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‘We simply went out looking for the lost and the dying’ – Spiritual Temperaments (6 of 9): Caring for the poor and marginalised

April 23, 2010

“Caregivers serve God by serving others. They often claim to see Christ in the poor and needy, and their faith is built up by interacting with other people. Such (people) may find the devotional lives of contemplatives and enthusiasts as selfish. Whereas caring for others might wear many of us down, this recharges a caregiver’s batteries.”

Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas, Page 27

I have been wondering about how to write this section on spiritual temperaments as I personally struggle with giving physical care to others in need, although I find prayer, contemplation, sensuous worship and being out in nature, natural, spiritual responses for me. I do care about the poor and needy though and when I can, I attempt to chat and listen to homeless people who are selling magazines such as The Big Issue ( a magazine started in the late 80s/early 90s in Britain to help homeless people provide for themselves). Still such random, small acts of humanity seem like crumbs compared to the banquets real care-givers provide for the weak, poor and marginalised.

Since being a teenager, I have always liked the earthy, salty and fiery common sense teachings of the writer of the Book of James in the New Testament. I always love the following phrase which is set in the context of not just listening to the ‘word’ (or new teaching of Jesus), but doing it. James seems to encapsulate the heart of the Christian message, as do so many caregivers:

26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:26-27

Those words inspire me:

27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…

Oh yes, let it be so!

Thomas uses the example of Mother Teresa in his book – a supreme model of self-giving and caring for the oppressed and poverty-stricken ordinary people of India, whose example has led to the setting up of convents and missionary works to minister to the poor across the globe. An extraordinary woman and an extraordinary Christian, whose work today is carried out by many more beautiful and humble servants of God and of suffering people.

 

However, the people who come to my mind are still alive today and have established an amazing ministry in Mozambique, with influence across the world. They have experienced many signs, wonders, visions and miracles while working with some of the poorest most unfortunate and weakest of society – abandoned children and orphans – in a country which was and still is, I believe, one of the poorest in the whole world.

How have they done it? Well, to be honest I really don’t know how to describe their work adequately in words, but you can read more about their mission and work in Mozambique at the following web-address:

http://www.irismin.org/p/background.php

I also wholeheartedly commend the book There is Always Enough - The Story of Rolland and Heidi Baker’s miraculous ministry among the poor by Rolland and Heidi Baker, Sovereign World Ltd. I think it may have been republished simply as Always Enough.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/There-Always-Enough-Miraculous-Mozambique/dp/1852402873/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272051122&sr=1-1

The Bakers’ story is heartbreaking and awe inspiring in the wonderful progress they have made and continue to make with the poor children and people of Mozambique. A lot of it is difficult to believe that such good things could be done by ‘ordinary’ human beings with the help of God. The testimonies, however, are breathtaking and heart warming as the weak are touched in the kindest ways by the  love of God, are healed and transformed. It’s a wonderful read and a wonderful example of what practical caring for the poor, as well as powerful intimacy and worship of God through Jesus can do in this broken, but beautiful world.

I would like to finish with just a few quotations from Always Enough :

‘There still wasn’t much at Chihango (this was the state orphanage taken over temporarily by the Bakers on arriving in Mozambique) for the children. Their rooms were bare, picked clean by thieves. They slept on the cement floor with no sheets, pillows or even mats. There was absolutely nothing in their rooms. They had no extra clothes other than those on their backs. They had no possessions of any kind. Many of them needed medical attention. Some were missing limbs from land mine explosions.

I bought the children their first cups and plates. For years they had eaten out of troughs and drunk under faucets. we brought toothbrushes. We repaired a bakery that had been built years ago at Chihango and started baking seven hundred loaves a day, for us and for sale in town. We cleaned the septic tanks, installed wiring and painted walls. We hauled beans and rice from South Africa in a used army trailer. We assumed total responsibility for the centre’s administration and funding. It had been treated as a correctional institution for problem street children, but we turned it into a gospel centre for desperate and unwanted children of any kind. We simply went out looking for the lost and the dying.’

There is Always Enough, Rolland and Heidi Baker, page 41

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Keeping Quiet

April 23, 2010
  
Keeping Quiet
by Pablo Neruda
   
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.
 
This one time upon the earth,
let’s not speak any language,
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

 It would be a delicious moment,
without hurry, without locomotives,
all of us would be together
in a sudden uneasiness.

