Reading Report 5

Foster will specify that spiritual directorship gained regard in ancient times in the desert Fathers who were the predecessors to the monks of the medieval church.1 In the Corporate Disciplines, I will further discuss the Holy Spirit and the concept of spiritual directorship in my section on Guidance. In discussing and contemplating on the outward discipline of Simplicity, I will contemplate the first things “first,” δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ, the righteousness of God and the kingdom of God. In seeking spiritual transformation in/by spiritual disciplines, one must practice particular actions, while engaging with scripture for illumination, we can consider the practices of prayer and meditation by the ancient and medieval fathers, such as Saint Anselm of Canterbury.

For these reading reports, and for the purpose of documenting developments and experiences with the disciplines, these are the chosen disciplines:

1.         From Part 1: Meditation from The Inward Disciplines

2.         From Part 2: Simplicity from The Outward Disciplines

3.         From Part 3: Guidance from Corporate Discipline

1. Foster, 2018, pg. 185

I. Meditation: Saint Anselm

The Prayers and Meditations of Saint Anselm, a 1973 publication, have been on my shelves for many years now. It was only until beginning our Spiritual formation class that I was drawn by the title to engage with the book. Anselm was the Bishop of Canterbury in 1093, he was the son of a Lombard nobleman and Anselm would author many books on philosophy and theology which would earn him the title “the father of scholasticism.”1

“Come now, little man,

Turn aside for a while from your daily employment,

escape for a moment from the tumult of your thoughts.

Put aside your weighty cares, let your burdensome distractions wait,

free yourself for a while for God, and rest awhile in Him.

Enter the inner chamber of your soul,

shut out everything except God and that which can help you in seeking  Him,

Now, my whole heart, say to God, I seek your face, Lord, it is your face I seek.”2

At this very moment, I can hear the whistles of the freight trains that pass through our town multiple times each day. At this moment, I am engaging with the writings of Saint Anselm in consideration for what I can learn that can shed light on my own prayer and meditational practices. In moving “out West,” hereabouts we are in desert country although the Rio Grande cuts through and provides irrigation for a valley in which things grow. But on a heavy windy day, enough dust can fill the sky to change the color of the sky. It is far more arid here, and my early morning prayer meditations have proven to be fruitful and memorable. Seeing the light break in the morning, I have come to love where God has brought us, a spot in our town with some of the oldest trees which draw doves all day. Early mornings are filled with their gentle cooing. God is evident in the early mornings, the glory of creation cycles through as the perfect rhythm of day and night declare the perfectness of God’s created order. Anselm’s prayer was the imperative of

1.        Ward/Anselm, 1973, pg. 1

all monks, to withdraw from the common, to seek purity of heart, to draw closer to God.1 It would seem that these are similar imperatives for the divinity student, Anselm’s ministry is in the community of believers in his day. To Anselm, prayer was much like theologizing, to “stir up the mind in order to pray and to understand.”2  at the center of Anselm’s teaching on prayer is “compunction,” or Compunctio Cordis, one is to be “moved by love or fear, at an awareness of sin and personal abasement.”3 Compunction is two-fold, sometimes three; after long passages of self-scrutiny in each prayer that reveals the horror of sin and the knowledge of the love for God. Another prayer pleads:

“Let us open our eyes to the divine light,

let us hear with our ears the attentive warning…

and so, our heart shall be enlarged,

and we shall share by patience the suffering of Christ,

that we may be partakers also of your kingdom.”4

The theme of compunction is taken up by Saint Gregory after Cassian, Saint Benedict and Saint Augustine. Prayers of compunction were prayers that were both tender and terrifying, and fearful as well as delightful:

“Ask urgently that I may have the love that pierces the heart,

Tears that are humble, desire for Heaven, impatience with our exile and

Searing repentance, and lastly, a dread of torments in eternity.” -The Prayer of St. Mary, Anselm

