Prayer and Bible Reading: Listening to God

Having recently finished Father McBride's Guide to the Bible and enjoying the focus on salvation history (samples begin here), I thought I would continue by actually finishing two other books I have. I began both these long ago and have dipped into them to do some research, but never have I read them methodically from beginning to end.

• A Catholic Guide to the Bible by Oscar Lukefahr
• You Can Understand the Bible by Peter Kreeft (my review here)
  

I find them to be good companions because Lukefahr states things in a more basic way while Kreeft, as can be his wont, ranges farther afield sometimes.

I have shared some of the Kreeft book before and will be reposting pieces as I encounter them in my reading. Also, of course, I'll be adding in some from Lukefahr.

Here's some of the first from Kreeft to get us started. I identify with this because it is when reading that God often speaks to me the loudest.

Reading the Bible should be a form of prayer. The Bible should be read in God's presence and as the unfolding of His mind. It is not just a book, but God's love letter to you. It is God's revelation, God's mind, operating through your mind and your reading, so your reading is your response to His mind and will. Reading it is aligning your mind and will with God's; therefore it is a fulfillment of the prayer "Thy will be done," which is the most basic and essential key to achieving our whole purpose on earth: holiness and happiness. I challenge every reader to give a good excuse (to God, not to me, or even just to yourself) for not putting aside fifteen minutes a day to use this fundamental aid to fulfilling the meaning of your life.

Both prayer and Bible reading are ways of listening to God. They should blend: our prayer should be biblical and our Bible reading prayerful.

In Catholic theology, the Bible is sacramental: it is a sign that is an occasion for grace. The Bible fits the two classic definitions of a sacrament: (1) a visible sign instituted by Christ to give grace and (2) a sign that effects what it signifies. However, unlike the seven sacraments, it does not work ex opere operato; it does not give grace by itself, but is dependent on our use of it. ...

Though it is not a sacrament, it has power. Its power comes from two wills, God's and ours. It is the Spirit's sword (Eph 6:17) that cuts our very being apart (Heb 4:12), though we must give it an opening by exposing our minds and hearts and wills to its cutting edge. When we do that, God's Kingdom comes to earth. For it first comes to that tiny but crucially important bit of earth that is your mind and will. Then it transforms your life, which your mind and will control. Then, through your life, your world.

You Can Understand the Bible by Peter Kreeft

SFFaudio's Podcast is Back ... with a story read by J.J. Campanella

As if it weren't enough that my favorite podcast featuring science fiction book talk is back, they are kicking back into gear with a story read by one of the my very favorite narrators.

Way to stage an impressive comeback guys!

WOOHOO!

Joshua: When the Sun Stood Still

Continuing my readings of Joshua (begun here), I was struck by the commentary upon the battle where, famously, "the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies" (Joshua 10:13).

I appreciate the explanations of using our very limited language and symbols to explain the divine. This can be a stumbling block for dialogue between literalists and scoffers, for one thing, to say nothing of the difficult it may provide for believers studying the word of God. Our priest is always at great pains to underline such circumstances, especially when dealing with the Old Testament.

However, of more interest and enlightenment to me were the thoughts upon "The Lord hearkened to the voice of a man" (Joshua 10:14). These made a connection that was eye opening. I share the entire commentary below.

This was one of the texts used in the famous debate about the relationship of sun to earth in the Galileo case. But as the basis of that whole argument lay a misunderstanding by theologians of the day as regards the nature of the sacred texts. St. Augustine and St. Thomas had already explained the salvific meaning of Holy Writ, a teaching which Leo XIII ws later to sum up in these words: "The sacred writers, or better said, 'the Spirit of God who spoke through them, did not seek to teach men those things (the knowledge of the nature of visible realities) that were of no consequence for their eternal salvation' (St. Augustine, De Gen, ad litt., 2, 9, 20); therefore, the sacred writers, while carrying out something much greater than an investigation of nature, sometimes describe objects and speak about them [...] as the language of the times demanded [...]. Since in ordinary discourse what is given to the sense is normally spoken of first, the sacred writer (as the Angelic Doctor has noted) 'addresses what appears to the senses' (Summa theologiae, I, q. 70, a.1, ad 3), that is, he takes account first of what God himself, in speaking to men, expressed in human terms in order to make himself understood by them" (Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus, EB 121).

