The Monastic Way
—for people who lead a busy life
but long for greater spiritual depth—
The Monastic Way
by
JOAN CHITTISTER
Rigatta near Concarneau
Paul Signac
JUNE 2013
Volume 22, No. 6
Lectio,
a slow, meditative way of reading, is an ancient monastic spiritual practice.
In this year’s Monastic Way, Joan Chittister uses the works of great artists
for her spiritual “reading,” always asking, What of God is in this for me?
There are a lot of people complaining about
any number of things in this world—taxes, drones,
inequalities, ecological devastation—but until we
care enough to do something about them, nothing
will change. Least of all the complaining. Obviously,
it isn’t insight that’s missing. Or intelligence. Or
understanding. Or goodwill. In fact, the only thing
that’s missing is the will to change it. Motivation.
Some commitment so high, so deep, so clear and so
unyielding that we are willing to join with other people
to change it.
It’s motivation that stopped the Vietnam War.
Motivation brought civil rights and desegregation.
Motivation preserved the national forests. Motivation
brought art and music to public education. And this
month’s picture—boats driven by the wind—is surely an
icon of the driving force of motive in all our lives.
But even more of a driving force is artist Paul
Signac, one of the early pointillists. He did not create
the process—Georges Seurat did that—but he did
use painted pixels of precisely engineered colors to
create mood as well as image. Paul Signac created
the theory of colors and light that gave the dots a
luminescence nature never could. He wrote of it:
“Art is a creation of a higher order than a copy
of nature which is governed by chance.... By the
elimination of all muddy colors, by the exclusive use
of optical mixture of pure colors, by a methodical
divisionism and a strict observation of the scientific
theory of colors, the neo-impressionists insure a
maximum of luminosity, of color intensity, and of
harmony—a result that has never yet been obtained.”
Signac’s motive was beyond the ability to create a
scene. He wanted to inflame it, to make it leap up from
the earth with such vibrance that we could not possibly
miss it. He wanted to outdo nature. Out of that intensity
of commitment came a whole new kind of art. He gave
his entire life to the doing of it.
Watching someone else give their life to singleminded goals, makes the question to the rest of us
clear: What puts the wind in our sails in life? What
motivates us to change our own little worlds? What do
we care enough about to devote our lives to it so that
life can then be better for everyone else?
The answer to that question is precisely what
underlies the happy, the productive, the effective life.
The problem does not lie in the pursuit of a passion;
the problem lies in having no passion at all, no reason
to get up in the morning, nothing important enough to
work on long beyond what the world calls “work time.”
Saturday, June 1: Without passion for something—trout
fishing, crocheting, infant care, dog training, cooking, justice,
mercy or truth—-life loses its taste. It goes bland. Nothing
stirs the blood. That’s not life; that’s a living death.
Sunday, June 2: We’re all here to do something special, to
color our own small particular world with our own particular
kind of life-giving presence. Some people call those things
hobbies, or ministries, or the arts. I call them life.
Monday, June 3: Most of the time, our passions find us. Some
of the time we need to look until we find them. Whatever the
situation, the search itself broadens us, gives us depth, makes
us sparkle. It moves us through life from one thing to another.
Tuesday, June 4: Passion takes the drudge out of life.
“Motivation,” Patrick Dixon says, “is a battle for the heart, not
just an appeal to the mind. Passion is always an expression of
the soul.” Where passion is, life is full of reasons to be alive.
Wednesday, June 5: Aimlessness in life is the worst way to be
alive. There’s nowhere to go, nothing to do that’s worth doing,
nothing that brings either joy or satisfaction. Then, it’s time to
ask ourselves what it is in us that chooses to avoid life rather
than to live it. “What makes life dreary,” George Eliot writes,
“is the want of motive.”
Thursday, June 6: It’s not being busy that drains life of joy.
It’s not being busy about the right things—meaning things
that challenge all the gifts we have and leave the world a
better place when we’re finished doing them.
Friday, June 7: It isn’t true that some people are passionless.
As Rachel Field says, “There’s plenty of fire in the coldest
flint.” The problem is that they have simply not done
anything to bring it to flame. If you know someone like that,
invite them along.
Saturday, June 8: The value of hobbies, volunteerism, and
temporary jobs is that they give us a chance to do something
of value while we’re trying to discover what we would really
like to do at this time in life. Better yet, they help us find
our next role in life without having to invest a lot of time or
money to find out. Every age and stage of life needs them.
Sunday, June 9: Life needs a plan, a GPS to help us make the
important decisions of life such as where to live and how to
spend our spare time and what we’re meant to do for others
now. As Jim Rohn says, “If you don’t design your own life plan,
chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what
they have planned for you? Not much.”
Monday, June 10: There’s a big difference between a job and
a life. Doing what we need to do to live is a job. Doing what
we want to do because it fills us with passion and a sense of
purpose is a life.
Tuesday, June 11: We go through life battling the desires of
the heart. Should I do this—or that? Can I go there—or not?
