Contemplative Group

This week, we continued our journey through the labyrinth by contemplating the "self." It was a wonderful expression of communal practice through the questioning and questing of subjectivity.

As we journeyed together, we discovered that we do not possess one, unified identity. Rather, we explored the depths of our fragmented subjectivity. We let go of the illusions and fictions we hold together around a unified identity, and we endeavored to delve into the many masks we wear in our lives.

As a spiritual practice, the practice of subjectivity is a difficult path to follow because it comprises who we "are" at any given moment in time. We attempt to present this unified "self" before God, but when we do so, we are not being completely honest with our "selves" or with God. For, we are multi-faceted and polysemic expressions of the Divine, and we must embrace our multiplicity. Whatever we think we are doing, we are always already constructing our subjectivities in the background of who we believe ourselves to "be."

Like a set designer of a play, we construct props and sets for the play of our "self." Some are forgotten, some are altered over the years, some are given too much attention, and some need to be destroyed. By holding on to certain aspects of our "self," we are limiting our own spiritual growth and healing. It is only through the intentional practice of letting go that we truly come towards wholeness within the fragmented multiplicity of our own subjectivities.

For further contemplation: "To be a self is to possess and to be possessed by a name. For every self, the primal scene is the scene of nomination - a scene of naming and being named. This nomination is a vocation, a call that is both a blessing and a curse. A name awakens identity by calling forth, setting apart, establishing difference. Only by a name can the slumberous innocence of anonymity be overcome. This 'gift' is not, however, a simple given. Vocation poses a task - the task of a lifetime. Thus 'the difficulty begins with the name.' The identity bestowed by naming opens rather than closes the drama of selfhood. By marking the paradoxical coincidence of freedom and fate, the name forces each self to decide 'How One Becomes What One Is.'" Mark C. Taylor, Erring: A Postmodern A/theology

Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can...