Just Going Through the Motions

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I’m liking this. . .

Another thought, not entirely separate. . .

Ritual, “just going through the motions,” can be a mode of quieting the spirit. The template of ritual decreases concentration on self.

It was johnnycatholic’s point about not feeling “good at religion” at times which compels this line of thought. . .

Perhaps, part of the virtue of ritual is that it is initiative. Perhaps the ritual is what makes you familiar. It makes you family. Just going through the motions is like just pulling up in the folks’ driveway on Christmas morning. . .just opening the same front door you’ve opened for years. . .just sitting at the same spot at the table and eating the same meal your mother serves. . .just saying the same old thing to Pop and knowing his response. . .just Knowing that some Christmases are warmer than others and next year we may get snow.
Perhaps the ritual provides the blocking for what is ultimately God’s movement.
Perhaps just going through the motions is the emptying of self that God would fill you up.

And TS. . .it was in that oddball corner I was looking for!
 
JaneFrances said:
I’m liking this. . .

Another thought, not entirely separate. . .

Ritual, “just going through the motions,” can be a mode of quieting the spirit. The template of ritual decreases concentration on self.

It was johnnycatholic’s point about not feeling “good at religion” at times which compels this line of thought. . .

Perhaps, part of the virtue of ritual is that it is initiative. Perhaps the ritual is what makes you familiar. It makes you family. Just going through the motions is like just pulling up in the folks’ driveway on Christmas morning. . .just opening the same front door you’ve opened for years. . .just sitting at the same spot at the table and eating the same meal your mother serves. . .just saying the same old thing to Pop and knowing his response. . .just Knowing that some Christmases are warmer than others and next year we may get snow.
Perhaps the ritual provides the blocking for what is ultimately God’s movement.
Perhaps just going through the motions is the emptying of self that God would fill you up.

And TS. . .it was in that oddball corner I was looking for!
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When I hear about the charismatics, or someone starts carrying on about “spirit soaking” I like to remember Kings when Elijah hid from God and there was a mighty wind and an earthquake and then a little whisper and God was in the little whisper. this is why when I find myself going into great emotional states of prayer, or thinking I’ve hit on a mystical experience, or encounter the thing called “being slain in the spirit” I immediately force myself into rote prayer, become very ritualistic, very dry. Because God is to be found when there is less of us and more room for Him. I think of Spirit Soaking and all that as the wind and the earthquake Elijah experienced and that little burst of confidence one receives when going through rote prayer or ritual things as the little whisper.
 
I went through the motions until I am 20 years old, and I recognized the love of God for me.
And not until I am 40 that I really, truly believe and experience the Real Presence.

Looking back, I am glad and grateful that my mother made me “go through the motions”,

Tak
 
Lewis addresses this issue in “The Weight of Glory” I think.
 
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