tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197975892024-03-13T09:34:07.533-07:00Semina Verbiseeking the seeds of the word in a postmodern worldClaude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.comBlogger255125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-12518663604766764132020-10-31T14:08:00.003-07:002020-10-31T14:10:36.636-07:00The Threat to the Rule of Law<p>It is useful to look back more than four years to see how Donald Trump was seen before he was nominated. </p><p>In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/04/us/politics/donald-trump-constitution-power.html" target="_blank">Donald Trump Could Threaten U.S. Rule of Law, Scholars Say</a> (6/3/2016) Adam Liptak wrote: </p><blockquote><p>Donald J. Trump’s blustery attacks on the press, complaints about the judicial system and bold claims of presidential power collectively sketch out a constitutional worldview that shows contempt for the First Amendment, the separation of powers and the rule of law, legal experts across the political spectrum say.</p></blockquote><p>He went on to list the views of several major players at that time, before Trump's formal nomination. Some thought that institutional norms would limit Trump:</p><p></p><blockquote>Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who has become a reluctant supporter of Mr. Trump, said he did not believe that the nation would be in danger under his presidency.
'I still believe we have the institutions of government that would restrain someone who seeks to exceed their constitutional obligations,' Mr. McCain said. "We have a Congress. We have the Supreme Court. We’re not Romania.
Our institutions, including the press, are still strong enough to prevent' unconstitutional acts," he said.</blockquote><p></p><p>I hear that it is beautiful in Bucharest this time of year. Obviously, Senator McCain was quickly disabused of the idea that somehow President Trump would be limited by any of these institutions or norms.</p><p>The risk that Donald Trump could damage the rule of law was recognized from the beginning, but his willingness to act with the assumption of impunity was not expected. A brief (and incomplete) summary of the threat could be arranged by what characteristic of the rule of law is damaged by his actions;</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Equality: Refused to submit tax returns, rejected valid Congressional subpoenas, asserted powers not in the Constitution.</li><li>Effectiveness: Interfered with the work of inspector generals of agencies including removing or replacing five just this last spring. Apparently Trump considered them disloyal for doing their jobs when they investigated him, or his appointees. Only one had ever been fired before, by Obama, during eight years in office.</li><li>Independence: Sought to directly interfere with decisions of career prosecutors in criminal cases that affected his or his allies interests, abetted by the Attorney General. </li><li>Justice: Instituted an intentionally cruel policy of separating children from parents when detained by immigration authorities. Then Attorney General Jeff Sessions openly said the purpose was to create a deterrent. </li></ul><div>There is a lot more than that to consider.</div><p></p>Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-16854703382439302012020-10-04T16:55:00.003-07:002020-10-30T17:02:42.302-07:00So, what is the rule of law?<p> Well, things have been busy. I said I would have some notes on rule of law, and after redoing them several times (I find writing hard) here they are.</p><p>Context: I am suggesting that some political prolife groups are making choices that conflict with the rule of law, which may undercut any supposed gains made.</p><p>--------- </p><p>The rule of law is not merely that there are laws, and that they are enforced. (I've seen this referred to as "rule <i>by </i>law".) Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union would qualify -- both had police, courts, lawyers, and at times forms of due process. Then and now it is not enough.</p><p>Generally, a legal system upholds the rule of law if it has certain characteristics.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Equality: it holds every person or entity, including the state, equally accountable to the law.</li><li>Effectiveness: it enacts, administers, and enforces the law fairly, accessibly, and efficently.</li><li>Independence: it enforces the law through an independent judiciary.</li><li>Justice: it protects human rights.</li></ul><p></p><p>This requires processes and norms (formal and informal) that constitute a legal system that can be resilient, supple, and self-correcting. </p><p>Experience shows that the rule of law is a critical part of establishing and maintaining: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>stability and order,</li><li>social and economic progress, and</li><li>human dignity.</li></ul><p></p><p>For all this to work, the people need to see the system as legitimate and choose to obey the law. Americans historically have followed the law as well or better than any other nation. That has been damaged recently, and may well get much worse.</p><p>Next: what is going wrong.</p>Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-40289416853460995772020-09-28T16:46:00.006-07:002020-10-30T16:54:10.418-07:00Being both pro-life, and committed to the rule of lawI fear that the political pro-life movement is about to collide with the rule of
law. <div><br /></div><div>That will be self-defeating, and it won't help the rule of law either. If
you really want to protect human rights and dignity at all stages of life, you
are asking to expand the rule of law to equally include all persons, especially
those most under threat. This includes the poor, the sick, the stranger, the
young and the old, the prisoner and the unborn. Of course this assumes you have
established and will maintain that same rule of law. </div><div><br /></div><div>For decades most of the
political pro-life movement has narrowed its target to reversing Roe v Wade.
