An unending source of comfort

The great commandment that Jesus mentions several times before He is taken away to be put to death is emphasized at the beginning and at the end of today’s Gospel (Friday of Week 5): This I command you: love one another. Three simple words at the end of the passage. (John 15:17).

The command is better explained at the beginning of the passage: Love one another as I love you. That has particular meaning for us as we continue our journey through the psalms asking the question, “How does he love us?” In light of the great commandment given above, our search takes on new immediacy. Whatever we discover about how God cares for us, that is what we must do to the best of our abilities. Sometimes we uncover things which are too far beyond our human capacities, but at all time and in all ways, we must seek to do whatever we can, whatever we are ready to do, and whatever the Spirit of God prompts us to do. Keep that in mind as we continue with this Psalm series over the weeks to come.

We are still looking at Psalm 23:

If I should walk in the valley of darkness

no evil would I fear.

You are there with your crook and your staff;

with these you give me comfort. (23:4)

·         Last week we studied a hymn which suggested that the staff becomes the Cross, and that may be our guide.

·         I remember when I was Pastor of our parish, and I could see from the altar so many people who were obviously in pain and who spent a good deal of time simply staring at the crucifix over the altar. That was what got them through the time of suffering they had to endure.

·         What might be your “valley of darkness?” Is it some experience that you got through and survived, or might it be something that you are actually going through right now? Look to the “crook and staff”---look to the Cross. Experience the comfort which God alone can give.

·         I remember a very difficult and painful time in my own life. I was at a concert in a Lutheran church. Behind the altar was a beautiful mosaic of Christ the good shepherd. During the concert, I became transfixed by looking at the mosaic, and it seemed to come alive, and Christ’s eyes were on me, and I sensed power and comfort coming from the image and entering my heart and soul, and I was filled with comfort and love so much so that the difficult time I was having simply came to an end right there in that lovely little church. (The music, by the way, was by J.S. Bach, to whom I often look as a patron.

·         Perhaps we are incapable of offering comfort to the power and the degree that Our Lord is able to do; but whenever we see another person in pain, Christ may use us to bring His comfort to that person. And when we read the stories in the news or on the Internet about people who are suffering, perhaps we can pause from our reading and hold those people up in prayer and ask Christ to comfort them. In this way, we are living in the space of Psalm 23.

We are moving very slowly through Psalm 23. And that is fitting, since it is so full of the love and care of our God. We continue on Sunday.

God bless you.

Abundant pity and abundant restoration

We continue our journey through the Psalms. The theme of our journey is “how God cares for us.”

The Collect for today’s Mass (Thursday of the 5^th week of Easter) says that

“by [God’s] grace,

though sinners, we are made just,

and though pitiable, made blessed . . . “

Let’s take a look at Psalm 23 in light of that prayer, especially in light of the admission that we are sinners, and that we are to be pitied. Matthew 9:36: At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”

The Lord is my shepherd,

there is nothing I shall want.

·         Does not leave us alone and abandoned. He becomes the shepherd that we may have been lacking. What’s more, he becomes a shepherd with an infinite amount of blessings in his bag: God’s grace makes up for everything. No matter how pitiable we may be, He provides for everything we are lacking, everything we may have lost, everything we think we have forfeited because of our own sin, weakness or negligence. Let Him into every empty space and hole in your heart and soul, let Him fill you, let Him care for you.

·         Jesus Christ Himself takes the shepherd theme from this psalm, which He knew well, and amplifies it through some beautiful passages we have been considering in our readings the past couple of weeks. If you would like to do an extended meditation on this theme, take the time to do a slow, prayerful reading of John’s Gospel, chapter 10.

Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose.

·         We need repose because we are tired and warn out. Our own folly has left us grazing in fields marked by drought and dust.  Isaiah 55:2: Why spend your wages for what fails to satisfy? The shepherd leads us to where we need to be: to a lush land of plenty where we might feast and refresh ourselves.

Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit.

·         I can’t help thinking of the story of the woman at the well in John 4. She is thirsty, and Jesus promises her “living water.” Her spirit is drooping, likes ours are at times, and his encounter with her fills her life with new meaning and new enthusiasm. Perhaps we can recall when that has happened to us. Perhaps we need it to happen again now.

