Praying for Kings

Remember as we pray the Psalms we often pray things that seem obscure and inapplicable to our personal lives. This is when we should shift into the awareness that we are praying AS the Body of Christ, speaking for the Body the prayers that have filled the lungs of the Church since her inception. 

This morning's psalm prays, 

"Add length of days to the king's life; 
let his years extend over many generations.
Let him sit enthroned before God for ever; 
bid love and faithfulness watch over him."

Since we have no kings in our modern world, my mind went to a cry for those who are leaders influencing the Church in the modern world--like Pope Francis or our Primary Bishop Quinton, or those who serve as Priests in our Order: like Mark Aarstad/JP Robles/Janis Sharpe/Shelby Swanson/etc--the prayer was "Lord, let these 'kings' have length of days to influence in a way that fulfills why God you have anointed them to be leaders to begin with." 

As an Order, we do not pray for ourselves alone but our very Rule of Life and cries in prayer are for the whole Church around the world.

A Sanctified Gnosticism

Gnosticism, or the notion that there was "special gnosis for a select few," has always been a heresy that emerges and re-emerges in the Church historically. That being said, there IS a kind of esoteric "gnosis" that is NOT easily perceived or understood by the casual Christ-follower, but only by ardent seekers of sacred mystery and transcendent interiority--the stuff we run at day in and day out as we practice the Rule of our Order.

Hans Urs Von Balthasar claimed that the church "does not abolish genuine esotericism." It turns out that the kingdom--the influence of God--is, as Jesus said, "a treasure hidden in a field" that is only grasped by those willing to "sell all they have to buy it." 

In a sense, the Order is an exploration into esotericism, or, dare we call it, a sanctified Gnosticism - a "secret" dance to discover the difference between what is nature and what is grace; between ourselves and God's actions?

What can teach us this but the day-in day-out walk into a life filled with prayer and a sacramental community (which we are still trying to imagine)? It is in the doing that the mysteries become more familiar, while remaining deeply opaque. This kind of knowledge does not just come via teaching alone but by exploring the formative practices of the faith. Think of the "gnosis" that a couple in the trenches of a 50-year-old marriage has that a newlywed couple does not--even if that couple has an PHD in family dynamics.

May this year of vowed-living make us humble, submitted, transformed with genuine esoteric knowledge--sanctified Gnostics.

Rule of Life

As an Order, we commit to a Rule of Life that involves things like a commitment to praying the Daily Office, a weekly participation in the Eucharist, et cetera. But the goal of this “rule” is the intentional, devotional discipline to growing in grace, resisting sin and temptation, and ordering our worship, work, and leisure as a pleasing sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1-2).

Most of us need some kind of “rule of life” because we default too easily to our fallen nature, which is disordered, distracted, and self-centered. Without intentionally infusing new habits--like we embrace in the Order--bad, unChristlike habits often rule our lives, dulling our capacity to be fully human and matured in Christ.