The fishermen in the cold sea
would do no harm to the whales
and the peasant gathering salt
would look at his torn hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars of gas, wars of fire,
victories without survivors,
would put on clean clothing
and would walk alongside their brothers
in the shade, without doing a thing.

What I want shouldn’t be confused
with final inactivity:
life alone is what matters,
I want nothing to do with death.

If we weren’t unanimous
about keeping our lives so much in motion,

If we could do nothing for once,
perhaps a great silence would
interrupt this sadness,
this never understanding ourselves
and threatening ourselves with death,
perhaps the earth is teaching us
when everything seems to be dead
and then everything is alive.

Now I will count to twelve
and you keep quiet and I’ll go.

 
From Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon
Translated by Stephen Mitchell 

  

  
I was just riding again in the woods this afternoon and these words of the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda came to mind, about stillness and quiet…
    
‘If we could do nothing for once,
perhaps a great silence would
interrupt this sadness,
this never understanding ourselves
and threatening ourselves with death,
perhaps the earth is teaching us
when everything seems to be dead
and then everything is alive.’

 

As I began my ride, I tried to ride quietly softly through the woods. There was such calm and peace in the woods. My bike gently rolled along the mulchy, sandy paths. The tires make a reassuring soft hum as they traverse the gravel. My ears register the strange quiet in the woods. It is of course, broken from time to time by the distant sound of cars passing on a ring road outside the park, or the frightened rustling of a startled squirrel, or the sweet, chirps and whistles of birds singing above. But above all I am struck by the silence. It is so quiet that I feel that I can actually hear the wood speaking to me. Speaking not through words, but through silence, quiet, peace, the breathing of the forest as I gently rumble through it, a visitor, who comes from outside the wood. Yet, a human who feels at home in the woods fresh air, forest aromas, fragmented light and peaceful green foliage.
 
I feel that the woods welcome me. They welcome me into their world of natural growth, not forced, not planned or deliberate, simply the response of living things to an environment of water, warmth, wind, soil and light. Here in the woods things grow, live and die, They don’t try to influence you to be something else, something better or more worthy, or more correct than you are…they are simply quiet – the fresh air and clean fragrances, the silence simply welcomes you. The woods invite you to take part in the rest from plans or agendas, projects and sales, shopping and winning, competing to beat our neighbour, colleague or friend. There is no competition, just the ebb and flow of death and life. We all will die, the question is will we actually live.
 
I am embraced by the wood - first and foremost, it’s simple, pure silence. I die for a moment to myself. For a few seconds I return the embrace and breath in and out the quiet and fresh air. I am nobody. I am nobody special. Simply, a very lucky man…who gets to ride his bike in the woods on a sunny afternoon. Yet, it is a welcome relief. Here in the woods there is nobody to impress or convince of my worthiness. I need be absolutely no one. I am no one important and yet…the silence of the wood seems to welcome me. She welcomes me …as me…as David…as the wounded young man with a history, that I am. A man with a history…yet, all that which the world and society weighs and measures…seems to mean nothing in the forest. Here is just me and the woods. Nothing else matters…just be quiet, David.
 
Just be quiet … still … listen … to the silence.  
 
 
 

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Spiritual Temperaments – The Ascetic (4 of 9)

April 18, 2010

Saint Anthony the Great (c.251-356)

Asceticism has usually been associated with the harsh discipline of religious monks from various traditions or denominations, and also with pioneering religious figures such as John the Baptist or Elijah the Prophet (often portrayed together in Eastern Orthodoxy iconography). Of course, ascetic practice – that is the practice of denying the body pleasures and comforts – is not just limited to the religious domain, many athletes and military personnel also practice self-denial to aid them in the achievement of their goals. Perhaps, where religious asceticism differs is that the physical denial is intended to go hand-in-hand with a growing spiritual development, away from the love of self toward the love of others be they God or one’s neighbour or even one’s enemy.

A wonderful, if sometimes eccentric compendium of stories about human beings taking upon themselves extreme asceticism can be found  in the Penguin Classic book translated and introduced by Sister Benedicta Ward – The Desert Fathers – Sayings of the Early Christian Monks. The work collects many tales, sayings and anecdotes about the lives of the Christian monks who lived in the Egyptian desert in the third, fourth and fifth centuries of the Common Era.

