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.

God is waiting to help you

We might profit from a passage we read at daytime office today:

For thus says the Lord God,

the Holy One of Israel:

By waiting and by calm you shall be saved,

in quiet and in trust your strength lies.  (Isaiah:30:15)

This was addressed to the people of Israel, but they didn’t heed his words. Instead, they took matters into their own hands and sought help not from the Lord but from another nation in alliance with them, and their action let to disaster. And all the while, the Lord was telling them to wait. He would deliver them.

Yet the Lord is waiting to show you favor,

and he rises to pity you;

For the Lord is a God of justice:

blessed are all who wait for him!  (Isaiah 30:18)

Keep this in mind: The Lord is waiting to show you favor. He is waiting for you to stop worrying and planning what to do and open yourself to His action and assistance. Don’t forget: in quiet and trust your strength lies.

Get quiet. For those who live out in the world and not in convents and monasteries, it is so difficult to find quiet, to find silence, to find an atmosphere conducive to contemplation. But please notice that this silence is a necessity, not a luxury.

And perhaps you might find the time to make a retreat, to spend a day or two at a monastery or retreat center, or go off to that cabin in the woods even though it is cold. Be active: make quiet time. Ask the Lord. He will help you.

God bless you.

The peace that can't be described is meant for you.

From the second reading for the Third Sunday of Advent (Year C): Philippians 4:4-7

. . . Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

So what is this peace? Have you experienced it? Can you describe it?

Of course you can’t. This peace which is given to us who believe defies description because we are limited in our language, especially when it comes to spiritual things. We don’t have the words or concepts to speak about it rationally, or logically, or in merely earthbound terms.

What we do know is that the peace itself is conditional. There are things we have to do that end up calling this peace down upon us and within us. The passage from Philippians lists the requirements for us:

·         Rejoice in the Lord always (even during those difficult times).

·         Be extraordinarily kind.

·         Be free from anxiety because you know the Lord is near (=with you in all things). Sit calmly, breathe deeply, feel the anxiety and then offer it up to God who will touch it and heal it. Focus on the body sensations you have when you are anxious; imagine the Lord touching those sensations, and as you breathe deeply, experience them growing fainter and lighter until they all but disappear. Don’t think about the problem or the issues: focus you attention on the feelings and the sensation.

·         Ask for things by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. God already knows what you need, but it is important for you voice your requests in your own words.

If you do all these things, then you will know that peace which surpasses all understanding. Give thanks for it. Don’t try to explain it to anyone else, or even to yourself: simply rest in it.

When you emerge from this meditative process, you will be better able to face the things you have to face in your life, and you may perhaps even be given insight about what you are to say or do.

I can’t say any more about it. I don’t have the language to do that. But I do what I can do in my own imperfect way. I pray that the suggestions I make will inspire you to make yourself ready to receive that peace. Just remember: on this third Sunday of Advent, the color is pink, not purple, for this a day given to us that we may rejoice.

Blessed Advent to you.

Repairing what is broken

The final verse of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel finishes our series of meditations.

O come, Desire of nations, bind

In one the hearts of humankind;

O bid our sad divisions cease,

And be for us our King of Peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to you

O [Israel]

This verse was on my mind last night during Vespers, particularly when we prayed the last petition for the evening: Conqueror of the barriers of hatred and discord, reunite at the banquet of eternal life all who have died as victims of war. ---and I added, and terrorism.

The petition shed light on something I had not considered: at the end of time, ALL who have died will be reunited at the banquet table. Enemy combatants will one day reach out hands to one another; there will be unity at last.

Consider that, if you will: we, too, will be united with those we may have seen as enemies on this side of the grave. We will be united with those we disagree with, with those we have found it difficult to like, with those we may have hurt as well as those who may have hurt us.  Somehow, the Prince of Peace will dissolve those barriers. The petition calls him ”Conqueror of the barriers of hatred and discord.”

Perhaps we may need him to send that powerful grace to us here and now, for we cannot wait until the time we may pass over from death to eternal life.

