I stumbled across the HYPNEROTOMACHIA POLIPHILI in my studies recently. Who thought to produce an electronic facsimile of one of the more (or perhaps the most) baffling books ever published. For completists and those interested--click above to find it.
Pedro Calderon de la Barca's The Two Lovers of Heaven: Chrysanthus and Daria--a play subtitled "A story of early Christian Rome." Worth looking at.
from Christian Perfection and Contemplation
Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.The analogy is evident. To belong to the human race, it is enough to be a child, but that is not sufficient to be a fully developed man. Further, by virtue of a necessary law, a child must grow under pain not of remaining a child but of becoming a deformed dwarf. Likewise it suffices to have a very low degree of charity in order to avoid the transgression of the precept of love, but that does not suffice for the perfect fulfillment of this first precept, which is superior to all the others and to all the counsels. Moreover, if the beginner does not grow in charity, he will not remain a beginner, but will become an abnormal creature and, as it were, a dwarf from the spiritual point of view. For example, he has faith and piety which are, so to speak, embryonic, coupled with highly developed literary, scientific, or progessinal culture. . . . For lack of development, the divine seed which is in the soul runs the risk of dying, as we learn in the parable of the sower.
Two thoughts occurred to me while reading this. The first was, "Of course. One doesn't remain a child forever, time marches one. If one doesn't grow it becomes abnormal." I thought of the hero (was it Oskar?) of The Tin Drum who refuses to grow after the age of three. A deliberate dwarf as it were. I thought too of the grotesque in The Passion of the Christ, the small, aged, hairy, dwarfish baby--the sluggishly selfish soul withholding himself from growth, deliberately remaining small in charity.
My second thought, as always upon reading something of this sort was the uncomfortable realization that Garrigou-Lagrange had held up a mirror and I was reflected perfectly in it. It was as though he looked out his window while writing those words and happened upon my image. Again, the Holy Spirit speaks and convicts when we are prepared to listen. This is a hard thing to listen to, and yet to not hear it would be to remain in the deplorable state I already occupy. A word to the wise is sufficient.
The Ascent of Mount Carmel XI--Book II, Chapters 13-15
Read pages 189- 199 in The Ascent of Mount Carmel.
Chapter 13
(1) Why is it very important to know the proper time to leave discursive meditation?
(2) What is the first sign that one is ready to leave discursive mediation?
(3) What is the second sign?
(4) What is the third sign?
(5) Note the caution St. John of the Cross makes about the occurrence of these signs.
(6) Why is one or two of the signs insufficient evidence of the time to leave discursive prayer?
(7) What does John counsel about the third sign--the loving knowledge of God?
Chapter 14
(1-2) What are the two reasons for requiring spiritual persons to give up sensory meditation when the three signs are present?
(3) Why does the desire of others for them to meditate cause displeasure in those who are ready to move on?
(4) What is "the rind of the fruit" that St. John of the Cross refers to in this passage?
(6) List the two faculties St. John talks about at the end of this passage. Keep them in mind as you read the next section. He will make frequent reference to them.
(7) What is the difference between the use of the two faculties like?
(8-9) Compare the purity of knowledge in section 8 with the passage about the ray of light in section 9. What is John trying to tell us in these two passages?
(10-11) What do the purity and simplicity of knowledge cause in the intellect and soul? What is the result? Are persons working with this knowledge actually idle?
(12) Why is forgetfulness less frequent than might otherwise be the case?
Chapter 15
(1) What does St. John of the Cross say about discursive meditation among proficients? What can one expect until one becomes proficient in contemplation?
(2) How can meditation help at this point in time?
(3) Why should one abandon the attempt at discursive meditation when one enters into a state of contemplation?
(4) Why is the light never infused while one still has hold of tangible images and ideas?
(5) What should one do when one cannot meditate? Why?
via Garrigou-Lagrange:
from Christian Perfection and Contemplation
Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.This is why Abbot Moses says: "Fasts, vigils, meditation on Holy Scripture, nudity, and the privation of external goods are not perfections, but instruments or means of perfection. It is not in them that perfection consists, but by them that one obtains it.
Sometimes I know I am inclined to substitute the means for the end. That is, prayer becomes an end in itself because it is a time of quiet with or without God. Prayer is an important means of communication which should result in the end of loving God more. Or so I interpret this passage.
Human life seems filled with this kind of substitution. How many people substitute excessive alcohol, eating, spending, movies, sex, or anything else for the real and true End that will fill all of that vast and empty interior space. We are incapable of keeping ends and means straight; what is more, we often substitute poor means for good ones. I know that I need to be thinking a lot more about the End and the means that I suppose employ to try to get there. These means are often my own works and they can advance me only so far down that path. It is time to trust a great deal more in Divine Providence and to listen for the "still, small voice," that tells us very clearly what we ought to be doing, if we only give it the time.
But psychologically and physically, I was feeling very puny this morning. I am not beginning to come out of it. So expect more stuff. I hope to post the next in my series on Ascent of Mount Carmel.
And in the course of a long and interesting article on the precept of the love of God, this wonderful quotation from St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Ia IIae, q. 64, 2.4):
We can never love God as much as He ought to be loved, nor believe and hope in Him as much as we should.
Then, I happened across this gem. It's one of those rare occasions on which Garrigou-Lagrange leaves the realm of nearly perfect opacity and wanders into the realm of the pellucid.
Dinally, another erason why the precept of love has no limit is that our charity ought always to grow even until death, for we are travelers on the road to eternity. The way to eternity is not made to be used as a place of rest and sleep, but rather to be traveled. The lazy are those who rest along the road instead of pushing on to their goal. The traveler who has not yet reached the fixed term ofhis pilgrimage is commanded and not only counseled to advance, just as the child must grow according to the law of nature until he has reached maturity. . .
Both of these from Christian Perfection and Contemplation. I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but. . . recommended, indeed, highly recommended.
Requests
Please continue to pray for Dylan
Please pray for the repose of the soul of my mother (if she should need it after all of this time) on this, her birthday.
A special request from a gentleman battling a particularly troublesome and besetting sin for grace and help as he continues forward.
Please pray for Franklin's father, Bill, who is still is assisted living
For Christine, Gordon, Heather, and Ray as they travel to their new home and make new friends; for Samuel, my wife, and me, as we mourn the increase of in distance of such good friends.
Marilyn requests prayers: (1)Please pray for Kira My 10 month old granddaughter. She is very very ill and is in the childrens Hospital in Seattle Washington. Please pray for Kira, her mother Jodi, her father Les and her big brother Jakob who is only seven and very concerned.
