Ruling it out and taking it in

Tonight spelt out my first evening as part of Vocare – which I believe I have mentioned quite a while back but really not explained.

To cut things short, a small group of us ‘young ones’ are paired with a small group of some ‘older ones’ and we meet every two months over a meal to discuss life and spirituality and “radical discipleship” and the stuff below.

In a nutshell the ‘rules’ if you think Monk style:

1. A commitment to Stewardship

A commitment to explore with others, what it means to bring your lifestyle and career choices under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

2. A commitment to Reflective Spirituality

A weekly commitment to pray for 20 minutes, reflecting on the Prayer of St Francis, the Gospel of Luke, and practicing silent contemplation.

3. A commitment to Active Spirituality

A commitment to participate in an act of public witness to ‘God’s kingdom and his justice’. (Matthew 6:33) every two months.

A commitment to one communal act of public witness to ‘God’s kingdom and his justice’, for the year.

4. A commitment to Gatherings

A commitment to gather together for a shared meal, conversation and learning, once every two months.

5. A commitment to Learning

A commitment to spend some time with a mentor to share learning, once every two months.

A big call? In some ways yes, in others the time commitment and the actuality of it all shouldn’t be hard – I was thinking about it and this should be stuff I am already doing. All the better if I have something to ‘make’ me and people to spur me on.

You will be able to follow the Luke passages we’re collectively going through as I’m fairly sure they’ll be posted on the Advoc8 blog, no doubt I will probably share my thoughts as I think best into words.

What was interesting was that we did talk about rules and the negativity surrounding the word. We established that a rule is much more about a being a corrective than something that boxes you in. It is what you can align yourself with -in this case some discipline into living – and I intend to use it for such.

My ‘mentor’ didn’t happen to be present so that’ll be a whole new thing when I get there.

Please, cheer me on, join with me in as much as you can, share your insights on the Luke passages via Advoc8/here and take a further look at the Prayer of St Francis as it is quite a powerful piece of work. Also if you have ever been involved in something of the sort and/or ‘The Common… (erm something that I’ve forgotten – prayer?)’ I’d love to hear of your experience.

I am quite excited.

While on the subject of rules, John Smulo has been taking a look at the ‘golden rule’ (Which my feed-reader only just picked up), it’s interesting.