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.