The end of an era in monasticism

I thought I was familiar with the names of most Western monastic and neo-monastic movements, but just today, I heard about a movement for the first time - the Beguines.  Unfortunately, I heard about them because the world's last Beguine, Marcella Pattyn, died at the age of 92.

The Beguines had been around for 800 years, and were not a monastic order in the traditional sense.  They were women who lived lives of prayer, chastity, and service, but they were not bound by vows.  They could leave at any time, set their own rules, and worked in a trade (particularly the cloth trade).  According to an article about Pattyn's death in The Economist,  she was blind, but she "saw Christ, the mystical bridegroom of all Beguines, opening his heart to her like rays blazing from a lantern."  God willing, it sounds like the world could use a new Beguine movement.

The article about Pattyn and the Beguines from The Economist can be found here: http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21576632-marcella-pattyn-worlds-last-beguine-died-april-14th-aged-92-marcella-pattyn
 

Habemus Episcopum! We have a Bishop!

I am a pastor in the Western Iowa Synod of the ELCA, and this past weekend, our Synod Assembly was held.  Our current Bishop, Michael Last, has finished his terms in office, so the Assembly elected one of my Sioux City colleagues to be the new Bishop, Rodger Prois.  I have known Bishop-Elect Prois for several years, and I am looking forward to working with him in his new role.

In Lutheran churches, many times the office of Bishop has unfortunately been reduced to that of an administrator.  It is my hope that we allow Bishop-Elect Prois to be what a Bishop should be - a teaching theologian, a pastor to the pastors, and a catalyst for evangelism and the proclamation of the Gospel. 

Love, Russian Orthodox Style

Recently, my wife bought a book for me called "Everyday Saints and Other Stories" by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) for my Kindle.  I haven't read too far into the book yet, but so far, it is a fascinating account of Russian Orthodox monastic spirituality.  The author writes lovingly of his spiritual father, Father John Krestiankin of the Pskov Caves Monastery.  Many came to Father John for spiritual guidance, and heard messages like this one:

"We have been commanded by our Lord to love our neighbor as ourselves, but it is none of our business whether they love us or not! The only thing for us to worry about is to make sure we truly love them."

If only more people in this increasingly adversarial world would take heed of Father John's words.

More information about the book can be found here: http://www.everyday-saints.com/

Shut up and pray the daily office

Often times I am struck by how the prayers and readings of the daily office get right to the heart of the Christian faith. 

While praying today's midday prayer office, the importance of the reality of the resurrection really hit home.  The Scripture reading was from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 - "We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, to make sure that you do not grieve for them, as others do who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that in the same way God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus." Later on during midday prayer, the cry of the Church proclaimed the mystery of faith: "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again."

Those words mean nothing, and there is no hope, if Jesus was not raised from the dead. And yet, during Holy Week this year, certain leaders in the church once again cast doubt upon the reality of the crucifixion and the resurrection, with one bishop going so far as saying that "we don't know what happened to Jesus after his death." If that is the case, then what is the point of Christianity, anyway? Where is the hope that is spoken of in the reading from 1 Thessalonians? Or in the Church's proclamation that Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again?

Perhaps those leaders of the Church should just pray the office and let those words speak for themselves.

The Virtual Abbey

One of the challenges for any pastor is to maintain a daily prayer life.  As a pastor interested in Benedictine spirituality, it has been a long time goal of mine to try to pray the daily office, and I have made a commitment to pray the daily office.  However, for a long time, I found it  difficult to pray the office with any kind of regularity. That changed this year when, by happenstance (or divine intervention perhaps?) I was asked to consider tweeting daily prayers on Twitter through an established account, The Virtual Abbey - @Virtual_Abbey.

The Virtual Abbey already had nearly 5,000 followers, so it initially seemed like a daunting commitment.  After four months of tweeting daily prayers, though (typically Morning Prayer and Compline) I have been able to settle into a routine.  Sometimes, life intervenes and I don't get to it, but I have been able to maintain that schedule almost every day.  Due to the space limitations of Twitter, I can only pray parts of the office there, but it has been a joy and a blessing to do it, particularly when I get feedback from the many people who follow (now over 5,300) and pray along.

Introduction

I've been reading blogs for about 10 years now, so I decided it was finally time to start one.  I'll be blogging about a variety of topics, but given the title I've given to the blog, I anticipate blogging a lot about ascetic and monastic spirituality from the perspective of a Lutheran pastor.  I have come to believe that the elimination of many monasteries at the time of the Reformation, and the resulting emphasis of academics over ascetics, has proven to be one of the greatest tragedies that resulted from the split in the Western Church.  So, thanks for checking in.