He guides me along the right path.

·         Picture the Lord saying, “Don’t go this way—it will lead to trouble and sadness. Here, I will show you the way that leads to life.”

We will continue with Psalm 23 next time.

God bless you and refresh you.

He will give you your heart's desire

A continued reading of the Psalms through this filter: God’s care for us.

May he give you your heart’s desire and fulfil every one of your plans (Psalm 20:5)

·         This verse takes on special meaning in light of today’s Gospel passage from Mass, where Jesus tell us to Remain in me as I remain in you. . . . . [if you do so] ask for anything you want and it will be done for you. (John 15:4, 7). And what, we might ask, is our heart’s desire? To answer this question, we have to withdraw from the noise of our lives and look deeply inside to see what really resides there. Keep in mind that the way this verse is worded, Jesus Christ is already within us; we don’t need to look outside of yourselves. But what is it that we want to ask for?

You have granted him [the king] his hearts desire;

you have not refused the prayer of his lips (Psalm 21:3).

·         The king in this Psalm is David. Interesting, isn’t it, that this passage refers back to the previous one I had selected. King David had a deep spirit, and he dwelled with the Lord in his prayer. Otherwise, how could we have these beautiful psalms? The Spirit of God was within him; Jesus Christ was within him, although he did not realize it at the time.

·         The lesson here is that David gives us an example of what it means to “remain in God,” and as a result, heart’s desire was fulfilled.

“Heart’s desire:” I need to jump ahead and call to mind one of my favorite verses from the psalms. It’s found in Psalm 37:4. If you find your delight in the Lord, he will grant your heart’s desire.

·         Once again, the same promise, and once again, a condition imposed on it which comes down to what we have already discovered: remain in God; find your delight in the Lord. If we take too much delight in things that are not of the Lord, then we will find that our desires are not fulfilled and we will not find the happiness we never stop searching for, as is says in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, ¶27.

I wrote about “heart’s desire” in an earlier reflection, and I will repeat it now in case you didn’t get it the last time.

What is this “heart’s desire” that he will grant us? It’s not what you might think, and most likely it is not something you would pray for. In fact, this “heart’s desire” is probably something you have never thought of before, have never anticipated, and at this point you might not even know it exists. We’re dealing here with the realm of grace, with the realm of mystery, and in terms of a supernatural process that is set in motion by the commitment itself.

I’m speaking from experience here. I remember the time I first read those words and took them to heart. And from that day forward, life changed in ways that I never would have predicted. What I was given was far more than anything I had ever asked or hoped for.

And, this gift to my heart is a gift that keeps on giving, some thirty-five or forty years later. It has never ceased to fill my life with good, even in the midst of trials and difficulties.

If you’ve already made that commitment, if you’ve already begun to realize that your greatest delight is with the things of God, then you know what I am talking about. If you haven’t yet done so, or if you aren’t really sure that your life could change so radically, then simply pray for the grace to realize and to live these words, in your time, at the right time, which is, after all, God’s time. And God’s time is the best time of all.

From here, we move to Psalm 23. Great riches await us. Until next time.

May God bless you, help you to identify your heart’s desire, and grant you what you ask for.

The peace the world cannot give

From today’s Gospel:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. (John 14:27)

So often we look for peace or ask for peace and we don’t find it. The peace we are looking for cannot be obtained through any means other than direct personal contact with Jesus Christ, a contact which is established and maintained through prayer, especially meditation and the Jesus Prayer, and through the sacraments of the Church.

Sometimes even at Mass we don’t find peace because we use our time and our energy completely focused on the rubrics of the liturgy and on its stuff—the vestments, the ceremonials, the incense and even the music, and do not use the Mass as a means of us encountering the living Jesus Christ through the word, the homily and the sacraments. When I was the director of our college choir, one of my priorities in picking music was to select music that would help students develop their personal relationship with the Lord. Without that, nothing has value.

