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An Essay On
Three Keys To Spiritual Discipline
by Frank A. Halse, Jr.
Dedicated To
Joyce, Laurie Beth And Lisa Ellen,
Who Knew The Suffering, And The Grace;
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The Coven(ant)
In Honor Of Their Passion For Pilgrimage To God;
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And The Many Congregations Who Honored Me By
Accepting Me As Pastor
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates.
- Percy Byshhe Shelley
Prometheus Unbound
Jesus said: “When you give rise to that which
Is within you, what you have will save you. If
You do not give rise to it, what you do not have
Will destroy you.”
Jesus of Nazareth
The Gospel of Thomas
Three Keys To Spiritual Discipline
Key I: Goals
1. Putting time into perspective
2. Becoming vulnerable to that which is
3. Sensing the Presence
4. Refreshing one's Spirit - healing
5. Savoring the depths of the mystic experience
6. Regaining a proper humbleness (an ever-ever need)
Key II: Methods
1. Settings and discipline: The Lord's Prayer as preface to prayer
2. Routine prayer and its quieter joys
3. The deeper experiences of prayer - three steps:
1) The Wall; 2) The Deeps; 3) The Recovery
4. Novice - Journeyman - Master
Key III: Experiences
1. A dominating background sense of awe and thanksgiving
2. Restlessness of one's being - challenge
3. Overwhelmed by beauty - peaks of wonder, quiet laughter and
Overwhelmed by ugliness - nadirs of revulsion, tears
4. Sensing tragedy in apparent happiness and
Sensing happiness in apparent tragedy
5. A sense of confidence in purposes beyond one's ken
6. Serenity of one's being - inner peace
Preface
This essay began by accident at a time when I had just finished an address - "Suffering, Amid The Wreckage Of Christianity" - to a gathering of United Methodist clergy sponsored by the Troy Conference of that communion. The meeting was at Saratoga Springs, New York, in November, 2001.
Part of the effort of the address was remedial - laying out a call to a discipline of prayer which I noted as being almost totally absent (let alone being nominal when it was observed) in the doings of my communion, especially amongst the clergy as a fellowship. At that point of fault, I also noted that the absence of an individual and/or group discipline of prayer violated the deliberate practice of same by Jesus of Nazareth, as well as John and Charles Wesley, to say nothing of the many revered leaders of the Christian movement in its history.
That absence goes far toward explaining our loss of spirit and morale as a clergy, and inescapably, as a communion.
Some of the attendees at my lecture later noted that they had never been taught anything about prayer, and that discovery set off a spark within myself, a determination to try to write a teaching essay on the discipline of prayer as part of my efforts at trying to make a modest contribution to the workings of the discovery of a freshened sense of morale for our clergy and communion.
The other part of the effort is personal. That is, there are few citations from sources outside my experience. But far from being selfish, this essay stands as a lifelong proof of a decision I made fifty-seven years ago when I began to grapple with the horrors of WWII, including the Holocaust.
The latter was very close to me in that my air group settled not all that far from Dachau, Germany (the site of the first of some 440 Nazi Concentration Camps of historical infamy), in the spring of 1945. This camp served, from 1933 to 1945, as the main training camp for future administrators (including the equally infamous Lt. Col. Eichmann, of the SS), and was also the site where varieties of cruelty and torture, not to say murder, occurred regularly in that span.
My decision then was reactive, and seven years later, became proactive. That is, I was rocked back on my heels spiritually by the suffering I saw, in and out of Dachau, and found myself reaching for the many-times-promised peace of soul and inner strength via the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth just to stay upright.
Seven years later, that "reaching" was confirmed by a decision to enter the ordained ministry of my church - what is now known as the United Methodist Church. In both cases, I said to myself, and to my sketchy understanding of God: "All right. But these teachings have to prove themselves out, every day, in every way." I felt that was only fair; if I make a commitment, then I expect the substance of those teachings to prove out in my pilgrimage.
That is, alongside of what is known as "reality" by the "world" - wars of all stripes, starvation, disease, selfishness, abuses, stealing on the grand scale by governments, industries and so on - I committed to the senses of the "spiritual reality" set forth in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
This has proved many times difficult, even dangerous, not only in terms of my personal being, but also in terms of my career in the church. I was early and often marked as a radical, and happily for me, I have stayed with that adjective for the years of my career and beyond, in retirement. But I have also known many riches of the Spirit in that time, riches that have placed the setbacks, betrayals and disappointments in a role that one would never have imagined to begin with: as direct products of the Spirit. The word "radical", incidentally, comes from the Greek word, "radix", which simply means "root." It is also the "root" word for "radish." So mote it be.
Frank A. Halse, Jr.
Frank A. Halse, Jr.
15 Kimberly Drive
Apt. # A2D
Mexico, New York 13114
315-963-8401
fhalse@twcny.rr.com
February 2003
March 2003
November 2004
Fifth Revision
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