In the long perfection series, I have quoted the great saints and Doctors of the Church concerning the levels of perfection, and at all these stages, one needs to make time for God.
The noise and chaos even in the political arenas of the Church cause us all great distraction.
Again, I list things Catholics must do to become perfect.
One, simplify one's life and the lives of those around you. Do less, be quiet more.
Two, never watched TV and select what news sources which you read daily. Three or four online sources a day, read briefly, would be plenty for the head of the family.
Three, set at least an hour a day aside for silent prayer, perhaps beginning with meditating on the Scriptures.
Four, Blessed Paul VI asked the laity to say at least part of the Divine Office. These prayers only take minutes and can be done on the bus or train if one is commuting. Sadly, too many Americans are forced to drive, which takes away from reading and praying time.
Five, say the rosary daily, and this is something one can do in the car on the way to work. There are many mp3s and CDs for such meditation. The family rosary is the best form of this prayer, imo.
Six, pray as a family daily, even if only for fifteen minutes together in the evening and, better yet, in the morning as well.
Seven, learn to quiet the mind. One cannot hear God is one's mind is full of junk and goo from the world, the flesh, and the devil.
I repeat Thomas Merton's comment on contemplation, which follows meditation. Look at all the references to this in the past almost two years.
13 Feb 2013
Remember what Thomas Merton said, which I have quoted here before on this blog that television is the opposite of contemplation. And that the very energies of passivity which most men use in watching television are the ...
29 Nov 2013
As Thomas Merton notes, we are geared to passive intake of knowledge, which happens at the contemplative stage, but if our minds are full of goo from the television, we shall never learn either meditation or contemplation.
05 Dec 2013
Walker Percy, read my comments in two posts on Thomas Merton's insight into how tv takes over our capacity to be in contemplation of God. Passivity given over to evil will change us, sadly, to someone God did not intend.
11 Sep 2012
... Father Mark "Vultus Christi" Kirby's first Oblate, I have to say my Benedictine soul is envious. Please know that you're in my prayers, and I'll be asking St. Scholastica and St. Thomas More for their intercession on your behalf.
11 Sep 2012
Figures for an Apocalypse by Thomas Merton. Posted by Supertradmum. As a foreigner in a foreign land, I shall not be able to talk about 9-11 as I would want to do today. But, I was in Canada on 9-11. Father Z has part of ...
22 Jan 2013
We only have so much time...watch the video here and the next one posted. I have read all of Thomas Merton's books many, many years ago but I have missed some of his articles. Now, I have come across a startling one ...
21 Nov 2013
I have shared on this blog the great insight of Thomas Merton on the biggest danger of television-that the passivity which one approaches tv is the aspect, the gift of the mind and soul for passive prayer. The television takes ...
13 Feb 2013
Remember what Thomas Merton said, which I have quoted here before on this blog that television is the opposite of contemplation. And that the very energies of passivity which most men use in watching television are the ...
Repetition is a good way to learn.
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
Wow, television is the enemy of contemplation
We only have so much time...watch the video here and the next one posted.
I have read all of Thomas Merton's books many, many years ago but I have missed some of his articles. Now,
I have come across a startling one which I missed so long ago and I hope this helps.
If you can find Cistercian Studies Quarterly, "Inner Experience: Problems of the Contemplative Life (VII)",
If you can find Cistercian Studies Quarterly, "Inner Experience: Problems of the Contemplative Life (VII)",
Vol 19, 1984, notes on pp. 269-270,
You will read that the monk compared television watching as a caricature of contemplation.
This is earth-shaking. I knew that television interfered with silence and solitude, and that it is a brain-washing technique, but to read that it creates the same dynamic as contemplative prayer reveals the real evil.
Merton's points are these: one is passive and takes in uncritically what is given on the television; one is
You will read that the monk compared television watching as a caricature of contemplation.
This is earth-shaking. I knew that television interfered with silence and solitude, and that it is a brain-washing technique, but to read that it creates the same dynamic as contemplative prayer reveals the real evil.
Merton's points are these: one is passive and takes in uncritically what is given on the television; one is
receptive to all that is there before one; one become inert and "yields" to the "mystic attraction until one is
spellbound in a state of complete union."
This is terrifying. And, I know this to be true. In families where there is tv, there is no peace or reflection. In
Merton goes on to write that television is the opposite of contemplation, which breaks with sensuality, noise,
the senses in general, and the "will on a temporal or material level...the other...is the nadir of
intellectual and emotional slavery."
I visited the first house I have been in for a long time where television is on for hours and hours. People
I visited the first house I have been in for a long time where television is on for hours and hours. People
actually "shh" people into silence for stupid programs, like variety shows. I was not only amazed, but realized
how this slavery is so real.
That family does not pray together and several members have fallen away from the Church. There is no adult
That family does not pray together and several members have fallen away from the Church. There is no adult
reading concerning the Faith and no attempts at Lectio Divina. Up to six hours of television watching cloud the judgments and movements of those children as well who watch it.
Please, parents, stop watching television and start praying.
Otherwise, you cannot even begin the road to perfection.
P.S. Let me add that the faculties of the soul and mind which should be used for contemplative prayer are
Please, parents, stop watching television and start praying.
Otherwise, you cannot even begin the road to perfection.
P.S. Let me add that the faculties of the soul and mind which should be used for contemplative prayer are
being seized by television. This is the point of Merton's warning......Computer games do the same thing.
