SSR

A few weeks ago, I gave a talk at Mt. Carmel Academy in New Orleans.  As the bell rang to signal the beginning of the class period, the students all pulled out their rosaries.  One decade of the rosary was led over the school sound system, while everyone in the school answered in prayer.  Then, for the next ten minutes, every student, every teacher, every administrator and staff member engaged in SSR -- silent, sustained reading.  No one talked or looked around; everyone was engaged in reading for her own purpose and intent.  Then the class began with the teacher asking for prayer intentions, followed by a short communal prayer to Henriette Delille, the class patron.

As I participated in the prayer and reading, I reflected what a difference it would make if schools all over the country -- or at least, Catholic schools, ---- followed this pattern.  Instead of the teacher shouting for control; instead of wound-up, highly-energized students attempting to settle down and focus, class begins with calm prayer and sustained reading.  What a sense of peace and calm pervaded the classroom that afternoon!  What a sense of joy the students communicated to me as I talked to them!  Their faces reflected the inner beauty of a calm spirit instead of the restlessness one might often expect at the last period of a long school day.

I know from studies of the brain and what happens in the learning process that peace is the key to learning.  The amygdala is a small area in the central part of the brain; whenever we feel scared or threatened, the amygdala shuts down the rest of the brain in order to focus entirely on the perceived danger.  This is one reason people of faith turn to the rosary in times of anxiety, fear, or stress.  The rosary occupies the language center of the brain, over-riding the thoughts that tend to paralyze our thinking and even our breathing.  It is impossible to continue rehearsing and re-hashing the thoughts of fear, hurt, and anxiety while we are saying the rosary.  The process slows down our breathing as well as our anxious thoughts, allowing God the freedom to move in our spirits and give us peace.

It occurred to me during this experience that this short process of prayer and reading is a wonderful way to begin each day, especially for people who find prayer difficult.  It gives the Holy Spirit an entrance into our lives, allowing Him greater freedom to direct our thoughts.  And at the end of the day, what a wonderful way to prepare for sleep.  I wish now that I had practiced a decade of the rosary with my children at bedtime, after they were tucked into bed.  We always read at night, but how blessed it would have been to begin with the rosary as prayer!

Whenever I teach a confirmation class (11th grade), I encourage them to read the Bible; sometimes we read passages together in class.  But now I am re-thinking that process. I am thinking that 10 minutes of SSR following the rosary might be more beneficial, as students will be more aware of what is going on inside of them as they read -- and I am confident that the Holy Spirit will use every opportunity to speak to us when we are silent and tuned in to His Voice.

One of the greatest joys of my life has been receiving direction from the Spirit of God -- and I am grateful to the students and teachers of Mt. Carmel academy for showing me a new path to openness to the Holy Spirit.

Light One Candle

During the 50's and 60's, the Christopher Movement had a slogan:  It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.

As more and more NFL players "take the knee" during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and racism in America, I have been thinking about the Christophers.  Are the NFL players lighting a candle by their protests?  If they are, I'm not sure the right people are hearing their voices.  In the meantime, many fans are turned off by the protests, seeing the action more as disrespect for the flag rather than anything else.  Will their actions change racism in America or police brutality in the hearts of those who practice it?

When Nelson Mandala and the people living in apartheid South Africa determined to react against institutional injustice, they did not appeal directly to politicians or to those in power.  Rather, people of faith began to pray together, and as a sign of their hope that one day the evil of apartheid would be overcome, they lit candles and placed them in their windows so that their neighbors, the government, and the whole world would see their belief and hope (Ron Rolheiser, Dec. 3, 2004).

The government reacted by passing a law making it illegal to light a candle and put it in your window.  It was seen as a crime, as serious and owning and flaunting a gun.  As a result, the children had a joke:  "Our government is afraid of lit candles."  Morally shamed by its own people, the government eventually dismantled apartheid.

I believe that many people today are metaphorically lighting candles against racism, not by public protests, but by quiet lives of being good neighbors and helping those in need, regardless of race or color.  The aftermath of Harvey in Houston, like the aftermath of other natural disasters, has shown black and white reaching out to their neighbors.  Literally, we are all "in the same boat," and if we do not help one another, we will all drown together.

I would love to see a national day against racism when every person in America would light a candle and, for that one day and night, place it on their porch or in a window, as a public testimony that racism has no place in that house.  For the houses that remain in darkness, no protests would be necessary or effective, but the light that shines from their neighbors would be a testimony that racism has no place in America.

Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels

...He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone (Ps. 91:11-12).