A couple of quotes for you to consider:

“People concern themselves with Christian upbringing but leave it incomplete: they neglect the most essential and most difficult side of the Christian life, and dwell on what is easiest, the visible and external.

     This imperfect or misdirected upbringing produces people who observe with the utmost correctness all the formal and outward rules for devout conduct, but who pay little or no attention to the inward movements of the heart and to true improvement of the inner spiritual life.”   Theophan the Recluse in The Art of Prayer, p. 164

Perfection consists in doing the will of God, not in understanding His designs. . . . Whether it be in meditation, contemplation, vocal prayer, interior silence, or the active use of any of the faculties, that which God wills for the present moment is best and all else must be regarded by the soul as being nothing at all.  J.P. de Caussade, Self-abandonment to Divine Providence, p. 9 of the online edition.

Keep your heart fixed on God, find him right here right now in this present moment, and give yourself to Him in love, and you will find that peace Jesus gives to us, the peace which, according to St. Paul, “surpasses all human understanding.” (Phil. 4:7)

God bless you.

The Divine Teacher

We continue exploring the Psalms, looking for descriptions of how God cares for us. We are still in Psalm 18, which is a psalm pleading for help against our enemies. The enemies mentioned in the Psalm are actual war-time enemies who were attacking David. In modern times, each of us has to identify who are our own personal enemies—which temptations, weaknesses, tricks of the devil—wage war against us.

Our last study ended with verse 20 of the Psalm: He saved me because he loved me. We continue reading the Psalm:

You, O Lord, are my lamp,

my God who lightens my darkness.

With you I can break through any barrier,

with my God I can scale any wall. (vv 29-30)

·         Imagine yourself walking through a dense forest on a dark night, holding a flashlight. The flashlight helps us to see the next couple of steps we have to take, but nothing more. That is an example of how God shows us the way(s) we must travel.

·         It is up to each of us to identify the barriers and the walls that are before us, and turn to the God who does such things for us as a sign of His love and caring.

. . . you upheld me, trained me with care.

For gave me freedom for my steps;

my feet have never slipped. (vv. 36-37)

·         What are the means by which the Lord trains us? Note the care of the Divine Teacher.

·         How are we free today that wasn’t perhaps true a year ago?

·         When are those moments of confidence in our lives, moments when we knew we were standing firm in the Lord’s grace?

The next psalm contains a beautiful set of verses which draw a portrait of God the Teacher that we noted above. Here are just a few of the qualities of this “teaching” that are operative in our lives—if we allow them:

The law of the Lord is perfect,

it revives the soul.

The rule of the Lord is to be trusted,

it gives wisdom to the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right,

they gladden the heart.

The command of the Lord is clear,

it gives light to the eyes.  (Psalm 19, vv 8-9)

So in them your servant finds instruction;

great reward is in their keeping. (v. 12)

·         What is required of us is humility and docility. We must be in a spiritual state where we are open and willing to be instructed by God through whatever means he uses in our lives. The resistant gain nothing. It is the humble, attentive student who is cared for so richly.

This meditation on the role of God the Teacher calls to mind (for me) the opening of the Rule of Saint Benedict:

Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from a father who loves you; welcome it and faithfully put it into practice.  (Prologue, verse 1)

If you have a chance this day, you would do well to read all of Psalm 19 for your own lectio divina, keeping St. Benedict’s invitation to heart. You will be blessed.

God bless you.

He saved me because he loved me.

We continue our exploration of the psalms, selecting images and verses that speak about the many ways God cares for us. But before we turn to the psalms today, let’s consider lines from the Gospel for today’s Mass:

 “. . . I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” (John 14:2-3)

·         This is a particular wish of Christ, to have us be with him for all time. He also prays for this in the High Priestly Prayer (John 17):

“I pray that those, also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (v. 24)

·         Jesus prays this pray for those who will believe in him through the word of his disciples—in other words, he prays for us in these blessed words. This is our destiny; this is where the trajectory of our life will ultimately lead us, despite all the dark valleys and times of weakness and failure. This is how he cares for us. It is especially poignant to realize that Jesus prays this prayer for us shortly before He was going to the garden to be betrayed and arrested.

