There, but for the Grace of God, go I – wait…what?
Seminary Director, Patrick Kennedy, introduces the ‘seven activities of the priestly self’
What is it that a person is to work on and work towards at seminary? Is it a certain amount of knowledge that needs to be gained? Is it a certain number of professional skills and capacities?
Certainly there are many skills that are needed to serve as a priest – as well as knowledge – in order to proclaim the word of spirit to the world, to care for the souls God sends us as a true pastor and to celebrate and consecrate at Christ’s altar. In fact this part of our training hardly ends at ordination! In many ways it just begins.
But beyond this knowledge and practice what makes the path to priesthood – and its accompanying training – so subtle and profound is that it has to do with who we are. It is in the sacred realm of our own activities of ‘self’ that a foundation can be laid upon which a healthy priesthood in the renewed stream of the movement for religious renewal can be built.
To this end, the directors (Jonah Evans and Patrick Kennedy) have created a seven-fold imagination of the ‘Activities of the Priestly-Self’ that is given to the students – especially in the “Walking with Christ” program” – to work with. It is there to serve as a guiding star in their own self-development and a way of assisting their own self-assessment on the learning journey.
Blog by Erica Maclennan, student in our “Walking with Christ” program
“There but for the Grace of God go I” – this beautiful phrase expresses the wonder and gratitude we feel about the guidance and blessings received on our life’s journey. But… what about the "I" and its life in the world as a free being, its self determination, its possibilities for development? We are living in an age of consciousness where our "I" feels like it can do and be everything, a being of possibility. These impulses of the "I" can often separate us from God and from Grace. How do we consciously and actively take up the development of the “I” while remaining in right relationship with God?
To this end, in the seminary training the directors have given the students descriptions of Seven Activities of the “I" (see diagram).
Below is a description of these activities and some of the ways they can be worked with as tools for self reflection and development:
1. The Witness – objective self-witnessing, objective world-witnessing, objective Christ-witnessing
Witnessing ourselves with objectivity can feel like a cold hard place, for what we see may be hard to bear. How would we not become emotionally overwhelmed by looking at our weaknesses or by being over focused on shortcomings? How do we not get trapped into thinking about a kind of ‘preferred self’ – the one ‘who I think I should be’? Finding courage to disentangle oneself from these tendencies is helped by using a warm gaze towards ourselves, by seeing the true-self in Christ. How does Christ regard us objectively? With Love. In this warm light we can then observe the things in ourselves that we are longing to let go of, transform, heal, or cultivate. This helps us to learn to know who we are and open the door for our becoming.
2. The Becoming One – dying and being reborn
In the Sacrament of Ordination is heard the question, “Do you feel the earnestness of the ongoing part of your becoming?” Becoming is a lifelong journey and it means being able to die – die to old ideas, old pictures of oneself, mistakes... Then it's about growing anew, accepting what is needed, seeing a new truth. An openness is called for and an earnestness to become, to change, to be different. Dying and becoming can happen in a moment (think of Paul's Damascus experience!). There can also be the experience that something in us may die, but time is needed for the new to come to birth – time, patience, prayer and trust. This trust is the new faith that draws towards us knowledge of a new aspect of self.
3. The Wounded Healer – developing a free relationship to one’s wounds so that Christ’s light might shine through them
The Risen One has wounds from the crucifixion, wounds that are shining with Healing Light. How can we follow this process? Through building a relationship with the sufferings and struggles that have come to us in our lives. It’s about taking responsibility for them, looking for the gift in them, the learning opportunity they provide – this helps transform the wounds, redeeming them so that they become sources of light for life in the world. Working in this way strengthens awareness that others are wounded also and that those wounds have the possibility to be healed/transformed, that all judgements of the other person should be put aside. The work is to see and to experience the blessings hidden inside of illness, struggle and sufferings. A wound then becomes redeemed, a source of joy and a place for the Healing Light to shine through.
4. The Disciple – following Christ Jesus as one’s helping guide
The Gospels relate to us that the disciples were taught and guided by Christ Jesus — they asked questions, listened and followed Him. How can this show up in our lives? How do we take up this activity? By building up a relationship with the Living Christ through prayer, through reading the gospel. We can turn to Him, pray, connect to His Being as Lord, Brother, Comforter. We can read the Gospel, sit at His feet and hear His message to guide our lives. We can also be active in sensing Jesus Christ by looking for His activity in all that we meet — His reality in the Spirit, in oneself, in others, in the world.
5. The Shepherd-King – demonstrating Christ-centered leadership
The priestly shepherd and priestly king are here united in activity as the one who leads, guides, and serves. With love and truth the king discerns through wisdom what is rightful and needed, names what is, accepts responsibility and is accountable. The shepherd leads, guides, builds trust, and serves. Bringing these two streams together creates a balanced approach to leadership. This is helped by finding sovereignty over ourselves, and by listening for the voice of the High Priestly King and Good Shepherd who leads us all through our destinies.
6. The Overflowing Cup – enthusiasm, joy and life in the work
Abundance... this is a word we hear often in our culture today. In the context of the Seven "I" Activities abundance means becoming a source of life – life that flows out to other human hearts and that flows into our daily work. If the cup feels drained, or there is a feeling of burnout, then perhaps the work is being done out of a sense of duty, or there is a worry about disappointing people, or there is the thought we should be able to do everything. We can ask ourselves: does our prayer/meditative life nourish and give inspiritive* substance and joy? We then turn and begin to build a relationship to Grace, know that the "I" is free to fill itself with Him – with Grace of the Spirit — and fill the Cup to Overflowing.
7. Love for the Deed – not burden or duty nor attachment to outcome, but love for the deed itself
When working with Love for the Deed we often can see that we ourselves are the biggest blocks to a deed being done out of love and freedom. Has what we are doing become ‘all about me’? When we are working with something and the activity of the "I" is focused on oneself – reputation, accolades, acceptance, control, etc. – then we are inclined towards egotism. If the inclination is towards egotism how can we be inclined towards God? The focus to work for the sake of the deed and not for one’s value in the deed is the goal. Putting oneself aside and entering into the deed itself frees us up to ask for Grace to be a part of the deed. There go “I”, with all I am, into the work of God’s grace.
The above Seven Activities of the "I" give us seminary students a language for communicating with the directors about how things are forming and developing in our being. It also provides a framework to name challenges and to ask for much appreciated advice from the directors.
The inner work with the "I" activities is part of our effort to move towards God, through Christ, so that the "I" goes forth able to work more readily with the “Grace upon Grace” [John 1:16] we receive from Him.
*inspiritive: is a word that may have been coined by seminary director, Rev. Jonah Evans
About the Author: Erica was born in Montréal Canada, and spent most of her life living in British Columbia, Canada, where she raised two boys and had a career as a Waldorf Early Childhood Educator and Administrator. She is living and studying at the seminary in Toronto as a part of the “Walking with Christ” program.
This is a blog entry by a student at The Seminary of the Christian Community in North America. These are posted weekly by the student editorial team of Robert Bower, Shannon Young and Faith DiVecchio. For more information about our seminary, see the website: www.christiancommunityseminary.ca and for even more weekly podcast and video content check out the Seminary’s Patreon page: www.patreon.com/ccseminary/posts.
The views expressed in this blog entry do not necessarily represent the views of the Seminary, its directors or the Christian Community. They are the sole responsibility of its author.