pat loughery

Continuing the series of digging into Kurt Neilson’s book, Urban Iona.

From chapter 22:

The writing of a Rule of life seemed to be the natural step [in Neilson’s return to his parish church after his pilgrimage]. Monastic life is an old phenomenon in the Church. It was the effort to establish God’s kingdom on earth, with the Christian Emperor as God’s vice-regent, that sent men and women flying to the deserts and away from the centers of the “righteous empire” as from a shipwreck. So much of history is cyclical. As we are in the midst of yet another manifestation of “empire Christianity”, it is no wonder that so many fly as did the Desert Fathers and Mothers to what some are calling the “new monasticism,” seeking communities of faith and integrity where teh countercultural life of the Gospel may be experienced.

Monastic life is nothing more than baptized Christian life writ large and lived with daily passion and discipline, with God’s help. […]

The chief purpose of a Christian Rule is to have something to which to return. Few if any of us need anything else to do, nor do we need anything else to fail at . But a decent Rule reminds us of what we are called to, what makes our hearts kindle, and where our path lies. And it welcomes us back when we have strayed.

These are the reasons that I am prayerfully pursuing commitment to my own Way of Life (or Rule, if you prefer). I’m a pretty scattered person, and that’s putting it mildly. At the same time I crave and detest routine and rhythm. I value the foundation that a good rhythm brings me, though, and I want to be accountable to God and to good friends that my journey continues in good and bad times, thick and thin, in clarity and in fog.