Theology and Childhood

What does it mean to be a child in Christ's sense? Is it not a simple and total confidence in the Father? Does it not include the faithful abandon and freedom of a pure imagination--pure receptivity and creativity--placed in the service of the Lord? The honesty and righteousness of a pure child. "Unless you become like one of these little ones, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." The recovery of wonder, innocence, beauty, imagination, deep curiosity, love for truth and goodness, littleness... All of these are dimensions wrapped up in a "theology of childhood" meant to be lived but so often forgotten in the face of pressures, deadlines, anxieties, failures, and sins. Lord Jesus, You want us to have the heart of a child. You want us to strive after this heart in response to the gift of Your own Heart. "Create in me a clean heart, O Lord..."

Can theology be a science of integrity without this constant striving after the heart of a child?

Where Have You Hidden, Beloved?

I've been a bit busy of late working on my dissertation, teaching, and making videos; I have a few things I want to soon write upon for the blog, but the inspiration has not been there just yet.

For this week, I thought I would provide one of my spirituality-related videos, and the one which has had the most positive response by its viewers. The song by John Michael Talbot, based upon a poem of St John of the Cross, is about the longing of the soul for Christ.

George MacDonald Quote

How could He be Father, who creating, would not make provision, would not keep room for the babbled prayers of His children? Is His perfection a mechanical one? Has He Himself no room for choice -- therefore can give none? There must be a Godlike region of choice as there is a human, however little we may be able to conceive it.

George MacDonald, "Man's Difficulty Concerning Prayer."

John Ruskin Quote

This week is a busy week for me. I have grading to do. I have caught some sort of cold or flu. I have Christmas shopping to do yet. But I still have time for the quote of the week:

Everybody in this room has been taught to pray daily. 'Thy kingdom come.' Now, if we hear a man swear in the streets, we think it very wrong, and say 'he takes God's name in vain.' But there's a twenty times worse way of taking His name in vain, than that. It is to ask God for what we don't want. He doesn't like that sort of prayer. If you don't want a thing, don't ask for it: such asking is the worst mockery of your King you can mock Him with: the soldiers striking Him on the head with the reed was nothing to that. If you do not wish for His kingdom, don't pray for it. But if you do, you must do more than pray for it; you must work for it. And to work for it, you must know what it is; we have all prayed for it many a day without thinking.
--- John Ruskin, The Crown of the Wild Olive, Lecture I.3.

A Prayer In Honor Of St Francis of Assisi

This week the Church will be celebrating the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. As one of the greatest saints of the Church, he has also held a considerable influence on my own spiritual and theological development.

To start this week off, I thought I would share a prayer I wrote for my Master’s thesis. That work was an examination of some of the problems that are debated in traditional Christology, and I tried to show how a different philosophical framework (Yogacara Buddhism) could be used to help answer those problems.

In it, I wrote the prayer to show the practical applications of my Christological reflections. As one can see, in it one can find St Francis’ prayer for peace. St Francis, I believe, shows us one way for inter-religious dialogue, and his spiritual insights have a strong concordance with the best of Buddhist thought.

I have edited the prayer slightly since the time I wrote my thesis, because I needed to smooth out a couple rough portions from the end of the prayer.



Vows

My Lord and My God,
I will work for the salvation of all beings.
I will work to remove all my evil desires and attachments.
I will study and practice your ways,
So that I can realize the way of truth.

My Lord and My God,
However innumerable the sentient beings, I will work to help them all.
However inexhaustible the passions which lead to sin, I will work to extinguish them all.
However immeasurable are your ways, I will follow them.
However incomparable is the truth, I will work to attain it.

My Lord and My God,
I will work to save all beings from difficulties,
I will work to destroy all evil passions,
I will work to learn the truth and so that I can teach it to others,
I will work to lead all towards union with you.

My Lord and My God,
I will work to deliver all beings from suffering,
I will work to cut off all afflictions,
I will study all approaches to the truth,
I will follow the path to the Beatific Vision: nirvana.

My Lord and My God,
As sentient beings are numberless, I will help ferry them across the ocean of suffering,
As confusion is inexhaustible, I work to uproot it,
As your ways are without measure, I will seek to know them all,
As unity with the Mystical Body of Christ is unsurpassed, I will work to actualize it fully.

Concluding Prayers

My Lord and My God,
Make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy. (Prayer of St. Francis)

My Lord and My God,
Make me an instrument of your compassion.
Where there is ignorance, let me bring wisdom;
Where there is sin, virtue;
Where there is suffering, healing;
Where there is pride, humility;
Where there is discord, harmony.

Through the prayers of the Mother of God and of all the saints, may I obtain the grace I need to know the needs of others, the way to help them out of their suffering, and the strength needed to guide all souls on the path of salvation, especially those who are in most need of mercy. Amen.