Soul Enrichment

I've been reading through Joshua Choonmin Kim's Deep-Rooted in Christ: The Way of Transformation this year. Yesterday I read about the value of silence. Since it tied in so well with the previous post, I thought I'd share it. (After all, why blog your own thoughts when you can just report someone else's?!)

Chapter 30 -- Soul Enrichment

One of the obstacles to our spiritual growth is noise. Beware of noise from the outer world. Also guard against the noise that builds up within.

Where does this inner noise come from? Inner noise stems from worry about worldly things. Worldly things produce what is contrary to God (Romans 8:5-6).

The discipline of silence can still the noise of the world. It can turn us from worldly matters to spiritual ones. It is really a form of repentance.

How do our souls grow? Our souls thrive on silence. When does our spirituality build a deeper root system? When we make space for silence. Our souls are enriched by silence; in the quiet they revel and grow.

Take a look at the natural world and you'll see silence at work. Living things grow silently. Trees put down deeper roots without a sound. Trees bear fruit without the slightest noise. In the ocean deep, hardly a sound is heard.

Silence is mystical. Silence teaches us. A child in the mother's womb can't make sounds but grows in silence. Early in the morning when we wake to hear nature in silence, we grasp the deeper meaning of our lives.

Silence is a time to dump the garbage from our souls. Oh yes, it's there! And silence helps us admit our sins, encourages us to get rid of them.

Quietly, we confess our sins to God. As Proverbs says, "No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, / but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy" (Proverbs 28:13).

Silence nourishes meditation on the Word. Our souls grow by digesting the Word. As Matthew says in his Gospel, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).

Reading the Word is vital to spiritual growth. When we taste the Word, we feed our souls. But for the souls to grow we must digest God's Word. It is the life blood of our souls. It reaches our souls through the discipline of silence.

In silence the Word takes hold in our hearts. It soaks into our hearts through prayer. Then we understand. As spiritual writer Thomas Moore has said in his book Caring for the Soul, "Through the discipline of silence, we understand and come near the truth."

Understanding links all things together. It connects God and self. It links the past and the present, the present and the future, the present and the eternal until we come to see everything from an eternal vantage point.

Silence is a friend of God. Silence is God's gift to deepen our love and friendship. When we talk a lot, love seems to be absent. But when we come together face to face, we sense a mystical feeling of love.

Be still and know...

Advent (1)

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. During the last couple of years, my family and I have been celebrating by lighting the candles of an advent wreath and focusing on key aspects of the holiday. As a boy, I had no idea about Advent. I didn't grow up in such a church tradition. In college, however, I began attending an Episcopalian church to participate in their holiday services. Ever since, I have tried to incorporate certain church traditions into my own devotional life.

So, if you too are unaware, Advent is a season of preparation for Christmas. Just as the Old Testament believers awaited the coming Messiah, we too await the Savior's return. Throughout Jesus' teachings, He implores us to be ready. And so, as Christmas draws near and we remember His advent (or coming) among us, we also look forward to His imminent future advent.

But that is not all. We are also able to prepare our hearts and our homes for His coming now. Thus, Advent is a season of examination, humility, repentance, and of "preparing a way for the Lord." Emmanuel--God is with us. "I light this candle on the first Sunday in Advent to remind us that we must prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child" (Celebrating the Christian Year by Martha Zimmerman, p. 45--a great book).

The focus of this first week--the meaning of the first candle--is that of preparation. We become watchers and waiters, people marked by hope and trust. It is a time of expectation. Naturally, this should be our mindset always, but the Advent season gives us a special opportunity to refocus on this aspect of our faith.

I don't always live in expectancy. The return of Christ doesn't have the sense of immediacy that it should. And so, with a repentant heart, I turn tonight to face the Lord who humbled Himself to become a helpless baby, and say:

O come, o come Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
Who mourns in lowly exile here
Until the Son of God appears.
Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Psalm 120

Psalm 120, the first of the 15 Songs of Ascents, is a song of pilgrimage. The psalmist complains because of the wickedness of his surroundings. He bemoans the lying lips, the deceitful tongues, and the bent for war that seem to assail him from every side. His lament, "Woe to me that I dwell" (among such) is a lament of pilgrimage. The author has realized that he is out of sync with the status quo. He is a stranger on this earth. Just as Jesus came to His own and was rejected by them, so too the psalmist is maligned and persecuted for his righteous stance.

This realization is the first step on the road to heaven. The psalmist perceives the sin and turns his back on the empty way of life from which he was redeemed. He is now swimming against the stream, traveling on the narrow way. It is not an easy path to travel, but the Spirit strengthens, the Father blesses and guides, and the Son walks with us along the way.

It is impossible not to be influenced by our surroundings unless we deliberately renew our minds and abide in the will of the Father. May this psalm remind us to resist conformity with the world and to turn our face toward our eternal Home. May we cry out to the Lord, for He will answer.

The Way of a Pilgrim

My thoughts this month have been on the theme of pilgrimage. Our life is one big journey, a journey to, with, and in the Lord.

Along the way, we sometimes visit places of special significance--places that have shaped others before us, places where we have made promises or vows, places of struggle, places of joy.
But today's devotional reading focused on repentance. Repentance is an integral part of any journey. As we veer off course, we need to concede our mistakes, and make a fresh start in the right direction.

Sometimes repentance is the goal of a pilgrimage. The journey is a time to reflect on our mistakes, to take stock of our lives, to gain our bearings, to apprehend the Spirit, and to yield afresh to the Lord's ways.

Oddly enough, some thoughts have begun to come full circle for me in this area. Years ago I read The Way of a Pilgrim, the tale of a 19th century Russian peasant who wants to learn how to "pray without ceasing." He is taught the "Jesus Prayer":

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, have mercy on me, a sinner.

And he learns to repeat the prayer again and again, again and again, until it becomes as breathing to him.

Well, I tried it...and it just felt like I was being insincere. I felt like I was trying some magic incantation or something. And yet, I think I missed the spirit of the prayer.

It's not a prayer that demeans. It's a prayer that calls us to realize our ongoing need for course correction.

The way of a pilgrim is a repentant way. We are loved. We are empowered by grace. And we are called to keep in step with the Spirit. To do so, we are constrained to come to terms with our missteps. God illumines our darkness; He wounds us with His love so that He may bring greater healing, deeper life, and fullness of love.

Psalm 19:12--Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
Psalm 139:24--See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

This is the way of a pilgrim.

St. Comgall's Day

Nine days ago (May 11) was St. Comgall's day. Saints' days are usually assigned to the day that a saint, according to tradition, died. Comgall (516-601) was a warrior as a young man who became an ascetic and founded a monastery later in his life. He accompanied Columba--one of my absolute heroes!--as he challenged King Brude and his druids at the fortress of Inverness.

This piece of his writing (taken from his Rule) struck me:

If anybody enters the path of repentance
it is sufficient to advance a step every day.
If you practise repentance,
if your heart is meek,
your way will be straight
to the King of the Kingdom of heaven.