The Nine S': Solitude

Solitude

The term ontological aloneness has lived with me for some time. Years, actually. Recently someone asked if that meant I was lonely for Christ? Well, yes. But it means the aloneness of being, that we are alone in our selves, and only not alone when we truly realize and actualize our being through Christ, with Christ, in Christ. And very much being in the Trinity. 

Then to realize that the not alone is not of ourselves, but all, in all, of Christ, that we did not find ourselves in Him, in love of Christ, but that He loved us first, filled our ontological aloneness with His Being, His Love.

Solitude is necessary, for it is part of the reality of our human ontological aloneness.  Never can we be fully united with other humans or any tangible, finite objects or even intangibles of earthly nature. Yet it is possible to have union with Christ even while in our physical forms. The union is fleeting because our living, temporal, earthly bodies, minds and emotions cannot sustain for more than short periods of time, the power of a pure, divine union with God. 

Yet the soul, once it experiences a taste of that divine union, will yearn for more, and thus yearn for heaven, to be with Christ in this union always and forever. Such union is the indwelling of Christ, the divinely ontological fulfillment, the quintessential peace of pure, holy love.

Solitude teaches us the reality of our ontological aloneness and brings to conscious awareness the reality of our desired union with Christ. Experiencing solitude imposes the active benefit of solitude as a means of awareness and accessibility of Christ to our souls.  Solitude helps separate our souls from earthly distractions, and opens the plenitude for Christ. The possibility of divine union then advances toward reality of divine union. 

If constantly or often with others either physically or in our thoughts, we are not in solitude. If we do not create the space for being alone, nor augment that awareness of our aloneness by silence, solitude will slip through the fingers of our desire and be lost to being spiritually alone rather than secure the promise of holy fulfillment, the mystical marriage, union in Christ.

We experience solitude while in the womb. Although the embryo is within the mother, united by life-sourcing umbilical cord, and known to hear sounds, there is solitude. Within womb solitude, is there more awareness of God? This is not consciously recalled. Fetal spiritual awareness cannot be ascertained, but once born, we at some level and degree become aware of ontological aloneness.  We somehow know God then and now. 

And from the saints and mystics who, following Christ's example, removed themselves to a quiet place to pray, alone in physical solitude or alone in that inner room of the heart,  communication with God and the embrace of pure love was made manifest. Time and again we read the accounts of those who experienced God in silence and solitude, and many of us have encountered holy solitude, if but for a moment.

Anyone can learn solitude–even amidst a crowd. The key is awareness in prayer, awareness of the ontological aloneness that is ours, and the surety by faith of unitive companionship in Christ. By an effort of  understanding, intellect, and will, within the heart of the soul, solitude may be approached. 

At this level, the soul waits in solitude for God's touch. However, this action toward solitude may require previous actions depending upon how distant from the solitary womb experience one has come in essence and reality.

Some may need to do as with silence: peel back layers of activity and distractions: of people, places, and things tangible, and of thoughts and emotions. Find the inner room Jesus mentions and implant oneself there for prayer. Create an inner room of literal proportions, such as do children in closets, under beds, in tree huts, staring off into space or closing the eyes. We can enter into woods on a walk, or a spare room, attic, basement, or vehicle. We can go into an empty church and silently kneel before the Tabernacle. 

We can create space for the inner room within: while working, shopping, recreating, sleeping or worshipping. The spiritual inner room is yet more accessible once we have learned to go to within from without, having learned to close the doors and windows of our outer senses to temporal distractions. There, on the way to within, we meet the interior distractions, more layers to peel. But conceptualize the idea, and now desire and grasp the amazing vicissitudes of solitude.

Married couples may realize that while with one another, they are yet alone. Truly, for we all have ontological aloneness once we come to the awareness. And thus Christ all the more becomes our instinctual desire in order to be actualized. No sexual union will bring the type of completion and love that union with Christ will provide. As the Psalmist discovered: One day in Your courts, O God, is worth a thousand elsewhere....