1.        Ward/Anselm, 1973, pg. 52

2.        Ibid., pg. 53

3.        Ibid., pg. 54

4.        Ibid., pg. 55

II. Simplicity: The Wounded Healer

Foster states that “the central point for the discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God”1 and δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ, the righteousness of God; and this we know must come by faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-26). Everything hinges on the first thing “first,” and that is that the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ, and His righteousness and all will be well (Matthew 6:25). In Romans 3:22 it is written by Paul as “ δικαιοσύνη δὲ θεοῦ διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ,” the righteousness of God which is given through faith in Jesus for all who believe in Him. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV). Simplicity then is an outward discipline that shines forth and illumes the believer who has inwardly surrendered to Christ and has been made new? Foster will say no, not exactly, it is simply that anything in the slightest which we glorify before the kingdom of God is idolatry. This is an error we seek to avoid in pursuing simplicity as a discipline.

“...whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28, NIV).

In Henri J. M. Nouwen’s book, The Wounded Healer (1979), the author will cite a legend from the Talmud which tells of a Rabbi coming upon Elijah the prophet and asking him “Elijah, when will the Messiah come?” and Elijah says to go ask him, he is sitting among the poor at the gate.2  When the rabbi asks how can he be recognized, the prophet Elijah replies that “he sits among the poor, covered in wounds.”

1.        Foster, 2018, pg. 86

2.        Nouwen, 1979, pg. 82

The story tells of a Messiah who waits to be needed and therefore binds his wounds one at a time in case he is needed.1 Nouwen is emphasizing by relating this story that the Messiah in the story is called to be the wounded healer, the wounded and the healer who must tend to his own wounds while ready to heal others. This story is given new meaning in that Jesus wounds are the source of the healing,  “in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24, NIV). Nouwen’s chapter on the wounded healer can be quite vivid in portraying the life of the servant minister who must also heal his inner wounds while serving the wounded. The simple life of the minister is an open book, one in which the trials and sufferings of the preacher are offered as examples of our humanity to the listener but also must be seen as our hope in Christ in the kingdom of God yet to come.

1.        Nouwen, 1979, pg. 82-83

III. Guidance: Spirit Rule and The Spirit Director

In the previous reading report, I discussed Foster’s subtopic of spirit rule in relation to Guidance as a corporate discipline. Foster will also discuss the concept of having a Spirit Director, in effect a mentor on spiritual matters. A pastor can be a spirit director, my now retired pastor John Morgan of Sagemont church was a spirit filled pastor, I can say he was an inspiration to pursuing my degree. It makes most sense to seek spiritual mentorship if one is seeking to go deeper into immersion into the Bible, as a believer in the trinitarian God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, therefore, we await spiritual guidance of the Holy Spirit in spiritual matters.

Similarly, when in divinity courses, we develop friendships and mentorships in students and our professors. I can say that I have been truly inspired by many of my professors and have developed friendships unlike any possible in the secular world. Biblical and scriptural immersion in a communion of like-minds in Christ has been consistently contributory to my spiritual growth, of which leaves no crumbs or wastes no critical moment. At the moment, I am hoping to find a mentor in this community who can participate in the mentorship for my MDiv degree.

The Bible

Foster includes the Bible, we are being formed and transformed by reading prayerfully we are being formed more and more into the image of Jesus Christ.”1 Therefore, it is Paul who demands we:

·         Walk by the Spirit, for this denies the impulse of the flesh (Galatians 5:16),

·         Freedom is the Spirit, Slavery is the flesh (Galatians 5:18),

·         Those led by the Spirit receive the fruit of the Spirit(love, joy, patience, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) (Galatians 5:22),

·         If we live by the Spirit (and the Word), we will be in step (in sync) with the Spirit (5:25).

·         For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Romans 8:14).

1.        Foster, 2018, pg. 187

Works Cited

Foster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. HarperOne, 2018.

Ward, Anselm. The Prayers and Meditations of Saint Anselm. Penguin, 1973.