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Quietly with
Jesus
Just before Jesus taught us to pray the Our
Father, He instructed the apostles about prayer. ..."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 repay you. In praying, do not babble like
the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do
not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
(Mat 6:6-8)
In the above passage of Holy Scripture, I've
placed portions of the text in Italics, to emphasize what kind of quiet
prayer I'd like to talk about in this reflection on the subject of meditation
and/or contemplation.
In the human psyche, we are constantly
struggling with problems of one sort or another. To place these problems on the
back-burner for a time, we find nourishment in our quiet life with Jesus. He
told us not to worry. "He said to (his) disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do
not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you
will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Notice
the ravens: they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet
God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds! Can any of you by
worrying add a moment to your lifespan? If even the smallest things are beyond
your control, why are you anxious about the rest? Notice how the flowers grow.
They do not toil or spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor
was dressed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass in the field that
grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide
for you, O you of little faith? As for you, do not seek what you are to eat and
what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore. All the nations of the world
seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek
his kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides. Do not be afraid
any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom."
(Luke 12:22-32).
This is a beautiful passage of Scripture where
Jesus tells us that we do not need to worry. But, human as we are, everyone
worries. We worry too much, we worry so much that when we enter into that quiet
relationship with Jesus, we cannot concentrate solely in Him. A very beautiful
passage in Psalm 121 (2-5) shows the deep faith of David: "My help comes from
the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth. God will not allow your foot to slip;
your guardian does not sleep. Truly, the guardian of Israel never slumbers nor
sleeps. The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade at your right hand."
Jesus is always there for us! He is always
eager to help us because His love is deeper than we can ever understand until we
are one in Him after this earthly life has passed. We strive to rest in Jesus,
already now in our earthly existence by avoiding (read: not) sinning, and
so by loving God unconditionally. That's not easy but it can be done. If this
weren't the case, heaven would be very empty. Catholics know that there are many
souls in heaven because these souls have interceded for us in prayer. We know
the Blessed Virgin is in heaven. On August 15th, we celebrate the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is heaven body and soul because she
was born without sin. This is a matter of Catholic dogma. But look at Mary,
after the death of her Son, Jesus, she spent the rest of her years in meditation
and contemplation. Her life offers us a wonderful example of living quietly in
Jesus.
So our soul must be awakened and thus we pray
to the Holy Spirit for spiritual enlightenment, so that we may understand these
inner prayer relationships. So that God may lift the veil for us and we may see
His goodness and Grace with the eyes of the soul. May be this would be a good
time to examine the concept of "soul" in the Book of Deuteronomy (6:5):
"Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your strength." And in Mat 10:28 (and numerous other
verses in the Gospels), Jesus said: "...do not be afraid of those who
kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can
destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." The soul is the inner being of each
and every person where a direct relationship may exist between ourselves and
God. For those who love God, that relationship exists. For those who do not love
God, the relationship from us to God is minimal or none, but God loves us just
the same. He does not love the sin in us, but He loves all of us
unconditionally. With the aid of the Holy Spirit we can understand this
relationship easily. And we praise God for His love!
Quietly in Jesus! Set out a time during each
day, be it 10 minutes or longer, where we are undisturbed by life around us.
Find a quiet place. Often that quiet place is our soul. You know, we can be in a
very busy and noisy place and still have this quiet time within us with God, but
preferably we should seek a quiet place. Then we place ourselves at God's
disposal, ask Him to be with us in the quiet of our soul where we can love Him
totally. Tell Him you, as His servant, are waiting on His Word. You are
listening. You are ready to receive Him spiritually, and you totally trust in
Him.
Saint Francis was good at finding quiet
places. One of many conversations with his brothers comes to mind. One day, St.