Gaining the sense and sensation of solitude requires faith. Sometimes the truly alone of dark forces spurs doubts: Is this really best to feel so alone? Yes. Trust the goodness of recognizing ontological aloneness and the benefit of cultivating solitude. Learn to trust, to love, the actuality of spiritual union, of divine companionship, that results through and with the time and space created, and then set aside for communing in solus Deus, God alone.

While humanity turns more and more to visual encounters, or to filling the ontological aloneness with people, possessions, activities and power, there is never satisfaction until one finds the love of Christ, of union in Him, beyond the with and through. 

And to secure this multi-dimensional, supernatural embrace, of union with the Divine, we must take the necessary steps of awareness, desire, and the sloughing off that which stops us from not only the silence of love, but the necessity of solitude. We progress from without to within, and within to without, learning to love that which most enhances the opportune essence of solitude in Christ.

The Nine S': Silence

Silence

To ponder silence, consider first, noise. What do we hear of externals? Then peel back the layers, one by one. Begin event mentally in a place of activity and people. Can noise be seen? It seems so. Busy activity seems noisy even if no one is speaking. Stop looking at the activity, the movement. 

Then peal back the layer of conversation, that which is close, discernible content and even if it is distant voices, indiscernible conversation. Peel the noise of mechanical means sounding around: one's car, computer keyboard clicks, or the far off hum of traffic. Then reveal other layers...birds, wind in trees, movement of people walking, animals, sounds of electronics in the vicinity, or the hum of the earth.

Approach the noise within one's thoughts, then body. The words going through one's mind, do they make noise? Try to peel away the words, or at least acknowledge that they have a voice—either one's own or another, such as a recalled conversation. Are there images in the mind, and do they move and make noise, such as thoughts that can be heard in similar way that outer activity becomes noisy, as distractions? 

Is there sound when one eats and drinks? Peel back those layers and consider the noise of breathing, or the noise of the heart and blood, the noise of some ache or pain in the body.   Noise not only generates from physical motion but also from thoughts, images, and the senses within.

All this, and more, is noise. And silence is that which is not. We can not achieve total silence, but there is reason to strive for increasingly approaching silence. Pray for and practice the formation of silence not only of our movements and conversations, but also in our inner senses that interlock with other of the Nine S', such as stillness, slowness, stability. 

The inner connects and supports the body, mind, heart and soul to come to yet more silence. The outer exists more individually, independently, such as a car radio or a computer fan, television, or talk in restaurants.

To achieve silencing the outer, one must begin turning off and removing, peeling back the layers of noise through active, exterior means. This is the simplest way to achieve external silence. Jesus went to a deserted place to pray, or cast out a distance from shore in the boat where there was more silence. Often He waited quietly, before speaking. What may be the simplest in our initial choices to have silence may be the ones we do not want to make. The noise in our heads say, “What will people think if we do not chat, or if we turn off the TV, or have not heard the latest hit song on the charts?”

The comprehension of the value of silence must rise beyond the need to be like others, or the need for inclusive approval. Required is a literal as well as spiritual adherence to Scriptures in regard to seeking and finding God in prayer, in practicing the virtues, in being mindful of God's will for us in the present moment. 

Once a person is able to physically and mentally remove from situations of outer noise, there may develop an understanding of silence that has not been experienced since earliest memories of childhood, or of silence one may experience in sleep, for noise involves conscious awareness. 

We come to an opposing awareness of the very smallest particles of whatever noise may remain, whether of interior images, words, or subtle bodily motions. However, sleep may be noisy if filled with dreams, for the dreams contain images, words, thoughts that the conscious mind or memory begins to hear. From infancy, we know the existence of external sounds and that our bodies emitted sounds. Infants (and of those near death) are highly sensitive to external sounds. 

The value of silence must be instilled in us as we seek union with Christ. We must prepare the way for such silence, for it is in silence that we best hear His voice and not our own, not our thoughts or images. That is why the learned mystic saints advise against getting caught up even with the most amazing visions, for it is noise, distraction, and not Christ Himself. Just reminders of Christ, or sometimes demonic impersonations. 