The stories of the Desert Fathers are sources of inspiration, humour and awe. The men (and women) who practiced such extreme asceticism, living lives of incredible simplicity and purity in the harsh conditions of the Egyptian desert offers us written verbal icons of what the human spirit and body is capable of in devotion to God and to one another. The monks often ate very little, limiting their diet to simple soup, bread and salt water. In one story a monk overcomes his desire to eat a cucumber by hanging it above him in his cell! At the same time, the monks often practiced night prayer  and vigils by staying awake most of the night in worship and prayer to God. Most of us today would find such practices unbearable and yet, if we are to believe the ancient stories of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, these people developed a whole new ascetic form of life and community through making routine such behaviour.

Perhaps, for me as someone who admittedly struggles with asceticism, there are wonderful tales within the compendium that talk of the older monks helping the younger monks to gain an insight into the importance of not judging one another, mercy and grace. In such examples, the extreme austerity of the desert disciples’ lives is mixed with a deep awareness of their own shortcomings and struggles with sin, and therefore an attitude of great compassion with those who also battle with personal failings, spiritual attacks and worldly temptation.

One such story follows:

 

A brother who was hurt by another brother went to the Theban Sisois and said, “I want to get back at a brother who has hurt me.”

The hermit begged him, “Don’t do that, my son, leave vengeance in the hands of God.”

But he said, ” I can’t rest till I get my own back.”

 The hermit said, “My brother, let us pray.” He stood and said, “O God, we have no further need of you, for we can  take vengeance by ourselves.”

The brother heard it and fell at the hermit’s feet, saying, “I won’t quarrel with my brother any longer; I beg you to forgive me.”

Page 173, The Desert Fathers – Sayings of the Early Christian Monks 

Asceticism attracts and empowers many people to simplify their lives and set aside time and energy to worship God in a life without external distractions. For most of us a degree of asceticism will help us to overcome selfish habits and free us to make the most of the good gifts we have received in life, often which we can overlook when we become deeply involved with worldly fashions, trends and pressures to conform to society’s (and Church’s) expectations of the ‘good life’. Aceticism offers a pathway to liberation through simplicity and  physical self-denial. Bishop Kalistos Ware wrote in his book The Orthodox Way, that the ancient Christians talked about denying the ‘flesh’ – that is the fallen, selfish, inward directed craving of the soul out of harmony with God – in order to win a ‘body’ the good, wonderful, created, physical gift to people, which God always intended us to be free to enjoy.

The ascetic’s mantra might well be  – “Deny the flesh, to gain a body.”

 

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Spiritual Temperaments- Traditionalism (3 of 9)

April 15, 2010

He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19

In his helpful book on nine different kinds of spiritual temperament - Sacred Pathways, Christian author Gary Thomas describes a third category of people whom he calls: Traditionalists. He writes: 

‘Traditionalists are fed by…the historic dimensions of faith: rituals, symbols, sacraments, and sacrifice. These people tend to have a disciplined life of faith. Some may be seen by others as legalists, defining their faith largely by matters of conduct…Traditionalists have a need for ritual and structure. The contemplative’s unstructured “prayer of the quiet” would be confusing and fairly un-fulfilling to them.’ (Page 24) 

Thomas identifies 3 distinct aspects to the traditionalist way of life: 

  1. Ritual (or liturgical pattern)
  2. Symbol (or significant image)
  3. Sacrifice

The three different facets of the traditionalist approach are physical ways of representing spiritual realities. (Page 73) 

A resurgence of interest in traditionalist spirituality can be found in the recent popularity of Celtic spirituality, New Monasticism and the Rule of Benedict. The Northumbria Community are one example of a contemporary community that practices and encourages associate members to regularly pray the Office during the day. They divide each day by stopping, recollecting and praying at specific times - morning (matins), noon, evening and Compline. These prayer times are practised together at their community house in Northumbria, but associates also follow this rule, wherever they may be in the world by using the Northumbria Community’s Prayer Book and guided readings – Celtic Daily Prayer. 

The Rule of Benedict , is a  medieval book written by Saint Benedict of thoughts and guidance on the monastic life that has influenced most religious orders in Western Europe. It has received popular interest due to the 2005 television programme The Monastery, which followed three nonreligious men in their thirties and one older retired man experiencing a month long retreat at the Benedictine monastery Worth Abbey in England. 