(2) Please pray for Lisa Higbee of St Brendan's Catholic church in Bothell Washington. She is the Mother of 3 boys and has terminal breast cancer. Her time is very short.
Mary asks for prayers for an online friend currently undergoing some hardship.
Lynn (Noli Irritare Leones) requests: "Could you also pray for my coworker's family? His wife just had triplets, one stillborn and the other two premature and currently in the NICU."
For Franklin for special intentions and for Katherine and the children in this difficult time for the family.
Third Order Carmelite Nancy W. from Kansas City has just had back surgery. It is thought the surgery went well; however, she is in a lot of pain. Please pray that medications will help with the pain and that she will not become addicted to them. Also please pray that she will receive a complete healing and be relieved of pain.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
For Father Joe who has left the active ministry of Priesthood after a number of difficult experiences, for discernment, strength, and a renewal of heart, mind, and spirit
From Therese a request for Mark Cotter,SF0, 50, just diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. He has 2 children still in school.
from Peter Nixon at Sursum Corda:"A friend who is a longtime reader of this site wrote me yesterday to tell me that he has been diagnosed with renal cancer. I would ask you to keep him in your prayers. "
For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For our children, that they grow up in security, comfort, and the certain knowledge that they are loved and that they be released from any bonds of darkness, fear, anger, or sadness that bind and threaten them
For Amanda and the success of her book-designing business
For all those living under the curse of generational sins, that they may have protection and the inheritance of the past may be made void in their lives.
For all who are suffering from marital problems, most particularly those in our own families or communities, that the Lord may intervene and remind them that a marriage is of three persons.
For mothers and families that struggle with autism and autistic related disabilities: particularly for M'Lynn, Melissa, Christine, and Betty.
For families that desire more children
For the conversion or return of spouses and loved ones to the Catholic Church, most particularly for Amanda's husband
For the men and women of the American Armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families, may the Good Lord provide sustenance, support, compassion, and love that these separated families might continue to grow in strength and love.
Special Prayer Projects:
(1) Chris Keith, the young lady whose biopsy went poorly got the results of that biopsy--carcinoma of the liver. The cancer is metastatic from colon cancer. Surgery has taken place to treat the colon cancer.
I paraphrase her mother:
"We [members of the family] are standing on the Rock and are rock solid. We are all okay and we are looking for a few prayer warriors to help us in this battle." Because this mother means so much to me for the great good she has done for my friends, I plan to stand with her and her family in this battle, and I invite you all to join me. Expect to hear about this on and off over the next few months.
(2) For Katherine and Franklin, Janet and Louis, Peter Kucera, and for all who are seeking employment and suffering through difficult times as they wait.
(3)Healthy Pregnancies and good and safe deliveries: From Davey's Mom: I am with child once again and could use prayers for a healthy pregnancy. For Suki, for a healthy pregancy and a safe delivery. For Ashli and her child that doctors may find a way to help her carry her young one to term. For JCecil3 and Wife. For Pansy Moss. For Mts. White and child. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, pray for us. Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
A very important request from a St. Blogs parishioner--"I found out recently that my friend's sister is pregnant for the fourth time. Her other three children have autism, and I know it would make her very, very happy to have a normal child." Please pray for this poor woman that she might have the joy of a healthy pregnancy and a happy, healthy delivery and new infant. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, Pray for Us.
Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
"One may doubtless be very happy in Venice without reading at all—without criticising or analysing or thinking a strenuous thought." Henry James Italian Hours
"These latter [artistic and social atrocities]are numerous and deeply to be deplored; but to admit that they have spoiled Venice would be to admit that Venice may be spoiled—an admission pregnant, as it seems to us, with disloyalty."--Henry James, Italian Hours
Its odd the way God speaks to us. I read this little passage in a break between tasks and it occurred to me that he summarized the way I feel about the Church. Despite the clanking old apparatus, filled with all manner of cantankerous and quarreling human beings with all of their foibles, to speak ill of it, or to give ear to ill-speaking smacks of disloyalty. And how can I be disloyal to the Mother who nurtures and guides me?
As I said, when you're of a mind to listen, God strikes up conversation in the oddest places.
"It is not forbidden, however, to speak of familiar things, and I hold that for the true Venice-lover Venice is always in order. There is nothing new to be said about her certainly, but the old is better than any novelty. It would be a sad day indeed when there should be something new to say. "--Henry James, Italian Hours
Many accuse James of being prolix, abstruse, and obtuse. They mistake elegance and stateliness in prose for meandering and they do not give their minds to the subtle currents that pervade the deep waters of his short stories, novels, and, yes, even travel writing. Take for example this excerpt:
from Italian Hours--"The Autumn in Florence"
Henry JamesFlorence too has its “season,” not less than Rome, and I have been rejoicing for the past six weeks in the fact that this comparatively crowded parenthesis hasn't yet been opened. Coming here in the first days of October I found the summer still in almost unmenaced possession, and ever since, till within a day or two, the weight of its hand has been sensible. Properly enough, as the city of flowers, Florence mingles the elements most artfully in the spring—during the divine crescendo of March and April, the weeks when six months of steady shiver have still not shaken New York and Boston free of the long Polar reach. But the very quality of the decline of the year as we at present here feel it suits peculiarly the mood in which an undiscourageable gatherer of the sense of things, or taster at least of “charm,” moves through these many-memoried streets and galleries and churches. Old things, old places, old people, or at least old races, ever strike us as giving out their secrets most freely in such moist, grey, melancholy days as have formed the complexion of the past fortnight. With Christmas arrives the opera, the only opera worth speaking of—which indeed often means in Florence the only opera worth talking through; the gaiety, the gossip, the reminders in fine of the cosmopolite and watering-place character to which the city of the Medici long ago began to bend her antique temper.
The refinement of the piece in its final form (present here in its entirety) is only known from acquaintance with its earlier incarnation as a piece in either The Independent or The Nation (The website that yielded these originals has subsequently vanished along with the wonderful texts. I have preserved the memory of it in the form of an e-book for PDA). The subtle twists of phrase and the delicate irony and humor that are so prominent here stand out from the rather more bold reportorial front that shows up in the articles. One can spend time with James and come to know Italy very little, but have a profound knowledge of a man of great sensibility and sense. Too bad as a society we spend so little time with those who have so much to tell us about how to observe, how to write, how to go about thinking, and how to analyze. It is unfortunate that we are often in too great a hurry for the majestic pace at which James moves. But given my druthers, I'd rather tour Italy with James or Hawthorne than with Michelin. What companionable company, what rare insights, and what refined humor. I have come to love Henry James more and more as I read more of the work. It is not for one who needs to come to the point, but rather for the person who relishes the journey as much or perhaps even more than the destination. Surely that is the first lesson in how to travel.