Psalm verses for today’s reflection:

In Psalm 18, the Psalmist calls out to the Lord for deliverance from the sufferings he is undergoing:

The waves of death rose about me;

the torrents of destruction assailed me;

the snares of the grave entangled me;

the traps of death confronted me.

In my anguish I called to the Lord;

I cried to my God for help. (18: 5-7a)

·         This psalm is dramatic and epic in tone. The Lord answers the plea for help in extraordinary and tumultuous ways, and this is how He cares for His beloved:

From on high he reached down and seized me;

he drew me forth from the mighty waters.

He snatched me from my powerful foe,

from my enemies whose strength I could not match. (17-18)

. . .

He brought me forth into freedom,

he saved me because he loved me.  (v. 20)

·         Remember this the next time you find yourself in difficult, perilous or oppressive circumstances, or when you feel that the temptations and trials of life are too powerful and overwhelming for you.

God bless you.

The Divine Hug

Last time I suggested that we look to the Psalms to find examples of God’s care for us. Here are a few verses I found in the first    Psalms. The translation I am using is the “Grail” translation that we pray in our celebrations of the Divine Office. A new version is coming available but you might still be able to get a copy of the original version—which I highly recommend. Look for The Psalms: a new translation published by the Paulist Press. Now, for the Psalms themselves:

I lie down to rest and I sleep.

I wake, for the Lord upholds me. (Psalm 3:6)

These lines evoke the image of God looking over us and caring for us even while we sleep, looking over us like a parent who takes a peek in a beloved child’s room at the end of an evening. The next psalm also speaks about sleep:

I will lie down in peace and sleep comes at once

for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. (4:9)

Try repeating this verse before you go to sleep at night, especially if you sometimes have trouble falling asleep.

It is you who bless the just man, Lord:

you surround him with favor as with a shield. (5:13)

We are nestled within a divine “hug.”

It is you, O Lord, who will take us in your care

and protect us for ever from this generation. (12:8)

”This generation” is the way of the world. As we grow in our relationship with Christ, we naturally find it more and more necessary to withdraw from the world and reject its false values.

I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel,

who even at night directs my heart. (16:7)

The Lord in his caring for us guides us and teaches us. How does he do that in your life?

Perhaps you can answer the question in the comments section of this blog, or by email.

One more:

Guard me as the apple of your eye.

Hide me in the shadow of your wings. (17:8)

Is there someone in your life who is the “apple of your eye?” God looks at you in the same way, magnified infinitely. “The shadow of your wings” evokes for me the divine hug which I alluded to earlier.

May God bless you and keep you and care for you with his unfathomable love.

God CARES for us?

I was having a conversation with a friend this morning when he said to me, and I mentioned something to him about how God cares for us especially during the times of our lives when things are the most difficult. His reply:

“You know, I’ve always thought of God as someone who guides me, or directs me, or wants to control me. I’ve thought a lot about God’s will, and wondered what that might be, and usually imagining that it would be something I wouldn’t really want on my own. I’ve though how he must expect a lot about me, and how much I probably disappoint him, and, to tell you the truth, I don’t think I would want to meet him face-to-face. I guess, when all is said and done, I think that God would simply judge me and that I wouldn’t come out very good in the process. . . .

“But I don’t think I’ve ever thought about God in the sense of Him caring for me. That puts a whole different slant on things. Caring sounds gentler, and more friendly. I can think of people in my life in the past or even now who have cared for me. I can think of how wonderful  the nurses were to me when I was in the hospital last year, and how much they really cared about me and about what they were doing. I can also remember teachers who I realize really cared about their students, even if we didn’t always recognize it or appreciate it at the time. . . .

“But the idea of God caring for me. Wow! That’s an awful big thing to wrap my head around. . . .”

I reminded him of what Saint Peter had to say in one of his letters: Cast your cares upon the Lord because he cares about you. (1 Peter 5:7) And I suggested that he take a voyage through the book of Psalms and see all the references to the ways that God actually cares for us throughout our lives.