More recently, in order to achieve that one thing, many have chosen to support
persons and groups that are working now to deeply damage the rule of law. The
aim seems to be winning, with little concern for collateral damage. Changing the
law means little if law itself is debased. One is asking for too little, and is
willing to pay far too much for it. Enough now. More on that rule of law later .
. .
</div>Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-5979377460257044352017-10-12T14:50:00.001-07:002017-10-13T13:09:55.735-07:00Documents for Diocesan Congress PresentationHere are the documents for:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Session D.03<br />
Spirituality for Webmasters and Social Media Mavens<br />
October 14th 2017<br />
Diocesan Congress<br />
Diocese of Fresno<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3KyoojsTjgPV3JiaW92dURJVVk/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Bibliography</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3KyoojsTjgPcE9oeVdNam5VVDg/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Slides</a></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<div>
Thanks!</div>
Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-38094904730107789982017-10-03T12:11:00.002-07:002017-10-03T12:11:52.080-07:00High Level Summary<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is a five sentence summary of the presentation</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>We use the Web more and more in ministry, but it can make a problem like a<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">cedia more severe.</span></li>
<li>Acedia is the ancient name for a state of spiritual passivity, restlessness, and lack of care.</li>
<li>We respond to God’s call by trying to find our true self and true vocation through being transformed by His love.</li>
<li>Acedia will damage us spiritually because choosing not to care about God’s call cuts us off from our vocation and identity.</li>
<li>The remedy is stability - returning to the ordinary and a consciousness of God’s presence in it.</li>
</ul>
Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-78726609559428584892017-09-16T13:33:00.000-07:002017-09-16T14:21:41.986-07:00Doxa on ErosHow are these deep God-given desires made manifest, what are the channels where these deep energies flow? Some that I can identify are:<br />
<ul>
<li>Intimacy - We are made for intimate relationship, ultimately with God, but including the forms of human intimacy - romance, friendship, and marriage.</li>
<li>Community - Being human means forming concrete communities; social and political community, the community of the baptised, the People of God.</li>
<li>Compassion - Realizing that the Other, is not an other, coming to identify with the stranger, the sick, the poor, the prisoner. the small ones of God.</li>
<li>Joy - our recognition that God's spirit dwells in us, that we loved and valued</li>
</ul>
<div>
It is in these ways, in these areas that God calls and we respond, we are pulled both out and further into ourselves and we search to find what or who is pulling us onward. These channels for our searching, ascending love, our eros, are also the ways that God's answering, expanding agape reaches down to and through us into the world.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Our expression of these ways is subject to certain constraints or qualities that condition how we respond. It must be:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>personal </li>
<li>intentional - voluntary for a reason with understanding</li>
<li>incarnate</li>
<li>bound by time and place</li>
<li>embedded in a social and cultural context.</li>
</ul>
<div>
A note on some Greek words -- we have already been discussing <i>eros</i>. Another such Greek word is <i>doxa</i>, the root word for such terms as orthodoxy and heterodoxy. In this context, it means the structure of experience and belief that we construct as we gain experience in the spiritual life. Propelled by <i>eros</i>, based on <i>doxa </i>we move to the third Greek word, <i>praxis</i>.</div>
</div>
Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-66321262877342426522017-09-15T16:18:00.001-07:002017-09-15T16:18:41.011-07:00In briefIn regard to the need for stability in dealing with acedia, there is The Brief Rule of St. Romuald:
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your
thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms
— never leave it.<br /><br />
If you have just come to the monastery, and in spite of your good will you cannot accomplish what you want, take every opportunity you can to sing the Psalms in your heart and to understand them with your mind.<br /><br />
And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up; hurry back and apply your mind to
the words once more.<br /><br />Realize above all that you are in God's presence, and stand there with the attitude of one who stands before the emperor.<br /><br />Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings him.</blockquote>
<br />
To be referred to later.Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-22317675744598920862017-09-15T09:41:00.003-07:002017-09-15T16:28:43.555-07:00Shoving off<span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">The presentation has just started and we are now past the initial words. Time to get on with it.</span></span><br />
<hr />
<span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">I am assuming that if you didn't use the internet and social media in ministry, you would not be here. Consider this pastor's activities:
</span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Not counting weekly worship festivities, here is a glimpse of my technological life in a typical week: </span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Twitter: 150-200 tweets </span></span></li>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Facebook: 40-50 interactions and connections /li></span></span></li>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">E-mails: 300-400 e-mail that require a response /li></span></span></li>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Blogging: 2-3 postings /li></span></span></li>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Time: 20-25 hours online /li></span></span></li>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Cafe hours: 15-20 hours /li></span></span></li>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Home visits, face-to-face meetings: 2 /li></span></span></li>
<li>Emergency hospital visits -- none in eight years/li></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
And this is Bruce Reyes-Chow, formerly the Moderator of General conference -title- for the Presbyterian Church USA But this kind of pattern is becoming more and more the norm. I know people whose ministry leadership work keeps them at a screen at least four hours each day broken up by the occasional meeting. And they feel like they are spinning their wheels.
