“For us, practicing a disruptive spirituality within the Machine might be the only way to preserve our souls from the liquifying heat and power of the Giga Press, and to light a fire of a different kind.” Excellent. And I second Exogenesis!
Thank you for making this essay available, Peco. I didn't get a chance to read it the first time around. But it hit me just at the right moment this morning because I was reading Simone Weil's exposition of the Lord's Prayer and something about when you said this: "Religious people are sometimes criticized for praying about problems, as if prayer is just a kind of magical thinking that substitutes for “real action”, but in reality prayer and other spiritual practices are just the opposite..." - something in that idea reminded me of how she talks about "give us this day our daily bread." In that section, she first says that Christ is our bread and that it is a daily thing-- it can't be saved up. "We cannot bind our will today for tomorrow...we have not been given a will that can be applied to the future...the effective part of the will is not effort, which is directed at the future." She goes on to say that we look for "bread" like money, ambition, consideration, decorations, power...all of which are very real sources of energy to us. She then has this gorgeous idea which rings true for me "There is a transcendent energy whose source is in heaven, and this flows into us as soon as we wish for it. It is a real energy; it performs actions through the agency of our souls and our bodies."
Also I have been reading about how the Benedictines read the psalms three times a day (thank you, Kathleen Norris) and saw evidence of it with my own eyes last weekend at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota here last weekend, being lucky enough to be on a retreat there. If that's not a disruptive spiritual practice, I don't know what is! I am freshly inspired to introduce Psalm reading into my family's life.
"A psalm implies serenity of Soul; it is the author of peace, which calms bewildering and seething thoughts. For, it softens the wrath of the soul, and what is unbridled it chastens. A psalm forms friendships, unites those separated, conciliates those at enmity. Who, indeed, can still consider as an enemy him with whom he has uttered the same prayer to God? So that psalmody, bringing about choral singing, a bond, as it were, toward unity, and joining people into a harmonious union of one choir, produces also the greatest of blessings, love. A psalm is a city of refuge from the demons; a means of inducing help from the angels, a weapon in fears by night, a rest from the toils of the day, a safeguard for infants, an adornment for those at the height of their vigour, a consolation for the elders, a most fitting ornament for women. It peoples the solitudes; it rids the market places of excesses; it is the elementary exposition of beginners, the improvement of those advancing, the solid support of the perfect, the voice of the Church. It brightens feast days; it creates a sorrow which is in accordance with God. For, a psalm calls forth a tear even from a heart of stone. A psalm is the work of angels, a heavenly institution, the spiritual incense."
Hi Peco, this is bit of a release for me. And it's a big one. I'm one of those you referred to, "many of us are going to be stuck in a Machine world for a long time, some of us for a lifetime." I mean it's as if I've felt it's not really worth implementing these things Ruth and you write about, so capable if I may say. However, now I'm fired up again, to be part of this disruptive gang of warriors, right in the belly of the monster. Thank you for writing this, it really helped me... N
Greetings,friend, I am new to your substack with this essay today and I do appreciate your work --- but I write here to request a bit more. When you called prayer "a disruptive spiritual practice" with regard to our Machine culture I was hoping to read something along a different line. When you seemed to be focusing on two different ways that prayer can be powerful, I was more hopeful. But alas, the two ways in your essay are just one: transforming me (within) and changing my actions (external). Both are prayer's power to change me--- alleluia! But ... from here your essay tells me you seek to be "grounded in a more organic reality" and, by your spiritual practice, "pulled out of the Machine". NOT ENOUGH ! Worse still, you then go on to consider the power of "stories" and "metaphors".... I am tempted to give Flannery O'Connor's well-known response to the person who called the Eucharist a "symbol". Please think further than this. Let us hear your thoughts on what The Almighty can do; do we not pray for Him to truly act?
“For us, practicing a disruptive spirituality within the Machine might be the only way to preserve our souls from the liquifying heat and power of the Giga Press, and to light a fire of a different kind.” Excellent. And I second Exogenesis!
