Tags
activity, contemplation, Dominicans, mission, Order of Preachers, prayer, retreats, st. dominic, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
Today Christians celebrate the feast of St. Dominic and all those who follow the Dominican way of life. The Dominicans are called the “Order of Preachers” and are known for their ministry of opening the Scriptures to the faithful in retreats and parish “missions.” This practice, begun by Dominic and three others, became the work of a formal religious community in 1215. Their ideal was to link life with God in both contemplation and action, that is, in prayer and all the activities of life. The website http://www.franciscanmedia.org says it this way:
The effective combining of contemplation and activity is the vocation of truck driver Smith as well as theologian Aquinas. Acquired contemplation is the tranquil abiding in the presence of God and is an integral part of any full human life. It must be the wellspring of all Christian activity.
How many of us see the totality of our daily activity as integrated in or springing from our prayer? If we consciously lived in this mindset each and every day, would our prayer change or increase?. And how would we perceive our everyday duties, our work and play? Would there be a new lightness in our days? Would it all be seen as one: prayer and work, prayer and play, prayer as relationship…How would that change the world?
Today Christians the world over celebrate an unlikely “celebrity” of the Church. For someone reading a sketch of her life for the first time – just the facts – St. Therese of Lisieux would appear to be no one special, although tragic maybe, because she only lived until the age of 24 years, having contracted tuberculosis at a young age. What one learns, however, in studying her own writings and the evidence in other sources, is that she is one of the most popular saints in the history of Christianity. How is this possible for someone who entered a cloistered Carmelite community at the age of 15 years and lived a daily routine of prayer and household tasks until her death nine years later?
St. Clare of Assisi, whom we celebrate today, was a great example of the adage “Behind every good man, there is a good woman.” While he did not see her often, St. Francis counted on her holiness and wisdom to shore up his determination in times of doubt and difficulty. Clare was a clear mirror of the presence of God for Francis and for those women who followed her to the convent of San Damiano, and he was the same for her. She was a woman of great strength and perseverance who believed that she was the one who knew best what should be written in a rule for women in a religious order. Although she easily accepted the rule that Francis has written in the early days, after the death of Francis she continued for 27 years to submit a revised rule to bishops and popes until she finally received and signed a constitutional document of her own two days before her death on August 11, 1253.
Although there are many people now in our country whose work lives do not fit the traditional Monday through Friday schedule, the majority still head to work this morning, hopefully somewhat refreshed from the weekend. The challenge for many is to bring a positive attitude into the workplace. It sometimes takes conscious effort to put one’s best foot forward, so to speak, depending on the work itself, our fitness for it and the companions we encounter there. It helps if we can take God along on the bus or the highway, especially on Mondays, with the understanding that our spiritual/inner life is not separate from the outer/busy life in the world.
Often these days I have conversations with others about the necessity of living in the present moment and doing our best to carve out some silence on a regular basis. This is not a new concept. I think of my first years in the convent when we spent the major part of every day in silence and wonder about how different life would be for me today if the Second Vatican Council had not achieved an aggiornamento (updating) that clarified the differences in monasticism and apostolic religious life. In addition to the understanding of the differences, however, there remains significant overlap in the various forms of such a call and the element of silence in each cannot be overstated.
It is sometimes counter-productive to read the news in the morning. I don’t often do so before taking up this writing task. I should always move toward what I know to be my priorities. After twenty minutes or so this morning of breaking my own rule and falling deeper into distress, I moved away from stories of corruption, violence and division in the world and turned to Thomas Merton for solace. Here is what he gave me as a motivational word for today:
It’s late afternoon here in the Northeast of the USA and I might normally skip the daily blog post on a day this far spent but today is the feast of St. Clare and I want to say a word (or more) about her.
