. Contemplative Haven: June 2006

Friday, June 30, 2006

Prayer After Surgery



Blessed Savior, I thank you that this operation is safely past, and now I rest in your abiding presence, relaxing every tension, releasing every care and anxiety, receiving more and more of your healing life into every part of my being. In moments of pain I turn to you for strength, in times of loneliness I feel your loving nearness. Grant that your life and love and joy may flow through me for the healing of others in your name. Amen.

posted by Gabrielle at 1:41 AM |

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Prayer For Sleep


Grant me a quiet night, O Lord
and give me rest,
for I am tired and need sleep.
Watch over me with love
in the silence of night
and let me rest in you
like a child in its mother's arms.
I place my trust in you,
my God.
Amen.

posted by Gabrielle at 1:47 AM |

Two Prayers Before Surgery

Almighty God, you know my inmost being, the secrets of my body and soul. Fill my heart with trust, even as I fear, and bless the surgeons and nurses and all who work to help me with gifts of healing and care. Be near, gently sustaining me, and supporting them in their skills. Amen.


Loving Father, I entrust myself to your care this day; guide with wisdom and skill the minds and hands of the medical people who minister in your Name, and grant that every cause of illness be removed, I may be restored to soundness of health and learn to live in more perfect harmony with you and with those around me. Through Jesus Christ. Amen.

posted by Gabrielle at 12:48 AM |

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Prayer for Doctors and Nurses



O merciful Father, who have wonderfully fashioned man in your own image, and have made his body to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, sanctify, we pray you, our doctors and nurses and all those whom you have called to study and practice the arts of healing the sick and the prevention of disease and pain. Strengthen them in body and soul, and bless their work, that they may give comfort to those for whose salvation your Son became Man, lived on this earth, healed the sick, and suffered and died on the Cross. Amen.

posted by Gabrielle at 12:02 PM |

Prayer for Healing



Lord,

You invite all who are burdened to come to You.

Allow Your healing hand to heal them.

Touch their souls with Your compassion for others.

Touch their hearts with Your courage and infinite love for all.

Touch their minds with Your wisdom, that their mouths may always proclaim Your praise.

Teach them to reach out to You in their need, and help them to lead others to You by their example.

Most loving Heart of Jesus, bring them health in body and spirit that they may serve You with all their strength.

Touch gently these lives which You have created, now and forever, Amen.

(Adapted from a prayer of the Priests of the Sacred Heart)

posted by Gabrielle at 11:47 AM |

A Time For Every Purpose

A little change in plans.

Impressions of those in need of healing have been heavy on my mind and heart since late last week, and some of them have been confirmed. I will be devoting extra time to prayer intentions for the next while. If we may continue the contemplative dialogue next week, I invite you to join me in prayer for the next few days, for any and all for whom you wish to pray.

I will be posting some prayers for the sick and prayers for healing.

posted by Gabrielle at 1:56 AM |

Monday, June 26, 2006

Healing



I was off work on Friday, and so had the chance to attend morning Mass. Something from the First Reading, from Hosea, caught my attention, and has been on my mind since. From Chapter 11, the Lord says, "...but they knew not that I healed them."

How is it possible? Is it so with us?

posted by Gabrielle at 12:03 AM |

Friday, June 23, 2006

My Sentiments Exactly

There are kindred spirits, and then there are kindred spirits. Please, everyone, go see Terry's post of yesterday at A Catholic Guy.

Personally, I think we were twins separated at birth.

posted by Gabrielle at 1:25 PM |

My Sacred Heart Experience

(See post, "My Sacred Heart Anniversary", June 8, 2006)

JUNE 8, 2005:

I am not where I intended to be. This evening, He brings me here, to the adoration chapel. It is the Year of the Eucharist, to which I am not paying much extra attention. I already love the Eucharist, and I do not know what I do not know, nor how profoundly I do not know it.

Above the Tabernacle is a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He wears the Crown of Thorns, and is bleeding. The Heart is surrounded by a rim of white light. I do not know that the painting is there for a reason; I do not know there is a strong connection between devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Eucharist.

I desire a piece of His Heart, and have desired this for a long time. Just a little piece, I always ask Him; just a little piece would be enough.

It is twilight. The setting sun enters through the stained-glass windows. All the votive candles along the wall to my right are aglow. I am alone, focused on His Heart.

Isn't it beautiful, I think, how the orb of light around His Heart grows in size, then recedes - how it pulsates. It must be the effect of the flickering candles, yet how real it appears. But the candle flames are not flickering; there is no wind here, no draft. I am drawn into that pulsation, into that expansion and contraction.

