Hello and welcome back to day 10. Our topic for today is solitude and community. So although the contemplative journey involves silence and interior solitude, we are social creatures and we need community and community is an integral part of the contemplative journey and transformation. I want to start with a story, a revelation that the monk Thomas Merton, had in Louisville in 1958, and writes about in a book that he wrote called conjectures of a guilty bystander. This is his experience. in Louisville at the corner of fourth and walnut in the center of the shopping district.

I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another. Even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness. Have spurious self isolation in a special world. This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. And if only everybody could realize this, but it cannot be explained.

There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around, shining like the sun. Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire or self knowledge can reach the core of their reality. The person that each one is in God's eyes, if only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. But this cannot be seen.

Only believed and understand. stood by a peculiar gift. So this story of Mertens revelation or awakening, I think is interesting because both because of the fact that it happened in such a mundane location, but it's also a typical kind of awakening that many people experience at some point on the contemplative journey. Maybe not quite this forcefully, maybe more subtly, but it does tend to dawn as we are faithful to the process. One way to think about or describe it Martin's experience is an awakening to a sense of communion. And of course, communion is comes from the same root as our word for community.

Evelyn Underhill, a writer about mysticism in the early 20th century describes mysticism as the art of union with reality. Reality here with a capital R And we've mentioned earlier in this course, that the contemplative process is the divine indwelling of the whole through the Holy Spirit that leads eventually to divine union. And in the Christian tradition, that divine with whom we seek union or the God with whom we seek union is, of course, the God who is revealed as a trinity of three persons revealed in the scriptures and in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, the doctrine of the Trinity is one that one could spend a whole lifetime studying and and contemplating, but for our purposes, we can know that that Christian teaching that God is a communion of three persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, suggests that the very foundation or ground or center of reality itself is already relational, within the very godhead itself.

So the whole thrust of salvation history is of a God who is In relational, within God's very own nature, who creates out of love and who passionately seeks to be reunited in union with all that has been created, especially with human persons, and especially with each of us as individuals. One classic text for this kind of cosmic vision comes from St. Paul's him in Colossians. One. And this is an example of the way in which contemplative Christianity is christocentric, as I mentioned in one of those early lessons, so Paul writes this for him, and he's referring to Christ. All things in heaven and on earth were created all things visible and invisible. And in him, all things hold together, and through him, God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself.

So all things come from Christ. All things are held together in Christ, and all things will be restored. Smile to God in Christ. It's a very cosmic vision of Christ and the Creator. So this awakening to Communion is a natural part that unfolds it along the process of contemplative transformation. And we could think of this as an awakening to the reality of divine union, or of communion, or of a sense of the interdependence of all reality.

The other side of this awakening often comes with a sense of solidarity, and solidarity we can think of as a commitment to the happiness or the well being, of all persons, all beings, indeed of all creation. All of this suggests a twofold almost paradoxical movement on the contemplative journey. There is the movement inward and downward in silence, simultaneous with a movement upward and outward in love. Even if we may not be consciously aware of it, these two movements are always occurring at the same time, as long as we are faithful to that contemplative journey. The movement inward and down is the process of discovering the divine image, the true self within and includes the processes of healing and integration that we discussed earlier. This is really important because it's almost like there's a natural law of the spiritual life that whatever is unhealed or disintegrated.

Whatever makes up our shadow self or our ego self, we tend to project that onto others and to the world around us. Or we could state this more positively as the poet Marianne Williamson states it. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. This process is captured in the image on the right here that shows the movement down from the surface level. Every day awareness or consciousness into the deeper realms of our divine center or ground, where we also encounter infinite love and compassion. And yet while this inward and downward process is occurring, there's also a movement upward and outward toward the divine love that is always in everywhere present in each moment, in each created thing, and in each person we encounter in our daily lives.

As I've mentioned previously, the changes that occur are often very subtle, and it may be other close friends or family, or colleagues or partners who first notice a change and how you are engaging with the world around you. a helpful way to imagine this may be to think of a large healthy tree with deep roots. The tree is able to reach upward toward the sky, to open to the rays of sunlight that it uses to create food. From photosynthesis, in direct proportion to the depth of its root system, which reaches down into the nourishing soil for water and nutrients and stability. In the same way, our capacity for compassion and loving kindness towards others in the world is supported by the depth of our own practice which forms the ground or the route from which the divine goodness and beauty desires to express through us and in our lives.

Okay, so let's get real practical here. What if you're looking for some kind of community or support you if you're living in the United States, or the Western world, you've probably seen yoga studios popping up all over the place in the last decade or so. Perhaps lesser known but equally real. There are organizations and communities all over the world that exists to support contemplative practices in the Christian church. Tradition. Some of us who teach out of this tradition refer to what we call the Big Four organizations that have established networks of teachers, communities of practice, and different styles of contemplative practice.

In some cases all over the world. It's worth noting as well that each of these groups is intentionally open to ecumenical and inter religious dialogue. That is they offer their teachings to Christians of any denomination or background. And they're also open to persons of any background, from other religious or spiritual traditions or no background at all. Who wants to learn more about contemplative prayer? So these big four include contemplative outreach, which teaches in the tradition of centering prayer, the Center for action and contemplation.

The world community for Christian meditation, which takes The mantra form of Christian meditation and the Shaolin Institute. These organizations have local chapters and groups all over the world and you can visit their websites to find local groups or contact persons. I've also listed a couple, the gravity Center and the ignition solidarity network, both of which are committed to spiritual practices that directly inform compassionate social action and engagement. Now, I should note that this is not intended to be an exhaustive list you may know of other organizations, and you may be able to find other local groups. These simply reflect my knowledge of well established large in some cases, international groups. Finally, another venue for learning more about contemplative Christianity can be found through the different religious orders that have established themselves all over the world.

Many, though not all of these orders are rooted in the Roman Catholic tradition. There are also orders from the Anglican Communion and in the Eastern Orthodox churches, but these are all similarly open to sharing the fruits of their own rich spiritual heritage with anyone who wishes to learn. So, for example, after some time I spent in my early 20s, discerning whether or not I was called to live out the monastic life at St. John's Abbey, in the Benedictine tradition. Once I realized that wasn't going to be my vocation, I decided to become an object of St. Benedict through St. John's Abbey. As an obligate, I've studied and committed to living out the principles of the rule of Saint Benedict and the Benedict in spirituality, as a lay person as a married person with family and career. This has really kept me grounded and connected not only to the Benedictine tradition, but also to the people and the place at St John's, which remains for me very much a spiritual home.

So most religious orders and there are hundreds, if not thousands of them have similar kinds of ways for lay persons to be spiritually connected to the order to its people and to its sense of place. So I encourage you if you're looking for more community to explore some of these, you can find them by doing searches on the internet and you may find others as I mentioned before. Thanks again for being here. I look forward to tuning in tomorrow where we'll talk about the role of communal worship and liturgy and contemplative Christianity. And in the meantime, remember that you are all walking around shining like the sun.