Prayer is unbelievably important. I lost my younger brother last week, and like every other time death kicks in the door, I pray more fervently. The problem for me is sustaining it. I eventually reach the desert and it becomes a struggle. Articles like this, podcasts, and books help, so thank you.
I remember an old saying that the prayers of monks sustain the world, but we living in the world have our work to do as well. Especially in these dark days.
I have found over the years that my prayer life and Christian pilgrimage have been truly sustained and enriched by the old church practice of “saying the offices” daily. They provide a framework for personal prayer and carry one along even when one does not want to pray (alas, a not infrequent inclination!). One has the sense that one has entered into and is being borne along into God’s presence by the timeless liturgy of the Holy Church universal - something much greater than oneself.
I’m so sad for your loss of your brother. Grief is painful. But prayer for me is the Medicine for the heart and soul, it’s the only things that acts as a needed balm to our modern spiritual pain. I’m currently grieving my self for my elderly frail father who I care for, he has a hideous from of severe dementia in which he bites and hits people randomly. It’s horrid. The only thing that sustains me and hopefully my Pop, is praying with all my heart to God for Mercy and Grace . I will pray for you and the soul of your brother B. L as well. 🙏
Rod, amazing, wonderful Substack column today, thank you, what a blessing!
Could you please clarify this one thing: <<"Lo, three decades on, I have lived to see it all come true. If time stopped today, the vision will have been fulfilled. But I see that it is still unfolding">>
You bolded the part where you said it had all come true.
I'd taken this, since you first spoke of it on Substack, to say you perhaps saw the equivalent of the rest of Revelation 5, the seven seals, which are horrible, horrible things. Or at least I thought you were saying things got even worse than they are now in your vision. My heart went out to you as I imagined trying to live with such visionary knowledge.
But - you seem to be saying here that it has all happened. So that means I misunderstood, and you do not have vison-type knowledge of the future, yes, because the vision has happened? It surely looks to get worse, but we don't know how much, or when, or if some things may turn around. Am I getting this right?
The destruction I saw symbolically rendered in that vision -- in particular the *nature* of the destruction -- has happened, yes. It wasn't like a "New York City will be annihilated in a nuclear bomb" kind of thing; it was a vision of cultural and social annihilation, through particular means. I don't feel comfortable talking about those details now. The confusion, I think, comes because even though the great cloud of violence and confusion (so to speak) has overtaken us, its logic is still being worked out. As I said, what I saw in the vision has already taken place -- took place in the years after I had it -- but the results of those events are still with us, and continuing. Does that make sense?
It's like this: say someone had a vision in 1960 of the coming Sexual Revolution. By 1990, it would have happened, but the effects of that revolution were still ongoing. That's what I mean.
P.S. I don't think I saw the Seven Seals, or if I did, I didn't know what I was looking at. It feels extremely weird to write these lines. There's a good reason I didn't say anything about this in public (instead keeping it among friends, some of whom read this Substack and are free to attest to the fact that I told them about it a long time ago, if they wish). But as I was finishing the book, something told me it was time to talk about it, because it's an example of a mystical event happening, one that was confirmed in an uncanny way about an hour after it occurred, and that I took seriously enough to let it frame my analytical perspective over the course of my career. And, as I say, I have now lived through its fulfillment, or at least enough of its fulfillment to convince me that what I saw that night was a real vision of the future. The last line I heard interiorly in the vision was, "You will lose your reason, but stay close to the Church, for I am at its center. And don't be afraid, for the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David has triumphed." I wasn't ever sure what the "lose your reason" phrase meant, but I have come to see it as a warning that the times to come would mean society's loss of the ability to reason within a Christian framework, and a command to hold tight **by an act of willed faith** to the truths that have come down to us through the Church (and that includes the canon of Scripture).
Thank you. Yes it makes sense. Also I never thought it was for sure the seven seals. Even if you had seen those things that did not indicate "the" tribulation. I do not think like that.I am glad you went forward I am sure as the Spirit led for the time to talk of the experience.
Isa 1:18 says, “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool."
The Hebrew word for "reason" there can mean "to show to be right, prove; to convince, convict".
The West is well on its way to losing its ability to be convicted of sin, or shown the truth of anything from scripture. So I agree with you. Society has loss the ability to know, understand, or follow God. We can be blinded too, if we don't stay close to the church, to true believers, and to God.
Talk about meta-narrative. "You will lose your reason" has to be the core meta-narrative of the age. I think there is something incredibly deep there in what God spoke to you. It's the door he's given you to open other doors of understanding what is happening to us.
Anybody who is on Facebook and in some Facebook groups will inevitably come to a moment when someone has said something which can't be responded to adequately by a Christian unless the Christian brings some aspect of spirituality into the exchange.
Do this, and you know what will happen. If you are fortunate not to be told that you are an idiot ( I thanked somewhat for that once, and added that I had been seeking vocational guidance ), someone, maybe not the person you are talking directly to, but someone - count on it! - will say, "Not everyone believes that( ! added if it's a woman ).
I know well just how stubborn people can be to believe in God. No matter what you tell them, their minds are made up.
And yet, you don't have to bring spirituality into it. Bring science.
Consider the shroud of Turin, and the scientists who went over in the 70's to study it. Why did these scientists who weren't believers go to all the trouble? Because they heard something about the image on the shroud that was simply impossible for it to be there. It is just as if they were told of a UFO that they could study in detail - and told something of the alleged alien artifact that made it impossible for it to be of human origin. Of course they would go to study such an amazing thing.
The thing they heard about the shroud was that the image contained 3D information. It wasn't just an image. The image showed how far away from the body it had lain. But how often have you heard about this? People don't talk about the most incredible things. We have proof that the description given in the New Testament of the crucifixion is entirely real and reliable - because we have a sci-fi level image of the real thing - of Jesus himself. But people don't know we have the proof.
They don't want to. I'm not quite a Calvinist, but you don't have to be a Calvinist to understand the natural resistance to God which we all have. The mystery to me is exactly how The Holy Spirit works in conversion.
This may make no sense in the context of the rest of your vision or in the timeframe when it took place, but as I read your description this time I was thinking about your reference in the vision to reason and it reminded me of the way that a single word can have multiple meanings or refer to multiple things.
One thing that I think you’ve said before is how much your initial faith was based on intellectual arguments. Since the vision talked about “your” reason instead of society’s reason, could it also have been referring to the fact that intellectual arguments would ultimately not be sufficient for you, “but stay close to the Church, for I am at its center. And don't be afraid, for the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David has triumphed.”?
Maybe this doesn’t make sense, but it struck me that way this evening….
What you say about holding on by an act of willed faith after losing ability to reason in Christian framework -
In Robert Hugh Benson's apocalyptic novel The Lord of the World, exactly this happens to the main character after the initial appearance of the man who is the Antichrist.
Rod, calling anything in our society "destruction" strikes me as hyerbole beyond warrant. Compare to the destruction wrought in a major war or natural disaster. What we have is higher social entropy, yes, some danage to the natural world, but by and large we live in a comfortable world, one ancestors not many generations back would envy. My vision (yes, I'll call it that) is of a world ravaged by the cold and dark of nuclear winter and everything that implies for both the human and natural world. The troubles today are barely a bump in the road next to that level of ruin. Hence why I roll my eyes over what strikes me as privileged snowflakery on the Right over our quotidian woes of today.
The complete loss of a theistic or moral framework, the coronation of individual will as the only god, the disintegration of the family and inability of huge swathes of the western population to reproduce themselves, these are not small snowflakes but the destruction of things basic to society from the beginning of time. We have broken something and being warm and well fed will not fix it.
Our luxurious lifestyle has become such an idol that people are refusing to have children for fear that they will have to make sacrifices.
