'Spirituality' Today?
Where There Is No Vision: Reflections on Our Restless Age
More thoughts from an old man witnessing a culture lose its way Introduction “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” - Proverbs 29:18 “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” - Ecclesiastes 1:2 I keep returning in my prayers to two voices from Scripture that speak directly to our time. The wise man in Proverbs warns that "where there is no vision, the people perish." The Preacher in Ecclesiastes laments that "all is vanity;" our projects, our achievements, our carefully constructed meanings dissolve like vapor. These two truths haunt me as I watch our culture flail about, desperately seeking something to believe in now that the Christian story has been largely abandoned. We are a people starving for a vision giving meaning, yet everything we grasp turns to dust in our hands. The Restless Substitutes In my lifetime, I've watched secular society try to fill the God-shaped hole with various substitutes. Eac...
If asked whether I'm 'religious' I always say no. Same with spiritual. What they have come to mean, I don't wish to identify with. Say 'spiritual' nowadays and people think 'new age'.
ReplyDelete'Religious' = judgemental, stuffy and prudish
Delete'Spiritual' = weird, hippie woo-woo stuff, tarot and bongs
I just say 'I'm an Orthodox Christian', which usually gets the response, 'oh, so you're Jewish?'
Yep that sums it up. Except for the orthodox bit obviously! Jewish 🙄 nothing should surprise me.
Delete@ Lain
DeleteMy father always said he was "a Jew who accepted Christ".
@Jack
DeleteWhat part of the world were your father's roots from? Are we allowed to still ask that these days?
Racist 😂
DeleteHis family descendants were Sephardi Jews who emigrated from Spain.
Delete@Prof 😡
DeleteThe next carol service I play at, I'm going to wear a kimono, geta, play a shamisen instead of the piano, and demand a large settlement from the church when someone asks me about it!
@ Jack
That's interesting, do you have any practicing Jewish family members?
@ Lain
DeleteNot that I'm in touch with. Dad's family - very orthodox - regarded him as dead to them when he converted to Catholicism and shunned him.
I have a second cousin who converted to liberal shepardi Judaism.
Delete@Lain, now that would be a carol service I'd like to attend 😯
Delete@Prof What do you say instead, if I may ask?
Delete@GS, nothing, you ask them for their pronouns and apologize for British Imperialism and racism and bung them a fiver as compensation. Then spend five minutes wondering how to rid yourself of your white privilege and then return home in despair at the structural racism of British society.
Delete@Prof
DeleteWell the choirmaster had a strop when he found out they'd have to be accompanied on piano instead of organ; I think his head would explode if I turned up with a stringed instrument (the horror!)
And you only offer a fiver?!
It's all I can afford white privilege doesn't come chea
DeleteHmm, I thought you were automatically enrolled in it when you were assigned white at birth.
DeleteLain - I want to come to your Caraloke!
Delete@Brain - very good, I'll admit it took me a while to get it. But that's the end of your career in the Royal Household!
Delete@ Brian
Delete"Will no one rid me of this turbulent punster?"
@Lain. A common misunderstanding.
DeleteThe first image is interesting.
ReplyDeleteBanksy’s Christ with Shopping Bags was produced in 2004 as a limited edition screen print of 82 signed pieces. Although it is a highly perceptive commentary-style artwork, it has never been reproduced outside of commissioned paintings, and therefore remains a rare and iconic Banksy work on paper. In the artwork Christ With Shopping Bags, Christ is being crucified, and his pain is not lessened by the weight of his shopping bags.
Christ with Shopping Bags is a satire on values, perception and the transformation of the Christmas holiday. Up until the 20th century, Christmas observed the birth of Jesus Christ, the cornerstone figure for the religion. Apart from a special sermon and dinner ritual, Christmas was a day of rest and reflection and to not be preoccupied with the material things in life. In modern times, Christmas has become symbolic of rampant consumerism. Ostentatious gifts and revelry are highly valued during this holiday, even at the expense of debt and gluttony. Christ with Shopping Bags is as awkward of an assemblage as the blatant clash of ideals in Christmases past and present. All parts of the image appear to be melting, reminding us that both material goods and the joy that is derived from them do not last.
