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miliar to many dorothy day was a catholic convert who founded the catholic worker s movement like pope francis she is often accused of socialism though she was more precisely a proponent of distributism and a vocal advocate for non violence and the poor there is plenty of information available about her so feel free to jump on google i understand she is trending right now the pope also mentioned thomas merton he didn t say much about merton other than to say above all a man of prayer a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the church he was also a man of dialogue a promoter of peace between peoples and religions this is true i however know merton as the writer who changed my life after years in christian fundamentalism i walked away from christianity with no intention of every returning until one day i saw a picture in a world religions textbook of two men standing together one was a young dalai lama the other was thomas merton i was intrigued i soon picked up my first merton book the ascent to truth i wouldn t recommend this as the beginning point of contact with merton for most folks but it spoke to me deeply in the opening pages merton opens his prologue mysticism in man s life with the words the only thing that can save the world from complete moral collapse is a spiritual revolution christianity by its very nature demands such a revolution if christians would all live up to what they profess to believe the revolution would happen these words devastated and inspired me then and they still do now merton continues the big problem that confronts christianity is not christ s enemies persecution has never done much harm to the inner life of the church as such the real religious problem exists in the souls of those of us who in their hearts believe in god and who recognize their obligation to love him and serve him yet do not the revolutionary solution that merton proposed was not a christianity that saved the world through political power or through the culture wars but a world that was reconciled to god because men and women answered a call to the conversion of their hearts you cannot save the world merely with a system he writes only devotion to god which in merton s mind included a call to an inner life shaped by contemplative prayer was essential if we want to change the world if we want a revolution it must first take place in our hearts i have learned without a shadow of a doubt from merton from scripture and from experience that this conversion of heart is a lifelong process it is about more than embracing this or that dogma though dogma is useful and plays a role but is about an ongoing encounter with a living god the christian life is about more than simply praying a sinner s prayer and going to heaven it is participation in the mystery of god s divine love for humanity made manifest in the person of jesus christ merton again says for st paul the problem of justification is not a matter of proving truth of this or that doctrine but of making christ alive in our hearts by faith the ascent to truth goes on to explore mysticism modernity and especially the thought of carmelite mystic st john of the cross it is a rewarding book to read and one i have returned to over the nineteen years that have lapsed since i first saw that picture in those years my life has seen many changes like most lives there have been joyous mountain tops and dark valleys to traverse there have been dark nights of the soul there has been dogmatic certainty tempered with healthy skepticism what has been consistent however is merton he has been my constant companion i ve been challenged encouraged frustrated and angered by his writings he has moved me to laughter and to tears i ve argued with him and about him i ve been disillusioned by his failures when i ve tried to make him a saint and comforted by his humanity when i was reminded that he was just another guy trying his best to figure out his place in the grand scheme of things i will ever be grateful for the life witness and writings of thomas merton and the role he has played in my life note this is probably going to end up being a two parter i am formulating another post that would be my essential merton reading list hopefully that will appear sometime this weekend posted on september 25 2015 by robbharrell leave a comment muslims in america a conversation i have friends and family members with widely divergent opinions on matters religious social and political most days i enjoy the diversity of opinion even the ones that tend to get me a bit rankled every now and again i come across a comment usually on social media that catches me off guard today i had one such encounter a family member one i admire and respect made an assertion that muslims do not seek cultural assimilation in western cultures but rather hope or actively seek to change the culture around them to fit their religious and cultural agenda this was augmented by a suggestion that islam is not really a religion but rather political philosophical system that is incompatible with life in the united states needless to say i was pretty surprised at the statement my exact response was wow just wow i know very articulate of me i have the type of relationship with the commenter that actually exists in the real offline world so we ended up chatting by phone my assertion was simple muslims can have and do assimilate into western culture i pointed out a few things in the conversation i share here yes there are in fact muslims who are bent on the destruction of the west who hate the united states even though they live here and who would like to impose a theocracy based on a cultural religious ideology no need to deny this they exist as do believers in christian dominionism many of whom advocate the use of mosaic law to govern but i digress most perceptions of islam in our culture are shaped by the news media and now by the internet the dominant images you see in the media are overwhelmingly negative images of islam why because media right of left is not an objective transmission of clear facts it is dependent on advertising revenue and ratings what sells extremes sell scary sells threats sell living in the suburbs of a large city i turn on the news every morning and hear reports of shootings and home invasions it gives you the impression that there is an epidemic of violent crime sweeping across our nation even though the reality is that violent crime has dropped by almost 50 over the last twenty five years when we see the crime reports even when they are awful we are seeing the exception to behavior who is going to turn on the local news and watch a reporter standing on a quiet street reporting on how quiet it is no one the same goes with our coverage of islam in america angry muslim men proclaiming their desire for sharia in the streets of dearborn is going to garner far more attention than the muslim mom dropping her kid off at school and then going to the market to buy groceries the media doesn t report on islamic assimilation precisely because assimilation really is the norm i ll share a story from my own family my wife s mother emigrated here from turkey as a teenager with her parents and siblings they settled in the mountains of north carolina the children went to school the father worked to start a successful restaurant then another two of the children including my mother in law married