Faithfulness is powerful!

Re-reading the GIRM (General Instruction for the Roman Missal).  It seems to me there isn't much changed in the GIRM, even though the translation for the prayers, etc. are changed in the RM.  Even so, this is a manual I should re-read at least once-a-year!  There's so much to know!  Even so, what most amazes me is how well we do liturgy together even though most of us don't know the GIRM, not even the parts that pertain to our own specific ministry.  I think that testifies to the power of example and tradition.  It also goes to show that all those who make it their business to correct us along the way have a very important ministry too: that of keeping the faith, in more ways than one!  It's true, it doesn't take a degree to do liturgy well.  It doesn't take a degree or even a manual to teach and follow a plan.  It does however take great personal humility as well as devotion to the Lord to remain true, in this case true to "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi" in its deepest sense.  Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ; thanks be to Jesus for the Holy Spirit; thanks be to the Spirit of becoming One! :)

The Way of a Pilgrim
written in the 19th century
by an anonymous writer, (Russian traveler? Greek monk?), someone fairly knowledgeable.
Setting is Russia.
Ideas taken from Orthodox Christian tradition, particularly the Philokalia, which advocates the ideas of hesychasm;
Focus of The Way of a Pilgrim is prayer, constant prayer, particularly using "the Jesus Prayer" as a mantra.
The experiences described by the Pilgrim is resonant of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
J.D. Salinger used The Way of a Pilgrim in his Fanny and Zooey.

This sounds like a book I would enjoy reading immensely.

Cloudy

more from Russell's Spiritual Classics (see my last two posts)

The Cloud of Unknowing

Who: Anonymous, an English Monk?, possibly a Carthusian
What:  spiritual guidebook, including translations of other religious texts ( such as Dionysius the Areopagite, a 5th c. Syrian); a statement of apophatic mysticism
When:  14th century
Where:  England?
How:  original in English?
Why:  to approach God in prayer through love rather than rationality
Influenced: Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross, some Trappist monks, Spinoza?, Kant, Kierkegaard

Hmm...  My experience of God is so grace-filled, so "in my face," that I am moved to approach God w/ the complete trust of a loved child, and because of this grace (where-in I KNOW I am loved), I approach God as One Who Knows Me and One Who Can Be Known because our communion is already in the flow of God's Love.

I would like to study this work someday; however, I'm not very attracted to the idea of the unknowableness of God.  I rather believe God makes Himself Knowable through Love.  And this is the best kind of knowing!!! :)

Christ's Healing and Call To Follow

Already in the first chapter of Mark's Gospel, Jesus is healing many people.  Three healing miracles are described in detail: Jesus cures the demoniac, Jesus raises up Peter's mother-in-law, and Jesus cleanses the leper.    These three seemed to be grouped together because, in the narrative style, they seem to happen in quick succession, and because they are all given w/in chapter one.  However, we know there is another healing to be described in chapter two: the healing of the paralytic.  So I'm not sure why the first three are considered a grouping of three more than all four are considered a group of four.  (Given that we know the chapter divisions were added after the original writing.)

What I think is interesting is that before these accounts of healing, we are given an account of the calling of the first disciples.  Then, immediately following the healing stories, we are given an account of the calling of Levi.
I'll have to think on this (grouping and order of stories) further after I have digested each of these accounts.

Meanwhile, I want to note that I am very glad and grateful to know that Jesus retreated to "deserted places" for prayer and refreshment.  Even Jesus needed to keep Himself in close, constant, vital relationship w/ His Father in order to do God's Will.  The Father ministers to the Son so the Son can serve.  Any service I hope to do must be fruit of my life and sustenance in Christ.

Chesterton's Francis

I'm reading G. K. Chesterton's Saint Francis of Assisi (with an introduction by Joseph Pearce).  Here's an excerpt from Pearce's introduction:

The admiration that Chesterton felt towards St. Francis was inextricably bound up with his belief in the superiority of childlike innocence over all forms of cynicism.  St. Francis and his followers were called the Jongleurs de Dieu because of the innocence of their jollity and the jollity of their innocence.  'The jongleur was properly a joculator or jester; sometimes he was what we should call a juggler.'  It was this mystical synthesis of laughter and humility, a belief that playing and praying go hand in hand, which was the secret of the saint's success.  Ultimately, however, the laughter and the humility were rooted in gratitude because, as Chesterton discerned with characteristic and Franciscan sagacity: 'There is no way in which a man can earn a star or deserve a sunset.'

I too believe childlike innocence is far superior to cynicism, that playing and praying go hand in hand, and that we can be grateful for all things, especially as we know all things come through Our Father's loving hands.