“A psychoanalysis of chatter would suggest that
our over-verbalization is an effort to avoid something which is fearful—silence. But why should silence be threatening? Because words are a way of structuring, manipulating, and controlling; thus, when they are absent the specter of loss of control arises. If we cannot name it, we cannot control it. Naming gives us power. Hence, silence is impotence, the surrender of control. Control is power, and power is safety.”
- Sam Keen, To a Dancing
God
(There is surely a value in naming and understanding our experiences, but a deeper peace emerges when we can also learn to abide in the loving silence of divine presence. Take some time to do so this day.)
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SIR 48:1-14; PS 97:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7
MT 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many
words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray: ‘Our Father
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against
us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’ “If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive
others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
Matthew 6:7-15 (The Lord’s Prayer) Today’s reading emphasizes the importance of being sincere and honest with God. Because God is not impressed by the length of time that we pray, or how many words we say, or how much we promise to give him, Jesus shares with us a formula for prayer that plugs us into grace and forgiveness. • With each verse of the Lord’s Prayer, spend some time reflecting on how your own life is influenced by these words. Add your own reflections. • What faults in other people bother you most? How are these faults evident in your own life? Ask
God for forgiveness. from Praying the Daily Gospels
Psychic Energy and Contemplation by James
Arraj From St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. J. Jung, Part III, Chapter 7. Inner Growth Books, 1986. Wholeness and Holiness There are two important questions that arise from exploring the dynamics of psychic energy in St. John's descriptions of the trials of the spiritual life. The first is a practical one.
How should a person act in this state? Here, in the past, the priest and the psychologist had different perspectives. If the priest viewed these temptations simply as such, that is, as the work of the devil or the weakness of the flesh, then he would logically advise the person to resist and fight these temptations as evil. The psychologist, for his part, because he is aware that there can be a direct relationship between the person's spiritual aspirations and these outbursts of sensuality, and
that the two from a psychological point of view are elements that go to make up the whole psyche, realizes that these unpleasant contents cannot simply be repressed. For him this evil is as real as the good, and is a constitutive part, with the good aspirations, of the human psyche. We have returned, then, on the practical plane, to the epistemological problems that came up in Chapter Two. There are, then, two kinds of interacting ethical systems that run through all these considerations and should be clarified further. The first is the psychological ethic where the accent is on the striving for human wholeness; consciousness must be suitably enlarged and the shadow or regressive and unpleasant aspects of the personality integrated. Without the undertaking of this painful effort not only will man not reach his full psychic stature,
but he will become a social menace who finds his own worst weaknesses in others. Within this system the ethical goal is to be found in finding the midpoint of the total personality around which consciousness and the unconscious will balance. Overemphasis of either dimension of the personality will be a psychological ill that must be redressed. The law of ethical compensation is paramount because without its recognition, ethical efforts become one-sided and produce the effect opposite to what was
originally intended. The underlying foundation of ethical compensation is a view of the full extent of the psyche which extends beyond consciousness. Traditional morality, on the other hand, stands in contrast to this psychological ethic, for it is concerned primarily with conscious intent and free choice; and it is holiness that is sought above all
else rather than wholeness; the will of man must be in accord with the will of God. Each of these systems has its own purpose and validity, but since they are operative within the same concrete individual they can appear at odds with each other because both often make use of the same material and vocabulary, but for contrasting ends. These differences will appear again in the context of spiritual direction, as they already have in relationship to the doctrine of the
Quietists.
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