In the Book of Tobit, Tobiah leaves his father and mother for a long journey.  As his mother begins to weep, Tobit says to her, "Do not worry! Our son will leave in good health and come back to us in good health.  For a good angel will go with him, his journey will be successful, and he will return in good health" (Tobit 5: 21-22).

I wonder how many of us today still believe in the ministry of angels, how many parents send their children off to school or to college in the company of their guardian angels.  There have been several times in my life when I knew the ministry of my angel, and as I grow older, I find myself relying more and more on the strength, wisdom, and beauty of my guardian angel. 

When I was 5 years old, new to the neighborhood, we lived on a block with only 3 houses.  I was not allowed to cross the street, but I used to sit at the far corner from our house, watching the children playing in the next block.  Ours was a busy street, so I was used to constant traffic and paid it little mind.  One day, as I was sitting on the sidewalk, a red pickup truck passed me and then suddenly braked.  I remember thinking that the driver must have wanted to turn at that corner, but at the same instant, I heard a commanding audible voice just above me and to the right side:  RUN, GAYLE, RUN.

I had never heard about kidnapping, of course, and had no idea of what might happen.  Actually, I was not really afraid at the moment, but the voice that commanded me was so authoritative that I felt compelled to obey.  I got up and started running as fast as I could as the red truck was backing up and pulling into the side street.  Then I heard, "Get her, Joe."  Now I was afraid and ran even faster.  As I approached my house, I knew not to run up on the front porch because they would catch me, so I ran down the driveway to the back door.  As soon as I did that, the men turned and ran back to their truck. 

Screaming and shaking now, I ran inside and wrapped my arms around my mom's legs.  She immediately called the police, but I could tell them nothing except that it was a red truck.  A few days afterwards, I asked my mom whose voice it was that had told me to run.  "That was your guardian angel," she replied.  I knew without a doubt that had the angel not spoken that day, the men would have grabbed me.  To this day, I can still hear that voice in my head.

That was not to be the only time in my life that an angel spoke to me, saving me from evil and destruction.  Now, I rely constantly on the ministry of my angel, in small and great things: I have sent my angel out to find lost pets and return them home; I have asked for help in desperate situations, when I have been lost and without resources, etc. 

We don't need to read much Scripture to discover the ministry of angels throughout the Old and New Testaments.  We just need to read those passages slowly and meditatively until they penetrate our hardened hearts and too-scientific minds and we begin to believe what they say.  A small prayer of thanksgiving to our unseen angels is a good place to begin.

The Invisible God

No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him known (John 1:18).

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation....for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Col. 1:15;19).

For in Christ, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Col. 2:9).

The Old Testament prophets told us who God is, but we could not believe it and we did not want to accept it.  It is so much easier to fashion a god in our own image than to accept the prophets' words.  Micah said this: 

Who is a God like you, who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance? Who does not persist in anger forever, but instead delights in mercy, and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our iniquities?  You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins; you will show faithfulness to Jacob, and loyalty to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from days of old (Micah 7:18-20).

Human nature is such that we continue to flagellate ourselves for our sins and shortcomings.  How can we believe that God will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea --- and when will He do this?  How many tears, how much penance, is needed before it is enough for Him to forget our sins?  How can we believe that "He delights in mercy" and "will again have compassion on us"?

And then Jesus appears, the "image of the invisible God," in Whom "all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form."  And we see Him calling Matthew, the tax collector to come and follow Him.  We see Him right before our eyes saving the woman caught in adultery from certain death and saying to her, "Neither do I condemn you....go and sin no more."  We watch Him with Peter, who denied Him three times: "Peter, do you love Me?" 

In Him we see the Face of God, the Father Who loves His children and who is merciful and kind, forgiving iniquities generation after generation.  We actually see Him "treading underfoot our iniquities" and releasing us from the burden of sin.  We see Him raising the paralytic from his bed of pain and suffering -- and sending him on his way without further "penance" required.  It is hard to believe what the prophets have said about God -- until we can see it for ourselves in the face of Jesus. 

Available to God

Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole strength.

In other words, "Love God body, soul, and spirit -- with all that you are and all that you have."

Who among us is equal to such a task?  "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."  What we want to do is the very thing we end up not doing, according to St. Paul (Romans 7), and what we determine not to do is the very thing we end up doing after all.  How then are we to love God with our whole being?

Mother Teresa called herself "a pencil in the hand of God."  When I put myself into that wonderful image, I can only picture a poor, dull, stub of a pencil, hardly worth saving -- something that lands in a junk drawer and is eventually thrown out.  However, I imagine God reaching into the junk drawer and finding the stub and deciding that it still has some usefulness.  In His hands, that poor little pencil can write a symphony, a gospel, a healing letter.  The only requirement is that the pencil be available for the Divine Purpose.