A helpful book inspired by the Abbot of Worth Abbey’s experiences with guiding nonreligious people through retreat at the monastery is Finding Sanctuary – Monastic Steps for Everyday Life. Abbot Christopher Jamison refers to many modern peoples’ frustration and disasitisfaction at their lives being so busy. He then sets out seven monastic steps based on the Rule of Benedict which he believes can help the modern person remedy the busy distraction of their contemporary lives. They are: 

  1. Silence
  2. Contemplation
  3. Obedience
  4. Humility
  5. Community
  6. Spirituality
  7. Hope 

  

Thomas in his book provides helpful questions to discern whether you are a traditionalist. Giving yourself a grade between 5 and 1 for each question – five being very true and one being not true at all.

  1. I sense God most intimately when I take part in a style of worship that returns me to childhood memories. Traditions and rituals touch my soul more than anything else.
  2. I believe that an emphasis on individual self-expression within the church can be detrimental to peoples’ spiritual well-being. Christianity is about being part of a community and therefore our faith should be expressed as corporate worship.
  3. Tradition and history are both words that appeal to me.
  4. I would enjoy taking part in a formal liturgy or prayer-book service. I like to remind myself of my beliefs and spiritual loyalties by placing symbols in my car, house and workplace. I also feel that the religious calendar is important for me and my family. I like to follow the different seasons and celebrations of my faith throughout the year.
  5. A book such as Celtic Daily Prayer would interest me.
  6. I enjoy developing my own personal daily rituals for prayer, meditation, study, and spending time alone or with friends.

  

Once again the higher the score the more your temperament fits the traditionalist description.  

(Sacred Pathways, page 92-3) 

http://www.cloistersonline.com 

http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/ 

http://www.findingsanctuary.org/index.htm 

http://www.worthabbey.net/bbc/

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Spiritual Temperaments – Experiencing the Divine through the Senses (2 of 9)

April 14, 2010
 
 
‘Sensate(s)…want to be lost in the awe, beauty, and splendour of God. They are drawn particularly to the liturgical, the majestic, the grand. When sensate people worship, they want to be filled with sights, sounds, and smells that overwhelm them. Incense, intricate architecture, classical music, and formal language send their hearts soaring.’
 Sacred Pathways - Gary Thomas, P.23
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

A Mosaic of Christ the Pantocrator (Creator of All) from the Hagia Sopia Constantinople

 

 Thomas’ second group of people  are ‘sensates’.  These people find it first and foremost easiest to relate to the transcendent through the five senses – sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Religious Traditions across the world have used practices which communicate through all of the senses, a vivid example being Hindu worship of Indian deities, which often involves fire, water, food, flowers, pictures and incense. Western culture, however, especially in Northern Europe has over the centuries  turned its back on sensuous practices for a more austere and bland kind of religion.  This development was firstly influenced by the Protestant Reformation’s rejection of Roman Catholic rituals and iconography in the sixteenth century, in favour of a religion based solely on the ‘Word of God’, i.e.  the preaching and singing of the Bible. Furthermore, it was also shaped by the industrial revolution and a modernistic emphasis on proving the rightness of ideas purely through rational argument. Even today many non-Conformist church buildings and services are very minimalistic and with little decoration. 

Yet, a very sensuous kind of worship in European culture has always been evident in the Eastern Orthodox church,where ornate architecture and vivid, stylised icons, combine with ritualistic liturgies and practices such as the burning of incense, lighting of candles, kissing of icons and annointing with oil.

 

Lighting a candle can be a special form of prayer

 

The above photograph depicts a scene from a Bulgarian Orthodox church, but it reminds me of my years spent liiving, studying and working in Romania. In every Orthodox church I visited in Romania there is a place to remember friends, family and hurting people by lighting a candle. When I was far away from home it felt to me like a powerful and touching way of praying for my distant relatives and friends. Sometimes when it was difficult to pray in long sentences, the gesture of lighting a candle in the darkness seemed to speak much more clearly and profoundly to God and to my soul than I could with mere words.

 

Thomas writes in his book Sacred Pathways (pages 51-61) that he percieves Dutch Roman Catholic priest, Henri Nouwen to be a sensate Christian. He is struck by Nouwen’s description of his encounter with Rembrandt’s painting – The Return of the Prodigal Son – described in his book by the same title. Nouwen writes how he was visiting a friend after a busy and exhausting lecture tour. While sitting in his friend’s office he was taken aback by a poster of  Rembrandt’s painting on the wall. Nouwen describes how at that point in time the painting communicated to him deeply exactly what he felt that he needed. Simply, to kneel in front of a Father God and be embraced. Moved by the encounter with the picture, Nouwen then set about trying to arrange a visit to Moscow, where The Return of the Prodigal Son is exhibited, to see the painting at first hand.

