History of Christian Spirituality
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through that little patristic text remember the letter to diabetes and that theme about diaspora had come out and we discussed that a bit and i thought i'm one of the pleasant things about that dialogues and conferences here is there's not the
rush to finish such and such a program by first semester something so since it seemed like a kind of interesting seminal topic that we might just pause they're like a pre-shared you have a pause and then a go into that theme a little more water it's implications for us today and i ran into an interesting essay by thomas merton
pick up the christian in the diaspora and the whole second part is of the monk in the diaspora so i thought we might just serve work through that article use it as a point of reference and disgusted debated it's not infallible or anything and see what we come up with
if
remember in the letter to dive neatness of the author it said christians aren't gathered into one nation it it isn't that they use one language it isn't that they had their christian culture and their christian mathematics in their christian customs but there are disseminated throughout the whole world and they are as it were
the present to all humanity and the present to all cultures in our tongues but from within these various areas of human experience they witness to the one christ so that scattered throughout humanity the animate all of humanity rather like the sole a spiritual principle to the body
we suggested that this is very much being debated today as to have a different kind of approach perhaps rather than that we've been dealing with since the middle ages of a kind of an institutional approach of our crusher institutions here as set over against the non-christian air and so
to the extent that were christian to that extent precisely we withdraw into our own christian language christian culture christian identity christian schools christian hospitals etc and and this is a kind of a tactic and some are suggesting this won't go anymore
and so we need a whole different pastoral approach this was a kind of the
ah later one could do an entire biblical theology of the diaspora approach of in luke it's quite explicit and this is where it comes from if you go to acts of chapter eight
the persecutions are beginning first the early christians are at work in judea especially jerusalem and are working away especially with other jews and sumptuous convert and this is this christian today church there
now some scholars it had it not broken out of that area it would have been a very rich church with its own traditions but it would have appeared to others as simply another today except like the a c slight the zealots and certainly enclosed and constructed that very limited area
but what happens in repeat there's a persecution
ah
and saw was consenting to the death of stephen that time at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was and jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad this is our word the greek for of f from the the other exigent here with yes bar a
sun earth and this is where the word diaspora comes from they were scattered
they were scattered throughout the countries of judea and samaria
so here we have a whole different sects there are no no longer and had comfortable little kind of womb where they've always known that judaic heritage groups they're scattered abroad and this the us spread know this word it means various things it can aid or but
every year
now it can have a negative since like just kind of thrown to the four winds and it can also have this positive since like see this cast abroad and this is what's happening then you see it breaks out this is what lucas same of the crushing stones breaks out of the judean and so what happens a chapter four are averse
for of therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word and so philip went down to the city of samaria and preached christ and them and the people with one accord great gave great he'd and these things which philip spoke so this tragic
diaspora situation which has caused by prosecutions which we don't like but it becomes a moment of grace it becomes a moment of spreading abroad in the sense of fecundity of spreading the word and so this is a kind of the biblical theology of this being cast abroad even if the occasion
in therefore his persecution
so
just to make a kind of visual i laid down some of the quotes of merton about two types of christianity to take now move and here is not denying the need of an institutional dimension of the church and need of organization and need of laws etc what he's saying though is that if a certain type of organization
church becomes the kind of primary way of experiencing our faith experiencing church then that ain't good so he sets up a kind of extreme title his
the college of nursing happen
in december to the seminar expect shapes now we're going a step forward from that point to cry
of them it's as foil where you know you've got to have a opponent there so you set up your foil so the enemy for pertussis organization christianity seen as a kind of a primary way of experiencing the faith and quite intention with that and the new style that he's proposing that
we have to think through and adopt to be contemporary christians and monks is what he calls diaspora christianity so we'll work through some of these and others again it's a kind of a rhetorical device again he's not denying that there need be an institutional dimension etc
he's just saying if this becomes so primary that of it's that and not the other add to sell that's the danger
we might have here some three rather distracted monks because of what's going to happen tomorrow with them
our first profession but i think this issue is relevant to that and to every dimension of monastic life
and christian life what is going to happen tomorrow could be understood from two quite different points of view one could understand it from the point of view of organizational christian tomorrow i'm going to be officially inserted in economically recognized order of the church so tomorrow i receive an offer
social status before other catholics
tomorrow i've got an officially recognized role it's given to me so from tomorrow on i have no more problems of insecurity of who i am i'm a i've got up the power to mean i'm an official money to the church
i know francis is on this trip
after
and ah be secure
now this cannot pray it also our level of the unconscious so to get to so we do have to be careful of this the whole a speciality side of it the whole life is a kind of in certain journey itself faith which means not seeing as well there's his official recognized moments in the life of
church where these can be taken in a kind of exploited least the unconscious level in his kind of organizational christian and from then on i'm a monk and i've got the kind of power also that goes with that role
when confronted by a simple as such catholics and priests and bishops or whatever don't touch me i am a professor monk of the commercials
or there could be an entirely different understanding of what's going to happen tomorrow a kind of a diaspora understand you want to work to which libros
see some police are also a broad a leprous yeah no touchscreen symmetrical and on the contrary we want a different kind of understanding maybe a hard to believe that this has to be debated of what's happening tomorrow and so with every aspect of our christian and monastic
the liturgy the eucharist i was that understand yeah hours solitude asceticism obedience how are any of these things understood there's to preach approaches bumped to simplify next so
what is this
organizational approach
it's that the church isn't institutions as the institution it is the city of god on earth it's got its laws which are divine laws it's got its power structure etc now something of the church after constantine could have something that this
we saw that after constantine briefly christianity becomes the official religion of the empire and the emperor is the christian emperor and the laws are christian bonds and the armies are christian armies etc etc and the judges are christian judges in the whole bit
and so i receive my identity of faith but also my human identity as citizen is person looking for meaning etc from crystal dumb no longer simply christian faith but chris christened dumb a whole new reality and up it's very calm
the necessary sides but
what merton is suggesting and he's going here through a longer and other theologians is in fact this no longer exists we might want that it were still the case we might feel nostalgic something but it's not so much debate as to what's best would it be better than to go back to the middle ages situ
question where we have a christian emperor that's not the question we are not going to get back to the middle ages we are not going to get the christian emperor again we are not going to of christian schools and that satan since that all go there said rhymes christian armies etc we are
in fact sociologically in the diaspora situation so it's not a question what is better what's worse is just the fact now what do we do with a theologically what we do we do it with our spirituality this is our first premise and will want to discuss this that in fact we are no longer in the medieval organization
christianity situation that obtained at least in northern europe it's really didn't obtain in africa the muslims had overtaken africa he didn't obtain in asia didn't obtain any like but it did obtaining that really quite constricted area that was called christendom and that's sometimes considered the idea of them ah
