At first blush, Daniel Berrigan can seem a strange figure to bring to the task of spiritual formation. In the popular configuration of spirituality as somehow usually to the side of the questions we sequester away with words like “political,” “business,” “public,” “private,” “ecological,” or “economic,” it can be difficult to reckon with a poet priest who burned draft files on camera while reciting the Lord’s Prayer at the height of the Vietnam war. Even if they’re undertaken in the name of life and love and wholeness, such actions often feel unseemly and disruptive, and Berrigan’s career was full of them. To even allude to him can have a polarizing effect on what might have been a calm and straightforward conversation in which we all had a sense of what we were talking about. To really remember Daniel Berrigan is to invite a disruption, to recall the sometimes-unwelcome realization that everything has to do with everything else. Do y’all think everything has to do with everything else? I do.
I love this essay so much—challenged and freed by it! I will be sharing, oh yes. Anything to induce more exorcisms from our robots. Love to you and the fam! 👋🏼
The actions of the Berrigan Brothers when I was a high school student in a Catholic school horrified me. "What are priests doing behaving like this?" ... and that was the beginning of my waking up. I would go on to be arrested demonstrating the war in 1972. This essay has me diving deep. I will share it with many friends and family.
Your essay brought forth my memory of my encounters with those young priest. One or both were pastor of a church in a alternative community in St Louis. I heard them speak several times, and attended a service. We felt such a loss when they were called to minister I think in Chicago.
They were a profound influenced on me. I realize that to “Walk the Walk” it may lead to the cross. Thank you for honoring him. I am 88 now, and walking slower, but still trying.
This was a powerful read. I’ve spent lots of years working through disciplines of Spiritual Formation, becoming an ordained pastor, and finally realizing my simple and straightforward baptismal vow, “to work for justice and peace in all the earth,” could be a central marching order to be a Disciple of Jesus. Thank you for shining a light on the work of the Berigans, which I see now as a deep, faithful (and costly) practice of Christian Spirituality.
I love this essay so much—challenged and freed by it! I will be sharing, oh yes. Anything to induce more exorcisms from our robots. Love to you and the fam! 👋🏼
Great essay, David. Honestly that quote - "Who owned the tradition, anyway; and who was worthy to speak on its behalf?" - is everything.
The actions of the Berrigan Brothers when I was a high school student in a Catholic school horrified me. "What are priests doing behaving like this?" ... and that was the beginning of my waking up. I would go on to be arrested demonstrating the war in 1972. This essay has me diving deep. I will share it with many friends and family.
Your essay brought forth my memory of my encounters with those young priest. One or both were pastor of a church in a alternative community in St Louis. I heard them speak several times, and attended a service. We felt such a loss when they were called to minister I think in Chicago.
They were a profound influenced on me. I realize that to “Walk the Walk” it may lead to the cross. Thank you for honoring him. I am 88 now, and walking slower, but still trying.
This was a powerful read. I’ve spent lots of years working through disciplines of Spiritual Formation, becoming an ordained pastor, and finally realizing my simple and straightforward baptismal vow, “to work for justice and peace in all the earth,” could be a central marching order to be a Disciple of Jesus. Thank you for shining a light on the work of the Berigans, which I see now as a deep, faithful (and costly) practice of Christian Spirituality.