The Gift of Monasticism

Today the need is as great as ever for religious orders and their houses of study to stand as both a refuge of spiritual purity and of intellectual insight as to how best to support the truth of the Catholic faith in an era of secular positivism. There is a great need to return to the foundational understanding of philosophy in particular and classical learning in general in support of theology and the dogmatic truths of the faith while addressing the issues of a technologically advanced age. As in the past, monasteries offer great hope in providing havens of spiritual and scholarly retreat where the Catholic Renaissance of tomorrow could be launched to address the need for advancing orthodox theological explanation and guidance at a time of what fairly may be termed considerable moral and intellectual confusion.

This article reminds me that John Senior is correct. The restoration of Christian Culture will only happen through the restoration of monastic life.

What I Do

I was recently in San Francisco during WWDC.¹ And, no I wasn’t there as a developer. I’ve considered making a few iOS apps. But, I’ve yet to execute on my ideas. Anyway, that discussion is for another blog post. But I was there to learn some cool stuff and meet some cool people who I only know by their online personality or Twitter handle.² One such fellow was Lex Friedman. Lex is an interesting guy with an interesting background. He’s also hilarious. But, I was deeply touched by an article he wrote for The Magazine a few issues back.³

After reading his touching article I was determined to meet this man in person. Well, my opportunity arrived at AltWWDC this year.⁴ He was giving a talk that I thought would easily apply to matters beyond development. So, I rode the BART into The City. I got throughly lost trying to find the Venue (until the good hearted Moisés Chiullan pointed me in the right direction). I sat down for a couple conferences until Lex got up to speak. He was funny and engaging. It was a good talk. I’m happy I made the time to hear it.

After his talk I introduced myself and thanked him for the aforementioned article. He was gracious. Thankfully he didn’t point out my obvious nervousness and inability to form coherent sentences.⁵ However, he did ask me something I didn’t expect.

It’s not as if he asked me something controversial. He didn’t ask me about one of the profound mysteries of the universe or some obscure philosophical idea. No! Instead he had the audacity to ask, “So, what do you do?” I was stumped. I was stumped! And, I’m still obsessing about it. Why didn’t I know how to answer that question? I’ve been a Dominican long enough to know what I do, who I am. Why did I give him the answer I did? Why did I think of an answer that was really a dodge?

Welcome to the mind of an obsessive personality.

My first response was, “Well I get paid to talk.” And, that’s true as far as it goes. And, it’s an important part of what I do. We are mendicants. My Order survives mostly on the donations. Yeah, there are salaried positions that a few brothers have as Pastors, Professors, and the like. But, donations are primary. In my case, most donations come from free will offerings I collect at speaking venues. Okay, so, the description wasn’t false. However, it’s shallow. It doesn’t, at all, capture what I do as a Dominican Friar.⁶

But what’s a better response? What is an easy way to explain what I do without some protracted explanation. You know, the sort of explanation that cause people to repeatedly glance at their watches. Explaining what one does should be informative and exciting, not eyeball glaze! What would you say? What could you say that would capture who you are as a person in a short but potent response. See, that’s what I’m trying to do. I don’t have a job, properly speaking. I live a peculiar manner of life. I’m consecrated to the Lord. This is what shapes who I am.

My pride wants something witty. I want to articulate what I do in a way that’s inspiring and invites people to ask more questions. But, really my response should be far more simple. Why? My life is no longer my own. My life belongs to Christ and his Church. In short, it’s not about me. It’s about Him.

Next time I get this question I think I’ll simply say: “I try really hard to be an imitator of Christ.”

That should be more than enough. That should be enough for any Christian.

