FAIRFIELD, CT – Described as a “rock star” among clergymen, Roman Catholic priest Ronald Rolheiser gave a keynote address of the 13th General Meeting of the International Thomas Merton Society, held June 13-16 at Sacred Heart University’s Fairfield campus.
Rolheiser noted that our society has a deep longing for solitude, but that the pace of our lives has become an obstacle to reaching it. “Electronic communication is a wonderful thing, but starts to knock out all sense of solitude,” he said. “The faster our lives get, the more we intensely long for solitude.”
After much personal struggle, Merton found solitude, Rolheiser said. “For him, it was enough to be inside the moment,” he said. “On the other hand, we’re often waiting for something to happen rather than having what Merton called a fully pregnant moment – wanting to be nowhere else but the here and now.”
Rolheiser pointed to narcissism, pragmatism, hurry and restlessness as the roadblocks to solitude. “We have become very practical, but our other muscles have atrophied, affecting our ability to pray,” he said. “We take our value from what we do instead of what we are. When we stop achieving, we feel useless and not good about ourselves. Deep prayer is perceived as a non-pragmatic, useless activity. Our families are breaking up from the pressure of surviving. We rush out to relax and hurry back. In this life, there is no finished symphony. We are finite spirits in an infinite world.”
Father Rolheiser offered a simple prescription. “Practice the Sabbath, taking time to rest and stop all the activity; centered prayer and patience.” – See more here.
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