A Sound of Sheer Silence

This Saturday, our priory of the Community of Mary, Mother of the Redeemer had our first monthly day of reflection.  There are five of us here in Columbus, at least for now--we have a half-dozen or so folks who are interested.  In any event, we met for about four hours, mostly just talking about what is going on in our individual and collective lives, as well as a book we are reading together.  In many ways, it was like chapter meetings that have been going on in monasteries and other religious communities for 1600 years.  But, there is was at least one way in which it was different from those chapter meetings.  Among the five of us, only one--me--is a straight man. In the last 36 hours, I have been trying to put together what I think the significance of this fact is, because I think it is significant, at least on some modest scale.  While we were meeting, we learned that one of the oldest horrors that have stalked Christian and Christian-influenced so...

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  (2 Corinthians 3:1-6) In the last week, I have found articles from two writers who I have discussed in these electronic pages--Melinda Selmys and Damon Linker--announcing that they are leaving the Roman Catholic Church.  While there are differences in the rationales offered by both for...

We have intentionally obscured the unambiguously clear, unifying message of the New Testament, in all of its diversity—that God’s agenda is to transfigure the world through nonviolent, self-sacrificial love. That is the Jesus way. There is simply no way around this. — Jonathan Martin (@theboyonthebike) October 4, 2018 I happened to see this first thing this morning.  It's very much worth reading in full, but I was particularly struck by these two observations. The fact of the matter is, the pendulum will swing hard the other way against the powers that be, & there is plenty I am not/will not be comfortable with. But don’t miss the point-even when it gets a little wild or far, that doesn’t mean Spirit isn’t at work in the anarchy. — Jonathan Martin (@theboyonthebike) October 4, 2018 It sounds like a rushing mighty wind, but it is only experienced as violence to those that resist it. Sons & daughter will go too far in their newfound freedom, like all liber...