Gradually, very gradually, the Heart changes. The base of the Heart elongates, becoming stemlike, and from the bottom of the stem a base forms. I see, in what I think is an instant, but is not. I see, I know. A quiet knowledge, very simple. "Oh, His Heart is a Chalice." The surrounding orb of light becomes a Host.

Then it comes flooding in, this One that has enveloped me ever since. This flood of One - the Sacred Heart, the Precious Blood, the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist - they are One. And He makes me understand that I don't have to ask for a little piece of His Heart, that He gives me His whole Heart with each Holy Communion, and even more - His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

Dear Jesus, I am so ashamed that I did not know what I did not know, and how profoundly I did not know it. But He sweeps me up into His peace.

posted by Gabrielle at 12:42 AM |

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Exploring Disappointment

One of the questions which triggered this little series (see my post, "A Little Outline"), was whether or not people could be disappointed if they desired to be contemplatives and then discovered they were not.

This is a tricky area, and I would welcome other opinions, but I would lean towards saying no, it is not possible in the truest sense. As we saw in the quote in my post, "How Can You Tell", the author of The Cloud of Unknowing states that the gift of contemplation and the aptitude for it are one and the same, that you cannot have one without the other. He also states that one would not even have an awareness of contemplation or a desire for it, unless God had given you that grace and that gift.

But having said that, I believe there are at least a few possibilities as to why people may feel disappointment.

There could be a superficial desire for contemplation, a kind of "intellectual" desire to be a contemplative, rather than a true desire from the heart, out of love for God. I think the corresponding "disappointment" would be equally superficial, and pass fairly quickly as the person moved along to other intellectual pursuits.

There could be a sincere desire to live what one perceives to be a "contemplative life", without truly understanding what a contemplative is. There are people, for example, who enter contemplative orders, drawn to the tranquility, the seclusion, and a life of intercessory prayer. They are then sincerely disappointed when they discover they are not contemplatives. I believe it is to these people St. Teresa of Avila may have been speaking at one point in The Way of Perfection, when she reassures some of the nuns in her community not to be disappointed, but to offer up their work in the convent to the Lord, as their own particular path to God.

There is also the explanation that the disappointment is very real, but entirely unfounded. It is a fact that some people are contemplatives and don't even know it. In The Way of Perfection, St. Teresa spends a good deal of time with one particular nun who thought she did not have the gift of contemplation. St. Teresa watched her in prayer, observed the way she said the Our Father, and was able to reassure this nun that she was, indeed, a contemplative. It is sometimes easier for an experienced contemplative to spot another contemplative than it is for a beginner to know it himself/herself. I remember reading somewhere that the contemplative Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, was able to tell that someone was a contemplative simply by the way the fellow shut a door!

posted by Gabrielle at 9:38 AM |

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

May I Ask Who's Calling?

If we are all called by baptism to contemplation, we have to wonder why, comparatively speaking, contemplatives appear to be few within the Body of Christ. What becomes of this call from God for the deepest of unions with Him?

Perhaps we could use the analogy of the simple telephone call to explore different reasons as to why more people do not readily receive and respond.

First of all, the call comes from God, through grace. Are we open to grace? Are we open to receiving it, or do we shut ourselves off with our busy-ness? Do we have so many lines going at once that we can't focus on one conversation at a time? Do we turn down the ringer-volume or pull the jack out of the wall, particularly by infrequent reception of the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion?

Are we selective in what we are open to hearing? Do we use the block-call feature too often, in an attempt to allow God in only when it is convenient for us? Or maybe we use call-waiting, fooling ourselves into believing we have unlimited time to get back to Him, that this age of grace will last forever, and after all, someone else is on the line. Do we put Him on hold, or call-forward: "I'll listen to what You have to say, Lord, when I get to a better place in my life." Are we, for whatever reason, afraid to answer the phone?

It must be admitted that sometimes we actually do not hear the phone ring. We are in another part of the house, or outside, or in the middle of noisy activities, using vacuums, washing machines, high-powered blenders. But God leaves messages. Do we listen to His messages when we are back inside, or when the noise level drops? Do we ensure that there are periods when we are back inside, with quiet time in which to listen to His voice, reflect on what He says, enter into conversation with Him, and rest in His presence - a block of time when He receives our undivided attention and we will not be interrupted?

Sometimes we receive messages through less-than-perfect intermediaries. How often have we had trouble in returning a call because the handwriting was unclear, or the number incorrect? Do we have the patience, persistence and interest in deciphering the message, because we understand the importance of the call-back?

