Thoughts on contemplative prayer

 

Stay Awake

The practice of contemplative prayer is the discipline by which we begin to “see” the living God dwelling in our own hearts. Careful attentiveness to the One who makes a home in the privileged center of our being gradually leads to recognition. As we come to know and love the Father of our hearts we give ourselves over to this incredible Presence who takes possession of all our senses. By the discipline of prayer we are awakened and opened to God within, who enters into our heartbeat and our breathing, into our thoughts and emotions, our hearing, seeing, touching, and tasting. It is by being awake to this God within that we also find the Presence in the world around us. Here we are again in front of the secret. It is not that we see God in the world, but that God-with-us recognizes God in the world. God speaks to God, Spirit speaks to Spirit, heart speaks to heart. Contemplation, therefore, is a participating in the divine self-recognition. The divine Spirit alive in us makes our world transparent for us and opens our eyes to the presence of the divine Spirit in all that surrounds us. It is with our heart of hearts that we see the heart of the world. . . . Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on faith

 

Trust Unreservedly That You Are Loved

The word faith is often understood as accepting something you can’t understand. People often say: “Such and such can’t be explained, you simply have to believe it.” However, when Jesus talks about faith, he means first of all to trust unreservedly that you are loved, so that you can abandon every false way of obtaining love. That’s why Jesus tells Nicodemus that, through faith in the descending love of God, we will be set free from anxiety and violence and will find eternal life. It’s a question here of trusting in God’s love. The Greek word for faith is pistis, which means, literally, “trust.” Whenever Jesus says to people he has healed: “Your faith has saved you,” he is saying that they have found new life because they have surrendered in complete trust to the love of God revealed in him. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on the Risen Lord

 The Risen Lord

    Ignatius notes that the Risen Jesus plays a particular role; he is the Lord as Consoler appearing to his friends and followers with the message of peace and hope. In Sunday's Gospel Jesus comes to his apostles to reassure them that he is no longer dead but fully alive. His resurrection reveals that love is stronger than death. Jesus had endured and embraced his death with love, mercy and compassion and has transformed it into passage into the fullness of the Father's presence. The Easter mystery is that nothing dies forever and that all that has died will be reborn in love. Jesus teaches us that we shouldn't be afraid of death but embrace it as he did with faith and trust. He is no longer in the tomb but now wherever we are. God is here and Christ is now.

Fr. Ralph Huse, S.J.

Thoughts on pain

 

Distinguish Your Pain from the Pain of Others

There is a real pain in your heart, a pain that truly belongs to you. You know now that you cannot avoid, ignore, or repress it. It is this pain that reveals to you how you are called to live in solidarity with the broken human race.  You must distinguish carefully, however, between your pain and the pains that have attached themselves to it but are not truly yours. When you feel rejected, when you think of yourself as a failure and a misfit, you must be careful not to let these feelings and thoughts pierce your heart. You are not a failure or a misfit. Therefore, you have to disown these pains as false. They can paralyze you and prevent you from loving the way you are called to love. It is a struggle to keep distinguishing the real pain from the false pains. But as you are faithful to that struggle, you will see more and more clearly your unique call to love. As you see that call, you will be more and more able to claim your real pain as your unique way to glory. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on self esteem

 

Claim God’s Love for You

For a very long time I considered low self-esteem to be some kind of virtue. I had been warned so often against pride and conceit that I came to consider it a good thing to deprecate myself. But now I realize that the real sin is to deny God’s first love for me, to ignore my original goodness. Because without claiming that first love and that original goodness for myself, I lose touch with my true self and embark on the destructive search among the wrong people and in the wrong places for what can only be found in the house of my Father. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on mission

 

Saturday within the Octave of Easter

Mark 16:9–15

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus commissions his disciples to “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” The Church doesn’t have a mission; the Church is a mission. A passionate Catholicism brings people to Christ, like the four people who lowered the paralytic through the roof to get him to Jesus. An evangelizing Catholicism shouts from the rooftops, grabs people by the lapels, and speaks with urgency and energy about Jesus.  Obviously, this has to be done with great respect and love; but very often, obstacles that come from our “get-along” culture, and perhaps from an exaggerated ecumenism, keep it from getting done at all. We have not been successful in our Christianity unless and until we have brought others to the Lord.  Bishop Robert Barron

Thought on the Apostle Thomas

                 

     Doubting Thomas

The second Sunday of Easter always has the Gospel story of Jesus' appearance to the apostle Thomas.



For some reason he wasn't with the others on Easter when Jesus first came to console them in their grief at His death. They excitedly told Thomas how Jesus had come to them with a greeting of Shalom, Peace, and a blessing of the Holy Spirit. It was just too much for Thomas, too good to be true, to be real. He puts his conditions for faith in words demanding the opportunity to put his finger into the nail holes in Jesus' hands and his hand into the wound in His side. His doubts got him a personal appearance from Jesus. He came back just for Thomas. The Gospel doesn't tell us whether Thomas did as he had demanded but I don't believe he did. He didn't have to. This was clearly Jesus putting himself at Thomas' disposal, treating him with love as He always had. Thomas is overwhelmed and cries out, "My Lord and my God."

    As we age and mature, we too may experience times of doubt, wanting and needing reassurances of the Lord's victory over our sins and death. That's when we can expect a personal appearance as the Lord comes to us in His Eucharist, speaks to us in creation and silence, hugs us with the arms of our loved ones who share our destiny and faith in our loving and merciful Lord and God.

Fr. Ralph Huse, S.J.