The Cloister Spiritual Life

Cloister in Fontfroide Abbey

I fell in love with a cloister, the first time I ever had an opportunity to visit an Abbey and walk in one.
There's something very beautiful and peaceful about the cloister.  If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, it is an enclosed walkway open to a center area that is usually a garden.  The building in the picture is always to the outside, and the central area is always open...the cloister is the walkway that transitions the two places and joins them as one.
It's like this, the outside is inside.  It's private, quiet and beautiful.  It's peaceful and serene, calming and full of awe.  I don't know for certain who invented them.  I've seen remnants 1000+ yrs old.
I was thinking about cloisters a couple of weeks ago.  I said then, if I had enough money, I'd buy enough land to build a cloistered retreat center.  I'd make one of the building a kitchen and large dining area; another end for relaxation, social gatherings, worship and study areas also.  I'd make the connecting areas various living quarters so that people could come to rest, eat with one another, worship together and most of all, walk the cloisters and the garden.  The things we dream if only.

I thought about cloisters also when I thought about my life with God.  Most of us create a space for God-time.  We may read our bibles a bit, pray a bit, maybe even pick up a devotional book to read.  We worship with folk on Sundays, or perhaps join a bible study, men's fellowship, or women's fellowship during the week.  The rest of the time we live doing everyday life stuff.  We go to work, come home to eat, watch some tv, take care of kids baths and bed, pay some bills, etc...and then we go to bed and start it all over again the next day.

If one thinks about it, you realize that nothing in life happens if we don't become intentional about doing it and making it a part of our everyday life.  I am learning some German these days.  I try to sit down everyday with a phrase book and learn how to say two or three phrases.  The problem is that when I return the next day I can't remember what I learned the day before!  Why?  Because adding a brief time for something that requires an intentional effort rarely makes things become a part of our lives.

So also the Spiritual life.  The first big misunderstanding about the nature of our live with God and the work of his Spirit inside of us is that it just happens...instantly...constantly.  To be sure, it's not a matter of whether we have the Holy Spirit or not:  1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV) 
¹⁶  Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

It is not a matter of "do we have", but rather "what are we doing with what we have?"  Look at these verses from Paul's letter to the Galatians.  Galatians 5:16-25 (ESV) 

¹⁶  But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
¹⁷  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 

And a few verses later he says it like this:
²²  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
²³  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
²⁴  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
²⁵  If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.  

Did you see in vss 16 & 25 that we are to "walk", "keep in step" with the Spirit.  That should tell us that it's possible to do.  It's not a hollow command, it is an admonition to practice this in your life.  Sort of like, practicing German...intentionally, regularly with a measured sense of "how well is this going?"

When I came to faith in Christ, that is the intentional faith of commitment, I was just 20 years old.  The Spirit of God, according to scripture, came to dwell within me; but I did not know that.  I spent the majority of those early years trying to "work out my salvation" in the energy of my own flesh.  Try to be loving, kind, joyful, good, faithful when you only have your own will to try to make things happen.  It's a up and down ride much like being tossed back and forth in the sea...not much fun to get a glimpse of the horizon once in a while.  

Walking in step with the Spirit is a realization that the Holy Spirit is God's gift to us -  a downpayment on eternal life Paul says in Eph. 1; but also the one who energizes life, who gives insight to what's going on just as a tutor describes the problem to a student.  He is the one who shows "not this" but "this" in practices, habits, relationships, behavior, etc...  Much like being married, there is intimacy over time that "knows" beyond knowing about, or knowing of, someone.  Paul makes a comment on this life:  Colossians 2:6-7 

⁶  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
⁷  rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  

"Rooted"...a great metaphor.  There's nothing instantaneous about roots; but when you plant them into the ground, with proper amounts of water, sunshine and temperature, they'll grow...firmly establish themselves in the soil, and then bloom.  

We also need to grow...get planted...draw nourishment...become strong and deep.

The cloister reminds me that there really is no such thing as a spiritual journey - because the spiritual is not a destination, but a place of quiet peace and beauty no matter what is going on outside.

Peace