Are there divisions in your life? Discord? Contentiousness? Emnity? Bitterness over what has happened in the past? Aversions to some? Ask him to send the grace to dissolve these barriers for us, even if it may take a lifetime for the process to be completed. Try this exercise: focus your attention on one single person; pray for that person; picture the Prince of Peace dissolving what has been broken and uniting heart to heart in a sublime moment of healing.

Remember this: Emmanuel shall come to you, bringing all the things you have prayed for as we have made our way through this wonderful hymn.

Blessed Advent to you.

The next Reflection will be on Sunday, December 13.

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night

Today we consider the 6^th verse of O Come, O come, Emmanuel:

O come, O Dayspring from on high,

And cheer us by your drawing nigh;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,

And death’s dark shadow put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel will come to you,

O [Israel].

The word Dayspring evokes the closing lines of a prayer known as the Benedictus, which is sung in monasteries and convents and in the Liturgy of the Hours every morning at the end of Morning Prayer.

The Benedictus is better known as the Canticle of Zechariah, the prophecy of the father of John the Baptist when his lips were opened and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. It begins like this,

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and brought redemption to his people.

The canticle goes on to speak of John the Baptist and his role in preparing the people for the coming of the Lord:

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give his people knowledge of salvation

through the forgiveness of their sins,

because of the tender mercy of our God

by which the daybreak from on high will visit us

to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow,

to guide our feet into the path of peace.  (Luke 1:76-79)

 Can you see how the words of the Benedictus inspired today’s verse from the Advent hymn?

In all of this, I believe the key words are forgiveness, and  tender mercy. And in this, perhaps the verse (and the Benedictus) challenges us to ask for forgiveness for our sins, either through the Sacrament of Reconciliation (most especially) or in our regular daily prayer. Could you perhaps focus on some sin, temptation or weakness that calls down upon you “the gloomy clouds of night”?

It is time for that night to come to an end. Focus on the light offered through the Advent hymn, verse 6, and also in the Benedictus. Be very specific in your prayer, and gently but ruthlessly honest in your examination of conscience. And may you know the coming of the Light as you are guided by Our Lord to move you into the path of peace.

Blessed Advent to you.

Personal peace

The time came when Jesus wept over Jerusalem, knowing that its fate was going to be annihilation and total destruction. He lamented, and he said something that I’d like to leave with you for today’s reflection:

“If this day you only knew what makes for peace.”

He was speaking of the people’s refusal to turn to him and to believe in him and the things he had taught them. And, of course, that is a good place for us to start as well. Do we believe that Jesus is the One who brings true peace? Do we believe it deeply enough? Do we believe it so much that it has an effect on the way we think and on our behavior as well? Or do we reserve certain aspects of our lives as separate from what we say we believe? Do we withhold? Do we prevaricate? Are we sometimes of two minds and two faces?

These are difficult questions, and, just like everything else that is difficult, we can only find the answers by turning to the Lord and asking him to help us see what we have not yet been able to see.

Do we have the energy or the courage to do that? In each and every aspect of our lives? Or do we have to say “not yet, Lord,” “give me more time.”?

Or let’s make it a bit easier, especially if you are one of those who consider yourself a beginner in the spiritual life. (After all, these reflections are meant for you, not for the experts.) Anyway, for you, I offer just a few questions to guide you on your search for the peace that Jesus brings:

·         Is there something you are ignoring or not being honest about?

·         Is there some good you could be doing that you are not doing (sins of omission)?

·         Where in your life is there no peace? Have you asked Jesus to touch it?

·         Is there anything going on in your life that you would rather God not notice?

·         If Jesus said to you today, “What do you want me to do for you?” how would you answer.

God bless you.

The Agony of Paris

A terrible thing happened in Paris this weekend. Hatred, violence, the killing of innocence, unmerited pain, fanaticism, self-destruction, terror and chaos.

If you can, sit with the weight of all this evil  while gazing at a crucifix, and behold Him Who drew onto himself the entire weight of sin and evil in the world.

Hold the pain and connect it with the crucifix, and stay with it for as long as you are inspired to do.