What "complete loss"? As you doubtless know many of of us here, beginning with Rod himself, are steadfast in our belief and practice. I'm one of those people too. Among the many, many tasks incumbent on me in my move, I hung up my icons in my bedroom as soon as I had the room barely functional, and set out my several Bibles as well, and I have resumed my nightly readings and my morning devotions.
But it's hardly the case that religious folk are naturally saintly, and non-religious folk are wholly wicked. We all suffer from the common sins of mankind, and humankind is no worse or no better morally than it ever was in that regard. I think you romanticize a past that never was, and decry a present that is far better than you give it credit for.
I dream dreams (if that's what they are) of living under the cold and the dark. But I value the sunlight all the more because of it. My advice is this: seek the light rather than cursing the darkness. Heal yourself before blaming the world.
Do you know what the date was on this? Byron lived through the cold period after the eruption of Mt. Tambora, which produced "the year without a summer", and crop failures and famine all over the world. It was especially severe in much of northern Europe. I wonder if this is a take off from that disaster.
We've become so committed to, and are therefore awash in, tangibles, that we pay no attention to the intangibles that have been devalued and lost. In "the reign of quantity" the tangible/measurable is always what's most attended to.
We've sold our spiritual birthright for a bowl of consumerist, technological pork 'n' beans.
Jon, Rod has been good to you and listened patiently to you. You do not tell a man his vision is hyperbole beyond warrant. You seek to understand. It is rude to do otherwise. And maybe rude of me to tell you so, but you sometimes get the inner Mamaw up in me.
Rod said this destruction has come but is also still being worked out. If you think nothing negative, nothing destructive has come since 1993, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. And if you think Rod said the West is already completely destroyed, I have a film of the soundstage where they filmed the moon landing,
I'd support Jon. We need people who provide uncompromising intelligent dissent. Doesn't mean I am in agreement (sometimes yes, other times no), but it's important to have people that challenge the prevailing viewpoint, and thus have an alternative take.
Eh - no problem. It's fine Jon dissents, I just thought the first sentence about hyperbole beyond warrant regarding something close to Rod's heart and spirit that he states is taking a risk to share was an insult and out of line.
Linda, on a scale of Bad Things from 1 to 10, set by historical realities going back to antiquity with "10" as the worst, I'd put us Americans today between a "1" and a "3". The "1" people are especially privileged and fortunate. The "3" people are living in bad places like West Baltimore or some exceptionally dysfunctional rural areas. Most of us though live at a "2" (with allowances of course for the personal griefs that beset everyone in every age-- lost loved ones, hopeless health issues, etc.) But really: we live far, far better than any people in history ever lived, born on third base and thinking we hit a triple as the saying goes.
Not that I think all shall be well indefinitely. I do forebode catastrophe, in a generation or so. But not anything that has much to do with abstract metaphysics or "wonder"-- wonder would no more save us than glorious Gothic cathedrals spared the 14th century from the Black Death. Though I do agree that a return to enchantment is very much in order (I will be buying Rod's book next month). It won't save us from ruin, but it may preserve the just a little of the light in our own world's version of the cold and the dark. God does not spare us from grief, but He's there, in all places and filling all things, as the Comforter, as Hope the Restorer of Worlds.
This is not about numbers. This is about Western civilization slowly being destroyed, and no timeline has been set by Rod for that, but it is a sad thing. You incorrect surmise that Rod says Wonder will save "Us" if you mean everyone. He wants believing Christians to develop a sense of the presence of God and believe God can do wonders. This will be needed as days grow darker and Christianity becomes less accepted. Yes, I know most Christians are OK in the West now, they are not in prison, they get to keep their jobs. But they either have to homeschool their kids, put them in private school or send them to a school that tells them they might be the opposite gender. Many, many parents have to know their grandchild died in an abortion. Many women lose men, and many men lose women, both at greater rates, marriages once did not break down as much.. We suffer in terms of our families, more than we used to. We parade perversion on the streets in front of children. We have taken in 10 million people, mostly men, that we can't support. No one said it was WW2, but there are things to be concerned about, there has been some destruction.
Difference is, the unspeakable loneliness felt by many today. The little girl about to perish in the Justinian Plague was at least surrounded by her family (who were likely to die as well). Her faith, too, was unbroken, with the promise of better things to come.
Minor quibble: it's recorded during the great plagues that people abandoned even their closest loved ones to die alone.
Bigger quibble: those who are lonely today, assuming they are not shut ins due to health issues, should get off the internet, shut off the TV and get out and DO something. And I am not preaching anything I don't practice.
PS - Jon I should have said this first. Rod specifically stated this was not "the seven seals" - not what happened in Revelation 5 after verse 5 (that he read and that is referring to them). So he specifically said he could have seen much worse. You know what is in the seven seals? Horrible.
This article beautifully touches on the deeper spiritual dimensions of Christianity, which closely aligns with themes I've explored in my own work. In "Why Gnosticism is The Christianity That’s Needed Today", I discuss how Gnosticism provides an active spiritual path that reawakens the mystical aspects of faith.
Similarly, in "Rethinking Christianity: God or Jesus? The Bible or the Holy Spirit?", I invite readers to reconsider traditional perspectives, focusing on the Holy Spirit and the boundless nature of God beyond dogma.
For those interested in exploring these ideas further, feel free to check out my articles here:
A piece of advice (My Advice: freely given and worth ALMOST that much). Keep In Touch With Your Inner Six Year Old. Makes the world a much more interesting, and magical place, God has given us.
Yes, yes, yes, to the danger of polluting the gift of neuroplasticity in the brain with the vagaries of digital information delivery. Similar to you, I’ve spent a vast amount of time on the internet for decades. Recently, I read Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, and realized that the detrimental effects on children he and his co-researcher documented had manifested in me and other adults I know. From something as simple as having difficulty with long paragraphs to general attention waywardness arising out of multi-tasking, it’s all there and for all the benefits of inhabiting the digital space, ultimately a curse.
Dear Betsy and All: There is Christian meditation. An ancient practice, I highly recommend it. It is misunderstood as thinking about God or saying prayers, which are also important but it is different. If it is done, it has been shown to change the brain, to give more possibility of paying attention, so important for Christians,
I consider it a good thing. But it is not meditation. It is not replaced by meditation nor is prayer. Prayer is not meditation. Mindfulness is not meditation. The video linked above is 8 minute long, and you get the main points in six. Basically, it is putting yourself in the presence of God and not thinking words, except a single word/single phrase used as a mantra, and returning to the word/phrase as thoughts arise, which they do constantly, but just as quickly you can let go of them. Here is one of the first things that came up when I googled on benefits of meditation for the brain
Linda, I do think you're a Fox! (I refer to Isaiah Berlin's categorization of thinkers into a Hedgehog or a Fox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog_and_the_Fox) I am 100% a hedgehog. In watching the video on "how to meditate" I kept thinking--how is this different than saying the Rosary while keeping oneself focused? It is obvious that if my mind wanders I would bring my attention back to the words of the prayer. I don't need a special little word like Maranatha to do it!
Also, don't you feel the slightest bit manipulated by that video with the Siddhartha-voiced narration? Was that necessary?
I used to be a huge fan of meditation and mindfulness. But Mother Angelica, in a throwaway comment, called it misguided. It caused me to re-evaluate. Now, I think she is right in that if I spent 1 hour in prayer it would be far more beneficial than just meditating (classic focus on your breath version) for an hour.
One more thing: Most of those brain studies are correlational observations based on an unproven inference on top of another unproven inference.
Well, the Fox comment is interesting. I guess I was open to this idea even though the word meditation is used in other religions. I don't always look at enough sources, however, and I am way Plato over Aristotle. But thanks - I think it was a compliment and you ought to be good at such feedback as a clinical psychologist.
The "suggested" word was "Maranatha", not mandatory. The Rosary in theory would be fine depending on thought, and the Jesus Prayer would definitely be fine for most people, again depending on thought. It is *not* dismissing all thought but those of/toward God. It is letting all thought go. I think there are two differences (1) The degree of wandering and (2) The type of wandering.