model that we want to constantly go back to others are saying no we can't get back there are no more what we are in is something analogous to the earliest church so that one helpful to us than the models of constantine and eusebius and the great champions of imperial christianity are
peace earliest father's talking about diaspora and he acts of the apostles and the whole new testament presupposition of this little flock of this eleven in the church itself so those are the presuppositions that want to be discussed debated etc
ah
so this is the christian situation later we want to get out the whole question how the monks fit into this what's what's the particular monastic approach to this new situation of diaspora should we as monks more than anyone else feel nostalgia for the great middle ages in the institution etc or should we as monks perhaps more than anyone else
be the kind of in some sense the avant garde the feeling out of the of the new horizons of this diaspora situation which again isn't absolutely no but in some remarkable ways corresponds to the earliest church of the apostles the earliest church martyrs
problems questions
up to now
so let's charge into a merton
ha
and this isn't easy because my pages or and weeks' gap so let's go back to testify what is the actual situation of the church in the modern world it is a crisis situation mrs merkel's hypothesis and he's constantly going back to a theological se of rauner who say this
runner sing it's simply a fact it's not that we say let's get into a crisis situation but it is indeed a crisis situation and merch mistake crisis has not just negative sense it's a very biblical word christmas which means under the salvific judgment of god crisis is that mode where were no longer all confident in saw go
well that were secure etc
god speaks to us and therefore there's this situation of eunice so merton starts as essay the christian in the diaspora it is no secret that the church finds herself in a crisis and the awareness of such a fact his pessimism only the eyes of those for whom all che
change is necessarily tragic hebrew lament will after vatican two nothing is the same things are changing now relation to the world is changing but again only to those who see changes is a terrible thing it would see more aliens realistic to follow the example of pope john paul
after him to face courageously the challenges of an unknown future in which the christian can find security not perhaps in the lasting strength of familiar human structures but certainly in the promises of christ and in the power of the holy spirit
so all move it was rather easy to say the official religion of the empire's christianity and if those dirty non-christians can we've got the christian armies and we've got the christian laws for those within the empire don't behave etc now we have to have recourse to another source of power which is that of christ and the holy spirit which is
as functions and rather different ways and rather more paradoxical ways ten the gaps in the emperor after our christian hope itself would be meaningless if there were no risks to face that the future we're definitely mortgaged to an unchanging present
so he goes on with this theme that up
we need to stir up our faith and stir up our christian hope in this situation of newness christian hope his confidence not a metaphysical immobility but in the dynamism of unfailing love crisis means judgment in the present is always been judged as it gives way to what was yesterday
the future only when we try to drag yesterday bodily with us into the future does crisis become care prison that is we could miss the moment we could really goofed it up
precisely by not opening ourselves to the newness to this adventure of faith and by insisting that the very structures that were reps in some way since inevitable and necessary in the past we try to drag them in and enforce some on a new situation in the future so that sisk
kind of
then he suggests that up
we can go for it and there's a wrong way of approaching it or
which is curious paradox he says is wrong way which has its moments of triumphalism everything's going right because we had a militant church going forward and the y-axis and peters is always filled with hundreds of thousands during the pope and there's always new catholic movements on the march and of
the whole world is confused and crumbling under the the power of of the armies of our lady in the armies of jesus there's this kind of triumphalism and then in the same okay because this kind of the world's going to pot everything was terrible except like it was etc so people who are clinging
too tightly the organization christianity he says they
betrayed as curious almost schizophrenia triumphalism on the one hand and part or pessimism about the present and the future on the other
it's a certain mood of conservative triumphalism in the church of the one hand everything said about the church by these defenders of the status quo is couched in the language of the victory communicate now we're marching forward and hundreds of thousands of it in the same breath dire prophecies and lamentations chai
i'm in to condemn the decadence the modernism the secularism which have utterly ruined catholicism and christian culture today so he sees these kind of symptoms of a not correct approach to a
to the challenge today and tomorrow
and then he says that up there's quite a different approach and he says on the other hand there are theologians like karl rahner supported by many others of his compatriots of protestants and catholics believe that we must frankly face and accept what they called the diaspora situation of the church in the twentieth century you got to face
it and come to terms with again it's not something we project is an interesting new model that some theologians come it's a fact out there the church is no longer in a christian empire and if we want to pretend that it is still patch up the cracks etc we can go on from maybe a couple of generations but it's a very
illusory game
the world out there eight really christian in the sense that it was in the middle ages and profound questions have to be asked and what sense was it what sense is a sociologically official christianity really but that's another but in any case we're in another situation from that
and ron are speaking not as a sociologists but precisely as a theologian describes a situation is irreversible and concludes that we have no alternative but to accept it and he adds that this is acceptance is not only a matter of defeat or passive fatalism on the contrary he seeks to show theologically that has a crucial sydney
vacant for our salvation and for the salvation of the world
so it's jewish christians down there jerusalem said let's not work up a prosecution so we can be scattered the four corners know it just happened and they worked with that happening that had it's true tragic damage no doubts we don't want to romanticize
as the new church but they worked with it and rendered it's salvific it was necessary there's this whole theology of can accept the necessary was it not necessary that the son of man suffer but working through that situation it becomes thickened in a new way not imagined by the first situate
in the jerusalem church so this we want to first of all acknowledge it as a fact that reflect upon a theologically and in state and see if we might not render this new situation would ever be and we want to work through that more
salvific
ah this is going to require a whole new style to see the very least on the part of all christians and the church a whole new mindset who knew hermeneutic performance and not gonna
the christian life will be qualitative not quantitative in the future you know how many communions in your church and how many up conversions and dutch all of germany that is christian and all of england it's crusher know we've got to qualitative permitted
groups
he will not draw strength from a massive ecclesiastical assault organized on quality military lines run the openness and freedom the total sincerity with which the ordinary christian is prepared to meet the non-christian on his own ground here you'll start to see the juxtaposition years so not power and
dominance but openness and been there on the other person's crown this is what's characteristic of this new ds procedures in the other it's my christian empire and we build the walls around it and if the others tried to storm the walls will and if anyone within the walls is a trader will burn it in the piazzetta cetera know now i'm on his ground
just as these jewish christians were so in area
you see many passports miss you land the cast out of the seat bag into a whole new but fecundity their precisely on the ground of the other this is the mystery
i saw openness and freedom as total sincerity on his own ground and to awaken the other to the truth of the gospel in terms which the other can understand and accept the hoop pentecost mystery all sorts of language as much as the one and each culture understand to museum this means of course that the apostle of the diaspora
for will have to have something more content coaching to offer than an investigation i'm sorry than an invitation to enter a ghetto of antiquated customs outward rituals and censorious theological rigidity we have the truth here if you wanted convert
and if you don't want it your damn sort of thing
