Lectio Divina
One more time, because I like things that come in threes:
Hear the sound of my pleading when I cry to you for help when I lift
up my hands toward your holy place.
Psalm 28:2
Library
Continuing Resurrection and
Priscilla and Aquila. Pledging to read more in the pamphlets from The Franciscan
Institute.
Log
Today: staying at San Lorenzo Friary for our day of personal time. Aiming to read, write some letters, and take a walk. Also, a video call and a couple of telephone calls. A keep-on-keeping-on kind of day.
Tomorrow, the novice brothers begin ministry.
Weather
Clear and warm, promising to be very warm by the afternoon.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Learning on Discerning
Lectio Divina
Same as yesterday, but I will post it again:
Hear the sound of my pleading when I cry to you for help when I lift up my hands toward your holy place.
Psalm 28:2
Library
Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila. Did not return to the pamphlets from The Franciscan Institute, choosing Tolstoy for hermitage time. But I have personal time all day tomorrow, and I will open one of the pamphlets then.
Log
Today: Wednesday is hermitage time, and I kept a low profile, as is my wont on this day. Stayed in my room this afternoon to read Tolstoy and reflect on what we have heard in our classes this morning on discernment. Revisited our lessons on personality types, namely the insights of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the enneagram.
An interesting excursus on heresies in class today, with the moral being that an openness to truth, the wholeness of truth, is just as important in spiritual discernment as an openness to love. If sin gets in the way of following God with all our heart, so error gets in the way of following God with all our mind. As I am beginning to understand it, heresy is not a Church conspiracy to suppress forbidden truths or forbidden expressions of truth, but the symptom of distorted or narrowed conceptions of truth. One tries to steer clear of heresy not so much out of a fear of error as from a desire to receive truth more fully and to live by it. Of course, this is just my perspective and I am willing to have it expanded further. I have been loath to read about or study heresy and the Church's response to it over history because it usually depresses me. And I have always felt that sin and its defeat by love is the important thing. Jesus saves us from our sins. But our gracious God who is love is also truth, and so I have to reckon with error.
This evening, we celebrated the birthday of a novice brother. Now, to relax after a day of silent reading, reflection, and what I hope was genuine contemplation.
Weather
Less hot than yesterday, and less breezy. The coming of the full moon in the cool of evening makes my heart rise.
Same as yesterday, but I will post it again:
Hear the sound of my pleading when I cry to you for help when I lift up my hands toward your holy place.
Psalm 28:2
Library
Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila. Did not return to the pamphlets from The Franciscan Institute, choosing Tolstoy for hermitage time. But I have personal time all day tomorrow, and I will open one of the pamphlets then.
Log
Today: Wednesday is hermitage time, and I kept a low profile, as is my wont on this day. Stayed in my room this afternoon to read Tolstoy and reflect on what we have heard in our classes this morning on discernment. Revisited our lessons on personality types, namely the insights of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the enneagram.
An interesting excursus on heresies in class today, with the moral being that an openness to truth, the wholeness of truth, is just as important in spiritual discernment as an openness to love. If sin gets in the way of following God with all our heart, so error gets in the way of following God with all our mind. As I am beginning to understand it, heresy is not a Church conspiracy to suppress forbidden truths or forbidden expressions of truth, but the symptom of distorted or narrowed conceptions of truth. One tries to steer clear of heresy not so much out of a fear of error as from a desire to receive truth more fully and to live by it. Of course, this is just my perspective and I am willing to have it expanded further. I have been loath to read about or study heresy and the Church's response to it over history because it usually depresses me. And I have always felt that sin and its defeat by love is the important thing. Jesus saves us from our sins. But our gracious God who is love is also truth, and so I have to reckon with error.
This evening, we celebrated the birthday of a novice brother. Now, to relax after a day of silent reading, reflection, and what I hope was genuine contemplation.