During the earliest days of my conversion or "born again" experience, when I had just begun to read the Bible, a good friend asked me to co-lead a prayer group with her.  Immediately, I backed away, saying that I had just begun to read the Bible and that I didn't know where things were yet.  If I read something, I couldn't remember where I had read it and could hardly find it again.  I had no ability at all to quote Scripture: what on earth would qualify me to lead a prayer group?

"Listen to me," said this very wise woman, "God does not need your ability; He only needs your availability."  "Oh," I said, "I guess I could be available."  And very soon I began to discover what God could do -- and would do -- when we make ourselves available to Him, body, soul, and spirit.

Mary's Magnificat says it all:  My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has done great things for me.  If we break this down into its components, we see that Mary's "soul," -- that is, her mind, her will, and her emotions --- were focused not on herself and her abilities, but on the greatness of the Lord.  Her life was a magnifying glass for the secret and hidden action of God in the world, seeing not what man does in the world, but rather what God is about.  She regarded only her smallness, her inability, her poverty -- and the power of God to use what is freely and willingly given over to Him for His purpose, His plan, His providence.  In her surrender to Divine Power and greatness, her spirit rejoiced.  She found joy in her littleness and in her inability because she belonged to the One Who created all things and Who uses all things for His design.  She belonged to Him body, mind, soul, and spirit -- nothing was withheld from Divine Love.

We too can go on our way with joyfulness, not focused on our weakness in the flesh and our inability to do great things.  If we are surrendered to the plan, the purpose, and the power of God, He will do great things for us also.

The Pearl of Great Price

During a 9-hour flight back from London to the US, I listened to my seat-mate conversing with a couple across the aisle about their world travels.  For an hour and a half, they discussed all the places they had been, how often they traveled each year, and all the places they were planning to visit soon.  A lot of what they said sounded to me like one-upmanship, but perhaps that was cynicism on my part.  Both parties obviously loved traveling -- spending a week in an Icelandic yurt, going on an African safari, etc. -- and they obviously loved the opportunity to share their adventures with like-minded travelers.  But listening to them began to feel tiring after awhile. 

Although I love traveling and love seeing the beauty of other countries, customs, and cultures -- meeting people who look and think differently -- nothing will ever be as satisfying and delicious to me as entering and resting in what St. Catherine of Siena called "the Sea of Peace."  In The Dialogue, she records her mystical conversations with the Father, who tells her:

It is as if this gentle loving Word, my Son, were saying to you: "Look.  I have made the road and opened the gate for you with my blood.  Do not fail, then to follow it.  Do not sit down to rest out of selfish concern for yourself, foolishly saying you do not know the way.  Do not presume to choose your own way of serving instead of the one I have made for you in my own person, eternal Truth, incarnate Word, the straight way hammered out with my own blood."

Get up, then, and follow Him, for no one can come to me the Father except through Him.  He is the way and the gate through whom you must enter into me, the Sea of Peace.

When I read these words, so many Scriptures came to mind with the realization of what Jesus referred to as "the Pearl of Great Price."  To the woman at the well, He said, "If you knew who it was who asked you for water, you would ask Him, and He would give you living water."  His parable of the man who found a treasure in a field and who then sold everything to buy the field and the one of the merchant who gave everything for the Pearl of Great Price mean little to one who has traveled the world but who has never found what he was looking for.

Once someone has experienced the Sea of Peace given to us so freely in Jesus Christ, he cannot continue looking for new adventures, new "truth," new experiences.  He has found what he was looking for and nothing else will ever surpass that one thing, nor anything else replace it.  Unfortunately, much as we want to, we can never tell anyone else what that great pearl looks like, feels like, tastes like.  There is only one way to enter the Sea of Peace, and that is through The Way, The Truth, and the Life.  There are many doctrines, but only one Truth.  Filling our heads with multiple "ways" or explanations is like traveling the world and still seeking yet one more adventure because the last one has not satisfied the quest. 

To enter communion with the Father through the Son and the Son's own relationship with His Father is the pearl of great price, for which a man would give all that he has and count the loss as dung.  Once we have entered the Sea of Peace, nothing else will satisfy us, and we need not continue to look for anything else -- not even a yurt in Iceland!

Rublev's Icon of the Trinity

Andrei Rublev:    Icon of the Holy Trinity

An icon is not just a painting; it is the fruit of many years of contemplation distilled into an image that is rich in Scripture and theology.  Rublev's icon of the Holy Trinity is the most famous image of Trinitarian life ever painted.  All three Persons of the Trinity are portrayed with wings to indicate that this is more than just an earthly gathering.  They are seated together at a table, with the 4th side open to the viewer.  And though seated, all three are holding staffs, or walking sticks, indicating pilgrimage on earth.  The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are walking with us on our journey through life. 