he lived to be a different approach the truth is here in the truth is also out there the churches truth is in jerusalem certainty but the truth resulted sumerian and fill it by and been enrolled it's every corner in every culture every language the only thing that can give meaning to such an apostolic is the purity
of eschatological hope so it you were nothing
the other approach so of it's a challenge kind of to conversion
this means today and this is where we do absorb break company with the early apostles because history doesn't move on were in what's in some term some sense a secular situation they were in a very religious situation where they were in jerusalem or rome or philip by was it's a religions and religiosity
d where there's this new secular situation
now how do we see that secular we at once talked about you can put the secular not opposition to the sacred and therefore the secondary simply to be condemned as cut off and therefore arab and spiritually not for etc because it's not the sacred
this is one sort of neat or you have to see that may be faith can animate the second as they can enemy sacred christian scientist who is working not in the sacristy or in the sanctuary but in the oratory with the test tubes and things
is the christian teacher who's perhaps not even teaching in a catholic school with this can be an mentioned but in a public school but from within that situation of a faith of communicates that
the christian year in their etc so so no longer a simple opposition that world is secular therefore we're get it now that world is secular so there are new face possibilities there different types of faith possibilities
this is a whole scene mertens trying to raise the world and quotes and secularity
we cannot understand this unless we see that the world and secularity or even the profane or not categories which by their very nature exclude and obstruct the action of grace they are on the contrary fully embraced by the order of redemption the world must be brought to an awareness of this
by the heroic witness of christian faith
two yard said that when i go into the biological laboratory i want to be more rigorously scientific than the nonbeliever and go to all the strictly scientific secular methodology precisely as a christian witness so i will be at the time of saying novenas
is that this fossil miraculously appear something know i'll be going rigorously and i'll be more scientific than the scientists precisely that way our witness to the faith that truth is one and if we have no fear of he did we're dedicated to finding the truth in all its dimensions from the most humble of old bones
what they suggest to the up most lofty of mystical theology etc
so
this is sort of the context ah
so it's not in opposition runner is talking about an attitude of openness understanding and sympathy which enables a catholic to discovered unsuspected values in a secular world we at which he has hitherto regarded only with mistrust and with contempt so again this chain
age of mine this change of approach
top boundaries therefore not prescribing a resolute and para military advanced to conquer the world and to bring it entirely to subject subjection to clerical influencer discipline so there are positive and truly apostolic effort to encounter the non christian on his own ground in order to bring him the gospel message in a form in which you can best understand and receive
it but if we merely invite him to enter with us into the ghetto save ideas with different language in which the spiritual atmosphere seems grimly opposed to everything he experiences his life he will turn away from us despair so this is kind of the are pre comprehension that pushed she was
talking about for now the part on the monk in the diaspora what is the particular role of the monk in this new situation and in fact they're saying and in this new theological reflection and in this new of consideration of what should be than a kind of a missionary method a postulate approach
et cetera now how does the monk fit into this
we could say that's fine for others that's fun to the missionary but we don't enter how do what we don't don't we enter in the sense that we're we're still the last kind of refuge of organization christianity in the sense that we're kind of a sign of medieval christianity the monastery was very important in the middle ages
and it was often very huge and very powerful and the abbott had sometimes homesense of peasants under him and thousands of acres of land to be cultivated and he had in fact his own arms and his own
ambassadors to other princes et cetera but of there was this bastion of christianity the city sit on the heel of now are we a kind of a nostalgic sign of what it was like in the good old days that's the question or are we again
some sense in the forefront of this new diaspora situation should we find more congenial to us precisely as months organization christianity approach and spirit or the diaspora this is the question before us
before we get into this new app is always clear and we all
hey your questions or problems kitchen
it would wait wait for the curious i mean to people suffering with you are we do it if you will pay
at all
like failure and respect video or something
when
oh
well this is a particular genre he's showing just the evils of the one and just the good of the other there's no doubt about that
so it's a kind of a white black st nicked up it's a kind of a dualism like some ways to get a john there's the white and black and cetera
but there is this problem now when we fall in between this is another possible
a model you see a kid he's not talking about the need of institution and structure in the church the diaspora christian will have his moments of gathered this and that's the moment the eucharist especially the movement of faith and celebration but from there he goes out
but up i think he would say it wouldn't be in the middle in the sense that we take half of the one and half of the other in a certain sense we have to leave this but not that the other i think it's this it has to be ruins not that the other has no elements of institution in law and cetera
in law not is understood in the kind of christendom medieval approach and its worst it but in a new situation
but anyway that's another know is murdered which money
just constantly going
well i think i'm i think we're struggling with it i think the catholic community is that protestant community i think the orthodox or it's a real one for them which you know other state
that's well
and i think christianity so mysterious that sometimes you can win by you know being wiped out in a certain sense like the martyrs cetera so if the truth this is the claim of people like rauner and merton the truth is on the diaspora side they can't see any other way them in the fate now it's the truth is that side you just witnessing to
whatever happens and you might indeed end up crucified monitor under the other that's the the goal is not to when the call is to witness and praise for the thing but the other site will use power that is their style and approach they'll try to hit you through all the methods pasa
able to eliminate this which will be seen as threat
so now it should be characteristic of the diaspora is it so it doesn't have recourse to these instruments of power and repression and so it's a kind of hooks a nonviolent at its best
suffered moving forward but what that site is a good is it's a fact we are in fact in a diaspora situation so vivid and these people were trying to claim to this look to be particularly unhappy because it just they perceive at a certain level
but it ain't working and that's why they add that give the victory community and when level but the the anguish i'm pessimistic condemnation of the world and yourself
i think the issue is an interesting what but i don't think you should be primary to someone whose word whose agrees with merton here i mean we might lose the thing
but
will lose it at least witness into the orthodox church is very interesting you know there's that one up russian orthodox church and xr it is awaiting the return of the tsar for instance they take very seriously that there cannot be a christianity without us are so they are pretty killer the and for them it's all tragic and
till the tsar comes back
so you can get very very clear and dumb
kind of explicit expressions of this then you can get to do once you can in fact that a kind of midway i suspected on a kind of a sociological were sort of midway
between the thing
there's a large movies streaming out when it wouldn't make this victim and feeders triumphalists gregory asked in the future and password in the same as we go into the future and are also many people now it seems to say the only way we go to respond absolutely cutting up so often by
i'm forgetting about or in our tradition you haven't it seems lot
truth lies with john time heard it saw a greater fidelity to past combined with somehow this openness
but for a lot of people don't ask just absurd
can avoid it
the character arc
issue
integrate
right now that's right here
sure sure there's something lit up like you don't want to be the problems and they were like sixty
is it
i that's the whole it's not route business sits they can see advantage we have to go the whole heritage but i think that a basic distinction that father's me between our tradition with the capital t and the traditions of men as jesus said there are some traditions christians
traditions that are linked in fact with the sociological situation that no longer exists and what do we do about them
there are other traditions at rich
