Chapter 8 “Meditation Makes History Present”
“… we are to understand that the whole of human existence is subject to the power of sin: constant self-praise, unlimited self-care, disordered and boundless greed. Human beings are not masters of themselves as many guides meditation suggest; they are ‘slaves to sin,’ torn this way and that, doing what they hate. “This situation of humanity is not, however, natural; it is the product of history.” [p.144]
“… God confronts the powers of evil not only with individual prophets and saints but with a whole people. God wants to have a people in the world - a people from which blessing can come for the whole world. That is a baseline in Old and New Testament theology…. here is Jesus with his parables ….’ [p.145]
“True meditation cannot be unworldly; it is radically engaged with the world. It most certainly cannot be objectless. Its object is God and God’s history with the world.” [p.146]
“… the subject of the Bible is the history that has taken place between God and the world and between God and God’s people.” [p.147]
We may look at the history of the Church as the ‘Bible’ being lived by God’s people, many times not well, but always under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
“The Christian mystic wants to empty the self, become ‘nothing,’ but only in order to be completely filled by God and to be fully present for God…. becoming empty is not the goal but only the precondition for the real thing: the presence of God.” [p.149]
“… Christian meditation arises out of contemplation of the works of God. That contemplation may include many things: nature, humanity, the world, the whole of creation, the Torah, the nature of God. But the frame and underpinning of it all must be God’s action in history, for us that is the Bible’s basic story.” [p.152]
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.
May God Be Praised!
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