The Daily Disciplines
Everything we do is practice for the next time. When we cease to practice, we lose our fluency, and memory becomes imperfect. Some things are practiced by default- when did you last consciously practice eating? Other things require conscious effort. My handwriting is slow, laborious and has lost its fluency. I type without thinking.
When we took our young children back out to the desert where we had lived, they were profoundly uncomfortable with the open spaces. We noticed our son was happier and less fractious whenever we went walking in the enclosed space of mountain gorges. We become used to, and are affected by our environment. Years before, leaving the desert, my wife and I were depressed, dislocated and disoriented by urban life. A day out walking in the hills begins to resurrect memories and instincts which have been lost to our consciousness.
As urban westerners we live in a profoundly artificial environment. It is possible, even easy, to avoid the outside world for days at a time! Enter the garage by an inside door from the house, drive out using the automatic door opener, drive to the underground car park, and take the internal lift up to work. Leave before it is properly light, and return home after dark. We live in a world which we Australians especially, think we control. In truth, we are irradiated with uncontrolled advertising and other stimulation, rarely alone enough to be in silence, and uncomfortable if we are. We live in a noisy, crowded and driven world, which is the anathema of all that our spiritual ancestors learned is necessary for health. We have stepped out of reality into an artificial place.
The spiritual disciplines are designed to bring us back into the real world from our artificial place. They create time, silence and space for us to re-engage with the depths of life. They patrol the corridors of the mind, as someone has said, re-minding us of what is really important. Religion without practice becomes merely an idea, caught in the currents of the ideas round about, without the anchor of reality.
Critical Issues in the Light of Faith
The Washington National Cathedral has a Sunday Forum called Critical Issues in the Light of Faith which seems to be an extraordinary online resource.
According to the Cathedral web site
Each Sunday, Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III and his guests wrestle with pressing topics such as environmental stewardship, the role of faith in politics, religious pluralism, personal ethics, global justice, and faith in a changing culture. Guests are drawn from all walks of public life, from renowned scientists to writers, artists, and musicians; political figures and journalists; scholars from a multitude of fields; activists; and religious leaders.
For example , on Sunday May 4 2008, the guest was Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church, Harvard University. He was speaking on the topic The Scandaluous Gospel of Jesus. From the web site it is now possible to
- Order a DVD of that Sunday Forum.
- Watch this Sunday Forum online any time you like.
- Listen to or download this Sunday Forum in MP3 format.
- Read the Forum Transcript.
- Watch or listen to the sermon by the Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes as guest preacher this day.
- Listen to or download the sermon by the Rev. Professor Gomes in MP3 format.
I noted that there are other links on the site to material also from Peter Gomes.
The streaming media I have listened to downloads well. Your mileage may vary :-), but there seems to be good bandwidth at the Cathedral end!
Other topics in the projects archives include
- Benedictinism: A Spirituality for the 21st Century, with Sister Joan Chittister
- Theology in Action: King, Bonhoeffer, and You, with Charles Marsh
- The Art of Listening, with Diane Rehm
- Empower Women, End Poverty, with Thoraya Ahmed Obaid
- Why Words Matter: Poetry and Faith, with Dana Gioia
- Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, with Jim Wallis
- Everything Must Change: The Radical Meaning of the Kingdom of God for Today's World, with Brian McLaren
- etc
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