how do you discern the distinction that's the ruthie that is why we i think are really in a crisis situation where it is no longer comfortable we we do have to discern we do have to wait and struggle with every element now is this enriching precisely for the person or is this an obstacle like the first jewish christians they really
district circumcision as required for all christians yes or no the law this whole credible spiritual richness of the law to be applied to the gentile christians you know in what sense how they battled over this peter fought with paul and they needed so it's not one of those comfortable moments
when we don't have to worry about it's one of these moments where we do have to struggle with it
and i think of is at the heart of the tradition bring nap because if you cut that off you go empty you have nothing to offer
but if you're just bringing a lots of the kind of sociological trappings from other ages that can be an obstacle it's merton says
a grimly opposed to everything new cetera and the
a dragging the passive so it's very complicated and i think it's also exciting you know this is the adventure of christianity and some will necessarily emphasize the one a little more the need to be very careful to not throw out anything it's let's not take for granted that something won't have valued just because it's two thousand or one thousand
let's go slowly so there's some people who tempt a more on the craig and there's other people who tend more on the accelerator and i think really unique both care isms in the church this is where a dogmatic man and woman said there are those who have stress the newness and etc and obviously working in this essay is on that side
there are others who stress the richness of the heritage and let's go slow etc so of you'll find debates in the same community at different emphases so this is healthy
great mr wise the break
you know
ah
it seven were on a journey to get to have a if you just keep your foot on the break you ain't going to get there if you just wildly go ahead sort of and another at this point of getting very interesting question suppose we are monks are we more the accelerator pedal so to speak or more the brakemen this was very interesting is that the function of the monk to
to be the kind of again conservative witness to the middle ages and to be a particularly suspicious of the new and particularly in favor of the law and control and of condemning of what seems that or are we in some sense
the avant garde
partly
buy was interesting question because according to our theologian to old the function of the hierarchy say the pope where the bishops is certainly the function of the break what we usually say is look at rome and expect from to do everything to tell us in what new areas we should surge and what areas we should so
rome is giving one side of and that's go slow this is a dangerous it's this is the function of a hierarchy to test out the new and to discern the good in the bat but not to create and the function of st peter was not to come up with the newness of the gospel of faith paul did but to say
struggle with it to discern and finding ago jerusalem instead of into yes but this is what is very important there are the profits the dorothy day since that theologians are pope john paul the second he went to the theologians at the angelika and to keep researching keep probing don't wait for us
the to say do this it was very interesting time because it's a different terrorism
the chrism of rauner or britain is not the care isn't the pole so sometimes we say we have to have exactly the same sphere of the pope the pope is always talking about caution in danger and know so we should always be taught my court but the ceiling know that's one site is the caution with no and the others here's something and here's something in cetera this is not an essay
it would have been written by paul the six the courage but it should have been written
this sort of thing so seems like the church classically has been my great salary have some people say the secular our world is way ahead of charging south arrogance and eighty two
us map
churches the last institution around my way again science cetera
right up been remote is galileo extra patience years ago century
tourists and acid
oh right
i think this is a problem when coming from a place like prickly i had to witness to it all the x catholics and the leech and all the x christians and just people who grew up and they have difficulty with the church because the church is that institution of the
the galileo an institution that has notice sex that his and has they say no
and no to evolution and just a no sale to everything that mandy to great struggle and suffering is able to come up with
things like very concrete things slavery yes or no the great movements for say no to slavery and for she didn't come from the catholic church
right very late or now feminism what is the role of women in the church the great prophet to this or not to often catholic sort of thing of this sort of thing so i have to say this is this is a problem
and we're not aware of this is another thing if there's time but things ain't going on for the church in terms of growing and advancing were getting smaller and we talked about this convert in that but we're losing more than weird and this is i think a primary reason people just troubled by this institution it seems
not to be able to come to terms with a value simply i think the other side then is that there are very ambiguous sides of the second rule and of sexual license and of all these things so sometimes a church quite slowly is able to have that sometimes people come back
free love for instance church for a slogan and produce enthusiasm for free now young people restrict in a widow and maybe this whole businesses and dangerous and statistically
couples who live together before marriage
that marriage as much more difficult do not ending in divorce than the other it was thought you know how can you do this without a trial period know how this but it doesn't work out that were this sort of thing so there are ambiguous things to the world out there it just i think again them terrible problem of discerning and
if we're discerning not so much when the gospel but from the good old days of the thirteenth century et cetera then in our language really gets problematic because that was the thing with galileo it can't be so because scholastic philosophy can't conceive of the earth not being at the center of that
that's where we went wrong here
in fact that it's hundreds hundred years to even
as home
people hate me as an academic atmosphere all trap
really terrorists expects to be extremely bears and case in there are many others
no have a question what is priced at
when he says is all fashionistas meanwhile around nations are just what they may have to be justified by his past
as he also says
like a class
right it was very mysterious is eschatological dementia we don't know whether we're going forward with this model with great triumph et etc
ah
the church has been around enough for two thousand years and in some sense has preached to all nations and were what i have see were less than a fourth of humanity and were shrinking and proportion with the world population rather dramatically
i'm asking is that why they were failed chose a price message that not really like was like you said not me it's a great mystery new homes
he puts a question there will but son of man find so if he's got a question mark i think all the world we should
there's two models one that the in time will come when the word has been spread and a kind of a universal conversion and a kind of earthly misuse and in another model is it'll really be rough in the in time because anything related to the whole him
we're trying to make ourselves accessible world your accessories and make humans at
never have died with ourselves and left me out
wow
this is yeah this is the other side of the problem again it's a problem of discernment if i toss out so much that i toss up a baby with the bathwater is they always say and would i go with and certainly i think they're protestant groups that have done that the extreme case would be the unitarian it goes out with a kind of our humanitarian
and let's get together and talk about our psychological problems and this will be our sunday eating sort of thing and he returns that was don't exist anymore pick such people just aren't interested in that
so i said
it's a challenge
the challenge of discernment i again i think that again that the primary norm for the discernment has to be the gospel whatever that means and not medieval
sociological christian the the rich heritage to the medieval experience certainly merton love you know the twelfth century in it but of
not the trappings and you somehow you've got to discern the distinction just as nearly things to bring the whole wealth of your testament to the gentile church but not to for some even on the
the jews that the circumcision was kind of our baptism is a fundamental saving second you have to toss even that out so
really it's challenging to make this discernment
the
the allusion to the humanism print since i've talked about we're going to have to be willing to set the dietary laws were to peter and circumcision i can eat that stuff with the she comes down with all the fruits because i've never eaten that stuff and masterpiece undergo conversion for
well why don't we take a break and come back and go into much be thinking during a break quoted as the monk fit in here above below in the middle to the extreme right to the extreme left her see the scene of of damage etc
