The Priest's Craft: leadership

Going Beyond

The first work the priest has to do is to free himself from the limitations of the ceremonial. That is rather difficult, because the ceremonial is complicated and takes a good deal of learning. The gestures, the right actions all need careful attention; and people who are not trained and are not accustomed to the work, feel rather shy and nervous.

The priest feels timid at first in face of the congregation; he wonders if his voice is in tune, if he is doing it right. That feeling of shyness is strengthened because there is a great deal of power sweeping through him during the service, which tends to make him feel dazed and confused.

It is not stupidity on his part that makes him seem awkward; he is swept off his feet by this enormous torrents of power that come with the ceremonial, so that it is difficult to regulate and control his actions. Therefore the first thing the priest has to do is to know the entire ritual, to learn to do the ceremonial easily so that the details are handed over to the subconscious.

It is just the same when one is learning to play the organ. At first one's thoughts are centered in the adaptation of one's fingers to the keyboard, and on the notes and the fingering, but presently, as the man studies, he no longer needs to give direct attention to his fingers, and the accomplished musician does not have to give his attention to the keyboard, but can give his whole attention to the rendering and interpretation of the music.

One very great value in ceremonial work when it is properly put into practice is that it entirely reverses the attitude of the ordinary man to life. The ordinary man thinks of himself as belonging to the physical world; his attitude is generally one of wishing he could do this or that and he is full of vague longings towards the spiritual life. But that cannot be the attitude of the priest, or of any ceremonialist.

When you are the officer of a Masonic Lodge, you represent a principle. You no longer wish to be an officer, but you have to be one. You are automatically rooted in the spiritual worlds and you have got to be a channel for the forces of those worlds, which are transmitted through you. So the priest has to look at his work from the Egoic standpoint and extricate himself absolutely from the personality.

That is the first step, and it takes some people a long time to get into that attitude. They feel timid and nervous, he mumbles his words, his gestures are hurried, because the ceremonial is still cramping, imprisoning and limiting him, and he has not extricated himself from his personality.

This is only the first stage.

Ceremonial Sangfroid

There comes a stage later on when you do not worry about the details of the ceremonial having made it part of the subconscious; and if a mistake occurs, you manage to cover it over quite easily. That sangfroid and readiness in emergencies has to be a characteristic of actors on the stage.

I remember a story of Sarah Bernhardt when she was acting in La Tosca. La Tosca kills the prefect of police and she has to takedown a crucifix from the wall and lay it on him. To be mean to the actress, someone nailed the crucifix to the wall. Sarah Bernhardt, after trying in vain to tear the crucifix down, turned and said, "No, he is not worthy of that".

You must have something of that spirit in the Church. You have to cover over mistakes so that the congregation does not know that anything is wrong, but thinks it is part of the work.

The control of all the mechanical part must be handed over to the subconscious, so that the priest can turn his thoughts almost exclusively to the spiritual part of the work, the true work of his office.

As for myself, I am generally oblivious to the physical world, and sometimes quite unconscious of what I am doing down here; I am in the middle of a whirl of force sometimes, and I look down through the whirl and have to climb down, as it were, to the physical plane. That is because my consciousness is centered in the higher worlds.

Unity with the Congregation

I talked to you earlier about the different stages of the ritual, and of the different levels of consciousness at which a priest must work.

At times your consciousness is centered at the Atmic level. Other times it is at the buddhic. Sometimes you are working with one aspect of the Trinity and sometimes with another, identifying yourself with those aspects.

When you are able to do this a little bit consciously, then you begin to realize the true work of the priestly office. I think it is only in our Church that there is any understanding of that part of the work.

A point which is, I think, quite fundamental in all this is that the priest has to keep himself all the time at one with the congregation. As I watch priest after priest celebrating, find that there is very little realization of that, and very few have any idea how to carry it into effect. To do this properly the priest has to free himself from the embarrassment of the forms.

Most of them are centered in themselves. And most of you are not yet quite at home with the ritual. You wonder, how am I doing this? Am I doing it right? Am I in tune? You are nervous about your voice, about singing in tune, and that centers the thought on yourself. It is not that one is consciously selfish, but unconsciously self-centered. If you feel shy or timid about talking to your congregation, if you analyze it, it is a phase of selfishness.

I myself was always shy of speaking. I am no natural speaker; I have had to work hard to cultivate it. At first I used to feel faint, when I had to do it, for I suffered from intense shyness.

One day the realization came to me that it was because I was thinking of myself. I felt myself so inadequate to the task.

I learned to change that thought and to think, instead, "What do these people need?" That should be the attitude of a priest continually during work. It is not whether you are doing well, whether you have mastered the ritual or not, or whether you are singing in tune; but the real question that should be continually in your minds is, "What can I do for the congregation?" "How can I make this service useful for everybody?" The effect of thinking thus is to turn you outwards, you become extrovert; but you will have done a big thing, for you will have "set your feet on the path towards realization of the universal consciousness.

