Each Sunday I hope to publish an extract from one of the Christian Classics. The Imitation of Christ is one of my favourites and so it will be my starting point for the next few weeks - I hope it might become a favourite of yours, too!

This Christian classic was most probably written by the Medieval monk Thomas à Kempis in the fifteenth century. Originally written in Latin, it was first translated into French and German, before being translated into English in 1502. It is a devotional book, written for a monastic audience and encouraging a holy and prayerful lifestyle. Some parts feel strange to our twenty-first century ears, but it has remained a favourite of Christians of all traditions through the centuries.

I hope that you will enjoy meditating on this spiritual gem. This translation comes from The Cyber Library but I have taken the liberty of inserting the Biblical references into the text to make it a smoother read.

The Imitation of Christ
Book One - Thoughts Helpful in the Life of the Soul

From Chapter 1 - Imitating Christ and Despising All Vanities on Earth

He who follows Me, walks not in darkness," says the Lord.[John 8:12] By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ.

The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ.

What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God.
...

This is the greatest wisdom - to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world. It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish. It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride. It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to desire things for which severe punishment later must come. It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life. It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come. It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.

Wise words never date, do they?

Which part spoke most clearly to your heart?

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Here is another helpful passage to reflect upon during Lent - and again I would like to suggest that you use the method of Lectio Divina. If you don't know what Lectio Divina is and would like a simple set of instructions, then try this. Otherwise, please read on...

Some people give up something for Lent. A smaller number actually fast (taking water only) for a significant period - for instance, one day each week. Fasting, when done sensibly and for the correct reasons, is a spiritual discipline that has been used for centuries. But, when done for the wrong reasons, it has little going for it. Here is Isaiah - telling the Israelites of approximately 700 BC what, in God's eyes, is the type of fasting that God would prefer to see - in comparison with their existing rituals.

Isaiah 58: 6-8

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly

If you would like to 'stand up and be counted' during Lent there are many ways you can do this. 
(My apologies that the following links are only UK links - perhaps you might add your local ones in the comments)

• Try asking the manager of your local supermarket if he/she can stock more Fairtrade goods (perhaps check out what they do supply first!) 
• Write a letter or send an email expressing your views about world trade justice - particularly in relation to tax avoidance by multi-national companies
• Write to your local MP and other party candidates asking for details of their views on development goals
• Set up a regular payment to your favourite development charity
• Follow the Christian Aid weekly reflections through Lent to provide thoughts to take into your personal prayer times

But whatever you do or don't do, I wish you all a blessed and inspiring Lent.

Click here for Lenten Lectio 1

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My previous post spoke of Jacob's experience at the Ford of Jabbok when he wrestled with a man/angel/God. One of the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins refers to this episode from Genesis.

'Carrion Comfort' is an expression of Hopkins' determination not to succumb to despair. He battled against a gloomy and depressive nature through much of his adult life but died with the words 'I am so happy' on his lips. For me this poem seems to express an honest ambivalence about his calling to the monastic life and his personal struggle with suffering.

It speaks to me at a very deep level, because I too have a depressive nature and sometimes have ambivalent feelings about my own calling. I would be interested to hear other people's impressions of the poem and particularly whether you can relate to it and, if so, in what way.

Carrion Comfort

Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;
Not untwist – slack they may be – these last strands of man
In me or, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.
But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me
Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me? scan
With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones? and fan,
O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee?

Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear.
Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod,
Hand rather, my heart lo! Lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, cheer.
Cheer whom though? the hero whose heaven-handling flung me, foot trod
Me? or me that fought him? O which one? is it each one? That night, that year
Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

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I was talking to a friend recently about Lectio Divina and mentioned how I like to use the image of having a piece of chocolate in my mouth and letting it melt slowly - savouring each moment. His response? 'I think I'll imagine it with single malt whisky!' Now, there's a thought!

If you don't know what Lectio Divina is and would like a simple set of instructions (including the chololate bit), then try this. If you're a seasoned expert(!) then please read on...

The story of Jacob wrestling with a man/angel/God at the Ford of Jabbok has, in the past, moved me very deeply. It is a inspiring reading for the Lenten season and so I am suggesting that you read it using this method of Lectio Divina. Lectio is a way of praying the scriptures rather than studying the scriptures, so take a little time first to find a quiet, comfortable spot and to still your body and mind as much as possibke.

Remember - read the passage slowly a couple of times, then dwell on the part that speaks to you the most.

Jacob, having years before shamelessly swindled his brother Esau, is about to meet him again for the first time since the debacle. He is nervous and unsure of what sort of welcome he will receive. So he plans a little party of people to go ahead and 'soften' his brother's heart with gifts. After they leave, he settles down to sleep....

From Genesis 32

He instructed the foremost, ‘When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, “To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?” then you shall say, “They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.” ’ He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, ‘You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him, and you shall say, “Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.” ’ For he thought, ‘I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me.’ So the present passed on ahead of him; and he himself spent that night in the camp.

The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’ So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’

Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’ The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.

What was going on for Jacob during that night, that dream, that vision. Guilt? Struggle for acceptance? For self-acceptance?

Perhaps the Anchor Bible Dictionary summarises it well in suggesting that the ‘unnamed man symbolizes every person with whom Jacob struggled — Esau, Isaac, Laban — and yet, the man at the beginning of the story is certainly God at the end…. The story, therefore, in an overt polyvalence, blends Jacob’s conflict with people and with God into one event.’