we plunged them into the monastic diaspora
ah
ah
it's interesting to look at the history this isn't merton this just my own reflection but ah
you had the age of the church of the apostles and the martyrs
then you get an incredible qualitative change of things with constantine
of that's really a turning point when christianity is no longer a persecuted our to tunnels it becomes the official religion now it's at that point interestingly enough that people start moving out in the desert
and living precisely the monastic terrorism
we had a lovely a conference yesterday in my class i had is a guest speaker
brother robert reason anglican francisco superior done and he studied at oxford cambridge and was time but the charisma of st francis but he noted that that
and he interpreted it the greatly that when the hermits or going out into the desert wasn't just for themselves but it was as a kind of a sign of what christian for christian baptismal i should be and in the age of the martyrs you didn't need it because all christians were living are fully dedicated you're you're risking
there was no status and security and comfort and power but it was risk and literally being fit the light and turn one hundred and eighty degrees and then the most comfortable thing in the world has to be christian
and if you want to make a good career in the senate etc you become a christian and etc
at that point
up the monk start so according to this interesting reading up we are tied specifically in the monastic vocation to the diaspora situation the monks go into diaspora when officialdom descends upon that's when they're born and a good actress for themselves but as
assigned to the whole church of what the whole church in some way should be
some interesting so that
don't we are in one sense it seems actually the contrary of what a dyke neatest is talking about her would axe on but where the apostles going to the whole world among withdraws you see
and but it's a withdraw but is a scattering in the same parallel way a scattering into a new dimensions that are not possible well in that contrary situation which is the christian empire so you almost have to see the negative of the photograph which cons
stunt team represents relative to the church of the minors and then we are the opposite of that negative so we end up doing in a paradoxical way precisely what they're talking about that is the the diaspora vocation and what is this a diaspora vocational
merton notes that when rodders talking about this new diaspora approach and it's roots in the heritage she's the one monkey refers to his benedict who is our father is curious that the ones i'm sorry not the one on one st of all christian saints is credited
singled out by ron as we mentioned as an example of one who understood the diaspora situation is some benedict
we can profitably consider the author the benedict grew as one who in a world which he saw was alien to his own ideals nevertheless lived a fully christian life which was fruitful beyond his own wildest expectations when he goes into this it's great that the empire was
crumbling and benedick just didn't lament this but create a whole new approach with the tilling the land and with a saving the manuscripts the heritage of the past and it's best since but in a way that was absolutely accessible to the new people's to the huns into the get barbarians descending actually oh
open to them not the roman institution so to enter you had to become a roman but something new that opened up to the middle ages
ah
he mentions one of the characteristics of the diaspora situation simplicity poverty you go out into the next city you have to travel white you don't bring all your tones and of usages and customs and dutch require that they conform to travel light
so simplicity one of the characteristics of this is because evermore provoke complicated evie laws
so you seeing what's a characteristic of monasticism simplicity
travel light up not the baroque institution but the romanesque a purity as it were
the earliest monks were oh i also another characteristics is if you want to get up the lay as opposed to the clerical again a simplified opposition because you need priests the desperate was the of the obviously but the laity very important in the apostolic church in the to
richard the martyrs and they're going to be important today simply because the clergy of in very few and monasticism not as a clerical institution of power for the hierarchical church but originally me as a vein institutions is very interesting nearly earliest monks were simply layman living and solid
dude or it's small informal communities have a somewhat charismatic nature grouped around a holy and well tried hermit a spiritual father so traditionally the monastic like does not require much organization you saying we monks can go into this diaspora situation for with our heads up
and rediscovering the best of our own heritage which is a diaspora heritage not be a organization christianity heritage we then got into that in the middle ages and with a vengeance but now we can go back to our deepest roots which again as sort relevance to what are you getting him to tomorrow that procession
he said this great a medieval institution the commodities has been around since two thousand huge bonuses or is it something different is simple lake community romeo is very simple mysterious charismatic figure who didn't fit any the egoistic your hermits always
be did all sorts of things it is so charismatic the spiritual the unexpected the
so flexible as opposed to a complicated in the clerical center
then it goes into new possible models of a monastic life it would be very characteristically
oh diaspora models the go back a laptop that the first models is is strictly speaking there is no reason why a group of men should not buy a farm in some more part of canada and simply live there as monks minding their own business and devoting themselves to work and prayer in a small eschatological community like those are the first digit
option or syrian monks such a community would depend not so much on its organization still as on his performance of a definite work as a seriousness the dedication and a spiritual strength of its members and on the authenticity of their vocation
we mentioned last time the problem with a diaspora christian is very demanding it requires that you really have a personal committed faith the up organization christianity is somewhat easier route of course i was baptized by my parents before i even had a and of course i go to church on sunday the whole family does it
it's always done it to be quite improper not to go to church and of course the kids will be back to it's just the whole of a force of custom and regulation and that is behind me but here i have to make a choice and if i get my kids baptize it's not because it's the thing to do it would be scandalous not to but because
i forced by inner personal faith and a probably scandalized lots of people if i do it
well that's where the monk should be on a level of personal commitment not on a level of being carried along by the powerful structures and that of an institution
and so the importance here another thing i should have a grand architect is the person is supposed to simply serve the mass movement
it is significant that runner who has laid such stress and importance of the person in the diaspora situation rather than the organized group should say it's benedick as an example of one to admirably understood this kind of situation and adopted to it successfully their game it's not the person as opposed to community but person
community commitment as opposed to simply
mass movement
ah
so again it's a fact and so it's not what are we going to do but how to relate to this new fact and here
stress isn't
and we realize we've kind of change somehow the whole business of monastic revival it's going on all over the world things have to be sort of shaken up it's a moment of crisis in the best biblical sense now how to do it that's the key that's hitting the whole church and that's some key that's hitting the monastic rule
retook it was wrong in all sorts of ways or a god willing and god helping we might just do it will
the much publicised monastic revival of our own time suggests that the monastic life is where can be one of the ways in which the church can adjust herself to the diaspora situation we could actually be ah
a kind of a probing and going into the diaspora that would help the whole church we can be fruitful to the whole church if were loyal to our cares at which is truly diaspora this is what britain is proposing in the best sense we however mention that the monastic movement in its present state of play
progress does not give us evidence that perfect pitch just adjustment has already been achieved the question of here a greek of what are we he say in fact we've had these renewables etc and it hasn't been a great great success
this is a decisive moment for sweat in the scriptures called a coyotes a moment of grace a moment of decision
at for us again for the monks will make their profession tomorrow not going into some kind of that sleepy comfortable already established institutions to bend be the same for all eternity and as the security that will give me i don't have to decide i don't have to personally be responsible but i'll just follow you know
the laws and traditions and not moment of crisis and would have discernment and moment of decision and that's where i met