Sometimes, you know, when you are given an insight by the Spirit (and I think that was indeed what was happening to my friend), you can turn again to the pages of Scripture, to things that you have read over and over again, and suddenly begin to see things that you have never seen before. The Scriptures can be read as a dialogue between God and his children (see the Document of Vatican II called “Dei Verbum”) and that dialogue is living and active and is not merely some sort of historical record.

I hope my friend takes me up on my encouragement, and does look through the psalms to find examples of God’s caring for us. In fact, perhaps you would like to do that for yourself. Perhaps, in fact, I might do that with you in the days to come . . .

God bless you.

Decluttering: a spiritual perspective

My room in the monastery is very cluttered. I simply have too much stuff. (Or is it that the stuff has me? hmmmm……) Anyway I finally got to the point where I couldn’t stand it any more. So for the past several weeks, a couple of times a week, I’ve set to eliminating some of the clutter. Boxes of books were donated to the college library, and bags of trash have been filled and discarded.

And I began to notice something: whenever I look at a space or shelf in the room which has been cleared of clutter, I actually take pleasure in the sight of it. I feel like I’m getting free from things which have been weighing me down.

Several books are available nowadays about de-cluttering or simplifying you life. I’ve read none of them, yet even the titles have somehow served to give me this inspiration to simplify and purge, or cleanse.

Interestingly enough, I have also noticed that my prayer is getting more focused, and that I am less easily distracted during the Divine Office or during times of meditation. Might there be a connection between what I’m doing in my room and what happens during prayer time?

Well, just this morning I read something which proves that there is indeed a connection. It’s from The Art of Prayer which I’ve mentioned in a few posts lately. A couple of these things may be quite challenging. Take what you are ready for, and leave the rest for another time.

The spirit is quenched by distraction of the attention from God and God’s works, by excessive anxiety about earthly matters, by indulgence in sensual pleasure, by pandering to carnal desires, and by infatuation with material things. (p. 149) . . .

If you have filled your mind with earthly things, if you have given yourself up to the cares of daily business, you have already quenched the Spirit.

From the first moment of the awakening of the spirit by grace, man’s consciousness and yearning pass from the creation to the Creator, from the earthly to the heavenly, from the temporary to the eternal. In this realm lies his treasure, and there is his heart. (p. 151)

And finally, a wonderful quotation from the Letter to the Colossians. We sing these verses as an antiphon frequently during the season of Easter:

Since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:1-2)

God bless you.

Images across the centuries

Yesterday we sang the hymn “The King of Love my Shepherd Is” as part of our celebration of “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The hymn is basically a paraphrase of Psalm 23, with one significant difference:

Psalm 23 was composed centuries before the birth of Christ. The hymn text was written in the 19^th Century. This means that the hymn text was written after the Resurrection of the Lord, and after centuries of lived faith and worship in the Church. Keeping that in mind, I’d like to show you 5 places where the hymn adds post-Resurrection imagery to the basic psalm.

1. The 2^nd verse of the hymn: Where streams of living water flow my ransomed soul he leadeth. The psalm text reads, “near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit.”

·         The image of living water comes from the story of the woman at the well in John 4.

·         My ransomed soul is something we can understand with our current faith. We have been ransomed by Jesus Christ through his death and Resurrection.

2. The hymn: “And where the verdant pastures grow with food celestial feedeth.”  The Psalm: ”you have prepared a banquet for me.”

·         In the hymn, the image of celestial food is Eucharistic. Perhaps the “banquet” is a foretaste, or as it is called, a type (symbol resolved in the New Testament) of the banquet of His Body and Blood.

3. The hymn: And on his shoulder gently laid, and home, rejoicing, brought me. The psalm text: “he guides me along the right path.”

·         The hymn uses the wonderful image of the Good Shepherd carrying the lost sheep home on his shoulders.

4. The hymn: Your rod and staff my comfort still, your cross before to guide me.  The hymn: “You are there with your crook and your staff; with these you give me comfort.”

·         The staff now becomes the Cross, which both guides and comforts in times of need.

5. The hymn: O what transport of delight from your pure chalice flowing! The hymn: “my cup is overflowing.”

·         Here again, the cup is a type of the chalice which overflows for us in the Eucharistic banquet.