Two blogs that have recently come to my attention, so only "new" to me, through the Aegis of T.S. O'Rama:
Fiat Mihi,with St. Philip Neri and intricate discourse in the proper drinking of tea.
and
Song of November I'd like to heartily recommend this latter, but unfortunately it has graphics or javascripts or something that permanently hang up my Mac.
Neverhteless both seem of interest, stop by and say hello if you have not already.
Later:
And via Fiat Mihi, this gorgeous blog, with its oh, so wonderful name Basia Me, Catholica sum--why am I always so late to the table?
It is my contention that it is possible for a lay person to live a contemplative life.
What does this strange blending look like? What form does it take and what does it entail for the soul so disposed.
I think we could all agree that it would be possible for most souls to achieve at least the lower degree of contemplation. Not all do it, but it seems that such contemplation is the highest rung on the ladder of what we can obtain "through our own efforts aided by sustaining grace."
Perhaps we should spend a moment thinking about what the contemplative life requires from the person. As I tried to suggest in Martha and Mary: A Speculation, I think much of our understanding of the contemplative life is colored by a misunderstanding of the story of Martha and Mary. I think many of us read this story to mean that the active life is necessarily opposed to the contemplative life. As I said in the cited post, I do not think that is the message we are supposed to garner from the story. However, that understanding presents several problems that must be addressed.
To start with, unless we are extraordinary, as is the case of St. Thérèse and the Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, very few of us are born contemplative. That is, we all enter life in the mode of active life. If it were true that the active life was in some way a substantive barrier to the contemplative life, then it would be impossible to achieve it. St. Thomas Aquinas suggests that the active life may be at once a hindrance to some aspects of the contemplative life and not a hindrance. I won't go into his arguments because frankly I don't think I understand them thoroughly. But suffice to say that while an active life might present a hindrance, it does not constitute a barrier to the contemplative life.
A second problem that is commonly noted is that somehow a contemplative life requires us to withdraw from all the responsibilities of our present state. Once again, I believe this proceeds from a misunderstanding of Mary and Martha. Mary sits at the Lord's feet musing, and Martha works. Mary has withdrawn from the responsibility of social engagement and hospitality and has entered into close communion with the Lord.
Well, I think we can readily see the error of this view. Mary is, in fact, actively offering what hospitality really requires--presence. Hospitality isn't merely about food and shelter, although those are important constitutive parts of hospitality, but it is about being present to the person to home hospitality offers in a fundamental, grounded way. You are there to listen, to hear, to console, to advise, to do what is necessary so that the person feels at home. It was this form of hospitality that Mary offered to Jesus. Do we really think that she wasn't already feeling bad that she wasn't helping Martha? Could she really sit there and ignore entirely the hubbub surrounding her as preparations were made for dinner? When Martha accused Mary before the Lord, would we say that Mary's heart did not drop, recognizing the truth of what Martha was saying? Isn't that perhaps part of the reason for the gentle rebuke that the Lord delivers to Martha? More, after the Lord continued His journey, are we to suppose that Mary sat around the house all day mooning about how nice it was to talk to Him.
I don't think that is what we are to take away from the story. Now, perhaps I am reading too much into it, but I believe we are to see Mary as someone who knows when to work and when to be still. She has a base-level understanding of what it means to be hospitable. She has the urge to serve, but curtails her own desire to hear what it is the Lord wishes her to hear. Martha, on the other hand, extremely well-intentioned, hasn't quite caught on to the idea that there is a time for bustle and activity and a time for quiet reflection and spending time with your guests. More, Martha hasn't quite learned what it means to serve with joy and love and to love the opportunity to serve selflessly. She could have prepared the dinner AND still have been present to the Lord, she simply didn't know how; nor did she fully understand the importance of doing so.
Many of us are in a "Martha" state of life. Sometimes I can't quite see how to integrate my activity and my prayer-- my service to others and my spending time with the Lord. I know that by serving others I AM spending time with God, but because He is not necessarily foremost in my mind in the time of service, it doesn't really "count." I think, to some extent we all suffer from the same mindset.
(Unfortunately, time has come to move on to other matters. This evening I have a great deal of work to make up for so this will be continued later.)
When I have used the term in the past, I must admit to having in mind infused contemplation. Perhaps later I will get to my reasoning for that. However, I must admit that not everyone makes it there, nor is everyone likely to--not everyone is called to endure the trials that would result in infused contemplation. That said, I must also say, that we are all, nonetheless invited to it, and we will all eventually participate in it (assuming that we make it to Heaven.)
By contemplation, I mean wordless prayer that raises the soul to God to gaze upon the beloved and to simply be present to the One who loves us. I believe that everyone could and should strive to obtain acquired contemplation, sometimes called "resting in the Lord," in which our intellectual labors have been brought to perfection and now the spirit labors on.
I also must side with Garrigou-Lagrange who said (I think and I paraphrase), "Surely God would not call souls to this high state of prayer only to turn them away from the table." Implying that infused contemplation while a gift given at God's discretion, is not one that is arbitrarily withheld. Most souls that make it to the stage of acquired contemplation are ready for infused contemplation; however, they still may not make it. This they fail to do for any number of reasons, most of them related to their own imperfection and ignorance of how to proceed. But I also not that it is entirely plausible that there could be such a grave defect in a soul that God must proceed exceedingly slowly so as not to harm it. He may indeed need to proceed so slowly that the person would die a natural death of old age before achieving infused contemplation. This in no way condemns the frail soul--it is simply a reality of spiritual life.
To conclude--when I use the word contemplation, I am more often than not speaking of infused contemplation, in which we actively rest from the labors of the intellect and bestow a long, loving gaze upon the Most High, the Father who loves us and calls to us.
RC Asked:
Is the idea of a "vocational call" related to the concept of 'charism'?
Would you like to talk about the universal call to holiness as something more fundamental?
This actually needs very little response. A vocational call, when responded to precurs for the respondant the charisms of that call. (Or so I think--it is probably a good deal more complicated.)