So it is the ultimate silence of nothingness that we hear described from those who have been blessed with union with Christ. The silence of union lasts only for seconds or minutes, the saints explain, and it is pure silence of union for it contains nothing of what they heard or saw.  This pure silence is inexplicable, the encounter with God in utter silence of the interior, even if there were to be noise all about the temporal body.

So we come to understand that in order to experience increasing silence, we must peel off the layers of noise—exterior, interior—in whatever  ways we “hear” and recognize, linked with the knowledge of which action necessary to remove any particular distraction. 

The small child can be taught consciously of silence, by someone placing a finger over the lips and making a “Shhh” sound, or no sound at all—by example. The worker can choose silence during the break, outside or privately, earplugs tuning out exterior sounds, or eyes closed to silence the visual sounds heard--watching people walking, talking--without audibly hearing them. Other external senses can invoke noise within the mind through association with sounds of conversation, images, memories, touch and smell.

Even though we may not achieve total exterior silence due to the reality that we cannot always remove ourselves from all noise, we can control much of the noise through our own choosing and enacting, peeling back layers of sound. Even though we may not be able to achieve complete interior silence due to the reality that our minds have memory and imagination which store visual images, words and noise association, we can learn ways to pull blinds on the distractions within.

Silence is a grace and also learned, and grows with desire for Christ, for the peace He promises to bequeath. Desire for union with Christ grows with growing awareness of the inner senses of which silence seems to be of foremost concern. It is through learning to appreciate and practice silence that the soul is readied for being one with Christ, one with the Father, one with the Holy Spirit, even if but for moments on earth. 

Learning silence assists with learning love. The greatest attribute of love is not that of the sounds of love, but rather of love's silence. Since God is love, we must pray and practice peeling back our exterior and interior noise, in order to discover, experience, in loving silence, God.

Standard of the Nine S'

The Standard of the Nine S'

A standard is a level of quality or level of attainment, or principles of conduct. In the formation of our bodies, minds, hearts and spirits, certain standards of this formation will assure better results in living the Rule of Life, the Gospels.  

Formative standards will help in all other aspects of the interior life such as learning the virtues, conquering the vices, growing in holiness through prayer, climbing the stairway to heaven!

There are nine s' that seem to account for all levels of quality, that embrace and embody all which will form and inform our total beings in order to succeed in our desire to have union with Christ, and thus to be fully utilized by Him and for His Church. 

These Nine S' are the standards of our formation: 

• Silence
• Solitude
• Slowness
• Suffering
• Selflessness
• Simplicity
• Stability
• Stillness
• Serenity

Each will be discussed separately, yet they encompass and segue each other and one from the other. These Nine S', the standard of our formation, will be applied much as one applies varying techniques in a work of art in order for the finished product to be a masterpiece. God's graces create the inspiration and all aspects of the rendering. 

The various tools are the many aspects of the spiritual life such as worship, sacraments, prayer, penance, acts of the will, charity and the virtues. The canvas is the soul to be developed. On the palette are the Sacraments which hold the Word of God through which the media is applied. 

The Virgin Mary is the floating medium that allows the paint to gracefully flow. Christ is the artist, inspired Son of God the Father, and He paints by the love generated through the Holy Spirit in the Trinitarian relationship.

In practice, the Nine S' are the standards by which we apply our daily activities, in light of the Rule of the Gospel. We will examine each S of the standard. Through learning and comprehending how each may be absorbed, and then applied, as part of our beings, our thoughts and actions will be informed and formed by these  standards. 

Then we must consider our formation in light of Christ's moral teachings in the Gospels, and His demands and expectations of our being and doing righteousness in love.

Rule of Life

Rule of Life

A lesser known saint, St. Stephen of Muret, lived a way of life in early 12^th century France. His reputation for holiness spread and gained him followers. However, his extreme humility kept him from sharing in the widespread fame of two others in his era: St. Bernard and St. Francis. Even thought St. Stephen had no intention of forming a religious order, a type evolved but was not formalized until after his death, by his followers, when they became known as the Hermits of Grandmont, or Grandmontines.