It has been said that the psalms are often a prefigurement of Jesus Christ Himself. Here is a wonderful example. Let us all give thanks for the richness of the imagery of our faith which is more than just an imagery, but rather something that points to the reality we share and give thanks for as Christians.

God bless you!

Where else can we go?

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)

Think of all the people, places, groups, ideologies, systems of thought, philosophies, movements, causes, gurus, demagogues, private notions, suggestions by others, and so on. Think of what they offer to you. Think of what they have to say.  Has anyone, anywhere, spoken to you the way Jesus Christ has spoken to you, has spoken to us, has spoken to the world?

Does anyone else offer the words of eternal life, or even believe that there is such a thing. And I’m not talking about some cloudy notion that we “live on” in the hearts and minds of those who love us, or that we become absorbed in some great conglomeration of ghostly souls and spirits. I’m talking about actual words of eternal life. You will live forever. You will never die.

Has anyone else prayed for you in such a way: “Father, I desire that those . . . whom you have given me may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world?” (John 17:24)

So I ask you this: if He is the only one, then what holds you back from giving yourself completely to His care and His love, and stop worrying about the future, or about the trivial things in life that steal so much spiritual energy from us?

Simply rest in the NOW. Know now that He is getting you ready for life without end, and that this reality is more beautiful, more hopeful, more powerful than any other “reality” we might hang on to.

I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. (The Nicene Creed).

Believe in Him. Follow Him, even when the way He indicates for us to travel is mysterious and difficult. Even then.

God bless you.

The Interior Struggle with grace

“The grace of God cleaves a man in two.”  Theophan the Recluse in The Art of Prayer, p. 141

According to Theophan, when grace is poured into our hearts and souls, it automatically creates a division in us between the way we are, and the new direction towards which grace impels us.

There are several ways we can experience the division in ourselves if we take an honest look at those parts of ourselves which we would prefer to be hidden from God (which, of course, is impossible).

Consider, for example, our habits, our ways of thinking, our reluctance to forgive a certain person, the trivial pleasures and treasures we hang on to, passions which dominate us, impurity, a tendency towards any of the seven deadly sins. Theophan calls all of these things unnatural, while the grace within us is gently (or sometimes forcibly, as it did with Saint Paul) leading us to what is natural; that is, to what is pleasing to God, to what gives us true lasting pleasure and joy, to what adds depth to our character and to the attitudes, our outlook on life and our aspirations. He sees the ungoing work of grace in our lives as a struggle between what is natural and what is unnatural.

Grace doesn’t simply drive the “unnatural” away as if by magic. This is how he describes the struggle:

All the other parts (i.e., the unnatural) are still help prisoner and do not want and cannot be obedient to the demands of the new life: the mind as a whole does not yet know how to think in a new way but thinks as before; the will does not yet know how to desire in the new way, but desires as before; the heart doesn ot know how to feel in the new way, but feels as before.

The same is true of the life of the senses, of purity and impurity and of behavior that belong to the “old way” which still cling to us so closely that oftentimes we are unable to recognize them for what they are.

I mentioned St. Paul because the story of his conversion is one of the readings at Mass today. He, of course, was knocked off his horse by a bolt of lightning. For us, the process is usually a bit more subtle.

It seems to us, however, that Paul’s conversion is complete in a flash of light. But that is not necessarily true. Yes, he came to understand a lot about Jesus, and he became a fervent preacher right from the beginning, but I suggest that if you read the letters of Paul in light of what Theophan said above, you might actually discover that certain character flaws remained with Paul throughout the years of his ministry—and Paul would be the first to admit it.

So don’t give up on yourself. Pray that you might see how grace is leading you to life, pray that you may see what in your life is resistant or  “unnatural,” and always beg for the grace to respond to the graces that God sends you on a daily basis.

God bless you.

Such wonderful knowledge

“I will not reject anyone who comes to me.” John 6:37 (NAB translation)

The literal Greek says, “I will not cast out outside,” which seems a lot stronger to me. It’s one thing to turn one’s back on someone or refuse to acknowledge him; it’s another thing altogether to  make the effort to cast aside one who comes to you in need seeking mercy and pardon.