It boils down to: When saying the Rosary one is supposed to "meditate" (proper work but a synonym for the meditation I am speaking of) on the mysterious, glorious, sorrowful or otherwise. That means one is allowing oneself to follow thoughts, to follow words in one's brain. In meditation, thoughts, even thoughts about God or toward God are not followed. So, one "prays" the rosary. Meditation is not prayer, not consciously addressing any words to God, nor listening for God to say words. Though I sometimes get very wise insights just after a meditation session. The Jesus Prayer can work if one does not follow any thoughts whilst saying it.
So "Ma -ra" "What for dinner to.,." "na tha Ma " "I hope they didn't misunderstand that post I really" ra na tha Ma ra na tha Ma ra na" " God is so wonderful. I love" "tha Ma ra na tha". Getting the mind as quiet as possible. Not having thoughts, not words except the mantra if possible (though I can't quiet my mind very well, but any attempt helps, and gets the mind quieter than usual).
The benefit physically is to alter the brain in a way prayer does not. The brain is more capable of attention, calmer, all the benefits in the article linked above. This does not mean to neglect prayer or any other form of devotion. A spiritual benefit I found was a greater awareness of the presence of God through the day. Because in meditation I'm aware of His presence but not through words. So the words of my thoughts distract me less from His presence. For me it decreased habitual anxiety greatly. It was of vast psychological benefit.
And again, it is not "mindfulness" which is more about living in the now and paying attention to each thing in your environment. You can see that is entirely different from meditation. (Only similar because you dismiss thoughts about the past and future in mindfulness. In meditation you let all thoughts pass and return to the mantra. Some can do it without a mantra and they return to the breath but that is impossible for me.)
You said "focus on your breath". But it is not "focus". It is letting go of all thoughts, in words. It is not thinking about breath or being aware of breath. The breath version is easily misunderstood like that. There is also an image version (just looking at an icon or a candle and letting thoughts go with only awareness of his presence). You are doing it for spiritual health - it brings a different kind of spiritual health. I was a nervous wreck after losing my boyfriend and before starting to meditate. - Now I don't even startle as easily, for instance, and I have a big problem with being startled easily (example: loudly saying "oh" or something if someone barely bumps against me by accident, not hurt but startled, or literally screaming if an explosion occurs whereas no one around me screams - I got better but I'm not perfect at it.)
Last one, I know this is long. Words are in my head 100 percent of the (awake) time. I learned only half the people are like that, others have times of silence to at least some extent, Sethu says he has total silence if not listening, speaking or writing (astounding). I do not know - I might not need this if there were times my mind stopped chattering as long as I was also continually aware of God's presence.
I’m glad you received such profound psychological benefits from practicing meditation
I think the research on meditation and mindfulness (as you defined; being in the now, Thich Nhat Hanh stuff) is definitive and positive. You’re an example of how it can help! It has helped me many times and I still practice “mindful dishwashing” type stuff to settle my thoughts and get my head in the same room as my butt.
As to the Fox comment it was meant as a compliment as you have to be a quality thinker to be a Fox or Hedgehog in Berlin’s taxonomy. I also meant it to note that I am 100% Hedgehog and see nothing but similarities—one big thing. It’s really a flaw in me.
2nd reply - sorry I realized I had more. I guess it is a favorite topic.
You spoke of "Siddhartha-like". I don't think it was intended that way. But I do think this. The World Center for Christian Meditation takes things to "the edge" but it is an important edge.
For instance, talk of the Jewish Victor Frankl in today's substack.
The video makes the case, and it is true, that Christians, especially ancient Christians, know about and practice true meditation. But it is highly associated with Buddhism and more common for all Buddhists. The WCCM is not getting this directly from Buddhism, but they are admitting this is the same practice. But hey, suppose Christians did not pray enough and we acknowledged other religions prayed, that would be OK. I think most modern Christians do not know about meditation. They have a chance for much better mental health if they will learn about it. It is fully Christian.
Mother Angelica was great but there was an old teaching in Charismatic circles (she was Charismatic and I am) that one should not "empty" one's mind. Meditation was misunderstood as such. The words stop, but the mind is filled with God's presence.
I thought the number of minutes was over-recommended in the video, because many can't reach the goal. I've never done two 20-30 minute sessions a day given as an eventual goal. Generally only 10-20. One hour is my record. Meditation is not my spiritual strength. There are people who do it for hours, and they are so filled with God, sometimes I think they glow.
Thank you for this note on Mother Angelica. I did not know about the emptying the head thing. As I think of it, maybe that’s the simple answer as to why she dismissed meditation./mindfulness. I’ve been noodling over her possible reasons for years! Thank you. You have so much great information to share!
If one could only pray or meditate, not both, then, pray. But Christians pray, go to mass/church, read scripture, think about God, etc. Meditation is a good spiritual practice and one that has benefits for spiritual growth (due to the brain) that others do not. (But it is not mindfulness. If you learned mindfulness you did not learn meditation.)
I have not read it but I found these words, "The book counsels the young student to seek God, not through knowledge and intellect (faculty of the human mind), but through intense contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought...This is brought about by putting all thoughts and desires under a "cloud of forgetting," and thereby piercing God's cloud of unknowing with a "dart of longing love" from the heart. This form of contemplation is not directed by the intellect, but involves spiritual union with God through the heart:"
That sounds like meditation. Yes, I think contemplation is perfect for adoration. A person surely could meditate during Adoration, and the awareness of God's presence that is part of Adoration would be even stronger. It is just - words in the brain, even about God or toward God - are dismissed during meditation, so it is not prayer or contemplation.
The word "meditate" is also used for deep thought/contemplation "I'll have to meditate on that". But it is a synonym. There are multiple meanings for the word.
Already ordered. Looking forward to it, Rod. Like most things of instruction in the Bible, "Pray without ceasing" is not in there to be poetic. We are to stay constantly in touch with God. Not only is it good to set aside a dedicated block of time to bring conversation and petition to the Lord, which I've been doing these last couple years, daily. But when something comes up you think you need to bring to the Lord, bring it. You are not inconveniencing him. Talk to Him. Bring your concerns to Him. His peace follows you throughout the day and you may see small movements and miracles around you.
This piece covers so many important thinkers and what Rod has reminded us all to do.
Rod has taken up the baton in his career, where forgive me for what could be taken the wrong way, Stanley Hauerwaus left off. Not the neo-Anabaptist pacifism or the lack of emphasis of tradition, but the insistence that we need to make room in our lives for God, have real faith, and to expect answers to prayer. To ask, over and over again, if we are too busy to be Christians how can we change our lives in practical ways so that we can listen for what each of us ought to do, day to day.
The critical difference is that Rod has put his writing within the small o orthodox tradition. There is a reluctance in my making a comparison because Stanley Hauerwaus was criticized in certain ways, mostly for taking faith too seriously and in ways that left people uncomfortable, as if they had to actually take hold of the questions of life in their own lives. But that is what this world so badly needs, to accept Jesus as real, not just as metaphor or word games or for ethics.
Again, sorry if this is taken badly, this is intended as a positive. I revisited Hauerwaus and I came away thinking that Rod had taken up the same topic but the next step and in a more complete way.
"The irony of the science fiction story “Gattaca” is that the most oppressed character was not the one at a biological disadvantage but the one whose parents’ designs for him were forever written into his biology. His life was not fully his own."
You DO realize that you have DNA as well? You abilities and limits are just as much 'written into your biology' as any designer baby. Its just that your DNA was compiled randomly. So your abilities would be lower, and your limits higher.
Oh, "random". One of the lessons of Dante's Hell is that nothing HAPPENS there. It's all a circle. ("I see crowds of people walking round in a ring.") There are no EVENTS. Just the damned telling their stories, over and over. To paraphrase, God likes Chance. He invented it.
