About me…
I am Sister Macrina Walker, ocso, a Cistercian monastic of Koningsoord Abbey in the Netherlands. This means that I live seeking God “under a rule and an abbess” in a community whose life is ordered around a rhythm of prayer, work and reading.
I am originally from South Africa and I studied and briefly taught theology in what is beginning to seem like a rather distant past. My theological formation occurred primarily in an ecumenical, critical, liberationist and feminist context and my own work reflected this context. But I also had questions about the role of tradition in theology and became increasingly aware of the shortcomings of a typically Western modern-cum-postmodern theology that is cut of from the life of faith and the tradition of the Church. These concerns have continued since entering monastic life and have received further stimulus through limited contact with Eastern Christianity. Moreover, I have realised my own lack of background in much of historical Christianity and have become increasingly uncomfortable with what now seems the superficiality of some of my earlier easy judgements. Although I remain critical I now long for a deeper conversation that can help to overcome the polarisation in the Church and which can focus us on the things that really matter.
About this blog…
I was initially rather hesitant at the idea of a blog! Not only do I have questions around the way technology and the internet are changing human communication, but these questions also have particular bearing on monastic life with its emphasis on maintaining a certain distance from human society. However, having not done very much serious theological reading for some years, I am now getting down to some more disciplined reading and it seemed important to find a framework and a space in which to process this. Moreover, having been out of practise at writing in recent years I need a certain stimulus to force me to write!
Thus my primary purpose in starting the blog is to create a space and a framework in which I can process what I read. A secondary purpose is to make available a course that I am writing on the Fathers of the Church. [Update: it will take a while before I get to posting any of this.] And it will hopefully also be a space for sharing texts that I come across and which may be helpful to others. But we shall have to see how it evolves.
About the name…
Readers may recognise the allusion in the name of the blog to Thomas Merton’s journal extracts published in 1988. “A vow of conversation” is a play on words, for “conversation” refers both to the discussion that the blogosphere enables, but it also refers to the monastic vow of “conversatio morum” which Merton refers to as both the most essential and the most puzzling of the vows. In essence it means a commitment to an ongoing conversion, to a continuing transformation of one’s whole being … which is of course nothing other than the fundamental message of the Gospel itself.
I hesitated to use this title, as I don’t really want to identify myself as a Merton groupie. (I appreciate his writing but am a bit uncomfortable with the cult that has arisen around him). But I find this play on words helpful in defining what I am concerned with. If this blog gets any readers then a certain conversation may emerge (although to what extent I can enter into that remains to be seen as time is limited). Perhaps more importantly though, I see it as a stimulus to furthering my own conversation with the Christian tradition. But the point of this conversation is not abstract knowledge or merely interesting discussion but rather an engagement that leads to transformation.
For the truth that lies at the heart of theology is not something there to be discovered, but something, or rather someone, to whom we must surrender. The mystery of faith is not ultimately something that invites our questioning, but something that questions us.
Andrew Louth, Discerning the Mystery. An Essay on the Nature of Theology (Oxford: Clarendon, 1983) 95.
April 7, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Thank you for the connection of conversation to Merton. I wondered whether your feelings for conversation bespoke of David Tracy. Alas. The voices have it, or the silence does, blessings to you in both. When as a Quaker I’d join open meditations hosted by Carmelite sisters in Indianapolis (Indiana, US), I felt myself an awkward companion for the Breviary. It took a while to hear. Then, Madame Guyon got to me more deeply than Merton. I may need to listen to Merton, again.
Jim
April 7, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Sorry, I’m told its etiquette to leave a signature (http://www.blogger.com/profile/07674489078935633842).
Jim
April 8, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Thanks, Jim. The relationship between speech and silence is something I want to pursue more as well as the fact that language is much more than verbal language! I’m afraid that while I read a fair bit of Tracy quite a while ago, I’m pretty hazy on him now.
November 22, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I didn’t know you had a blog! So glad for your recent comment on my blog so that I could find this. I had never heard of “A Vow of Conversation” until yesterday when I saw it on a book shelf at a bookstore. Then lo and behold, I stumble upon your blog yesterday too! Glad to have found this. Thanks, Sister Macrina. And as always, it is a pleasure to have you visit at A Nun’s Life. You bring a good perspective and well-thought-out articulations of issues. Blessings.
November 23, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Sr Julie,
Thank you, and welcome!
November 30, 2008 at 9:32 am
[...] thanks to the entertaining and informing Saint for his recent post on Sister Macrina’s blog about the Syrian Fathers: a particular love, and interest, of [...]
December 18, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Greetings Sister Macrina,
I wanted to say that your blog is wonderful, and a true benefit to my journey in Christ.
Thank you for all your efforts!
In Christ,
Andrew
December 19, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Andrew,
Many thanks for your kind and encouraging words!
January 6, 2009 at 4:24 am
Dear Sis. Macrina,
Your blog is incredible! Keep up the posts, I’ve learned many great things that have helped me personally.
In Christ,
Mary
January 6, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Mary, Many thanks, and blessings.
March 28, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I just found your blog. You write from a lovely spirit. I look forward to conversing with you in the future.
Nepsis
http://newmillenia.wordpress.com
March 28, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Nepsis, Thank you for your kind words.
April 16, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Hello!
i found this page cos iam looking after book about Syrian Monks.
Pleas can u help me where or how can i get this book!
My best rsgards
April 17, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Simon,
I’m not sure exactly what you’re looking for. If you want a general introduction to the Syrian Fathers, with extracts from their writings, The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, Introduced and Translated by Sebastian Brock (Kalamazoo, Cistercian Publications, 1987) is a good place to start. If you’re looking for a history of Syrian monascticism, I can’t think of anything in English offhand, but I am very far from being an expert! If I think of something I’ll get back to you.
You might also be interested in this site. The did have an encyclopedia project, but it doesn’t seem to be working at present.