"The Lord hearkened to the voice of a man" (v. 14). What is really noteworthy is not so muchthe sun's standing still as the fact that God should vary his way of working to obey the words of a man. Meditating on this passage, St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori comments: "It comes as a surprise to hear that God obeyed Joshua when he ordered the sun to stand still on its circuit [...]. but it comes as a greater shock to see how with a few words from the priest God himself descends to the altars and to where ever he is called, putting himself in the priest's hands every time he is called upon to do so" (Notes for Preaching, 1, 1, 3).

Joshua 10:13-14
The Navarre Bible, Joshua - Kings

Animal Games

A duo of Boxers certainly makes things more interesting. We have many new games we play now. We call them ...

Where Are My Glasses?
Having worn glasses since 4th grade (and, truth to tell, having needed them long before that probably), I am nearsighted. I will, however, take them off for close work like knitting or reading in the evening. It was one such evening last weekend when I left them on the coffee table in the back room and went to talk to Tom for a while.

Returning, I saw they had vanished. Completely. Not another thing from the table had been disturbed, including the beginnings of a wool teddy bear which greatly interests Zoe every time she sees me knitting it.

We searched high. We searched low. It wasn't until we looked at the dog door and then at each other with wild surmise that a possibility outside the house presented itself to us. Yes, indeed. Tom searched the back yard with a flashlight and found my glasses, neatly folded, and nestled in the grass.

Oh, Zoe, that mischievous dog! The few light scratches on the lenses don't even bother me. Such is the value in never remembering to clean your glasses and thus becoming accustomed to ignoring imperfections.

What is That White Stuff in Your Mouth?
Returning from a walk one morning, I was greeted by Wash (now nearly 6 months old!) prancing up to me happily. Except. What was that white thing dangling from his mouth? Toilet paper. Hmmmm.

The toilet paper trail led me from my bedroom door to my side of the bathroom to the shower and, yes, right to the toilet paper roll. It was not unbroken but it was clear that Wash had enjoyed himself immensely with this thoughtful toy just at his level.

It was even more fun that his other new favorite game, "Why is the bathroom rug lying in the living room?"

What is That on the Floor? No, Really. What is That?
Now, very few things can compare to the time that I walked into our back room and saw that Calico, our hunting cat of the time, had deposited a headless squirrel under the rocking chair Tom was occupying. We established that I can scream loudly and Tom can jump many inches in the air from a sitting position.

This morning's session of the game was more mystifying than anything. Eventually I was able to identify part of a small spine attached to some fur and a nice long piece of intestine. The size led us to guess that a mouse met his maker at the same time that at least one of the dogs met their breakfast. I much appreciated being called in as the identifying expert rather than being the one who began the game. That was left to the unfortunate Tom who was innocently walking through the kitchen. He then went to make sure the dog food bowl was topped off.

Tradition and Revolution V

In the final part of this thought provoking essay, Merton discusses true contemplation, God's grace, and theology. Just when we think we can see where he is headed, he throws in a twist at the end which takes us right back to the Church. (Part I is here.)

Tradition and Revolution (cont'd.)

Yet true contemplation is not arrived at by an effort of the mind. On the contrary, a man could easily lose his way in the forest of technical details which concern a professional theologian. But God gives true theologians a hunger born of humility, which cannot be satisfied with formulas and arguments, and which looks for something closer to God than analogy can bring you.

This serene hunger of the spirit penetrates the surface of words and goes beyond the human formulation of mysteries and seeks, in the humiliation of silence, intellectual solitude and interior poverty, the gift of a supernatural apprehension which words cannot truly signify.

Beyond the labor of argument it finds rest in faith and beneath the noise of discourse it apprehends the Truth, not in distinct and clear-cut definitions but in the limpid obscurity of a single intuition that unites all dogmas in one simple Light, shining into the soul directly from God's eternity, without the medium of created concept, without the intervention of symbols or of language or the likenesses of material things.

Here the Truth is One Whom we not only know and possess but by Whom we are known and possessed. Here theology ceases to be a body of abstractions and becomes a Living Reality Who is God Himself. And He reveals Himself to us in our total gift of our lives to Him. Here the light of truth is not something that exists for our intellect but One in Whom and for Whom all minds and spirits exist, and theology does not truly begin to be theology until we have transcended the language and separate concepts of theologians.

That is why St. Thomas put the Summa Theologica aside in weariness before it was finished, saying that it was "all straw."