My faith journey coincides with yours, Rod. We're the same age and I discovered you in the NY Post in the 90's. I think we were both experiencing an awakening (and some mystical experiences) at the same times in our lives. I read something you wrote, maybe an op-ed, in which you were exasperated by some cultural issue (I wish I could remember what). I thought: he is just like me.....though less of a schmoe! I sought you out on the internet. I'm so glad that you're still grinding and making yourself vulnerable in your writing.
FWIW, I'm with you. I believe you. I Pray for you every day.
Et lux in tenebris lucet. The image of Frankl digging a ditch during a bitter Bavarian dawn, his hands aching from the cold, thinking of his faraway wife, feeling the soul-piercing despair, when, from the beyond comes an affirmation of what it means to suffer and at that moment an incandescent light flickers on in a distant farmhouse...well, it's just stunning.
...and not knowing that his young wife and their unborn child were already cold ashes shortly after arrest while he would go on being shuffled among four different camps.
That he did not give in to despair during the war or bitterness after it is proof enough for me that Dr Frankl had tapped into something of the divine. "Man's Search for Meaning" is a gem of a book.
I read a review of the horror movie "Hereditary" by a "Christian who happens to write horror," Justin Lee, that, not only made my hair stand on end, but gave hope. The hope that the "aspiring vacuum" as Malachi Martin calls it, which attracts the demonic, can be filled only by a cry to God.
"Hereditary" is a dark film, but among the best horror flicks of the last decade. One nice touch is that the family, even absent the possession plot, is already living a hellish existence in their inability to love and find meaning - that's the real horror.
There's no touch of the sacred anywhere in their lives. They don't know they need help. Nor will there be any forthcoming.
I had to look Justin Lee up to learn that they are two different people. The one I refer to writes for First Things Magazine. His review of the movie ‘Hereditary” reminded me of a Marshall McLuhan“the cooler the medium the hotter the response” idea. Just reading the review had me run my own movie in my head and literally scared the heck out of me.
An interesting difference between the protestant perspective (at least the majority) and the Caholic/Orthodox perspective is that a Christian is a new creation with an ontological change in spirit united to Christ and so cannot be possessed by a demon ("no one can snatch them out of My hand"). Though demonic "oppression" is still possible (deception, harassment, etc. from the "outside").
"Aquinas, the greatest of the medieval thinkers, was a rationalist in the sense of believing that the larger part of revealed truth was intelligible to and demonstrable by reason, though he thought that a number of dogmas opaque to reason must be accepted on authority alone."
Rationalist usually refers to someone who thinks everything can be explained by reason. Thomas certainly did not. The whole point of reason is to grow in love for God, by understanding what he made understandable, but certainly not thinking that this is the only way nor a sufficient way. And need I remind you that one of the meanings of Logos is Divine Reason?
St. Thomas never held that God could be completely understood. He had mystical experiences for many years, but little is known about any but the 2 visions neat his life's end.
For those whose orientation, vocabulary or thought process are oriented towards reason and an understanding the details of how things work, as are mine (education and career choices in science and engineering), it does not follow their experience and understanding is bereft of wonder, enchantment and, yes, spirituality. I sometimes get the impression from Rod’s writing that these things must reside in different ballparks or not have much overlap. Pursuit of the truth can bring one closer to divinity. Discovery of a universal truth that can only be a reflection of God’s nature and a tiny glimpse of that nature can affect a person’s soul deeply and that’s not just an intellectual exercise. I think St. Thomas Aquinas must have been in awe of discovery of what was true and good and his words on his faith reflect that to some degree.
Quote: "The main point to take is that the mountain is in some real sense an icon of God, something that participates in His being and discloses it, and therefore can never be treated as only stuff."
Consider how Jesus said that he is going to prepare a place for us and that there are many mansions in his Father's house. I take this to mean that he is preparing a home for each of us personally - a house that he is taking great care to be special for us. When we see the house that he has prepared for us, we will know the love he has for us, because he knows what will touch our hearts.
In the same way, God prepared the Earth to be a very special place for humanity. It has canyons, mountains, rivers, meadows, flowers, skies, oceans, etc., all done to create a beautiful place for us to live. Thus, by making this Earth so special, God has disclosed the love he has for us.
Earth is especially rare and beautiful and full of life. God went to great lengths to prepare our home. Partly, so we would have no excuse but to believe, but also to show how much we mean to him.
So look at that mountain, and consider what God needed to do to put it there like it is. Things like mountains don't just happen. A lot went into getting that mountain there. And yet, so many of us are both ignorant and blind to what God has done.
To me, Earth drips with the fragrance of God. We only need breathe in to sense our nearness to him, and our dearness to him.
Think of it. The rarity of Earth shows us that we were meant to be here. We have purpose. We have destiny. All we need do is open our eyes to where we are. Really open them. As in seeing what the flower in our hand means. As in what it took for both it and us to exist. This is bigger than any sci-fi novel. And it's all right in front of our eyes.
So many things are like this.
Sarah Edwards, the wife of Jonathan Edwards, said one day a visiting pastor prayed a short prayer and said the word, "Father". And she thought, can I truly call God my Father? She retired to her room and searched the bible, and found that yes, she could call God her Father. This simple realization brought so much joy to her that she wrote that she experience more joy that evening than the rest of her life combined.
God had opened her eyes to truth. And it changed her. And in my view, that led to America being changed, because Jonathan couldn't dismiss what God had done, and so he wouldn't criticize what was happening in the outpouring that became the Great Awakening. And that allowed it to flourish.
Open the bible and ask yourself, what if these really are the very words from God? If he went to all the trouble he did to make Earth, then surely he would go to some length to communicate to us what it all means. And we have it. Right in our hands. Just like that flower.
Speaking of mountains, I happened to hear this story:
A little boy went to his mom who was busy cooking in the kitchen, "Mom", the boy asked, "Have you seen God?" But his mom just shooed him away. So he went to his dad who was busy reading a newspaper. "Dad", the boy asked, "Have you seen God?" But his dad likewise shooed him away. The little boy went outside and happen to see a parson walking down the street. "Parson", the boy asked, "Have you seen God?" "Oh my, what a deep question!" the parson exclaimed. "Why in about fifteen to twenty years, you and I can sit down and have a lovely talk about it." This didn't satisfy the boy so he continued on, until he came upon an old fisherman out fishing. "Sir", asked the boy, "Have you seen God?" The old fisherman looked down at the river. Then he looked up at the trees, and the mountains in the distance. Then he looked at the face of the little boy, and he said, "Sometimes I thinks, I never seen anything but."
Prayer is unbelievably important. I lost my younger brother last week, and like every other time death kicks in the door, I pray more fervently. The problem for me is sustaining it. I eventually reach the desert and it becomes a struggle. Articles like this, podcasts, and books help, so thank you.
I remember an old saying that the prayers of monks sustain the world, but we living in the world have our work to do as well. Especially in these dark days.
I am so sorry for your loss. Truly. I am going to pray for you and for the soul of your brother now.
Thank you...never stop praying...and never stop writing please! (Was my little bro too)
My condolences for the death of your brother.
I have found over the years that my prayer life and Christian pilgrimage have been truly sustained and enriched by the old church practice of “saying the offices” daily. They provide a framework for personal prayer and carry one along even when one does not want to pray (alas, a not infrequent inclination!). One has the sense that one has entered into and is being borne along into God’s presence by the timeless liturgy of the Holy Church universal - something much greater than oneself.
I’m so sad for your loss of your brother. Grief is painful. But prayer for me is the Medicine for the heart and soul, it’s the only things that acts as a needed balm to our modern spiritual pain. I’m currently grieving my self for my elderly frail father who I care for, he has a hideous from of severe dementia in which he bites and hits people randomly. It’s horrid. The only thing that sustains me and hopefully my Pop, is praying with all my heart to God for Mercy and Grace . I will pray for you and the soul of your brother B. L as well. 🙏
I’m sorry about your father. Dementia can be very hard to deal with.
