The Little Book of Lent: Daily Reflections from the World’s Greatest Spiritual Writers. Arthur Howells
Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу The Little Book of Lent: Daily Reflections from the World’s Greatest Spiritual Writers - Arthur Howells страница 4

СКАЧАТЬ JOHN 21:15–19

       ‘“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”’

      Prayer

      Good Shepherd,

      as you laid down your life for me,

      so may I lay down my life for you.

      For Reflection

      Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941) became a practising member of the Church of England in 1921, the year when she published the first of her great books, Mysticism. She was widely sought after as a spiritual director and conductor of retreats.

      Here Am I! Send Me!

      Making our everyday actions harmonise with a spiritual outlook is not always easy. It means trying to see things, persons and choices from the angle of eternity: and dealing with them as part of the material in which the Spirit works. This will be decisive for the way we behave as to our personal, social and national obligations…

      The prevalent notion that spirituality and politics have nothing to do with one another is the exact opposite of the truth. Once it is accepted in a realistic sense, the Spiritual Life has everything to do with politics. It means that certain convictions about God and the world become the moral and spiritual imperatives of our life; and this must be decisive for the way we choose to behave about that bit of the world over which we have been given a limited control.

      Consider the story of the call of Isaiah. It is a story so well known that we easily take it for granted, and so fail to realise it as one of the most magnificent and significant in the world; for it shows us the awakening of a human being to his true situation over against Reality, and the true object of his fugitive life. There are three stages in it. First, the sudden disclosure of the Divine Splendour; the mysterious and daunting beauty of Holiness, on which even the seraphs dare not look. The veil is lifted, and the Reality which is always there is revealed. And at once the young man sees, by contrast, his own dreadful imperfection. ‘Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips!’ The vision of perfection, if it is genuine, always brings shame, penitence, and therefore purification. That is the second stage. What is the third? The faulty human creature, who yet possesses amazing power of saying Yes or No to the Eternal God, is asked for his services, and instantly responds, ‘Who will go for us?’ ‘Here am I! Send me!’ There the very essence of the spiritual life is gathered and presented in a point: first the vision of the Perfect, and the sense of imperfection and unworthiness over against the Perfect, and then because of the vision, and in spite of the imperfection, action in the interests of the Perfect – co-operation with God.

      HEAVEN A DANCE: AN EVELYN UNDERHILL ANTHOLOGY COMPILED BY BRENDA AND STUART BLANCH

      Scripture Reading

      ISAIAH 6:1–8

      ‘“Here am I; send me!”’

      Prayer

      My dearest Lord,

      be thou a bright flame before me

      be thou my guiding star above me

      be thou the smooth path beneath me

      be thou a kindly shepherd behind me

      today and evermore.

      ST COLUMBA (521–597)

      For Reflection

      John V. Taylor was Bishop of Winchester from 1975 to 1985. He was the author of The Go-Between God, which won the Collins Religious Book Award in 1973. He died in 2001.

      Better Together

      The Roman Catholic Archbishop Derek Worlock was a wonderful partner to the Anglican Bishop David Sheppard. They had their motto there in Liverpool: ‘We do it better together.’ That is the absolute keyword of the Christian life. It is a great mistake to present it as an individual struggle for personal salvation or holiness.

      Down in the muddy sea-bed of the Lake of Galilee, they found a few years ago a boat that dates from the time of Jesus. Wonderfully preserved in the wet mud, it has now been raised and restored and is visible to visitors. They say it is typical of the larger fishing smacks that Jesus would have known. It had a square sail like an Arab dhow, but it was held together by six strong thwarts from one side to the other of the boat, with two rowers on each and a seat in the stern for the man in charge of the tiller. And that is what Jesus chose as the best device for training his followers. In Matthew’s Gospel, when the twelve are named, he puts the names in pairs, the fellow rowers, as he remembered them. For they had to learn a mutual awareness and response and absolute obedience to the whole team. We know that they had a common purse. Of course they weren’t spending all their time in fishing, but when they were doing the new work to which Jesus had called them, he sent them out two by two. There were to be no loners. Even that work must be shared. And it wasn’t all work either. When they did plan a day off, they went together. They walked together in the fields, they went up into the hills as a group, they ate together. That was most important of all. Did you know that there are ten different meals recorded in the Gospels, an extraordinary thing for a book of spiritual guidance. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and we have remembered him ever since simply doing this.

      So during the six weeks of Lent, how about using these weeks of discipline to put down the natural loner in myself, to cut out the first person singular from my programme, to cultivate the plural of the kingdom of God, and to give priority to those activities that I share? So each of us may come to Passiontide and Holy Week and Easter with a clearer understanding and appreciation of the one pain and the one power.

      THE EASTER GOD JOHN V. TAYLOR

      Scripture Reading

      ST MATTHEW 4:18–22

       ‘Immediately they left their nets and followed him.’

      Prayer

      Grant to me, O Lord, to know what is worth knowing,

      to love what is worth loving,

      to praise what delights you most,

      to value what is precious to you,

      and to reject whatever is evil in your eyes.

      Give me true discernment,

      so that I may judge rightly between things that differ.

      Above all, may I search out and СКАЧАТЬ