And I just second the notion that the universal call to holiness is above all of this. However, I think the universal call to holiness carries within it a certain obligation to exert ourselves in the realm of prayer; perhaps to the point of obtaining acquired contemplation. Again, all is gift, it isn't as though we achieve these things through ourselves. Everything we receive, we receive as pure gift, even though the work we do is meritorious.
I have prayed this some two-hundred times (or thereabouts) since I began recitation of the Liturgy of hours and this morning it spoke to me:
Psalm Prayer for the Third Psalm of Morning Prayer, Thursday Week III
God, you are the source of all holines. Though no one can see yu and live, you give life most generously and in an even greater way restore it. Sanctify your priests through your life-giving Word, and consecrate your people in his blood until our eyes see your face.
What broke through my early-morning haze was that last phrase "and consecrate your people in his blood until our eyes see your face." There is something about the notion of "our eyes" seeing "your face" that engages the imagination and stirs sluggish hope to rouse Charity to ardor. That is the goal, ultimately. In Heaven we shall see His Holy face and we shall rejoice in it knowing that we are in His presence for all eternity, that we will not fall like the angels, because we've already been given our chance at that in this lifetime. We shall know God, talk to Him face to face. Think of that. In Isaiah we see that not even the great Seraphim do so; we are destined through the grace and the salvific gift of Christ on the Cross to see God face to face and to call Him Father. What joy, what utter joy. Words fail.
Exalt the Lord our God;
bow down before his holy mountain
for the Lord our God is holy. (psalm 99)
Requests
Please continue to pray for Dylan
A special request from a gentleman battling a particularly troublesome and besetting sin for grace and help as he continues forward.
Please pray for Franklin's father, Bill, who is still is assisted living
For Christine, Gordon, Heather, and Ray as they travel to their new home and make new friends; for Samuel, my wife, and me, as we mourn the increase of in distance of such good friends.
Marilyn requests prayers: (1)Please pray for Kira My 10 month old granddaughter. She is very very ill and is in the childrens Hospital in Seattle Washington. Please pray for Kira, her mother Jodi, her father Les and her big brother Jakob who is only seven and very concerned.
(2) Please pray for Lisa Higbee of St Brendan's Catholic church in Bothell Washington. She is the Mother of 3 boys and has terminal breast cancer. Her time is very short.
Mary asks for prayers for an online friend currently undergoing some hardship.
Lynn (Noli Irritare Leones) requests: "Could you also pray for my coworker's family? His wife just had triplets, one stillborn and the other two premature and currently in the NICU."
For Franklin for special intentions and for Katherine and the children in this difficult time for the family.
Third Order Carmelite Nancy W. from Kansas City has just had back surgery. It is thought the surgery went well; however, she is in a lot of pain. Please pray that medications will help with the pain and that she will not become addicted to them. Also please pray that she will receive a complete healing and be relieved of pain.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
Requests
Please continue to pray for Dylan
A special request from a gentleman battling a particularly troublesome and besetting sin for grace and help as he continues forward.
Please pray for Franklin's father, Bill, who is still is assisted living
For Christine, Gordon, Heather, and Ray as they travel to their new home and make new friends; for Samuel, my wife, and me, as we mourn the increase of in distance of such good friends.
Marilyn requests prayers: (1)Please pray for Kira My 10 month old granddaughter. She is very very ill and is in the childrens Hospital in Seattle Washington. Please pray for Kira, her mother Jodi, her father Les and her big brother Jakob who is only seven and very concerned.
(2) Please pray for Lisa Higbee of St Brendan's Catholic church in Bothell Washington. She is the Mother of 3 boys and has terminal breast cancer. Her time is very short.
Mary asks for prayers for an online friend currently undergoing some hardship.
Lynn (Noli Irritare Leones) requests: "Could you also pray for my coworker's family? His wife just had triplets, one stillborn and the other two premature and currently in the NICU."
For Franklin for special intentions and for Katherine and the children in this difficult time for the family.
Third Order Carmelite Nancy W. from Kansas City has just had back surgery. It is thought the surgery went well; however, she is in a lot of pain. Please pray that medications will help with the pain and that she will not become addicted to them. Also please pray that she will receive a complete healing and be relieved of pain.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
My son's school had a two-for-one bookfair last night and the rest of this week. Being out of Lent and always drawn by the lure of books anyway, we went, hoping to find treasures that would sustain us for years to come.
And indeed, we did. The one thing I wanted to share here was a curious little item by Tracy Barrett titled Anna of Byzantium. So, children and young adults can now read about the author of "The Alexiad" against whom the 1914 Catholic Encyclopedia had this to say:
. . . a true Byzantine she looks on the Crusades only from the narrow and selfish standpoint of Constantinople, and detests soundly all Latins. The chronology is defective. She loves to describe scenes of splendour, great state-actions, audiences, and feasts, whatever is concrete and picturesque. Nor is she adverse to satire, court gossip, and detraction. Profounder matters, financial, military, and constitutional, escape her purview. Withal, however, Krumbacher calls it "one of the most remarkable efforts of medieval Greek historiography", the first notable production of the medieval Greek Renaissance set afoot by Psellos and powerfully furthered by the family of the Princess. She strains in her vocabulary for an Attic elegance, though construction and style betray too often the distance between her and the models (Thucydides and Polybius) whom she aims at imitating. She avoids, as unfit for the pen of an historian, uncouth foreign names and vulgar terms. Her studied precision in the matter of hellenizing causes her pages to take on a kind of mummy-like appearance when compared with the vigorous, living Greek of contemporary popular intercourse.
Whether true or not, it partakes of "sour grapes." Nevertheless the cover of this book portrays Anna with a halo, suggesting sainthood. Given that she tried to have her brother John assassinated and, along with her coconspirator and mother, was sent into exile in a convent where she wrote "The Alexiad," I would suggest that the halo was a bit overmuch. However, the thought that the children's market could see a place for a book like this is very encouraging indeed.
For those interested here is a place that you can read "The Alexiad" online. (By the way it is an 15 book epic about her father Alexius I. Oh, and John, though homely, was called John the Beautiful and well beloved of his Byzantine subjects for all the good works that he did.)
(Aren't you just tickled that you read this blog and come up with so many useful fragments of information? Blogs are a nearly infinite source of the world's most useless trivia. Where else would you have heard about the Alexiad? No, really, tell me. . .)
I initially thought I would answer this question first because the answer seemed so strightforward and simple; but thinking about it caused me to pause. The more I know of vocations the less clear any answer about them seems to be.
For example, one might think that the vocation of St. Thérèse was that of a Carmelite Nun. But late in life she is quoted as saying, "My vocation is love, love at the heart of the church." She spent much of her vocational life searching for her vocation.
