Honour your tradition and escape being trapped in the Present

I read this article from my Jesuit friends today and was struck by the poem by WB Yeats ...

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction; while the worst Are full of passionate intensity."

Does that look like, well, today ? It does to me.



But the article is not about doom and gloom but rather about discovering and building a vibrant present by rediscovering a rich tradition of the past. We throw away old things far too readily in our culture, and become unknowingly prisoners of an eternally shifting thin slice of time called the Present, without roots and purpose other than serving the masters of the day, whatever they may then be. Making money, political correctness, technology, hating the Other, whoever the Other may be. Even in sport, we live in an era where the current best becomes the Best Ever. And fast. The past is thrown away like it never happened or doesn't matter.

We are part of something much, much bigger

We should never become trapped in the past, but all too often we are trapped in the present.

There is a wonderful verse in Jeremiah which feeds me and resonates with my soul:

"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." (Jer 6:16)
You absolutely don't have to become a Jesuit (I am not), but there is a need to root in the best of whatever your tradition is, provided the three most important principles of that tradition are love, love and love.

Article by Loyola Press