Like, as I have discovered, several other bloggers who plough more or less the same furrow as I do, I haven't felt like writing much recently. I must confess to a kind of spiritual lethargy by which I mean I don't feel I have anything particular to contribute just now, and don't see what there is to be said that hasn't already been said many times in terms of the general state of things today. My impression is that the next phase of the current crisis, political, social, moral, but most of all, of course, spiritual, is brewing, and we are waiting for that. When it does come there will be plenty to say, I am sure. In the meantime, I have decided to lie low. I will still post from time to time but for the immediate future I am mostly just going to watch and pray.
Should anyone have any questions I would be happy to try to answer those.
14 comments:
I have felt that same "at a loss what to say" under the current circumstances. So on MY blog I've resorted to working through/translating the Psalms.
Thank you, William. I believe prayer is the answer.
I believe now that praying to Jesus has become so contaminated by people who don't understand his purpose, that it is very difficult to do. We must recognise God as The Father first and Jesus second. That is uncomfortable to say, but what I feel we need to go back to with an awareness of our current situation.
I agree the Old Testament is what has been lost but can be regained now. That means the one true God first.
@ Kristie @ Faculty X - Though understandable to a certain extent, what you have suggested is misguided. "Search the scriptures (Old Testament); for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." John 5:39
The fact that all of the regular bloggers I read in order to gain spiritual insight, are feeling the exact same, specific thing, as I am, is significant.
I have pondered what is going on, and its significance, and I think that a valuable clue lies in a simple and imperfect analogy.
Engaging in blogging and written communications on Spiritual matters is like training in a military base, whilst awaiting deployment. It is (very) useful and necessary, in its own season - when the soldier is not deployed yet, it keeps him alert, strong, capable and ready.
However, it is NOT the real thing, and it would be a grave error to keep in the base, training, once you have been deployed, or called into battle.
I think perhaps, we have now all been deployed into battle - and the nature of this battle means that we need to wean ourselves off the type of activity which blogging is, both reading and writing, and engage in something different - more personal, more direct, more "small scale", more specific. To continue to engage in blogging in the same manner as before, would be akin to insisting on remaining "on base" whilst we have been called into battle.
The sense of futility and of being engaged in something which is no longer the "right thing" might be related to this. Our task now requires something different - we are called to bear a new and different fruit, and this requires a new and different way of spending our time.
If this is true, then let us be courageous and of good cheer - we are in a new phase, in REAL battle... our time has come to learn the really big things, in a really big way, and ironically, in our moment of greater stillness, our chance to really do big and important things will increase - simply because that is what is needed now.
I agree with you, Francis. Since the Incarnation we approach the Father through the Son.
Gary, I think you make some very good points and excellent comparisons. The situation is changing and we must be alert as to what we are called to do. Maybe the past has been preparatory in some way for what is coming up.
Spiritual writing is very hard to do well. To often it resembles a long and minute description of a dream, which greatly interests the dreamer who describes it, but profoundly bores the auditors who must listen to it. I suppose that this is because there is something indescribably in dreams and mystical experiences, or at least something beyond the common powers of description. For my part, I prefer spiritual writing that is "cut" with much more than a splash of mundane reality. I suppose choosing this metaphor of spirits and mixer is an expression of my mundane cast of mind, but I nevertheless think it has value. There are people who can take their spiritual writing "neat," although some of these are thereafter apt to babble under the influence, but most people prefer to mix something with their spirits. (I say this as someone who, in my drinking days, shuddered at the thought of an ice cube in the vicinity of my bourbon.) Thus I prefer a spiritual writer who spiritual and a writer, but who does not write exclusively about spiritual matters. For example, I am puzzled by some of your spiritual notions and experiences, but knowing that you have them lends interest to what you write about mundane matters. For me, the fact that you met the Masters is the jigger of gin that makes your description of a walk in the park something altogether different. (I hope describing the Masters as a jigger of gin isn't irreverent, but I'm now trapped inside my metaphor.)
This suggests that we readers should take your inclination to fall silent as expressive--just as expressive as your inclination to post new items. A man with your experiences, opinions and cast of mind perceives that the time for talking has ended, and that, as MIlton put it, "they also serve who stand and wait." I am not yet inclined to fall silent myself, but I am conscious of the danger of speaking. It is, of course, increasingly dangerous to express minority opinions, but the greater danger (I think) is being sucked into the vicious mendacity of contemporary discourse. When a debate degrades into nothing but slanders and insults, silence is the most eloquent response.
