Tag: Casey
Reading is Important
For every Christian, and especially for the monk, reading is important in order to shore up the distinctive structure of beliefs and values that is necessary if we are to live a life worthy of the gospel and to be strangers to the ways of the world. The more exposure we have to unevangelical modes… Read More ›
Living out the Rule
The community as envisaged by Benedict does not operate according to the standards of this age . . . . Benedict resists any tendency which would lead his monks to do any of the following: to be more concerned about “transitory earthly trifles” than the kingdom (Rule of St. Benedict [RB] 2:33-36) to become protective… Read More ›
The Measure of Love Authenticity
When the love of Jesus draws forth the best in us the lower appetites go into recession. It is not that we conquer them; they simply lose their capacity to charm us. . .. A devotional life that coexists with an unchallenged concern for personal comfort and advancement is likely to be spurious. The measures… Read More ›
The Danger of Servitude
The danger of servitude, especially to the electronic media, is not only that it wastes time and incapacitates, but it also serves as a channel through which evil thoughts about which St. Benedict speaks (cogitationes malas, RB: 4:50), enter the mind of the monk or nun (or lay person) and thence pass through to the… Read More ›
Listening Carefully
. . . it is Christ who speaks through human agents-the less overpowering they are, the more attentively the abbot must strain to hear what they say. The same principle applies here that Benedict enunciates concerning the poor: The terror that great ones inspire assures them of respect (53:15), but it is in listening carefully… Read More ›
Living in Community is not just for Monks
We talk a lot about being “community” and we use the term a great deal in general terms; the parish community, the city as a community, the monastic community. But do we think any further on what it actually means? Michael Casey, OSCO, talks a great deal about the subject in his book Strangers to… Read More ›
Solid Buildings and Stodgy Thinking
Solid buildings easily lead to stodgy thinking. How often the Church has failed to respond quickly to conscientious needs because so much financial investment was dependent on the preservation of the status quo — its schools, hospitals, and church buildings? Just as the necessity of long-term planning can lead us to overlook immediate imperatives, so… Read More ›
Caricature of Contemplation
Thomas Merton was adamant that television — at least American television — was a danger for any who are interested in progressing further in the practice of contemplation. He expresses himself on the subject with characteristic verve, a little acerbity, and a not-untypical degree of exaggeration. “The life of a television-watcher is a kind of… Read More ›
Western Nihilistic Culture
The nihilistic culture propagated by so many countries in the West emphasizes neutrality among options. We are free to choose whatever suits us best-something becomes right by the fact of our choosing it. No particular option has any greater right to be chosen than any other. This denial of the objectivity of values leads to… Read More ›
Entertainment becomes necessary when life has lost all meaning
What is the dominant mode of experience at the end of the twentieth century? How do people see things, and how do they expect to see things? The answer is simple. In every field, from business to politics to marketing to education, the dominant mode has become entertainment. . . . In other centuries human… Read More ›