September 11, 2024
"Maybe you, too, have an unreasonable fear that is leaching the color from your life."
"Maybe you remedy this through walking, meditation or therapy. I recommend picking a saint to help you. The 'saint' doesn’t have to be a literal, official Catholic one — they can be anyone who rejected a life of maximal self-interest in favor of radical service, someone whose commitment to the rigors and contradictions of doing good in this world can show you how to live in it. My saint is Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century soldier turned Carmelite friar. He had a gift for savoring dull chores, like peeling vegetables and washing pots, which he did for most of his time on Earth...."
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"they can be anyone who rejected a life of maximal self-interest in favor of radical service, someone whose commitment to the rigors and contradictions of doing good in this world can show you how to live in it"
Brother Lawrence is famous for practicing the presence of God, not for radical service. As usual, lots of ignorance about things Catholic.
Religion.
This is good advice. Someone who has consistently volunteered and coached little league for a season or done something else to mentor or guide local children for a similar amount of time has been far more beneficial and meaningful than someone who has spent years protesting on behalf of whatever existential cause.
Is this a quirky form of virtue-signaling?
Maybe, but it is definitely part of a drift back to godly and immaterial thoughts, and away from the last seven decades of attendance at Church of the Holy Mall Shopper. Good.
It isn't obvious to me that the choices are so stark and so plain. Is there room for moderate self-interest and reasonable service? Or vicey-versy?
"Is this a quirky form of virtue-signaling?"
Is it in the NYT? There's your answer.
Personally I've never attended the Church of the Holy Mall Shopper, or noticed any drift back to godly and immaterial thoughts.
Humans languish in selfie-shness and prosper in productivity. Disclaimer: individual quality of life may vary.
Flawless Saints? The Catholic writer needs to read the Word.
Out walking in winter and stopping before a bare tree, he was flooded with the truth that in a little while it would be putting forth leaves and generating blooms that would bear fruit.
Interesting observation, given that the essay promotes a "meaningful life" that doesn't involve being fruitful, having children and extending your family tree.
Not that you need kids to have meaning, or even a spouse, but it seemed like there wasn't a lot of "rejecting self-interest" in this approach.
I pick San Givin as my saint. Patron saint of turkey and eating too much.
John Henry
Wow! The popular culture is getting close to Christianity these days. Next thing you know they will rediscover Bibles in the common tongue…like The Internet has become Gutenberg making Scripture available.
I blame Musk for all the free speech. Now unless they Jan Hus him we may see a great Awakening again.
Amen. Not a fan of Jimmy Carter, perhaps our second worst president. But he did a lot of good work after his presidency president at Habitat for Humanity. He actually built some homes for people. Built in the sense of actually wielding a hammer and saw.
Compare that to Princess Diana and her work with land mines. She didn't actually do anything. She just looked vapid and pretty and "raised consciousness"
On the other hand, there are a few people who through protesting and marching and raising consciousness have made a difference. Marching and protesting etc is pretty much all Martin Luther King did and look at what he accomplished.
In general though I'll go with the Jimmy Carters over the Diana Spencers.
John Henry
Individual dignity with a healthy dose of charity.
From Narr "It isn't obvious to me that the choices are so stark and so plain. Is there room for moderate self-interest and reasonable service? Or vicey-versy?" (sorry couldn't seem to reply to your reply)
Yes, the choices are very stark and plain. Wait, you would say, aren't they so close that they are operationally the same thing--radical service and practicing the presence of God? The problem with radical service is that it is always service to self unless it is explicitly focused on God. Practicing the presence of God can include radical service if that is God's will at the moment. However, radical service does not require any reference to God since in the end it is simply a behavioral description.
Exactly, there is and never was such a concept, but rather a religious ambition to strive toward improvement.
Which saint will you emulate, Ann?
Here's a NYT reader comment, naturally:
"I hope voters will apply your experience to the coming election. Kamala Harris may not be perfect but she is a whole lot "gooder" than DJT.."
I like the Gutenberg analogy of making the Bible available.
Biblegateway does a great job at this. They have hundreds of versions of the Bible, in every language from English (50+ versions) to Illongo and a bunch of other languages I've never heard of. Most in multiple versions.
In addition to the Bible itself, they have many other features such as tutorials, daily verses and so on.
There are other similar sites but this has been my go to for 15 or more years.
John Henry
I wasn't clear that I saw the opposition as maximal self-interest vs radical service; I don't know anything about practicing the presence of God.
My own personal epiphany along those lines was while watching Dr. Strange for the first time, there's the scene where the Ancient One tells him "It's not about you." Not that I'd never heard that before but at that particular point in my life and that particular movie/scene and the way Tilda Swinton said it, it was a revelation. Point being, I guess, that inspiration to be more selfless can come from anywhere.
Now, back to practicing my Sanskrit. . . . . .
“My saint is Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century soldier turned Carmelite friar. He had a gift for savoring dull chores, like peeling vegetables and washing pots, which he did for most of his time on Earth...."
Mine too! But he hasn’t responded to my prayers to do my dull chores for me. Do I need to light a candle or something?
You never drove past a mall on a Sunday? Esp back in the early internet years?
Now they've eliminated the obstacles that made those crowded lots so annoying. Other people.
The Left worships St. George of Fentanyl. As for me, I've admired Father Damien, the Patron Saint of Lepers.
In earlier centuries, even up to the middle of the 20th, there was a strong tendency for hagiographies, stories and bios about the saints that made them seem superhuman spiritually, emotionally, and sometimes physically (miracles, etc.) But what I love about studying church history for myself, reading the primary sources as they are available, is that the saints were never super human, they were always just regular folk who had committed themselves to a life and persevered, often in challenging circumstances.
Hagiographies make the saints seem like they're an impossible model, so we semi-worship them. But more common now is seeing how regular folk can live extraordinary lives by simply living out what Christ calls us toward.
I love the letters of Saint Anthony much more than the hagiography of him by Athanasius because of that. And the two writings of St. Patrick are glorious precisely because they don't have any of the superhuman loftiness of the Life of Patrick by Muirchú.
Some eras needed their saints to be idealized, I think we need saints that are examples and guides to us in perservering in faithfulness wherever we are at.
The hagiographic tendencies is a big reason why there's such a divide between the so called professional Christians (or religious) and lay folk, a division that just isn't present in the NT or in early church writings, where Paul calls all Christians saints and exhorts all Christians to live out in full the work the Holy Spirit is doing in and through them.
It says in the excerpt that he focused on dishwashing and doing servant things, which is when he practiced the presence of God. Radical service for him meant being willing to be humble and enter into a life of servicing others rather than trying to assert himself and gain authority.
If you read Brother Lawrence, it is both simplicity and radical all rolled into one. A modern expression, to some extent, is Henri Nouwen, who left a powerful position to help mentally handicapped. To some extent because he also continued to write and exert spiritual influence, just not from a vaunted position.
I was probably IN some malls on Sunday--can't rule it out--but was probably looking for some socks or a new belt. Not feeling anything spiritual but OTOH not feeling particularly materialistic either.
Just between you and me, they didn't eliminate -enough- annoying people.
https://jungiancenter.org/the-religious-impulse-in-the-human-being/
Approximately where I have ended up after a lifetime on and off the bandwagon. Esp those last two sections, on Organized Religion and On Spirituality and etc. But there are so many exceptions, special circumstances, differences..... it is an element of life unique to each individual. Jung did feel confident enough of his knowledge of God to psychoanalyze him, re The Book of Job.
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