So, the real answer to this question is that in my limited understanding, the contemplative life is an aspect of a wider vocation--that of religious, or married. I don't know if it exists by itself as a vocation, but it seems that every contemplative I'm aware of had a larger view of their vocation, that contemplation was part of what they did and were, but not the entirety.
So, this unsatisfactory response is as close as I can come to a definitive answer. Sorry, but this requires one with far greater knowledge and understanding of the meaning of vocation than I have to answer it. I can only answer from one side and say that it certainly can be part of a vocation. As to whether it constitutes a vocation in and of itself, I will trust wiser minds and those with more extensive knowledge to inform all of us.
Requests
Please continue to pray for Dylan
A special request from a gentleman battling a particularly troublesome and besetting sin for grace and help as he continues forward.
Please pray for Franklin's father, Bill, who is still is assisted living
For Christine, Gordon, Heather, and Ray as they travel to their new home and make new friends; for Samuel, my wife, and me, as we mourn the increase of in distance of such good friends.
Marilyn requests prayers: (1)Please pray for Kira My 10 month old granddaughter. She is very very ill and is in the childrens Hospital in Seattle Washington. Please pray for Kira, her mother Jodi, her father Les and her big brother Jakob who is only seven and very concerned.
(2) Please pray for Lisa Higbee of St Brendan's Catholic church in Bothell Washington. She is the Mother of 3 boys and has terminal breast cancer. Her time is very short.
Mary asks for prayers for an online friend currently undergoing some hardship.
Lynn (Noli Irritare Leones) requests: "Could you also pray for my coworker's family? His wife just had triplets, one stillborn and the other two premature and currently in the NICU."
For Franklin for special intentions and for Katherine and the children in this difficult time for the family.
Third Order Carmelite Nancy W. from Kansas City has just had back surgery. It is thought the surgery went well; however, she is in a lot of pain. Please pray that medications will help with the pain and that she will not become addicted to them. Also please pray that she will receive a complete healing and be relieved of pain.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
For Father Joe who has left the active ministry of Priesthood after a number of difficult experiences, for discernment, strength, and a renewal of heart, mind, and spirit
From Therese a request for Mark Cotter,SF0, 50, just diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. He has 2 children still in school.
from Peter Nixon at Sursum Corda:"A friend who is a longtime reader of this site wrote me yesterday to tell me that he has been diagnosed with renal cancer. I would ask you to keep him in your prayers. "
For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For our children, that they grow up in security, comfort, and the certain knowledge that they are loved and that they be released from any bonds of darkness, fear, anger, or sadness that bind and threaten them
For Amanda and the success of her book-designing business
For all those living under the curse of generational sins, that they may have protection and the inheritance of the past may be made void in their lives.
For all who are suffering from marital problems, most particularly those in our own families or communities, that the Lord may intervene and remind them that a marriage is of three persons.
For mothers and families that struggle with autism and autistic related disabilities: particularly for M'Lynn, Melissa, Christine, and Betty.
For families that desire more children
For the conversion or return of spouses and loved ones to the Catholic Church, most particularly for Amanda's husband
For the men and women of the American Armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families, may the Good Lord provide sustenance, support, compassion, and love that these separated families might continue to grow in strength and love.
Special Prayer Projects:
(1) Chris Keith, the young lady whose biopsy went poorly got the results of that biopsy--carcinoma of the liver. The cancer is metastatic from colon cancer. Surgery has taken place to treat the colon cancer.
I paraphrase her mother:
"We [members of the family] are standing on the Rock and are rock solid. We are all okay and we are looking for a few prayer warriors to help us in this battle." Because this mother means so much to me for the great good she has done for my friends, I plan to stand with her and her family in this battle, and I invite you all to join me. Expect to hear about this on and off over the next few months.
(2) For Katherine and Franklin, Janet and Louis, Peter Kucera, and for all who are seeking employment and suffering through difficult times as they wait.
(3)Healthy Pregnancies and good and safe deliveries: From Davey's Mom: I am with child once again and could use prayers for a healthy pregnancy. For Suki, for a healthy pregancy and a safe delivery. For Ashli and her child that doctors may find a way to help her carry her young one to term. For JCecil3 and Wife. For Pansy Moss. For Mts. White and child. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, pray for us. Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
A very important request from a St. Blogs parishioner--"I found out recently that my friend's sister is pregnant for the fourth time. Her other three children have autism, and I know it would make her very, very happy to have a normal child." Please pray for this poor woman that she might have the joy of a healthy pregnancy and a happy, healthy delivery and new infant. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, Pray for Us.
Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
from the Online Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914
from the article on Contemplation
St. Alphonsus Liguori, echoing his predecessors, defines it thus: "At the end of a certain time ordinary meditation produces what is called acquired contemplation, which consists in seeing at a simple glance the truths which could previously be discovered only through prolonged discourse" (Homo apostolicus, Appendix I, No. 7).
Higher contemplation
To distinguish it from acquired contemplation mystical union is called intuitive, passive, extraordinary, or higher contemplation. St. Teresa designates it simply as contemplation, without any qualification. Mystical graces may be divided into two groups, according to the nature of the object contemplated. The states of the first group are characterized by the fact that it is God, and God only, who manifests Himself; these are called mystical union. In the second group the manifestation is of a created object, as, for example, when one beholds the humanity of Christ or an angel or a future event, etc. These are visions (of created things) and revelations. To these belong miraculous bodily phenomena which are sometimes observed in ecstatics.
Here we have the beginnings of the distinction between acquired contemplation and infused contemplation. You can see that the matter of definitions is not nearly so clear-cut, neat and precise as it might be. However, all of these senses of contemplation are necessary to understand what might be meant by the statement that "everyone is called to contemplation."
To be completely honest, it is my personal belief that a great many more people might achieve both infused contemplation and even mystical Union and spiritual marriage were they inclined to accept the invitation and graces offered toward these ends. Obviously, I cannot know this; however, St. John of the Cross seems also to think it true because many times he addresses those who are "stuck" in a level of prayer and who do not advance because of lack of knowledge about how to effect this advance. But I get ahead of myself. This must all be dealt with in turn, and first we need to complete the definitions. However, this evening or tomorrow I may do a combined treatement of the thrid and fourth questions. The nature of these questions lends itself to such a combined consideration.
Now we approach formal definitions that come closer to the heart of what we are talking about.