<br />
<span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">I'm sure you all have had days like that.Perhaps more than a day or so. Consider this experience from John Plotz: </span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">By some miracle, you set aside a day to tackle that project you can’t seem to finish in the office. You close the door, boot up your laptop, open the right file and . . . five minutes later catch yourself thinking about dinner. By 10 a.m., you’re staring at the wall, even squinting at it between your fingertips. Is this day 50 hours long? Soon, you fall into a light, unsatisfying sleep and awake dizzy or with a pounding headache; all your limbs feel weighed down. At which point, most likely around noon, you commit a fatal error: leaving the room. I’ll just garden for a bit, you tell yourself, or do a ew little charity work. Hmmm, I wonder if my friend Gregory is around??</span></span></blockquote>
And he didn't even mention that quick research on a topic in Wikipedia for just a minute or watching out a hot new viral video or two, or just quickly reviewig of your Facebook messages or repeated checking of email for whatever reason.Sound familiar? So does any of this sound familiar?<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">restlessness</span></span></li>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">inability to stick to a project or a plan - </span></span>not seeing matters through, </li>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">becoming or allowing oneself to be easily distracted, in attention</span></span></li>
<li>allowing tedium and boredom to creep in.</li>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">laziness of a kind, or sluggishness</span></span></li>
<li><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">easily becoming tired or even exhausted, </span></span></li>
</ul>
This may not a problem with time management, or simple procrastination, or even overuse of the internet, at least not by itself. The danger here is not limited to the psyche -- what I am describing here is what may be a malady of the soul -- acedia.Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-89288913636097524172017-09-14T09:22:00.002-07:002017-09-14T09:22:40.850-07:00Our journey in, of and for loveHere is an extended excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI's initial encyclical <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est.html">Deus Caritas Est</a> (God Is Love):<br />
<blockquote>
6. Concretely, what does this path of ascent and purification entail? How might love be experienced so that it can fully realize its human and divine promise? Here we can find a first, important indication in the Song of Songs, an Old Testament book well known to the mystics. According to the interpretation generally held today, the poems contained in this book were originally love-songs, perhaps intended for a Jewish wedding feast and meant to exalt conjugal love. In this context it is highly instructive to note that in the course of the book two different Hebrew words are used to indicate “love”. First there is the word dodim, a plural form suggesting a love that is still insecure, indeterminate and searching. This comes to be replaced by the word ahabà, which the Greek version of the Old Testament translates with the similar-sounding agape, which, as we have seen, becomes the typical expression for the biblical notion of love. By contrast with an indeterminate, “searching” love, this word expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier. Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice.<br />
<br />
It is part of love's growth towards higher levels and inward purification that it now seeks to become definitive, and it does so in a twofold sense: both in the sense of exclusivity (this particular person alone) and in the sense of being “for ever”. <u>Love embraces the whole of existence in each of its dimensions, including the dimension of time. It could hardly be otherwise, since its promise looks towards its definitive goal: love looks to the eternal. Love is indeed “ecstasy”, not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God</u>: “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Lk 17:33), as Jesus says throughout the Gospels (cf. Mt 10:39; 16:25; Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24; Jn 12:25). In these words, Jesus portrays his own path, which leads through the Cross to the Resurrection: the path of the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, and in this way bears much fruit. Starting from the depths of his own sacrifice and of the love that rea ches fulfilment therein, he also portrays in these words the essence of love and indeed of human life itself.</blockquote>
The roots of spirituality, at least as how I am presenting it, are covered well by the underlined section. The authentic journey to becoming ourselves and discovering our true vocation starts in our responding to that call to love and union that God has placed in our hearts. We may not understand much about that call, or even how to respond. But it is in responding that we gain knowledge and direction. It is God's initiative to put this longing in us, what he is asking first is our response, no matter how inept. He will lead us and teach us the better way, if we let Him.Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-18201049430564200982017-09-13T11:03:00.002-07:002017-10-03T12:05:44.912-07:00Hi, I'm Claude and I am a recovering acediac . . . I would suggest reviewing this from "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/books/review/their-noonday-demons-and-ours.html?mcubz=3">Their Noonday Demons, and Ours</a>" by John Plotz in the 9/17/2011 New York Times Sunday Book Review:<br />
<blockquote>
By some miracle, you set aside a day to tackle that project you can’t seem to finish in the office. You close the door, boot up your laptop, open the right file and . . . five minutes later catch yourself thinking about dinner. By 10 a.m., you’re staring at the wall, even squinting at it between your fingertips. Is this day 50 hours long? Soon, you fall into a light, unsatisfying sleep and awake dizzy or with a pounding headache; all your limbs feel weighed down. At which point, most likely around noon, you commit a fatal error: leaving the room. I’ll just garden for a bit, you tell yourself, or do a little charity work. Hmmm, I wonder if my friend Gregory is around?<br />
<br />
This probably strikes you as an extremely, even a uniquely, modern problem. Pick up an early medieval monastic text, however, and you will find extensive discussion of all the symptoms listed above, as well as a diagnosis. Acedia, also known as the “noonday demon,” appears again and again in the writings of the Desert Fathers from the fourth and fifth centuries. Wherever monks and nuns retreated into cells to labor and to meditate on matters spiritual, the illness struck.</blockquote>
This is a key issue -- more later.Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-45469530445999607432017-09-12T09:20:00.001-07:002017-09-12T09:20:04.733-07:00Opening ShotsHere are some of my notes towards the opening of the presentation -- in some ways setting out the thesis for the session.<br />
<br />
<hr />
<br />
Spirituality is like breathing -- all human beings have to figure out what they really desire and what they can do about it.
My definition of spirituality for the talk:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The individual pilgrimage responding to our deepest God given desires. This is difficult journey of integration and transformation to become our true selves doing our true work according to God’s loving intention for us. </blockquote>
Twenty-first Century digital communication technology can be God’s gift to us, and often is. But only if we have control of it, as opposed to it having control of us.
The effects of losing that control is becoming more insecure, fearful, socially and intellectually isolated, passive and distracted.
We will concentrate on how we address these effects in order to continue to grow as ministers and in the kind of help needed by those we minister to.<br />
<br />
I am not sharing the problems I have solved, or those parts of my life where I think I have made the most progress, or have it together. I am sharing my challenges and sometime failures, and the journey I am on because of them.<br />
<br />
This presentation does not address addictive disorders connected with the internet -- when internet use significantly interferes with normal life. We are addressing how it can interfere with our spiritual life and the spiritual lives of others. (In some cases we are concerned with the prevention of such disorders and addressing internet use with young people is a special area of concern. )<br />
<br />
I am not intending to offer some quick palliative measures for dealing with stuff, nor am I here as a technological Jeremiah to say that with the Internet we are all doomed. We will be looking at real problems, with a response that does more than slap a band-aid on the wound.
Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-53960809590675115082017-09-11T13:09:00.001-07:002017-09-11T13:09:41.871-07:00Practices<div class="tr_bq">
Colleen M. Griffith includes an excellent discussion of the idea of a "spiritual practice":</div>
<blockquote>
<b>The Nature and Purpose
of Spiritual Practice </b><br />
<br />
Spiritual practices are concrete and specific. They are consciously chosen, intentional actions that give practical purpose to faith. Situated between life as we know it and life in its hoped-for fullness, practices are imbued with a
sense of our relatedness to God, others, and the earth. Influencing our dispositions and outlooks on the world, spiritual practices render us more open and responsive to the dynamic activity
of God’s grace, and move us toward greater spiritual maturity.<br />
<br />
The “how to” question regarding spiritual practices is usually everyone’s first interest. Authors in this issue directly address the “how to” question, making it possible for readers to experience a spiritual practice for the first time. Ultimately, however, the “why” question proves more significant than the “how,” particularly over the long haul in maintaining the discipline of spiritual practice. What are we
practicing for?<br />
<br />
We engage in spiritual practices because we seek a way of life rather than just a conglomeration of doctrines or a set of moral principles. Desiring an embodied faith that touches us and changes us, we opt in spiritual practice for a “knowing” that springs from the heart’s core, the lev, spoken about in the Hebrew Scriptures as the center of our affections (Ps. 4:7), the source of our reflection (Is. 6:10), and the foundation of our will (1 Sam. 24:5). The point of such practice is never mastery, but deeper relational life, a kind of living that makes appropriation of one’s faith all the more possible.<br />
<br />
Catholic Christianity is indeed a tradition rich in practice. It is this editor’s hope that readers will find in the essays that follow entry into practices that nurture their spiritual lives, practices to be received, lived into, and reshaped in time and place for generations to come.</blockquote>
Much of the importance of this lies in the recognition that "why" is more important than "how". Things that are considered spiritual practices by some can be nothing of the kind to others, and vice versa. This will be very important when examining spiritual issues within a specific professional and technological context.Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-68929787734411450212017-09-11T09:16:00.002-07:002017-09-11T09:23:01.689-07:00From the sayings of the Desert FathersThey pretty much speak for themselves:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(Abba James) said, 'Just as a lamp lights up a dark room, so the fear of God
when it penetrates the heart of a man illuminates him, teaching him all the
virtues and commandments of God.'<br />
<br />
He also said, 'We do not need words only, for, at the present time, there are
many words among men, but we need works, for this is what is required, not
words which do not bear fruit.'</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(Abba Isidore the priest) said, 'If you fast regularly, do not be inflated
with pride, but if you think hightly of yourself because of it, then you had<
better eat meat. It is better for a man to eat meat than to be inflated with
pride and to glorify himself.'</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, 'Abba as far as I can I say
my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as
far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?' Then the old man
stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, 'If you will, you can become all flame.'</blockquote>
The last is a favorite and is good to keep in mind in discussions of spiritual practices.Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-68621195997918804772017-09-10T17:26:00.002-07:002017-09-10T17:27:38.992-07:00Taking a long vocationOne of the concepts that seems tied to the sort of spirituality I am examining is vocation. Here are a couple of quotes that I have been working with.<br />
<br />
Frederick Buechner, put the same idea in more Biblical and Christian terms. And I quote:
<br />
<blockquote>
