10 posts tagged “blogging the book”
Reading Interior Castle by Theresa of Avila, often called Theresa of Jesus, does not lead me to prayer but to outline. I finally sat down to read again. As I switched translations, not because of the translation but because of the scan, I started over. The review was helpful. Since I am not in school, my intent is not to recreate Theresa's thought, but to apply her insights on prayer to myself and to my surroundings. Theresa is writing to the nuns in her care and writing in the 16th century. She is mindful of her church's concern for doctrinal purity. Roman Catholicism is still reacting to the Protestant Reformation.
Theresa is writing about mortal sin and the attacks of the devil. I find these two concepts not very helpful to me. Attacks of the devil and fear of mortal sin would be fertile ground for paranoia and that seems helpful not at all. So, without being mindful that evil does exist and human beings sin, I have been reading and trying to get a handle on how to appropriate Theresa for myself and perhaps to teach others.
I am greatly helped in this by spending some time with someone who applied Theresa's ideas to silent prayer.
Theresa likens a person to a castle or mansion with lots and lots of rooms. This means of course that there is not a quick path to union with God. I cannot pull a card out of the deck which says: Go directly to God. I must traverse the board and like Monopoly, there are many side trips along the way.
Theresa begins with the entrance to the castle, essentially, having no interior life and no connection with God. The self is attacked here, beset by troubles and temptations which Theresa likens to venomous animals because rich people often kept exotic animals on the grounds of their estates. A person at this juncture has to go within oneself. To pray and to be in union with God is an internal journey.
In the first rooms or mansion, I learn about myself and that I need God's help. I get to take stock of my spiritual life and find it wanting. I am, however, aware of God's desire for my company and God's desire that I should succeed in my journey inward. I am still beset by the animals who have accompanied me inside.
Although a literal description, this image is helpful to me but of its practicality. I just can't enter and shut the world outside.
This becomes qite clear in Mansion 2 where I must persevere against temptations and distractions. I esentially become aware of how distracted I am and must consciously decide to continue.
That's as far as I've gotten today.
Here's an audio update on what's happening with me: blogging the book, upcoming events with The Voice of the Winged Oxand Birthday Letters.
I talk about the end of the pastoral search process and the direction this podcast and blog are going in. The music is from Cagey House, Tuesday Was A Swan. I'm sorry about the unfortunate hum. I will try a different microphone next time to begin troubleshooting the problem.
Kingsolver wonders if the American disconnect from the land has fostered the skepticism about and the hostility toward evolution. I am a Bible reader. I keep telling myself I don't read it enough, but I know there is muchabout farming and even more about livestock. The Gospel of Mark is a long exposition of the sewing of the seed, on the path, among thorns, on rocky soil and good soil. I can't think how anyone would understand this parable if they didn't understand about growing anything. We talk in seminary on how Jesus as good shepherd does not resonate with urban dwellers. To say "The Lord is my shepherd," doesn't work for a lot of folks. Yet the land continues to be central. Jesus talked to people who had lost their land and without it they had lost their identity and probably any hope of sustaining themselves and their family. The kingdom is more than a spiritual place and the great by and by. It is a place of food and drink and a place where everybody can sustain themselves. That means land. That means water for irregation and for fishing. That also means a tax structure that doesn't bankrupt people.