I start with the least formal of these, but one that gives a very good intuitive feel for what it is about. This is Tom of Disputations paraphrase of Fr. William McNamara. Comtemplation is "a long, lingering, loving look at the real."
An excellent start, if a little nebulous.
Here is a portion of Evelyn Underhill's magistgerial discussion. We have here not so much a definition but a delineation of what contemplation is NOT.
from Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness
Evelyn UnderhillHere, the most important work has been done in France; and especially by the Abbé Bremond, whose “Prière et Poésie” and “Introduction a la Philosophie de la Prière”—based on a vast acquaintance with mystical literature—mark, I believe, the beginning of a new understanding of the character of contemplation. The Thomist philosophy of Maritain, and the psychological researches of Maréchal, tend to support this developing view of the mystical experience, even in its elementary forms, as an activity of the transcendental self; genuinely supernatural, yet not necessarily involving any abnormal manifestations, and linked by the ascending “degrees of prayer” with the subject’s “ordinary” religious life. This disentangling of the substance of mysticism from the psycho-physical accidents of trance, ecstasy, vision and other abnormal phenomena which often accompany it, and its vindication as something which gives the self a genuine knowledge of transcendental Reality—with its accompanying demonstration of the soberness and sanity of the greatest contemplative saints—is the last of the beneficent changes which have transformed our study of the mystics.
Later in the same work we find this:
This act of perfect concentration, 49 the passionate focussing of the self upon one point, when it is applied “with a naked intent” to real and transcendental things, constitutes in the technical language of mysticism the state of recollection: 64 a condition which is peculiarly characteristic of the mystical consciousness, and is the necessary prelude of pure contemplation, that state in which the mystic enters into communion with Reality.
(Emphasis added to accentuate what I thnk Underhill's "definition" of contemplation entails.) In the following paragraphs, quoted at length here for future reference, Underhill has some interesting points to make regarding the contemplative and the goal of contemplation.
from Mysticism
Evelyn UnderhillWe have then arrived so far in our description of the mechanism of the mystic. Possessed like other men of powers of feeling, thought, and will, it is essential that his love and his determination, even more than his thought, should be set upon Transcendent Reality. He must feel a strong emotional attraction toward the supersensual Object of his quest: that love which scholastic philosophy defined as the force or power which causes every creature to follow out the trend of its own nature. Of this must be born the will to attain communion with that Absolute Object. This will, this burning and active desire, must crystallize into and express itself by that definite and conscious concentration of the whole self upon the Object, which precedes the contemplative state. We see already how far astray are those who look upon the mystical temperament as passive in type.
Our next concern, then, would seem to be with this condition of contemplation: what it does and whither it leads. What is (a) its psychological explanation and (b) its empirical value? Now, in dealing with this, and other rare mental conditions, we are of course trying to describe from without that which can only adequately be described from within; which is as much as to say that only mystics can really write about mysticism. Fortunately, many mystics have so written; and we, from their experiences and from the explorations of psychology upon another plane, are able to make certain elementary deductions. It appears generally from these that the act of contemplation is for the mystic a psychic gateway; a method of going from one level of consciousness to another. In technical language it is the condition under which he shifts his “field of perception” and obtains his characteristic outlook on the universe. That there is such a characteristic outlook, peculiar to no creed or race, is proved by the history of mysticism; which demonstrates plainly enough that in some men another sort of consciousness, another “sense,” may be liberated beyond the normal powers we have discussed. This “sense” has attachments at each point to emotion, to intellect, and to will. It can express itself under each of the aspects which these terms connote. Yet it differs from and transcends the emotional,intellectual, and volitional life of ordinary men. It was recognized by 50 Plato as that consciousness which could apprehend the real world of the Ideas. Its development is the final object of that education which his “Republic” describes. It is called by Plotinus “Another intellect, different from that which reasons and is denominated rational.” Its business, he says, is the perception of the supersensual—or, in Neoplatonic language, the intelligible world. It is the sense which, in the words of the “Theologia Germanica,” has “the power of seeing into eternity,” the “mysterious eye of the soul” by which St. Augustine saw “the light that never changes.” It is, says Al Ghazzali, a Persian mystic of the eleventh century, “like an immediate perception, as if one touched its object with one’s hand.” In the words of his great Christian successor, St. Bernard, “it may be defined as the soul’s true unerring intuition, the unhesitating apprehension of truth”: which “simple vision of truth,” says St. Thomas Aquinas, “ends in a movement of desire.”
It is infused with burning love, for it seems to its possessors to be primarily a movement of the heart: with intellectual subtlety, for its ardour is wholly spent upon the most sublime object of thought: with unflinching will, for its adventures are undertaken in the teeth of the natural doubts, prejudices, languors, and self-indulgence of man. These adventures, looked upon by those who stay at home as a form of the Higher Laziness, are in reality the last and most arduous labours which the human spirit is called to perform. They are the only known methods by which we can come into conscious possession of all our powers; and, rising from the lower to the higher levels of consciousness, become aware of that larger life in which we are immersed, attain communion with the transcendent Personality in Whom that life is resumed.
Mary has chosen the better, not the idler part; for her gaze is directed towards those First Principles without which the activity of Martha would have no meaning at all. In vain does sardonic common sense, confronted with the contemplative type, reiterate the sneer of Mucius, “Encore sont-ils heureux que la pauvre Marthe leur fasse la cuisine.” It remains a paradox of the mystics that the passivity at which they appear to aim is really a state of the most intense activity: more, that where it is wholly absent no great creative action can take place. In it, the superficial self compels itself to be still, in order that it may liberate another more deep-seated power which is, in the ecstasy of the contemplative genius, raised to the highest pitch of efficiency.
“This restful travail,” said Walter Hilton, “is full far from fleshly idleness and from blind security. It is full of ghostly work but it is called rest, for grace looseth the heavy yoke of fleshly love from the soul and maketh it mighty and free through the gift of the holy ghostly love for to work gladly, softly, and delectably. . . . Therefore is it called an holy idleness and a rest most busy; and so is it in stillness from the great crying and the beastly noise of fleshly desires.”
. . . This act, this condition of consciousness, in which barriers are obliterated, the Absolute flows in on us, and we, rushing out to its embrace, “find and feel the Infinite above all reason and above all knowledge,” is the true “mystical state.” The value of contemplation is that it tends to produce this state, release this transcendental sense; and so turns the “lower servitude” in which the natural man lives under the sway of his earthly environment to the “higher servitude” of fully conscious dependence on that Reality “in Whom we live and move and have our being.”