This morning I was part of a community conversation about much of what you have so generously gifted us in this article.
Thank you for reinforcing my learning.
Thank you for making this essay available, Peco. I didn't get a chance to read it the first time around. But it hit me just at the right moment this morning because I was reading Simone Weil's exposition of the Lord's Prayer and something about when you said this: "Religious people are sometimes criticized for praying about problems, as if prayer is just a kind of magical thinking that substitutes for “real action”, but in reality prayer and other spiritual practices are just the opposite..." - something in that idea reminded me of how she talks about "give us this day our daily bread." In that section, she first says that Christ is our bread and that it is a daily thing-- it can't be saved up. "We cannot bind our will today for tomorrow...we have not been given a will that can be applied to the future...the effective part of the will is not effort, which is directed at the future." She goes on to say that we look for "bread" like money, ambition, consideration, decorations, power...all of which are very real sources of energy to us. She then has this gorgeous idea which rings true for me "There is a transcendent energy whose source is in heaven, and this flows into us as soon as we wish for it. It is a real energy; it performs actions through the agency of our souls and our bodies."
Also I have been reading about how the Benedictines read the psalms three times a day (thank you, Kathleen Norris) and saw evidence of it with my own eyes last weekend at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota here last weekend, being lucky enough to be on a retreat there. If that's not a disruptive spiritual practice, I don't know what is! I am freshly inspired to introduce Psalm reading into my family's life.
Thank you!
"A psalm implies serenity of Soul; it is the author of peace, which calms bewildering and seething thoughts. For, it softens the wrath of the soul, and what is unbridled it chastens. A psalm forms friendships, unites those separated, conciliates those at enmity. Who, indeed, can still consider as an enemy him with whom he has uttered the same prayer to God? So that psalmody, bringing about choral singing, a bond, as it were, toward unity, and joining people into a harmonious union of one choir, produces also the greatest of blessings, love. A psalm is a city of refuge from the demons; a means of inducing help from the angels, a weapon in fears by night, a rest from the toils of the day, a safeguard for infants, an adornment for those at the height of their vigour, a consolation for the elders, a most fitting ornament for women. It peoples the solitudes; it rids the market places of excesses; it is the elementary exposition of beginners, the improvement of those advancing, the solid support of the perfect, the voice of the Church. It brightens feast days; it creates a sorrow which is in accordance with God. For, a psalm calls forth a tear even from a heart of stone. A psalm is the work of angels, a heavenly institution, the spiritual incense."
+Saint Basil the Great
Gorgeous, Esmée! Thank you for this gift of a good word.
A needful reminder, thank you for this.
Bodies not Machines! The declaration, the covenant, the promise!
Hi Peco, this is bit of a release for me. And it's a big one. I'm one of those you referred to, "many of us are going to be stuck in a Machine world for a long time, some of us for a lifetime." I mean it's as if I've felt it's not really worth implementing these things Ruth and you write about, so capable if I may say. However, now I'm fired up again, to be part of this disruptive gang of warriors, right in the belly of the monster. Thank you for writing this, it really helped me... N
Greetings,friend, I am new to your substack with this essay today and I do appreciate your work --- but I write here to request a bit more. When you called prayer "a disruptive spiritual practice" with regard to our Machine culture I was hoping to read something along a different line. When you seemed to be focusing on two different ways that prayer can be powerful, I was more hopeful. But alas, the two ways in your essay are just one: transforming me (within) and changing my actions (external). Both are prayer's power to change me--- alleluia! But ... from here your essay tells me you seek to be "grounded in a more organic reality" and, by your spiritual practice, "pulled out of the Machine". NOT ENOUGH ! Worse still, you then go on to consider the power of "stories" and "metaphors".... I am tempted to give Flannery O'Connor's well-known response to the person who called the Eucharist a "symbol". Please think further than this. Let us hear your thoughts on what The Almighty can do; do we not pray for Him to truly act?
Saint Seraphim of Sarov famously said, "Acquire a Spirit of Peace, and thousands around you will be saved."