This newsletter is a publication of the Mystical Order of the White Rose, a multi-faith devotional and spiritual support organization. We support and share information about mystical, monastic, contemplative and creative ways of living. We encourage prayer, the reading of sacred scripture(s), lectio divina, meditation, journaling, solitude, fasting, silence, kindness, hospitality, worship, simplicity, creativity,active involvement in spiritual and religious communities, and loving service to others. You can view past issues here and you can subscribe to it here .
Theme: Monastic Rules of Life and the Daily Office in Western monasticism
Table of Contents
-- Intro to This Issue's Theme by Cynthia Kiteley Lee
-- Christ Pantocrator
-- Western Monastic Rules
-- Reflections on Monastic Rules& Disciplines by Cynthia Kiteley Lee
-- Creating Your Own Rule of Life
-- A Rule of Life for Everyone
-- July Quotations for Gardeners, Walkers, and Lovers of the Green Way
-- Australian Aboriginal
-- The Oil Spill In the Gulf Coast by Daniel Pinchbeck
-- Links of Interest
-- Daily Multi-faith, Multi-media Devotionals
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Intro to This Issue's Theme
Once upon a time, long, long ago in the 20th century, I was wondering (not for the first time) what I was going to be when I grew up. I was probably in my late 30s at the time. The answer came to me immediately: I was going to be a 21st century liturgist. And so it is.
In some respects, I am just getting warmed up to the task of creating what might be called post-modern or 21st century liturgical and devotional literature through the newsletters and daily devotionals I prepare for the Mystical Order of the White Rose.
I realize that the Christian tradition of Divine Hours, also known as the Daily Office, has been little known and little practiced outside of the ranks of Catholics and Anglicans (Church of England; Episcopal Church). Priests, nuns and monks have been the primary practioners of the Daily Office.
Nowadays, a number of pre-Protestant Reformation Christian traditions, including chant, the divine office, and lectio divina are being "discovered" and used by modern protestant Christians. Strange but true. The Methodist pastor of a local church recently devoted an entire sermon to the specific steps involved in lectio divina (reflective reading of sacred texts).
What does this revival portend? It will be interesting to see.
Click here to learn about the best known Western Monastic Rules. The Rule of St. Benedict is the best known and most popular one in modern times. Many books have been written about it.
Christ Pantocrator
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Reflections on Monastic Rules
by Cynthia Kiteley
While I suspect monastic past lives may explain much of my attraction to monastic matters, I think there is a psychological aspect as well.
Much of the month of June was a period of extreme stress, work and sleep disruptions for me and, yes, some chaos crept in as well.
This seemed to act as a stimulus for me to surf the search engines regarding the Daily Office and Monastic Rules, which provide order, structure, and predictability in the daily life of thousands of Christian mystics and contemplatives who are formally or informally aligned with religious communities or who have adopted a monastic lifestyle.
Recent purchases of structured prayer and daily office books also stimulated my interest in a way of life that I am not yet practicing but am inching closer to practicing.
The traditional monastic daily devotional disciplines and structuring and sanctification of time can not only support and enrich our spiritual lives, but also serve as an effective antidote to the pressures and fast pace of modern life.
Physical exercise provides the greatest health benefits to those who maintain a regular schedule of exercise. The same holds true for exercising our spiritual muscles and strengthening our ability to maintain a high level of spiritual functioning.
Meditation, yoga, chanting, burning incense, and specific prayer postures are spiritual disciplines that are common in non-Christian faith traditions.
I include journaling and reading and writing poetry as spiritual practices in my life. I have an altar and light candles and incense prior to meditation, reading sacred texts, prayer and other spiritual activities.
It seems to me that, when it comes to spiritual disciplines, what we do is not as important as consistency and sincerity in what we do.
I invite you to create and follow your own Rule of Life (if you are not already following one), especially if your spiritual discipllines have tended to be "now and then" and hit and miss.
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Creating Your Own Rule of Life
A spiritual Rule of Life . . . .is the checklist of practices we intentionally undertake to maintain and deepen our relationship with the Ground of All Being, the God who made us. Even without articulating it, many of us observe elements of a Rule of Life, taking time for morning devotionals, returning thanks before meals, or saying bedtime prayers. But covenanting with God - and perhaps also with a community - to live by a Rule of Life brings an intentionality and accountability to our spiritual practice. And by taking that step, we begin a journey that will immeasurably deepen our relationship with God.
Click here to view a document that will provide you with some good "getting started" suggestions.
Just as there are no two snowflakes that are the same, no two human beings are the same. Your rule of life can be very personal and creative.
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July Quotations for Gardeners, Walkers, and Lovers of the Green Way
Please click here to view this eclectic collection of quotations.
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The Artery -- Australian Aboriginal Art
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A Rule of Life for Everyone
Please click here to read this very modern version of a monastic Rule of Life.
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The Oil Spill in the Gulf Coast
by Daniel Pinchbeck
Some readers should find the article below highly disturbing.
Working together, we can guide the world toward its next phase of being – a plateau of intensified consciousness and synchronic coherence, in which conscious evolution becomes both sacred game and participatory art form.
