Week 4: At Home with Thomas Kelly

The charismatic stream invites us into a great opening of the soul–
an opening to Divine possibilities, to Divine Mystery itself.

Throughout my teen and young adults years, I belonged to a vibrant a charismatic worshiping community. The presence of God was real and palpable, and I have witnessed many miracles that kept me in the faith when intellectual quandaries and experiences of suffering left me feeling unhinged. I could sense God’s Spirit at a young age, and was sensitive to whispers far before I knew my own heart.

Interestingly, with all the unexpected and miraculous experiences of God, I had never thought of or heard about God as a Mystery— that there were aspects of His nature that were beyond, unknown. Our community was very focused on understanding the ways of God and experiencing God. There was certainly a collective surrender to the uncertainty of the encounter, particularly in worship together. And yet even with anticipation of surprise, God was described as consistent, steadfast, powerful— never Mystery.
Perhaps this is because it felt too mystical, almost magical.
Maybe we avoided this word because it implied that God was less personable, less knowable.
I wonder if we avoided “mystery” because it required an even greater relinquishing of control.

However, in practice, when one opened the self up to His Spirit, there were endless possibilities. God was always working, always more, always doing more, and yes, even calling us to things we never would have planned ourselves. I remember often wondering, What will God call me to in this time of prayer or worship? What stirrings would arise in my soul? How would I feel or act in this encounter? Was I truly open to whatever God asked of me, no matter what the cost?

God was alive and active, and even if we were afraid to say it, wonderfully mysterious.

Perhaps this is why the work of Thomas Kelly moved me so profoundly this week.
His excerpt titled “Becoming a Holy Sanctuary of Adoration” lingered with me for days after the first read–
I’ve revisited it over and over— on the pages, in my mind, in my prayers.  
One afternoon I impulse-purchased  A Testament of Devotion and Reality of the Spiritual World online, checking the mail each afternoon to see if they have arrived yet. (They haven’t.) 
I’ve even chosen the “suggested exercises” from his portion of Foster’s text because, lingering in the wake of his words, this seems to be my only true response. 

Phrases like the “inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, the Divine Center” and
“heart religion” and
“Inward Light” and
“Divine Touch”
all bring me to my own center,
the place in the core of me where I feel steadily at rest,
in communion with the God of all things. 

At first, I began to think that the profundity of Kelly’s work was in the mere ordering of the chapters within the “Spirit Empowered Life.” Being first in the selection, it quenched my initial thirst. And then, perhaps, it was my own relatability to his experience as an educator, teaching all around the country, that drew me to his writing.

But as I’ve sat in Kelly’s words this week, allowing them to wash over me, and to also inform my own experiences of Divine communion, I’ve sensed a deeper drawing than mere order or relatability. There is a spirit kinship with Kelly through his intimate descriptions of the “with God life.” Like Foster, I’ve found it bring me to tears.”[1] His descriptions of God and our experiences with Him draw us into such deep longing, such sweet anticipation, that we cannot help but desire another moment with the Divine Mystery. 

Thomas Kelly’s work has ordered my thoughts and readings on the charismatic stream. His emphasis on the inner life forming the roots of the spiritual life is the central theme of this week’s readings. While we often think of the charismatic stream in terms of its “outward expression” and gifts or as Kelly would say, the “fruit” of the spiritual life, the true charismatic life springs firstly from the interior depths: 

“A practicing Christian must above all be one who practices the perpetual return of the soul into the inner sanctuary, who brings the world into its Light and rejudges it, who brings the Light into the world with all its turmoil and its fitfulness and re-creaties it.”[2] 

Those truly empowered but the Spirit know that the primary work of the Christian does not begin by bringing the Light out but making sure one returns in. Such a proper ordering ensures validity, discernment, and power in our exterior expressions, illustrating a truly spirit-empowered life. And while most saints honor the “simultaneity” that Kelly argues for in prayer and awareness, the first step is into the holy inner sanctuary of the soul.[3] 

Like Kelly, Jean-Pierre de Caussade writes endlessly about the inner work of the Spirit. As much as de Caussade embeds the holy work of God in our everyday moments and work, he explains that this incarnational spirituality begins in the mysterious inner places of the soul. According to de Caussade, the work of God begins with “his order acting in the center of our hearts.” [4] Ignatius of Loyala also argues for “inner movement which causes it to be inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord and consequently can love no created thing in this world for its own sake, but only in the Creator of all things.” [5] Again, when we think of charismatic experiences, contemporary believers often imagine spontaneity, very big expressions in corporate worship, and mystical gifts. However, de Caussade and Ignatius remind us that the primacy of the stream is not the flashy gifts or things of beauty that come from Spirit encounters. We worship God through these gifts. But this is only “heart faith” when they are originated and anchored in the perfecting work of God in the soul. 

