well WORTH it…
so amazingly, for a 99% non-TV-watching person, two TV posts in a row. (I don’t avoid TV on principle – I think it’s a jolly good invention – just too busy doing other stuff to get round to it very often)
tonight, I shall watch part 2 of The Monastery (or "The Monstery" as Sarah delightfully calls it!!). Who will find God? Who will get caught listening to their iPod during the Great Silence? And what gems of wisdom will fall from the Abbot’s lips tonight? Don’t miss it…
8 Responses to “well WORTH it…”
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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Yes, I can’t wait for part two of “The Monstery”…
Must work out how to operate video recorder so I don’t miss it. I can build a PC from bits but operate a video…
Of course you could just ask your wife, as usual!
now, now, – no marital spats on this blog, you two…
Oh my … what an embarrassing typo! Having met my honey at a monastery (Mount Calvary in Santa Barbara, California), I assure you that I don’t think of monks as monsters.
In honor of your post, I’ll resist the temptation to correct my typo.
OK so the video didn’t work automatically but I was watching anyway. At first I was struck by thinking that I could see what was going on with the 5 men but had to stop and remind myself that I was seeing highly edited highlights. I must admit that I’m jealous of the idea of having 6 weeks of contemplating God – 6 minutes a day would be nice sometimes – but wondered how this would relate back into their “real life” situations. While thinking this through (at 2 am) I came back to the idea of “religious experience” and the (often heard) quote used by one of the men of the biggest 18 inches being between the head and heart. The commonly accepted idea is that it takes a lot to move the idea of loving God from the mind to the heart of our being, the latter often being accompanied by some sort of experience; in my case it took from age 11 to 16. However I remember a lot of people who started with the “experience” and who within a few years had moved away from any sort of Christian life. It was as if the experience was all and there was no attempt to think it through. A true experience of Christ involves heart and mind; one without the other being imbalanced leading to emotionalism or intellectualism. I suspect the monks know this but on TV I’m worried that the experience will become central.
I thought the program was gripping. The interchange which took place in the last few minutes between the abbott and Tony over the prodigal son appeared to me to be one of the most genuine and moving things I have seen in a long time. I also thought it was a beautiful little instructional cameo on the real role of the bible in spiritual formation! Can’t wait for next week.
My money is still on the blond atheist. He seems to me be the one who is most desperate to meet God. I loved his account of his own prayer – really angrily addressing the ALmighty with “OK, if you’re F**king up there, why don’t you F**cking show me?” It may sound unorthodox for a monastery, but that kind of despeartion and honesty often seems to lead people into an actual encounter with God.