The Father, on the left, is robed in blue (for the heavens) and a shimmering, translucent garment.  The Son, in the center, wears the blue of heaven and the rich brown of earth--he has taken on the flesh of man, but still, over his shoulder he wears the gold band of authority and rule:  the government is upon his shoulder (Isaiah).

The Holy Spirit, on the right, wears blue for heaven and green for the freshness of creation.  Proverbs 8 and other Scriptures tell us that He is the agent of creation and renewal.  Behind the Son is the Tree of Life (Wisdom: Proverbs 4:23) -- Christ is the Wisdom of God.  But the tree also represents the wood of the cross, by which and through which we enter the Father's house, represented behind the Father with an open door and an upper-story window, through which he eagerly watches for the return of the Prodigal Son.

The Father gestures toward the Son, Whom He sends.  The Son looks to the Father, and gestures toward the Spirit, Whom He sends. The Spirit is looking both at the Father and out toward the viewer, inviting us to come to the table and to enter into the fellowship they share -- to eat at the divine table.  The food on the table is the Lamb of God, given to transform us into children of God. 

It has been said that the Father is the Table, the Son is the Food, and the Holy Spirit the Maitre D' who leads us to the table and the Waiter Who brings us the Sacred Meal. 

Beneath the table is a mysterious rectangle.  It is thought that at one time (15th C), there may have been a piece of polished metal attached to the icon to act as a mirror of the viewer, so that we could see ourselves at the Table of the Lord.

During His earthly life, Our Lord sat at table with sinners-- tax collectors, a woman cleansed of demons, and the apostles.  He is reflecting God's Presence in our lives, "sitting down" with us to share our fare in life in order to welcome us to His Table of Love, Peace, Acceptance, and Communion.  Revelation 3:20 says "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone will open to me, I will come in and dine with him and he with me."  Here we have another image -- one of host and guest.  At times, we dine with the Lord, sitting at His table of unimaginable grace and plenty.  At other times, He graciously sits at our table, sharing with us whatever we ourselves have to eat, no matter how sparse and weak our fare. 

Rublev's icon is the starting point for meditation and contemplation on the role the Most Holy Trinity wants to play in our lives.  If we have the courage to accept the outstretched hand of the Holy Spirit, we are invited to share the finest of wheat and drink all the days of our lives.

The Mind of Christ

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God...no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God....we have received the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us....The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned...but we have the mind of Christ (I Cor. 2: 11-16).

The mind of Christ?  How can this be true, that we have the mind of Christ?  I don't mind confessing that the first time I read this, I chalked it up to hyperbole.  My own mind felt so far from the mind of Christ that I wondered whether we had much in common at all.  Jesus is the Wisdom of God, and I have often borrowed a phrase from the book of Jonah to describe my own mind -- God tells Jonah that the Ninevites "don't know their right hands from their left," and so Jonah should not protest God's mercy on them.  So often in prayer, I have said, "Lord, you know that I don't know my right hand from my left; I am totally dependent on and in need of your direction here."

And yet, when I look more closely at Jesus during His earthly sojourn, I see His total dependence upon the Father.  He withdrew often from the crowds that He might commune with the Father.  He said, "My words are not My own; they belong to the One Who sent Me," and "The Father works until now, and I also work."  Clearly, Jesus had no thought other than to seek the Father and the Father's work in His own life.  Here, we absolutely can have the mind of Christ-- even in our ignorance and waywardness, we can continually seek the Father's words and work in our lives. 

The first letter of St. John tells us that we have an anointing from the Holy One, and that we all "know the truth."  He contrasts this knowledge to the knowledge of those who love the world and everything in it:  For everything in the world -- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does -- comes not from the Father but from the world (v.16).  The man without the Spirit, according to the letter to the Corinthians, cannot accept the things of God, for they are foolishness to him.  But "whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also...and his anointing teaches you about all things, and that anointing is real, not counterfeit" (1Jn. 2:23 and 27).

John goes on to tell us that in the "lavishness" of His love, God has made us His "children" and that is what we are.  Now, it seems that children, even though they may stray for a time, have the mind of their parents, to the 3rd and 4th generation.  The reason we do not have the mind of God is sin -- but the "reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work...."because God's seed remains in [the one born of God], he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God," and "in this world we are like Him" (1Jn. 3:9 and 4:17).

The very end of John's letter reiterates his central thought:  We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one does not touch him...We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.  And we are in him who is true -- even in his Son Jesus Christ.