It reminds me of Leonard Cohen's lyric playing on The Battle Hymn of the American Republic: 'as he died to make men holy, let us die to make things cheap'. That is the modern religion: buy product, consume product, anticipate next product.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11532695/Pope-warns-seen-omens-greater-destruction-desolation-mankind.html
ReplyDeleteI think the Pope is embracing end of world. Anton would be pleased.
I don't know, Anton would want to see the Pope working Covid, attack helicopters and Trump into the narrative of Revelation and giving us the GPS coordinates of the second coming.
DeleteCoincidentally, given the second image Jack posted, the Pope has also been advising people to ask God not Google!
Everyone needs help to mature and to grow as a person of faith, Pope Francis told young people in Bahrain, so reach out to someone a bit older and wiser and don’t forget to pray.
Delete“Before you go to the Internet for advice, always seek out good counselors in life, wise and reliable people who can guide and help you,” like parents, grandparents, teachers, the elderly and a good spiritual guide, the pope told students at Sacred Heart School in Awali Nov. 5.
“Each of us needs to be accompanied on the road of life!” he told them.
And turn to God, who is always there, waiting “for you to ask him to give you a hand,” the pope said.
Note - reach out to someone a bit older and wiser too!
Older *and* wiser - I can only ever find the first one!
DeleteI think the loss of parish sisters, the religious, and the dwindling number of assistant priests is a huge barrier to young people finding spiritual guides.
"After the death of a loved one, for instance, a man may undertake temporary monastic vows. In some Theravada countries it is also common for a young boy to become a monk for a short period as a “passage” of sorts into adulthood"
DeleteI've wondered if Catholicism also had this model of monasticism, it might attract more monks/Priests etc and encourage more life long committment.
Obviously I'm not saying this should be exactly followed!!
Delete@ Lain
DeleteNot to mention the spiritual quality and confidence of younger priests.
@Prof
DeleteI think that's a good idea; the ability to live a monastic life for a while without the expectation of it being a permanent commitment. There's a lot to be learned from it, and it would open that experience up to people who's station in life doesn't permit them to become lifelong monastics.
It was relatively common in medieval Japan (particularly for noble and courtly men and women) to take the tonsure when they'd been widowed, renounce the world and live as wandering monks and hermits. It's also still not uncommon for people to take monastic vows for a set time: quite a few prominent businessmen have temporarily been monks at some point.
I think it would become seen as an alternative to a year out. I think Jack should bring it up with his local Bishop.
DeleteUK surveys in 2013 revealed what it means to be a Catholic has changed.
ReplyDeleteA Britain in which “faithful Catholics”, according to official teaching, are now a rare and endangered species. If we measure such a person by the criteria of weekly churchgoing, certain belief in God, taking authority from religious sources, and opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and euthanasia, only 5 per cent of Catholics fit the mould, and only 2 per cent of those under 30.
Catholics, in other words, have come adrift from Roman Catholicism. The latter hold fast to a model they believe to be endangered and unchanging, while the former have forged a new way of being Catholic in the conditions of contemporary culture. From a sociological point of view, such a vast chasm between religious institution and religious people weakens both. From a human point of view, it is tragic for all involved.
The low number of under 30s is unsurprising when social media, the mainstream media, the government, schools and even supermarkets are pushing one end of the ideology spectrum 24/7. Christians (and the faithful of other religions) need to seriously consider homeschooling their kids.
DeleteI don't think the Pope is alluding to Revelation or to any other book in the Bible. From what it says in the Mail, he's reading the "signs of the times" in the news from Putin's war against Ukraine.
ReplyDelete@ Ray
ReplyDeleteIt's a familiar Advent theme for Pope Francis and for popes before him.
Traditionally, Advent focuses on the mysteries of the Last Things, to point us to contemplate death, judgment, heaven and hell; and to hope for the Last Day when Christ returns to judge and to reign.
Interesting semi-relevant short article. Why Pagans (and Christmas) Aren't Really Pagan.
ReplyDelete