There are other ways to continue this analogy - I'm sure you can think of many. But it seems to me that the most important thing is openness to receiving, and the awareness that Someone is trying to reach us.

For union with the Lord, for this ongoing call to contemplation, I want to be like someone who carries a cell phone that is fully-charged and always on - I want to be available, contactable and ready to listen, 24/7.

posted by Gabrielle at 10:13 AM |

A Piece of the Puzzle

Despite the fact that there is a universal call to contemplation, and before we explore some of the responses to that call, there is one thing that really must be said. Perhaps it is the first of the apparent contradictions, the little puzzles, but here it is: contemplation is not required for salvation.

There are degrees to just about everything - virtue, holiness, prayer, love, union. There are graces given by God, but there is also human free will. There are charisms, but there are also circumstances.

The saints and contemplative writers wish to make it clear to us that if contemplation is not something that we experience, it is no barrier to eternal life with the Lord. Saint Teresa of Avila, in The Way of Perfection, wrote these words for her sisters in the convent:

"...it is very important for us to realize that God does not lead us all by the same road, and perhaps she who believes herself to be going along the lowest of roads is the highest in the Lord's eyes. So it does not follow that ...we are all perforce to be contemplatives. That is impossible; and those of us who are not would be greatly discouraged if we did not grasp the truth that contemplation is something given by God, and, as it is not necessary for salvation and God does not ask it of us before He gives us our reward, we must not suppose that anyone else will require it of us."

And if Saint Teresa's gentle, poetic assurances do not convince us, Thomas Merton, in New Seeds of Contemplation, surely will:

"It is the duty of anyone who has had even the faintest glimpse of God's love to protest against an inhumanly cruel and false psychology of mysticism, this psychology which presents "sanctity" and "contemplation" under the guise of riches to be acquired. As if sanctity and mysticim were "goods" that one must have in order to be acceptable in the Kingdom of God..."

So as we continue, let us keep this in mind. His ways are not our ways. Some receive the gift of contemplation because of their great faith, some because of their weak faith. Some because of their virtue, some because He wants to bring them out of sin. Some because they have heard about it and desired it, some because they just loved God. Some not at all, for His own reasons. Let us respect His choices.

posted by Gabrielle at 12:31 AM |

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Corpus Christi




From the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska:

"I often see the Child Jesus during Holy Mass. He is extremely beautiful. He appears to be about one year old. Once, when I saw the same Child during Mass in our chapel, I was seized with a violent desire and an irresistable longing to approach the altar and take the Child Jesus. At that moment, the Child Jesus was standing by me on the side of my kneeler, and He leaned with His two little hands against my shoulder, gracious and joyful, His look deep and penetrating. But when the priest broke the Host, Jesus was once again on the altar, and was broken and consumed by the priest.

After Holy Communion, I saw Jesus in the same way in my heart and felt Him physically in my heart throughout the day. Unconsciously, a most profound recollection took possession of me, and I did not exchange a word with anyone."

posted by Gabrielle at 12:37 AM |

Friday, June 16, 2006

Running on Empty, Again



I'm exhausted. Yes, my face just hit the keyboard. I'm sorry to say, it did not elicit a contemplative response.

Wishing you all a safe and blessed weekend! We will continue our explorations next week, God willing - if I haven't done any serious damage to the peripherals.

posted by Gabrielle at 1:37 AM |

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

The Call

Who is called to contemplation? Well, the short answer is, we all are, as baptized Christians.

In Open Mind, Open Heart, Thomas Keating writes, "Contemplative prayer is the normal development of the grace of baptism and the regular practice of lectio divina." Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange also considers it to be, if I may put it this way, a 'perfectly natural' supernatural phenomena. In Christian Perfection and Contemplation, he states: "...if we are truly convinced of the essential supernaturalness of faith, we understand that mystical contemplation is the normal blossoming of this theological virtue united to charity and to the gifts of the Holy Ghost."

Normal development. Normal blossoming. That is very comforting. That is very encouraging. So then, why, as Catholics, are we not brought up with this attitude? Why are we not given the proper instruction on the normal and to-be-desired development of our prayer life? Why is contemplation rarely, if ever, the subject-matter of homilies? Why is it considered something the average person needn't be made aware of?

In Fire Within, Father Thomas Dubay comments that the "minimalistic" view of prayer and the spiritual life has become deeply engrained within us, and that many of us have come to accept a "two-way" and "two-tier" mentality: two ways to God, one for the average person and one for the elite, and two tiers of holiness, one ordinary and one extraordinary.

