august 28 2005

DO NOT CONFORM YOURSELVES TO THIS AGE Rom 12:1-2

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

The message that I get from Saint Paul is to be steadfast in the ways of the Lord above any calling from the ways of our times. To let God and not the culture of my time transform me. The transformation of God will be a renewal of my mind to the way of God. My body is not my own but God's. This is a reading that comes to mind often when there are pressures to follow the ways of our dominant culture which is very centered on materialism, consumerism and the accumulation of personal and social hierarchical powers.

I have had struggles recently to get all of my needed tools for a new job but at the same time to live in the way of the monastic simply with only what is necessary. At times it is a real balancing act. I must keep in the forefront of my awareness the message to not be conformed to the age but to be transformed in the mind by God