Quotations such as these get at the point of contemplation, but fail to define it succinctly. In fact, one could peruse the entire work without becoming much more concrete than this last paragraph.
I've gone on too long as it is, but let me end this post with one, final, much more succinct, if rather dense definition and discussion from St. Thomas Aquinas:
from Summa Theolgiae
St. Thomas AquinasOn the contrary, Life signifies here the operation on which a man is chiefly intent. Wherefore if there are several operations of the contemplative life, there will be, not one, but several contemplative lives.
I answer that, We are now speaking of the contemplative life as applicable to man. Now according to Dionysius (Div. Nom. vii) between man and angel there is this difference, that an angel perceives the truth by simple apprehension, whereas man arrives at the perception of a simple truth by a process from several premises. Accordingly, then, the contemplative life has one act wherein it is finally completed, namely the contemplation of truth, and from this act it derives its unity. Yet it has many acts whereby it arrives at this final act. Some of these pertain to the reception of principles, from which it proceeds to the contemplation of truth; others are concerned with deducing from the principles, the truth, the knowledge of which is sought; and the last and crowning act is the contemplation itself of the truth.
Reply to Objection 1. According to Richard of St. Victor "cogitation" would seem to regard the consideration of the many things from which a person intends to gather one simple truth. Hence cogitation may comprise not only the perceptions of the senses in taking cognizance of certain effects, but also the imaginations. and again the reason's discussion of the various signs or of anything that conduces to the truth in view: although, according to Augustine (De Trin. xiv, 7), cogitation may signify any actual operation of the intellect. "Meditation" would seem to be the process of reason from certain principles that lead to the contemplation of some truth: and "consideration" has the same meaning, according to Bernard (De Consid. ii, 2), although, according to the Philosopher (De Anima ii, 1), every operation of the intellect may be called "consideration." But "contemplation" regards the simple act of gazing on the truth; wherefore Richard says again (De Grat. Contempl. i, 4) that "contemplation is the soul's clear and free dwelling upon the object of its gaze; meditation is the survey of the mind while occupied in searching for the truth: and cogitation is the mind's glance which is prone to wander."
Now, this is by no means the fullness of what St. Thomas has to say regarding contemplation. Nor could we reasonably end a discussion of the definition of contemplation on such a note. However, this must suffice for the moment as the duties of the day beckon. I shall try to resume this somewhat later.
You will turn back, O God,
and bring us to life,
and your people will rejoice in you.
Alleluia! (antiphon from the first Psalm of Morning Prayer)
Requests
Please continue to pray for Dylan
Please pray for Franklin's father, Bill, who is still is assisted living
For Christine, Gordon, Heather, and Ray as they travel to their new home and make new friends; for Samuel, my wife, and me, as we mourn the increase of in distance of such good friends.
Marilyn requests prayers: (1)Please pray for Kira My 10 month old granddaughter. She is very very ill and is in the childrens Hospital in Seattle Washington. Please pray for Kira, her mother Jodi, her father Les and her big brother Jakob who is only seven and very concerned.
(2) Please pray for Lisa Higbee of St Brendan's Catholic church in Bothell Washington. She is the Mother of 3 boys and has terminal breast cancer. Her time is very short.
Mary asks for prayers for an online friend currently undergoing some hardship.
Lynn (Noli Irritare Leones) requests: "Could you also pray for my coworker's family? His wife just had triplets, one stillborn and the other two premature and currently in the NICU."
For Franklin for special intentions and for Katherine and the children in this difficult time for the family.
Third Order Carmelite Nancy W. from Kansas City has just had back surgery. It is thought the surgery went well; however, she is in a lot of pain. Please pray that medications will help with the pain and that she will not become addicted to them. Also please pray that she will receive a complete healing and be relieved of pain.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
For Father Joe who has left the active ministry of Priesthood after a number of difficult experiences, for discernment, strength, and a renewal of heart, mind, and spirit
From Therese a request for Mark Cotter,SF0, 50, just diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. He has 2 children still in school.
from Peter Nixon at Sursum Corda:"A friend who is a longtime reader of this site wrote me yesterday to tell me that he has been diagnosed with renal cancer. I would ask you to keep him in your prayers. "
For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For our children, that they grow up in security, comfort, and the certain knowledge that they are loved and that they be released from any bonds of darkness, fear, anger, or sadness that bind and threaten them
For Amanda and the success of her book-designing business
For all those living under the curse of generational sins, that they may have protection and the inheritance of the past may be made void in their lives.
For all who are suffering from marital problems, most particularly those in our own families or communities, that the Lord may intervene and remind them that a marriage is of three persons.
For mothers and families that struggle with autism and autistic related disabilities: particularly for M'Lynn, Melissa, Christine, and Betty.
For families that desire more children
For the conversion or return of spouses and loved ones to the Catholic Church, most particularly for Amanda's husband
For the men and women of the American Armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families, may the Good Lord provide sustenance, support, compassion, and love that these separated families might continue to grow in strength and love.
Special Prayer Projects:
(1) Chris Keith, the young lady whose biopsy went poorly got the results of that biopsy--carcinoma of the liver. The cancer is metastatic from colon cancer. Surgery has taken place to treat the colon cancer.
I paraphrase her mother:
"We [members of the family] are standing on the Rock and are rock solid. We are all okay and we are looking for a few prayer warriors to help us in this battle." Because this mother means so much to me for the great good she has done for my friends, I plan to stand with her and her family in this battle, and I invite you all to join me. Expect to hear about this on and off over the next few months.
(2) For Katherine and Franklin, Janet and Louis, Peter Kucera, and for all who are seeking employment and suffering through difficult times as they wait.
(3)Healthy Pregnancies and good and safe deliveries: From Davey's Mom: I am with child once again and could use prayers for a healthy pregnancy. For Suki, for a healthy pregancy and a safe delivery. For Ashli and her child that doctors may find a way to help her carry her young one to term. For JCecil3 and Wife. For Pansy Moss. For Mts. White and child. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, pray for us. Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
A very important request from a St. Blogs parishioner--"I found out recently that my friend's sister is pregnant for the fourth time. Her other three children have autism, and I know it would make her very, very happy to have a normal child." Please pray for this poor woman that she might have the joy of a healthy pregnancy and a happy, healthy delivery and new infant. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, Pray for Us.
Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
I think the best way for me to approach this question is to give some quotes from others that begin to describe at least subjectively what contemplation is and cap it with a formal definition. Then I will try to say what I mean when I use the word--a combination of subjective experience and formal definition.
