Sunday August 17: Fire That Brings Light

To Practice 

• In an interview with Tami Simon of Sounds True, Thomas Keating said, “I got interested in the contemporary philosophers and these challenged my faith, and I decided I had to take time to resolve these doubts as to whether I should continue as a Catholic and with the practices of that religion… Reading Tolstoy and his book on the commentary on the Sermon on the Mount convinced me that Christianity required a non-possessive attitude and preference for the poor. I conceived the idea of leaving home and living in a down-at-the-heel apartment in Harlem or someplace like that. Well, this didn’t go down too well. The folks at home couldn’t understand what happened to me. I imagine they thought I was losing my mind or something.” Is there a time in your life when you felt it necessary to move against the expectations of someone close to you? What do you sense was lost or gained? Talk about this time in your life with a friend or post your story of this experience in the community forum. 

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “As Christianity spread, and the church became more secularized, the realization of the costliness of grace gradually faded … It is highly significant that the church was astute enough to find room for the monastic movement … Here on the outer fringe of the church was a place where the older vision was kept alive. Here [monastics] still remembered that grace costs, that grace means following Christ … monasticism became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity” (The Cost of Discipleship). Do you see signs of secularization in the Christian church, in your community of worship? Or attitudes in your community that assume Christianity is irrelevant or harmful? If so, what impact does this have on you? Does seeking to live contemplatively put you at odds with any aspects of your religious or cultural upbringing? If you are so moved, journal about this matter.

• Set aside 20 minutes this week and practice lectio divina with these words from Nan C. Merrill’s book, Lumen Christi…Holy Wisdom:

Beloved are you who seek the Truth
and trust your Inner Being:
home of the Divine Guest.
Seeing with compassionate eyes,
you uphold the good, you strengthen the weak;
you wear courage and understanding
as shields before ignorance.

Love is the great healer;
the unjust are cleansed in its power;
they are drawn to Love like moths
to a flame;
they are burned and refined by a Fire
not quenched by water.

Awaken, O friends, to the Fire of Love!

• In case you missed it, the latest issue of the CO News newsletter is now available online via the link in today’s email. It includes articles about Thomas Keating’s last conversations with a dear friend; his early interest in Zen as well as several articles from the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, and those serving in prison outreach.

You may re-read the full email reflection here: https://mailchi.mp/coutreach/2025_word-of-the-week-aug17

“Is there a time in your life when you felt it necessary to move against the expectations of someone close to you? What do you sense was lost or gained?” I have done so several times. I am engaging in such an experience. For me the image says it all. A significant part of me is in the crucible; just to the left of the torch is my little flame. Another part of me is to the right, an owl perched on a pair of glasses, oh, not just a pair of glasses but successive pairs; just beneath is a  lion, whose face is behind the left lens. The latter is ego letting go in stages of penetrating the depts of “seeing” and the courage signified by the roaring of the lion. Without my knowing past struggles in similar situations, there is the me that has been chosen and that chooses the “fire pit of life” ={The Christ is here}, Jesus, me, and a host of others. I rest truly grateful and blessed in my moth-ness.

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