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In the face of this relentless information storm, this is no time for Christians to give up on reading. We need to equip ourselves to weather this information storm, and The Fellowship of Ailbe wants to help.
T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore
Susie and I watched the Paul Giamatti film, Cold Souls, last night. This is a powerful meditation on a subject not friendly to our materialistic age: What is the soul?
In the film Giamatti plays himself, but he is struggling, because of personal angst, to master a part in a Chekov play. He decides, on the advice of his agent, to put his soul into storage for a while – just until he gets through this play. He visits a clinic and has his soul extracted – well, 95% of it – and it’s all downhill from there.
Giamatti ends up with another person’s soul and then has to go to Russia to recover his own, with the help of a “soul smuggler” from Russia. I won’t tell you how it ends. See it for yourself.
This film raises every question you’ve ever pondered about the soul. The main value of the film, I think, is that it reminds us that, for all their materialistic and rationalistic blather, our contemporaries know the reality of who they are: They are creatures with souls, which means they participate in an immaterial existence, a spiritual existence, an existence where, at the end of the infinite regression, God is waiting for them.
Cold Souls is neither a comedy nor a tragedy; it defies being set in one particular genre. And, according to the film, picking up on a quote from Descartes, the soul is only mostly immaterial; like anything that’s real it must have some material reality, even if it’s only a chick pea. Right?
But the movie leaves no doubt about the reality and value of the soul. The soul governs the body, shapes our outlook, generates affections, holds our priorities, and pretty much determines just who the heck we are.
So, in case you’re wondering, our contemporaries are aware of the kind of beings they are and, as evidenced in Cold Souls, they have a lot of questions. You and I have the answers – or, at the very least, we know how to talk intelligently about the subject.
T. M. Moore
The Life of Devotion
May/Discipline
10 May 2010
So then after writing the rule of the saints, and their customs, and devotion, Brendan returned to Bishop Erc, and received orders from him...It was after this therefore that there grew up in his heart a great love to the Lord, and he desired to leave his land and his country...
- Anonymous, Vita Brendani (Irish, 12th century, after an earlier ms.)
...train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
- 1 Timothy 4.7, 8
Brendan's parents devoted him to the service of the Lord. In order to accomplish this, they fostered him, at a very young age, to the school of Ita, who inculcated the virtues of love and piety in the child. After that, he was returned to his pastor, Bishop Erc, who taught him the Scriptures, the disciplines of grace, and the practices which would be required of a minister of God's Word. Only one thing remained before Brendan could be ordained to the Gospel.
He had to study and learn the "rules" of the saints of Ireland. The great saints who had gone before in the two generations since Patrick had encoded their daily disciplines and practices in various "rules." These summarized their practices in seeking and serving the Lord and outlined the rigors of a life consecrated to the service of King Jesus. Before a young man like Brendan could be considered ready to enter that life, he had to make sure he understood what it required, and that he desired to submit to it for the rest of his days.
It is interesting to note how our hagiographer observes that it was only after Brendan learned the rules of the saints "and their customs, and devotion" that he truly began to love the Lord and desire a ministry of his own. The lesson is clear: love for God and willingness to serve Him are not for the fickle or faint of heart. The life of devotion is a life of self-denial, cross-bearing, weeping and striving, and knowing the presence of the Lord in the midst of every situation. Only those most committed to discipline - to living by a "rule" - would be ordained to such a life, or would flourish in it.
Does your practice of spiritual disciplines lead you daily to love the Lord more, and to desire to serve Him faithfully? If not, then you have not yet found the "rule" that God intends for you. God calls each of us to a life of devotion to Him, but they only will find that life who are determined to train themselves for godliness so that they might gain the promises of God for this life and the next.
Today in ReVision: Neither/Nor, Both/And - Can we recover the true meaning of the Constitution?
This Week's Download: A Personal Rule - This document - recently revised and updated - can help put you on a path of devotion so that you love the Lord more and serve Him with great joy and effects.
Get your copy of The Ailbe Psalter and Voices Together from our book store, and let these lay a foundation of worship beneath your daily devotion to the Lord.
T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Converse with the Eternal
May/Discipline
11 May 2010
Brendan spoke to the brethren, and said, "O beloved fellow citizens," said he, "I am asking of you counsel and help, for my heart and thoughts are all fixed on one single desire, if it be God's desire, to seek the land which Barinthus told us of, the land which God has promised to the men who shall come after us."
