REFLECTIONS ON NEW WINE IN OLD SKINS I: New paradigms happen because of new assumptions.

In a much wider sense, the analogy of wineskins fits perfectly with what I consider a paradigm change that happens inexorably. The problem is, that we notice it and don’t learn from it, or we don’t learn it and continue to always do what always did so that we always get what we always got. Here are some of my reflections on reality using this metaphor from what happens in my life when I place new wine in old skins.

The Question About Fasting.^o
33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.”
34^* Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests^* fast while the bridegroom is with them?
35 But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”
36^* And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
37 Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.
38Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.
39[And] no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”^*
A commentary adds:
* [5:39] The old is good: this saying is meant to be ironic and offers an explanation for the rejection by some of the new wine that Jesus offers: satisfaction with old forms will prevent one from sampling the new. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/5

Luke 5

In no particular order of importance, here are some random thoughts that shriek randomly through my consciousness during prayer today.

I. THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE IS THE NEW WINE. The Christ Principle is always new and always that which all reality moves towards as nature intended. Henri Teilhard de Chardin calls this Point Omega in his book, The Phenomenon of Man. https://archive.org/stream/ThePhenomenonOfMan/phenomenon-of-man-pierre-teilhard-de-chardin_djvu.txt. I encourage you to take the time to read this book. The difficulty with The Christ Principle being both new and immutable is a mystery of our Faith. Not that is not beyond our ability to at least know about it, but more so because we don’t have the mindset to know what to do with it. A principle is a mental construct from which all flows and into which all trends.

The notion of new wine means that this Christ Principle makes all things new. What is truly remarkable is that at the same time change happens, and all things remain the same.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.”^d

5The one who sat on the throne^* said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then he said, “Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true.”^e

He said to me, “They are accomplished.^* I [am] the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water.^f

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/revelation/21

II. MY RESPONSIBILITY AS AN ADOPTED SON (DAUGHTER) OF THE FATHER IS TO SEEK NEW WINESKINS.

When I am Baptized into Christ, I am baptized into the Eucharistic Community of the Church Universal, the living water in each age which sustains me while I wait for my life to change. Baptism provides me with the opportunity to place myself in the presence of Christ using Lay Cistercian practices with their charisms (remember, I only speak of my experiences). If The Christ Principle is the WHAT AND THE WHY, then the HOW is the new wineskin, made present every day as I offer my Morning Offering to the Father through Jesus. I felt called to the Lay Cistercians because of this HOW, using Cistercian practices that led to my designing a unique Cistercian Way for my situation.

• I take upon myself certain daily practices (as I can) to form a pattern of living or a Lay Cistercian Way, tailored only to my life situations. I am not you; you are not me; God is not us; and we, most certainly, are not God. Community with other Lay Cistercians, those at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery (Trappist) and Auxiliaries throughout the State of Florida and all over the world, bind me with the professed promises I made to the Abbot, Dom Augustine, O.C.S.O., in May of 2018.
• When I was a younger version of myself (still a broken-down, old temple of the Holy Spirit in 2014 when I was a novice, my routine looked like this:
  • Liturgy of the Hours at Blessed Sacrament Parish Chapel almost every day but Sunday, followed by daily Rosary, followed by Eucharist.
  • Monthly Gathering Day at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery, Conyers, GA (a five-hour, each-way car ride alone). I usually went up the night before and stayed at a local motel in Conyers. Georgia.
  • Lectio at three or four times per day for ten minutes.
  • Writing down my thoughts in a blog since 2017. https://thecenterforcontemplativepractice.org
  • Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel at Good Shepherd.
• My routine now is that I am more debilitated with mobility problems, my plumbing leaks, my electrical system doesn’t work (Pacemaker), and my mind is not what it used to be (if it ever was that).
  • Brother Michael from the Monastery told us as Juniors, “Pray as you can when you can.” What great insights. Now, as a more broken-down, old temple of the Holy Spirit, Lay Cistercian, here is my schedule at 83.6 years. Here are my new wineskins.
  • I am not able to attend Eucharist but once in a blue moon.
  • I don’t go to Church to join others in the Liturgy of the Hours, as I used to do.
  • I say the Rosary now only sporadically, not daily, or, more accurately when I can remember to do so. As I evolve in my new reality with my Church being the upper room of my inner self, I still reserve the Blessed Sacrament in my heart.
  • I now do Lectio Divina as much as five times a day, linking them together as fifteen-minute modules rather than a two-hour, one-time meditation.
  • My attention span is gradually becoming less and less. Gone are the days when I could spend two or three contiguous hours writing down my thoughts to share with you.
  • I have a desire to put some of my ideas on YouTube using Zoom or some other video technology, but I am just by myself and don’t have the money to move to that step. Were I ten years younger, I would sell all I have (which is not much) and follow Christ through YouTube or WordPress.com?
  • Once a month, I attend the gathering of Lay Cistercians via Zoom for several hours, again being unable to sustain my attention past a certain point without anxiety and a strong urge to sleep. It is my willingness to give Christ what I have, not what I should do, that allows my mind to do what I can and make my whole waking life a prayer (although I don’t think of it overtly each minute).

I term this movement away from what I should do to what I can do, in the context of silence, solitude, prayer, work, in the context of multiple faith communities, being a situational Catholic. I am not the Catholic I was even one year ago, having a purpose to “Have in me the mind of Christ Jesus” every day. (Philippians 2:5) My rule now is just to be aware that I must “…love God with all my heart, all my mind, and all my strength and my neighbor as myself,” each day, and place this at the core of what it means to be human at my deepest level. (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:36)

III. I DON’T SEEK TO PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF GOD TO ATHEISTS, OR OTHER CATHOLICS, BUT RATHER TRY TO CONVERT MYSELF FROM MY FALSE SELF TO MY TRUE HUMAN SELF EACH DAY BY WAITING IN THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST.

Simplicity is one of those charisms or by-products of just waiting in the presence of Christ with humility and obedience to God’s will for me as discerned with the energy of the Holy Spirit. My vertical spirituality has grown exponentially as I have gradually learned to abandon my humanity and its assumptions only to find out that, in dying to self, I have all that I valued before (minus the evil) plus the ability to access Christ by just waiting, listening with the ear of the heart (St. Benedict’s Prologue to the Rule), and consciously becoming still to the ontic possibility of all being encountered in my Lectio Divina exercises.

I try to love those who hold differing views from my approach to The Christ Principle, yet vigorously maintain what I believe in how reality looks and what it means.

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