In death is life

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They who live not for themselves but for him, find in death itself the way to life.

One of the important themes you’ll hear in the talks and lectures by Christian contemplatives, and specifically advocates of Christian Meditation such as John Main and Laurence Freeman, is the concept of “dying to self”. In the contemplative sense, this means connecting with the transcendent and intuitively knowing the transience and insignificance of “the self” or “the ego”. By denying our “self” in contemplation and prayer, and self-denial in word and action, we can achieve great things, such as Burnley’s Pastor Mick…

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A life well lived

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Meet Sister Mary Joseph who passed away on the fifth of June. Sister Mary was a Carmelite nun with an uncommon backstory. A wealthy heiress, she had all the things most people aspire to in a Western, liberal democracy: She had a nine-bedroom mansion in San Fransisco overlooking the bay, designer clothes including a shoe collection that made Imelda Marcos's "look pitiful by comparison", a contact list of the rich and powerful including Nancy Regan, and had 10 children and 28 grandchildren. But she gave it all up to join one of the strictest contemplative monastic orders for women: The Order of Discalced Carmelites.

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Love in Action

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Allow me to introduce you to Enza Ruscillo. To summarise the linked article, Enza had her restaurant vandalised. Instead of being angry at the injustice to her, especially given the stress she might be under given that Toronto has had one of the longest lockdowns in the world, she advocated for the perpetrator. What’s more, Enza had been giving the man, who’s name is Roger and has mental health issues, free food and a kind word for the past year and a half — again despite the challenges that she’s been facing personally. Now I don’t know if Enza is even Christian, but this is the most Christian thing I’ve seen so far this year. I’ve written about loving those that don’t deserve to be loved in a previous post, but Enza is a great example of this concept in action: Forgiveness, kindness, and compassion. Thanks for being a great example to us Enza!

The giving example

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Allow me to present to you Chuck Feeney, another inspiration in the field of non-attachment. One of the themes behind this Blog is the F.I.R.E. movement, which essentially boils down to the idea that any one can actually have more freedom if one is willing to spend drastically less than one earns. Mr Feeney apparently lived this idea well before it became the subject of so many blogs… before there were blogs… or the internet for that matter…

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"NON-attachment"

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Let me tell you about an English performance artist, Michael Landy. I was interested in the idea of “non-attachment” so I read (most of) Ends and Means by Aldous Huxley — especially because Ends and Means was cited as a source of inspiration for one of my favourite modern Christian Mystics, Thomas Merton. In Ends and Means Huxley surmises on the ideal society, and as its basis, the ideal person. Huxley frequently returns to the idea of non-attachment…

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