Father Dubay is adamant that these theories are false. He states:

"They who think that fullness of contemplation is meant to be confined to an elite few do not understand the contents of Sacred Scripture,"
and
"Scripture and the official Church take for granted that personal contacts with the God of revelation do occur, and indeed ought to occur....Vatican II spoke of all the faithful tasting fully of the paschal mysteries and burning with love during liturgical celebrations. Our chief ways of growing in the understanding of revelation, noted the council, are contemplation and the experience of divine realities."

Father Dubay devotes Chapter 11 of Fire Within to understanding the "universal call" of contemplation as found in the teachings of Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross. Also, if you have never read the description of contemplative prayer in the Catholic Catechism (2709 - 2724), it is very beautiful in its simplicity.

Speaking one time about revelation, John Henry Cardinal Newman said something which I think aptly suits contemplation and the "elite" mentality as well; he said: "...it is not you that are worthy of the gift, but it is the gift which is worthy of your Creator."

posted by Gabrielle at 1:59 AM |

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

A Little Outline

In her comment regarding my post, "How Can You Tell?", Monica, of, Be Not Afraid , raised some difficult points/questions. I would like to spend some time exploring them.

Over the next little while, we will be looking at: who is called to contemplation and possible responses to the call; what it is that people find intimidating; spiritual self-awareness; different movements in/degrees of prayer; reading about contemplation versus experiencing it, and the importance of having a spiritual director (not necessarily in this order).

We may see some apparent contradictions amongst the saints/contemplative writers, and also within the teachings of the same person, at different moments in his/her life. It can be a challenge coming to grips with these types of contradictions, and trying to ascertain what they might mean for us at whatever point we are at on our spiritual journey.

But I am grateful for all these men and women who try to explain the inexplicable, the progress of a soul in its union with God.



posted by Gabrielle at 1:20 AM |

Monday, June 12, 2006

A Loneliness Out-of-the-Ordinary


"I was lonely, in spite of my good friends, but I knew instinctively that mine was a curious kind of loneliness which could never be ended even by the closest relationship with individuals, but only, in some mysterious way which I could not yet understand, by some kind of communion with all men, everywhere in the world."
Caryll Houselander (A Rocking-Horse Catholic)


Another clue, perhaps.

posted by Gabrielle at 9:15 AM |

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Testing

This is just a test. My Trinity Sunday keeps coming out as Saturday. Oh well. I went to the 5:00 p.m. Mass, so I guess I could look at it that way.

But really, no matter what time zone I choose on my settings, it never seems to come out right. Eeeeeegad. Maybe I'm nowhere.

So, if it ever looks like I'm answering your comment before you've even left one, you'll know why. Precognition. Yes, that's it.

posted by Gabrielle at 1:14 AM |

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Trinity Sunday

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.



Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.


"At this moment, in one's deepest center, the Father is begetting His Word Whom He never began to beget and shall never cease begetting. At this moment the Father and the Son are breathing forth Their common Bond, the Spirit Kiss, Whom They never began to spirate and shall never cease spirating. Which is to say that at this moment the Trinity's inner life is going on in the indwelling presence."

Father Thomas Dubay (Fire Within)

posted by Gabrielle at 4:19 PM |

Friday, June 09, 2006

How Can You Tell?

Our realization that we are being called to take the contemplative path can be triggered in different ways. Our prayer life may change slowly and imperceptibly, finally reaching the point where we convince ourselves we no longer even have the ability to pray. This may cause feelings of near-despair, abandonment and heartache, until we discover this thing called the "apophatic" way.

Or, we may already be receiving infused prayer, recognize this difference in our prayer life, allow it to flow naturally, and seek out increased knowledge through writings or a spiritual director.

Yet again, we may be living generous, loving, prayerful lives, even though actually in the state of sin, and God will give us experiences or consolations, in or out of prayer, which may frighten or intrigue us. This can push us into an investigation of these types of experiences, which will lead us to the discovery of the contemplative tradition within the Catholic Church.

The ideal situation would be to receive some spiritual direction from a contemplative religious, in order to ascertain, together in God, whether or not we are being called down this path. But here are two clues, from the author of The Cloud of Unknowing:

"The interior sign is that growing desire for contemplation constantly intruding in your daily devotions....It is a blind longing of the spirit and yet there comes with it, and lingers after it, a kind of spiritual sight which both renews the desire and increases it....The second sign is exterior and it manifests itself as a certain joyful enthusiasm welling up within you, whenever you hear or read about contemplation....As for the discernment of this sign, see if that joyful enthusiasm persists, remaining with you when you have left your reading. If it disappears immediately or soon after and does not pursue you in all else you do, know that it is not a special touch of grace. If it is not with you when you go to sleep and wake up, and if it does not go before you, constantly intruding in all you do, enkindling and capturing your desire, it is not God's call to a more intense life of grace, beyond what I call the common door and entry for all Christians."