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1. Apple’s major developer conference. If you are a nerd you probably know this. If you are not a nerd you probably don’t care.  ↩

2. It was great meeting all you guys!  ↩

3. Actually, Issue #3. You can read the article here.  ↩

4. This is an alternative developer conference that is held at the same time as WWDC for all those dedicated Mac and iOS developers who didn’t get a ticket to WWDC.  ↩

5. Those who know me will find this fact a little odd and hard to believe. I’m not usually one to be caught flat-footed in a conversation with anyone. But, for some reason this happened to me twice while meeting people during WWDC.  ↩

6. I was tempted to tell him that I was a professional LARPer.  ↩

Go Go Go

One of the strongest pulls in the United States is work. Technology hasn't made this any better like it promised. We are always working. One of the professors at our school says that this is a direct result of the implicit atheism of the modern age. She says that the depression of the modern era effected Europe by sending them into a state of helpless immobility. However, in the United States, she said, we just became really busy. This is definitely my experience. As the years have gone on it has only gotten worse. We are so busy that we have become obsessed with productivity methods. Just look at the plethora of productivity apps available for your electronic devices, the books, podcasts, etc. litter the ethos of current American culture. Literally, we are so busy we can't keep up with our work, so we develop methods so that we can do even more work. It's insanity!

Make no mistake. This is a symptom of a society that lacks true Hope. When we expend so much energy on earthly tasks, how concerned are we with heavenly tasks? We need to reject this cultural trend. Busyness does not lead to holiness. Rather, silence is necessary. Peace is necessary. Contemplation is necessary. Yet, underneath each of these things is something else. In order to live out this call toward contemplation must have leisure.

Leisure?

Yes, leisure. I love how this goes against our American mentality.

Leisure does not mean having the time to sit around and do nothing. It's time that should be used for pursuing virtue and contemplation. It is only in the context of leisure that we can attain to our highest happiness. It could be said that heaven is a perpetual state of leisure.  

But we can't wait to attain to the life of contemplation in the next life. We must start that life now in this earthly state.This goes for all of us. Both the layman and the monk must make time for leisure. Yes, even monks get caught in a sort of "rat race" mentality. The monastery isn't a complete refuge from the world. Each monk brings a little bit of the world into the monastery. This is even more true with those of us Religious that have a vocation that takes us frequently into the public square.

Sometimes, as Religious we forget that we need leisure. Often we mistake our Regular Observances for leisure. This is a false understanding of Regular Observance. Public acts of worship like the chanting of the Divine Office or the Celebration of the Mass are not leisurely activities. Rather, they are our most profound work. They are our Opus Dei. Our first job is to fulfill these public obligations of worship with and for the Church. The graces that stem from these are more powerful and effective than any apostolic work or internal ministry we can do. To believe the contrary is to fall into the American sense of usefulness which is fundamentally a form of Utilitarianism. Worse, it could be a type of Pelagianism. Either way it at least looks like either some sort of Messiah complex or a convenient way to avoid intimacy. We must always remember the saying, "there is only one Savior and I am not he."

The activities of leisure are not necessarily bound up with public works. Study, Holy Reading, personal prayer and devotions, communal recreation, these are activities of leisure. These are essential. if we do not take a significant time to embrace silence and enter into these sort of activities then we will never be able to attain to the habit of contemplation. Without contemplation we will never be able to live a properly balanced, happy and holy life.

Our daily labors are not unimportant. I don't want to create a false dichotomy. i just want to point out the current pressing problem. We as a people are currently work oriented. We don't really need to learn how to work more or work harder. Rather, we need to learn how to slow down and make time for leisure. It will make our life more fulfilling and our work more fruitful. We need to learn how to properly balance time for work, refreshment, and leisure. We ought not spend too much time in any of these categories of life. We must learn to enter into each as completely and intensely as possible. For me, as a Dominican, these life categories will be filled with different content than the average layman. However, the common human need is to have a balance between the three.

I would challenge everyone to regularly evaluate their life and see if each of these areas are properly balanced. If not, rearrange what needs to be rearranged. If you can't rearrange then it is probably time to cut something out of your daily life.

