Spiritual Letters

Thursday 25th June, 2020

I have been re introduced to the 'Spiritual Letters' of Abbot John Chapman. First published posthumously in 1935 I have been sent the 2003 edition. The introduction to this latter edition is by Dom Sebastian Moore, now himself deceased. Dom Sebastian was a good friend of mine. He was a man of deep spiritual sensitivity, a writer, a theologian, a poet and a man who could not do without God and a constant in-touchness with Him. He is the man whose last words, as reported to me, were 'It is beautiful and it is not theology'. His life and writings are worthy of study for he sought God constantly. This seeking of God involved his complete self, his sins and his merits, his insights and his outrageousness.

Abbot Chapman's life too was a notable journey, a constant search. His spirituality was questioned and assessed as 'outside the orthodox' by some. He pursued God. He wrote letters to those seeking his advice and his writings on prayer, to me, are utterly authentic and timeless. They feed in to my journey, my search.

Dom Sebastian warns of the 'datedness' of the letters and how some of the theology is simply of a bygone era. He even writes:' Chapman's bloomers are as big as his insights, but they do not occur in the area of prayer..'

In a Memoir of Abbot Chapman Dom Roger Huddleston explains his journey. He notes that towards the end of his life Abbot Chapman absorbed and lived by De Caussade's idea of abandonment to the Divine Will. This abandonment is not a mere resignation and acceptance of everyday but is an actual active acceptance that God's Will is in the present moment. Dom Roger recorded how a few hours before he died Abbot Chapman noted 'if God sees best for me to die, what in the world should one wish to live for?'

Chapman's letters are a deposit of spirituality, a mine worth excavating. Of course, Dom Sebastian is right to warn of that which is not apposite, not timeless but of a particular era and way of thought. So with all things, there is evolution, yet within the evolution is the unalterable principle.

I would give Love as being a timeless principle, an absolute. Social mores and customs and expressions change but the core of Love never does. So with Spirituality: the centrality of prayer, of sensitivity and attentiveness to the numinous, to what we call God.

Many idols have been and are being set up. They are the false gods. The True comes through as we ever search. Chapman's insights aid that search as do Dom Sebastian's.