Advent Journal Entry

The Abbey-dwellers are keeping an Advent journal as a way of trying to embody the right inner disciplines of the season. Each Sunday we share an entry with each other as a portion of our worship together. This one, from last week, seems bloggable...


This resting, this inner discipline of passivity and waiting, seems to steer clear of me the more I seek after it. I look, too, at our own house, and I see even more restlessness and activity than before advent. Can no one be still before the Lord? Can no modern soul pursue Christ through simplicity anymore? When it comes right down to making daily choices, do we really value interior disciplines or are we simply playing charades with all this monk and mission language?

There is a Carmelite vow on Day 2 of the Celtic meditations:

Let each stay in or near their own cell
Meditating, day and night
On the law of the Lord,
And vigilant in prayer,
Unless otherwise employed by the Holy Spirit.

What at first sounds to me like ultra-asceticism and hardened legalism is now beginning to sound more like the proper kind of default mindset for any contemplative follower of Christ. Not that I must spend all of my time in my bedroom reading Scripture and praying and turning into an antisocial recluse. More that I should make certain that my activities have been ordained by God and empowered by His Spirit, making the most of my time, for the “days are evil.” I suppose this goes back to my first post about lacking precision. There is a correlation, at least for monastics, between such precision and finding one’s home in a state of quiet meditation.

I am becoming aware that more activity does not necessarily mean more missional opportunity. In fact, the ability to bring Jesus to bear in any missional enterprise is directly related to my own preparation, speaking to God, hearing from God, resting in God, crying out for the God of salvation Who will speak, but has yet to reveal in a particular area.

Prepare Your way within me, Lord.