For de Caussade, these expressions flow out of a “secret union,” or a holy togetherness at the center of the person’s self, the soul. [6] De Caussade’s “secret unification” echoes Kelly’s insistence that one must be “at Home” in God: “There is no new technique… the soul in its deeper levels is continuously at Home in home.”[7]  George Fox refers to this as “habitation” where even in the greatest storms and the darkest of nights, “those whose habitation is the Lord” stay fast in God. Here, too, the charismatic stream is not an outward gesticulation but an inner anchoring. Isaac Pennington also calls this spiritual posture “habitation” and also utilizes the scriptural imagery of land in his sturdy metaphor of “dwelling place”:

“O dwell in your habitation and feed on the food which God brings into this dwelling place. It is pure and alive, and it will cause your souls and spirits more and more to live in and to God.”[8]

Like the hospitality of a friend, the inner life with God feeds us, nourishes us, and brings us to life. 

However, lest we think that “home in God” means familiarity or predictability, the saints remind us that the inner sanctuary is still a place of surprise and mystery. Coming home to God is not controlling or managing the Spirit, predicting what he will do or domesticating His work. For de Caussade, the work of God begins “secretly in souls without their knowledge” offering a grace that is centered on the “heart, not the mind.”[9] Isaac Pennington calls this the “secret working in your spirit” that leads us “nearer and nearer towards the Kingdom.” [10] Many Wesleyans would call this the prevenient grace of God that touches the deepest places of our hearts in ways we could never guess or even ask for. 

And yet, the mysterious work of God in our inner sanctuaries does not wane or stop as we begin to awaken to the Spirit’s beckoning.[11] Catherine of Genoa explains that even after this initial work, God continues to lead us to perfection in our interior lives, it is in his timing and in his way:

“Neither do we know how it comes, or how we even know that it is! If we try to know more than we have been made to know, we will accomplish nothing…Instead I will abide in peace with the understanding God has given me.”[12]

Dwelling, habituating, and being “at home” in God leads to peace is the Divine Mystery, never mastery of it. 

This past week, the charismatic stream has demanded deeper roots and anchoring in me, a tradition that requires a steady spring beneath the surface, fueling the waves and ripples on the surface. As I wrote earlier, Kelly’s words have prompted several practices– to return to the Inner Sanctuary to listen and to have an inward orientation of worship and obedience to the will of God. Both of these went hand-in-hand during my walk/bike rides to our sycamore tree down the road, in my drives to and from elementary school pick-up, and as I vacuumed Goldfish crumbs from the living room rug…again. Following Kelly’s lead, I tried to imagine that inner sanctuary, the holy inner place where one “habituates” with God. It was bright, clear, warm, and at the center of my chest through my sternum. I’d try to place my hand there from time to time and listen. This week, I’ve heard recurring calls to surrender control, to trust God with my children and their struggles, and to follow the Lord obediently– “whereas we had been drifting in him, now we swim.”[13] Coming back to that center place where we loved and at home with God relieves anxiety, and feels not only peaceful but truly enlivening. 

It is only fitting to let Thomas Kelly have the final word on coming home to God in the inner sanctuary. For Kelly, such a return is “[r]ewarding, because we have begun to live.” [14]

Bibliography

[1] Richard Foster, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups ( San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 179. 

[2] Thomas Kelly, “Becoming a Holy Sanctuary of Adoration,” from Foster, Richard J., and James Bryan Smith, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups ( San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 175. 

[3] Thomas Kelly, “Becoming a Holy Sanctuary of Adoration,” 176. 

[4] Jean-Pierre de Causadde, “The Present Moment,” from Foster, Richard J., and James Bryan Smith, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups ( San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 200. 

[5] Ignatius of Loyola, “Movements Produced in the Soul,” from Foster, Richard J., and James Bryan Smith, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups ( San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 194. 

[6] Jean-Pierre de Causadde, “The Present Moment,” 201. 

[7] Thomas Kelly, “Becoming a Holy Sanctuary of Adoration,” 176. 

[8] Isaac Penningon, “Waiting for the Breathings from His Spirit,” from Foster, Richard J., and James Bryan Smith, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups ( San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993),209. 

[9] Jean-Pierre de Causadde, “The Present Moment,” 202. 

[10] Catherine of Genoa, “Waiting Upon God,” from Foster, Richard J., and James Bryan Smith, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups ( San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 182. 

[11] Isaac Pennington, “Waiting for the Breathings of His Spirit,” from Foster, Richard J., and James Bryan Smith, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups ( San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 208-209. 

[12] This phrase of “awakening” comes from John Bunyan who often describes God’s work in him in terms of waking up, coming to life in various degrees and levels of awareness over time.
John Bunyan, “Exercising the Gift,” from Foster, Richard J., and James Bryan Smith, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups ( San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 213-215. 

[13] Thomas Kelly, “Becoming a Holy Sanctuary of Adoration,” 176. 

[14] Ibid.