In your prayers, let every suffering soul and every grieving person be embraced by the crucifix.

And remember this: the crucifix is the gateway to the end of all pain, all violence, all hatred, all chaos.

All death.

* * * * *

A terrible thing happened in Paris this weekend.

A terrible thing is happening in the world these days, every hour, every moment.

Terrible things are happening in our country these days, every hour, every moment.

We cannot and do not hear of all of them. Few of them make the news or attract the attention of the media.

But still they are happening. And always, it is the crucifix that provides the only point of reference that makes it possible to bear the evil.

Even though it may seem impossible, or implausible, or unimaginable,

it is within the agony of the crucifix that is found  the seed of the end of it all,

and that seed will come to life.

And there will be peace. We will see glimpses of it. It will drown the darkness for all time.

And so pray,

     grieve,

          carry the pain.

                Allow the pain to gentle you and me that we may be no part of the darkness.

Pay careful attention to anything within you that may contribute to the darkness, even the temptation to think of righteous revenge. For when you think like that, you are infected by the same evil.

Pray. Grieve. Carry the pain. And give it over to the Savior the world needs so badly.

And let it end there. And let it begin there.

Getting back on track

I will be away for a few days. The next reflection will be on October 27.

He is searching for God. He has a good prayer life, leads a reflective life, and surrounds himself with loving, supportive friends who support him in his quest.

And yet there are times when he gets disconnected from the Source of all peace and happiness, and begins going after things which will ultimately fail to satisfy. At times he falls prey to the illusion that <this> or <that> really matter at lot more than they really do. These times of dis-connection open a gate within him and he becomes prone to disappointment, regret, jealousy, envy, judging others, the urge to control his reality or that of others. He experiences feelings which are far from the peace and happiness he seeks. During these times he becomes like a fool playing with what is toxic, what is treacherous, and, ultimately, what fails to satisfy.

                                 

When he was younger, this dis-connection was the norm and not the exception—that is, until God reached out and touched him and “made his footsteps firm.”  St. Paul called him back to spiritual reality: ”. . . what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed.” (Romans 6:21)

Now things are different. He still gets dis-connected from time to time, but he has found a remedy: he simply things of times when he has said, done or thought things which brought him inner joy. And reflecting on these things, the shadows are dissolved in the light of Christ.

Thus restored, he gives thanks. To the God who is love.

Finding true peace and happiness

finishing Paragraph 27 of the Catechism:

“. . . only in God will he find the truth and happiness that he never stops searching for.”

I remember a quote from somewhere about a man who worked to climb to ladder of success only to find that when he reached the top he discovered that the ladder had been put up against the wrong wall.

We all do that at times. Don’t take my word for it: check out your life. Have there been times when you have been in pursuit of something that you thought would make you happy, only to discover that once you got what is was your happiness was either short-lived or even nonexistent? The same thing is true for peace. How many times, how may remedies do we try that are designed to give us peace of mind, only to discover that the peace we sought so desperately eluded us?

Only in God. That’s the answer in all its simplicity and in all its complexity. Only In God.

Cistercian monk Fr.Thomas Keating teaches that we have a number of “instinctual needs” that we are continually searching for: “survival and security, affection and esteem and approval, and power and control.” How do we try to get these things? How often are we thwarted in our quest? How many false solutions do we seek?

What is the remedy: Well, when we are searching for God, we discover that we have an “enormous capacity” for “growth, love, freedom, peace, service of others, and reaching out to those in need.” Those are the things that bring us what we have been searching for all along! And how do we learn to devote our lives to those things? Well, back to paragraph 27.

By the way, Fr. Keating also points out that when we push these things aside and search for false remedies, we often get ourselves into a great deal of trouble. This is how obsessions develop, or even addictions. Again, there is a remedy: back to paragraph 27.

Have a nice day.

Advance notice: I will be away next week and will not have access to a computer. I intend to post (with God’s help) tomorrow and Sunday. The next reflection after that will be on October 9. Please keep me in your prayers. Thank you.