Liturgy and The Cloud of Unknowing

I'm very proud of the Contemplative Eucharist that we do on Wednesday mornings. It's a very special achievement to have gotten that baby off the ground. And now that it's gaining more momentum I'm beginning to see even more potential.

Margo Sawyer - Cloud of Unknowing, 2005
With the encouragement of my staff I've been gradually adding a bit more instruction and discussion at the end of it. Last week we talked about The Cloud of Unknowing--a 14th Century manual for contemplative spirituality. So this week I brought my copy and read the group a paragraph taken from random:

In this way you can see that we must concentrate our whole attention on this lowly movement of love in our will. To all other forms of sweetness or consolation, however pleasant or holy (if we be allowed to put it in this way) we should show a sort of indifference. If they come, welcome them; but do not depend on them, because they are weakening things; it takes too much out of you to stay for long in such sweet feelings and tears. And you may even be tempted to love God for the sake of having them. You will know if this is so by seeing whether you complain unduly when they are absent. And if you do, your love is not yet pure or perfect. For a love that is pure and perfect, though it admits that the body is sustained and consoled when such sweet feelings or tears are present, does not complain when they are missing, but is really pleased not to have them, if it is the will of God. And yet in some people contemplation is normally accompanied by consolations of this sort, while there are others who have such sweetness and comfort but seldom. (The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 50, Paragraph 1, Trans. Clifton Wolters)

So many people come to religion for an experience--yet if you strive for a more perfect love you must cultivate a "kind of indifference" to the consolations and sweet feelings that occasionally come with the spiritual life. I think of liturgies that are specifically designed to manipulate people emotionally in order to give them a feeling of catharsis by the end. The Contemplative Tradition teaches that such worship draws us further from God in that our faith becomes depending on what get out of it, emotionally. If you would have perfect love, then you must accept whatever spirituality presents itself in this moment, right now, and not lust after something else. It's a fantastically powerfully teaching that few are really to hear.

The bishop only gave me permission to do the Contemplative Eucharist until All Saints' (Nov. 1st). I'm hoping he will renew permission after that, but it's possible he may not. If he refuses I'll be upset, of course, and I'll argue vigorously on behalf of this group. But the System I'm a part of doesn't care for innovation, and that's a reality I have to accept, as well. So I'll have to write a letter to the bishop soon to plead for group to continue. Stay tuned...

-t