Thanks so very much 🙏
Rod, amazing, wonderful Substack column today, thank you, what a blessing!
Could you please clarify this one thing: <<"Lo, three decades on, I have lived to see it all come true. If time stopped today, the vision will have been fulfilled. But I see that it is still unfolding">>
You bolded the part where you said it had all come true.
I'd taken this, since you first spoke of it on Substack, to say you perhaps saw the equivalent of the rest of Revelation 5, the seven seals, which are horrible, horrible things. Or at least I thought you were saying things got even worse than they are now in your vision. My heart went out to you as I imagined trying to live with such visionary knowledge.
But - you seem to be saying here that it has all happened. So that means I misunderstood, and you do not have vison-type knowledge of the future, yes, because the vision has happened? It surely looks to get worse, but we don't know how much, or when, or if some things may turn around. Am I getting this right?
The destruction I saw symbolically rendered in that vision -- in particular the *nature* of the destruction -- has happened, yes. It wasn't like a "New York City will be annihilated in a nuclear bomb" kind of thing; it was a vision of cultural and social annihilation, through particular means. I don't feel comfortable talking about those details now. The confusion, I think, comes because even though the great cloud of violence and confusion (so to speak) has overtaken us, its logic is still being worked out. As I said, what I saw in the vision has already taken place -- took place in the years after I had it -- but the results of those events are still with us, and continuing. Does that make sense?
It's like this: say someone had a vision in 1960 of the coming Sexual Revolution. By 1990, it would have happened, but the effects of that revolution were still ongoing. That's what I mean.
P.S. I don't think I saw the Seven Seals, or if I did, I didn't know what I was looking at. It feels extremely weird to write these lines. There's a good reason I didn't say anything about this in public (instead keeping it among friends, some of whom read this Substack and are free to attest to the fact that I told them about it a long time ago, if they wish). But as I was finishing the book, something told me it was time to talk about it, because it's an example of a mystical event happening, one that was confirmed in an uncanny way about an hour after it occurred, and that I took seriously enough to let it frame my analytical perspective over the course of my career. And, as I say, I have now lived through its fulfillment, or at least enough of its fulfillment to convince me that what I saw that night was a real vision of the future. The last line I heard interiorly in the vision was, "You will lose your reason, but stay close to the Church, for I am at its center. And don't be afraid, for the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David has triumphed." I wasn't ever sure what the "lose your reason" phrase meant, but I have come to see it as a warning that the times to come would mean society's loss of the ability to reason within a Christian framework, and a command to hold tight **by an act of willed faith** to the truths that have come down to us through the Church (and that includes the canon of Scripture).
Thank you. Yes it makes sense. Also I never thought it was for sure the seven seals. Even if you had seen those things that did not indicate "the" tribulation. I do not think like that.I am glad you went forward I am sure as the Spirit led for the time to talk of the experience.
Isa 1:18 says, “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool."
The Hebrew word for "reason" there can mean "to show to be right, prove; to convince, convict".
The West is well on its way to losing its ability to be convicted of sin, or shown the truth of anything from scripture. So I agree with you. Society has loss the ability to know, understand, or follow God. We can be blinded too, if we don't stay close to the church, to true believers, and to God.
Talk about meta-narrative. "You will lose your reason" has to be the core meta-narrative of the age. I think there is something incredibly deep there in what God spoke to you. It's the door he's given you to open other doors of understanding what is happening to us.
Sounds like a book to me.
Anybody who is on Facebook and in some Facebook groups will inevitably come to a moment when someone has said something which can't be responded to adequately by a Christian unless the Christian brings some aspect of spirituality into the exchange.
Do this, and you know what will happen. If you are fortunate not to be told that you are an idiot ( I thanked somewhat for that once, and added that I had been seeking vocational guidance ), someone, maybe not the person you are talking directly to, but someone - count on it! - will say, "Not everyone believes that( ! added if it's a woman ).
Gee. I hadn't known.
I know well just how stubborn people can be to believe in God. No matter what you tell them, their minds are made up.
And yet, you don't have to bring spirituality into it. Bring science.
Consider the shroud of Turin, and the scientists who went over in the 70's to study it. Why did these scientists who weren't believers go to all the trouble? Because they heard something about the image on the shroud that was simply impossible for it to be there. It is just as if they were told of a UFO that they could study in detail - and told something of the alleged alien artifact that made it impossible for it to be of human origin. Of course they would go to study such an amazing thing.
The thing they heard about the shroud was that the image contained 3D information. It wasn't just an image. The image showed how far away from the body it had lain. But how often have you heard about this? People don't talk about the most incredible things. We have proof that the description given in the New Testament of the crucifixion is entirely real and reliable - because we have a sci-fi level image of the real thing - of Jesus himself. But people don't know we have the proof.
They don't want to. I'm not quite a Calvinist, but you don't have to be a Calvinist to understand the natural resistance to God which we all have. The mystery to me is exactly how The Holy Spirit works in conversion.
Rod,
This may make no sense in the context of the rest of your vision or in the timeframe when it took place, but as I read your description this time I was thinking about your reference in the vision to reason and it reminded me of the way that a single word can have multiple meanings or refer to multiple things.
One thing that I think you’ve said before is how much your initial faith was based on intellectual arguments. Since the vision talked about “your” reason instead of society’s reason, could it also have been referring to the fact that intellectual arguments would ultimately not be sufficient for you, “but stay close to the Church, for I am at its center. And don't be afraid, for the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David has triumphed.”?
Maybe this doesn’t make sense, but it struck me that way this evening….
What you say about holding on by an act of willed faith after losing ability to reason in Christian framework -
In Robert Hugh Benson's apocalyptic novel The Lord of the World, exactly this happens to the main character after the initial appearance of the man who is the Antichrist.
Rod, calling anything in our society "destruction" strikes me as hyerbole beyond warrant. Compare to the destruction wrought in a major war or natural disaster. What we have is higher social entropy, yes, some danage to the natural world, but by and large we live in a comfortable world, one ancestors not many generations back would envy. My vision (yes, I'll call it that) is of a world ravaged by the cold and dark of nuclear winter and everything that implies for both the human and natural world. The troubles today are barely a bump in the road next to that level of ruin. Hence why I roll my eyes over what strikes me as privileged snowflakery on the Right over our quotidian woes of today.
The complete loss of a theistic or moral framework, the coronation of individual will as the only god, the disintegration of the family and inability of huge swathes of the western population to reproduce themselves, these are not small snowflakes but the destruction of things basic to society from the beginning of time. We have broken something and being warm and well fed will not fix it.
Our luxurious lifestyle has become such an idol that people are refusing to have children for fear that they will have to make sacrifices.
What "complete loss"? As you doubtless know many of of us here, beginning with Rod himself, are steadfast in our belief and practice. I'm one of those people too. Among the many, many tasks incumbent on me in my move, I hung up my icons in my bedroom as soon as I had the room barely functional, and set out my several Bibles as well, and I have resumed my nightly readings and my morning devotions.
But it's hardly the case that religious folk are naturally saintly, and non-religious folk are wholly wicked. We all suffer from the common sins of mankind, and humankind is no worse or no better morally than it ever was in that regard. I think you romanticize a past that never was, and decry a present that is far better than you give it credit for.
I dream dreams (if that's what they are) of living under the cold and the dark. But I value the sunlight all the more because of it. My advice is this: seek the light rather than cursing the darkness. Heal yourself before blaming the world.
Ever read this?
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43825/darkness-56d222aeeee1b
You could call it early sci fi.
Do you know what the date was on this? Byron lived through the cold period after the eruption of Mt. Tambora, which produced "the year without a summer", and crop failures and famine all over the world. It was especially severe in much of northern Europe. I wonder if this is a take off from that disaster.