monasticism is now undergoing a more profound renewal than any that has been seen for eight hundred years in other words since the great from it of the eleventh and twelfth centuries when the conclusions cabal the these and cistercians came into being an abandoned it into clooney spread all over europe so this is
really sinks since the time of mule we haven't been in such a up situation and this is it
in simon's boys well as yeah
monastic problems and ideals are being rethought on the deepest level the fundamental importance of such things as aeromedical solitude has been rediscovered biblical movement is really doing monastic prayer and contemplation monks are trying to effect of a trijicon renewal that would be really relevant to their
own way of life so of this i think is a particularly challenging and interesting
now here he says we can get off the track begins as the candidate that we can just claim to comfortable institutional structures of the past and drag them into the future and that might be the easiest solution but
it wouldn't that wouldn't be the best
our effectiveness of the monks presence in the world and of his monastic weeks the gospel of christ will depend on his ability to see his own place relation to the world correctly he too must learn to understand his monastic calling in the general diaspora situation the whole church so people of the church
so are we and this is a good sense and cut to come to terms with this vs percent which we can't ignore it be frightened of had run away from it come to terms with at home it
he says this is not going to be entirely easy for while in theory monks are supposed to think in terms of the original monastic ideals and the earliest sources in practice that they think of as as they have been formed to think in terms of an institution that preserves set character acquired in the days when the church dominated
all of society in which the monks played and most important part in helping her to do so
a in europe some of the most conservative centers of the church life are precisely the monasteries everything is preventing into everything is lap everything is nostalgia for the middle ages these are the great bastions and they're linked very interesting the with the political far right
right
ah
and it's a fairly ambiguous situation ah and i mean a far right
and the whole business about benedict being a patron of europe etc this can have a kind of a power language to it and a kind of a political sense to it than a certain group has wanted to plug into and monks can be very happy about this let's get back to the good old days when of monasticism was the real
powerful institution in the church and the whole church was catholic etc and so this is what it's all about we monks faced by this crisis can go one of two quite quite different directions
even though the order monastic lucid western europe was swept almost entirely out of existence by the french revolution and then you're a napoleonic wars he keeps coming back to the facts of history
there's been this thing
camellia new logo belongs to us the forest is no longer arms we used to have as far as the i could see tremendous land extensions and and so has been taken away by anti clerical government in the last century this happened in france has happened all over europe we might lamented with but it's a fact now what do we do
about it we can just plug into those far right political parties who say that's re-establish such a situation when
thousands of acres would even be given back to the institution to this would be lovely but isn't quite what we're after is it possible that it was almost providential all those acres of forests were taken away from his friends is what are we going to do with thousands of acres of forest today
so in fact all these were sweating it was restored monasticism in the nineteenth century by men whose devotion to the medieval past made it impossible for them to conceive a monastery was not a fortress of medieval ideas culture worship and life
you starting especially as traps but it was swept away then there was a recovery but the recovery was often in terms of romantic nostalgia for the middle ages for the fortress model
the whole concept of monastic revival was at first largely a matter of keeping alive in the world values and customs that flourished in the middle ages and which present an undeniably convincing picture that vitality that once resulted from the church has perceive pervasive influence in feudal agrarian society so
this is an identity and this is a role and this gives us something to do we will be in the church the institution that recalls all the beauty of the middle ages and someone else to do that also some lady some bishops etc
people go to command the main element why aren't you seeing everything in latin and gregorian chant it's so beautiful that's what the moon should be doing and this is a question
that's where they didn't the middle ages and sublime liturgical why aren't you doing it now if anyone should be doing it you should be doing it and someone should be keeping the whole gregorian chant heritage available to the church
the have a private or when he was presented with this is a tax
the whole gregorian latin heritage isn't lost it's available just pick out a record it's the hair done the best possible way but the the function of monks in the church is a kind of a museum of past liturgical practice this is a question in a problem you see
queen one model that's the way to go we've got our identity we've got our past it's incredibly rich it's just charge directly behind let's put the card reverse and gold and
the other that won't do it
young and pieces the in question beauty and perennial significance of such things as gregorian chant for monastic ritual inhabit the carolingian style of life maintained by the observances is to study of monastic it's on are offset by the fact that many moderns are quite unable to live fruits
lee and meaningful lives in a you where everything is regulated according to the outlook in the habits of thought that once prevailed in a now extinct culture was glorious coach and unfortunately
nineteen eighty one california is not nine eleven hundred to carolingian france we might go on it we might say it was better than but this is the fact and there's that
day now there's that it's necessarily there now what are we going to do about it to respond as faith so that this new situation that seems tragic and river can become salvific situation this up i think we're going to suggest jesse is the challenge to monasticism today
ah now he says the problem is that every aspect of our life is seen in the old sort of medieval institutional light whether it be the professions that will be wouldn't seem tomorrow interrupt beat in certain liturgy whatever you're going to two ways you can you get it from the diaspora ankle when he regretted from
the organizational institutional christianity angle
the result of the past is that monastic observance poverty obedience and so on ten tacitly to serve not only the purpose of the among some sanctification but also the maintenance of an institution whose function is to proclaim the superiority of the feudal and the hierarchical way of life
as that which is fully and authentically christian because it bears witness to the days when the church enjoyed uncontested temporal power
we are the witnesses to that wonderful people over people thing and blind obedience and that's the way we gotta go back everything's chaos now this democracy thing hasn't worked this is the language of the russian church in exile
this is language of eusebius create the great to church historian when he encountered constantine he said there's nothing more horrible than democracy and the monarchical is wonderful and the king is this little icon on earth that the king in heaven etc so we monks are we are in the present work
old is this symbol of hierarchical medieval and pick him there are some
european api's that really plug into this and father abbot is a medieval with the biter and the huge rings and up
so that's one way you can go and we play our role by be worth will prostrate for the of lord father abbot and a sacred traditions in anyone else you know we're and that's so way we serve the church today
because what's lacking today is obedience and center that's a whole way you can go and to it easily plugs into the or monastic language so what you do about it sort of mean how do you get on a kind of a different wavelength it might have something to do with them what the church needs
you have this with the very provoke a benedictine orders awkward
this suggests that you even have it with the orders that came out and eleventh and twelfth centuries and he's talking about the constitution that compound amazing the trappist so it gets pretty much and persona this argument is often talking up very specifically about us even the more austere orders do not retain the pure and severe
nobility of the eleventh twelfth century
there have been all the nuances and insinuations of late medieval piety the post trinity organization and of ecclesiastical baroque so that now the monastery is a highly complex organism were permanent and timeless values are confused with anachronisms and irrelevancies
is which are sometimes invested with all the solemnity of unchangeable dogma so here we started about this tragedy of the timeless in the real value being all mixed-up with the
irrelevancies anachronisms which are then invested with all the authority of unchangeable dogma