Observance

I was having a conversation with one of our brothers about the peculiarities of our Dominican life. He lives in an adjacent cell. As a result, through the wall, he got to hear the numerous joy filled phone calls I made to close friends and family after I received word that I had been approved for Solemn Vows. He thought it was really cool to hear the repeated excitement expressed in each new call. He told me that since he entered the Order he had missed hearing those kind of emotional outbursts — the delight in life. He shared that he was slightly disturbed by the emotionally subdued texture of our day to day life. It was a great conversation. It prompted me to reflect on the various reasons for the powerful eruptions of my emotional states. For me, this is a new thing. It has only fully taken hold since I entered Religious Life.

We deliberately apply the word 'regular' to our life. This is because from the moment we wake to the time we go to bed our life is regulated. It is ordered. I felt this most strongly in the Novitiate. It was almost as if, between the hours of sleep, we moved from prayer to food to study without any variation. It was a difficult process at first. It was disturbing. Getting into a regulated habitual way of living can be difficult, to say the least. This is especially true if you have been accustomed to making your own schedule as I had become. But, over the years it has become quite normal — profoundly regular.

Over the near six years of my religious life this regularity has taken its toll. I do nearly everything in a stable routine. And sure enough, with such regularity comes what could be characterized as a dull, muted life, lacking in spontaneity. But it isn't. The surprise is that this regularity makes the affective aspects of life so much more spectacular. The austerity of our chapel has taught me to marvel at the beauty of color and natural forms. The silence we observe has taught me to cherish every sound, especially the sound of the human voice. The ordered schedule makes the days of celebration all the more joyful and the days of sorrow all the more dark. Our regularity makes life more spectacular just as fasting makes food more delightful.

Six years of this way of life has had an amazing effect on me. What will fifty years bring?

Accepted

Who knew that the heights joy were unreachable apart from God?

I've spent my whole life seeking after something I didn't fully understand. I've failed at nearly everything I've set about doing. Today, however, I've finally attained to my heart's desire. Today the brothers with whom I live have confirmed my vocation. I was approved to place my heart into the Dominican life until death. The brothers approved me to take Solemn Vows. I've been granted the privilege to place my hands in the Provincial's hands and gift my life long obedience to the Order.

I can't properly express what I feel right now. All I keep saying in my head is, "The brothers love me too. The brothers love me too!" God is just too good! The emotional highs and lows I've experienced in the last few days are unbelievable. I've experienced many incarnations of love throughout my life. I've gone from place to place and person to person seeking. I sought both high and low, on the heights and in the valleys. This is the first time, however, where the peril was so great that I couldn't think straight anymore. Perhaps this will give an insight into my previous post for my readers. 

It's so dangerous to put your heart in such a vulnerable situation. It is terrifying to trust other broken people with such a precious and fragile part of yourself. But, what a pay off! I'm filled with so much joy right now that I'm ready to burst. My expectations of how I would feel, how I would react, have been blown apart. What a wondrous mystery. I finally understand what St. Theresa of Avila means by sober inebriation. What a marvelous consolation. 

O God ... how wondrous are your designs!

Holy Obligation

Today I rejoiced. The USCCB approved what I think is the most important liturgical project it has recently engaged. Today the Bishops approved a new translation project for the Liturgy of the Hours. Finally! The Roman Missal was a giant step in the renewal of the whole English speaking Catholic world. This will be no less of a renewal. But it is a renewal with a narrower scope. This, I think, will be a large step toward the renewal of the clergy and religious. You see, we take on the obligation to pray with and for the Church in the Liturgy of the Hours. It is our Holy Obligation, hence the name: Divine Office. It is a sanctification of all time and all space, hence the name: Liturgy of the Hours. The Office, as it is tersely referred to, is not a private devotion. It is a public act of Worship. It is not undertaken for the sake of building the virtue of religion in the one who is praying it. Rather it is prayed for the salvation of the whole world.

However, one who prays the Office faithfully cannot help but be changed by it. Such repetition begins to form one's thinking, one's actions, one's prayer life. Holy habits are just as formative, and addictive, as profane habits. I know it has dramatically effected my own life. My favorite psalms are always whirling through my mind during the day. But more than that, the very schedule of my day is literally ordered around the celebration of the Divine Office. It permeates everything a cleric or religious does.

