Feast of Teresa of Avila

Today is the Feast day of Teresa of Avila.  This is a famous statue of Teresa called Teresa in Ecstasy.

If you have a real interest in the spiritual life and have never read Interior Castle I would encourage you to give it a try.

I will also add the caveat that Teresa didn't really want to write this wonderful book, and it shows in the end product.   It is the most wonderfully meandering narrative.   If you can stay with her though you are rewarded with a journey through the interior life to full communion with God.

Teresa was a Saint, and a Dr. of the Church, but she was also wonderfully human.  She was a very adamant proponent of praying exactly where one is to God,  with boldness and candor.  One of my favorite of her prayers is:  "If this is the way You treat your friends, it is no wonder You have so few of them."


Pax

Middle Aged Spirituality

So one of the books I have to read this semester for my internship concerns the topic of Spirituality for the transitional (middle) age. The book I read was Passage Through Mid Life by Paul Robb SJ.

The book was a total revelation for me. Fr. Robb discusses how fear can keep us from growing closer to God or becoming what God wants us to be. We, if we want a relationship with God and to become the "best version of ourselves" we need to find out where that fear is coming from and root it out.

In some cases, the fear comes from something that happened in our childhood. Our development as an emotionally, spiritually whole person gets stuck where the fear became so overwhelming that we can no longer grow in wisdom and favor with God (Luke 2:52).

What we need to do is go back and deal with that inner child . We need to try to heal whatever caused that fear and hurt in that child so that we can grow beyond it. By caring for our inner child, we can become emotionally and spiritually whole as an adult.

It might sound like psychobabble, but it makes sense from a Christian perspective. Jesus tell us that if we are willing to become as humble as a little child we will be the greatest in His kingdom. (Mat 18:4). How humbling is it to revisit our childhood hurts and traumas and work on making ourselves stronger, and more whole? When we humble ourselves in the site of the Lord, He will lift us up.

So, what fear is holding you back? Where do you need to care for your inner child so that God can lift you up and grant you the abundant life you so richly deserve? Get to work.


Pax

untangling the knot

God isn't speaking to me in words.
I may have told you this before.
When I pray I either get great gaping silence:



































or I get images. The problem with the images is that I don't know what they mean. It is like picking up a knitting project only to find that my yarn is all tangled into a huge mess. Where do you start when what you find is this?I know that I am not sure where to begin. I just drop the work in frustration and move on to something else.

I should, I suppose be happy that I am aware that God is close to me. There are those who are in the dark night of the soul who don't have that awareness.

Where I used to feel that I could float forever on the warmth of the ocean of mercy that is my Loving God. Now I feel as though I am being pulled under, and I am struggling, gasping for breath as I submerge, struggling against whatever change is coming. Then today it occurred to me that I should just cooperate.

One of my friends said something though that really gave me pause. I am struggling because I am still trying to do this, whatever it is that is happening, whatever is causing such chaos inside of me. Perhaps my response should be that I should stop doing, and let God take over completely. Maybe that is why it is such a struggle; because I am "trying to help."

If I surrender completely to the change and get out of God's way maybe the change can happen more easily and there won't be as much struggle. Maybe the knot will unravel itself if I just leave it alone instead of trying so hard to untangle the ends.

Something to think about . . . in the silence.

Pax

Mystic Monday: Again Blessed Hermit Susan

I spent the summer in the desert, did I tell you this story already? It was HOT! I went there to support mrangelmeg who had to go there for work, and because it happened to be the California desert so it was a bit of a vacation, but along with the vacation-y parts of the trip came the discomfort of the HOT sun and the HOT wind and the dust, and did I mention the heat?

Anyway, as I spent my three and a half weeks in the desert I got to thinking about the desert fathers and mothers that we have been talking about on these Mystic Mondays. They lived in the desert and they didn't have the modern conveniences like central air conditioning and automobiles and trains to make travel so convenient as they moved through the desert.

So, today I want to share some wisdom from one of these desert mothers:Blessed Hermit Susan

From the time Susan was a little child in Persia she had dreams of going off and being a hermit. She so wanted to travel to the land of the desert mystics but her family kept her from doing so because of her age; at the time she first asked she was only eight years old. A few years later she ran away, joined a caravan of women and found her way out into the desert. She stayed with them for a long time but when they were ready to return she slipped away and remained in the desert.

She joined a monastic order but she longed for the solitude of a cave away from everyone and every distraction. She found just such a cave and moved herself there and eventually lived out the remainder of her life in that type of seclusion out in the desert, away from all human companionship and distraction. For her, this was what God was calling her to do. (Swan, Laura The Forgotten Desert Mothers, 2001 Paulist Press , p100)

God is probably not calling any of us to give up everyone we know and love and move out into a cave in the desert, but God often calls upon us to do things that others might not understand; like take a lower paying job because the hours are better for the family, or the stress level is better for our health.

How many of us would be willing to give up everything if that is what we know in our hearts is what God is calling us to do? How many of us are willing to live a life of total submission to God's will? Especially when others don't understand what or why we were doing what we were doing?

Pax

On Suffering

If the Lord should give you power to raise the dead, He would give much less than He does when he bestows suffering. By miracles you would make yourself debtor to Him, while by suffering He may become debtor to you. And even if sufferings had no other reward than being able to bear something for that God who loves you, is not this a great reward and a sufficient remuneration? Whoever loves, understands what I say. - Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

Suffering is a topic that we, especially in this country don't like to think about or experience. We do everything we can to avoid suffering, from self medication to avoidance to all manner of odd practices. What we have forgotten I think is that suffering is gift.