And yet when the contemplative returns from the depths of his simple experience of God and attempts to communicate it to men, he necessarily comes once again under the control of the theologian and his language is bound to strive after the clarity and distinctness and accuracy that canalize Catholic tradition.

Therefore beware of the contemplative who says that theology is all straw before he has ever bothered to read any.

New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton

Lord Valentine's Castle: A Wondrous Tale, Wonderfully Told

And then after walking all day through a golden haze of humid warmth that gathered about him like fine wet fleece, Valentine came to a great ridge of outcropping white stone overlooking the city of Pidruid. It was the provincial capital, sprawling and splendid, the biggest city he had come upon since-since?-the biggest in a long while of wandering, at any rate.

There he halted, finding a seat at the edge of the soft, crumbling white ridge, digging his booted feet into the flaking ragged stone, and he sat there staring down at Pidruid, blinking as though newly out of sleep. On this summer day twilight was still some hours away, and the sun hung high to the southwest beyond Pidruid, out over the Great Sea. I will rest here for a while, Valentine thought, and then I will go down into Pidruid and find lodging for the night.

As he rested he heard pebbles tumbling past him from a higher point on the ridge. Unhurriedly he looked back the way he had come. A young herdsman had appeared, a boy with straw-colored hair and a freckled face, leading a train of fifteen or twenty mounts down the hill road. They were fat sleek purple-skinned beasts, obviously well looked after. The boy’s own mount looked older and less plump, a wise and toughened creature.

“Hoy!” he called down to Valentine. “Where are you bound?”

“Pidruid. And you?”

“The same. Bringing these mounts to market. Thirsty work it is, too. Do you have wine?”

“Some,” Valentine said. He tapped the flask at his hip, where a fiercer man might wear a weapon. “Good red mid-country wine. I’ll be sorry to see the last of it.”

That's the beginning of this classic fantasy ... which I have reviewed for SFFaudio. Whether you choose to read or listen, it is not to be missed.

Have I Read "The Shack?"

Why yes, yes I have.

I don't know why I've been asked that so much lately but a lot of people I know must be just getting around to reading it.

In case anyone is interested in my book reviews, they are listed here. I try to keep the list fairly current.

The White Moll: a turn of the century adventure about a plucky heroine fighting crime in New York's seamy underbelly

I think that about says it all.

But if you'd like to read more, here is my review of the Librivox recording of The White Moll. Highly recommended for good, clean, exciting adventure. You can either read it or listen free. Just follow the links. Librivox has the link to the Gutenberg hard copy.

Prompting My First Letter to the WSJ Editor ...

... is this editorial about the Pope's encyclical that clearly doesn't understand a Christian mindset or even what it really means that the Pope is Catholic. He's intelligent enough not to have to worry about that though. Or so he thinks.

I haven't finished the encyclical as I'm reading slowly and marking as I go. Yes, that's how clueless he was. You don't even have to have read it.

Too bad the author didn't read Father Sirico's piece first, in the WSJ's own editorial section.

If the letter is used, I'll let y'all know. If not, I'll share it in full here.

Tradition and Revolution IV

Continuing his discussion of Catholic dogma, Merton now looks at it's true benefit to those who have the grace to explore it to the fullest. (Part I is here.)

Tradition and Revolution (cont'd.)

The first step to contemplation is faith; and faith begins with an assent to Christ teaching through His Church; fides ex auditu, qui vos ausit, me audit. "He that heareth you, heareth Me." And "faith cometh by hearing."

It is not the dry formula of a dogmatic definition by itself that pours light into the mind of a Catholic contemplative, but the assent to the content of that definition deepens and broadens into a vital, personal and incommunicable penetration of the supernatural truth which it expresses -- an understanding that is a gift of the Holy Ghost and which merges into the Wisdom of love, to possess Truth in its infinite Substance, God Himself.

The dogmas of the Catholic faith are not merely symbols or vague rationalizations which we accept as arbitrary points of stimulation around which good moral actions many form or develop -- still less is it true that any idea would serve just as well as those that have been defined, any old pious thought would foment this vague moral life in our souls. The dogmas defined and taught by the Church have a very precise, positive and definite meaning which those who have the grace to do so must explore and penetrate if they would live an integral spiritual life. For the understanding of dogma is the proximate and ordinary way to contemplation.

