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Wisdom Saying
A saint is someone who has acquired a taste for the holiness of God, a person whose heart has become attuned to the rhythm of love. It is difficult to hear that rhythm amid the noise and distractions of daily life. It requires a certain space and silence and time devoted to listening.
*Robert Ellsberg. The Saint's Guide to Happiness.
Comments
Ultimately, to savor the taste of God in all things and all things in God, requires, say the saints of all faiths, a withdrawal from the world. Each of us finds our own way to this withdrawal, if we wish to touch the depths of Love.
For most of us, this withdrawal will occur at intervals in our daily schedule and as times apart for devotions and meditation. We each need a set aside place and times for regular withdrawal alone.
One need in practice of the Presence of God is right company. St. Gregory of Nyssa (14th Century) lived in a time of much doctrinal contention in the Church. Near the end of his life, while serving as a bishop, he wrote, drawing from the Exodus image of Moses in the Midian desert shepherding sheep:
In the same way we shall live a solitary life, no longer entangled with advesaries or mediating between them, but we shall live among those of life like disposition and mind who are fed by us while all the movements of our soul are shepherded, like sheep, by the will of guiding reason.
*Gregory of Nyssa: The Life of Moses. Eds. A. J. Malherbe and E. Ferguson. In "The Classics of Western Spirituality."
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Of import in Gregory's words is that "solitary life" can be lived among others. We can practice the spirit of solitude and live a life within larger society, but we have to shape a daily routine that keeps us from becoming entangled in the lack of rhythm of secular living.
And we cannot expect to have inner peace and awareness of the inward Life if we are drowned in grumblings and gripes of persons of mediocre mind. While we cannot fully avoid such persons, we must share time with others of spiritual soul, who have the same spiritual intent, and are not persons who generate discontent and disruption through religious and moral contentions. In this sharing, peace meets peace, and each is guided and nourished by the Presence in the other.
St. Catherine of Siena (14th Century) wanted to be a nun. Her family blocked her dream. Her father locked Catherine in the house and forced her to do the tasks of a household servant. Catherine, however, practiced inner solitude of the heart. There she retreated in the midst of daily chores. She reflected, later, that this practice of inner solitude transformed her daily tasks into a ladder to heaven.
Our determination to sensitize our taste for the Presence of God in our everyday lives will evidence in the regularity of set aside time, apart from distractions, to commune with Spirit. Through this regular spiritual discipline, the inner sanctuary, to which we can have recourse throughout day and night, becomes a more natural and effortless haven of Intimate Loving.
Suggested Reflection
Whom do you enjoy as spiritual companions for mutual encouragement and affirmation in your spiritual emergence? How might you integrate more solitude into your daily schedule? How are daily tasks for you steps on the ladder to heaven?
*Brian K. Wilcox is a United Methodist pastor in Florida and offers OneLife Ministries to encourage persons of all faith persuasions to contemplative practice.
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