From Pamela Begeman's presentation at the 2019 MN Contemplative Outreach Fall Retreat
The fundamental practice for healing the wounds of the false-self system is to fulfill the duties of our job in life. This includes helping people who are counting on us. If prayer gets in the way, there is some misunderstanding. Some devout persons think that if their activities at home or their job get in the way of praying, there is something wrong with their activities. On the contrary, there is something wrong with their prayer.
~ Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ
The fundamental practice for healing the wounds of the false-self system is to fulfill the duties of our job in life. This includes helping people who are counting on us. If prayer gets in the way, there is some misunderstanding. Some devout persons think that if their activities at home or their job get in the way of praying, there is something wrong with their activities. On the contrary, there is something wrong with their prayer.
~ Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ
[…] We are to 'christify' the world by immersing ourselves in it, plunging our hands into the soil of the earth and touching the roots of life. Union with God is not withdrawal or separation from the activity of the world but a dedicated, integrated, and sublimated absorption into it. Before … the Christian thought that he or she could attain God by abandoning everything. Now [Teilhard de Chardin] writes, "We must make our way to heaven through earth."
~ Ilia Delio, Making All Things New
[…] The term "vocation" is derived from the Latin vocare, which means "to call." To follow one's vocation is to respond to the universal call to holiness, which is the call to love. How we best love in the world will depend on our particular set of skills, passions, shortcomings, and so on. By way of an analogy, we are like prisms, each refracting the pure light of Christ in the world through our uniqueness and particularities. Some refract red, some green, some blue or violet. The source of the light is One, but the manner in which it is refracted is virtually infinite.
~ Vincent Pizzuto, Contemplating Christ
The discernment of one's vocation compels us to consider the manner in which we uniquely refract the light of Christ in the world. And this requires genuine humility; that is, the ability to see the truth and admit it. This is not the kind of false humility of self-deprecation that so many have mistaken for virtue. Rather, to be truly humble requires one to admit to their gifts and strengths, their particular charism, as well as an honest assessment of one's limitations. It requires one to discern the unique manner in which they refract the light of Christ in the world or which member of the body they manifest. If you have a particular talent and find therein your passion, you have an ethical responsibility to admit it and place that gift in the service of the broader community. “No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lamp stand, so that those who enter may see the light.” (Luke 8:16)
~ Vincent Pizzuto, Contemplating Christ
… Whatever gifts I embody are not private possessions but intended for the service to others. … To be an alter Christus in the world means something different for each of us. If you are an eye, you must see faithfully. If you are an ear, you must listen compassionately. If you are a mouth, you must speak truthfully. … One's deepest identify is discovered in communion of relationship, and the particular manner in which one becomes another Christ in the world is always in relation to the universal Body of Christ. That is to say, one's personal identity in Christ is fundamentally relational.
~ Vincent Pizzuto, Contemplating Christ
There seems to be a divine way of doing everything: a divine way to be a lawyer, doctor, grandmother, teacher, convict, homeless person, or just to be sick ... day in and day out in our particular vocation ... to sanctify our role in life.
~ Thomas Keating, Manifesting God, and Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit
Meditations: The Incarnation Continues
The meaning of Creation is love; God created for love, and what he created is love.
It is this part of the mystery that should reform our idea of work. We cannot all make works of art in the narrow sense, but we can all be artists and creators; in our attitude to our work we can make what we make first of all for love ….
The whole life of every worker should make love. All work should be an act of creative love [...]
Each individual who does renew his/[her] own spirit to work with this ideal does do something; in fact, [she]/he does a great deal to bring about the reform of the world's work, which is a basic necessity for human happiness, and this because no one can have this idea of work without getting some joy [which is always infectious].
~ Caryll Houselander, The Risen Christ
The radical consent of deepening contemplation means something even greater: saying yes to God's presence acting in you. As you continue in contemplation, you learn more about how to let God's presence act in you as the source of your prayer and the source of your life.
~ David Frenette, The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God
Questions for reflection:
~ Ilia Delio, Making All Things New
[…] The term "vocation" is derived from the Latin vocare, which means "to call." To follow one's vocation is to respond to the universal call to holiness, which is the call to love. How we best love in the world will depend on our particular set of skills, passions, shortcomings, and so on. By way of an analogy, we are like prisms, each refracting the pure light of Christ in the world through our uniqueness and particularities. Some refract red, some green, some blue or violet. The source of the light is One, but the manner in which it is refracted is virtually infinite.
~ Vincent Pizzuto, Contemplating Christ
The discernment of one's vocation compels us to consider the manner in which we uniquely refract the light of Christ in the world. And this requires genuine humility; that is, the ability to see the truth and admit it. This is not the kind of false humility of self-deprecation that so many have mistaken for virtue. Rather, to be truly humble requires one to admit to their gifts and strengths, their particular charism, as well as an honest assessment of one's limitations. It requires one to discern the unique manner in which they refract the light of Christ in the world or which member of the body they manifest. If you have a particular talent and find therein your passion, you have an ethical responsibility to admit it and place that gift in the service of the broader community. “No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lamp stand, so that those who enter may see the light.” (Luke 8:16)
~ Vincent Pizzuto, Contemplating Christ
… Whatever gifts I embody are not private possessions but intended for the service to others. … To be an alter Christus in the world means something different for each of us. If you are an eye, you must see faithfully. If you are an ear, you must listen compassionately. If you are a mouth, you must speak truthfully. … One's deepest identify is discovered in communion of relationship, and the particular manner in which one becomes another Christ in the world is always in relation to the universal Body of Christ. That is to say, one's personal identity in Christ is fundamentally relational.
~ Vincent Pizzuto, Contemplating Christ
There seems to be a divine way of doing everything: a divine way to be a lawyer, doctor, grandmother, teacher, convict, homeless person, or just to be sick ... day in and day out in our particular vocation ... to sanctify our role in life.
~ Thomas Keating, Manifesting God, and Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit
Meditations: The Incarnation Continues
The meaning of Creation is love; God created for love, and what he created is love.
It is this part of the mystery that should reform our idea of work. We cannot all make works of art in the narrow sense, but we can all be artists and creators; in our attitude to our work we can make what we make first of all for love ….
The whole life of every worker should make love. All work should be an act of creative love [...]
Each individual who does renew his/[her] own spirit to work with this ideal does do something; in fact, [she]/he does a great deal to bring about the reform of the world's work, which is a basic necessity for human happiness, and this because no one can have this idea of work without getting some joy [which is always infectious].
~ Caryll Houselander, The Risen Christ
The radical consent of deepening contemplation means something even greater: saying yes to God's presence acting in you. As you continue in contemplation, you learn more about how to let God's presence act in you as the source of your prayer and the source of your life.
~ David Frenette, The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God
Questions for reflection:
- So how are you being called to sanctify your role in life?
- How are you being called to manifest the light and Christify the world?
- Who or what in your life needs your attention or your intention?
- What would it look like for the second consent to become a practice in your life?
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