Everybody who can do so ought to acquire something of a theologians' accuracy and sharpness in appreciating a true sense of dogma. Every Christian ought to have as deep a comprehension of his belief as his state will allow him. And this means that every one ought to breathe the clean atmosphere of orthodox tradition and be able to explain his belief in correct terminology -- and terminology with a content of genuine ideas.

New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton

So I'm thinkin' we're looking at more catechesis, whether done through our reading, scripture studies as a group, seeking guidance of spiritual directors, or more along those lines. There are many ways to learn to appreciate and understand the Church's teachings. It is incumbent upon us to pursue them.

We will hear more about where faithful adherence to the Church's dogma takes us in contemplation in Part IV.

Tradition and Revolution III

Continuing the essay, Merton takes on the issue of dogma, both in what men think it to be and what it actually is. What he says was doubtless true when the book was written in 1961 but we see his insight even more from the distance of where relativism has moved us almost 50 years hence. (Part I is here.)

Tradition and Revolution (cont'd.)

The notion of dogma terrifies men who do not understand the Church. They cannot conceive that a religious doctrine may be clothed in a clear, definite and authoritative statement without at once becoming static, rigid and inert and losing all its vitality. In their frantic anxiety to escape from any such conception they take refuge in a system of beliefs that is vague and fluid, a system in which truths pass like mists and waver and vary like shadows. They make their own personal selection of ghosts, in this pale, indefinite twilight of the mind. They take good care never to bring these abstractions out into the full brightness of the sun for fear of a full view of their unsubstantiality.

They favor the Catholic mystics with a sort of sympathetic regard, for they believe that these rare men somehow reached the summit of contemplation in defiance of Catholic dogma. Their deep union with God is supposed to have been an escape from the teaching authority of the Church, and an implicit protest against it.

But the truth is that the saints arrived at the deepest and most vital and also the most individual and personal knowledge of God precisely because of the church's teaching authority, precisely through the tradition that it is guarded and fostered by that authority.

New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton

We will hear more about where faithful adherence to the Church's dogma takes us in contemplation in Part IV.

Congratulations to CNMC Award Winners!

I see that the Catholic New Media Awards are over and the winners have been announced.. Congratulations to the winners, especially Jen at Conversion Diary who is a favorite of mine and definitely deserved to win the Best Blog by a Woman category.

Interestingly, I see that we have many of the same sorts of results that would come up long ago in the lighter, more fun and interesting award days. One or two big personalities/current favorites win most of the categories, with a few breakaways pulling the award away in some categories.

So no matter whether fun or boring, the cult of personality wins ... but not always. So can we go back to having fun awards? Puhleez?

Update:
Also, I don't know what I was thinking to not thank very much those who nominated me and then voted, and also the group who puts on the awards. Though I may have quibbles with their methodology, I fully appreciate their hard work in putting on the awards. I don't want to seem ungrateful; my criticism is meant constructively.

What's a Catholic Blog Doing With a Horoscope in the Sidebar?

Yukking it up, mostly.

I appreciate the many people who care enough to take the time and trouble to write mentioning that belief in horoscopes is against Church teachings. However, I would appreciate it equally, indeed actually much more, if right before sending that email, those same people would actually read the day's horoscope and perhaps click through to the cited sources: The Onion (warning, site can have explicit content) or Dr. Boli.

They would then see that 'tis all in good fun. Not to mention making fun of horoscopes.

Just in case there are any doubts, here is a random sampling. If they don't make you laugh (or smile at the very least) then we do not share the same sense of humor:

• You'll soon discover three new planets, a dwarf star, and two orbiting satellites—an incredible achievement for someone just trying to peer in on his neighbor.
  
  
• A surprise party looms in your future. Although, technically speaking, the "surprise" has more to do with how few people will show up.
  
  
• You'll stop going with your gut and start listening to your heart, almost instantly ruining your career in public relations.
  
  
• The stars foresee a time of great vagueness and something or other in your future. Also, there will be a chair.
  
  
• Your science-fiction novel will be heralded as a "work of utmost urgency and importance" by critics in a mirror universe this week.
  
  
• A panel of twelve jurors will soon find you guilty of a crime you didn't commit very well.
  
  
• You will lose hours trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, moments after quickly and easily fitting a round peg into a square hole.
  
  
• The stars are sorry, but writing greeting-card messages does not make you a poet. Take comfort in the fact that, since this is America, you'll make the lists anyway.
  
  
• Lady Luck will be on your side this week. Unfortunately for you, Lady Skill, Lady Experience, and Lady Applied Probability Theory won't.
  