Francis called his companions to him in the cell where he was staying and said,
"Listen and give careful attention. I have asked the Lord in his mercy that he
deign to make it clear to me when I am his servant and when I'm not, for I want
always to be found his servant. It was told to me in the Spirit, 'What will you
give me if I make it clear to you what you ask?' And I said, 'Lord, I have given
you my body and my soul; after this I have nothing left to offer you.' The Lord
said, 'Such being the case, learn and know that you are truly my servant when
you think what is good, speak what is good, and do what is good.'" (from
We were with St. Francis, a partial English translation of the Legend
of the Three Companions).
Saint Francis had given all he had to God. He
had given God his material possessions by giving those to the poor. He had given
his body to God by renouncing the flesh. There are many people, even today, who
give what they have to the poor and live in total obedience, poverty and
chastity. Generally, those are people who live in monasteries and convents.
That's why the prayer offered by those good people is in such high demand by
bishops of the dioceses that have Monastic Orders, as well as Houses of the Poor
Clares.
There are also many people living in the
world, outside of cloistered walls, who strive to live their lives in obedience
to God, to the Church, to their spouses perhaps, and these people live close to
and in spiritual harmony with God, shunning material riches and the flesh. That
certainly is the example Francis gave us, but often it is only played out in the
life of a soul, a soul striving for God. A beautiful example of such a soul is
Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Without a strong interior life, it would not have
been possible for her to minister to the sick and dying in the way she did. This
interior relationship with the Lord is the backbone of anything we set out to
do. Without prayer, nothing is possible. Thus when we become involved in holy
activities for our brothers and sisters, we feel inclined to pray more, not
less. We know that the inner strengths to carry out the new assignment come
directly from God and when we pray more, we are more in the Presence of God, and
we represent Him in all we do.
So "Quietly in Jesus" becomes a motto,
a constant search for the inner life that sustains us in whatever we do for Him.
As Franciscans, but certainly anyone, we strive to go to Holy Mass daily, and to
receive Jesus in our heart and soul in Holy Communion. We pray the Liturgy of
the Hours, or similar daily prayers, thus joining the clergy, religious and
members of lay institutes (such as SFO) and many others in the unity of the
prayers of the Church, whether these prayers are said in common or by ourselves.
This motto of seeking a quiet time with Jesus becomes reality when we open our
souls to God as His servant, in humility. This inner life of the soul will begin
slowly, there will be periods of suffering. There is suffering for anyone in
love because to be in love it is necessary to give up a little of our selves.
Marriage is a lifestyle of compromise... and seeking an inner life is a life of
self-giving. St. John of the Cross refers to this period of suffering as "the
dark night of the soul." This 'night' can indeed be very dark. It can shake
one's spirituality to its roots. It is also a time of instability and
temptation, because when one is weak through suffering, the devil gets into
action. But once past that point (length of this suffering time can be short or
long. For some it takes a lifetime), a blissful time arrives.
In this blissful time we come to exercise our
inner life with Jesus in a wonderful way. We can steer meditation through
praying about a specific topic, but contemplation is a gift, a Gift of God. When
God allows you to have a contemplative relationship with Him, oftentimes we are
not aware of this. But we know that we're close friends with Jesus. We live
quietly with Jesus, in His shadow.
How I long for this inner life to blossom. Yet
it would give me far more joy if I could be instrumental to introduce another
person to that inner life with Jesus. That is why I am writing more frequently
about this closeness to Jesus which I've felt as a monk, and continue to feel to
this day, when I am back in Vero Beach, living where my vocation began as a
Secular Franciscan. But while I was a monk, in the quiet of the monastic
setting, Jesus showed me what His love should mean to me. He healed me from a
poor attitude to people whom I did not even know. He healed me from certain
temptations of the flesh. He healed me and took me to His heart. I will never
again let Him go. I love you Jesus, with all my heart, and I love my sisters and
brothers as you have commanded. Amen.
Fred Schaeffer, SFO
Feast of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, 2003
(Ultreya Witness Talk, 10
Mar '06, St. Sebastian Church, Sebastian, Florida)
If today you hear His voice, harden not your
hearts!