If you have children and grandchildren and are sanguine about their future I envy you.
Oh, I am not sanguine at all. But for very different reasons that adduced here.
If we think we have solved the riddle of the Sphinx we have mistaken the meaning of her toothsome smile.
We've become so committed to, and are therefore awash in, tangibles, that we pay no attention to the intangibles that have been devalued and lost. In "the reign of quantity" the tangible/measurable is always what's most attended to.
We've sold our spiritual birthright for a bowl of consumerist, technological pork 'n' beans.
Jon, Rod has been good to you and listened patiently to you. You do not tell a man his vision is hyperbole beyond warrant. You seek to understand. It is rude to do otherwise. And maybe rude of me to tell you so, but you sometimes get the inner Mamaw up in me.
Rod said this destruction has come but is also still being worked out. If you think nothing negative, nothing destructive has come since 1993, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. And if you think Rod said the West is already completely destroyed, I have a film of the soundstage where they filmed the moon landing,
I'd support Jon. We need people who provide uncompromising intelligent dissent. Doesn't mean I am in agreement (sometimes yes, other times no), but it's important to have people that challenge the prevailing viewpoint, and thus have an alternative take.
I'd add that this doesn't mean I am favoring one view over the other.
Eh - no problem. It's fine Jon dissents, I just thought the first sentence about hyperbole beyond warrant regarding something close to Rod's heart and spirit that he states is taking a risk to share was an insult and out of line.
100%
Jon's invaluable to this community; as is Linda.
Linda, on a scale of Bad Things from 1 to 10, set by historical realities going back to antiquity with "10" as the worst, I'd put us Americans today between a "1" and a "3". The "1" people are especially privileged and fortunate. The "3" people are living in bad places like West Baltimore or some exceptionally dysfunctional rural areas. Most of us though live at a "2" (with allowances of course for the personal griefs that beset everyone in every age-- lost loved ones, hopeless health issues, etc.) But really: we live far, far better than any people in history ever lived, born on third base and thinking we hit a triple as the saying goes.
Not that I think all shall be well indefinitely. I do forebode catastrophe, in a generation or so. But not anything that has much to do with abstract metaphysics or "wonder"-- wonder would no more save us than glorious Gothic cathedrals spared the 14th century from the Black Death. Though I do agree that a return to enchantment is very much in order (I will be buying Rod's book next month). It won't save us from ruin, but it may preserve the just a little of the light in our own world's version of the cold and the dark. God does not spare us from grief, but He's there, in all places and filling all things, as the Comforter, as Hope the Restorer of Worlds.
This is not about numbers. This is about Western civilization slowly being destroyed, and no timeline has been set by Rod for that, but it is a sad thing. You incorrect surmise that Rod says Wonder will save "Us" if you mean everyone. He wants believing Christians to develop a sense of the presence of God and believe God can do wonders. This will be needed as days grow darker and Christianity becomes less accepted. Yes, I know most Christians are OK in the West now, they are not in prison, they get to keep their jobs. But they either have to homeschool their kids, put them in private school or send them to a school that tells them they might be the opposite gender. Many, many parents have to know their grandchild died in an abortion. Many women lose men, and many men lose women, both at greater rates, marriages once did not break down as much.. We suffer in terms of our families, more than we used to. We parade perversion on the streets in front of children. We have taken in 10 million people, mostly men, that we can't support. No one said it was WW2, but there are things to be concerned about, there has been some destruction.
Difference is, the unspeakable loneliness felt by many today. The little girl about to perish in the Justinian Plague was at least surrounded by her family (who were likely to die as well). Her faith, too, was unbroken, with the promise of better things to come.
Minor quibble: it's recorded during the great plagues that people abandoned even their closest loved ones to die alone.
Bigger quibble: those who are lonely today, assuming they are not shut ins due to health issues, should get off the internet, shut off the TV and get out and DO something. And I am not preaching anything I don't practice.
This, 100%
PS - Jon I should have said this first. Rod specifically stated this was not "the seven seals" - not what happened in Revelation 5 after verse 5 (that he read and that is referring to them). So he specifically said he could have seen much worse. You know what is in the seven seals? Horrible.
This article beautifully touches on the deeper spiritual dimensions of Christianity, which closely aligns with themes I've explored in my own work. In "Why Gnosticism is The Christianity That’s Needed Today", I discuss how Gnosticism provides an active spiritual path that reawakens the mystical aspects of faith.
Similarly, in "Rethinking Christianity: God or Jesus? The Bible or the Holy Spirit?", I invite readers to reconsider traditional perspectives, focusing on the Holy Spirit and the boundless nature of God beyond dogma.
For those interested in exploring these ideas further, feel free to check out my articles here:
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/why-gnosticism-is-the-christianity
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/rethinking-christianity
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
Interesting. I believe that a revival of the Gnostic heresy is a big part of our problem today!
A piece of advice (My Advice: freely given and worth ALMOST that much). Keep In Touch With Your Inner Six Year Old. Makes the world a much more interesting, and magical place, God has given us.
Yes, yes, yes, to the danger of polluting the gift of neuroplasticity in the brain with the vagaries of digital information delivery. Similar to you, I’ve spent a vast amount of time on the internet for decades. Recently, I read Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, and realized that the detrimental effects on children he and his co-researcher documented had manifested in me and other adults I know. From something as simple as having difficulty with long paragraphs to general attention waywardness arising out of multi-tasking, it’s all there and for all the benefits of inhabiting the digital space, ultimately a curse.
Dear Betsy and All: There is Christian meditation. An ancient practice, I highly recommend it. It is misunderstood as thinking about God or saying prayers, which are also important but it is different. If it is done, it has been shown to change the brain, to give more possibility of paying attention, so important for Christians,
World Center for Christian Meditation:
https://wccm.org
How to do Christian meditation:
https://wccm.org/meditate/how-to-meditate/
Do you consider Adoration of the Eucharist to be a form of Christian meditation?
I consider it a good thing. But it is not meditation. It is not replaced by meditation nor is prayer. Prayer is not meditation. Mindfulness is not meditation. The video linked above is 8 minute long, and you get the main points in six. Basically, it is putting yourself in the presence of God and not thinking words, except a single word/single phrase used as a mantra, and returning to the word/phrase as thoughts arise, which they do constantly, but just as quickly you can let go of them. Here is one of the first things that came up when I googled on benefits of meditation for the brain
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-meditating-every-day-does-to-your-brain-8656065
Linda, I do think you're a Fox! (I refer to Isaiah Berlin's categorization of thinkers into a Hedgehog or a Fox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog_and_the_Fox) I am 100% a hedgehog. In watching the video on "how to meditate" I kept thinking--how is this different than saying the Rosary while keeping oneself focused? It is obvious that if my mind wanders I would bring my attention back to the words of the prayer. I don't need a special little word like Maranatha to do it!
Also, don't you feel the slightest bit manipulated by that video with the Siddhartha-voiced narration? Was that necessary?
I used to be a huge fan of meditation and mindfulness. But Mother Angelica, in a throwaway comment, called it misguided. It caused me to re-evaluate. Now, I think she is right in that if I spent 1 hour in prayer it would be far more beneficial than just meditating (classic focus on your breath version) for an hour.
One more thing: Most of those brain studies are correlational observations based on an unproven inference on top of another unproven inference.
Well, the Fox comment is interesting. I guess I was open to this idea even though the word meditation is used in other religions. I don't always look at enough sources, however, and I am way Plato over Aristotle. But thanks - I think it was a compliment and you ought to be good at such feedback as a clinical psychologist.
The "suggested" word was "Maranatha", not mandatory. The Rosary in theory would be fine depending on thought, and the Jesus Prayer would definitely be fine for most people, again depending on thought. It is *not* dismissing all thought but those of/toward God. It is letting all thought go. I think there are two differences (1) The degree of wandering and (2) The type of wandering.
