Faith & Spirituality in Review
Finding Sanctuary. Monastic Steps for Everyday Life, Abbot Christopher Jamison, London: Phoenix Books, 2007, 192 pp, pb, rrp $24.95.
Christopher Jamison, Abbot of Worth Monastery, wrote this little book shortly after his abbey featured in a BBC series. The program followed the lives of five young men who committed themselves to live the life of the Benedictine community.
Finding Sanctuary is a simple introduction to the spiritual teaching of St Benedict. Christopher Jamison is a good teacher. He uses simple language, and he appreciates the difference between the way language is used in contemporary life and the way it is used in church tradition.
For simplicity, take his description of Christian prayer as ‘the simple act of addressing God as “you”’. An unfussy definition that includes anything we might do in prayer. That is followed by a quiet insistence on times of prayer. Prayerfulness during life’s daily activity is good, but it can become simply personal reflection.
The way in which the relevance of St Benedict’s rule for today is brought out is by setting it against the way we ordinarily live. Abbot Jamison sees today’s life as driven, with a constant emphasis on being active, on choosing things to possess, on noise. It leaves little space for reflection and for attention to the deeper movements of the heart. Even religion and spirituality can become commodities to be possessed which need effort to possess. Abbot Jamison writes with a good deal of sympathy for people who are looking for something more, and for the many movements that try to provide it. He obeys the fundamental spiritual command: to say, ‘I do not know’.
The book is full of telling stories, all of them down to earth. He describes the Vietnamese Buddhist Abbot who visited the United States and was constantly asked about the way of Enlightenment. When asked how he responded to his questioners, he said, ‘I tell them to make the tea’. Ordinary thoughtfulness and personal enlightenment go together.
The book is also full of stories of the monks of the desert. All are salty, bringing together what we often divide: body and soul, religion and spirituality, individuality and community, prayer and action.
And even the much looked-down-upon nineteenth century is allowed a few gems. Abbot Jamison has dug up a lovely phrase for the mock humility that is used as a weapon: vicious humility. ‘Vicious humility’ is when we ‘begin a conversation by saying something like: “Well, of course I am not expert, but it seems to me …”’
Some other quotations from the book:
The starting point for entering sacred sanctuary is the quality of your day to day dealings with other people.
A sense of humour is important if life is to be taken seriously, but the humour be directed at our folly and not at life itself.
Lord, I Need Your Healing Touch, In Loving Memory, Lord, Make Haste to Help Me, Lord Handle Me with Care, Patrick Sayles SSC, St Columban’s Missionary Society, 2008, 24 pp, pb, full colour, rrp $4.50 (incl p&p).
Columban priest Patrick Sayles has written four short books of prayers. They have many virtues. They are short—only 24 pages each. They all treat of topical themes like grief, sickness or discouragement. They are small and easily tucked away. And finally they are a delight to the eye, full of bright and well taken photographs to stimulate the heart as well as the mind. The prayers themselves are straightforward and speak realistically to our experience. It is good to see books of prayer that are so adorned with rich and good images. The heart needs the eyes to pray.
Australian Religious Diary 2009, 132 pp, HB, illustrated, rrp $32.00.
The perfect gift for the Madonna reader. Gives the scripture readings for each day of the year, plus saints’ days, Jewish and Muslim feast days, United Nations days and public holidays, Beautiful illustrations from the 2007 Blake Prize for Religious Art. Available for 38.95 (including p&p) from Australian Religious Diary, PO Box 44, East Kew VIC 3102. |
 |