- Anonymous, Vita Brendani (Irish, 12th century, from an earlier ms.)
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven - whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.
- 2 Corinthians 12.2
Brendan's story receives its impetus shortly after he is ordained to the ministry of the Word. He meets a man named Barinthus who tells him of having journeyed to the Promised Land of the Saints - the place where Christ rules in eternal light, and where there is neither time, nor sin, nor day, nor night, a place of splendors and joys abounding.
In Irish hagiography from this period the Promised Land of the Saints seems to stand for what Jonathan Edwards referred to as the "beatific vision," the vision and, to a certain extent, experience of the unseen world of eternal glory. Irish saints knew that Paul had glimpsed this, Peter had converse with it, and John was able to look into the unseen realm as well. Why not them? Why not us?
At any rate, they longed for it, and they disciplined their bodies so as to be able to focus their hearts and minds on the vision of Christ exalted, so that the reality of Jesus seated at the right hand of God became a daily experience of God's glory for them.
You cannot engage this Promised Land of the Saints, this beatific vision of Christ exalted in glory, without a disciplined life of prayer, meditation, singing, and shutting out the attractions and allure of the mundane world. But discipline your focus to hold in a vision all that Scripture teaches about Jesus exalted, the unseen realm of saints and angels, and the beauties of Christ's heavenly court, and visiting that Promised Land of the Saints can be your experience as well.
And there you will know fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16.11). For that place is real, and it's all around us, and it's accessible, Paul insists, to those who know how to gaze with the eye of the heart, escaping this veil of materiality and engaging by faith the larger world which is, and is yet to come.
Don't you want to go there?
Today in ReVision: Neither/Nor, Both/And
This Week's Download: A Personal Rule - Engaging the unseen realm is a function of discipline; this little pamphlet can help.
Get your copy of The Ailbe Psalter and sing your way into the presence of Christ. Visit our book store today.
Sign up to receive Crosfigell, five days a week, on your desktop.
T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Driven by the Spirit
May/Discipline
12 May 2010
Brendan spake to them and said, "Fear not," said he,"for we have our God Himself as our guide and helper. And ship your oars, and do not toil or labour; and God will guide His own boat and company as He pleases." And they got a steady wind, but knew not wither the wind was carrying them.
- Anonymous, Vita Brendani (Irish, 12th century, from an earlier ms.)
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.
- Mark 1.12, 13
Brendan's mission was to sail north and west from Ireland, to minister the Gospel to whatever people he met on his journey, by whatever means seemed appropriate. For this mission he recruited a group of 16 companions, and they sailed west over the uncharted sea in a boat made of leather (a curragh).
Ten days into the journey they were becalmed, and wore themselves out rowing against an untoward sea. Then came Brendan's instruction, given above. The writer seems to want to use this episode to tell us that, early on in our walk with the Lord, we need to learn to trust in Him, to let His Spirit fill our sails and guide us, wherever He may want us to go. The life of discipline will only benefit us if we learn to listen for, submit to, be filled with, and walk in the Spirit of God.
And that's not always an easy row to hoe, as Jesus understood. Driven by the Spirit, He experienced deprivation, loneliness, weakness, and temptation. But sustained by the Spirit - as Brendan and his company were - Jesus knew the presence of God, the strength of His power, and the reliability of His Word.
These are important lessons, and only the Spirit can teach them to us. Would you describe yourself as driven by the Spirit in your daily life? Or are you struggling and striving with all your wits and might against all the adversity and obstacles of your life, but making no headway for the Lord?
Rest in the Spirit; listen for His voice, speaking to you from God's Word and His world. Let His comforting presence refresh and renew you, and submit to His leading. He'll fill your sails with a steady wind to guide you in the paths of righteousness, peace, and joy every moment of your life.
Today in ReVision: Skin Problem - Is the President a little touchy?
This Week's Download: A Personal Rule - In the framework of a personal rule, you can learn to rest in God's Spirit.
Visit our book store and check out the variety of resources available to help you grow in the Lord.
Sign up to receive Crosfigell five days a week on your computer desktop.
T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In the face of this relentless information storm, this is no time for Christians to give up on reading. We need to equip ourselves to weather this information storm, and The Fellowship of Ailbe wants to help.