But Jesus will not do that to us, we who have come to Him. It is also important to note that the reason we have come to Him is because we have been given to Him by the Father. We are God’s gift to Jesus.

Me? You? That man who lives down the street whom I have already condemned in my thoughts?” He may also be God’s gift to Jesus, and although there might be some among us who would like to see him cast out from our company, he is one of us. And it is Jesus who has included him. So be on the watch for any malicious thoughts which may seek to undo what God has done in Christ.

But let’s think about ourselves for a moment or two. Can we truly realize that we have been given to Jesus, and that He has accepted us, despite anything---despite everything. All I can do is cry out the words of Psalm 138: This knowledge is too wonderful for me, so far beyond my understanding.

We are in the realm of extraordinary mystery here. At least one spiritual writer has indicated that we have in this mystery all the reason in the world to be overcome with joy. Jesus will not reject us, and according to His very own words, He will raise us up on the last day and give us eternal life.

Pray today that the knowledge of this mysterious and wonderful reality may affect your disposition, your attitude and your dealings with all whom you meet.

I’ll close by giving you a personal tidbit: Someone did something last night that really aggravated me. I was in a good disposition so I noted what had happened, noticed that I was aggravated, and then let it pass through me. But in light of what I have just written here, now I can “cast it far from my sight” and continue to love the other person, because in the grand scheme of things, none of what happened last night matters in the least. Alleluia!

God bless you.

Staying connected

Yesterday we spoke about keeping prayer alive in our hearts through the repetition of a religious phrase or word. If you remember, I mentioned that if we make it a habit to use our prayer word (or words) regularly, especially during times when we would be prone to dwell on vain and useless thoughts, that the prayer would eventually arise from within us and be on our lips without any conscious effort on our part.

When I write about these things, I am writing from personal experience rather than from someone else’s reflections on prayer. Nonetheless, I continue to be inspired by a little-known work called The Art of Prayer: an orthodox anthology. From time to time I will share with you some of the most inspiring lines from this beautiful work.

Today’s selection comes from Bishop Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894), whose writings comprise most of The Art of Prayer.

Our whole object is to acquire the habit of keeping our attention always on the Lord, who is omnipresent and sees everything, who desires the salvation of all and is ready to help us towards it.

Theophan goes on to speak about the process that takes place when we gradually move away from prayer. He calls it “lukewarmness.”

This is how lukewarmness arises: it begins with forgetfulness. God’s gifts are forgotten, and so are God Himself, and our salvation in Him, and the danger of being without God; and the remembrance of death disappears—in a word, the whole spiritual realm is closed to us. This is due to the enemy, or to the dispersion of thought by business cares and excessive social contacts. When all is forgotten the heart grows cool, and its sensitivity to spiritual things is interrupted. . . .

spiritual occupations are postponed for a time, and afterwards abandoned completely. And then we begin again our old way of life . . . It will be an empty life.

If you do not want to fall into this abyss, beware of the first step—that is, forgetfulness. Therefore walk always in godly recollections—in remembrance of God and divine things. . . . And here will be life indeed.

Christ is alive! May we always be alive in Him. God bless you.

Replacing vain and empty thoughts

“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” (John 6:27)

It occurred to me recently that a lot of the thoughts I think—indeed, most of the thoughts I think—are nothing more than wasted words amounting to nothing, leading nowhere and accomplishing no purpose at all. In fact, most of them are in the service of things that perish, things that feed my ego (which is itself an illusion) and things that in the grand scheme of things are absolutely not important and have no value in and of themselves. Have you found the same thing to be true?

I also discovered during these first few days of the Easter season, that there are thoughts I can think that actually do endure for eternal life. Most of them are simple phrases and verses that come to mind if I set my sights on the things of God, on the things that matter. I’ll give you a short list here:

·         O God come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.

·         Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

·         Hail Mary, full of grace.

·         Guide me, Lord.

·         Help me, Lord: I can’t but You can.

·         Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for me.

·         Christ is risen, alleluia!

