Friday, September 01, 2006
Hughes, G.W. ( ) God of Surprises
Von Hugel takes the three main stages in human development - infancy, adolescence and adulthood - describing the predominant needs and activities which characterize each stage. He shows that religion must take account of and nurture the predominant needs and activities of each stage, and so concludes that religion must include three essential elements, an institutional element corresponding to the needs and activities of infancy, a critical element corresponding to adolescence, and a mystical element corresponding to adulthood. As he analyses each stage of growth, he is careful to show that the needs and activities of infancy do not disappear in adolescence, nor do the needs and activities of adolescence disappear in adulthood, but they should cease to be predominant if we are to grow into the following stage. He also shows the dangers inherent in each stage of growth. Religion must include all three elements, the institutional, the critical and the mystical. There is a constant danger that one element is over emphasized to the exclusion of the other two, or two elements are emphasized to the exclusion of the third, thus stifling the religious development of its members
11
on perfection
There is a constant temptation to despise and reject the limitations of our human nature, and to believe that perfection consists in being as independent of it as possible, a temptation which is at the root of much Christian neurosis.
59
Marks of true repentance
True repentance frees from self-preoccupation because our trust is in God's goodness working in us. In his light we see our darkness.
True repentance brings joy and inner freedom.
True repentance can welcome criticism and learn from it.
True repentance brings understanding, tolerance and hope.
True repentance brings compassion and therefore a sharpened sensitivity to all forms Of injustice.
True repentance shares God's laughter and frees the mind to see the humour of all situations.
In true repentance a person feels drawn to God.
A Church with a spirit of true repentance will be concerned primarily with its mission, not its maintenance. It will see all its securities as provisional, finding its one security in God.
A Church with a true spirit of repentance will encourage the critical and mystical elements as well as the institutional in its members.
Marks of false repentance
False repentance immerses us in self-preoccupation. We delight in what we consider our virtue but are irritated by our vice, refuse to acknowledge it and project it on to others.
False repentance increases anxiety and makes us more defensive.
False repentance is touchy about criticism and learns nothing from it.
False repentance engenders a rigidity of mind and heart, dogmatism, intolerance and a condemnatory attitude.
False repentance is sensitive to justice only in so far as it promotes the interest of the individual or his group and is therefore selective in its moral condemnation.
False repentance tends to be over serious and cannot laugh at itself.
In false -repentance a person feels driven by God.
A Church with a spirit of false repentance will be primarily concerned. with its own maintenance, Whether of its doctrinal or moral orthodoxy, or of its prestige in society, the preservation of its own structures or of its material possessions.
A Church which has no true spirit of repentance will emphasize the institutional element and give little or no encouragement to the critical and mystical.74
Sin is the refusal to let God be God. One subtle way of refusing, while pretending not to, is so to emphasize the 'otherness' of God that for all practical purposes he ceases to matter.
'A Review of Consciousness'.
At the end of a day, especially before going to sleep, the mind, without any conscious effort on our part, tends to play back some of the events of the day so vividly that if the day has been particularly eventful we can find it difficult to get to sleep. We may find ourselves re-enacting a quarrel, thinking of the clever and cutting things we might have said if only we had been more quick-witted. The review of consciousness is based on this natural tendency of the mind.
Having made this prayer then let your mind drift over the day , refraining from any self-judgement, whether of approval or disapproval, attending to and relishing only those moments of the day for which you are grateful…. Having remembered the events for which you are grateful, thank and praise God for them.
After thanksgiving, the next step is to recall your inner moods :and feelings, noting, if you can, what occasioned them, but again refraining from any self-judgement. Be with Christ as you look at these moods and beg him to show you the attitudes which underlie them. For your part, do not try to analyse the moods: just relive, in Christ's presence, the events which gave rise to them. Contemplate the events of the day and pray to Christ out of your experience of them….Thank him for the times we have 'let his glory through' and beg his forgiveness for the times we have refused him rntry.