Something that is so deeply infused into the life of the cleric or religious is going to deeply form him. The Mass is a big part of this, but I think the Divine Office is a much bigger influence on those obliged to keep it. I'm really excited by this move. It is a tangible point of demarcation in the effort to renew the clergy and religious in our country.

Now, if we could only get Rome to re-reform the structure of the Office.

Contemplative?

As a Dominican I am supposed to have a "Contemplative" life. But, what does that mean? I'm not a Monk. My job in the Church is not to simply pray with and for the Church. St. Jerome said that the job of the monk is to weep for his sins and the sins of the world. Yes, St. Dominic wept. But, instead of radically abandoning the world like a monk does, St. Dominic radically entered the world. He didn't turn away, he turned toward. Of course there is an immediate problem with this. The temptation is to abandon one's self to the work of the apostolate. You must "get a job" or "do" ministry. If you don't focus your life on these "works" then it is obvious that you must not have a "love of the people." You should find another Order. But, this "works righteousness" approach to Religious life, to Dominican life, is absurd. It is rooted in the very Pelagianism that we were founded to combat.

We must be prepared to engage the world. We cannot afford to plunge into the depths of the world armed simply with our habit, our talents, and hard work. We need  the grace of God before all else. If we are not intentionally seeking the face of God in our common life (both privately and communally) then we will be a broken tool in the hand of the Lord. Yes, we may drive a few nails; but, eventually our rusty head will snap from its shaft and we will be fit only for the trash heap.

It is a mistake to set aside time for contemplation. We are called to live a life permeated by contemplation. This is not something opposed to the active apostolate. Rather, it precedes it and gives it depth. Without it we will always be lacking in our apostolic ministry. This, contemplative life begins with our common regular observances. It is from these observances that we come to understand the Lord as a community as Dominicans. From there we seek the prayer of study and meditation. We then go out into the world to pass on the fruits of this private and communal contemplation. But, even this going out into the world must have a contemplative character to it. We don't leave the life of contemplation back in the cloister! Contemplation is not something or the choir stall for the cell. It's having our entire being focused on the Lord. It is one thing to say this and give it lip-service. Many professed Religious do. It is another think to live it.

We Dominican's must recapture this life of contemplation. We are not social workers, we are not Diocesan priests who wear white, nor are we monks. We are Dominicans. We are scholars who sing. We are monks in the city. We are preachers. We must live out the life as defined in our Constitutions. We must love and appropriate our entire 800 year tradition continually seeking reform and renewal. We must be zealous for the Lord and equally zealous for the salvation of souls. We must reside in the heart of our Holy Mother the Church. We must constantly seek the face of God. We must not give in to the workaholic tendencies of the modern western world. We must not seek to be relevant. We must not seek to be popular. We must not seek any worldly laurels. We must not appropriate the relativism and subjectivism of our age. Rather, we must chase after Christ and him crucified without fail. In the radical following of Christ, there can be no compromise.

But, as with all things, reform and renewal always begins at home. It is not enough to live the Dominican life faithfully. It must be lived zealously. We must rise up like Matthias Maccabaeus, confident in the truth, reliant on the Lord, and courageous in our actions. Anything less is unworthy of those blessed brothers who preceded us. We have a family name to uphold. We must, once again, take up the banner of Christ, armed with contemplation, study, and penance. We must make war against those powers that seek to drive us into our cloister walls. We must help all of Christ's faithful avoid mediocrity. This is our time! Now, is the time for the rebirth of the Order.

The New Evangelization beckons!

Be Ye Reconciled: Part 2

Previously, I shared an insight about some of the underlying reasons why people either never go to confession or become scrupulous. It's becoming my belief that both of these dispositions are born out of a poor understanding of how to judge whether a sin is confessable matter or not. Before I offer some practical solutions I want to explore a better of way of understanding the degree of a particular sin. So, I said that every sin has an objective character but also a subjective application. What do I mean by this? I mean we have to understand what a sin actually is in its broadest sense. Fundamentally a sin deprives the whole of the created order of some good. Another way to put this could be that when we sin we add evil to the world. But properly speaking, by sinning we remove goodness from the world. This isn't the first thing we usually consider. These days we either consider the relational or legal aspects of sin first. We often think about who we offend or what law or rule we broke. These two things are part of sin but they are not the first consideration. We must first realize that sin, no matter its degree, is an act of violence against the good of God's creation and God himself.

