Please pray that I can follow through! I’ve spent the past week trying to figure out what I can do differently this Advent. I know how important preparation is to the success of one’s Advent journey. Of course, there’s the Jesse tree, which I do every year, the Advent wreath and Rejoice, my spiritual reading of choice for the season – all powerful stuff. Personally, I like change – so I’ve decided to commit to writing a daily reflection based on each day’s Gospel reading.
I can foresee how difficult this is going to be given my schedule and commitments but I firmly believe that by putting it “out there” (or here I should say) I will have no choice but to follow through on just one more commitment. It’s the accountability factor I often talk about. So wish me luck. No, better yet, pray for me and stay tuned!
But before I go, I have some last minute Advent suggestions for you:
RC Spirituality: Finding God in Unexpected Places (daily emailed reflection video, check it out here and subscribe)
World Community for Christian Contemplation – WCCM – subscribe for Advent reflections among other things
–Rejoice – Advent Meditations with Joseph (published by Ascension Press) – click here to order your copy asap. Last year I did the Advent Meditations with Mary – it did not require too much time but that didn’t make it any less powerful. This series helps get you thinking outside the box and pondering the humility and simplicity of the Holy Family.
–Parish activities – step outside your comfort zone, step away from the hustle and bustle and give yourself some time to recharge. Participate in some of the activities your parish offers for the season, I can guarantee you won’t regret it.
–Charity – Commit to at least one charitable act: purchase a toy for a child in need, donate food to a local food pantry, visit a shut in who may be lonely and craving community.
Enjoy and God bless you this Advent season and always!
Stay with me! It’s something I often say after receiving the Eucharist – stay with me Lord! I got those words from a prayer attributed to Padre Pio. The prayer is too long for me to memorize, but the image of Him staying with me is comforting.
Today though, stay with me is a request for you! This morning my mind is racing with thoughts I hope I can put to paper in some understandable fashion!
practice produces thirst
Those of you who know me, either personally or through my blog, know that I have a regular contemplative practice. I’ve been at it for quite a few years, though not always as consistent as I’d like to be. What I notice through my practice is the more I do, the more I want to do. The more I sit, the more solid my practice becomes and the more I thirst for something other than.
I desire to read, watch and listen to various forms of media focused on contemplation – it’s purpose and benefits. Recently I was listening to DVDs of Fr. Thomas Keating talking about centering prayer.
matthew 6:6
He made reference to Matthew 6:6: when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Fr. Keating compared the “inner room” to the act of contemplation. He went on to say that “reward” in this instance is not some tangible prize as you might think but is a “flourishing or blooming of our human nature.” WOW! It’s our “transformation – we become all we can become,” he said. What an awesome promise. I’ll take it!
He goes on to say that 2 things happen in this inner room. I’ll focus on the first thing in this post. In our inner room, through the practice of contemplation, we experience an “affirmation of our basic goodness.” THAT’S the transformative power of contemplation – we begin to see the good in ourselves.
recognizing goodness
Instead of focusing on our faults and failures, we begin to recognize that we were created by God in His image and likeness and as such, we are GOOD! It’s that simple. What follows from this affirmation of basic goodness is we no longer focus on projecting our faults and failings on others through judgment but instead recognize the good in them as well. And we all live happily ever after, right? Not!
it’s complicated
Unfortunately, we spend way too much time complicating things. Scripture says Jesus came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. I don’t know about you, but to me an abundant life is a happy life. If you could come up with an image that depicted ultimate happiness what would it be? For me it would be heaven.
When I hear that Jesus came so that we could have a more abundant life, I think of experiencing heaven right here, right now. Why do we have to wait until our physical body dies before we can have an experience of heaven? I really don’t think we have to. So yes, what I’m getting at is contemplation will get us there. It will transform our way of thinking in a way that will free us up to experience all Jesus promised!
Jesus, The Way, the truth and the life
Jesus came to show us the way. He is our example. He tells us: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life!
His Way: love, peace, forgiveness and compassion summarized in the term self-emptying service (humbly serving others without expectation or egoistic motives; thinking of ourselves less and thinking of others more)
His Truth: non-duality (this wasn’t in my first draft of this post but hit me between the eyes as I edited – I know it was the Holy Spirit because THIS makes more sense). Listen here to Richard Rohr explain.
His Life: Union, unity. The vine, the head, the breath that gives us life and holds us in being. The Ultimate being whose only desire is that we love Him and one another.
Stay with me now. Jesus’ ministry was the ultimate example of self-emptying service. His life on Earth was never about Him, it was about others. He was inclusive, not exclusive. Heck, He knew Judas would betray him and yet he was still invited to Passover. He didn’t put a label on him, He just went with the flow so we could experience a deeper union with the Trinity.
He was an example for us. An example of how to live in order to experience the abundance on Earth He so clearly promised. He was an example of how to live in order to experience heaven on Earth.
the state of the union
We wonder why people are turning away from the church. I think it’s a lame excuse, but I’ve been told it’s because they witness a hypocrisy in many churchgoers. To this point, here’s part of a homily I read this morning in the Liturgy of the Hours:
My name is constantly blasphemed by unbelievers, says the Lord. Woe to the man who causes my name to be blasphemed. Why is the Lord’s name blasphemed? Because we say one thing and do another. When they hear the words of God on our lips, unbelievers are amazed at their beauty and power, but when they see that those words have no effect in our lives, their admiration turns to scorn, and they dismiss such words as myths and fairy tales.
They listen, for example when we tell them that God has said: It is no credit to you if you love those who love you but only if you love your enemies, and those who hate you. They are full of admiration at such extraordinary virtue but when they observe that we not only fail to love people who hate us, but even those who love us, they laugh us to scorn, and the name is blasphemed.
Therefore brothers, if we do the will of God the Father, we shall be members of the first spiritual church that was created before the sun and moon; but if we fail to do the will of the Lord, we shall be among those to whom it is said in Scripture: My house has been made into a robber’s den. We must choose then, if we want to be saved, to be members of the Church of life.
The first church wasn’t yours!
First spiritual church? Before sun and moon? Interesting concept, to say the least. Let’s think about that. Before the sun and moon, God was. He is and was love and thus is His will! Stay with me. If you want to be a member of His church (the one true non-denominational church, the oldest church, the first spiritual church), you must choose Life: self-emptying love that does not identify with nor recognize labels and leads to the union of ALL things! THAT’S heaven on Earth. To think that Jesus’s message is any more complicated than that is folly in my opinion.
When we start truly following Jesus by living His Way, His Truth and His Life, THAT’S when we begin to live the fairy tale. That’s when we will all live happily ever after. I hope this inspires you to look into the practice of contemplation and maybe even start. God bless you!
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