  
• The stars are becoming a little upset at your constant pestering about the future. Would it kill you to maybe loosen up a little and live for the moment?
  
  
• A double-inclined plane will—through the application of downward force—drive a wedge between you and your spouse this week.
  
  
• People say you have one of the biggest egos in the world, but what they probably mean is best—one of the best egos in the world.

The true purpose of this post is not to complain, but actually to have something to link to so that I may take the preemptive move of directing people to this explanation before they go to the trouble of writing.

Thank you for your concern!

UPDATE
I thought my post about why I have horoscopes in the sidebar was definitive. Let me say this more bluntly, as it clearly is not definitive for those whose minds are unable to take in more than one concept concerning a subject. I am not endorsing horoscopes. I am explaining why my horoscopes are amusing and a mockery of regular horoscopes. It is not an apologia for the occult as anyone with half a brain can see. Take your soap box elsewhere. Thank you.

Loving Christ and Loving the Church

I probably have had my In Conversation with God books for seven or eight years. Although each entry has three sections and is around 6 (small) pages you would think that I would have absorbed a good bit of it by now so that it is, if not predictable, at least devoid of surprises. Still, on Monday, this paragraph hit me as something brand new. Not that I didn't already understand the sentiment. Just that I hadn't thought of it from this point of view. So I'm sharing it.

Those people who claim to approach Christ whilst leaving his Church to one side, and even causing her harm, may one day get the same surprise as Saint Paul did when he was on his way to Damascus; I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. (Acts 9:5). And, the Venerable Bede reflects that He does not say "why are you persecuting my members, but why are you persecuting me?" For He is still affronted in his Body, which is the Church. Paul did not know until that moment that to persecute the Church was to persecute Jesus himself. when he speaks about the Church later on, he does so in words that describe her as the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27), or simply as Christ (1 Cor 1:13); and he describes the faithful as members of Christ's Body (Rom 12:5). It is not possible to love, follow or listen to Christ, without loving, following or listening to the Church, because she is the presence, at once sacramental and mysterious, of Our Lord, who prolongs his saving mission in the world to the very end of time.

In Conversation with God - Vol. 4 - Ordinary Time, Weeks 13-23

Tradition and Revolution II

Continuing from yesterday, Merton goes on examining the popular concept of revolution as opposed to the revolutionary concept of Christian truth.

Tradition and Revolution (cont'd.)

A revolution is supposed to be a change that turns everything completely around. But the ideology of political revolution will never change anything except appearances. There will be violence, and power will pass from one party to another, but when the smoke clears and the bodies of all the dead men are underground, the situation will be essentially the same as it was before: there will be a minority of strong men in power exploiting all the others for their own ends. There will be the same greed and cruelty and lust and ambition and avarice and hypocrisy as before.

For the revolutions of men change nothing. The only influence that can really upset the injustice and iniquity of men is the power that breathes in Christian tradition, renewing our participation in the Life that is the Light of men.

To those who have no personal experience of this revolutionary aspect of Christian truth, but who see only the outer crust of dead, human conservatism that tends to form around the Church the way barnacles gather on the hull of a ship, all this talk of dynamism sounds foolish.

Each individual Christian and each new age of the Church has to make this rediscovery, this return to the source of Christian life.

It demands a fundamental act of renunciation that accepts the necessity of starting out on the way to God under the guidance of other men. This acceptance can be paid for only by sacrifice, and ultimately only a gift of God can teach us the difference between the dry outer crust of formality which the Church sometimes acquires from the human natures that compose it, and the living inner current of Divine Life which is the only real Catholic tradition.

New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton

In Part III Merton will move on to discussing Catholic dogma.

Two (Possibly) Helpful Tips for Dealing with Flies or Mosquitoes

Being as how we live in Texas we've got more than our fair share of these pests.

Tom had been wondering why a local restaurant has these bags of water hanging above their outdoor waiting area. Aha! They repel flies.


I saw the mosquitoes link in the post and that prompted Tom to look further where he found a homemade mosquito trap that we are going to try out. If this works it is brilliant in its simplicity.

"beatification of the great British convert and scholar, Cardinal John Henry Newman, is 'imminent."

Being as how I know I have at least two people who get their Catholic news from this blog (scary, right?), one of whom just told me that and made me feel guilty for not including more breaking Catholic news ... I feel it incumbent upon me to mention this news.

