"Called to Question"
Summer 2006 Bible Study

Chapters 13, 14 and 15

"St. Joan of Arc Bible Study is an open and growing group that meets for fellowship and to discuss the Bible and other faith-centered literature. Our informal study group draws from biblical scholarship, historical perspectives, current events and personal reflections. We welcome honor and respect the personal ideas and spiritual journeys of all who join us."

Greetings

A wild and wooly bunch gathered down in the hall at the old country church and many things were revealed and discovered and wondered about. We hear that Frank brought Chocolate cupcakes with luscious icing and sprinkles, enough to make a grown man cry.

Thank you Marlys, for your navigation skills! Here follows her overview.

CALLED TO QUESTION: A SPIRITUAL MEMOIR
by Joan Chittister, OSB
September 5, 2006
Immersion in Life: The Other Side of Inwardness, Chapters 13,14,15

Joan continues to give us food for thought with her enlightening comparisons of physical life made holy: First, Jesus, our mentor, who entered fully into the world, taught us how to love, feel and be compassionate and forgive our enemies, and then how the spirituality of negation, the theory of original sin and rejection of the world thrived and affected us deeply. To be holy meant to leave the world, to make the body the enemy, to self abuse, to deny, to punish. And, assuredly to repress relationships, sex and the senses. Also, how some things were made holy that are not and some categories of the natural were made dangerous or even obscene.

Has this changed in our contemporary world? What examples come to mind for you?

How has the spirituality of perfection affected you?

Joan states that a contemplative does not hide from life. Life itself consumes them with a sense of sacred everywhere.

Read last two sentences on p.101 and continue on p.102

Chapter 13. Relationships: To Know and Be Known

I found this chapter a most difficult one to read, as I questioned my own ability to love with a heartfelt soul. I have felt steeped in the "honorable" agape love. Reading this chapter with Joan's different perspective on agape was, at first, jolting, as she deferred to agape as a plastic kindness. And she continued the description: human benevolence, holy, celibate, without feelings, detachment -emotionally unresponsive, heady love without loving, a poor excuse for human bondedness. Her descriptive words seemed almost blasphemous to one raised in the "beauty" of agape.

Eros love, by contrast is described as passionate love, hot bloodedness, downright adulterous joy, genuine human attachment. Your thoughts?

Read p. 107 second paragraph through p. 108.

Joan states that only love enables us to forgive. If we love we can forgive anything.

She also says that to forgive is not to forget, but rather to re-remember what ever has been disremembered..

What is your story of forgiveness? Must you forgive yourself in order to forgive others?

Does re-membering a hurt make us question our forgiveness or prevent our forgiving?

Chapter 14. Friendship: The Gift of Independence

Statements opening this chapter that were notable to me: " When grief finally took its proper place in memory...". She discovered she " liked being alone." Losing a best friend, she declared, " I don't want any new friends. Friends take too much time." Joan states that while friendship is a holy thing, it is not an easy thing.

Do you agree?

Holy friendship is not to attach us to a guru, spiritual master, or saint, but to become ourselves. That means to have someone against whose wisdom we can test our own. It means really sharing our truth with them. Joan affirms that the importance of self observation remains; but spiritual friendship is a bridge to development of the self. It gives us confidence to move ahead, to become our true selves, to be truly who we are.

Do you feel a difference between a spiritual friend ( to me, a soul-mate) and a companion?

Can they be both? Describe your spiritual friend.

Read quote p.114, quite p.116, age and women, quote p. 117, top of p.118

Chapter 15. Listening: The Beginning of Wisdom

Joan tells the story of her novice mistress admonishing the religion class to obey, even if commanded to do something s/he felt to be wrong.

Does this admonishment continue to happen today? Have any of us experienced this from someone in authority?

Joan goes on to stress that the cultivation of wisdom is greater than the practice of obedience.

Are we comfortable with our personal conscience? Do we seek wisdom, pray for wisdom, "that deep-down divining rod of goodness", "that truth that is deeper than law in us."

Are there people in our lives who shaped us when law and order only constrained us?

Joan says "In coming to be a person, we retreat from the absolutes on which we have been raised to test them for ourselves. We begin to listen to the self to hear what is really driving us.

"Listening is always a life-giving act."

Read p. 123, quote to bottom of page.

Read p 124, "To listen to the other..." to bottom of page.

Discussion went overtime, so we will finish chapter 15 next week.

Be and re-member... All that I AM has is yours. For you are I AM.
Rik Murray
(612) 872-8694
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