a psychotherapist in a medical university and I very successfully used various spiritual disciplines, e.g., simplicity, confession, openness to the truth, accepting suffering as a path to new life, etc., to animate and vitalize my therapy. I enjoyed great respect from my colleagues and was consistently rated very high in patient satisfaction.
I now work in my parish to help people recognize the internal dynamics and spiritual disciplines that are present in themselves and in their fields, and discuss how they can use them to help elevate our society and culture and where necessary, correct them in the grace of Christ, without imposing our faith on anyone. I say we are 21st century, American expressions of Christ who are called to take spiritually adult reponsibility for our society and culture. Parishioners recognize the importance of doing this but find it new and very challenging. We all agree that we have a long way to go.
Thanks for a needed article, Mr. Ryan. There are such holy ones whose influence for the good is much wider than many would suspect. Our servant was one. She was generosity itself. All sorts of people respected and loved her. She would do the obvious good things like finding food and clothing for a poor person she knew about, but she was thoughtful in other ways. For instance, her pastor gave her a key to their little church so she could go to church well before 6 a.m. to turn on the heat so others would be comfortable. What was so impressive about her was that she wasn't just awfully good often -- she was awfully good ALL the time.
I suspect she was a contemplative of some sort. When she had nothing to do she would sit quietly saying the Rosary, and her intense concentration on the Lord was obvious in her expression. She was known as 'a good prayer", and some people pray to her. My cousin once said, "I don't pray to the saints for my children. I pray to Ga because I KNOW she loves my children."
So if you need a particularly gentle, generous person with a fine sense of humor to pray for someone (including yourself), you might try her :-) She was known far and wide as "Ga" or, more formally "Gaga'". No, she wasn't the least bit silly. "Gaga" was what my tiny brother who couldn't talk well called her instead of her real name, Elnora.
Thanks again for a balanced article on a difficult subject.
An interesting read and I thank you Jerry. I got lost somewhere after " And some are exceedingly practical: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, for example. But the Maritains also postulated, rather timidly, a grace of “nontypical” or “masked” contemplation for those unable to achieve the dispositions necessary for the classical contemplative life pursued in the monastic orders. A contemplative life amid the noise, rush, and ambiguities of the world. . . ."
It seemed to me that the article went from finding ways for "ordinary" working folks to be contemplative to (perhaps) prescribing certain lives that are such, e.g. migrants, people who take in lots of foster children. I suppose I am to extrapolate from those to something that I too can do, but I have not found an answer.
I would have liked to have the writer talk more specifically about more ordinary lives. Perhaps he dichotomizes too much: either monk or poor; either cloistered or overworked.
All in all a very interesting and thoughful article that left me a bit befuddled. 'Course, I could say that about a lot of Commonweal--I just don't have the education to follow some things--but I really bit on this one and it will have me thinking for a long time.
There. Maybe I've answered my own critique.
Ernie Bernard
Mr. Bernard,
You might like what is called "Centering Prayer". It is a kind of contemplative prayer developed not long ago by some American Trappists for their young monks, but they discovered that the lay people who attended retreats at their monastery liked it more than the young monks did! Take a look at Fr. Thomas Keating's, "Open Mind, Open Heart", and check out the Contemplative Outreach site (which is about Centering Prayer). It's at: www.centeringprayer.com
Ann, thank you for your suggestion. I will look at the web site.
Ernie
Vatican II teaches that we are all "everyday mystics" who participate in the sensus fidelium, i.e., within the living faith of the People of God, we can discern God's intentions for ourselves, i.e., our personal vocations. And we are "everyday prophets," i.e., we can and must proclaim and act on what we discern, i.e., we must use our graced vocations on behalf, not only of ourselves and our families, but also of our society and culture. This means bringing the life-giving dynamics of our faith into the marketplace.
For example, my wife was an elementary school teacher. She and I discerned how to apply our faith to her public school first grade, without imposing our religion upon anyone. We listed such internal qualities as justice, peace, trust, joy of life, communion with others, love, etc., and she used these qualities to animate and vitalize everything she taught and did. Her class flourished beyond all the other classes in the school.
I was a psychotherapist in a medical university and I very successfully used various spiritual disciplines, e.g., simplicity, confession, openness to the truth, accepting suffering as a path to new life, etc., to animate and vitalize my therapy. I enjoyed great respect from my colleagues and was consistently rated very high in patient satisfaction.
I now work in my parish to help people recognize the internal dynamics and spiritual disciplines that are present in themselves and in their fields, and discuss how they can use them to help elevate our society and culture and where necessary, correct them in the grace of Christ, without imposing our faith on anyone. I say we are 21st century, American expressions of Christ who are called to take spiritually adult reponsibility for our society and culture. Parishioners recognize the importance of doing this but find it new and very challenging. We all agree that we have a long way to go.
Based on the comments thus far derived from this interesting article, what still remains is a gap or tier-system to spirituality between those that practice or are able to discern a traditional/classic style of mysticism and grappling with the plethora of everyday circumstances through which contact with the divine is possible.
I think it is worth mentioning that such a development owes itself in part to the religious orders that brought religious into contact with more and more lay people. From the simple monastery who gave employment (and needed help from) lay people for it to exist, came the beginnings of tutelage that enabled laity to acquire basic knowledged suffused with religious spirit. After all, the glory of God is the human fully alive.
This basic relationship and structure helped hold up the light through the dark ages and is essentially the model upon which the modern universities developed.
The author and others note the ironic connection between education and elitism. But at its heart, the experience and pursuit of Truth/Knowledge is ulitmately a human project that is not done alone, but in a cultural and community context. We teach those who want to know. We learn from those who show us "The Way." And for some of us, we try more and more to see such encounters as evidence of the Risen One who journeys with us: the stranger who opens our eyes, feeds our hunger and thurs, and sets our hearts burning within us.
Congratulations Gerry! A very well written and provocative statement of the basic teaching about Christian Mysticism which is part of our Catholic Tradition. If only we could be sensitive to and foster the natural contemplative, and who knows maybe mystical skills of so many "ordinary" and "simple" people whom we have contact with daily! You mentioned some of them and a reader, Ann Ryan, mentioned Ga or Gaga. Good to see such people held up as the great examples they are. Here in Brazil where I do missionary work, so many people have, as Gerry´s work colleague did in other circumstances, taken in and reared babies who were quite simply left on their doorstep by a mother in extreme difficulty. My mind boggles at the generosity and love involved in that! Your article reminded me of a woman I met recently who prays for a few hours at three o clock every morning. During the day she looks after a mentally ill son who requires constant vigilance. You can imagine how tired she is going to bed at night for her short period of rest, nevertheless she rises so early to make use of the only period of quiet time she will have in the day for prayer.