When St. Stephen became noticed for his holiness, questions (some tinged with envy) arose among others in religious orders. They wanted to know by what rule Stephen and his followers lived, as well as if they were hermits or cenobitic monks. 

St. Stephen, quite familiar with all the forms of religious life and the various orders, instructed the men who became like disciples, how to answer. If anyone inquired what Order they belonged to and which rule they followed, they were to reply that they were Christians observing the Rule of the Gospel which is the root of all rules.

St. Stephen's way of life has been historically considered to be the most pure, having the most pure rule. The amount of leadership displayed was practically nil, other than to live in a small, simple dwelling, and in charity to accommodate those who wanted to live as he lived and learn from his holiness. 

He suggested they build small simple dwellings in the vicinity, and they worshiped and prayed in a small, existing chapel among the rather remote terrain near the village of Muret, France. St. Stephen shared insights and counsel, lived simply, welcomed the poor, and expected of himself and his followers nothing more or less than what Christ asked in the Gospels.

After St. Stephen of Muret's death in 1124, a nearby Order of Benedictines overtook the property in which they'd been allowed to live. The late St. Stephen's followers then asked a nobleman's permission, and he allowed them to live on his land in another rather remote area, near Grandmont. Only then did the men begin to formalize their way of life, wrote specific rules, and further developed aspects that St. Stephen had not thought necessary to structure.  They decided to live as cenobites—defining themselves as hermit monks living in community. 

From this point until the suppression of the Grandmontines in 1788, the followers of St. Stephen of Muret became a religious Order much like other traditional orders. Other communities of Grandmontines were founded but never to the extent of the Cistercians or the already widespread Benedictines. Eventually, what historians had acclaimed as the most pure, became tainted, or at least diluted, when St. Stephen's followers tampered with and altered that which he distinguished with his holy life.

Given this background of what was and what could have been yet today, we wonder why the draw, the need, for people to fuss with what is simple, thereby creating complexity that eventually leads to distraction, sometimes destruction—even if amidst good motives and actions. What is this human urge to institutionalize by some structural formatting, what the saints discovered to be (for lack of scholarly term) the stairway to heaven?

The beauty, truth and goodness of St. Stephen of Muret's rule of life is obvious. No other rule can be superior nor more pure than the Gospels. Therefore, the Order of the Present Moment could have nothing other than to adopt, adhere to, and live: the Rule of the Gospels, the root of all rules. Turn to the Gospels.

Who Will Join, Conclusion

The Adherents
 

As for essence, that is what happens after being for awhile acclimated in the Order of Present Moment. We will exist and be in essence according to our desire for God, our lessons and listening, our awareness of Him, our spiritual training, and God's mercy and love. The essence will be prayerfully, hopefully, faithfully: Christ's Essence. What we pray will show and stand out are the distinguishing effects of being in essence Christ for others and of ourselves being in Christ.

The Adherent in the Order of the Present lives the combined, concurrent roles of postulant, novice, and professed.  The Adherent is also procurator/administrator, with the required life responsibilities incumbent upon any human with obvious adjustments due to age or infirmity. The Adherent is also the extern. In traditional religious orders the extern interfaces with the world in order to procure food and other necessities so that the order religious can maintain their religious lives without much if any exposure to the temporal world. 

But in the Order of the Present Moment, the Adherent must learn the spiritual—if also the mysterious—ways of being in the world but not of it. And this lived in a literal sense, for we must live in the present moment, wherever and however God places us. If unable due to infirmity or poverty, for example, to shop for groceries or grow food, then one must live with the circumstances and allow others to shop or procure from food bank. 

But as St. Paul (if you do not work, you do not eat) and various early Church saints have taught, we must not be dependent upon others if we are able to  work or otherwise provide for our daily needs! If God has given us the bodies and minds and means to “pay our way”, then this is the present moment circumstance in which He has placed us. Therefore, thankfully, divinely given, holy self-sufficiency is one of the everyday duties of most OPM Adherents.

