Warning! Warning! There may be diversions ahead!

Well, the last time the wife pointed me to something ‘You should take a look at….’ things went a little more drastic than I had anticipated. To be blunt the fellow stopped his blog – not the result I wanted, true, I stick by what I said and think what he said was in some ways dangerous – equating introvert with psychotic… had things panned out the way I hoped we would have exchanged some comments and that would have been that – hopefully both a little richer as we carried on our various ways… and we were diminished by his leaving. I suppose I’ll import that post from the ‘Googled Zone’ so that it’s within easy reach.

But, Onwards! My wife back in her blog made a comment about Taize and was concerned to see a comment stating that somebody else had made a less than a, err, full endorsement of that place. To wit one that goes by the handle of ‘e-mom’ when she leaves comments and her blog is ‘Chrysalis‘ with the strap line ‘Transform your soul with Christian truth.’ And whilst I have posted on ‘What’s in a name?‘ I’ll leave this part with the thought that perhaps if you’re going to be ‘Mom’ to all – you can’t be friends to any…

The problems with her posts are wider than merely having a ‘look’ at Taize – her target is also the entire contemplative tradition within christianity and this is where I rather take a sharper look. To see what my ‘e-mom’ has said then you can find the two articles here and here…. Hopefully I’ll provide enough info as I go so you can understand what I’m critiquing but don’t stop there – Decide for yourselves.

In ‘An Open Letter to My Daughter (Part One)’ the very title is loaded in the sense of ‘I know best’ coming from the wisdom, or whatever, gained from age/time but let’s look at the substance.

To Start with ‘Contemplative Prayer: Why it’s Unbiblical’ is openly judgmental never mind wrong. Coming as we both do from the christian tradition let’s look at it this way – some folk of different faiths sing songs – does that mean singing hymns is unbiblical? Some folk practice quiet contemplative prayer and whilst I don’t endorse buddhism I don’t see being silent and trying to approach God in silence is wrong by association – in every communion service in the Church of England there is a short time of silence to contemplate our faults and failings before the ‘confession’ is said – is that unbiblical?

But lets take your definition of contemplative spirituality – ‘“A belief system that uses ancient mystical practices to induce altered states of consciousness (the silence) and is rooted in mysticism and the occult but is often wrapped in Christian terminology. The premise of contemplative spirituality is pantheistic (God is all) and panentheistic (God is in all).”—Lighthouse Trails Research Project‘ This is not about contemplative prayer but more as defining away a huge chunk of practices as if they all come from these two points of belief but here’s something If God is Everywhere then surely God must also Be in Everything? My lungs take up space, God is everywhere therefore God must be within my lungs. Now I’m not trying to be trite and say that God, physically is everywhere but I think my point may have been made.

I come from the contemplative lot and here I’ll state, flat out, I don’t think God is all.

So, let’s move onto the hornets’ nest of ‘Contemplative prayer’ – your first point about ‘altered states of consciousness to connect to one’s true self’ – well almost everything we do alters our states of consciousness so choosing to do so so you can be more prayerful is hardly the worst thing we could do. I am altering my state now by drinking Guinness and smoking my pipe and later I may change it again by having a coffee – but is it so bad to try to connect with your true self? Personally, I slow down and grow quiet so that I might be able to try to be more fully aware of God – as one of your commenter’s said – ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ I doubt Elijah was making much noise when he heard the still small voice…

To your second point that contemplatives believe that everybody is basically good – well I don’t – contemplatives disagree heartily over this sort of issue, the better christian contemplatives, like say Julian of Norwich, are more aware of the good of God that resides within, gently allowing us our own choices. And of the good God sees within creation – which since the fall he still thought good enough to die for…

Your third point – “Sparked by Eastern meditative techniques, today’s version of centering prayer is bent on stilling the mind.” A Quiet Revolution by Jodi Mailander Farrell – well, what is wrong with a still mind? Actually some of today’s techniques come from ancient christian thought – the idea of ‘The Cell’ where you go to be without distraction comes directly from the Desert Fathers who were part of the early christian movement. Not that it doesn’t echo Jesus’ advice on prayer ‘Go to your room and shut the door.’