You have a magnificent opportunity in the Church for getting that larger consciousness and merging your own separate personal consciousness into the larger consciousness of the group. It is not only that you have large numbers of people together, but the pressure of the power that comes through the Sacraments, and the angels to aid you in the accomplishment of it.

Technique

You realize, of course, that it is an essential part of your work to keep your consciousness blended with that of the congregation.

You will want, some of you, to know how one must set about doing that.

The best way to begin is to think of the aura that is to say, of the sphere of influence by which you are surrounded. You can feel that there is a personal magnetism around everybody; he carries an atmosphere with him. You begin by feeling it out, by merging your consciousness with his, putting yourself into sympathetic relationship with him, and then mark what is the impression on your consciousness as you do this. You try that with the congregation as a whole.

People come to church with all sorts of difficulties, all sorts of possibilities, each with his or her special needs with varying temperaments, with special capacities for usefulness; some with troubles and perplexities.

You try to put yourself into touch with that mass of thought, of emotion, of activity which represents your congregation; then you try to steady them, and to unify them.

The Lord Himself, when giving us some instructions, told us that every service should begin, if possible, with a processional hymn, when the choir and clergy should process round the congregation.

That is usually done only on festivals in other, Churches. This works to steady down the congregation, reducing the varying rates of vibration into one harmonious whole.

That is also done with the incense and the opening canticles, when you try to unify the people, to steady their thought and feeling, to simplify the activities of the different bodies, attuning them, so that the aura works as a unity instead of being divided up into a number of different sections.

If the opening hymn is a good one, with fine and vivid images, and one into which the people can put enthusiasm, that introduces a strong and dominant note of vibration which makes the whole body act as a unity, and tends to disperse all the petty thoughts and interests that have been occupying the minds of the congregation.

All that early part of the service is designed to unify and bring the congregation together for the special purpose of the Church, and the procession sends a great sweep of magnetizing and unifying force round them.

The next thing to do is to stretch out your aura so that you stretch it over the congregation. The ability to do that comes, I think, with ordination, when the aura is quickened and everything enhanced. After ordination you have greater flexibility of aura than most people, and you can stretch it out further than you could before ordination.

Flexibility of the aura is one of the special characteristics of the angels. Those of you who lecture will notice that since you have been ordained you can hold the attention of your audience much better. That was one of the first things that I noticed after my ordination. Through your magnetism you are able to grip your people, and then hold them with the strength of your emotion as it plays on them. After my consecration as a bishop, even more so, I found I had no difficulty in my lectures in holding an audience, though I do not consider myself a good speaker.

Now this power to stretch your aura, to increase its flexibility, grows with practice, and very much strengthens the power you send forth. The method is that you do it by imagination. You think of yourself as stretching out this sphere of influence over the body corporate, and having enfolded your congregation in it, you pour out on them the special influence that you can give in virtue of being a priest. That happens with every minor benediction. That is what is sometimes called blowing a bubble, as at the Asperges, or as throwing a network over the church. What you do in the Asperges is to mark out a certain sphere of influence for the operation and the power of the holy water, and the influence which as priest you put into; it; and that sphere of influence is all then refined and raised to a higher rate of vibration. This church is quite a different place since the ceremony of consecration yesterday morning.

When you give a minor benediction, you are putting yourself into touch with the consciousness of the congregation, and you can do it much better if you realize what you are doing. One of the first lessons you give to people under occult training is that of stretching the aura. You begin with filling your aura with love, you think of some one you love, of God, of Nature, or humanity, or whatever calls out love in you, and you charge yourself with love, and then you turn that out upon the world, or towards Nature, and you stretch out your aura and it becomes, after a month or two of this kind of practice, much more extended than it was before. The power to do that is one of the powers that comes with ordination, and you can stretch it out over the people with whom you are working.

Having done this, you have to remember as the service proceeds to renew that touch from time to time, and to keep them enfolded within the sphere of your consciousness as you work with them at the different stages of the ceremony.

Attitude

In doing the service, and saying the liturgy, you have to learn to react instantaneously to certain emotions and ideas which are generated from within. The person who is used to doing it can respond at will to a particular set of emotions and ideas.

In the beginning one is faced with the fact that people are so unaccustomed in the outer world to this kind of work. The ordinary person's thoughts and emotions are called out by external impacts -- a picture, a visit from a friend, a letter that gives him pleasure. But in this case you are working, not so much with impacts from the outer world, except as a liturgy, but with the thoughts and feelings within yourself, so that at a moment's notice you have to charge yourself with those fundamental thoughts and emotions which recur so often in the liturgy -- love, joy, peace, beauty, and so on. To learn how to do this is worth all the teaching in theology put together. It is difficult, but one must try to do it and practice it unceasingly.