All of these matters will evolve providentially as one progresses in the Order of the Present Moment. Part of the growth is to learn to love and see the spiritual view, learn to love and see as God sees. This may take however many present moments as it takes. God knows how many. Our opportunity is to simply insert ourselves in the process no matter where we are in any given situation. There is much to learn and love. Adherents will not be disappointed.

 What is next for the OPM Adherent? How is life in this spiritual order going to be different than life not in it? We will attempt offering glimpses of how living it may flow—enough insights that others can learn to adapt and incorporate in their own lives, to learn the flow, truly of God's will. For we must see all the more now, that we must learn that all depends upon God, and this means very much for each soul's desiring of God, in each present moment. Our desire for Him comes from Him. We will learn to come to Him step by step.

Who Will Join, Pt. II

The Adherents


Who the OPM will not attract are those who would like to be extreme when God has not placed them in any extremity, or those who like to stand out, to have any form of recognition, or who do best with human reinforcement over Divine consolation and spiritual desolation.

Those who want to be the leader or have strong, competitive impulses with others, would not find the Order of the Present Moment to their liking because one could only attempt to compete with God, and that is no competition. It is a race to run, as St. Paul alluded, and those running this race with adherence, wins. There are no placings, no blue, red, or yellow ribbons. 


More so, it is a climb on the stairway to heaven, and first one needs to seek, find, or be led to that stairway. And before that, one must be open to realizing there actually is a stairway to heaven. This stairway is not a mere concept, but a spiritual reality. And for souls who are spiritual--and a soul is spiritual--the stairway to heaven is the reality of what we must climb either in this life or after. 

Those who are not intrigued, would not be interested until that point at which they are intrigued. Those who by some life calamity or grace, their heads and hearts turned to see the steps that lead in spiritual progression moment by moment, will come to it by and by. Those who desire now, may be Adherents now.

Adherents of the Order of the Present Moment dress appropriately to the moment in which God has placed them, as He has placed them. The habit might be what one wears to work. Thus it must be what is within the means of the Adherent's ability to wear what will bring the very best for success in the work that God has asked of the Adherent, whether as trash collector, student, sales rep, medical professional or priest. 

The habit worn must coincide with place in life and culture, with what one is doing in that present moment. If sleeping, then it would be sleeping attire, if swimming then swim attire, if gardening, then garden attire, if worshiping, then worship attire—and this as lovely as one can manage for attending the wedding of the soul.

We must be clear that the OPM is not going to appeal to those who want to look different or to have identity as a particular religious group. The food is what God allows and provides through our work and abilities to earn a living, and what is healthy to the degree that we can procure healthy food, and that we know what healthy food is. 

Will there be fasting on bread and water, or only vegetables? That depends upon the present moment circumstances. Certainly, if only bread and water are available, if very poor, then bread and water is what one eats, while seeking means to procure other food. 

But for someone who has the knowledge of the food groups and the means to eat a healthy diet in keeping with what God has blessed and provided, then eating bread and water will only draw attention and cause health damage. An exception would be a person, given by God, the rare, mystical gift of inedia, which is actually a suffering and would be kept hidden from the curious. For the bulk of us, we eat what is placed before us, giving thanks to God's providence.

The hair style will coincide with what is best for our present moment lives and placement by God, by the means He has provided, in the culture and society in which we exist. Thus, those who want shaved heads or full beards, or bleached or dyed hair, or any stylized adornment, would need to pray and discern what is best for one's present moment life. 

What does God will? What blends in naturally so that the inner essence of life in Christ, as we progress, will be what is noticed? In what ways can we avoid being a distraction and diversion from divine intention and will? Surely we comprehend the flow of the OPM. The externals will not stand out any more than Christ stood out in his temporal externals of appearance (dress, food, hair, beard, transportation, work) of being placed in His earthly time, place and culture. 


(Topic concluded in next post)

Who Will Join?

