Intercessory.
The most significant gifts are the ones most easily overlooked. Small, everyday blessings: woods, health, music, laughter, memories, books, family, friends, second chances, warm fireplaces, and all the footprints scattered throughout our days.
~ Sue Monk Kidd
pilgrimage 5.
By the time you read this, I expect we will have spent several nights in Spanish monasteries along the Camino such as the Monasterio de Zenaruzza above. As you probably know, I’m a wannabe monk. Not the single kind, not the stone cell kind, and definitely not the itchy wool habit kind. More of the walk-in-the-woods, nothing-on-my-calendar, wine-drinking kind! But honestly, I love the way that monastics have, for many centuries now, thumbed their nose at the violent, competitive, colonizing culture we seem to eternally be saddled with and have determined to create a world that looks more like the Kingdom that Jesus talked about: simple labors, simple prayers, deep community, and compassionate service.
When I reference the spirituality of the monastic tradition in my teaching, sometimes I get push-back… some version of “But didn’t monks just abandon the real world to live out their calling in some kind of make-believe world?” The short answer is no, but the longer answer is a bit more nuanced…
There is a wide spectrum of engagement among different monastic orders. The mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Carmelites) are entirely committed to travel and urban ministry; they do not own property, do not work at a trade, and are devoted to serving the poor.
Others like the Benedictines, Trappists, and Cistercian orders (all of which follow the Rule of St. Benedict in slightly different ways) are more withdrawn: They bind themselves for life to a specific geographical place—a monastery. Their rhythm of manual labor and daily prayers (ora et labora) revolves around a life in community with one another… while they also practically serve the larger community they inhabit as teachers, spiritual directors, and of course priests.
Yet in my periodic stays at monasteries around the world, I have observed something that’s not immediately apparent: Even the work that goes on entirely within the monastery, prayer for instance, is conducted on behalf of the larger world. And beyond even their work and prayer is their very existence; their entire posture as those who have withdrawn from the general commercial endeavors of the world is intercessory. Here’s what I mean…
Albert Einstein famously said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” As that applies to the many tragic maladies of our world, this is apparent. Humans have had every opportunity over the last century at least to solve all war, hunger, and most disease… but we don’t because of our level of consciousness, or unconsciousness as the case may be. People have to be “baptized” as it were into a new redemptive consciousness in order to solve the problems that haunt us most. This was Jesus’ entire focus, which he addressed through a rhythm of engagement and withdrawal. But Jesus’ withdrawals were not merely for the purpose of personal renewal; they were intercessory.
I have come to believe that the lifestyle of monks (at least those who have indeed taken on a redemptive consciousness) is an equally intercessory posture: They model the Kingdom life, not perfectly but very consciously. Their simplicity of life confronts most of the deceptions and consumptions that erode the Kingdom life from within those of us who spend most of our time in engagement. Their prayers are the most obviously intercessory activity, but the point I’m trying to make is that their very being is intercessory. Their lives form an anchor that resists the slippage of humanity into the abyss.
I actually have an intimate friend who most closely approximates the monastic life without being an actual monk. He lives more simply and frugally than anyone I know. He “accomplishes” very little in the sense of visible productivity. Instead, he offers a profound presence to anyone who needs it, without fees, and he… lives. He prays, he eats, he meets individually with people who are spiritually hungry, he rests, and he repeats. Most of the world does not know or understand or respect this man, but I do. I respect him immensely, and I believe God does as well. More than that, I believe his life forms an unspoken but actual intercession for the rest of us.
Why am I talking about this? First, because our own anticipated pilgrimage will, I believe, carry some of this quality. Walking 500 miles doesn’t accomplish anything that this world values, but I think the spiritual world speaks otherwise. What’s more, I believe that each of our lives can carry more of a pilgrim sensibility—where we too travel lighter, consume less, share generously, and hold an intercessory posture for the needs of the world by our prayerful presence. What do you think?
growing your soul
How might your life—rightly oriented toward the Kingdom of God—become intercessory?
serving our world
What griefs in the world would you want your life’s intercession to help or heal?
takeaway
Your life is a prayer.