Tim- I am glad you are here and commenting. It is good to have the perspectives of those out there actually living it. It gives hope. The question of forming small communities--what might be called a micro-skate--to share the burden. Most of us will have to learn the virtues and skills to make it work. It is worth doing.
Tim- I am glad you are here and commenting. It is good to have the perspectives of those out there actually living it. It gives hope. The question of forming small communities--what might be called a micro-skate--to share the burden. Most of us will have to learn the virtues and skills to make it work. It is worth doing.
It is blowing snow up here in the mountains of Colorado as well. Though thankfully not nearly as cold. Thank God for the wood stove here in the hermitage.
I do know Martin Shaw's writing. It is very good. Maybe all this could inspire something of a literary movement. I would like to see that.
Thank you, Jack. Funny, as I was writing the response to you I took out a line that said small communities of like minded folk might be an alternate way forward to “caves”, but where would one find those people? And then I deleted the line.
We have an Amish community here, and while I don’t subscribe to their theological perspectives, I think their idea of living isn’t so far off base. Or in your words, a micro-skete, or an old country village concept from a hundred years ago that the center of the community was a church.
Even in the original deserts those micro sketes often eventually formed. And in our age where we have nothing like the fortitude of those people, it’s not a bad idea worth fleshing out.
Something to think about: how many saints have come out of the deserts, caves and wildernesses, versus how many have come out of the huge city cathedrals all gilded and frescoed to the nines? Not a judgement, just a curiosity of mine. And then the question of course is why is that?
Tim- It may seem odd to say, but I think we need poets. I speak of poetry in the broadest way possible, about our intuitive sense of the deep down freshness of things. We will only really start looking for and finding each other when the deep poetry that motivates us points us in that direction.
I know the poetry I absorbed throughout my life has been poison. Pop music, sitcoms, bad movies, etc.
Scripture is a big part of finding a deeper vision of life. Just think how one reading changed the life of St. Anthony the Great. Also, we can develop literature that opens up the Gospel to us in new ways. Whether we know that's what it is doing or not.
It may be a big ask, but we might pray that God sends us our own Shakespeare, Dante, our Bach or Dostoevsky. That might change everything. But I think we can still start with whatever talents we have been given. Something I have been thinking about. -Jack
Tim- I am glad you are here and commenting. It is good to have the perspectives of those out there actually living it. It gives hope. The question of forming small communities--what might be called a micro-skate--to share the burden. Most of us will have to learn the virtues and skills to make it work. It is worth doing.
It is blowing snow up here in the mountains of Colorado as well. Though thankfully not nearly as cold. Thank God for the wood stove here in the hermitage.
I do know Martin Shaw's writing. It is very good. Maybe all this could inspire something of a literary movement. I would like to see that.
I hope all is well and you are warm enough. -Jack
Thank you, Jack. Funny, as I was writing the response to you I took out a line that said small communities of like minded folk might be an alternate way forward to “caves”, but where would one find those people? And then I deleted the line.
We have an Amish community here, and while I don’t subscribe to their theological perspectives, I think their idea of living isn’t so far off base. Or in your words, a micro-skete, or an old country village concept from a hundred years ago that the center of the community was a church.
Even in the original deserts those micro sketes often eventually formed. And in our age where we have nothing like the fortitude of those people, it’s not a bad idea worth fleshing out.
Something to think about: how many saints have come out of the deserts, caves and wildernesses, versus how many have come out of the huge city cathedrals all gilded and frescoed to the nines? Not a judgement, just a curiosity of mine. And then the question of course is why is that?
Tim- It may seem odd to say, but I think we need poets. I speak of poetry in the broadest way possible, about our intuitive sense of the deep down freshness of things. We will only really start looking for and finding each other when the deep poetry that motivates us points us in that direction.
I know the poetry I absorbed throughout my life has been poison. Pop music, sitcoms, bad movies, etc.
Scripture is a big part of finding a deeper vision of life. Just think how one reading changed the life of St. Anthony the Great. Also, we can develop literature that opens up the Gospel to us in new ways. Whether we know that's what it is doing or not.
It may be a big ask, but we might pray that God sends us our own Shakespeare, Dante, our Bach or Dostoevsky. That might change everything. But I think we can still start with whatever talents we have been given. Something I have been thinking about. -Jack
For some reason I am unable to edit comments. It should be, of course, micro-skete. I didn't catch the sneaky autocorrect.