A Time to Reflect

Lately I have been having a number of conversations with folks about church growth (based on a business model), the rapid pace of "modern" USA/Canadian life, and the pressures the current economic conditions are placing upon families. In the midst of all of these conversations, I continue to reflect upon how peaceful life upon the water is. Sure there are stressors, usually in the way of nature (high winds and seas and contrary currents some times with a complete lack of wind), or in systems breaking down under this harsh environment and the frustrations involved. These stressors are short lived; or they invite ways toward solutions that the above "modern" life stressors don't contain.

In the midst of this life on the water, there is time for reflection. And reflection is important for the spiritual life. In fact, I remain convinced it is an important precursor to the spiritual life. If we don't provide time to reflect upon the spiritual experiences we are having (or not having) how are we to open ourselves for growth?

In light of these conversations, I provide the following quote (below) from Kyriacos Markides. Notice where and how the spread of Christianity happens. When I read between the lines, I notice that this population at this point in history had the time to reflect, to experience.

May we find time in our lives upon the water to be reflective and open for spiritual growth.

Blessed Be

~  Joel

            I remember the reaction of Professor John Rossner after I narrated such stories [about the saints and angels appearing and speaking with the monks] from Mount Athos at a conference in Montreal on the interface between science and religion. As the moderator, he stood up and with a strong and authoritative voice he made some poignant observations:

            “What you said about the miraculous happenings on Mount Athos and other monasteries, of the manifestation of dead saints to the living and so on, is very important,” he stated. “This is the kind of things that early Church and Roman historians, including even the eighteenth-century skeptic Gibbon, have said: That early Christian literature claims that the Christian movement spread not because of teachings and preachings – they were not allowed to do that – but because people had mystical experiences in which the dead saints and martyrs appeared to the living and taught them about the reality of the spiritual world. This of course is not understood by contemporary Christianity very much. These monasteries and places out of the way are like preserves from history, really! And as Kyriacos said, trying to bring forward this spiritual tradition is like bringing up some things that is a lost treasure from the bottom of the ocean. … These kinds of events are indeed still part of the lives and traditions of contemporary monks and hermits of Eastern Christianity. And we don’t know this treasure is there. If you try hard enough you can find it in history books. Our problem is that theologians in the West are not learned enough in history to find it. And they don’t recognize that the origins of the Christian movement were spiritistic and shamanistic. And when they come across things like these in places like Mount Athos or in little village in Russia or Greece, they can’t make sense of them. They are incapable of understanding why an old woman is considered a holy woman and the archbishop comes and sits at her feet in the village because she has had experiences of dead saints and angels and consequently becomes a channel of information. They can’t realize that that is the way Heaven talks to the living.”

~ Markides, Kyriacos C. The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality. Doubleday: New York, 2001. p. 86.