Well, Lent has begun, and my main resolution is to pay more attention to my interior life - more reading/reflection/quiet time etc. Yesterday we had a speaker who spoke about Lent. For this entry I'm going to pull out some significant ideas that came up for me during the day.
One of the first things he said was that "Lent is... a time to re-orient our lives." This concept of re-orientation made a lot of sense for me. The image that came was that of trying to focus a camera. I can live my days pretty much on target, but now and then I need to adjust the fine focus to make sure I'm living my priorities. I can get caught giving more time and energy to things that, while practical, take up the space of other more important things. I need to orient on long term goals now and then, not always on the immediate stuff. As he said, we (I) need to learn what is important and what isn't, considering both long term and short term.
Another thing he said that hit home was that change/metanoia is all we have; nothing is without change. To me this is helpful for Lent, because Lent is about changing our lives/attitudes/mindset/etc.. If the only stable given in our lives is change, then each of us is immersed in the natural impetus to change. If so, why is it so easy and natural for us, including me, to want not to change. The challenge: how do I use this natural, ongoing energy of change in the universe to help me change myself? Is there a way to tap into that?
Some other ideas he brought up that really caught my attention:
* Contemplatives live in the world so as to transform it.
* Teihard (de Chardin) said that we are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
* We are not counter-cultural, but members of a culture of encounter. We belong to each other.
* He quoted Walter Burkhart, saying: "There is nothing secular in life except sin."
* He cited St. Augustine as saying: "We are a body of broken bones, but on the way to healing."
I'll try to reflect on some of these thoughts down the line.
A ky monk
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