"Vocation comes from the Latin vocare, "to call", and it means the work one is called to by God. There are all different kinds of voices calling you to do all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God, rather than that of society, or the superego, or self-interest. By and large, a good rule for finding this out is the following: the kind of work God usually calls you to do is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do, and (b) that the world needs most to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing deodorant commercials, the chances may be that you've missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you've probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you're bored and depressed by your work, the chances are you've not only bypassed (a), but you probably aren't helping your patients much, either. ... Neither the hair shirt nor the soft birth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."</blockquote>
Similarly, Buechner writes in Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation: "Listen to your life."<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace” (Now and Then, 87).</blockquote>
Thomas Merton<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess. Vocation does not come from a voice out there calling me to be something I am not. It comes from a voice in here calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.</blockquote>
The more I worked on the idea of spirituality, the closer I would get to the idea of vocation.Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-8478926781987183522017-09-09T15:57:00.003-07:002017-09-10T16:53:47.892-07:00The QuestionsThe reality is that I really can't give many answers in my Congress presentation -- maybe I should stick to the questions. Here is one high level set, or rather set of sets:<br />
<ol>
<li>What frustrates me most right now? Is distraction and lack of attention a problem? When I get bored, what is my "go-to" activity?</li>
<li>What am I looking for? What is missing in me that I am seeking? Have I given up looking? Do I have any idea where to start or resume?</li>
<li>Where am I on the journey?
</li>
<ul>
<li>Do I know how to pray, by myself, silently? Do I feel God listening? Do I think God has failed me or dislikes me?</li>
<li>What is my most important or liked regular religious activity that does not involve going to Mass? Am I accountable to anyone spiritually or morally?</li>
<li>Am I walking with the small ones of God? Do I know by name non-relatives that are poor, sick, incarcerated, homeless, bereaved, or abandoned? How have they changed my life?</li>
<li>Do I wake up in the morning happy or at peace most days? Do I wake up angry or depressed a lot?</li>
</ul>
<li>Tomorrow morning, what is the first thing that I will begin to change? What help do I need from others, or God? What do I expect?</li>
</ol>
<div>
This is just a start. I will have updates and an explanation of the structure a little later.</div>
Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-70998403130528853242017-09-09T12:52:00.001-07:002017-09-11T18:06:51.211-07:00Nailing jello to the wallI don't know if spirituality is the most difficult term to define, but you can spend a lot of time and find a lot of definitions. Here are some I came across, with my working definition at the end.<br />
<br />
Dictionary<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
spir·it·u·al·i·ty<br />
ˌspiriCHo͞oˈalədē/<br />
noun<br />
noun: spirituality; plural noun: spiritualities<br />
the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.<br />
"the shift in priorities allows us to embrace our spirituality in a more profound way"</blockquote>
<br />
Sr. Sandra M. Schneiders, I.H.M., Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The experience of consciously striving to integrate one's life in terms not of isolation and self-absorption but of self-transcendence toward the ultimate value one perceives.<br />
<i>Spirituality in the Academy, Theological Studies 50 (1989)</i></blockquote>
<div>
Urban dictionary</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
People who still want the mental crutch of Religion, but want to be as vague as possible about it so its harder to argue with their bullshit. These people generally lack the ability to form coherent logical arguments, struggle to think carefully and deeply about subjects and don't like the rules and restrictions imposed by Religion. Their position is so vague as to become difficult to argue against, allowing them to not only benefit from the mental crutch that usually is attached to religion, but hold a smug air of superiority that will piss off any reasonable critical thinker no end.