77ff
There are two obstacles frequently encountered at the start of our journey towards God which can be very difficult to surmount, namely feelings of guilt and self-worthlessness and also the memory of hurts done to us by others.
Guilt is a healthy human reaction to our own wrongdoing, but it can also become an unhealthy disease which poisons our spirit.
83
Salvador Dali has painted the crucified Christ suspended above the globe of the earth. Let your imagination work on that image and speak to Christ dying on the cross. He has become the sin of the world and there is no crime, however hideous, which he has not taken on himself and forgiven. Tell Christ that although he has succeeded with the rest of the human race, he has met his match in you, and that not even his death can overcome your guilt. He may find all other human beings to be lovable, but you are God's mistake which he can never put right. If you can persist in this prayer, he will uncover a hidden source of guilt, which is pride, the refusal to let God be God to you, clinging to your guilt as though it were more powerful than his love. 85
imagine you are in a room by yourself and there is a knock at the door. 'Look, 1 am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share his meal, side by side with him' (Rev. 3:20). In imagination, take Christ on a tour of the house, which is your life. Take him into those rooms, that is, those events, in which you experienced great pain and introduce him to the people who caused it. Express to them, even although they may now be dead, and to Christ, the hurt you still feel and then look at him and see how he reacts to the people concerned. Do not force yourself into insincere gestures or words of forgiveness, but rather let him draw the feelings and the words out of you. Even if you can only say, 'I want to want to be able to forgive,' that is progress. In the same way, you can ask forgiveness of those you have offended.
86
If a person is led by love of truth, justice and compassion for other people, they have found God even although they may not know his name. 94
Col 2:20-3
Flesh = areas which resist God.
For those who are afflicted with gloom, it is good to pray and imaginatively contemplate the raising of Lazarus in John 11. Have a good look at Lazarus in his tomb. He is dead, corrupting, enclosed in darkness. Then hear the voice outside the tomb saying: 'I am the resurrection. If anyone believes
in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.' Without forcing anything, let your own feelings of sadness and depression surface in your consciousness so that you see yourself locked within the tomb of your own sadness. Then hear the stone being removed
and hear the vo ice of Jesus calling you by name, '. . . , arise, come forth'. Sometimes, people who pray in this way discover that they do not want to emerge from the tomb. This is not failure, but an important discovery, showing them that they are in the tomb of sadness not because God wills them to be there, but because they have chosen to be there for some reason. If this were to happen to you, do not be alarmed, but acknowledge your own attachment to th e tomb and keep asking Christ to set you free.
Ff 138
#
11
on perfection
There is a constant temptation to despise and reject the limitations of our human nature, and to believe that perfection consists in being as independent of it as possible, a temptation which is at the root of much Christian neurosis.
59
Marks of true repentance
True repentance frees from self-preoccupation because our trust is in God's goodness working in us. In his light we see our darkness.
True repentance brings joy and inner freedom.
True repentance can welcome criticism and learn from it.
True repentance brings understanding, tolerance and hope.
True repentance brings compassion and therefore a sharpened sensitivity to all forms Of injustice.
True repentance shares God's laughter and frees the mind to see the humour of all situations.
In true repentance a person feels drawn to God.
A Church with a spirit of true repentance will be concerned primarily with its mission, not its maintenance. It will see all its securities as provisional, finding its one security in God.
A Church with a true spirit of repentance will encourage the critical and mystical elements as well as the institutional in its members.
Marks of false repentance
False repentance immerses us in self-preoccupation. We delight in what we consider our virtue but are irritated by our vice, refuse to acknowledge it and project it on to others.
False repentance increases anxiety and makes us more defensive.
False repentance is touchy about criticism and learns nothing from it.
False repentance engenders a rigidity of mind and heart, dogmatism, intolerance and a condemnatory attitude.
False repentance is sensitive to justice only in so far as it promotes the interest of the individual or his group and is therefore selective in its moral condemnation.
False repentance tends to be over serious and cannot laugh at itself.
In false -repentance a person feels driven by God.
