So I went to Mass yesterday and Father talked about the goodness of Christian meditation. The core difference between Christian and non-western forms of meditation is the object. The goal of the east is detachment from the world and desire. It\u2019s not a bad start since no small part of our problem is disordered attachment to creatures, aka idolatry. So part of Christian meditation is likewise to take our minds off earthly things as Paul says to do.<\/p>\n
But it does not end there. Paul also says to put our minds on heavenly things. In other words, we detach in order to re-attach rightly.<\/p>\n
The Holy Spirit seemed to be saying, \u201cThat\u2019s a good idea. You should try that.\u201d<\/p>\n
So I went for a walk yesterday and started trying to meditate on the gospel. I find it\u2019s easier to do that if I talk out loud about it, like I\u2019m explaining it to somebody else (it\u2019s a teaching charism thing and a big part of how I learn).<\/p>\n
Anyway, I walked round the neighborhood chewing over the story of the baptism in the river Jordan. I think I\u2019m going to write that part up for the Catholic Weekly<\/em> since Advent is coming up and the peculiarity of that story is interesting. But for me, what quickly began to emerge was the realization that the devil does not care whether your disordered attractions to something are due to love or loathing. As long as your attention is devoted to it, that\u2019s good enough for him because it means your attention is not devoted to God.<\/p>\n Which, of course, immediately made me think of the time and energy devoted to fighting the Christianist Cult of Trump. The fight against that Cult is necessary, I think, since it is a diabolical cult devoted to an antichrist\u2026<\/p>\n https:\/\/t.co\/hoA2gdx2kN<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Diana Butler Bass (@dianabutlerbass) November 5, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n