I come to the glance that more can be learned in stillness. But what kind of stillness? Mind moves in each seconds with many thoughts and pictures. Thus if stillness or silence means pause between words, it might not be a truest silence. After listening to one of the podcast of lectures from Metropolitan Kalistos Ware, I am reminded that true stillness is the awareness of God's presence, which one of the way is through Jesus prayer. However, this process is not instant. It's very dynamic and need persistence or even perseverance.
Living in city with many demanding tasks and distractions externally, sometimes can be real challenge to have a habit of stillness. When given by many tasks and instructions I become overwhelmed but when the day is less demanding and seems nothing to do, I become bored. Both of these cases, I find to be critical and even dangerous, since it can be the weakest point where the temptations could easily slip in and in very short time, losing control.
Stillness is the way of coming into the present moment here and now. While learning to take off our self-preoccupations, we keep our minds to be focused on the invocation of the Holy Name. Indeed, in silence we have to face with our inner self and be honest of what we are. Sometimes it passes through some painful sense of admitting loneliness and all the kinds of inconvenience. But I even thankful for that because then it tells me so profoundly how it is to be in a state of turning away from God's sweetest and deepest love... That we need Him, our source and truest joy until the day we die, be resurrected and beyond!
This brings us ardent actions of faith. Whatever befalls us, we then know exactly that God is working in us for His glory. We come to our sense. Life is no more measured by painful or pleasant, easy or difficult, lonely or crowded, but beyond that, that life is about voluntary obedience to Our Beloved Lord who knows where we are to go! It may passes through roses garden at times and thorns and slippery paths at the other. But one thing is for sure that His path is light and truth, and we can not walk but in it! Glory to the Lord!
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Yes, Son, what you say is very true. The Lord teaches you well, and you learn well.
ReplyDeleteJust a comment to something you wrote…
'When given by many tasks and instructions I become overwhelmed but when the day is less demanding and seems nothing to do, I become bored.'
What you are saying can be visualised a bit like this: When we are at work, you at school or me in the factory, there is so much to do, so many instructions to follow, that we have to give our full attention to, or else they don't get done. It saps all our energy. Then, after the day's work, we come home, and we are simply tired. It feels like it takes too much energy, energy we don't think we have, to do anything creative and spiritually nourishing. It is almost as though we are too tired to feed ourselves, mentally and emotionally, and so boredom sets in.
This will always be a challenge. But we can always refresh ourselves by taking short moments of simply reading the Bible without trying to understand it or even think about it. Thoughts, if they come, they come, but if not, just read. It may make you sleepy, and if that happens, shut your eyes a moment and dream. Then awake and read (and pray) a little more.
You see, your reading the Bible actually begins to convert your heart to an attitude of prayer, and then if you let that state of mind happen, you will emerge from boredom, and even receive the blessing of being interested in something.
The desert fathers describe this 'boredom' also under the term 'accidie' or in Greek, ακιδια, akidhía, sometimes translated as 'the noonday demon' altho its visits do not always happen at midday. For us in the modern world, these visits come more usually after we get home from work.
Those are some thoughts I had. I am glad to see you posted your thoughts today.
I will see you in a few days, in Indonesia.