In the midst of my ever-present soul searching on what Christianity,faith, and prayer really are, I have stumbled upon some thought provoking and well written explorations into these very themes this week, interestingly, after a night of prayer asking for insight.
Jacob Needleman’s Lost Christianity has me riveted, firstly by the resonant questions he asks. The book doesn’t so much create a sense of awe from the revelations he unfolds, but a sense of joy at finding the same questions from my own mind in print written by a scholar of philosophy and religion. It was a blessed relief and I am turning every page with eager anticipation. I don’t tease myself with hoping for answers, I am blissfully content with dodging all the well-worn scholarly and heartless dissertations, as well as the esoteric hoochy-coochy that speaks loftily and secretly, always letting you know you are NOT in the in group of those who know.
I am glad to go on this exploration with Needleman, one that is fresh, not afraid of magic or science, nor romantically bound to either one. This feels real.
Secondly, I read an intriguing post from the blog site The Mystical Christ, which is equally refreshing and unpretentious, on Scientific Prayer. Again, it made sense to both heart and mind. You can read it here: http://mysticalchrist.org/2013/07/06/scientific-prayer/
Lastly, (but I do get the feeling I’m not done yet) I was given a treatise from a friend. Twelve handwritten pages with five pages of drawn symbols that open doors in this artist’s mind. Anything to get my over-thinking brain out of the way is always helpful.
I must get back to my book, but I leave the reader with this quote from Lost Christianity pg. 24 as it begins where I am, locked in love with the liturgy, but not fully knowing why, and yearning for more:
He continued: “You ask about the liturgy in the West and in the East. It is precisely the same issue. The sermons, the Holy Days–you don’t know why one comes after the other, or why this one now and that one later. Even if you read everything about it, you still wouldn’t know, believe me.
“And yet…there is a profound logic in them, in the sequence of the Holy Days. And this sequence leads people somewhere–without their knowing it intellectually. Actually, it is impossible for anyone to understand the sequence of rituals and Holy Days intellectually. It is not meant for that. It is meant for something else, something higher.
“For this you have to be in a state of prayer, otherwise it passes you by–“
“What is prayer?” I asked.
He did not seem to mind my interrupting with this question. Quite the contrary. “In the state of prayer one is vulnerable.” He emphasized the last word and then waited until he was sure I had not taken it in an ordinary way.
“In prayer one is vulnerable, not enthusiastic. And then these rituals have such force. They hit you like a locomotive. You must be not enthusiastic, nor rejecting–but only open. This is the whole aim of asceticism: to become open.”
Magdalena's Musings 