Longing for God

　私のスピリチュアル・ディレクター（我が教会の霊的形成パスター）に、『Longing for God』（リチャード・フォスター＆ゲイル・ビービー著）という本を勧めてもらい、早速キンドルで購入して読み始めた。
　アウグスティヌス、アビラのテレサ、ルター、カルヴァン、十字架のヨハネ、イグナチウス・ロヨラなどなど、28人のキリスト教の信仰の先達を取り上げて、霊的形成における７つの道筋を語る本らしい。読みながら、心に留まった文章やフレーズなどを、書き留めておこうかと思う。

　Christian spiritual formation is a God-ordained process that shapes our entire person so that we take on the character and being of Christ himself. When we are open and responsive to this process, our outer life becomes an expression of this inner formation. Spiritual formation is concerned with the hidden dimension of every human life, the space God has given us to become the person we choose to be.

... How can we be shaped in such a way that our life becomes an expression of the spirit of Christ himself? We simply enter into a life with God, a conversational and redemptive relationship in which our own life becomes open to the influence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit initiates life within us and guides us in a never-ending process of being formed into the likeness of Christ.

Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion

メモ

　Our spiritual goal is to attain "apatheia", a passionless state completely absorbed in the Trinity and no longer controlled by desire. The goal at this level is to enter into union with God through contemplation, and the life that results is one of pure love and active charity.

　...The greatest challenge we face is not lack of belief but the enormous gravity of our egocentric desires. The weight of these desires creats a force on human nature that is virtually impossible to escape. The only means of rescue is found in turning to God, beginning to imitate Christ and starting to progress from the lowest level of reality to the ultimate reality of perpetual divine communion. (p.22 Chapter on Origen)

Origen reminds me that we are never finished in the spiritual life. This life with God is always growing, always deepening, always thickening. How critical this is for the contemporary scene. Today, with few exceptions, we have no serious theology of spiritual growth. Many people are obsessively focused on heaven when they die, and most have simply giving up on any substantial character formation into Christlikeness. .... In short, Origen is inviting us into an ongoing, breathless experience of God's expansive --and ever-expanding-- love.(p.24)