It boils down to: When saying the Rosary one is supposed to "meditate" (proper work but a synonym for the meditation I am speaking of) on the mysterious, glorious, sorrowful or otherwise. That means one is allowing oneself to follow thoughts, to follow words in one's brain. In meditation, thoughts, even thoughts about God or toward God are not followed. So, one "prays" the rosary. Meditation is not prayer, not consciously addressing any words to God, nor listening for God to say words. Though I sometimes get very wise insights just after a meditation session. The Jesus Prayer can work if one does not follow any thoughts whilst saying it.
So "Ma -ra" "What for dinner to.,." "na tha Ma " "I hope they didn't misunderstand that post I really" ra na tha Ma ra na tha Ma ra na" " God is so wonderful. I love" "tha Ma ra na tha". Getting the mind as quiet as possible. Not having thoughts, not words except the mantra if possible (though I can't quiet my mind very well, but any attempt helps, and gets the mind quieter than usual).
The benefit physically is to alter the brain in a way prayer does not. The brain is more capable of attention, calmer, all the benefits in the article linked above. This does not mean to neglect prayer or any other form of devotion. A spiritual benefit I found was a greater awareness of the presence of God through the day. Because in meditation I'm aware of His presence but not through words. So the words of my thoughts distract me less from His presence. For me it decreased habitual anxiety greatly. It was of vast psychological benefit.
And again, it is not "mindfulness" which is more about living in the now and paying attention to each thing in your environment. You can see that is entirely different from meditation. (Only similar because you dismiss thoughts about the past and future in mindfulness. In meditation you let all thoughts pass and return to the mantra. Some can do it without a mantra and they return to the breath but that is impossible for me.)
You said "focus on your breath". But it is not "focus". It is letting go of all thoughts, in words. It is not thinking about breath or being aware of breath. The breath version is easily misunderstood like that. There is also an image version (just looking at an icon or a candle and letting thoughts go with only awareness of his presence). You are doing it for spiritual health - it brings a different kind of spiritual health. I was a nervous wreck after losing my boyfriend and before starting to meditate. - Now I don't even startle as easily, for instance, and I have a big problem with being startled easily (example: loudly saying "oh" or something if someone barely bumps against me by accident, not hurt but startled, or literally screaming if an explosion occurs whereas no one around me screams - I got better but I'm not perfect at it.)
Last one, I know this is long. Words are in my head 100 percent of the (awake) time. I learned only half the people are like that, others have times of silence to at least some extent, Sethu says he has total silence if not listening, speaking or writing (astounding). I do not know - I might not need this if there were times my mind stopped chattering as long as I was also continually aware of God's presence.
I’m glad you received such profound psychological benefits from practicing meditation
I think the research on meditation and mindfulness (as you defined; being in the now, Thich Nhat Hanh stuff) is definitive and positive. You’re an example of how it can help! It has helped me many times and I still practice “mindful dishwashing” type stuff to settle my thoughts and get my head in the same room as my butt.
As to the Fox comment it was meant as a compliment as you have to be a quality thinker to be a Fox or Hedgehog in Berlin’s taxonomy. I also meant it to note that I am 100% Hedgehog and see nothing but similarities—one big thing. It’s really a flaw in me.
2nd reply - sorry I realized I had more. I guess it is a favorite topic.
You spoke of "Siddhartha-like". I don't think it was intended that way. But I do think this. The World Center for Christian Meditation takes things to "the edge" but it is an important edge.
For instance, talk of the Jewish Victor Frankl in today's substack.
The video makes the case, and it is true, that Christians, especially ancient Christians, know about and practice true meditation. But it is highly associated with Buddhism and more common for all Buddhists. The WCCM is not getting this directly from Buddhism, but they are admitting this is the same practice. But hey, suppose Christians did not pray enough and we acknowledged other religions prayed, that would be OK. I think most modern Christians do not know about meditation. They have a chance for much better mental health if they will learn about it. It is fully Christian.
Mother Angelica was great but there was an old teaching in Charismatic circles (she was Charismatic and I am) that one should not "empty" one's mind. Meditation was misunderstood as such. The words stop, but the mind is filled with God's presence.
I thought the number of minutes was over-recommended in the video, because many can't reach the goal. I've never done two 20-30 minute sessions a day given as an eventual goal. Generally only 10-20. One hour is my record. Meditation is not my spiritual strength. There are people who do it for hours, and they are so filled with God, sometimes I think they glow.
Thank you for this note on Mother Angelica. I did not know about the emptying the head thing. As I think of it, maybe that’s the simple answer as to why she dismissed meditation./mindfulness. I’ve been noodling over her possible reasons for years! Thank you. You have so much great information to share!
3rd Reply - you will get tired of me.
If one could only pray or meditate, not both, then, pray. But Christians pray, go to mass/church, read scripture, think about God, etc. Meditation is a good spiritual practice and one that has benefits for spiritual growth (due to the brain) that others do not. (But it is not mindfulness. If you learned mindfulness you did not learn meditation.)
Have you read The Cloud of Unknowing? Also, I think you sure could meditate and or contemplate during Adoration.
I have not read it but I found these words, "The book counsels the young student to seek God, not through knowledge and intellect (faculty of the human mind), but through intense contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought...This is brought about by putting all thoughts and desires under a "cloud of forgetting," and thereby piercing God's cloud of unknowing with a "dart of longing love" from the heart. This form of contemplation is not directed by the intellect, but involves spiritual union with God through the heart:"
That sounds like meditation. Yes, I think contemplation is perfect for adoration. A person surely could meditate during Adoration, and the awareness of God's presence that is part of Adoration would be even stronger. It is just - words in the brain, even about God or toward God - are dismissed during meditation, so it is not prayer or contemplation.
The word "meditate" is also used for deep thought/contemplation "I'll have to meditate on that". But it is a synonym. There are multiple meanings for the word.
Beautiful! I can’t wait to get my signed copy and read it!
Already ordered. Looking forward to it, Rod. Like most things of instruction in the Bible, "Pray without ceasing" is not in there to be poetic. We are to stay constantly in touch with God. Not only is it good to set aside a dedicated block of time to bring conversation and petition to the Lord, which I've been doing these last couple years, daily. But when something comes up you think you need to bring to the Lord, bring it. You are not inconveniencing him. Talk to Him. Bring your concerns to Him. His peace follows you throughout the day and you may see small movements and miracles around you.
Can't wait for your book, Rod.
This piece covers so many important thinkers and what Rod has reminded us all to do.
Rod has taken up the baton in his career, where forgive me for what could be taken the wrong way, Stanley Hauerwaus left off. Not the neo-Anabaptist pacifism or the lack of emphasis of tradition, but the insistence that we need to make room in our lives for God, have real faith, and to expect answers to prayer. To ask, over and over again, if we are too busy to be Christians how can we change our lives in practical ways so that we can listen for what each of us ought to do, day to day.
The critical difference is that Rod has put his writing within the small o orthodox tradition. There is a reluctance in my making a comparison because Stanley Hauerwaus was criticized in certain ways, mostly for taking faith too seriously and in ways that left people uncomfortable, as if they had to actually take hold of the questions of life in their own lives. But that is what this world so badly needs, to accept Jesus as real, not just as metaphor or word games or for ethics.
Again, sorry if this is taken badly, this is intended as a positive. I revisited Hauerwaus and I came away thinking that Rod had taken up the same topic but the next step and in a more complete way.
Hauerwas is great in his own way. I don't think you need to apologize for bringing him up!
"The irony of the science fiction story “Gattaca” is that the most oppressed character was not the one at a biological disadvantage but the one whose parents’ designs for him were forever written into his biology. His life was not fully his own."
You DO realize that you have DNA as well? You abilities and limits are just as much 'written into your biology' as any designer baby. Its just that your DNA was compiled randomly. So your abilities would be lower, and your limits higher.