At the beginning of the service you kneel before the altar steps. The signification is that you are at the foot of the altar, and you are realizing your unworthiness, the enormous difference that separates you and the divine Majesty; you have a real sense of humbleness -- it is good you know, for even a Theosophist to feel humble -- and during the Asperges you are going to purify yourself and put yourself into the right attitude. Then comes the opening canticle, which is largely about the majesty and dignity of God and the sense of joy with which you approach the tabernacle, as though to go to the altar of God were the happiest thing in your life, as it ought to be.

"Even unto the God of my joy and gladness ".

When you sing "joy and gladness", you fill yourself with happiness, or bliss, as they call it in the East. Brahman is bliss, the spring of all happiness, and that is the natural concomitant of all spiritual experience. Now you not only think of yourself as full of happiness, but you have to pour it out in a flood of power and joy over the whole congregation, so that the congregation is happy, and it becomes a paean of happiness.

"O send out Thy light and Thy truth".

These words help us to realize the greatness and glory of God. You unite also with other kingdoms, with the angels and with the forces of Nature, and you build up through this canticle a sphere of tremendous joy.

"The Lord shall give strength unto His people ".

There you think of strength -- of the First Person of the Trinity, of the Master, or whatever suggests strength to you. If you like, you can work with the candles, or the crosses. I myself work with the First Ray Cross in this part, and draw upon its power. Just as in the Introit you work with the aspects of the Trinity, so in the canticles you link yourself with the special power of force which brings the kind of influence you need.

"Turn us again, O Lord and quicken us". This is to put the congregation into tune with the Infinite.

"Trust ye in the Lord for ever". "For our Rock of Ages is the Lord".

All of this is the First Ray.

In the Confiteor you have the idea of Christ's love for us, and of our spiritual self-assertion, of the higher Self.

Then the Absolution comes down to straighten out the different bodies and synchronize them, as the result of all this aspiration.

The Introit is intended to lift our thoughts very high. That ought to be very real to all priests. We are so full of Theosophical speculations, or reactions to prejudices which have come from childhood, that the word "God" is not real to us; it is often only an intellectual theory. We talk about "the Logos", because we do not like saying "God". Try to realize that we are living in a great sea of light which responds to every action of ours. That is the Divine Life and the laws of Nature are the manifestations of the Divine Will in the Universe.

"Blessed be the Holy Trinity ". "Blessed " is a very old expression which means that you send up your love and devotion to the Holy Trinity. Of course it would be almost blasphemous to speak of blessing God in the ordinary sense of the word.

"To whom be honor and glory for ever and ever". There are certain words which bring With them very high ideas, such as "honor", "glory", and "splendor". They describe the feeling of bliss, awe, and majesty, and the sense of sanctity which we have in thinking of the Divine consciousness.

"Thy Name" means the Divine power manifested in the universe.

Thinking of the three aspects of the Divine consciousness in yourself, you repeat the opening words again -- "Blessed be the Holy Trinity" , etc. Then follows the Gloria

I do not want to go through the whole liturgy with you. But you see that there is tremendous scope for getting into touch with the Divine consciousness, if you take all this work along the lines I have been indicating. If you learn to do that and carry it out, you will never have any difficulty in holding the interest of your congregation, and keeping their thought vital and living. Here, where the congregation are trained along this way of thinking, we have the extraordinary result that some forty to fifty people attend our services daily, and more on Sundays, and it is not as though we lived in a town. The same can be done in any Church carried out on these lines.

The Priest for All

We should not be always thinking of ourselves.

The selfish man, Bishop Leadbeater says, is an anachronism. We ought naturally to be thinking of other people, but most especially in the services of the Church.

So try to base your work on this principle, which is really, fundamental -- that the priest must not be thinking of himself, that he must decentralize, as it were and think actively, positively, definitely, helpfully of others and then you will get interesting results. One result is that the angels come much closer.

You must realize that the being of the angels is quite different from ours; their consciousness is more focused in the higher part of their nature, and to a much less extent in the lower; in us it is the other way about. It is only when humanity is unselfish and not turned in on himself, not absorbed in petty interests, that the angels can come closely in touch with us and undertake that cooperation which it is intended should be brought about between us and them.

In church you get people turned outward, really feeling as a body corporate, and when the angels work with us, you can get the sense of the larger consciousness, the universal consciousness.

Then I feel that nine-tenths of the problems and difficulties which trouble us drop away; also your ideas and views concerning other people become changed. I do feel that this view of our work is exceedingly important; for it is the very foundation on which our work can become really useful.

We do not want our services merely to give a nice impression.

You agree with me now that this is fundamental; but will you remember it to-morrow?

Every priest must sympathetically turn outwards and keep in touch with his congregation. Remember it is Christ who is working through the Eucharist, not you yourself; He is working at the altar through His celebrant. There is also another way in which way can look at it.

There is the Christ in you who is working through you as you go through the Mass, and if you think of that as you do the Mass, it will be an enormous help.

You have always the duality, the two aspects of Christ the Victim and Christ the Priest. Christ is the High-Priest who offers the Sacrifice, and also the Victim who is sacrificed.