The Adherents

A friend suggested the term. It means to stick. The term member seems passive and group-oriented. As example, some contemporary hermits formed internet support groups, belong to forums, use religious titles before their names and group identifying initials following. It seems many religious life seekers lean toward institutionalization of the vocations.  Members of groups, orders, institutes, and communities may belong, but adherence implies action. Who indeed will stick to, respect, comprehend, visualize, and represent the Order of the Present Moment?

It could be anyone, but the desire for Christ must be intense and may include a desire for the desire for Christ. Or the desire for the desire for the desire for Christ. Desire is key,  desire for Christ and yet feasible for anyone. While it may be more challenging for a docker-type personality to learn to float with the mystery and spiritual intonations, a floater-type personality may be challenged to discipline, to adhere, to stick to the will of God as He wills in each present moment.  Regardless, docker, floater or any combination thereof make fine Adherents.

While traditional religious orders have levels of membership beginning with entry level members called postulants or aspirants, the Order of the Present Moment obviously unfolds moment by moment, thus a time frame or levels is unnecessary. 

When traditional order postulants are familiarized to the order's purpose and mission, structure and daily life, they next become novices, usually by making initial vows and wearing a habit modified in design from the full members' habits. A novice category is not feasible for the OPM adherent because the habits are whatever the person is wearing in the present moment. The first point of being a beginner is a moment, and then one is what in the next moment?

At the conclusion of being instructed and experiencing, for a time, life of the order (including prayer, worship, spiritual reading and behavioral formation), the traditional religious order discerns with the novice if he or she has a vocation to profess final vows. Some orders require a succession of professions—postulant, first, and final profession, usually following a year or up to three years each of formation. 

After final profession in which the novice becomes a consecrated religious (for approved traditional orders/groups are allowed a type of canonically legal consecration), they wear the habit of the other professed religious. These vows are for life, unless the religious determines otherwise after much discernment and in consultation with the superior. A dispensation of vows is then allowed, and the religious returns to private life.

No such distinction or regimen is possible for the Adherent of the Order of the Present Moment. Again, the moments follow one upon another, and the progression occurs in more or less measureless fashion. If one has made the vow before God (and this may occur with a priest receiving the vow in a private profession), the learning continues but in an avowed, privately consecrated manner. 

However there are always events and experiences, previous learning, that flow in the course of life, so that the next phase of learning will more or less evolve in accordance with the Adherent's stick-to-itiveness. There are two main factors involved. One is the Adherent's intensity of desire for God and the ability to listen, learn and live spiritually. It is essential to be aware of and grasp the OPM's teaching and direction which will lead to transformation. The other factor is the Adherent's ability to accept, in grateful awareness, God's mercy and love.

How does a person intensify desire for God and the ability to listen, learn and live spiritually? Professing the vow is a start. It must be assumed that the person is baptized, confirmed and a practicing Catholic or Trinitarian Christian. If this is not the case, then take the steps necessary by speaking with a Catholic priest, or a minister of a Christian denomination that is Trinitarian—adheres to Christian belief, baptism and life lived in and of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

While any Christian may be an Adherent in the Order of the Present Moment, there may be some stumbling blocks if not a Catholic. Yet if drawn by the Holy Spirit, make the vow, and see where God leads. If the Adherent is open to the Holy Spirit and to Jesus Christ and to maternal protection of the Virgin Mary, the OPM unfolds in Christ's Church. The Adherent will surely at some point be moved to conversion and enter Christ's Church.

It is within the Church—Holy Mother Church—that a person's desire for God will intensify through the Sacraments of Eucharist (Communion), Reconciliation (Confession), and as needed, Anointing of the Sick. For some, there may be additional sacraments such as Marriage or Holy Orders. Already mentioned are the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, and these need now be assumed. 

If there are those who seek God in other religions or belief systems, the Order of the Present Moment may not be of particular interest. But anyone may become an Adherent, even a soul furthest from Catholicism. Conversions occur in every moment. God alone knows each soul and each soul's life choices for eternity. And that discussion is beyond the scope of this exercise.

(This topic is continued in the next post.)