So when we read that we "have the mind of Christ," we know that the Son of God is at work in us, destroying the work of the devil (sin) and purifying us from all unrighteousness, so that we can understand the things of God.  We know that He has come to give us understanding of the things of God through an anointing that remains with us.  And we know that we are "in Him who is true." 

To know these things is to allow ourselves to be taught by the Holy Spirit -- and to encourage us to withdraw from the things of the world in order to receive the mind of Christ.  Prayer, then, takes on a whole new dimension for the children of God -- no longer beseeching Him for favor, but running to the Father to be taught wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of ourselves and the world by His Spirit.  Like Jesus, we seek solitude in order to receive the words and thoughts of the Father.

If we read the first letter of John, it becomes very clear that we no longer think at all like those who ...are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and who knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.  This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (1Jn. 4:5-6).  The deep divisions in our society highlighted by the recent Presidential election make it even more easy to recognize those who 'have the mind of Christ' and those who do not.

Inspiration

Elisabeth Leseur (1866-1914) was a devout Catholic who offered her life for the conversion of her husband, a determined atheist.  After her death, he found her secret diary, experienced while reading them a profound conversion, and went on to become a Dominican priest.  Reading her writings is likely to have a similar effect on other readers, for as she examines her own life and spirituality, she causes the reader to do the same about his/her own life.

Here is a selection from her journal:

I know well what this word apostle means and all the obligations it creates.  First, the necessity of an interior life that becomes stronger all the time, of drawing more than ever charity and gentle serenity from the Eucharist and from prayer, as well as making wholly spiritual intentions. Then, to cultivate my own mind systematically, to increase my knowledge of all those subjects that I am ready to learn; to do nothing precipitously or superficially; to achieve, as much as possible, competence in the subjects I study.  To transform and make this intellectual effort holy through a spiritual motive, doing it humbly without any self-centeredness, but exclusively to help others.

To bring to all conversation and discussion a tranquil spirit, a firmness, and a friendliness that will eliminate bitterness or irritation from the opponent's mind; never to give in where principles are concerned, but to have extraordinary tolerance for people.  Above all, to try, after discovering the opening, to present the divine, unchanging Truth to each one in such a way as to make it understood and loved.

Leseur was ill much of her life, with a disease of the liver, which curtailed much of the activity she would have like to do for others.  Yet, through her writings and her efforts to cultivate the peace and patience she needed with her husband's opposition to spiritual truth, she has become an apostle in every sense of the word.  I dare say I am not the only one to find inspiration in her writing.

The Light of Christ

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....without Him nothing was made that has been made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never overcome it (John 1:1-5).

The entire Good News is summed up in the first chapter of John -- and for those who can see it, even in the opening lines of Genesis:  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, "let there be light," and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

These lines describe not only the earth at its inception, but our souls before we are born again of water and of the Holy Spirit.  The Good News is that God has spoken in us His Divine Word, the new life of His Son, the Word which makes us not children of the earth, but children of God.  We are brought to birth by His Word and His Spirit, the breath of His mouth, just as it is written in the second chapter of Genesis.  Over our chaos hovers the Speaker, the Word spoken, and the Breath by which He speaks.  His Word can never be "unspoken."

The darkness that engulfs us before we are born again is the profound darkness that encompasses the entire earth, even today.  The earth indeed is "empty and formless" until the Word of God shapes and forms it.  Before Christ, before the spoken Word of God, our ideas and opinions are those of the earth, "empty and formless."  When His Word is spoken in us, the Light enters and the darkness can never again overcome us.  Peter says that we have been redeemed "from the empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers" -- that is, from the empty and formless life of the world, of the natural man.  We no longer belong to Adam, for our natural man has died.  The life we now live, we live in Christ as sons and daughters of God.

Paul says in Romans that he is convinced that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God given to us in Christ Jesus --  for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38).

This is the Word spoken at the beginning-- Let there be light!  And the Light of Christ enters into our darkness, changing us forever.  Just as the darkness could not overcome Him in the tomb, so it can never overcome us; His Resurrection is our guarantee of eternal life. 

Prayer

     Except you give us Your own life and breath, O Lord, who could stand in Your Presence?

You teach us, not mind to mind, but spirit to spirit, and only Your Spirit knows the blockages in our spirits that prevent us from receiving the breath of life.

Your Spirit is stronger than any darkness that rules the world or our hearts and minds.  You are Spirit and Truth and Life, and You have never been overcome by the darkness.

Your word is Truth, O Lord; Your Spirit is Truth, and there is none besides You.  Let Your anointing be on us, O, Lord, to the glory and praise of Your Name.