Weather
Less hot than yesterday, and less breezy. The coming of the full moon in the cool of evening makes my heart rise.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Psalm 28
Lectio Divina
Hear the sound of my pleading when I cry to you for help when I lift up my hands toward your holy place.
Psalm 28:2
Library
Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila. Intending to return tomorrow to the pamphlets in the series on the Franciscan intellectual tradition published by The Franciscan Institute.
Log
This morning: sang our new Mass setting with the San Lorenzo Schola at Eucharist to celebrate the feast of Saint Augustine of Hippo. The opening and closing hymn, "O Beauty, Ever Ancient," draws on a well-known prayer of Augustine in Confessions, his spiritual autobiography. Now, continuing our class sessions on discernment. Sent eight letters in the U.S. Mail this morning and proud of it.
This afternoon: an editorial meeting to plan the October issue of The Caperone, and, using the Microsoft Publisher desktop publishing program, a tutorial in layout for the novice brother who is my co-editor.
It occurred to me that I have not yet posted a link to the newsletter. Go here if you want to read it.
This evening: spiritual reading during prayerful silence. Perhaps one or two more letters tonight and tomorrow during hermitage time. Someone has to keep the Post Office alive.
Weather
Hoping the fresh breezes that flew in yesterday afternoon remain with us.
Hear the sound of my pleading when I cry to you for help when I lift up my hands toward your holy place.
Psalm 28:2
Library
Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila. Intending to return tomorrow to the pamphlets in the series on the Franciscan intellectual tradition published by The Franciscan Institute.
Log
This morning: sang our new Mass setting with the San Lorenzo Schola at Eucharist to celebrate the feast of Saint Augustine of Hippo. The opening and closing hymn, "O Beauty, Ever Ancient," draws on a well-known prayer of Augustine in Confessions, his spiritual autobiography. Now, continuing our class sessions on discernment. Sent eight letters in the U.S. Mail this morning and proud of it.
This afternoon: an editorial meeting to plan the October issue of The Caperone, and, using the Microsoft Publisher desktop publishing program, a tutorial in layout for the novice brother who is my co-editor.
It occurred to me that I have not yet posted a link to the newsletter. Go here if you want to read it.
This evening: spiritual reading during prayerful silence. Perhaps one or two more letters tonight and tomorrow during hermitage time. Someone has to keep the Post Office alive.
Weather
Hoping the fresh breezes that flew in yesterday afternoon remain with us.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Reconciliation
Lectio Divina
Sunday: The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.
John 6:63-64
Monday: You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.
You do not enter yourselves,
nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
Matthew 23:13
Library
Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila.
Log
Yesterday: Eucharist at San Lorenzo Friary with the community. Calls to family made successfully except to my sister, but I hope we will catch up this week.
This morning: beginning two weeks of class sessions on the subject of discernment. This afternoon: some preparatory work on the October issue of The Caperone. Also, receiving the sacrament of reconciliation. A Capuchin priest in residence at Old Mission Santa Ines comes to San Lorenzo Friary every other Monday for an hour in the afternoon. This is very generous of him. How fortunate are we to have access to the sacrament of reconciliation on a regular basis.
Weather
Clear and cool yesterday. Much the same today.
Sunday: The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.
John 6:63-64
Monday: You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.
You do not enter yourselves,
nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
Matthew 23:13
Library
Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila.
Log
Yesterday: Eucharist at San Lorenzo Friary with the community. Calls to family made successfully except to my sister, but I hope we will catch up this week.
This morning: beginning two weeks of class sessions on the subject of discernment. This afternoon: some preparatory work on the October issue of The Caperone. Also, receiving the sacrament of reconciliation. A Capuchin priest in residence at Old Mission Santa Ines comes to San Lorenzo Friary every other Monday for an hour in the afternoon. This is very generous of him. How fortunate are we to have access to the sacrament of reconciliation on a regular basis.
Weather
Clear and cool yesterday. Much the same today.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Calls
Lectio Divina
Now let them stop worshiping other gods and honoring the relics of their kings, and I will live among them forever.