As someone who has written extensively on indigenous prophecies relating to this time, it is hard for me to escape the uneasy presentiment that the massive, ceaseless, devastating cascade of what may be more than 100,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day – apparently still mixed with the far more toxic dispersant Corexit that British Petroleum continues to inject, despite EPA objections – is anything but the inception of a new phase in the foretold unfolding of events that may terminate most life on earth, potentially leading to the rapid extinction of the human species. Recent articles reveal that there is a gigantic bubble of methane gas underneath the Gulf of Mexico, which has helped to create the enormous pressure that makes it unlikely, if not impossible, that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill can be stopped by human means. Video taken by undersea robots show oil and gas leaking from many fissures in the earth, far beyond the range of the well hole. This suggests that the underground containment structure is cracking apart. If the current effort to build relief wells fails or is ineffective, there are no more known technological fixes available.
According to D. K. Matai, writing on The Huffington Post, “The “flow team” of the US Geological Survey estimates that 2,900 cubic feet of natural gas, which primarily contains methane, is being released into the Gulf waters with every barrel of oil.” If the estimates of over 100,000 barrels of oil leaking per day is correct, this means that over 16 billion cubic feet of gas may have been emitted, “making it one of the most vigorous eruptions in modern history,” writes Matai, an engineer and co-founder of The Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance. The huge methane deposits beneath the Gulf were well-known as a risk factor for drilling operations, which did not apparently dissuade corporations like British Petroleum from shirking regulatory safeguards in order to drill at the edge of known technology, 5,000 feet under the ocean floor and then 30,000 feet (imagine a distant speck of airplane far above the ground for a comparision) beneath that, into the core of the earth. Methane is a major contributor to global warming, turning into carbon dioxide once released.
What Matai along with other engineers, scientists, and journalists have laid out is a possible scenario where the methane, pushing up with enormous pressure, could lead to a gas explosion: “A methane bubble this large – if able to escape from under the ocean floor through fissures, cracks and fault areas – is likely to cause a gas explosion. With the emerging evidence of fissures, the tacit fear now is this: the methane bubble may rupture the seabed and may then erupt with an explosion within the Gulf of Mexico waters. The bubble is likely to explode upwards propelled by more than 50,000 psi [pounds per square inch] of pressure, bursting through the cracks and fissures of the sea floor, fracturing and rupturing miles of ocean bottom with a single extreme explosion.”
The methane gas explosion would be immediately followed by a series of enormous tsunamis engulfing Florida and the southern coast of the US. At the same time, during the day when this explosion takes place, “several billion barrels of oil and gas” will be released, as freezing water rushes into the enormous cavity, turning immediately into steam. There are many earthquake fault lines running from the Gulf through Mexico and much of the South West of America that might be triggered by a sudden collapse of the ocean floor due to such an event. “Could this be how nature eventually seals the hole created by the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher?” Matai asks. Of course, this is only one scenario, and it is unknown if this will occur, or what the timetable might be.
click here to continue to PART 2
Video: Gulf Oil Spill
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Links of Interest
Video: Majic Music - A lively interplay between music and special effects. Different and impressive.
Contemplative Outreach
Article: Let's Contemplate Contemplation
Monastic Interreligous Dialogue sponsored by North American Benedictine and Cistercian Monasteries of Men and Women
Renovare
Modern Monasticism
Monastery Greetings - Religious and Spritual Gifts from Abbeys, Monasteries, Convents & Hermitages
Brief History of Protestant Monasticism
Brief History of Monasticism
The Rule of St. Benedict
The Benedictine Fellowship of St. Laurence
Oblate Spring: Benedictine Daily Prayer
Rule of St. Columba - 6th Century
Northumbria Community Daily Office
Northumbria Community
Celtic Daily Prayer - Missional Order
Missional Order
Video: How to Use the Daily Office
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Daily Office (book)
Roman Breviary (Catholic)
Divine Office (Catholic)
Episcopal Daily Office (books)
Episcopal Daily Office Online
Daily Office Based on the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
Mission St. Clare Daily Office - (Episcopal)
The Daily Office of the Catholic Church According to Anglican Use
The Online Guide to Saint Benedict (including Daily Office)
Interfaith Prayer Book
Cards & More for Special Occasions
The Future of Love Teleseminars (free)
Rosary Made of Fragrant Rose Petals
St. Brendan's Online Internet Portal to the Monastic and Oblate Ministries of St. Brendan
One Daily Hour of Prayer
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Daily Multi-faith, Multi-media Devotionals for July 2010
Each day we should expose ourselves to the inspiration of others. Thousands of saints and wise men and women have left us messages of hope and encouragement. Read what is honest. Read the scriptures and the commentaries. Read great literature and poetry. Read the psalms. Read that which expresses the anguish and the exhilaration of experience, and teaches us that we are not alone.
- John McQuiston II, p. 88, Always We Begin Again--The Benedictine Way of Living
July 1 July 2 July 3 July 4 July 5 July 6 July 7
July 8 July 9 July 10 July 11 July 12 July 13 July 14
July 15 July 16 July 17 July 18 July 19 July 20 July 21
July 22 July 23 July 24 July 25 July 26 July 27 July 28
July 29 July 30 July 31
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