Every person with whom he struggled should also, of course, include himself.

May God's blessing be upon and within you this Lent.

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Andrew Rudd is a Cheshire poet who, during 2006, was the fourth Cheshire Poet Laureate. He has previously written a guest blog for Reflections about the show Fourpenny Circus that he and three other poets produced in 2009. He has kindly accepted my invitiation to write another guest blog, so without more ado - here is Andrew.........

Artisans


We were visiting Taizé some years ago. In most of my life I am surrounded by English speakers, but at any given time there can be thirty different languages at Taizé, as visitors come from all over the world. Sometimes in the worship, there might only be one sentence of English. I was amazed, as usual, by my lack of knowledge of other languages.

But it does make you pay attention! We were singing the Beatitudes in French when I noticed the words for ‘Blessed are the peace-makers’ – in French this is ‘Bienheureux les artisans de paix…’

It suddenly struck me that peace is an art form, it is not just something that happens accidentally at the end of violence or when there is a cease fire. It is something that has to be made or created in our life together. Maybe this is the most important kind of creativity, where we make shalom, where we build community. And maybe one of the best things about art – sculpture, painting, music, poetry – is when it helps us to understand each other better, when it opens our awareness, when it makes peace.

This thought resulted in the poem ‘Artisans’ which is to be broadcast on the 21st of February on Radio 4’s ‘Something Understood.’ If you don’t know this wonderful programme, I would recommend it. It is a collage of words and music which explore a ‘spiritual’ theme in a very fresh way. The only snag is the timing – it is broadcast very early on Sunday morning (6.05 am) and then repeated at the end of the same day (11.30pm). Fortunately, you can catch it during the following week on Listen Again.

Artisans

‘Bienheureux les artisans de paix…’


Blessed the singers of peace,
lamenting the unfinished business, sorrow
and dream: whose song changes nothing
but opens everything to change.


Blessed the potters of peace,
hands in the clay, shaping, smoothing,
reaching for hidden form, braving
the furnace for beauty.


Blessed the embroiderers of peace:
at their needle’s touch, an ordinary surface
shines in a sacrament of colour, angles
softened into treasures of texture.


Blessed the sculptors of peace
who look at the intractable
slab, and see marvels within it,
and reach for the chisel.


Blessed the poets of peace
who bear all voices into their emptiness,
settling stresses into speech
which at the last is music.

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Do you spend some moments in the first hours of each waking day being present with God? Perhaps you read morning prayer (matins as it was once called)? Perhaps you have a 'quiet time'? Perhaps you sit and look at the garden and wonder?

Whatever you may do, perhaps (another perhaps!) you might on one day take this poem by George Herbert into your time of prayer and lose yourself in it. Herbert was a Welshman living in the early 17th century who, after the death of his sponsor King James I, became an Anglican clergyman. He was a faithful and much-loved parish priest and wrote beautiful religious poetry which was published after his death. If you haven't read any of his poetry, he is worth investigating.

George Herbert is remembered in the Anglican church on 27th February - so perhaps you might take this poem into your prayer on that particular day!

I suggest you read it out loud.

Mattens

I cannot ope mine eyes,
But thou art ready there to catch
My morning-soul and sacrifice:
Then we must needs for that day make a match.

My God, what is a heart?
Silver, or gold, or precious stone,
Or starre, or rainbow, or a part
Of all these things, or all of them in one?

My God, what is a heart?
That thou shouldst it so eye, and wooe,
Powring upon it all thy art,
As if that thou hadst nothing els to do?

Indeed mans whole estate
Amounts (and richly) to serve thee:
He did not heav’n and earth create,
Yet studies them, not him by whom they be.

Teach me thy love to know;
That this new light, which now I see,
May both the work and workman show:
Then by a sunne-beam I will climbe to thee.

George Herbert: The Temple (1633)

Portrait of George Herbert
by Robert White in 1674

From Wikipedia

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When I attended a local planning meeting for a Christian Aid Week it was good to meet and talk with others, particularly those I had not met before Amongst other things, we shared ideas and dreams. But, for me, the most moving part of the morning was seeing footage and stills from Kenya, where the water shortage, due to ongoing drought, was taking a huge toll in human suffering.

So, as I have been reflecting on this, I thought I would like to share with you some of the words of Archbishop Oscar Romero about our response as Christians to the poor and those in need.

Archbishop Romero was outspoken about violations of human rights and social injustice in El Salvador and he became an advocate of liberation theology - which emphasises social justice and political activism. He was martyred in March 1980 whist taking a communion service in a hospital chapel.

He cuts to the heart of the problem of rich Christians in an age of hunger. His teaching is always based on the gospel message of Jesus - often quoting directly Jesus' words in a challenging way to those of us in developed countries. Sometimes we like to spiritualise away the plain message that Jesus taught. I hope that these words of Romero's will speak to your heart.

It is inconceivable that someone is called 'Christian' and does not make a preferential option for the poor as Christ did. It is a scandal when today's Christians criticize the church because it is concerned with the poor.

Homily Sept 9th 1979

This is the church that I want. A church that does not rely on the privileges and the worth of earthly things. A church ever more detached from earthly things, so that she can judge them more freely from her perspective of the gospel, from her poverty.

Homily Aug 28th 1977

I wonder what your feelings are on reading these words? Do you agree or disagree? I would love to hear your thoughts.

A prayer of Archbishop Romero's can be found here.

With blessings.

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