Yesterday, I mentioned the Shalom Place Discussion Board as one of our Internet resource
options. As I mentioned in last year’s appeal, social media like Facebook, Twitter and online blogs have become popular, but there is still a place for discussion boards like this one. For one thing, the topics are easier to navigate, and also, registered users can start a discussion (unlike most blogs). Many times through the years, I have had one of our discussion board topics come up in response to a Google search I’ve
made. It is an important online resource, especially on topics related to contemplative spirituality and theology. At this time, there are:
- 21 open forums, some of them online workshops or retreats;
- 1,857 people are registered
users;
- 1,776 topics are open for discussion with
- 40,706 posts to date (searchable database)
This past October we had over a million page views (guest viewing is allowed), and almost every time I drop in to check on the forum, there are 50 or so guests reading various discussions. Your financial support helps to keep this resource going. Thanks for considering our request. Phil St. Romain
Internet Ministry Coordinator ________________ Donations are eligible for tax-deduction scroll down for secure online payment link Check payments Internet Ministry Heartland Center for Spirituality 3600 Broadway Great Bend, KS
67530
This hard place in which you perhaps find
yourself is the very place in which God is giving you opportunity to look only to God, to spend time in prayer, and to learn long-suffering, gentleness, meekness - in short, to learn the depths of the love that Christ Himself has poured out on all of us.
- Elisabeth Elliot
(Nothing can separate us from the love of God poured out in Jesus Christ. Rm
8:38)
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PHMN 7-20; PS 146:7, 8-9A, 9BC-10 LK 17:20-25 Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come,
Jesus said in
reply,
“The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.” Then he said to his disciples,
“The days will come when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.
There will be those who will say to you,
‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’
Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.
But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
As a friend of both Philemon and Onesimus, Paul could have worried about damaging his personal relationships with one or both, but as a spiritual brother Paul knew that healing was needed. He held each one
accountable, and in so doing provided a wonderful model of us to follow with our own spiritual siblings. For Onesimus, Paul challenged Onesimus to return to a potentially hostile environment, but Paul then personally interceded to ask Philemon to show mercy and love, even offering to compensate Philemon for anything Onesimus might owe. Paul couldn’t travel (he was in prison), so he had trusted friend Tychicus provide support and encouragement on the journey (Colossians 4:7-9),
including at the end when Onesimus faced his old master. For Philemon, Paul called on him to show forgiveness, mercy and humility, but only after beginning his letter with thanks and praise for the many good things Philemon had done. Paul avoids pulling rank with a request, not an order, to welcome Onesimus so that Philemon can do so willingly, which in turn may lessen bitterness so that the new relationship can flourish. The letter, which appears to have circulated in public,
also provided Philemon with a face-saving way of responding to anyone who criticized his behavior toward his former slave. For that matter, the letter, along with the reference in Colossians 4:9 to Onesimus as a “dear and faithful brother” likely helped both men and the local church to accept the integration of Onesimus into the fellowship. In short, Paul’s example emphasizes to me that accountability is more than pointing out when someone does or says something wrong. It
certainly is more than standing back and hoping that the situation resolves itself. It requires allowing (or at least not resisting) the Holy Spirit to use me as an instrument of encouragement, support and God’s love for a soul in need.
-by David Crawford
Psychic Energy and Contemplation by James
Arraj From St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. J. Jung, Part III, Chapter 9. Inner Growth Books, 1986. It was perhaps inevitable that a renewed interest in mystical studies would find itself, once again, involved in the problem of acquired contemplation. Abbé Sandreau attacked it as a dangerous innovation, and he was seconded by Lamballe, Juan Arintero and Ignacio Menéndez-Reigada. Père Poulain tried to counter Sandreau's objections, and this by now traditional Carmelite doctrine found champions with
the order in men like Claudio de Jesús Crucificado, Crisógono de Jesús, and Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen. These debates waxed and waned for decades, and are now only remembered by a few scholars, and usually with distaste. Unfortunately, it would be an illusion to believe either the subject matter was, in fact, trivial or some genuine solution had been arrived at after the worst of the partisan fires had died down. The problem of acquired contemplation still exists, and more importantly, the
situation out of which it emerged is still being encountered. Routinely books have appeared throughout this century describing acquired contemplation, attributing it to John of the Cross, and recommending it as a genuine stage in the contemplative life. If there is no genuine doctrine of acquired contemplation, then not only is this energy misdirected, but it tends to obscure the real problems that surround contemplation as a practical possibility today. The problem of acquired contemplation,
understood in this wide sense, is like a rhizome that is waiting for the propitious moment to emerge again.
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