·         He has come to set me free.

The first of them is the verse we use to begin every hour of prayer in the monastery. It is also a favorite mantra of St. John Cassian. Of all of them, however, my favorite is the second one, the one known as the Jesus Prayer.

If you take any one of these phrases, or another one of your own choosing, and repeat it to yourself during your time of meditation, or during short moments of prayer, what you will discover is that once you’ve said it enough, it will begin to come to your mind automatically and lead you away from vain and useless thoughts to a special place of prayer where God is with you intensely and you are in tune with Him and you will know that He is risen and He is guiding you “into the way that leads to peace.”

Peace be with you this day.

Show Me

(Please note: I will be away most of next week and have decided to take a little “Easter vacation.” The next reflection will be posted on Monday, April 11. Please keep me in your prayers.)

The Easter celebration continues, and today we hear once again the story of Thomas, who wanted actually living proof that Jesus had risen from the dead, proof so undeniable that he could actually reach out and touch it with his own hands.

And the risen Lord appeared to him and his friends and gave Thomas exactly what he had asked for. The Gospel passage (Luke 20:19-31) doesn’t actually say that Thomas touched the Lord, but most readers assume that it is so, because Thomas falls to his knees and proclaims, “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas wanted actual living proof. And whatever happened was definite proof for him, as he reacts as only one can react after such an experience.

These details are given to us so that we have proof as well. Not tactual proof, but proof in the details themselves. Jesus appeared. He ate and drank with them. Mary clung to him in the garden. Thomas had his doubts removed. Reread the stories of the resurrection appearances through one particular lens: “Is this proof enough for me?”

I ask a question similar to that every Easter. “Show me You have risen,” I ask. And every Easter season something happens in my life that becomes proof enough for me, and He has never let me down.

It is important, however, that I keep my eyes and ears open and that I don’t demand any particular type of proof like Thomas does, but rather that I understand, and have understood, that a proof will be given to me and that it will come from often surprising and unexpected ways, and sometimes very little and simple ways. Last year, when I was at a particularly low point in my life, a particular book practically fell off the shelf and into my hands, and the book was exactly what I needed at that time, and I was at peace, and the crisis passed and I came out the other side in better shape than I have ever been before. Once again, the Lord gave me his proof. And once again I could proclaim, “My Lord and my God.”

What might you ask of him this Easter Season?

God bless you.

He loves you like a child . . .

From the Gospel for Friday of the Octave of Easter:    (John 21:1-14)

Several of the apostles were out fishing, but they caught nothing. Jesus was standing on the shore near a charcoal fire. He called out to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?”

I stop there in my reading and reflect on the way Jesus addresses the men who, we remember were strong and probably tough. Jesus cuts through all that and gets to the heart of things: “Children.”

Children.

Child of God.

Picture yourself being called in this way. Lay down your adult-ness for a bit and be a child. Imagine Jesus loving that child, embracing you, blessing you, caring about you, tending to your needs in very ordinary ways. (He said to them: Come, have breakfast.)

The men bring him their fish, and he grills the fish for them. Jesus himself is feeding you. Jesus himself prepares for you to be nourished, not by theological intensity nor by rules and regulations, but by bread and fish—the most basic and favored meal in that place and at that time.

No other words need to be spoken. The next time you partake of any food, picture Jesus feeding you that food because it is something you need. Jesus caring for your child.

And then pray that He might feed all the children of the world who are hungry and needy. And, if you can, find a way to help in some small grateful way.

But for now, for this moment of reflection, note that you are the child and you are being taken care of, and your hunger is being satisfied. Abundantly, for the men’s nets hauled in 153 large fish.

No one knows for sure why the number of fish is specified: 153. It is a mystery for now. The time will come when we will understand. But not now.

I’ll close with a thought from Theophane the Recluse in The Art of Prayer:

Our whole object is to acquire the habit of keeping our attention always on the Lord, who is omnipresent and sees everything, who desires the salvation of all of us and is ready to help us toward it. (p. 122)

This reflection was inspired by the writing of Kathy Coffey, appearing in Give Us This Day for April, pp. 22-23.