Yes I was wondering what else could come after your two recent posts on Love; and then God. Between them they seemed to cover all that needed to be said in a beautiful sparklingly succinct way. And then the last post on our misguided endeavour to fix the material realm. Thankyou, Colin
Jonathan, I must say that I find your metaphor of spirit and mixer delightful. A little sweetness, no doubt, helps the drink be more palatable and go down better. And now that you mention it, that is what you do so well on the Orthosphere. I think the Masters would be quite content to be described as a jigger of gin. Spirits are spirits, after all!
I don't know how long my present mood will last. I've always written as the impulse takes me. That has dried up somewhat lately but maybe it's a question of, as the French say, "reculer pour mieux sauter" (take that, spellcheck).
Chris (or Colin), thanks. it wasn't intended but I suppose it makes for a reasonable way to pause for a while.
Razor-sharp comment, Gary. You've really seen into the heart of the matter there, I think.
Hello William - I'm an American 'fan' who came to your writings, as well as John's & Bruce's, thru the "Albion Awakening" blog...
I consider myself a "Romantic Christian", as you three would define the term, and though I'm not much inclined to commenting on blogs, I have an appreciation for the additional insights to be found in reading through the 'conversation' (so to speak) which can be found in comment sections.
I have something I would like to share with you and your readers, as I think it 'speaks' to your most recent post and especially Gary's comment above. My point in sharing it is that....
....for some time now, I have been feeling strongly that our prayers for God's intervention in 'the world' are (for whatever reason) necessary to His being 'able' to intervene.
Note: I'm not certain where the following quote comes from - it's something I found among my bookmarks from years ago..
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History Belongs to the Intercessors by Walter Wink
Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised. Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present.
History belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being. Even a small number of people, firmly committed to the new inevitability on which they have fixed their imaginations, can decisively affect the shape the future takes. These shapers of the future are the intercessors, who call out of the future the longed-for new present.
In the New Testament, the name and texture and aura of that future is God's domination-free order, the reign of God. No doubt our intercessions sometimes change us as we open ourselves to new possibilities we had not guessed. No doubt our prayers to God reflect back upon us as a divine command to become the answer to our prayer.
But if we are to take the biblical understanding seriously, intercession is more than that. It changes the world and it changes what is possible. It creates an island of relative freedom in a world gripped by unholy necessity. A new force appears that hitherto was only potential. The entire configuration changes as the result of the change of a single part. A space opens in the praying person, permitting God to act without violating human freedom.
All of Jesus' teachings on prayer feature imperatives. (Ex. Lk 11:9 "Ask . . .search . . . knock.") In prayer we are ordering God to bring the Kingdom near. It will not do to implore. We have been commanded to command. We are required by God to haggle with God for the sake of the sick, the obsessed, the weak, and to conform our lives to our intercessions.
This is a God who invents history in interaction with those "who hunger and thirst to see right prevail" (Mat. 5:6, REB). How different this is from the static god of Greek philosophy that all these years has lulled so many into adoration without intercession! When we pray we are not sending a letter to a celestial White House, where it is sorted among piles of others. We are engaged, rather, in an act of co-creation, in which one little sector of the universe rises up and becomes translucent, incandescent, a vibratory centre of power that radiates the power of the universe.
History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being. If this is so, then intercession, far from being an escape from action, is a means of focusing for action and of creating action. By means of our intercessions we veritably cast fire upon the earth and trumpet the future into being.
P.S. I'm sorry, I meant to sign my name above - it's Carol
Also, I had particularly wanted to share the quote with John Fitzgerald, but his blog comments are not working for some reason...
If you are in contact with him, would you mind just making sure he sees the above?
Thank you so much!
P.P.S. I am starting a 're'read of my copy of "Remember The Creator" - it's a wonderful book!
Dear Carol, thanks very much for your comment. I like it when readers of the blog who haven't commented before do make themselves known!
I think you are absolutely right about the need for prayer, it seems that God needs us to ask before he can answer. It's like knocking on a door in order for it to be opened. We have to initiate the process of God's intercession in this world, to use the word from the extract you quote.
John will probably see your comment as he has commented earlier in the thread but I will forward it to him anyway.
I'm glad you enjoyed RTC enough to re-read it. That makes me very happy.
Post a Comment