From the Archive: Contentment – Br. Curtis Almquist

In this moving ode to contentment, originally preached on July 28, 2009, Br. Curtis Almquist invites us to the truth embraced by Jesus and the mystics before us: “What is enough is now.”

Matthew 6:25-33

In 1973 an adventurous explorer named Peter Matthiessen set out on a journey by foot to the Crystal Mountain on the Tibetan Plateau of northwest Nepal.i The trip was to accompany George Schaller, a zoologist who had planned the expedition to study the Himalayan blue sheep called “bharal.” The Bud­dhist lamas had forbidden people to molest these sheep.  And so, where the sheep were numerous, there was bound to appear that rarest and most beautiful of the great cats, the snow leopard.  In the previous 25 years, only two westerners – George Schaller, this zoologist, being one of them – had laid eyes on the Himalayan snow leopard.  For Peter Matthiessen, the hope of glimpsing this near-mythic feline beast in the mountains of Nepal was reason enough for the arduous journey lasting a number of months. 

I first read of Peter Matthiessen’s search for the elusive snow leopard many years ago.  For Matthiessen, the journey ended up being a spiritual odyssey of a man in search of himself, which is why I have remembered it.  I and many people, perhaps some of you, are now on a spiritual quest in search of meaning, transcendent meaning, in search of the holy, in search of the real presence of God in a culture and world where many of the “spiritual signs” we trusted and depended on are shaky or eroding. Read More

Contentment – Br. Curtis Almquist

Matthew 6:25-33

In 1973 an adventurous explorer named Peter Matthiessen set out on a journey by foot to the Crystal Mountain on the Tibetan Plateau of northwest Nepal.i The trip was to accompany George Schaller, a zoologist who had planned the expedition to study the Himalayan blue sheep called “bharal.” The Bud­dhist lamas had forbidden people to molest these sheep.  And so, where the sheep were numerous, there was bound to appear that rarest and most beautiful of the great cats, the snow leopard.  In the previous 25 years, only two westerners – George Schaller, this zoologist, being one of them – had laid eyes on the Himalayan snow leopard.  For Peter Matthiessen, the hope of glimpsing this near-mythic feline beast in the mountains of Nepal was reason enough for the arduous journey lasting a number of months.  Read More