Fred Schaeffer, SFO
I volunteered, today, to give a witness talk, but
until Wednesday
night, I had no idea what I would talk about. The title of this
talk, "if today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts," is the
main antiphon during Lent which alternates with each verse of Psalm
95 or others Invitatory psalms, said before the first hour of the
Liturgy of the Hours that one begins the day with. For some, this is
Morning Prayer, and for those who are obligated to pray the whole
daily office, it would be the Office of Readings or "Vigils." An
antiphon is simply, a short liturgical text spoken or sung before
and after a psalm or canticle.
The Antiphon implies that during the Season of Lent, we should
really be attuned to His presence in our lives. He reaches out to us
constantly, desires us to love Him as He loves us, and so often we
do not give Him a second thought. For example, someone I knew in
California, called me one day and complained that Jesus did not
answer his prayers. I asked a few questions to find out what had
been happening in his life, and so he told me that he had both knees
replaced. So I asked him if he thought Jesus answered his prayer to
lessen the pains that made the replacements necessary. Mmmm. He had
not thought of that, but still was too hard-necked to admit this to
me. Doesn’t matter. I try to lay seeds, so that later, when he or
the receiver of some of my comments, is by him or herself - that
somehow the truth will be accepted.
Maybe a dozen years ago, I gave a talk at a parish. That was
before I went into religious life from 1996 to 2002. The talk was on
the Presence of the Lord in our lives. I had talked about forms of
prayer, formal prayer, conversational prayer and contemplative
prayer. At the time, I probably had no right to talk about
contemplative prayer, since the only similar prayer I had experience
with was Father Keating’s centering prayer, which is something
altogether different. In any case, I had mentioned that if one prays
deeply and intensively, Jesus would be there. And certainly, He told
us that where two or more are gathered in His name, He is there
amongst us.
After the talk, a young lady approached me and enthusiastically
asked me if I had seen Jesus. Well, err... no. Not with my eyes. She
was crestfallen, and she really did not give me the opportunity to
explain that I had seen Jesus with my heart and with the eyes of my
Soul. I meant every word I said, and now, after 7 years of religious
life, much of it contemplative, I have experienced contemplation,
and yes, I have seen Jesus - but not with my five senses. I have
seen Him with my soul and He was as present to me there as you are
to me here and now. Afterwards as I thought about the experience,
there was great joy in my heart, but I could not, nor would I ever
attempt to explain it. Outwardly, nothing had happened, and in any
case, I was alone. But we are never quite alone, are we? Jesus is
always around, to those who constantly are with Him, not so much in
actual thought as in doing everything we do in His name. So He
becomes a part of our life, because our life is dedicated to Him and
to our brothers and sisters, friends and neighbor, and also to the
strangers who cross out paths.
All of us, myself included, experience dry spells in prayer. Days
where we just cannot find the right stimulus to pray. Happens to
everyone. Of course that’s when we are weak and when we are, that’s
where Satan tries to take advantage. We get these little and
sometimes not so little temptations, and you hear this little sharp
voice that says "taking a cookie out of the jar is not a sin." - I
use this example because in Nijmegen, the town both Henk and I come
from, there was a parish priest by the name of Fr. J. Rubbens, SJ.
He was a character, and his sermons could be fire and brimstone, but
more often than not, he acted out scenes to make his point. He was
so famous, that there is a book about him: "Het ' jungske ' uit de
Molenstraatskerk." (Daniels. Archivaris - Archeoloog - Nijmegenaar)
You see, there was "Jantje" (little Johnny) who had been told by
his mother that the cookie jar during Lent was not to be touched or
even looked at. Of course you and I know when we tell a child that,
that’s like issuing a ‘dare’ which invites mischief right away.
