The Harried Mystic

Too few churches have preserved the practice of ordaining to the minor orders prior to the diaconate & the priesthood. To my knowledge, only the Liberal Catholic Church, many Old Catholic denominations, and my Order, still do so. These are preparatory, esoteric stages that afford contemplative development as foundation for the major orders to follow. They invite a peaceful abiding and an unhurried time of discernment and a re-conditioning of Psyche.

The minor orders are sacramentals that function as scaffolding alongside the core unfolding of personal Spirit and deepening readiness for the more challenging times and responsibilities ahead.

They are the Orders of:

• Cleric: A 1st charism that invites the postulant to enter a period of “clearing,” a time for examining motivations and practices, and an emptying that makes room for the Holy Spirit.
• Doorkeeper/Porter: The 2nd charism refers to attending to the doorway to one’s heart, and the experiences and relics of personal history that may be blocking the way to true compassion and empathy.
• Lector/ Reader: The 3rd sacramental that focuses on becoming opened to the Logos, the Word, and the development of prayerful scholarship and theology.
• Exorcist/ Healer: The 4th sacramental with emphasis on tapping into the innate capacity in us all to exorcise and heal through intention, beginning with the healing of one’s own neurotic fixations, preoccupations, and egoistic motivations.
• Acolyte: The 5th sacramental on the ladder of spiritual development invites us to experience what it is to serve, and presupposes a thoughtful and deep experience of all the earlier stages of the journey.
• Subdeacon: Time spent experiencing the Eucharist, time in prayer, and summative retreat into the heart of contemplation before receiving te first of the major orders, the diaconate.

As in so many things, the impatience we see in all walks of post-modernity has crept into all areas, including preparation for Holy Orders. In essence, ordination has nothing to do, at least mystically and spiritually, with getting a job, a title, or an office.

In fact, I am convinced that what is really needed is the “worker priest” who is not paid for his/her priestly service, but earns a living in some other way: lawyer, psychologist, accountant, engineer, clerk, secretary, truck driver, physician, police person, teacher, etc. What the ancients had that we need to rediscover is a deep and true sense of mystery. To bring that back will restore the full grandeur of our spiritual adventure.

Preparing for the Beloved, taking great pains to be at our best, is an act of true self-offering and purification, a commitment to giving all that we are, and not holding back or merely committing intellectually or academically split-off parts of ourselves.

Preparation makes the meeting with the Beloved an authentic conversion, a time of true union.

© Brother Anton and The Harried Mystic, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.