God sends suffering into our lives for a reason. If we look at it that way then it should change how we encounter the trials and tribulations in our lives. I don't mean that we should all go out looking for pain or living with pain when we do have the ability to medically take the pain away, but we should not look upon suffering as something to be avoided at all costs.

Old St John Chrysostom was wise in that way. There are great rewards for those who learn from the gift of suffering that God sends.

What have you learned from the suffering in your life?

Sorry for the Silence

I realized this week that I have been in relative Blog Silence lately and I apologize. The new school schedules for the girls have been quite hectic, and I am just now finding my rhythm.

There has also been something going on in my spiritual life that I don't quite know how or even whether I should share yet, so I am "pondering it in my heart" and trying to discern what and or how I should share this part of my spiritual journey with you, my faithful readers. Suffice it to say that God has been sharing something very special with me. in a way that I have yet to find a way to describe. For a writer this has caused me no end of dispair, because I would love to share withyou the joy of my newest journey, but words fail.

I fullly intend to continue the Mystic Monday posts beginning next Monday, and hoppefully will be able to post at least three times a week now that our school schedule is a little more setlled into a regular pattern and I am used to it.

Practice . . .

is one of those words that no one likes to hear, or think about. It has such bad connotations. Boring drills and repetitive mind numbing action of doing the same things over and over again thousands upon thousands of times. Perhaps that is why the word practice is so foreign to our understanding of the spiritual life. We don't want our spiritual life to be boring or repetitive or the same thing done over and over again.

Yet, the same principle that makes a golfer wanting to hone his short game hit thousands of chip shots day after day, is the same principle that could be applied to anyone who wants to grow in the spiritual life as well. If there isn't some form of practice going on there can be no growth.

Of course, I could take my golf clubs and hit chip shots all day every day, and I will never be as skilled at golf as Tiger Woods, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try. And just because Tiger Woods has so much innate talent doesn't mean he just sits back and rests without any practice at all. In fact just this year in an interview he stated that since his recent knee surgery he has been able to spend much more time practicing and he has noticed a decided improvement in the quality of his game because he was spending more time on the range and the practice green. Imagine that, Tiger Woods admitting that his game improves when he has more time to practice.

So, we should spend time in the practice of the spiritual life. But how? That is something that is very individual. We tend to know what we need to work on. How you practice your spiritual discipline is a very individual pursuit. There are a few standard fundamentals that will help anyone grow in the spiritual discipline if we practice them:

Immerse yourself in the Word -- Pick up your bible and read a few chapters every day. You can actually get through the entire bible in less than a year if you make a practice of reading a bit each day. Find a translation that you like and understand (there are many, some more conversational than others, some more flowery) Don't worry about the boring, listy parts, skim them quickly or just skip over them: I had a Professor in Gradual School who gave us all a list entitled Reading the bible without having to read any of the boring bits, and it listed which specific repetitive chapters to skip.)

Talk to God (pray) every day --, in whatever way you feel most comfortable. For some people this will mean doing a set group of rote prayers morning and evening. For some people this will mean setting aside time for meditation or contemplation. For some people this will mean practicing the presence of God, or cultivating a lifestyle where they always feel as though they are in God's presence and are in communication with God. For some people it may mean small , sticky note, arrow (the old term for these was ejaculation) prayers throughout the day. For some people, the greatest form of daily prayer is to participate in the Liturgy of the Hours of the Church, These are a set pattern of psalms, responses and readings that all clergy and religious of the church pray every day, and can be prayed by anyone who wants to join in.

The most important thing about prayer isn't how you do it, it is that you do it.


Learn something new -- there are many ways to accomplish this, you could read spiritual readings, listen to or watch something enriching, go to lectures or to Mass or your worship service if you aren't Catholic.

You could join with a group of friends and actually study the bible you have been reading, that is a very different form of immersion, to study the word. To look at the context of the time in which it was written and the people to whom the story is speaking in that time and what that story meant for them and then what that same story means now.

You could join a group of friends for prayer and support in the Christian walk. Get together once a week to support each other, pray for each other's needs and give each other guidance and love. We all can learn something from each other if we take the time to really listen to each other.


Reach Out -- Action is part of the spiritual growth process. Every week you would be doing something for others. It doesn't have to be something grand or amazing like a mission trip to some foreign country, it might just be dropping off some canned goods at the food pantry, or stopping in at the nursing home to visit someone from your church who lives there now. Mother Teresa used to say we didn't have to do great things we just had to do small things with great joy. My prayer each morning is that God will make me aware of the people and situations that have been placed in my path that day so that I may serve the Kingdom. Then when I am faced with a chance to help someone with a heavy load at the grocery, or a few extra minutes of my time for a chat I think of that as my gift to God and not an inconvenience at all.


I think if you start practicing these simple things every day, your spiritual life will grow in amazing ways; ways you would never have imagined. God has a plan for your life, and you have to participate in that plan in the same way that Tiger Woods has to participate in the plan for his career. Think about having a spiritual life more amazing as Tiger Woods' golf career. With practice it could happen.

Pax

Would You Like to Become a Saint?

do you think it is possible to become a saint? There is a young man that thinks it is possible and through his Sainthood Project is willing to help anyone who wants to give it a try .

His prescription is simple, pray every day and surrender to the will of God in all things. (I said it was simple, I didn't say anything about it being easy, those are two different things.)

If you feel as though you are brave enough to take up the challenge you can find out more at his website:

Sainthood and Surrender