We in the church have thousands of years of contemplative traditions. Early in the history of the Christian church, religious leaders chose to separate themselves from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and go out to lonely places to think and pray. In the third century, hermits, ascetics and monks lived in the Scetes desert of Egypt. The Apophthegmata Patrum is a collection of writings of those early monks and nuns. Their lives in the desert became the model for subsequent generations of faithful people who withdrew from society for the purpose of thinking deeply, praying, and connecting with God.

There is something about the monastic life that is appealing to me. I’ve read some of the books by Thomas Merton, the Trappist Monk. The Abbey of Gethsemane, where Merton spent half of his life, seemed like an ideal place for one who wants to invest time and energy in thinking about God. The wooded hills of Kentucky are a beautiful surrounding filled with peace and nature and far away from the urban noise and pressures of modern life.

Intrigued and interested in monastic life, I’ve never even come close to actually taking that step. I’ve been on a few retreats, but never even spent a full week in such a setting. Knowing that as a husband and father I have responsibilities beyond myself makes the process of simply moving off to an isolated location just for the purpose of peace and quiet seem selfish. More importantly, I have discovered many Christian leaders who have found depth of meaning and a close relationship with God in the midst of life.

Influential in the way that i think of a life of service has been Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Catholic priest. I discovered Nouwen through an unusual connection. In seminary I studied the work of Anton Boisen, a theologian who suffered from major mental illness and who wrote about the experience of his psychotic episodes in the light of his relationship with God. Through my studies of Boisen, I discovered that Nouwen had been greatly influenced by his work. Nouwen invested nearly two decades of his life as a teacher at the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School. Then, he decided to follow a new direction and went to work with Mentally and physically handicapped people at the L’Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Noun found a way to live as a contemplative - a person who thinks deeply - in the midst of everyday life. Mostly living in urban areas, he found sufficient peace and quiet to think and write about the deeper aspects of life.

All forms of contemplation share the same goal: to help us see through the deceptions of self and world in order to get in touch with the genuine within and around us. Contemplation is a way of penetrating illusion and touching reality.

Much of our world focuses on the illusion. Television and other media are all about illusion. Most of politics is about appearances. Too many of our relationships stay on the surface instead of making the deep connections that are possible.

One of the ways to live the life of contemplation is to look directly and honestly into mistakes. When things go wrong, I find myself learning - and often relearning - the truth about myself. The hard truths sometimes don’t appear until there is something that forces me to be honest with myself. Basking in the glow of success rarely leads me to careful analysis of myself.

I genuinely admire those who have developed the disciplines of classic contemplative life. I have respect for the nuns at the Abbey, and other monastics who rise early each day for prayer and who keep the hours of prayer. I am inspired by the monks of Taize and the ways their lives of prayer transform our world. But I also know that their path is not my own. I have been called to plunge deeply into the community rather than separate myself from it. I have been called to think deeply in the context of a busy and over-scheduled life.

My path is, however, one of contemplation. I make room in each day for prayer and reading and studying. I try to think deeply about the meaning of the events of my everyday life. I try to make responsible choices about how I invest my time and energy. I try to avoid the surface and plunge deep into the meanings of relationships and connections with others.

Regret can be turned into blessing. The mess we call politics can be a way of cleaning out the influences of too much money and reclaiming our American democracy. When we feel that others show a lack of spirit and soul, it is time to make our spirits and souls visible in this community.

I think that my particular relationship with contemplation in the midst of everyday living has led me to this blog as my major written expression at this phase of my life. I haven’t taken time to write a complete book. To do so would require a major investment of time in writing, re-writing, editing and working through a huge volume of organizational tasks. Writing the blog allows me to make a daily contribution - to think a few thoughts and write a few words. I know that my words quickly fade and are forgotten, but the process of writing invites me to think and to express my thoughts.

It is nothing like withdrawing to the desert - or the hills of Kentucky - to focus and become more single minded. It is a hour or so each day of thinking and sorting out my thoughts as I turn to more complex tasks.

There are many different forms of Christian contemplation and many different ways to invest time and energy in thinking. I will never explore all of them in a single lifetime. For right now, this particular way of expression myself seems to work for me.

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