The decisive issue is not how you become holy or truly good, but that you become good. The issue is not how you acquire peace within, but to gain peace so that your soul becomes a still lake. Our Catholic tradition is highly rich and diverse in ways to attain holiness and peace. Some of the popularized teachings of Catholicism detract from the true path, however, by focusing attention on non-essential matters that “do not tend to edify,” that do not help one truly to grow in God-union. Some things have the show of holiness, without the reality. All too often, religious peoples have been taught to concern themselves with non-essentials, believing that in mere external matters one finds holiness. Using popular but misleading language, “You must build the Kingdom within.” (In cleaner language, the Kingdom is not to be built anywhere; the “Kingdom of God” means God ruling over human hearts and minds. The point: Let God rule within you, and live out His rule of love faithfully).
To let God rule within, one must develop spiritual practices usually known as prayer, meditation, contemplation. Prayer that edifies is not an attempt to wring what one wants from God, but an attunement of one’s heart and mind to God’s will and mind. Ways of Catholic meditation and contemplation are abundantly available for those who seek; not that many, unfortunately, bother to seek. To aid one who longs to grow in inner peace without doctrinal quibbles, I recommend three ways. You may combine two or all three of these ways, but you yourself must make the effort. Growth in holiness, of Christ-within, or inner peace, is not automatic; and to those to whom it seems to come naturally, they often make poor progress. Being outwardly religious is insufficient to become a man or woman of God, in God.
Christian contemplation has no finer embodiment than what one finds in the classic work, the Cloud of Unknowing. To have effect, one must study this text and put it faithfully into practice; no one can do it for you. Two other ways to attain inner peace are more common in our culture today, and are readily available to the seeker. One way is a 12-step program, such as AA, with the emphasis on full submission to God’s will. The other readily accessible way has been offered to us through the transplantation of Zen Buddhism from Japan into America during the last eighty years or so. Decisive for Zen is not religious or philosophical speculation or doctrines, but the faithful practice of Zazen: sitting still in silence.
Beginning in two weeks, we will offer an introduction to 12-step (AA) spirituality. Perhaps later I give instruction on the Cloud of Unknowing or on Zazen. Ultimately, these ways are not matters of teaching and of learning, but of faithful practice.
To let God rule within, one must develop spiritual practices usually known as prayer, meditation, contemplation. Prayer that edifies is not an attempt to wring what one wants from God, but an attunement of one’s heart and mind to God’s will and mind. Ways of Catholic meditation and contemplation are abundantly available for those who seek; not that many, unfortunately, bother to seek. To aid one who longs to grow in inner peace without doctrinal quibbles, I recommend three ways. You may combine two or all three of these ways, but you yourself must make the effort. Growth in holiness, of Christ-within, or inner peace, is not automatic; and to those to whom it seems to come naturally, they often make poor progress. Being outwardly religious is insufficient to become a man or woman of God, in God.
Christian contemplation has no finer embodiment than what one finds in the classic work, the Cloud of Unknowing. To have effect, one must study this text and put it faithfully into practice; no one can do it for you. Two other ways to attain inner peace are more common in our culture today, and are readily available to the seeker. One way is a 12-step program, such as AA, with the emphasis on full submission to God’s will. The other readily accessible way has been offered to us through the transplantation of Zen Buddhism from Japan into America during the last eighty years or so. Decisive for Zen is not religious or philosophical speculation or doctrines, but the faithful practice of Zazen: sitting still in silence.
Beginning in two weeks, we will offer an introduction to 12-step (AA) spirituality. Perhaps later I give instruction on the Cloud of Unknowing or on Zazen. Ultimately, these ways are not matters of teaching and of learning, but of faithful practice.