"It is in the nature of this gift that one who receives it receives also the aptitude for it. No one can have the aptitude without the gift itself. The aptitude for this work is one with the work; they are identical. He who experiences God working in the depths of his spirit has the aptitude for contemplation and no one else. For without God's grace a person would be so completely insensitive to the reality of contemplative prayer that he would be unable to desire or long for it. You possess it to the extent that you will and desire to possess it, no more and no less. But you will never desire to possess it until that which is ineffable and unknowable moves you to desire the ineffable and unknowable."

So, are you sensitive to the reality of contemplative prayer? Does the awareness of it, and the desire for it, permeate your daily routine and way of being in the world? If so, then contemplation is very likely a gift God has given you. He is waiting for you to accept it and unwrap it slowly and appreciatively, to give Him thanks, and to use it.

posted by Gabrielle at 9:11 AM |

Thursday, June 08, 2006

My Sacred Heart Anniversary


One year ago, I received an unexpected gift. I was supposed to attend an evening church function, and had every intention of doing so. Before it got underway, I slipped out of the church hall to spend a few minutes in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

I was gazing at the painting of the Sacred Heart above the tabernacle. Without going into detail, the Lord gave me a new awareness, showing me a particular connection of the Sacred Heart to something else, of which previously I had had no inkling. I was filled with joy, sorrow, shame and gratitude. And peace. Much peace.

I heard noise, realized that I would have to leave Him, glanced at my watch, and saw that instead of ten or fifteen minutes, an hour-and-a-half had gone by. I never made it to the function. The noise was that of people leaving.

I know that the Feastday of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not until Friday, June 23rd, but I cannot wait that long. I just wanted to thank Him, today.

posted by Gabrielle at 12:10 AM |

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Hard Work

Just zip down and re-read the first and last sentence of the quote in the second-to-last post. Then scoot back up here.

You back? The author of The Cloud of Unknowing says that it is in the contemplative work that we are not to consider moderation, that it is in love that we are to take no measure. They are one and the same, the contemplative work and love. But what is this "contemplative work", and why is it "work"?

The contemplative work arises from the desire, God-given, for union with the Lord, and the decision, made on at least a daily basis, to spend time alone with Him in contemplative prayer.

For a layperson, this requires a certain amount of organization and dedication, as we are not entitled to abandon any of the responsibilities of our state in life, even if deeply drawn to contemplative prayer. Furthermore, we are still called to perform the corporal works of mercy, as well as the spiritual. Setting time aside to seek union with the Lord in contemplative prayer before or after all these duties are fulfilled, along with taking care of our families, working, and volunteering, well, it is not very difficult to see why it truly is "work", work done out of love.

What does it require? Each one of us is different, but in general it requires motivation, dedication, generosity, and a willingness to forego some of what other people take for granted as part of their routine. There may be little time for reading fiction, watching television, going to movies, socializing, etc. It's not that these activities are abandoned altogether, but they must be curtailed. In fact, as one progresses in the contemplative life, many unnecessary things seem to fall by the wayside in a very natural, freeing manner.

Oh, and another little thing, hardly even worth mentioning. Sleep. You may get a little less sleep. Just a little. You don't really mind, do you? Oh, and a very sore neck, because the head tends to fall forward (it's physiological), but that'll work itself out, over time, so you won't let that deter you, will you? And, of course, a strong aversion to the sound of the telephone, but you've wanted to rip them out of the walls for a long time now anyway, haven't you?

posted by Gabrielle at 11:51 PM |

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Pentecost


Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love...

I've had smoulderings. I've had heat. I've had flickering flames, and blazes that lasted for days.

But I want a bonfire. A bonfire in my heart.

posted by Gabrielle at 1:51 AM |

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Spilling Over

"Now if you ask me what sort of moderation you should observe in the contemplative work, I will tell you: none at all. In everything else, such as eating, drinking, and sleeping, moderation is the rule. Avoid extremes of heat and cold; guard against too much and too little in reading, prayer, or social involvement. In all these things, I say again, keep to the middle path. But in love take no measure."
The Cloud of Unknowing (Anonymous)

Do I measure my love? Does it just fit?



Or does it flow?


posted by Gabrielle at 11:33 PM |