</blockquote>
Fr. Ronald Rolheiser O.M.I<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Spirituality is more about whether or not we can sleep at night than about whether or not we go to church. It is about being integrated or falling apart, about being within community or being lonely, about being in harmony with Mother Earth or being alienated from her. Irrespective of whether or not we let ourselves be consciously shaped by any explicit religious idea, we act in ways that leave us either healthy or unhealthy, loving or bitter. What shapes our actions is our spirituality. And what shapes our actions is basically what shapes our desire. Desire makes us act and when we act what we do will either lead to a greater integration or disintegration within our personalities, minds, and bodies—and to the strengthening or deterioration of our relationship to God, others, and the cosmic world. The habits and disciplines5 we use to shape our desire form the basis for a spirituality, regardless of whether these have an explicit religious dimension to them or even whether they are consciously expressed at all. Spirituality concerns what we do with desire. It takes its root in the eros inside of us and it is all about how we shape and discipline that eros. John of the Cross, the great Spanish mystic, begins his famous treatment of the soul’s journey with the words: <br /><br />
“One dark night, fired by love’s urgent longings.” <br /><br />
For him, it is urgent longings, eros, that are the starting point of the spiritual life and, in his view, spirituality, essentially defined, is how we handle that eros.”<br />
<i>The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality</i></blockquote>
Colleen M. Griffith, Boston College<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
From a Christian perspective, spirituality
gets traced back to the letters of Paul
in which he uses the Greek term pneuma
to signal a life lived in alignment with God’s
Spirit. Christian spirituality presumes,
through God’s grace, a human desire and
capacity for growing in union with the
Triune God. It encompasses the dynamic
character of human life lived in conscious
relationship with God in Christ through
the Spirit, as experienced within a community
of believers. To live a Christian
spirituality is to attend to what is of God
and to deepen in a life of conversion that
has discipleship as its goal.<br />
<i>Christian Spirituality in Practice, Century 21 Resources, Spring 2009</i></blockquote>
And now me. This is subject to change, which I will try to be transparent about<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Our individual pilgrimage responding to our deepest God given desires.<br />
This is a difficult journey of integration and transformation to become our true selves doing our true work according to God’s loving intention for us.</blockquote>
<br />
So far, so good.Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-22366157932027572632017-08-24T10:44:00.001-07:002017-08-24T14:18:49.200-07:00First things<a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/dorothy-day-biography-raises-universal-questions">Dana Greene in NCR remebers</a> an exchange she had with Dorothy Day:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My earnest query was, “What must be done next?” She replied: “First scrub the toilets.”</blockquote>
First things first. A saying with various ascriptions: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If you don't know what to do, do what is in front of you.</blockquote>
Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-76113936594433576442017-08-22T19:21:00.001-07:002017-08-22T19:22:22.559-07:00Oh, THAT wordA presentation, especially one an hour long, is an exercise in storytelling. Your audience can't flip back a few pages to figure out what you are talking about if you are not clear, if you have not brought everyone with you by <i>telling a story</i>. You can sometimes get away with breaking it up into small pieces so that the immediate perspective is obvious. (This is one of the errors that Power Point enables.) You have to tell a story that makes sense all the way through. <br />
<br />
Like any other form of storytelling, <i>backstory </i>is an issue. This is all the material you work out that underlies what you are presenting -- the hidden skeleton beneath the visible skin. This could be biographies of main characters. (Of course, the ultimate backstory builder was J.R.R. Tolkien - the formal backstory to <i>The Hobbit</i> and <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> is several volumes headed by the magnificent <i>Simarillion</i>.) But you can't spend your time talking fascinating backstory instead of the story you are trying to tell.<br />
<br />
One of my backstory issues is how far to go in the triplet of concepts that make up my definition of spirituality, designated by their Greek names:<br />
<ul>
<li>Eros -- desire</li>
<li>Doxa -- knowledge, understanding or opinion</li>
<li>Praxis -- a or action.</li>
</ul>
<div>
More about all three and how they fit together later. But we have to deal with the top term, <i>eros</i>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Eros is the Greek word for desire, and is often used in connection with sexual desire, hence the term erotic. In fact, many people find it difficult to grasp that larger meaning, but get stuck and zero in on that one concern. They miss the point.<br />
<br />
One of the best current writers on spirituality is Fr. Ron Rollheiser. He makes this point in his 1982 essay Spirituality An Erotic Urge:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
... When in fact someone in all sincerity believes that they are too full of life and eros, restlessness and complexity, to live the spiritual life they are being sucked in by a viral heresy which would have us believe that eros, the drive for life, is fundamentally irreligious. That is always a serious and costly mistake because eros is the very basis of the spiritual life and everyone, absolutely everyone, must live a spiritual life.