Why is this important? If we ground our understanding of sin in either relationality or legality then we ground sin in something arbitrary – shifting sand. If it is grounded in relationality then something could cease to be considered a sin if the one offended doesn't experience the offense or ceases to be offended by  it for some reason. So in this scenario, if Molly is married to John and he commits adultery then it is only a sin if Molly considers adultery a sin. If Molly and John have a so-called "open marriage" then neither would experience adultery as an offense. See the problem? Also, if we ground sin in legalism or rule following it is equally arbitrary. If a law changes then the law doesn't recognize what was previously considered wrong as an offense any longer. Take for instance the sin of abortion. The American legal system doesn't view abortion as an evil – a sin. So, it is either neutral or a good according to the American legal system. But, prior to the judicial ruling of Roe v. Wade it was considered an evil act according to the law. So, it should be pretty clear that neither relational experience nor law are sufficient grounds for determining the objective aspect of sin. But, if we ground our understanding of good and evil in ontology, in the nature of creation, then we can speak intelligibly about the objective qualities of sin.

So, when we consider an action we must determine if the action is objectively good or evil. An action is objectively good if the action is consistent with nature. An action is objectively evil if the action is contrary to nature. So, giving a plant water is good. Giving a plant ammonia, however, is not so good. This objective characteristic is not the same as the assignation of praise or blame for the action. So, when we judge an action we want first to know if it is objectively good or evil. We must know this before we determine the praise or blame we should assign to the person who did the act. The reason for this is because of the relationship between the objective characteristic of an action and the process of assigning praise or blame. This is because an act that is objectively good could, in the assignation of praise or blame, be judged either a praiseworthy act (which is obvious) or a blameworthy act (not so obvious). An objectively evil act never becomes praiseworthy and is always blameworthy (on some level). So, the objective characteristic is binary. An act is either objectively good or evil. The subjective characteristic (praise or blame assignation, also known as culpability) is a gradient or sliding scale.

Okay, if you have been able to wrap your mind around this then you are ready for the next part. If not, reread this and comment on my Facebook wall and I can try to clarify some of the details. But, I want to stop here in this post so that these basics can sink in. Next, I'll post about how to determine the praise or blame that should be assigned to an act. This is the heart of what I want to get at. But, I needed to start here before we moved to that conversation. Once all these parts are together I'll offer the promised practical solutions for how we should approach the Sacrament of Penance, a.k.a., Confession, a.k.a. Reconciliation.

Christian Friendship

I was reflecting on the Gospel story of the men who tear through the roof to get their sick friend in to see Jesus. It's really touching. To me it has become an image of true friendship. They work so hard to get him to Jesus without concern for any obstacle. This is what friends do for each other. Many soldiers express this depth of friendship on the battlefield. They say that the reason for fighting changes from being primarily about the mission. They primarily fight for their buddy in the foxhole. An intense common goal is, in fact, the very foundation of friendship. The Greeks understood this. For this reason they numbered friendship as the penultimate type of love. It's greater than eros, i.e., the love of the desirable. It's a shift. We love the other not because of what they can give us. We love them because we share a common cause. What that common cause is defines the friendship. Pirates, for instance, have a vicious friendship. They share a common goal for the sake of whiskey, women, and cold hard cash. Many secular fraternities are little more than pirates without a ship. But a virtuous friendship is often a marvel to behold. Through it, friends are lead to a life of natural happiness.

Even greater, a Christian friendship has the goal of mutual salvation. No foxhole is greater than the spiritual one. How beautiful it is to see such a friendship. It is the building block of the Christian community and especially the Religious community. Remember, even Christ called his own disciples his friends.