Fourth – chanting to achieve the altered state – well I’ve been in churches where they’d sing the chorus again and again and boy did it work! Sometimes folk would take a small piece of the bible and read it over and over again – which would of course be wrong… unless no, it’s part of God’s word… So the real question isn’t whether you chant or repeat something but what you choose to repeat…

Fifthly and this is where I believe that we should test everything comes out – I think Thomas Merton is a bit of a loon – well-meaning but perhaps lost along his path…

The third part – a long list of words, twenty-two items without going to the link for even more vocab to watch out for. Frankly, I’m just going add my thoughts on some of these items with the proviso that as I practise my spiritual contemplation is to sit quietly with perhaps a candle [to symbolise God's presence] and read a bit of the bible and perhaps talk everything over with God [so far God hasn't interrupted me] or just try to be calm within the Divine Presence and so my comments below are only as full as my knowledge of them – which might not be much…

Labrynths are about a spiritual journey towards God leaving the baggage of your life behind and then to gently go back to your life – as for as I understand them – and within christianity are we not told to lay our burdens down to God?

Enneagrams as far as I’m aware has nothing to do with christian spirituality, although some may find them useful I’d advise care.

Lectio Divina is a way of reading the bible! And so is incredibly dangerous and one that I’d recommend.

Divine Mystery means God! As God is mysterious…

Jesus Prayer – this prayer is based on the words of someone to Jesus – Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.

Ignation Contemplation was worked out by Ignatious in Spain, he who founded the Jesuits, and is about picturing yourself within one of the stories in the bible and then to reflect on how you feel – this more than anything is why the Jesuits are such head strong fellows that they seek after truth and justice so much so that the Pope can barely control them! Well, sometimes…

Prayer of the heart – now this is about trying to figure out that which is most important to you and praying to God about it – something Jesus encouraged if I recall my Gospels correctly.

Obviously Being in the Present Moment, having Spiritual Direction or practising Spiritual Disciplines are all dangerous as no church has someone to guide them in their spiritual life and to be encouraged to read the bible every morning (a spiritual discipline in itself)…

And this part concludes my reaction to the first part…. [you'll be heartened to know.]

So Onwards to Theology: So What’s Taize?

I’ll cut to the end and then see what we read into the rest of the piece…

“So my dearest friend, since you’re a committed Christian, I’ll let you follow the links and come to your own conclusions. A Taizé service might well be appealing and seem harmless enough. But should you participate? Honey, I’ll let you decide.”

Well, it’s nice to see such warm open mindedness, if only at the end but, no, wait let’s have a look at this…

….come to your own conclusions… …seem harmless enough… but should you participate? Honey, I’ll let you decide….

This reminds me of Paul at his best/worst – I’m giving you good advice and if you don’t follow it then you’ve only got yourself to blame… type meandering in his writings.

Nevermind that Taize was founded by a chap, Brother Roger, who ran an underground network for those fleeing the Nazis let’s accept that sometimes the devil wears a pleasant face and look at what those monks get up to today… And, for the sake of argument the information I’m going to use is, mostly, that from ‘emom’s’ post.

Well, they seem to want to show love for one another, and for those who go there to also do this – didn’t Jesus say that we should love one another and by this ‘all will know that I am God’?

At the heart of how they do this is by singing chants and prayers and a large slice of silence… Weren’t the priests of the temple told to sing or chant songs through every hour of every day? So what they chant or pray is the crucial item here is to what do they pray, sing or chant. Well, and here I’ll cheat a bit and take something I know from a wider source – what they pray, sing or chant is from the bible. The silence allows folk to be quiet within themselves to be within God’s presence and to even at times be aware of that.

I probably will never go to Taize as it’s not only in France(!) but the idea of being within such numbers for this ol’ hermit is beyond my comfort zone [and so arguably I should GO!]

I’ll leave with a link to a contemplative movement that I used to be a member of and the ‘Government health warning’ that this tradition is not for everyone – just like singing facile happy songs and listening to bad/poor preaching isn’t for me… Anyway, here’s the link – The Northumbria Community