A Cloistered Heart

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Back to Basics, Again

I realized it last night. I saw what had been happening, bit by bit, one distraction at a time, over a period of weeks and (if I'm honest) months.

There has been an erosion of my grillwork. Oh, not the kind where I question scriptural truth - thank God it has not come to that. But over time, a steady drip drip drip of distraction has worn down my personal emphasis on Scripture. There are so many good and worthwhile activities and interests and legitimate amusements, all drawing my attention away from the 'grille.' There has even been a gradual pileup of devotions - good ones, to be sure - that I feel I must get done and fit in before falling at night into bed. Not that I've 'done' these all that well - in most cases, I've just wound up feeling guilty because I don't say the exact prayers every day that one or another friend may do.

As I've admitted here before, I can all too often 'beat myself up' about my prayer life. I don't pray long enough, well enough, hard enough, often enough, with enough structure (or maybe with too much?).

It was as if a fresh breeze swept across me last night, in an instant, and if I could put my perception into a word, I think it just might be: 'ENOUGH!!!'

Enough self-beating. Enough saying I don't pray enough. Enough self condemnation. Enough getting mired down in distractions. Just pick up the Bible, open it, and read. Let God show me that the grillwork of Scripture is still in place. It hasn't truly eroded (I realize as I write this); it's just that I've let myself get sidetracked. Not only do I have Bibles in nearly every room of my house; I also have some favorite verses listed under 'Grille' in a stand-alone page on this blog. I can find 'bars of the grille' without even having to leave this screen.

But leave it, I will. I'll go snatch up my oldest, most bedraggled, well-loved Bible and hold onto it for dear life, for in it I FIND life. I know this. By the grace of God, I know this.

I am being called back to basics. Again.

"I will instruct you and show you the way you should walk; I will counsel you, keeping My eye on you." (Psalm 32:8)

Painting: San Luigi Gonzaga, Love for the Word

Monday, July 15, 2013

A House of Prayer

"God chooses a 'Home' within us. What about your house, your temple, your soul? Is it a den of thieves or a house of prayer? Are you robbing God of anything? Does everything in your castle belong to Him? ...

"Your house is meant to be a house of prayer... No one holds reign in your heart but Christ. He should be the great Power urging you on to sanctity. No other traffic will He allow to be carried on within the temple of your soul but the traffic for eternal wealth...

"Mindful of the Precious Jewel you guard within yourself, you will return to it unceasingly in your thoughts and affections. There is always present an indefinable loving remembrance of God, as well as a frequent communing with your Divine Guest. Accustom yourself by your own activity helped by grace, to converse affectionately and very simply with your Beloved."

from Sheltering the Divine Outcast, compiled by A Religious, Peter Reilly Co., Philadelphia, 1952, pp. 81-82

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Spiritual Power

"Work for souls is accomplished, for the most part, in silence. Its efficiency does not depend upon occupation, position or popularity. From a humble cell, hidden away in some cloistered nunnery, there radiates spiritual power which influences thousands of souls scattered over the entire world."

from Sheltering the Divine Outcast, compiled by A Religious, Peter Reilly Co., Philadelphia, 1952, p. 56

Friday, July 12, 2013

What Matters Much

"The art of living with God entails more effort and more concentration of purpose in the midst of activity and external work than in surroundings of cloistral prayer and quiet. Wheresoever God is our chief concern, environment is of little account....

"The outward cloister matters little, the inward cloister matters much."

from Sheltering the Divine Outcast, compiled by A Religious, Peter Reilly Co., Philadelphia, 1952, p. 171

Painting: Jean Béraud, Les Grands Boulevards Le Theatre Des Varietes, in US public domain

Light Always Wins

It seems, more and more, that the world around is falling into darkness. No matter where I turn, I find confusion, godlessness, irreverence, wars, disasters, and a shocking celebration of sin.

I am distressed that such things even exist. In the midst of encroaching darkness, my little candle of faith can seem pitifully small. I don't want to face into the shadows. What I want to do is - flee....

But Jesus is in my soul. And He IS the Light.

If I am in a physical cloister filled with light, what happens when I look out through the grille into a darkened foyer?  Does darkness flood in through the "grillwork," turning my light into dark? No. That never happens.

When dark and light encounter one another, there is really no contest.

"There is One greater in you than there is in the world." (1 John 4:4)

"The Light shines on in darkness, a darkness that did not overcome it.” (John 1:5)

Light always wins.

This is an edited re-post from 2011

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

In Such a Period

We have looked at God's need for 'fire carriers.' We hope to stand for the genuine truth of God in the face of every shabby imitation marching boldly toward the limelight.

It is interesting that, decades ago, others saw this time approaching. Even though he died in 1977, Dietrich von Hildebrand wrote the following:

"Ours is, I believe, the period of the greatest crisis the world has ever faced, a period in which the anathema has become unpopular and is unfortunately considered as incompatible with charity...

"In such a period, every faithful Catholic who is fully devoted to Christ, to the teaching of the Church, to the deposit of the Catholic faith, to the dogmas, is called to raise his voice in defense of orthodoxy."

I pray that we will all be given grace to learn, discern, cherish, witness to, reverence and proclaim the glorious fire of God's truth.

Painting: A Procession in the Catacomb of Callistus

Sunday, July 7, 2013

A Light for Our Way

Those who remember our earlier discussions of Real vs. artificial light might understand why Pope Francis' first encyclical has given me a real jolt. A holy jolt, that is: a heavenly flash, a bolt of Godly illumination.

"In speaking of the light of faith," writes His Holiness, "we can almost hear the objections of many of our contemporaries. In modernity, that light might have been considered sufficient for societies of old, but was felt to be of no use for new times, for a humanity come of age, proud of its rationality and anxious to explore the future in novel ways.... Slowly but surely, however, it would become evident that the light of autonomous reason is not enough to illumine the future; ultimately the future remains shadowy and fraught with fear of the unknown. As a result, humanity renounced the search for a great light, Truth itself, in order to be content with smaller lights which illumine the fleeting moment yet prove incapable of showing the way. Yet in the absence of light everything becomes confused; it is impossible to tell good from evil, or the road to our destination from other roads which take us in endless circles, going nowhere... (emphasis mine)"

"There is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim. The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God. Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love, a love which precedes us and upon which we can lean for security and for building our lives. Transformed by this love, we gain fresh vision, new eyes to see; we realize that it contains a great promise of fulfilment, and that a vision of the future opens up before us. Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time...." (Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Lumen Fidei, 2013)

I am practically breathless as I read this. No, I'm not exaggerating. For a glimpse into why this has so hit me, click here to check out our earlier post entitled 'To Carry the Fire.'

I hope we can all take a bit of time to read, ponder and pray with Pope Francis' encyclical (available in its entirety here).

It is time. Clouds are gathering.

Let's go light the world.