americans all three of the siblings raised families started businesses and had careers other than accents and names that sounded a little strange when rolling off a southerner s tongue nothing really set them apart they have maintained their turkish heritage through language and food which they relish as part of their identity but they are americans boring americans at that they get up go to work come home tired love their families spoil their grandkids and sometimes swap stories about how they miss their home in turkey but all are glad to be here even though my mother in law might drive me crazy at times it has nothing to do with her being turkish or a muslim it has to do with her thinking i am not good enough for her daughter to be honest she s right about on that account really this is not remarkable it happens every day there is an inherent danger when we paint entire groups of people with the same broad brush islam is the fourth largest faith group in the u s with estimates ranging between five and twelve million muslims while a small portion of the overall population it is certainly large enough to be a diverse group representing several different national origins and language groups and covering a full gambit of social and political beliefs and values my experience with muslims in america is that while they may not think the u s is a utopia most are glad to be here posted on september 23 2015 september 23 2015 by robbharrell 1 comment monday merton vocations i told one of the novices that he had no vocation and he was delighted with immense relief he prepared to leave thomas merton conjectures of a guilty bystander p 297 posted on november 17 2014 by robbharrell leave a comment luther on the assumption of mary there can be no doubt that the virgin mary is in heaven how it happened we do not know and since the holy spirit has told us nothing about it we can make of it no article of faith it is enough to know that she lives in christ martin luther sermon feast of the assumption of mary 1522 posted on august 15 2014 by robbharrell leave a comment friday with the fathers marian edition it was fitting that the she who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death it was fitting that she who had carried the creator as a child at her breast should dwell in the divine tabernacles it was fitting that the spouse whom the father had taken to himself should live in the divine mansions it was fitting that she who had seen her son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the sword of sorrow which she had escaped when giving birth to him should look upon him as he sits with the father it was fitting that god s mother should possess what belongs to her son and that she should be honored by every creature as the mother and as the handmaid of god st john damascene dormition of mary 697 posted on august 15 2014 by robbharrell tagged church fathers liturgy mary leave a comment so long mr keating like so many others i was saddened to hear about the death of actor and comedian robin williams yesterday my oldest heard first and came tearing the down the stairs to tell us at first i figured it was your typical internet hoax but that was not to be the case last night as our own way to pay him homage we watched dead poets society this morning as we were in the kitchen ezel commented on how his death felt so oddly personal for her and for countless others she asked me why i thought that was at the time i didn t have an answer and really i still don t have an answer but it does feel like a personal loss upon some reflection i can only speak about why it has impacted me it is now fashionable to take swipes at dead poets society dps i read a rather mean spirited article recently by an english phd who clearly stated he sought to pick a fight about the film he went on to bemoan the way poetry is used in the film and the lack of any critical analysis he was also unhappy with how it betrayed his profession i can grant that to the author as a cleric i find we are rarely portrayed well on film as well of course it is a movie not a documentary but i digress dps did something for me and for countless others it helped us fall in love with poetry and the written word i was fifteen years old when dps came out i had not read walt whitman or henry david thoreau at least i don t recall reading them like the students in mr keating s class the thought of reading shakespeare sounded brutal i enjoyed novels and non fiction but poetry seemed inaccessible because of the passion with which robin williams portrayed mr keating i sought out my first copy of whitman and consumed it like a starving man consumes a meal no i didn t have access to critical analysis of the poems i did not know all about whitman s past and what informed his writing but i could not get enough twenty five years later i have a creased dog eared copy of whitman s leaves of grass that is perpetually on my nightstand sometimes i read selections to my children as they fall asleep every couple of years i revisit thoreau s walden just yesterday before i heard the news i was reading thoreau s walking i ve learned a great deal about poetry and literature in those years i ve even seen that critical analysis can be a good thing as i learned in literature courses i took in college i would not have done so if it weren t for the infectious way that poetry was presented in that movie i don t claim to be a serious scholar of poetry i am just someone who loves the written word that love was deepened because of that movie i am convinced that no one else could have played that role but robin williams he was subversive and funny his mischievous grin would quickly give way to a stony stare of someone saying something that was deadly serious he portrayed keating as one working to make sure that the sparks of creativity still existed even among those destined to be society s leaders in commerce and politics as silly as it sounds when i hear or read the words o captain my captain i still think first of robin williams as mr keating with gratitude that because of his role in that film i now converse regularly not just with whitman and thoreau but with milsoz neruda bukowski auden shelley and countless others i will always feel a debt of gratitude for the introduction my hope is that his untimely death and the manner in which it occurred will also help broaden the conversation in our culture about mental illness and depression my prayers and my gratitude go with him and his family o captain my captain rise up and hear the bells rise up for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills for you bouquets and ribbon d wreaths for you the shores a crowding for you they call the swaying mass their eager faces turning here captain dear father this arm beneath your head it is some dream that on the deck you ve fallen cold and dead uncle walt posted on august 12 2014 by robbharrell leave a comment friday with the fathers posted on august 1 2014 august 3 2014 by robbharrell leave a comment a summer away i ve taken a step back this summer from most everything including trying to blog regularly there is a lot of change taking place in our home my oldest is transferring from one university to another after two years of living at home and going to school locally naturally this is both exciting for all of us but i would lie if i told you i am not a little sad that he is leaving he ll only be an hour and a half away...