Shall I learn this—or that? Those questions signal a cache of
blessings given to us for our fulfillment. The important thing
lies in choosing one and persevering in it until it not only makes
a difference in our lives but in the lives of others, as well.
Wednesday, June 12: Follow your heart. It will tell you both
where to go and where not. When you answer that call, you will
have answered most of the questions of your life.
Thursday, June 13: Passions change as life goes by. We
exhaust one and find another. We finish one and go looking
for another. Passions are the steps that lead us to the fullness
of the self. “You are never too old,” C.S. Lewis wrote, “to set
another goal or to dream a new dream.”
Friday, June 14: It is the wind that drives us that will
determine both the direction, the depth and the height of
our lives. As Confucius wrote thousands of years ago, “The
will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full
potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to
personal excellence.”
Saturday, June 15: To fail to do something because we think
we can’t do it, is to fail to become what we are meant to be.
The effects of that are many and sad: disappointment with
life, a sense of internal emptiness, the loss of inner joy.
Sunday, June 16: The important thing in the development of
life is to move as close as we can to where we want to be. If I
can’t be a librarian, I can, nevertheless, volunteer to dust and
rebind the books; I can read to children there on Saturdays;
I can become a private book collector on a rare topic. In all
those things, the love of books will become the center of my
life. Just as I had hoped.
Monday, June 17: Try what you like and count its failure as
one of your best experiences. Don’t despair. Now you know
more about yourself and can put down the empty dreams
and move on in life.
Tuesday, June 18: Life is not about trying once. Life is
about trying forever. As Thomas Edison said, “Our greatest
weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed
is always to try just one more time.”
Wednesday, June 19: What we finally do well has a great
deal to do with what we could not do well. Having the sense
to move out of an environment of relentless failure to find the
rest of ourselves is the basic dimension of self-knowledge.
“I looked out the window one day,” the groundskeeper said
to me, “and I said to myself ‘What am I doing in here at an
architect’s drawing board?’—and left the place. I’ve been
happy ever since.”
Thursday, June 20: Every sailboat finds itself becalmed
sooner or later. So does life. Wait, the wind will rise in you
again and in the meantime the rest will bring you the strength
you need to start over.
Friday, June 21: If you can’t find what you want to do
somewhere around you, you will need to create it. As Walt
Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Begin. Your
life depends on it.
Saturday, June 22: Turbulence, the natural resistance
cycles of life—bad job, bad weather, bad day, bad plans,
bad systems—are all only temporary. It’s the ability to
remember in the midst of them, “This too will pass away,”
that makes all of life possible.
Sunday, June 23: Life is really not made up of things; it is
made up of attitude. And that we can all choose.
Monday, June 24: When passion for life fades, what’s
left to make life livable? Only what we decide to make
meaningful. But that means that we can’t just sit and wait
for it to appear. We need to get up and go find it.
Tuesday, June 25: Life is not about the collection of
hobbies, good as those may be. It’s about being committed
to doing something every single day that makes life better
for someone else.
Wednesday, June 26: To be truly happy we must be
concerned about something greater than ourselves. At
any age. At every age.
Thursday, June 27: What moves us to new levels of heart
and soul in life does not come from one place only. Some
come from pain, some come from pleasure. Both are gifts,
if we will only respond to them. “Poverty,” Jimmy Dean
said, “was the greatest motivating factor in my life.”
Friday, June 28: When life is made up of one goal after
another, we grow from achievement to achievement to the
fullness of ourselves. Or, as Henry David Thoreau says it,
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important
as what you become by achieving your goals.”
Saturday, June 29: Life without a goal is life without the
joy of knowing ourselves to be valuable members of the
human race. “Act as if what you do makes a difference,”
writes William James. “It does.”
Sunday, June 30: The world is waiting for your care, your
concern, your love. Whatever you do, let the world know
that you’re here and your own life will glow. Emile Zola
says of it, “If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I
will tell you: I came to live out loud.”
R
FOR A LISTENING HEART
Sit with the painting and “read” it slowly.
Ask yourself:
What does this painting say?
What does this painting say to me?
What do I want to say to God through this painting?
What difference does this painting make in my life?
What feeling or thought or word does it evoke?
Paul Victor Jules Signac (1863-1935) was a French neo-impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop
the pointillist style. After encountering Monet’s work, Signac abandoned his studies in architecture and became a painter. Signac
also did a great many watercolors. His favorite motifs were of the French coast, including the sea and boats. A leading and eloquent
exponent of Neo-Impressionism both in theory and practice, he embraced an anarchist communist philosophy.
Rigatta near Concarneau, oil on canvas by Paul Signac
Samig. Sir Charles Clore • © Joseph S. Martin - ARTOTHEK
The Monastic Way by Joan Chittister, OSB
Joan Chittister, a leading voice in contemporary spirituality for
more than 30 years, is a best-selling author and international
lecturer. She is a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie.
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