 

For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' Luke 15:24

 

Rembrandt’s painting has a very sensuous presence. Painted in rich colours, subtle tones and hues, with dim lighting surrounded by deep shadows. A blood red robed elderly Father gently envelopes the destitute son barely covered in rags, as other characters from the story and the Gospels look on. As viewers we might take in some of the senses involved in this picture. Touch especially, is winsomely communicated. The softness of the Father’s luxurious clothing, the human, non-threatening warmth of  both Father and Son’s  reunion embrace. Perhaps, we might also imagine the scene effecting our sense of smell as the woody fragrant spices the Father is wearing and the unpleasant reeking of the son -unwashed and unclean, having worked in a farm feeding pigs, blend together in a very human scene of  a wealthy father welcoming a poor son. At the same time sight is obviously involved. The lighting is intimate, bathing the scene of familial reconciliation in gentle amber light while all around is in darkness and shadow.

If a painting such as the one above and traditional religious devotion inspires you then you may well be a Sensate. Thomas asks the following questions (page 66). Marking each question 1 to 5, with five being very true and one being not true at all.

  1. I feel closest to God when I’m in a church that allows my senses to come alive – when I can see, smell, hear and almost taste his majesty.
  2. I enjoy attending a “high church” service with incense and formal Communion or Eucharist.
  3. I’d have a difficult time worshipping in a church building that is plain and lacks a sense of awe or majesty. Beauty is very important to me, and I have a difficult time worshipping though second-rate Christian art or music.
  4. The words sesnsuous, colourful and aromatic are very appealing to me.
  5. I would find a book called Beauty and the Transcendent interesting to read.
  6. I would like to explore prayer through drawing, art and music.

 A high score between 15 and 30 would indicate that you have a disposition oriented towards experiencing the world and God through the five senses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Discussion board: “What aspects of life make you feel more in tune with your soul and the transcendent?”

April 11, 2010

In the next couple of weeks, I will continue to look at the nine spiritual temperaments as described by Gary Thomas in his book – The Sacred Pathways. In parallel to this I would like to invite people to contribute their own thoughts  and feelings on what aspects of life they find truly energises or inspires them.

Discussion

 

“What aspects of life make you feel more in tune with your soul and the transcendent?”

 

Please post your comments below:

I would describe myself as a frustrated Protestant Sensate, Martha-like always painfully aware of the human and monetary cost of churches that are ‘dripping’ with luxurious materials which to some extent form a barrier between myself and the Infinite Father and yet something ‘lights up’ in the presence of paintings such as the Rembrandt Prodigal Son… the artist has expressed something which I feel but cannot articulate.

However, much of the early art was paid for by rich people who wanted to reduce their time in purgatory and the heavy work of carting tons of marble/stone to the top of the hill (witness Malta for example) were poor workers which taints and interferes with the spiritual rapture a little.

S Harman

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Spiritual Temperaments – Nature lovers (1of9)

April 11, 2010

'Leave the books behind, forget the demonstrations - just let them take a walk through the woods, mountains or open meadows.' (P22)

Saint Anthony, was an ascetic and monk who lived in the Egyptian desert during the third century CE. Thomas notes that: ‘he was made famous by the writings of Athanasius and was once asked: 

“How…dost thou content thyself, father, who are denied the comfort of books?” 

Anthony replied: “My book, philosopher, is the nature of created things, and as often as I have a mind to read the words of God, it is at my hand.”‘ 

The Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas, Zondervan,P.39 

Thomas includes in his book, helpful short questionnaires at the end of each chapter to help readers discern if that specific temperament is one that resonates with them. For naturalists he asks the reader to score the following statements on a scale of one to five: 

  1. ‘I feel closest to God when I’m surrounded by what he has made – the mountains, the forests, or the sea.
  2. I feel cut off if I have to spend too much time indoors, just listening to speakers or singing songs. Nothing makes me feel closer to God than being outside.
  3. I would prefer to worship God by spending an hour beside a small brook than by participating in a group service.
  4. If I could escape to a garden to pray on a cold day, walk through a meadow on a warm day and take a trip by myself to the mountains on another day. I would be very happy.
  5. A book called Nature’s Sanctuaries: A picture book would be appealing to me.
  6. Seeing God’s beauty in nature is more moving to me than understanding new concepts, participating in a formal religious  service, or participating in social causes.’ (P.49)

A high score for these statements would indicate at least an underlying appreciation, if not preference, for this kind of spirituality.

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