In an interview to be published on Wednesday in the daily Italian edition of L'Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Saraiva said that among the most important personalities to be beatified "soon" is "the case of Cardinal Newman, a relevant intellectual, and an emblematic figure of conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism."

Read the news release here.

Insanely Busy and Trying Not to Go Insane

Therefore I beg your indulgence on light posting. I have a post or two that I did over the weekend and other than that ... well, I have lots I'd like to write about. But it shall wait until my work and Beyond Cana retreat obligations get sorted out. Oh, right, and bill paying and suchlike.

Not wanting to be the only Catholic blog neglecting the Holy Father's latest encyclical ...

... I direct your attention to Caritas In Veritate, aka Charity in Truth. "Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine" says Pope Benedict in the second paragraph and I am looking forward to reading what he has to say on the subject.

Also, I see that Maureen is working her way through this which I am saving to read until after I have read it. I did see that she says:

Also, it’s pretty clear that Professor Ratzinger expects you to read Populorum Progressio as a key to his encyclical. So here’s a link to that. The year is 1967.

Aaargh. Isn't that just like the dear prof? First the homework. Then the encyclical!

Tradition and Revolution I

Our Catholic women's book club read New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton over Lent. Obviously I am very late in sharing some of it with you. Overall, the book was interesting because I'd never been able to get through one of Merton's books before. This one, a series of essays, which Merton wrote for himself as much as anything, contemplates what holiness means for each of us. Oh, as well as contemplation. That too.

I did not always agree with everything Merton said. Although many tend to view him as a saint, I remind us all that he was not. An interesting writer, yes. Striving for holiness, yes. A saint, no. Infallible, no.

That said, I really enjoyed the way that he was able to set examples forth in defense of Catholicism much of the time. This is something that I believe some who enjoy reading Merton may not realize, considering that when I see him quoted it is often to make an edgy point about orthodoxy in the Church.

I have wanted to share this with y'all for some time and perhaps now is the right time since I am finally getting around to it. I think it is definitely an essay that needs to be read in the times in which we are living.

Tradition and Revolution

The biggest paradox about the Church is that she is at the same time essentially traditional and essentially revolutionary. But that is not as much of a paradox as it seems, because Christian tradition, unlike all others, is a living and perpetual revolution.

Human traditions all tend toward stagnation and decay. They try to perpetuate things that cannot be perpetuated. They cling to objects and values which time destroys without mercy. They are bound up with a contingent and material order of things -- customs, fashions, styles and attitudes -- which inevitably change and give way to something else.

The presence of a strong element of human conservatism in the church should not obscure the fact that Christian tradition, supernatural in its source, is something absolutely opposed to human traditionalism.

The living tradition of Catholicism is like the breath of a physical body. It renews life by repelling stagnation. It is a constant, quiet, peaceful revolution against death.

As the physical act of breathing keeps the spiritual soul united to a material body whose very matter ends always to corrupt and decay, so Catholic tradition keeps the Church alive under the material and social and human elements which will be encrusted upon as long as it is in the world.

The reason why Catholic tradition is a tradition is because there is only one living doctrine in Christianity. The whole truth of Christianity has been fully revealed. It has not yet been fully understood or fully lived. The life of the Church is the Truth of God Himself, breathed out into the Church by His Spirit, and there cannot be any other truth to supersede and replace it.

The only thing that can replace such intense life is a lesser life, a kind of death. The constant human tendency away from God and away from this living tradition can only be counteracted by a return to tradition, a renewal and a deepening of the one unchanging life that was infused into the Church at the beginning.

And yet this tradition must always be a revolution because by its very nature it denies the values and standards to which human passion is so powerfully attached. To those who love money and pleasure and reputation and power this tradition says: "Be poor, go down into the far end of society, take the last place among men, live with those who are despised, love other men and serve them instead of making them serve you. Do not fight them when they push you around, but pray for those that hurt you. Do not look for pleasure, but turn away from things that satisfy your senses and your mind and look for God in hunger and thirst and darkness, through deserts of the spirit in which it seems to be madness to travel. Take upon yourself the burden of Christ's Cross, that is, Christ's humility and poverty and obedience and renunciation, and you will find peace for your souls.

This is the most complete revolution that has ever been preached; in fact, it is the only true revolution, because all the others demand the extermination of somebody else, but this one means the death of the man who, for all practical purposes, you have come to think of as your own self.

New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton

Part II is here.