Divinity United

A third quote from this deeply powerful book on God's word to us: "Mary is the 'image of the Church' for two reasons: she is the location of the Word's indwelling, both bodily and in terms of being, in the most intimate union of mother and child sharing one flesh; but this indwelling arises from the spiritual servanthood of her whole person, body and soul, which knows no autonomy but only the law of conformity with the word of God. It is because she is a virgin, that is, pure, exclusively a hearer of the word, that she becomes a mother, the place of the Word's embodiment. Her 'breasts' are blessed only because she has heard the word of God and kept it (Lk 11:27 f), because she 'kept all these things, pondering them in her heart' (Lk 2:19, 51). All contemplation must take its directions from Mary if it is to keep the twofold danger at bay: on the one hand that of seeing the word as something merely external, rather than the deepest mystery wit...

Another quote from Hans Urs von Balthasar's Prayer : "This looking to God is contemplation. It is looking inward into the depths of the soul, and hence beyond the soul toward God. The more contemplation finds God, the more it forgets itself and yet discovers itself in him. This unwavering "beholding", moreover, is also and always a "hearing", because what is beheld is the free and infinite Person who, from the depths of his freedom, can give himself in a way that is ever new,  unsuspected and unpredictable. Therefore the word of God is never something finished, to be surveyed like a particular landscape, but it is something new every moment, like water from a spring or rays of light. "And so it is not enough to have received 'insight' and to 'know the testimonies of God', if we do not continually receive and become inebriated by the fountain of eternal light" (Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 118, XXVI, 6). The lover already knows this...

The following selection is from Hans Urs von Balthasar's preface in his book Prayer. The book, so far, is excellent. "Anyone entering the sphere of radiance of the divine word is held fast by it; he knows from experience that this word not only communicates knowledge about God, but--hidden within the garb of the letter--actually has divine qualities: in itself it is an overpowering manifestation of God's infinity and truth, his majesty and love. God's epiphany compels the hearer to kneel in humble submission. The latter had imagined that he was dealing with a word he could grasp and evaluate, like other great and profound utterances of mankind; yet once he enters its field of force, he himself is the one who is grasped and evaluated. He had wanted to approach Jesus in order to see him ("Come and see!"), and now, under the gaze of Jesus, he finds that it is he who has long been observed, seen through, judged and accepted in grace by Jesus. All he can do now...

In Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible , Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes: "But it is a dangerous error, surely very widespread among Christians, to think that the heart can pray by itself. For then we confuse wishes, hopes, sighs, laments, rejoicings--all of which the heart can do by itself--with prayer. And we confuse earth and heaven, man and God. Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart. It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty. No man can do that by himself. For that he needs Jesus Christ" (pp. 9-10).

A week ago today we had our graduation chapel, and the processional hymn was "Praise the Source of Faith and Learning" -- words by Thomas H. Troeger, music by Richard H. Pritchard. The words and music can be found here . According to the Harvard University Hymn Book (p. 494), the hymn was commissioned by Duke University and "reflects the school's motto, 'Faith and Learning.'" For some reason, we did not sing the fourth and final verse, which brings it all to conclusion. We ended with the third verse which has the intriguing lines about "our learning" curbing "the error which unthinking faith can breed, lest we justify some terror with an antiquated creed." The hymn is an excellent hymn for academic settings, especially for those institutions that attempt to bring together faith and learning. The hymn is a reminder that human knowledge can "only partial truth impart", and it is a prayer: Blend, O God, our faith and lea...

Before my classes, I often read a prayer from the book Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions . There is something about reading the words of Christians from an earlier time that removes us from our view of the world and faith. The same is true of prayers before the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries too, even though these are post-Reformation prayers! Every once in a while, one of the prayers will particularly stand out to me. That was the case with the prayer from yesterday: "The Life Look" (p. 54). One of the lines goes as follows: "I want no other rock to build upon than that I have, desire no other hope than that of gospel truth, need no other look than that which gazes on the cross." The prayer ends with these words: "O God, hear me, do for me more than I ask, think, or dream."

If you've ever prayed in a group in a North American context you have probably experienced some of this.

For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and oppressed with besetting concerns for the day's work. At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening Word. All unrest, all impurity, all care and anxiety flee before him. Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought and the first word belong to him to whom our whole life belongs. "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph. 5:14).

If we were to learn again something of the praise and adoration that is due the triune God at break of day, God the Father and Creator, who has preserved our life through the dark night and wakened us to a new day, God the Son and Saviour, who conquered death and hell for us and dwells in our midst as Victor, God the Holy Spirit, who pours the bright gleam of God's Word into our hears at the dawn of day, driving away all darkness and sin and teaching us to pray aright--then we would also begin to sense something of the joy that comes when night is past and brethren who dwell together in unity come together early in the morning for common praise of their God, common hearing of the Word, and common prayer.