Discipline #9 - Practicing Solitude & Gratitude
THE NINTH DISCIPLINE Practicing Solitude & Gratitude Notes For Video #10: TEXT: “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” (Mark 1:35) PRINCIPLE: The disciple must wisely learn to develop the habit of regularly experiencing both the private, personal presence of God and the benefit of individual time away from Life’s daily demands, in a place with limited distractions. Without this, life and service become a blur, often producing discouragement, diversion, or defeat. With this, life is regularly being recharged with energy and spiritual dynamic. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” Solitude and Silence leads us to Become Our True-Self: There is a definition of silence and solitude found in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero that fits the context of these two things as spiritual disciplines. • Solitude is the practice of being absent from people and things to attend to God. • Silence is the practice of quieting every inner and outer voice to attend to God. “Without solitude it is almost impossible to live a spiritual life.” A NEW PERSPECTIVE MY LIFE IN HIS! Solitude & Silence as a pattern of Following Jesus in our Daily Life. (The Pattern of Death & Resurrection) A. Three Vows … The word vow comes from the Latin word “votum” a solemn promise in which a person is bound to an act of service or condition. In early spirituality the word is used to voluntarily bind a person to a particular spiritual rule, “a prescribed guide for conduct of action.” The principle of having a rule of life is still common. 1) Stability The monastic concept of stability translated into our spiritual life means, “stay in your baptism” and “continue to live out the death and resurrection of Jesus by continually dying to sin and rising to the new life of the Spirit staying in God’s divine embrace.”(Webber 2006) Our Covenant Relationship with God is grounded in His faithfulness. 2) Fidelity Fidelity is to remain in the vow. The word is derived from the Latin “fides” that means faith. It’s derivative a person who takes on the vow fidelity is a person whom others count on … it means trust. This is the place in our solitude that we meditate and ask the question, “Am I faithful to the New Life in Christ?” “Can someone count on me to be like this?” • To love Go with all our heart, mind, and soul. • To love one’s neighbor as oneself. The spirit formed life is not a sentimental way of speaking about God; it is not an escape from the reality of living in this world: It is a strange way of being. Jesus through the Incarnation entered our world and modeled what humanity was intended to be. The faithful life seeks to live the Jesus way in a land that does not even understand it. 3) Obedience Stability in Jesus and fidelity in Jesus are not grounded in the self but are grounded in obedience to the voice of God. Obedience begins with listening. Humility is required to live obedience. Because it is humility that has one live under the commandments of God, never ignoring them but rather always living in the fear of the Lord. It never asks the question: What is right or Wrong? But instead asks: “What is the will of the Lord?” B. Recapturing ways to engage Christ that is not simply intellectual:
1) Lectio Divina
A method of prayerful reflection on Scripture that entails “Sacred Listening.” Two Approaches: Meditation refers to a discursive reading process in which words, events etc., are prayerfully pondered and reflected upon with the object of drawing from them some personal meaning or moral. It is basically activity of the intellect and reason, aided by grace. Contemplation is described as a “resting” in God, a “loving gaze” upon him. Knowing beyond knowing, or a focused attention to God. Contemplation transcends thinking and reasoning and is engaged with feelings and emotions. Another practice that is contemplative is “Centering Prayer.” Thomas Keating describes Centering Prayer as, “the actual consenting to God’s presence and in doing so letting go of the present moment with its psychological content. Solitude is a pathway that allows us to live in the embrace of the Lord. Gratitude:
Gratitude Opens our Eyes: “One of the most important—and most neglected—elements in the beginnings of the interior life is the ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendor that is all around us.” –Thomas Merton Gratitude frees us from the disease of self-focus. “giving thanks[a] to the Father, who has qualified you[b] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” Colossians 1:12, ESV