A new equilibrium

​Listening from within an inner core of silence

Three thoughts. None of them new.

A new equilibrium is being created

All systems seek equilibrium. And when the existing equilibrium is out-of-whack the forces shift about and a new equilibrium is established. That doesn't mean that the initial stages of the new state of things is morally perfect or wise. It does mean that a shift is underway. We see it in a new Presiding Bishop. And in American political life. The old line Republican party wasn't listening to the people's need and support for social security and medicare and a woman's right to proper health care. The Democrats weren't listening (or were too late in listening) to the people's desire for order on the streets and at the border and an economic order that provides more opportunity and a slightly easier life. I have no idea what to make of the next four years. I have no idea how all this will work out. I will pray that as we make decisions we will inform our conscience and that one aspect of that will be to listen to and love people we disagree with.

​Listening from within an inner core of silence

​Father Ken Leech led the Order of the Ascension in retreat just before we first took the Promise of obedience, stability and conversion of life in 1988. He reflected on the role of silence in our prayer life and Thomas Merton's ideas of confronting our false selves. He used the images of watching/vision; darkness/helplessness; and preaching born in silence. The importance of recognizing the helplessness in the condition of people. There is an incarnational basis of ministry; sharing in the passion; and a need for contemplative attention. This ministry should develop awareness rooted in listening. Silence is often misunderstood, as is noise. There is a need to hear the voice of God.  ​He said, "Any authentic priesthood must derive from an inner core of silence, a life hid with Christ in God ...Only those who are at home   with silence and darkness will be able to survive in, and minister to, the perplexity and confusion of the modern world.​" That still sounds right to me. 

​Eternity

​Two hymns

So be it, Lord, thy throne shall never
Like earth's proud empires, pass away
Thy kingdom stands, and grows forever
'Til all thy creatures own thy sway

and

Proclaim to a desolate people
the coming of their King.
Like the flow'rs of the field they perish;
like grass our works decay.
The pow'r and pomp of nations
shall pass like a dream away.

​And again from Daniel Berrigan’s 1969 in “Quotations from Chairman Jesus’s”

I can only tell you what I believe. I believe.
I cannot be saved by foreign policies
I cannot be saved by sexual revolutions
I cannot be saved by the gross national product
I cannot be saved by nuclear deterrence
I cannot be saved by Alterman, priests, artists, plumbers, city, planners, social engineers,
    nor by the Vatican, nor by the world, Buddhist association,
    nor by Hitler, nor by Joan of arc,
    nor by Angels and archangels
    nor by Powers and dominions
I can be saved only by Jesus Christ

​This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

​The Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1944

​"Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose - and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.​"​ -William Temple