This is from Contemplative Outreach's August 2011 e-bulletin -- "Questions and Answers with Father Carl Arico."
Q: Dear Contemplative Outreach: I am so appreciative of your programs. I am a convert to Catholicism by way of my missionary time in Ethiopia and an experience at Lalibela, the hidden holyland. I returned home (because my doctor husband died in Ethiopia) and joined the Catholic Church. I am feeling now after 15 years a sense of LACK OF JOY in the Church; I found it more in the Protestant Church. However, now once again listening to your programs, I am thinking that perhaps I am entering into a new realm of the church, that I am leaving the roteness of spiritual practices that have become somewhat empty and entering into a way to still be in the church but at a different level of practice. Or....does one really have to leave the church to find JOY in another place? I am just interested in your evaluation of this conclusion.
A: In every relationship there comes a point when joy wanes. It is a shock to our system. We reach crossroads which suggest that we move ahead, go backwards or just leave and wash our hands of the relationship. These crossroads are wakeup calls and I am sure you have experienced them. These experiences can also be applied to our relationship with the Church, which I see as the mystical body of Christ.
I sense that you cannot go back to where you were and you do not have a desire to wash your hands, so lets talk about "moving ahead." Let's describe it this way: "I have come to a point where I cannot continue as I am - there must be something more to this Church that I have not experienced. I cannot continue in this routine." Along comes Contemplative Outreach and you begin to hear and enter into the contemplative dimension of the Church. You begin to meet spiritual masters - John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Thomas Merton and Thomas Keating - who speak a language that is deeply rooted in the Church tradition, but they speak it in such a way that you are beginning to hear it with new ears. They begin to speak about contemplative prayer, and a practice that you can bring into your daily life.
I sense that you cannot go back to where you were and you do not have a desire to wash your hands, so lets talk about "moving ahead." Let's describe it this way: "I have come to a point where I cannot continue as I am - there must be something more to this Church that I have not experienced. I cannot continue in this routine." Along comes Contemplative Outreach and you begin to hear and enter into the contemplative dimension of the Church. You begin to meet spiritual masters - John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Thomas Merton and Thomas Keating - who speak a language that is deeply rooted in the Church tradition, but they speak it in such a way that you are beginning to hear it with new ears. They begin to speak about contemplative prayer, and a practice that you can bring into your daily life.
In hearing with new ears, you begin to look back at the practices that supported you through the years and see/experience them in a new way - the Sacraments, the Creed, the Commandments, the devotions, etc. You have heard "the rest of the story" and it has changed the way your hear with your head and with your heart. It is not only about doing, pondering and responding, but it is also about resting, intimacy, surrender, transformation, oneness etc, etc. You get in touch with the awesome intimate mystery of it all.
Yes, you need to leave the Church in the way you have perceived her. Now with new eyes, see her for the first time once again. Just like a relationship where you are able to see the person with new eyes and the relationship begins to grow again.
As the scriptures tells us, "I do not want your burnt offerings, I want your heart." Therein comes the joy which has been described as an abiding sense of well-being, based on the experience of a conscious relationship with God.
- Fr. Carl
As the scriptures tells us, "I do not want your burnt offerings, I want your heart." Therein comes the joy which has been described as an abiding sense of well-being, based on the experience of a conscious relationship with God.
- Fr. Carl
