April 2012 Archives

                Simone Weil was a political figure of sorts that taught philosophy until she became involved in worker's rights. She labored on a farm and in an auto factory.  She escaped Germany's invasion of France, but died of consequences due to her refusal to eat more than what her people were being fed in France. She was Jewish, hence the necessity to escape Germany's invasion of France, but life brought her to Catholicism. In 1942, she wrote an essay about Christian's and their school studies. She writes of attention and how it is truly only given to God during prayer. However, school exercises can command a lower type of attention. Weil believed that through school exercises, students would be able to strengthen their attention to prayer.

                Weil believed there were two conditions to the idea that student's work could strengthen the student's attention to God during prayer. The first condition is that students cannot contribute their attention to school studies unless they contribute them equally to all subjects and without any desire to pass tests or get good grades. She contends that without the wish to do the work correctly, the work cannot be approached with true effort.  The second condition Weil mentions is that students must revisit each and every task we fail in order to learn and find the origin of our fault.  She does say that it is enough to simply wish to be able to do this if it is not possible. Weil talks about how students focus by muscular efforts and this is what makes us tired, not the work we accomplish. Will power has no place in Weil's equation. She brings in the factor of joy in work that would accurately prepare them for spiritual life. True attention is very difficult, especially in our sinful, fragile nature. She points out that if school studies were like this, they would be like sacraments. In like sacraments would be exercises to strengthen our connection with God.

                I believe that Weil has many points that humans do not usually take into consideration.  It is true that prayer is supposed to be true attention to God, and I find it funny that she assumed we are all able to do that.  If we were unable to focus on schoolwork, she had such great faith to believe we still could have 100% attentive eyes on God whilst in prayer. That is a pure faith. I think that in a perfect world, prayer would be our undivided, whole-hearted attention. However, I suspect that this is not true most of the time. I absolutely wish that we as students could focus our attention evenly among all subjects and find joy in all subjects. As a student and as a sinful human being, I can honestly say I do not find joy in all my class subjects and I easily focus on some work compared to others. I would love to live in this situation that Simone Weil wrote of in this essay.

       The Vespers service that took place on Thursday April 19^th, 2012 in the Chapel was a beautiful celebration of God and his children. The service consisted of choir songs, psalms readings, prayers, and audience participation. Some of the songs were split so as to have half the church singing one part and the other half another. Many of the choir members had solos, and each was beautifully sung. The readers and the prayers were inspiring as well as vocalized perfectly. There was a "practice" service of a few of the songs and prayers in the Chapel earlier that day and this concert was a perfect evolution of that event.

      The Vespers service is traditionally an evening service to celebrate Easter, so it technically is a little off on the timing. However, the participation by everyone is what made it a true church celebration and so much more than just a choir concert. This service was different than other choir concerts due to the collaboration of so many moving parts: the organist, the choir, the audience, the conductor, the chapel workers, the musicians, and those people who lit all the candles. One of which was a member of our very own honors group. This celebration was truly effective due to the overall teamwork of Concordia University and those that make it.

       I wholeheartedly enjoyed this Vespers service. I went into it thinking that this was going to be another dark choir concert that I would have trouble staying awake during, however; it was completely the opposite. The chapel was well lit, the audience was kept involved, and the songs were incredibly touching. Serving Jesus with such a great group of people that were all involved was such an amazing experience and I hope to have many more like it.

            The famous monk Father Zossima uses eloquent words to get his opinion across on views of Western ideas and their view of the monastic life. He begins by describing some of the slurs and negative conations that Western ideas have spread about the monastic life. He agrees that some monastics live up to these "expectations" that have been set by Western nonbelievers. Yet he continues to talk about how there are true monks that are simply living what they believe to be the truest form of a Christian life. Zossima seems to not understand why the monastic life would be judged simply by their beliefs that they are living the best life they can according to God. He then goes into deep description of what he believes the monastic life to be and why it is the correct way to live. He concurs with some ideas such as that the monastic way of life is very different, and even quite possibly extreme.

            Zossima seems to be attempting to meet some of his critics halfway by admitting that monastic life has its faults. However; he still stands up for his lifestyle and as the reading goes on he does get a bit more self-righteous about said lifestyle.  He begins speaking of the monastic lifestyle as the only way to truly be with God and do right by God. He talks of the seclusion of solitary life as becoming less and less common in the world and that is why monastic life is looking more and more foolish. Alas, he does interpret his own lifestyle as the highest form of worship and has an obvious bias.

            I liked Zossima's excerpt less and less as I read through. At first, it seemed he was going to show a different view of monasticism, but all he truly did was bash Western ideas. He still viewed his monastic life as the holiest of all ways to live, but he slightly agreed that some monastics do not live up to what the true meaning of being a monk is. I appreciated that he was willing to admit that not all monks are the holiest of the holy, because according to the medieval readings that we had once read, being a monastic meant you were a holier human being and Zossima acknowledges that not all monks live up to what they are supposed to be.