God refuses to be known except by love.
— St. John of the Cross
God refuses to be known except by love.
— St. John of the Cross
From Br. Joseph —
St. Jerome, best known as the translator of the Bible into Latin from Greek and Hebrew, is reported to have had a vision of the child Jesus. In the vision, Jesus asked Jerome why he had not given Him everything. Jerome was puzzled. “Lord,” he protested, “I have devoted my life to your service. I have given you all my works, all my love, all my praise, everything.” “No,” replied Jesus. “You have not given me your sins.”
A not-so-subtle reminder of the Cross…
All of this reminds me of a question I once heard in regard to prayer. Do you pray in the front room or the back room of the house in your heart?
The front room of most houses is the room where most guests are received, the living room or parlor as it was called in the old days. The front room is where the best furniture is placed. This room is kept clean, neat, and presentable. On the other hand, the back room, like my bedroom, is messy. There are clothes lying across a chair, an odd sock or two lying in the corner next to a pair of shoes. The bed is not always made. A pile of small boxes sit in the corner. Books lay around here and there, unshelved. Outsiders very rarely see the back room.
The same goes with our prayer. Do we try to meet God on our terms in the front room of our heart, where we have things all tidy and neat? Do we try to show God only our best side? Or do we pray in the back room of our heart, where life is messy and untidy? Broken pieces of our life are lying about here and there, raw, naked, and exposed. Do we try to show God our perfect side, our good side, the side we are proud of? Or do we let God see our imperfections, our dark side, the side we are ashamed of?
Which room allows God to transform us? In which room do we relinquish control and hand it over to God? Which room are we afraid to be in ourselves? Which room requires you to trust God?
Dare to move belief into trust.
Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us…
From Br. Joseph —
Most people are familiar with the poem “Footprints in the Sand” by Mary Stevenson.
Here’s a different set of footprints (author unknown)…
— — — — — — —
Now imagine you and the Lord walking down the road together. For much of the way, the Lord’s footprints go along steadily, consistently, rarely varying the pace. But your prints are a disorganized stream of zigzags, starts, stops, turnarounds, circles, departures and returns.
For much of the way it seems to go like this. But gradually, your footprints come more in line with the Lord’s, soon paralleling His consistently. You and Jesus are walking as true friends.
This seems perfect, but then an interesting thing happens: your footprints that once etched the sand next to the Master’s are now walking precisely in His steps. Inside His larger footprints is the small “sandprint”, safely enclosed. You and Jesus are becoming one.
This goes on for many miles. But gradually you notice another change. The footprint inside the larger footprint seems to grow larger. Eventually it disappears altogether. There is only one set of footprints. They have become one. Again, this goes on for a long time. But then something awful happens. The second set of footprints is back. And this time it seems worse. Zigzags all over the place. Stops. Starts. Deep gashes in the sand. A veritable mess of prints.
You’re amazed and shocked. But this is the end of your dream. Now you speak. “Lord, I understand the first scene with the zigzags and fits and starts and so on. I was a new Christian, just learning. But You walked on through the storm and helped me learn to walk with you.”
“That is correct.”
“Yes, and when the smaller footprints were inside of Yours, I was actually learning to walk in Your steps. I followed You very closely.”
“Very good. You have understood everything so far.”
“Then the smaller footprints grew and eventually filled in with Yours. I suppose that I was actually growing so much that I was becoming like you in every way.”
“Precisely.”
“But this is my question Lord: Was there a regression or something? The footprints went back to two, and this time it was worse than the first.”
The Lord smiles, then laughs. “You didn’t know?” He says. “That was when we danced.”
Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us…
From the last line of the song “Closing Time” by Semisonic,
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
Life is full of little transitions, little deaths and rebirths. What stays the same? What dies? What is transformed?
It is the Paschal Mystery, the mystery of the Cross.
What do you get to take through the ultimate transition, from final death into birth of new life in heaven?
From Br. Joseph —
There is a moment in each day that Satan cannot find. (William Blake)
I saw this quote the other day. My mind searched for a specific time or moment to label as “Satan free.” Was it in those precious few moments just after waking before the thoughts of the day rush in? Could it be the moment just before falling asleep? How about the time in prayer? When is this moment in the day that Satan cannot be found?
Maybe the answer is so obvious that it is overlooked all the time. Maybe the answer is now. Now, the present moment, is the moment Satan cannot find.
Many of the saints and mystics say that God can only be found in the present moment, in the now. The past is done and over, and the future is not yet. We exist now, the only time when we are truly free. Being is now, present tense, and God is being. God is eternally present to every when. Therefore, if God is now, Satan cannot be.
But that cannot be completely correct. Although we only make our choices in the present moment, there are times when we listen to the devil’s advice and choose to sin. Does that mean God is now and Satan is too? Does that mean there are no “Satan free” moments and the quote is wrong?
No, the saints are right, God is now and Satan is not. Satan must work outside of the present moment, and he does it by distracting us. He distracts us from living in the present moment, the only true reality, by tantalizing us with an illusion that appears better—the past and the future.
How often are we truly present to the now? How often are our minds somewhere else? Either we are planning, scheming, seeking, fantasizing, or rehearsing for some future that may or may not arrive, or we are mulling over memories of past glories or hurts? A thousand what-if’s from the past and toward the future pass before our minds each day and nearly none of them become reality. We carry around the memories and pain of old wrongs like heavy, old suitcases as if we would have nothing to our name if we left them behind. We are everywhere but here in the now.
And if we think a little more about it, does not most of our sins occur in the present moment in reaction to the past or from schemes set for the near future?
We let Satan steal our presence to the present moment. We buy into his illusion of trying to live in the past or the future in exchange for reality. We distract ourselves from the now and cheat ourselves out God’s gift to us, the present moment. (Maybe that is why “present” also means “gift”?)
Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us…