Introductory notes for readers of this thesis - Theses - Flinders ...

How tiresome, feeble-minded, short-sighted, and tyrannical ‘office holders’ in theChurch appear to me to be at times, in the worst sense, conservative and clerical.And when they unctuously and irritatingly display their noble intentions and theirselflessness, it becomes even more annoying because I only too rarely hear thempublicly and audibly confess their errors and mistaken judgements, but instead askthat we today believe in their infallibility and forget what major blunders andtransgressions they committed the day before. How often are they morallyoutraged about a certain incident—their righteous anger about some socialarrangement or other, the reason for which I see less clearly. They do a great dealof moralising, yet far less is heard of the ecstatic joy, bursting hearts and minds,prompted by the message of Your grace in which You bestow Your very self. Andindeed, would that greater perspective were included in their trite homilies; wouldthat they made so much as a passing reference in praise of Your magnificentgrace, the abundance of life, which You impart to us 104 .The three key Ignatian ideas behind Karl Rahner’s spirituality of silence are a spiritualityof direct divine encounter through silence and solitude; a spirituality of leadership thatactively seeks to discern the rhythm and balance between proclamation andcontemplation; and a way of being within the church that emphasises a mutuality ofsubmission in spiritual direction that involves listening to the content experienced byindividuals in graced silence as well as to the pronouncements and conclusions ofscholars, exegetes and ecclesial office holders. The Ignatian Rahner points the way to aspirituality of profound reverence for the sovereignty, mystery and creativity of God thatvalidates both individual freedom and the discipline of mutuality in the corporate lifeshared in Christ.104 K. Rahner, Prayers for a Lifetime, Raffelt, A. ed. (New York: Crossroad, 1995), 15.53