THE ASCESIS OF THE WORLD
Consistent with Cassian, the Monastery of Christ in the Desert describes the essence of monastic spirituality as interior, “single-heartedness”:
“Defying a simple definition, Christian monastic spirituality is primarily an approach to God in response to God’s invitation found in Sacred Scripture: ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God’ (Mt 6:33). Monastic spirituality implies a single-heart (solitary) seeking of God. This may or may not be carried out in the company of others (the monastic tradition has embraced both), but the focus is clearly on returning to God, and making use of certain specific practices: prayer, fasting, silence, vigils, reading, good works.” (Text retrieved from Monastery of Christ in the Desert website on May 9, 2013.)
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/09/what-is-essence-of-monasticism.html
The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. [Cf. 2 Tim 4] Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes:
“He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows.” [St. Gregory of Nyssa, Hom. in Cant. 8:PG 44,941C] (CCC 2015)
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-way-of-cross.html
Becoming a monk in the world is ultimately a question of the heart. If your heart belongs to God above everything else, you have become a monk by embracing the asceticism the world dishes out. You don’t have to confine yourself to the enclosure of the monastery to do this.
“In the world you will have much affliction, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33)
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-new-monk.html
Public domain photo
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The world is…
ReplyDeleteBy Gonzalinho da Costa
The world is a waterless white expanse.
Abandoned cities stand as termite mounds,
Hubs of gulley networks lined with salt.
Beetles make homes where no humans roam.
Scorpions tiptoeing track tiny dimples.
Lizards scurry about as if electrocuted.
The wind whistles through honeycomb ruins.
Tiny tornadoes raise their fists.
Hot dust puffs like gun smoke.
We walk among windswept dunes of ash.
We quarry for light and dig for springs.
We tap at stones and ask for mercy.
We water ourselves to water the world.
https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-world-is.html
Gonzalinho
THOMAS MERTON ON ASCETICISM
ReplyDelete“The only sacrifice of ourselves that God accepts is the purity of our love. Any renunciation that helps us to love God more is good and useful.”
“Asceticism is utterly useless if it turns us into freaks. The cornerstone of all asceticism is humility…. It is supreme humility to see that ordinary life, embraced by perfect faith, can be more saintly and more supernatural than a spectacular ascetical career. Such humility dares to be ordinary, and that is something beyond the reach of spiritual pride. Pride always longs to be unusual. Humility not so.”
“God is more glorified by one who uses the good of things of this life in simplicity and with gratitude than by the nervous asceticism of someone who is agitated about every detail of his self-denial.”
—Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island (1955), Chapter 6
Gonzalinho