Sanctus Stercora

“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” Luke 13.6-9

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

NSoC 30: Distractions

See Notes on this series...

"Prayer and love are really learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and your heart turns to stone."

Merton says the person who is never distracted doesn't know how to pray. Distractions are necessary trials in the contemplative life. We need to learn to work through them rather than avoid them.

The danger is not in the distraction from desiring God, but in the giving in to our will instead of his. Merton says it is better to desire God but be distracted from him than it is to have beautiful, uninterrupted thoughts of him but no desire to enter into his will.

Quaff:
Sometime when you have forty minutes to spare, download Dr. Robert Smith's sermon The Glory of the Groan from a Beeson chapel service. Awesome.

Sanctus Stercora

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

NSoC 30: Distractions

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