The Contemplative Writing of Martin Laird - Nope, Not Today!
All that came just from starting one, simple, daily practice
One of the results of engaging in a practice is the accrual of information and skills (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual) that develop serendipitously. In that sense, and especially if one has an inquiring mind, practices are generative. They elicit unanticipated ideas, pursuits, and activities. For example, I began writing a haiku a day on January 21, 2019, after reading The Art of Pausing: Meditations for The Overworked and Overwhelmed, written by Judith Valente, Br. Paul Quenon, and Michael Bever. From that has come: A monthly haiku and haibun exchange, discussion, video, and book (Framing the Moment: Haiku Conversations) with Amy Hoppock and Davin Carr-Chellman; learning (admittedly, very rudimentary so far) calligraphy; learning, again very much the beginner, crafts; a desire to learn how to use color - as a color blind person I see colors, but in a limited way, so over my life I pretty much dropped anything involving color from my life – no more; daily drawing; and paying attention, especially to nature. To write haikus regularly, one pretty much needs to notice and attempt to capture a present moment.
All that, and more, came just from starting one, simple, daily practice.
The same occurs with my writing practice. For example, I have been thinking about writing an essay about the three powerful books Martin Laird wrote about contemplation: Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation; An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation; and A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation. These are relatively short books, beautifully written and deeply meaningful, each building on the Christian contemplative life. I started writing and realized I needed some information about the author.
I found out that Martin Laird, O.S.A, S.T.L, Ph.D., is a professor at Villanova which, it turns out, is the only Augustinian Catholic university in the United States. You probably knew, but I didn’t, that the" O.S.A." after Fr. Laird’s name means Order of St. Augustine. In tracking that down, I learned that in 1244 a group of hermits in Italy asked to become an order and Pope Innocent IV gave them the Rule of Saint Augustine, and that was, basically, that. The "S.T.L." after his name means he earned his Licentiate of Sacred Theology (he achieved this in 1993, from the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome). The far more pedestrian "Ph.D." after his name was bestowed in 1999 from University of London. Smart fellow.
Who knew?
As I was looking up Fr. Laird’s biographical information at Villanova, I discovered that Sister Ilia Delio (also O.S.F., also Ph.D.) likewise is a professor at Villanova, in the same department as Dr. Laird, and though she doesn’t have one of those fancy S.T.L’s, she holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology. Nothing to sniff at, au contraire. I’m familiar with Dr. Delio through her more public work with the Center for Christogenesis and, specifically, her focus on the Jesuit scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. If you were to look briefly at the Center’s site, you might come to the conclusion that she is just another New Age type spiritual writer. You would be wrong. She brings profound depth – way beyond what I can grok – to her work.
What began as the intent to share some wisdom from Martin Laird’s three profound books about the practice of contemplation, became a rabbit hole for me – learning about the Augustinian Order, what a S.T.L is, and now about Dr. Delio – I knew she was smart, but who knew the depth of her education, research, and writing?
Practices never have to end. There is always more to learn. They become ever richer experiences. They result in abundance, often, as people want to share what they have learned or created with others.
One of these days I will write about The Silent Land, An Ocean of Light, and A Sunlit Absence. Today, it’s been fun learning a little, tiny bit about what and who undergirds them.
Sources/Resources
Laird, M. (2006). Into the silent land: A guide to the Christian practice of contemplation. Oxford University Press.
Laird, M. S. (2011). A sunlit absence: Silence, awareness, and contemplation. Oxford University Press.
Hoppock, A, Kroth, M., & Carr-Chellman, D., (2021) Framing the Moment: Haiku Conversations. Independently Published.
Laird, M. S. (2019). An ocean of light: Contemplation, transformation, and liberation. Oxford University Press.
Valente, J., Quenon, P., & Bever, M. (2013). The art of pausing: Meditations for the overworked and overwhelmed. ACTA Publications.
Sites
The Augustinian Order, https://www.augustinian.org/order
For background on the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum: http://www.patristicum.org/storia
Dr. Delio’s Center for Christogenesis: https://christogenesis.org/