so the whole church is going just going to help and everything nothing's the same as it used to be but the monasteries that one place where things are as they used to the bedrock of stability and this can be even an unconscious motive of come into the most i'm very confused by the church other in each country
the here is where it's at years of the church of the good old days
you know dealing chris most ruin a whole bit like at once was i can find here of soaked
for in a trappist monastery or with the cartoon versions etc so he says we gotta be careful to of we can also be absolutely out of contact with the salvific reality given to us which is also tragic reality which is the diaspora reality
ah
i would hear jumped to an entirely different what again the question is are curious and his commandments are we especially organization christianity or especially if you go to come out and go into the church will never find a more baroque
at the hermitage the hermitage church is just filled with plaster little babies dutch two dads and up i personally to extremely tragic and that's the way most the canal nice there are few but we got into a very very bulk
period with all that means of an architecture speaks whole language about triumphalism etc and that became the artistic expression of
so but what is are no cares
is it tough institutionalism and legality and heaviness and merton suggested know it's just the opposite and this is a theme that don't benedetto orphanage she says if there's any justification for solitude and the hermit and the directs can only be in terms of simplicity the holy spirit and freedom of the children of
a
i don't go into site to because i need legalism and heavy baroque i go into because i have grown in community spirit is leading me to the situation i don't need the support of commute i don't need the support of all the doodads and the plaster statues and laws and father attitude
i can do it on my own in the freedom of the spirit
a button in his cell put the silent life remember as at classical essay on the canal police
in all religious like the spirit is vastly more important than the letter but the more solitary life because this is his essay on the commandments more solitary the line becomes the more important is it spirit and the lesson for the letter of the rule you've got a rule there
so the work and melodies i become the more tied to that rule and you got to serve every dot and no absolute contrary
i'm a reckless no one can ever come to me know it's the more your canal police the more your spirit you see and i get less than that
the aromatic life is almost exclusively spirit
that is why the letter of its legislation is generally extremely simple the early customs of come elderly to which we have already referred to exception that is why they are extremely adaptable to all places and to all times when you get into a simplicity the spirit the diaspora problem becomes history
medic because you can apply it anywhere you can apply to a northern european culture can apply to an african culture if it's truly a medical spirit could extend it gets for rope frankly we don't want to be a church architecture of the hermitage sure it would be a disaster it's a
kind of a neapolitan seventeen said we don't want but we certainly want spirit of the carrots so it might be what do we do it tomorrow with actor by profession are we going into a path that continually gets narrower known or more regressive work caught up with that or are we going into a thing that should go like this
the mystery of the spirit
oh that's a submission
so how do we adapt how do we avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater this is the whole problem that now burton starts wrestling with
now he says you can do this very issue like you can you can so swing against organization christianity that all you want is the guitar mass with the balloons and even if you don't say the words of consecration it doesn't matter at all and it's more the togetherness etc so in the monastic life renewal can be just that's get a big colored
television segments follow the ball game on saturday up this is this eight words at
so we have to discern what is the essence of our curiouser
and
you
as was once a week okay
popcorn is good yeah
here while discarding irrelevancies monks made the same time through our values that are irreplaceable in this way the monastic community will be reduced to a group of devout and organized cheese makers he said
happy husband relatively prosperous the money will be there moderately disciplined showing the constellations of the latest liturgical piety and togetherness around the television set
ha
if runners predictions about the diaspora are correct such communities will not be able to exist in it and there will be no serious reason for them to do so this was the point that came up here if you so empty your message that it's simply that the emptiness of the secular city at it's worst of madison
an avenue etc and we're really hip etc
then that he did you have the christians cast out into the aspartame with nothing but of a kind of comfortable roman paganism are they would have been they would not have been seed so this is the challenge take the essence the heart of tradition the heart of monastic tradition here it
is truly for comment but not with all the baroque frivolous teas and not with all the institutional happiness and legalism and this will truly be a for county suggesting
what is important is the radical change and the unconditional dedication and amongst life and not it's sacred formalities it's ceremonies and is hierarchical organization chief means used by the monk in his ardent commit ardently committed and deeply personal search are now he too
rise to focus in and what is this heart of our tourism and i mean you're mature the canal crazy or the first thing he pursued his solitude i'm sorry silence solitude austerity pennants poverty obedience meditation reading the trijicon worship productive work chastity
other characteristic disciplines where these are seriously pursued weather in systematically organized communal structure or out of it the monastic terrorism me clearly manifest its presence even to those who have no idea of terrorism is for vocations are indeed of religion itself
so we want to be we want to get to the nitty gritty he says there's plenty there to keep us busy and we don't have to worry about the wrist and this will free us and a very personal level
this charismatic vocation of the monk does in one sense constitute a barrier between himself in the world since we're not simply into the latest television program and the latest fad et cetera but the monk as such as actually have no interest to anyone except
in so far as he is a monk he's not trying to be hip or you don't just stop really swings heard of picked up but he wants to be truly monk and then if he's truly month but not in the very heavy of organization since because in that sense is a kind of rough
also an irrelevancy to humanity
he's relevancy two ways you can go away of just building a medieval
ah a bayshore fortress or in the direction of getting so hip
that are
well he's not different from anyone else
would be a pity indeed for him to try to arouse sympathy and or initiate serious conversations with the world and quotes by us assuring everyone that he lives just as they do and shows all their interests without exception
yet this is this dialectical tension at the same time you must not insist so much on it's difference that he withdraws into a resentful and negative solid stress a solid solitaire but it can't be this again this pessimistic solitude of the
remember the victory communicate it's linked up with the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket and i'm getting out of there not even rats will desert a sinking ship well it's going down and i condemn it and so i different from it because i get out of it it's not that completely turning his back on the rest of me and giving them
up with their wickedness to justly deserved perdition meeting that the monk who simply confronts the world at the diaspora with a polite curse a formula of reclamation and disdain or even a tear of genuine piety will not justify his existence in it and we'll probably see to acts
very razor sharp path we have to fall it's the narrow way there's so many ways to get off
on the right and on the left
ah
so this is the challenge facing us today and it's a very exciting challenge
if the characteristic of the diaspora is yolo yolo got to dialogue but indifference
then he should be able to dialogue with everyone even the secular world even in here burton puts the extreme case that atheists the atheist humanist in the world the monk the truly diaspora mom doesn't even condemned him but interested to a fruitful dialogue with him but not trying to be more it's just the key but precise
the out of this difference but also out of a whole area of share of commitments
there is up required fruitful sense of polarity in which the monk and say the atheist intellectual are able to discover not only that they can treat one another politely but that they are indeed brothers this is underlined in italics famer and that they share many of the same concerns
for example area world peace racial justice and indeed everything that concerns a well being and development of man
so the monk is into all these things as brutal as money goes into a long thing about this can become a central theme of the monk the latest social costs but it must remain there as a concern and every now and then he has to descend into the piazza this dialogue will remain in the life of a monk secondary next