Oh, "random". One of the lessons of Dante's Hell is that nothing HAPPENS there. It's all a circle. ("I see crowds of people walking round in a ring.") There are no EVENTS. Just the damned telling their stories, over and over. To paraphrase, God likes Chance. He invented it.
My faith journey coincides with yours, Rod. We're the same age and I discovered you in the NY Post in the 90's. I think we were both experiencing an awakening (and some mystical experiences) at the same times in our lives. I read something you wrote, maybe an op-ed, in which you were exasperated by some cultural issue (I wish I could remember what). I thought: he is just like me.....though less of a schmoe! I sought you out on the internet. I'm so glad that you're still grinding and making yourself vulnerable in your writing.
FWIW, I'm with you. I believe you. I Pray for you every day.
Et lux in tenebris lucet. The image of Frankl digging a ditch during a bitter Bavarian dawn, his hands aching from the cold, thinking of his faraway wife, feeling the soul-piercing despair, when, from the beyond comes an affirmation of what it means to suffer and at that moment an incandescent light flickers on in a distant farmhouse...well, it's just stunning.
...and not knowing that his young wife and their unborn child were already cold ashes shortly after arrest while he would go on being shuffled among four different camps.
That he did not give in to despair during the war or bitterness after it is proof enough for me that Dr Frankl had tapped into something of the divine. "Man's Search for Meaning" is a gem of a book.
Can't wait for this book.
I read a review of the horror movie "Hereditary" by a "Christian who happens to write horror," Justin Lee, that, not only made my hair stand on end, but gave hope. The hope that the "aspiring vacuum" as Malachi Martin calls it, which attracts the demonic, can be filled only by a cry to God.
"Hereditary" is a dark film, but among the best horror flicks of the last decade. One nice touch is that the family, even absent the possession plot, is already living a hellish existence in their inability to love and find meaning - that's the real horror.
There's no touch of the sacred anywhere in their lives. They don't know they need help. Nor will there be any forthcoming.
Is this the Justin Lee who is also an "LBGT Christian Activist?" Just wondering??
I had to look Justin Lee up to learn that they are two different people. The one I refer to writes for First Things Magazine. His review of the movie ‘Hereditary” reminded me of a Marshall McLuhan“the cooler the medium the hotter the response” idea. Just reading the review had me run my own movie in my head and literally scared the heck out of me.
Not half as scary as Count Floyd's Monster Chiller Theater!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-XK73YyOco
This essay inspired me to actually get off my ass and go pray, so thank you for that.
An interesting difference between the protestant perspective (at least the majority) and the Caholic/Orthodox perspective is that a Christian is a new creation with an ontological change in spirit united to Christ and so cannot be possessed by a demon ("no one can snatch them out of My hand"). Though demonic "oppression" is still possible (deception, harassment, etc. from the "outside").
I wish that were true. Sadly, it is not.
I think "Christian rationalist" as a label for St. Thomas is unfortunate.
I know, but he is the epitome of a Christianity of order, logic. and reason. What's a better way to describe him?
Spinoza was a rationalist. Descartes was a rationalist. It would be truer of John Calvin than of Thomas.
Britannica says: :)
"Aquinas, the greatest of the medieval thinkers, was a rationalist in the sense of believing that the larger part of revealed truth was intelligible to and demonstrable by reason, though he thought that a number of dogmas opaque to reason must be accepted on authority alone."
He's often called the 'Angelic Doctor'.
Rationalist usually refers to someone who thinks everything can be explained by reason. Thomas certainly did not. The whole point of reason is to grow in love for God, by understanding what he made understandable, but certainly not thinking that this is the only way nor a sufficient way. And need I remind you that one of the meanings of Logos is Divine Reason?
St. Thomas never held that God could be completely understood. He had mystical experiences for many years, but little is known about any but the 2 visions neat his life's end.
Anyone who would label St. Thomas as such has obviously not read him.
Oh, I think it's shorthand, but it's not fair.
For those whose orientation, vocabulary or thought process are oriented towards reason and an understanding the details of how things work, as are mine (education and career choices in science and engineering), it does not follow their experience and understanding is bereft of wonder, enchantment and, yes, spirituality. I sometimes get the impression from Rod’s writing that these things must reside in different ballparks or not have much overlap. Pursuit of the truth can bring one closer to divinity. Discovery of a universal truth that can only be a reflection of God’s nature and a tiny glimpse of that nature can affect a person’s soul deeply and that’s not just an intellectual exercise. I think St. Thomas Aquinas must have been in awe of discovery of what was true and good and his words on his faith reflect that to some degree.
Quote: "The main point to take is that the mountain is in some real sense an icon of God, something that participates in His being and discloses it, and therefore can never be treated as only stuff."
Consider how Jesus said that he is going to prepare a place for us and that there are many mansions in his Father's house. I take this to mean that he is preparing a home for each of us personally - a house that he is taking great care to be special for us. When we see the house that he has prepared for us, we will know the love he has for us, because he knows what will touch our hearts.
In the same way, God prepared the Earth to be a very special place for humanity. It has canyons, mountains, rivers, meadows, flowers, skies, oceans, etc., all done to create a beautiful place for us to live. Thus, by making this Earth so special, God has disclosed the love he has for us.
Earth is especially rare and beautiful and full of life. God went to great lengths to prepare our home. Partly, so we would have no excuse but to believe, but also to show how much we mean to him.
So look at that mountain, and consider what God needed to do to put it there like it is. Things like mountains don't just happen. A lot went into getting that mountain there. And yet, so many of us are both ignorant and blind to what God has done.
To me, Earth drips with the fragrance of God. We only need breathe in to sense our nearness to him, and our dearness to him.
"Thus, by making this Earth so special, God has disclosed the love he has for us."
This is a beautiful observation. Particularly with the vastness of the universe and the exceedingly long odds of a life-bearing planet.
Think of it. The rarity of Earth shows us that we were meant to be here. We have purpose. We have destiny. All we need do is open our eyes to where we are. Really open them. As in seeing what the flower in our hand means. As in what it took for both it and us to exist. This is bigger than any sci-fi novel. And it's all right in front of our eyes.
So many things are like this.
Sarah Edwards, the wife of Jonathan Edwards, said one day a visiting pastor prayed a short prayer and said the word, "Father". And she thought, can I truly call God my Father? She retired to her room and searched the bible, and found that yes, she could call God her Father. This simple realization brought so much joy to her that she wrote that she experience more joy that evening than the rest of her life combined.
God had opened her eyes to truth. And it changed her. And in my view, that led to America being changed, because Jonathan couldn't dismiss what God had done, and so he wouldn't criticize what was happening in the outpouring that became the Great Awakening. And that allowed it to flourish.
Open the bible and ask yourself, what if these really are the very words from God? If he went to all the trouble he did to make Earth, then surely he would go to some length to communicate to us what it all means. And we have it. Right in our hands. Just like that flower.
I thoroughly enjoyed your comments today, Dean.
Thanks John. It was Sarah Edwards who after that night said that she could sense His "nearness" to her, as well as her "dearness" to Him.
Speaking of mountains, I happened to hear this story:
A little boy went to his mom who was busy cooking in the kitchen, "Mom", the boy asked, "Have you seen God?" But his mom just shooed him away. So he went to his dad who was busy reading a newspaper. "Dad", the boy asked, "Have you seen God?" But his dad likewise shooed him away. The little boy went outside and happen to see a parson walking down the street. "Parson", the boy asked, "Have you seen God?" "Oh my, what a deep question!" the parson exclaimed. "Why in about fifteen to twenty years, you and I can sit down and have a lovely talk about it." This didn't satisfy the boy so he continued on, until he came upon an old fisherman out fishing. "Sir", asked the boy, "Have you seen God?" The old fisherman looked down at the river. Then he looked up at the trees, and the mountains in the distance. Then he looked at the face of the little boy, and he said, "Sometimes I thinks, I never seen anything but."