deep roots

Some of the laity, in their desire to participate in the Church's liturgy on a more continuous basis, adopt features of the priestly and monastic life and prayer, and recite the Office in whole or in part. But a greater understanding and a more developed spiritual freedom is generally evinced by those who, in the freedom of contemplative prayer, allow the life of God to take deep root in them and become their light. There are exceptions when the former practice can be recommended, but in most cases, it is a mistake. The normal way for those who are capable of it is the encounter with God's word in contemplation; in this way they unlock the treasures of sacramental life within them and grow in receptiveness for the sacraments.

As I have been reading Prayer by Hans Urs von Balthazar the call to the listening of the Christian life continually beckons. In our age we are offered plenty of ways to be busy in the spiritual life, to adopt rules, mechanisms, and techniques to deepen our faith, but for many these efforts will fall short. At some point I would like to write about what I call the Bible Project-ing[1] of American Christian life, the continual need for podcasts, apps, and videos to give us content, but that is a different day. Having a to-do list or series of habits or a podcast library for your faith will be fulfilling for a time as it feels like progress but separated from the listening life, we will find ourselves checking things off but still in silence. While I think these things can become cultural jigs for us to improvise and find ourselves drawn to what he calls taking deep root of God in us often they are presented as ends in themselves. What Balthazar advocates as spiritual freedom and becoming our light I take to be an offer to carry the fire into our daily lives and grow in the reception of the sacraments that ignite that flame within us and stand at the center of our communal life in baptism and the Lord’s supper.


[1] The Bible Project is great, but it seems to have started a way for us to be continually getting information about the Bible without being transformed by God.

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Carrying the fire