<br />
<br />
What we do with the eros inside of us, be it heroic or perverse, is our spiritual life. The tragedy is that so many persons, full of riches and bursting with life, see this drive as something that is essentially irreligious, as something that sets them against what is spiritual. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our erotic pulses are God’s lure in us. They are our spirit! We experience them precisely as “spirit,” as that which makes us more than mere mammals. However, again and again, in my ministry and in my friendships I am confronted with persons who sincerely believe that they are unspiritual when, in fact, they are deeply spiritual persons. Unable to form a vision within which they can integrate their drive for life, celebration and sexuality, into a commitment which includes church-going, Christian sexual morality, prayer and involvement in a Eucharistic community, they are forced into a false dilemma: They must choose between a Christian commitment (which appears as erotic suicide) and a life partially away from Christian community, sacraments, prayer and morality, but within which they feel they can be fully human, sensual, sexual and celebrating. This dilemma, within which the church is seen as a parasite, sucking life’s pulse out of its subjects, then allows society’s amorality to parade itself as being ultimately life-giving and the true defender of eros.
</blockquote>
<br />
Our discussion of spirituality must begin with eros, even if the term bothers or scares us.</div>
Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-62081479044001871772017-08-18T09:20:00.003-07:002017-08-18T09:20:37.721-07:00Dialogue cannot exist without humility.Some relevant bits from Paulo Freire:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
No one is born fully-formed: it is through self-experience in the world that we become what we are.
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Within the word we find two dimensions-reflection and action. If one is sacrificed even in part, the other immediately suffers. To speak a true word is to transform the world.
</blockquote>
Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-27568583174763146512017-08-16T13:01:00.001-07:002017-08-24T09:06:23.162-07:00Nice TryHere is one of the descriptions I put togethere for the talk -- one that did not get into the registration book.
<br />
<hr />
<b>
Achieve Enlightenment with this one stupid trick - spirituality in a time of clickbait, packaged "religion" and transhumanism
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Spirituality is as natural and universal as breathing -- and we as Catholics recognize that spiritual development is necessary for becoming fully human<br />
<br />
But the path to that humanity can be hard to find today. There are:weapons of mass distraction such as click-bait, fake news, and online pornography. "Spirituality" is becoming just one more consumer product. Explosive progress in artificial intelligence and neuroscience alters for some the idea of what humanity is, and what it might become.<br />
<br />
We don't need to retreat to some enclave of imagined safety or to try to ignore the whole thing. Our challenge is to make a pilgrimage back to our roots as a Christian community to understand better not only our own spiritual needs but how to accompany others in this confusing time.<br />
------
<br />
My experience includes several years as journalism, followed by 20+ years of software development. For the past 10 years i have worked for this diocese in detention ministry and as the sometime webmaster. I'm now a year into being the full time webmaster as part of CommNet Media. Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-38526666236878824002017-08-15T15:46:00.000-07:002017-08-15T17:45:19.138-07:00Coming DetractionsWell it finally happened.
No, not the fall of Western civilization. I am scheduled as a presenter At the Diocese of Fresno Congress October 14 in Visalia. My session is <b>D.03 - Spirituality for Webmasters and Social Media Mavens</b>. My intention is to start posting some of the pieces of my presentation here, as a sort of tryout, once concept at a time. In the end, my intention is to post any materials for the session here. Stay tuned.
Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-12140073934176297312015-07-21T18:00:00.000-07:002015-07-22T07:29:49.365-07:00St. Thèrése, Creation, and You<blockquote>You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at
the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at
the love with which we do them. ― St. Thérèse of Lisieux</blockquote>
<blockquote>The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, His
boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything
is, as it were, a caress of God”. ― Pope Francis</blockquote>
<p>
Many today love and try to emulate St. Thèrése of Lisieux. She died an obscure young nun in France in 1897, but less than 30 years later was declared a saint. We have a special devotion here to St. Thèrése and her Little Way of Love, as the Diocese of Fresno was the first in the world to adopt Thèrése as our patroness. Pope Francis in his new encyclical, Laudato Si' points to St. Therese as a model for us in how we treat Creation, a model that is important for us here central California.</p>
<p>In this letter, Francis reflects on our relationship and responsibility to God’s Creation, what science can and does tell us about the condition and future of the natural world, and the moral and social roots of the current crisis. Key insights and teachings include:</p>
<ul>
<li>the same selfishness and obsession with consumption that result in violence, poverty and injustice, are also at the root of abuse of nature;</li>
<li>we need a new understanding of man and nature together, an integral ecology, which addresses the current environmental crisis while respecting human needs and dignity;</li>
<li>this is a genuinely dire crisis and our response must include action by governments and all other social institutions including economic, legal, and political changes.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<p>All these great changes are necessary, but they cannot be enough unless we choose to simplify and moderate our lives. Pope Francis points us to Thèrése for guidance:
<blockquote>230. Saint Thèrése of Lisieux invites us to practice the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship. An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness. In the end, a world of exacerbated consumption is at the same time a world which mistreats life in all its forms.</blockquote>
<p>We live in a large diocese, with a great range of climates and ecosystems, as well as urban areas and the many cultures brought here by generations of new arrivals. There are few American dioceses that encompass more of the natural and social issues that the Pope writes about. Our challenges are from both our natural and human environments, problems that share the same source in the darker places in our own hearts and institutions. We are going to need more than sustainable agriculture or renewable energy, we must have a community of many cultures that can sustain this effort in things big and small, which requires continual renewal of our own lives, especially our spiritual lives.</p><p> We already see and hear a lot of concern and conflict over these issues, from major policy decisions to how much a neighbor waters their lawn. Turning around our relationship with nature and each other will be hard and require daily effort. But following the little way of love of St. Thérèse can be our way forward. We can find God in all the small and everyday things, trusting in His mercy, doing each task and encountering each person with love and humility. The result can be a renewal of nature, our culture, and ourselves.</p>
<p>It is up to us.</p>
<blockquote>“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word;
always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” ― St. Thérèse of Lisieux </blockquote>
<hr/>
This first appeared in the Office of Ministries <a href="http://www.dioceseoffresno.org/bulletins">Newsletter</a>Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-31466823541616908172010-09-10T06:59:00.000-07:002010-09-10T07:44:46.620-07:00Above all, trust in the slow work of God<p></p><blockquote><p><b>Pneuma</b></p><p>Above all, trust in the slow work of God.<br />We are quite naturally impatient in everything<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>to reach the end without delay.<br />We should like to skip the intermediate stages.<br />We are impatient of being on the way<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>to something unknown,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>something new.<br />Yet it is the law of all progress that is made<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>by passing through some stages of instability<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and that may take a very long time.</p><p>And so I think it is with you.<br />Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow.<br />Let them shape themselves without undue haste.<br />Do not try to force them on<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>as though you could be today what time<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>-- that is to say, grace --<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and circumstances<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>acting on your own good will<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>will make you tomorrow.<br />Only God could say what this new Spirit<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>gradually forming in you will be.</p><p>Give our Lord the benefit of believing<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>that his hand is leading you,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>in suspense and incomplete.<br />Above all, trust in the slow work of God,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>our loving vine-dresser.</p><p>Amen.</p><p><i>Fr. Peter Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.</i></p></blockquote><p><i></i></p>Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-75072281837641375372010-09-10T06:55:00.000-07:002010-09-10T06:57:03.070-07:00Quote: James Baldwin<blockquote>The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.</blockquote>Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19797589.post-76867966975965111282010-02-10T16:44:00.000-08:002010-02-10T16:46:11.199-08:00Quote: C.S. Lewis<blockquote>To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.</blockquote>Claude Munceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07974544719277271023noreply@blogger.com0