Cô đơn & Cô tịch

Solitude

"Rượu mới phải để trong bầu da mới" (Mc 2,22)





Finding Solitude
All human beings are alone. No other person will completely feel like we do, think like we do, act like we do. Each of us is unique, and our aloneness is the other side of our uniqueness.
The question is whether we let our aloneness become loneliness or whether we allow it to lead us into solitude.

Loneliness is painful;
solitude is peaceful.
Loneliness makes us cling to others in desperation;
solitude allows us to respect others in their uniqueness and create community.

Letting our aloneness grow into solitude and not into loneliness is a lifelong struggle. It requires conscious choices about whom to be with, what to study, how to pray, and when to ask for counsel. But wise choices will help us to find the solitude where our hearts can grow in love.

Loneliness

Creating Space to Dance Together
When we feel lonely we keep looking for a person or persons who can take our loneliness away.

Our lonely hearts cry out, "Please hold me, touch me, speak to me, pay attention to me." But soon we discover that the person we expect to take our loneliness away cannot give us what we ask for.

Often that person feels oppressed by our demands and runs away, leaving us in despair. As long as we approach another person from our loneliness, no mature human relationship can develop.

Clinging to one another in loneliness is suffocating and eventually becomes destructive. For love to be possible we need the courage to create space between us and to trust that this space allows us to dance together.

Yearning for Perfect Love
When we act out of loneliness our actions easily become violent. The tragedy is that much violence comes from a demand for love. When loneliness drives our search for love, kissing easily leads to biting, caressing to hitting, looking tenderly to looking suspiciously, listening to overhearing, and surrender to rape. The human heart yearns for love: love without conditions, limitations, or restrictions. But no human being is capable of offering such love, and each time we demand it we set ourselves on the road to violence.

How then can we live nonviolent lives? We must start by realizing that our restless hearts, yearning for perfect love, can only find that love through communion with the One who created them.

The Voice in the Garden of Solitude
Solitude is the garden for our hearts, which yearn for love. It is the place where our aloneness can bear fruit. It is the home for our restless bodies and anxious minds. Solitude, whether it is connected with a physical space or not, is essential for our spiritual lives. It is not an easy place to be, since we are so insecure and fearful that we are easily distracted by whatever promises immediate satisfaction.

Solitude is not immediately satisfying, because in solitude we meet our demons, our addictions, our feelings of lust and anger, and our immense need for recognition and approval. But if we do not run away, we will meet there also the One who says, "Do not be afraid. I am with you, and I will guide you through the valley of darkness."

Let's keep returning to our solitude.

Mới

"Ta không đến để kêu gọi những người công chính, mà kêu gọi những người tội lỗi." (Mc 2,17)

Trời mới đất mới là cùng đích của ơn cứu độ do Chúa Giêsu thực hiện bằng máu của Ngài. Trời mới đất mới đã xuất hiện nơi sự hoán cải của Matthêu. Và của tôi nữa, khi tôi cố gắng đổi mới từng ngày, trong những nỗ lực nên một với Chúa và yêu thương anh em nhiều hơn.

The Renewal of the Whole Creation
Our final homecoming involves not just ourselves and our fellow human beings but all of creation. The full freedom of the children of God is to be shared by the whole earth, and our complete renewal in the resurrection includes the renewal of the universe. That is the great vision of God's redeeming work through Christ.
Paul sees the whole created order as a woman groaning in labour, waiting eagerly to give birth to a new life. He writes: "It was not for its own purposes that creation had frustration imposed on it, but for the purposes of him who imposed it - with the intention that the whole creation itself might be freed from its slavery to corruption and brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of God" (Romans 8:20-21). All that God has created will be lifted up into God's glory.

Cầu nguyện

Khi ấy, có một người bệnh cùi đến van xin Chúa Giêsu và quỳ xuống thưa Người rằng: "Nếu Ngài muốn, Ngài có thể khiến tôi nên sạch". (Mc 1,40)

Người cùi cầu nguyện bằng cả con người: tâm trí ước muốn, miệng lưỡi van xin, toàn thân xấp xuống tha thiết kính cẩn. Cầu nguyện giúp thống nhất và thánh hoá con người toàn diện, đưa toàn thể con người cụ thể thấm nhuần cõi thần linh.

Building Inner Bridges
Prayer is the bridge between our conscious and unconscious lives.

Often there is a large abyss between our thoughts, words, and actions, and the many images that emerge in our daydreams and night dreams.

To pray is to connect these two sides of our lives by going to the place where God dwells.
Prayer is "soul work" because our souls are those sacred centers where all is one and where God is with us in the most intimate way.

Thus, we must pray without ceasing so that we can become truly whole and holy.

Nghĩ & Nguyện

Sáng sớm tinh sương, Người chỗi dậy, ra khỏi nhà, đi đến một nơi thanh vắng và cầu nguyện tại đó. (Mc 1,35)

From Unceasing Thinking to Unceasing Prayer

Our minds are always active. We analyze, reflect, daydream, or dream. There is not a moment during the day or night when we are not thinking. You might say our thinking is "unceasing."

Sometimes we wish that we could stop thinking for a while; that would save us from many worries, guilt feelings, and fears. Our ability to think is our greatest gift, but it is also the source of our greatest pain. Do we have to become victims of our unceasing thoughts? No, we can convert our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer by making our inner monologue into a continuing dialogue with our God, who is the source of all love.

Let's break out of our isolation and realize that Someone who dwells in the center of our beings wants to listen with love to all that occupies and preoccupies our minds.

Sức mạnh Thánh Thần

Tôi rửa anh em trong nước, nhưng Người sẽ rửa anh em trong Chúa Thánh Thần và trong lửa. (Lc 3,16)

The Power of the Spirit 
In and through Jesus we come to know God as a powerless God, who becomes dependent on us. But it is precisely in this powerlessness that God's power reveals itself. This is not the power that controls, dictates, and commands. It is the power that heals, reconciles, and unites. It is the power of the Spirit. When Jesus appeared people wanted to be close to him and touch him because "power came out of him" (Luke 6:19).
It is this power of the divine Spirit that Jesus wants to give us. The Spirit indeed empowers us and allows us to be healing presences. When we are filled with that Spirit, we cannot be other than healers. (Nouwen W)

Nhân phẩm

Người ra lệnh cho người ấy không được nói với ai, nhưng: "Hãy đi trình diện với tư tế, và hãy dâng lễ vật như luật Môsê đã dạy, để làm chứng cho người ta biết ngươi được sạch".(Lc 5,14)

Chúa dạy anh đi trình diện với tư tế để được công nhận hết bệnh và nhờ đó được hội nhập vào xã hội. Như thế, người phong cùi này vừa được chữa bệnh, vừa được phục hồi nhân phẩm.

Growing Beyond Self-Rejection
One of the greatest dangers in the spiritual life is self-rejection. When we say, "If people really knew me, they wouldn't love me," we choose the road toward darkness. Often we are made to believe that self-deprecation is a virtue, called humility. But humility is in reality the opposite of self-deprecation. It is the grateful recognition that we are precious in God's eyes and that all we are is pure gift. To grow beyond self-rejection we must have the courage to listen to the voice calling us God's beloved sons and daughters, and the determination always to live our lives according to this truth.