A Church with a spirit of false repentance will be primarily concerned. with its own maintenance, Whether of its doctrinal or moral orthodoxy, or of its prestige in society, the preservation of its own structures or of its material possessions.
A Church which has no true spirit of repentance will emphasize the institutional element and give little or no encouragement to the critical and mystical.74
Sin is the refusal to let God be God. One subtle way of refusing, while pretending not to, is so to emphasize the 'otherness' of God that for all practical purposes he ceases to matter.
'A Review of Consciousness'.
At the end of a day, especially before going to sleep, the mind, without any conscious effort on our part, tends to play back some of the events of the day so vividly that if the day has been particularly eventful we can find it difficult to get to sleep. We may find ourselves re-enacting a quarrel, thinking of the clever and cutting things we might have said if only we had been more quick-witted. The review of consciousness is based on this natural tendency of the mind.
Having made this prayer then let your mind drift over the day , refraining from any self-judgement, whether of approval or disapproval, attending to and relishing only those moments of the day for which you are grateful…. Having remembered the events for which you are grateful, thank and praise God for them.
After thanksgiving, the next step is to recall your inner moods :and feelings, noting, if you can, what occasioned them, but again refraining from any self-judgement. Be with Christ as you look at these moods and beg him to show you the attitudes which underlie them. For your part, do not try to analyse the moods: just relive, in Christ's presence, the events which gave rise to them. Contemplate the events of the day and pray to Christ out of your experience of them….Thank him for the times we have 'let his glory through' and beg his forgiveness for the times we have refused him rntry.
77ff
There are two obstacles frequently encountered at the start of our journey towards God which can be very difficult to surmount, namely feelings of guilt and self-worthlessness and also the memory of hurts done to us by others.
Guilt is a healthy human reaction to our own wrongdoing, but it can also become an unhealthy disease which poisons our spirit.
83
Salvador Dali has painted the crucified Christ suspended above the globe of the earth. Let your imagination work on that image and speak to Christ dying on the cross. He has become the sin of the world and there is no crime, however hideous, which he has not taken on himself and forgiven. Tell Christ that although he has succeeded with the rest of the human race, he has met his match in you, and that not even his death can overcome your guilt. He may find all other human beings to be lovable, but you are God's mistake which he can never put right. If you can persist in this prayer, he will uncover a hidden source of guilt, which is pride, the refusal to let God be God to you, clinging to your guilt as though it were more powerful than his love. 85
imagine you are in a room by yourself and there is a knock at the door. 'Look, 1 am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share his meal, side by side with him' (Rev. 3:20). In imagination, take Christ on a tour of the house, which is your life. Take him into those rooms, that is, those events, in which you experienced great pain and introduce him to the people who caused it. Express to them, even although they may now be dead, and to Christ, the hurt you still feel and then look at him and see how he reacts to the people concerned. Do not force yourself into insincere gestures or words of forgiveness, but rather let him draw the feelings and the words out of you. Even if you can only say, 'I want to want to be able to forgive,' that is progress. In the same way, you can ask forgiveness of those you have offended.
86
If a person is led by love of truth, justice and compassion for other people, they have found God even although they may not know his name. 94
Col 2:20-3
Flesh = areas which resist God.
For those who are afflicted with gloom, it is good to pray and imaginatively contemplate the raising of Lazarus in John 11. Have a good look at Lazarus in his tomb. He is dead, corrupting, enclosed in darkness. Then hear the voice outside the tomb saying: 'I am the resurrection. If anyone believes
in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.' Without forcing anything, let your own feelings of sadness and depression surface in your consciousness so that you see yourself locked within the tomb of your own sadness. Then hear the stone being removed
and hear the vo ice of Jesus calling you by name, '. . . , arise, come forth'. Sometimes, people who pray in this way discover that they do not want to emerge from the tomb. This is not failure, but an important discovery, showing them that they are in the tomb of sadness not because God wills them to be there, but because they have chosen to be there for some reason. If this were to happen to you, do not be alarmed, but acknowledge your own attachment to th e tomb and keep asking Christ to set you free.
Ff 138
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