i dental concern the monastery will by no means be organized for this as for an end you know secondary system monastic terrorism is not for anything else it is what it is the search for god and unconditional renunciation yet if it paradoxically liberates the monk
this should be a school of liberation the monastery not a school of getting into
if it liberates the monks so that he can when occasion exceptionally demands communicate with his fellow man and indeed do much to give full scope for forces of redemption that must shape the world of his time must give time but even here
oh so he's going about all sorts of nuances i'm sort of rushing now because typically merton he wants to get it all sorts of side center it's not just one side so i don't want to give a one sided moutain up so rushing through the finish up at least the essence of the thing
you say concretely in our day to day life how to live this diaspora situation the first thing is again live the essence of our vocation which is prayer but there are points of contact with this world and to utilize these as diaspora monks
the point of contact like hospitality when guests come and not just formally accepted but know where they're coming from know their problems their sufferings etc be able to help them and even in here he opens itself up to at the possibility of of various of postulates the monastic apostle
is of course primarily one of prayer but since some degree of hospitality is one of the essentials of benedictine live monastic community as does remain in contact with the world and should normally offered two men of the world a place of silence peace and retreat
the needs for such things in our world is now so serious as to make this an obligation of charity for the monk but of course a monastery does not exist in order to maintain a retreat house always this tension we're not keeping retreat house but
maybe we should
i'm not as our primary goal but simply as monks in this room
the monk may also accidentally exercise various other apostolic apostolic functions the important thing however is for him not to become a prisoner of the routines and organization of an active life you wouldn't think sublime you have i do curious man who are a certain point once go got dude
become a missionary and in eastern europe what how do you really late that with the recluse vocation we wanted to go out and reform cinematic monastery sort of then he goes into hermitage us and then it goes in reduce or sorts of things well again if you're into or post trident in jericho thing
you look it up in canon law and can log into your definition and that you do it as counter distinguished from the machinery orders and from etc so very neat and very compartmentalized
ah but it ain't the original terrorism
and it may not be that's why canon law is being reworked now and the whole section under the just like tetris
but it may be the as vatican tube said we have to get back to be curiously the founder and go through but also beyond a whole middle aged post trinity thing where things become very neat and very secure and very stable but i'm not
quite the spirit of uniquely monastic vocation
ah
so then he concludes this section the diaspora is not the ghetto it's the organization christianity is the ghetto know our catholic part of town and aren't catholic institutions smart catholic newspapers non-catholic language on this up diaspora is just the contrary it's the going out
this new approach besides taking into account inescapable realities in the already existing situation not only of countries behind the iron curtain but also have other western european nations allows for more spontaneous and more effective openness in the christian apostle postulate
it is of course the kind of openness that was sought in the worker priest movement and is still sought and found by the little brothers founded by charles for coal
then it goes into a very ecumenical thing and says up some of the best experiences in this diaspora monasticism thing are ecumenical monasteries and i was very happy about this from the monastic point of view protestant monasticism which is one of the most original and important expressions of the monastic revival of
a twentieth century bears witness to this new combination of apostolic openness with authentic monasticism one things at once of t same which is not absolute typical in every as respect there are other less known monastic and ecumenical communities which are even more free the simplest
some liberty freedom etc and which give less attention is a to ancient and traditional forms we might break here for discussion there's one last fascinating discussion on monastic thought in the russian diaspora the russians have had this problem for stop them with a vengeance the
holy orthodox tsar was sending no longer around the holy orthodox official church was suddenly no longer on the laws that made everyone officially orthodox with no longer around orthodox armies were wiped off etc would you do now to simply nostalgia for the past what is the
new style and he goes into a very interesting analysis of thus some of the voices are concerned all sorts of the suspect so comments questions problems on this
are you all organization winner d aspirin
no
what people have christ he asked a lot of
as the when he was our guy came up he said
oh that guy
it was
he the guy said
working on that of happened
seems like he's have to find out what is the
essence of christianity
where's the asked us okay you know
harrison asked if thought
and
alice also an at the widest yeah shout
it's all sorts of the open when you can't put new wine and old wines cash but as person there are the other tech similar die didn't come to destroy the law in the profits of always a dialect and to fulfill them
so it's but the essence of all profits not the young circumcision and the dietary law center can lift a finger on the sabbath jesus was always getting in trouble with the pharisees because there's breaking all their lawns as they understood you said you didn't come
he said
what
oh man
for anyone anyone can be is
in some other the age
the live editing or slow bad was a man if it's a notice for all usually that he got that with man jesus
i was been they have to ask you can talk about leveraged it was
oh maybe attached to the traditions because of the issues that a view as well
no power
was very moving listened to this francisco yesterday because they do come out of a different tradition francis isn't into rich such of heritage he just took is very simple friars around him submits had already announced the gospel we don't know were sleeping tonight and we don't know what it's
all about in and he had his interview with the pope is is mine are pointless important didn't want to say this is now into a little dance so it would choose
that the monk who talks out of the heritage of the fathers he would not to say and up
but for moving things as francis concert in some sense i think the rigidity of late medieval monasticism made movements like the francis can explode which is a very very beautiful movement but he explained about a the young francis who still the nobleman and
gallup's out of the city and is that there's always at the gate may had to ring a bell because it couldn't approach the community but they were so a disaster so dependent upon others because he no longer their fingers and they they had to be at least at the gate to get help so he would throw arms and that was something that's not everyone did
but i that decisive moment where he gets off his horse and approaches and embraces the leopard
up which was an act as this franciscan one since actually useless to the them because lever wanted money didn't even dream of this and somebody the money in something but no one got off the horse came up and embraced this was something that was qualitatively new
and what is francis giving just himself and the leper can't give anything to anyone but one thing i can do is embrace back
so the franciscan heritage is to give in such a way as it invites the other to give back beautiful thing and then francis can see would go on in the field they knock on the door and say me we work your field today it wouldn't start by negotiating prices but we're here we'd like to work in and at the evening may come in their witness not to there
possibility of serving that they'd witnessed of their needs and this is now could you give us something and sometimes that door was thrown in with face that and of that they'd gotten knock on the next door but they'd always present the witness of the gospel and extreme poverty that can assist them not in power and authority
not the danger of the monastic heritage is worth of bastion on the heel with all our rich should you say liturgy and rich heritage of the lg and people will come up and get it in the note descend and this is beautiful but it is it can be very paternalistic and very and diaspora but i think
as a baker says you can make a case in francis corresponds to some early very charismatic forms of three monasticism victor argues that princesses monastic he's not anti monastic not that you have to literally go out and on the road or something there's also a ways of living and and now the franciscans have gotten so large a key
even live this anymore
you could go into a little village that there's two of you an offer to work but if there's ten thousand friars you can't ascend on a little so they've had to rethink etc and you can't bear realize the first very charismatic forms but this this beautiful
presence in poverty also i don't think it means throwing out your authentic