My explanation of God enjoying me and my enjoyment of Him on the mountaintop is the closest I've come to just being. It is very much like an ideal marriage (hmmm, guess he kindof had that in mind). Sitting with the one you love and not really saying anything, but realizing how in love and loved you are. No pretenses, pride, presumptions (pardon my habit from every E.free sermon). Our ugly human hearts don't allow much of this kind of being between us, but I think God graces us with that holy communion when we ask for it.
I have heard this same story before, except the version I heard referred to an old man who sat in the church all day, every day. The questioner in the story was a young priest. The quotes are the same.
The cynic in me says that it's oxymoronic to preach on solitude. Better to stand in front of the congregation and say nothing at all for several minutes... I was just kidding there, but now I'm starting to take it seriously: what if you led a guided meditation in lieu of preaching? Something about visualizing sitting face-to-face with Jesus, and just looking into Jesus' eyes? I do this on Confirmation retreats. I don't know what your community would like it or could handle it, but it's something to consider.
Thanks for the link, Ray. There's something of an anti-Catholic strain among some of the old-timers at my church, so it's interesting to think about how I would go about citing the Catholic Catechism in a sermon...
Thanks, too, for the guided meditation suggestion. Given my context, doing that in lieu of a sermon would just come across unhelpfully as, like, trying too hard to be novel or something - but it might work as part of a sermon. I'll see if that wants to go anywhere.
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Nonetheless, I don't doubt it's tricky to preach (teach?) about something when the punch is "if you don't understand that, I can't explain it to you."
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There are some good insights about contemplative prayer in the Catechism, paragraphs 2709-2719. I tried to set up a hyperlink, and it didn't work, but here's the site: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt4sect1chpt3.htm#art1
The cynic in me says that it's oxymoronic to preach on solitude. Better to stand in front of the congregation and say nothing at all for several minutes... I was just kidding there, but now I'm starting to take it seriously: what if you led a guided meditation in lieu of preaching? Something about visualizing sitting face-to-face with Jesus, and just looking into Jesus' eyes? I do this on Confirmation retreats. I don't know what your community would like it or could handle it, but it's something to consider.
Peace,
Ray
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Thanks, too, for the guided meditation suggestion. Given my context, doing that in lieu of a sermon would just come across unhelpfully as, like, trying too hard to be novel or something - but it might work as part of a sermon. I'll see if that wants to go anywhere.
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