Anyway, up he went, when his mother wasn’t looking - from a chair he
climbed onto the kitchen counter, and from there he could touch the
cookie jar, even open it a little. In the meantime, Fr. Rubbens
crouched in the pulpit, and when Johnny’s hand reached out for the
jar, Fr. Rubbins trying to imitate the devil, with his nose just
above the edge of the pulpit rim, said in a high child-like voice,
"That’s alright Johnny, taking one cookie is not a sin." Of course,
at that point, the parishioners exploded with laughter. But the
homily met its mark. I have never forgotten that the devil is always
lurking about waiting for us to fall into his evil trap. That was in
1948, when I was 8 years old when I sat with Mom and Dad in the Molenstraat Kerk in Nijmegen. Jesus must have rocked with laughter,
too! Jesus is like us in every way except sin - so I think we can
dare to assume that he loves a good story once in a while, don’t you
think so?
Praying the prayers of the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours, for
example is a very noble habit, because we know that we are praying
the same prayers that are said all over the world by every priest,
deacon and religious brother and sister, even by the Holy Father.
All text in the vernacular are translations from the original Latin
texts. So one can see there is a lot of solidarity in these type of
prayers. But also, inherent in these beautiful prayers is the depth
and the beauty of the prayer life of the Church, and some of these
prayers, as for instance the Psalms in the Old Testament (sometimes
referred to as the Gospel of the Old Testament) date back even
before Christ. King David ruled from about 1005 to 965 before
Christ. So these psalms as prayers are 3000 years old.
A monk once told me that uttering a prayer is not as important as
your willingness to pray, but when people race through the prayers
without giving the words any thought, that just doesn’t wash with me
either. Why? Because if you want to make prayer, which is
conversation with God, a true conversation, we have to pause after
sentences, right? Say a Psalm even a verse, and pause. Likewise,
after a Hail Mary, pause and rest. Let the words you have spoken to
God penetrate. In your mind’s eye, place yourself in the room with
Our Lady when the Angel Gabriel gave her the message of joy of the
Annunciation. Or when reading a psalm, imagine yourself walking
through the Red Sea when Moses parted it in the name of Yahweh. What
an awesome feeling that must have been. I wouldn’t be surprised that
the Israelites must have been very anxious wondering if those walls
of water would close in on them, and happily relieved, when they
didn’t. Such a miracle!
When you’re done thinking or meditating about this, just relax
and tell Jesus that you, his servant, is waiting, and just
listening. Be silent and give Him the opportunity to reach your
heart. To open the door of your Soul. And when He does open that
door, you will find you are resting interiorly, for what seems a
blessed moment or two, in the palm of His hands. But if you have no
recollection afterward whether He visited with you or not, don’t
worry about it... the nature of contemplation is such that what goes
on in the depth of your Soul you will not feel with your senses. If
you do, it most likely wasn’t contemplation.
Being silent is something we are not good at. Ever been at Mass,
and the presider makes a long thanksgiving after Communion, like 5
minutes? People begin to fidget and look at their watches - they get
uncomfortable. Why do they do that? They have received Jesus and
they are as much in the Presence of the Lord as they could ever hope
to be. So relax and be silent and enjoy the moment - offer it up for
all people who cannot find the time to pray, and those who do not
even try.
Prayer is a gift from God. Contemplation is also His gift. It can
happen to those who continually strive to live a life without
serious sin, and who make an effort to love Jesus with all their
heart. St. Bonaventure one of my three favorite Saints next to St.
Francis of Assisi and St. Augustine, says that if you sin, you do
not love God. And if you still sin, you do not love Him enough.
There are people who issue this defensive line, when you ask them
about their relationship with God. They say "He understands me."
That’s a very dangerous presumption. What that generally means is
that they are sinners and they somehow believe that Jesus will say
"Oh, it’s OK for you, don’t worry about it." He loves everyone, but
He doesn’t love our sins.
Prayer is a gift from God. I encourage you to pray every day, as
I am sure you are doing being a Cursillistas. Pray to curtail sin in
our lives and in the lives of others. Pray for peace on earth, and
forgive those, who consciously disturb the peace of God, be it on
the battle field or in more sinister places. Frequent prayer keeps
Satan away from us. There will come that time that we will all hear
His voice. And when you do, harden not your hearts but embrace our
Lord, in the name of His Son, as Father and Son embraces us through
the Holy Spirit, the love between them and us. What an awesome
thought, isn’t it?
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