“It seems that it is only the recent West that has deemed it unnecessary to initiate young men. Otherwise, culture after culture felt that if the young man were not introduced to the “mysteries” he would not know what to do with his pain and would almost always abuse his power. It looks like they were right.” Richard Rohr

 Question: Do you have any sense within you that you missed out on something important in your life because you did not experience any 'formal' rites of passage into the male spiritual path? 

What have been the 'informal' rites of passage in your life and what have been the life lessons they have taught you?

Who are the young men in your life that you know would benefit from experiencing the  reclaimed rites of passage ?

“Initiation only works when there is a collective spiritual wisdom into which the boy can be introduced and which is agreed upon as rich and valuable by the vast majority of a people.” Richard Rohr

Question: What collective spiritual wisdom did you receive while growing up and what spiritual wisdom are you committed to passing onto younger generations of boys and men?

“An uninitiated man lives in an isolated body and a disconnected world.  He must take personal responsibility for creating all the patterns and making all the connections - if there are any.  It is an unwhole, incoherent, and finally unsafe world.  No wonder the typical young man in our non-mythic culture spends so much time posturing, climbing, and overcompensating.  In his hear he knows it is all not true - and therefore not sacred.

A truly initiated man, however, lives inside a sacred universe of meaning.  Even the seemingly absurd, even the pain has meaning. Perhaps no world religion deals so directly and effectively with the issue of human suffering as healthy Christianity. The crucified and raised-up Jesus is an ultimate transformation-initiation symbol.   The sacraments of initiation that were fittingly celebrated throughout Lent and the Easter Triduum were the liminal space that initiated new Christians and “re-initiated” the old into the sacred mysteries.  Now, when I speak of the mysteries, some Christians seem not to know that there were any.  This is the tragic result not only of centuries of non-initiated Christians, but of the lust for certitude and predictability that has characterized the Western Church.”  Richard Rohr

Questions: How have you climbed the the latter of 'success' and to what extent have you learned that success really has nothing to teach you about your heart's longing and your life purpose?

 
Question: How would you describe the 'sacred mysteries' that are at the heart of the Gospel tradition?

“As for the essential messages, I have gleaned these from my cross-cultural observations.  Somehow, male initiation must communicate the following to the young man.:

Life is hard! You are going to die! You are not that important! You are not in control! Your life is not about you!

The goal of initiation rites, and healthy religion, is to situate and align the individual correctly in the universe.  Such alignment is the foundation for a deep and enduring human dignity, a dignity that the young man can now see in everything and everybody else, because it is not his own. It is ours.” Richard Rohr

 Question: Who are the older men in your life who have taught you about the patterns and shape of a man's heart and what it means to be 'in right relationship' with the world?

“If you are a young man and are not being admired by an older man, you are being hurt.  How many of you in the past two weeks admired a younger man and told him so?” Robert Moore

Question: Who are the young men you have affirmed, mentored and admired in the past two weeks?

“ We are living in a culture run by half-adults.”  Robert Bly

“We live in an age of uninitiated men and have been bequeathed a sense of loss.  We are shaped by what did not pass between the synapses of the generations.” Bill Layman.



“ Initiation: the boy is brought into the ‘new male womb’, the men’s community where he would for months or years listen to the stories, learn the encyclopedia of the male culture, and wrestle with life questions of destiny and how men are. He would learn the spiritual technology (ritual, chants, dances, ceremonies, healing practices); the practical technology ( use of tools, hunting, gathering); and social skills (husbanding, fathering, and fighting); needed to fulfill the role of manhood.” Sam Keen

“Male rites of passage were designed to allow boys to escape from WOMAN’S world long enough to discover the shape of man’s world.  They knew that men must resist the danger of being defined by WOMAN.” Sam Keen

“To become a man, a son must first become a prodigal, leave home, and travel to a foreign country, and travel solo into a far country. Alien nation before reconciliation.” Sam Keen

“When you were young you did not receive something, and you will never receive it.  And the proper attitude is mourning. Not blame.” Alice Miller