Ezekiel 43:9 (New Living Translation)
Library
Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila.
Log
This morning and afternoon: house chores, mainly finishing production on the September issue of The Caperone. This evening: looking forward to a quiet night of reading and studying, followed by Mass in the morning here at San Lorenzo Friary.
This weekend: calls home to my brother and mother, as well as my sister, who is three weeks from giving birth to her second child. Hoping eventually to connect with a post-novice brother from the New York/New England province for a conversation about Boston-area ministries to immigrants and prisoners. (We've been playing tag over telephone and e-mail.) Maybe one or two handwritten letters, as well.
Weather
Unsettled after a stormy night.
Now let them stop worshiping other gods and honoring the relics of their kings, and I will live among them forever.
Ezekiel 43:9 (New Living Translation)
Library
Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila.
Log
This morning and afternoon: house chores, mainly finishing production on the September issue of The Caperone. This evening: looking forward to a quiet night of reading and studying, followed by Mass in the morning here at San Lorenzo Friary.
This weekend: calls home to my brother and mother, as well as my sister, who is three weeks from giving birth to her second child. Hoping eventually to connect with a post-novice brother from the New York/New England province for a conversation about Boston-area ministries to immigrants and prisoners. (We've been playing tag over telephone and e-mail.) Maybe one or two handwritten letters, as well.
Weather
Unsettled after a stormy night.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Assignment
Lectio Divina
All your works give you thanks, LORD
All your works give you thanks, LORD
and your faithful bless you.
Library
Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila.
Log
This morning: program announcements during class. I have received my ministry assignment: Catholic Charities of Santa Barbara County. I will be volunteering at the community service center and thrift store in Santa Maria. Later in the day: a conference with the formator on The Caperone, and some more work on the newsletter. Faith sharing in the evening.
Weather
An early chill, the first to be felt here, but the warmth is expected to return later.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Hiking
Lectio Divina
You shall live in the land I gave your ancestors;
you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Ezekiel 36:28
Library
Continuing Tolstoy, Resurrection. Continuing Priscilla and Aquila with the novice brothers. Looking forward to continuing the pamphlets published by the Franciscan Institute on the Franciscan intellectual tradition.
Log
This morning and afternoon: Accompanied three of my novice brothers on an eight-mile hike up a narrow wooded trail leading from a Boy Scouts camp to the top of a hill overlooking Cachuma Lake. Walking one of the trails of the Grand Canyon was my first hiking experience, but today was the real deal: no tourists, no trash on the ground. The terrain was rocky! The trail also vanished in some places near the peak of the hill. My feet are beat, but not blistered except for one toe. It's my hips, which felt the stress on the way up, and my knees, which felt it on the way down, that will be achy tomorrow. But for now, I feel healthy and proud to have made the hike.
Weather
Mild in the morning. Warm and sunny in the afternoon, with the faintest of breezes. Mild in the evening.
You shall live in the land I gave your ancestors;
you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Ezekiel 36:28
Library
Continuing Tolstoy, Resurrection. Continuing Priscilla and Aquila with the novice brothers. Looking forward to continuing the pamphlets published by the Franciscan Institute on the Franciscan intellectual tradition.
Log
This morning and afternoon: Accompanied three of my novice brothers on an eight-mile hike up a narrow wooded trail leading from a Boy Scouts camp to the top of a hill overlooking Cachuma Lake. Walking one of the trails of the Grand Canyon was my first hiking experience, but today was the real deal: no tourists, no trash on the ground. The terrain was rocky! The trail also vanished in some places near the peak of the hill. My feet are beat, but not blistered except for one toe. It's my hips, which felt the stress on the way up, and my knees, which felt it on the way down, that will be achy tomorrow. But for now, I feel healthy and proud to have made the hike.
Weather
Mild in the morning. Warm and sunny in the afternoon, with the faintest of breezes. Mild in the evening.
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