Once again, Neil's quotations below provide and nice beginning to our discussion. Coming from Protestant writers, they show that the experience of contemplation is not confined to vowed religious or even to Catholics alone; not that anyone implied they were. But sometimes I think that these forms of prayer are seen as so abstruse as to transcend any ordinary individual's ability. Well, of course they do, because they come from God; however, I do believe God invites everyone into at least some aspects of this form of prayer.
Following is an excerpt from Neil's post below in which he includes writings of some of the major protestant mystics and "Divines."
Here are, for instance, a few very insightful quotations from Calvinist authors:
"Contemplation is a prayer in which our entire being is taken hold of by wonder at God’s love."
-- Brother Roger of Taize, meditation, 1 Jan 2004
"The spiritual intense fixation of the mind, by contemplation on God in Christ, until the soul be as it were swallowed up in admiration and delight, and being brought unto an utter loss, through the infiniteness of those excellencies which it doth admire and adore, it returns again into its own abasements, out of a sense of its infinite distance from what it would absolutely and eternally embrace, and, withal, the inexpressible rest and satisfaction which the will and affections receive in their approaches to the eternal Fountain of goodness, are things to be aimed at in prayer, and which, through the riches of divine condescension, are frequently enjoyed. The soul is hereby raised and ravished, not into ecstasies or unaccountable raptures, not acted into motions above the power of its own understanding and will; but in all the faculties and affections of it, through the effectual workings of the Spirit of grace and the lively impressions of divine love, with intimations of the relations and kindness of God, is filled with rest, in 'joy unspeakable and full of glory.'"
-- John Owen, "The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer""God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in everything; in the sun, moon and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind. I often used to sit and view the moon, for a long time; and so in the day time spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things: in the mean time, singing forth with a low voice, my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer. And scarce any thing, among all the works of nature, was so sweet to me as thunder and lightning. Formerly, nothing had been so terrible to me ... But now, on the contrary it rejoiced me. I felt God at the first appearance of a thunderstorm. And used to take the opportunity at such times to fix myself to view the clouds, and see the lightning's play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God's thunder: which often times was exceeding entertaining, leading me to sweet contemplations of my great and glorious God."
-- Jonathan Edwards, "Personal Narrative"
All of these quotations define the experience of contemplation and get at the definition, but subjectively; that is, this is what the pray-er experienced in the course of prayer. This is what we might term an "experiential definition." This is what it felt like to be caught up in contemplation. These experiences are probably correlative to what St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila refer to as the "consolations" of prayer. They are not experiences to be sought after in themselves, but they are small foretastes of what the experience of Union might be like. Their purpose is to lead the person praying more deeply into prayer.
Later stages of this prayer are described by St. Teresa of Avila in a very simple phrase, "Mira que tu mira." Which, I'm told, roughly translates to "Look at the One who is looking at you." This implies a gaze of love into the face of the beloved.
(Stay tuned for more.)
Every day I recite Psalm 95 as the invitatory to Morning Prayer. I have said it so often that it has worn a track in my brain and I no longer really hear it any more. This is a danger of things of which we have too great an acquaintance. We begin to no longer hear them speak. We begin to take them for granted.
But the Lord of Life, who rose from the dead, can make even dead ears hear and the numb heart feel. This morning I was reciting it, and for the first time in a long while, I heard what it said. I quoted the portion of it that struck me as a kind of antiphon for the intentions of St. Blogs. I can't tell you exactly how it resonated, but it loomed large in my mind.
There are many prayers that we may say every day. The art of praying well, it would seem, is to pray each as though it were brand new, dwelling not only upon the words, but more upon the meaning, lingering and relishing each phrase. To pray often is not necessarily to pray well; but to pray with loving attention, even if more infrequently can make a marked difference in one's prayer life. Listen to all the words of God as though they were new. AFter all, their meaning is inexhaustible, and Jesus Himself said, "Behold, I make all things new." Not just one time, not just an instant two thousand years ago. No, for all of time Jesus renews all things to those with attentive hearts and open minds. The wealth of scripture shall be doubled and redoubled. Each word streams forth from the Living Water which flows from the temple--Jesus.
Come then, let us bow down and worship,
bending the knee before the Lord, our Maker.
For He is our God and we are his people,
the flock He shepherds. (Psalm 95--Invitatory of Morning Prayer)
Requests
Please continue to pray for Dylan
For Christine, Gordon, Heather, and Ray as they travel to their new home and make new friends; for Samuel, my wife, and me, as we mourn the increase of in distance of such good friends.
Marilyn requests prayers: (1)Please pray for Kira My 10 month old granddaughter. She is very very ill and is in the childrens Hospital in Seattle Washington. Please pray for Kira, her mother Jodi, her father Les and her big brother Jakob who is only seven and very concerned.
(2) Please pray for Lisa Higbee of St Brendan's Catholic church in Bothell Washington. She is the Mother of 3 boys and has terminal breast cancer. Her time is very short.
Mary asks for prayers for an online friend currently undergoing some hardship.
Lynn (Noli Irritare Leones) requests: "Could you also pray for my coworker's family? His wife just had triplets, one stillborn and the other two premature and currently in the NICU."
For Franklin for special intentions and for Katherine and the children in this difficult time for the family.
Third Order Carmelite Nancy W. from Kansas City has just had back surgery. It is thought the surgery went well; however, she is in a lot of pain. Please pray that medications will help with the pain and that she will not become addicted to them. Also please pray that she will receive a complete healing and be relieved of pain.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
For Father Joe who has left the active ministry of Priesthood after a number of difficult experiences, for discernment, strength, and a renewal of heart, mind, and spirit
From Therese a request for Mark Cotter,SF0, 50, just diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. He has 2 children still in school.
from Peter Nixon at Sursum Corda:"A friend who is a longtime reader of this site wrote me yesterday to tell me that he has been diagnosed with renal cancer. I would ask you to keep him in your prayers. "
For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For our children, that they grow up in security, comfort, and the certain knowledge that they are loved and that they be released from any bonds of darkness, fear, anger, or sadness that bind and threaten them
For Amanda and the success of her book-designing business
For all those living under the curse of generational sins, that they may have protection and the inheritance of the past may be made void in their lives.
For all who are suffering from marital problems, most particularly those in our own families or communities, that the Lord may intervene and remind them that a marriage is of three persons.
For mothers and families that struggle with autism and autistic related disabilities: particularly for M'Lynn, Melissa, Christine, and Betty.
For families that desire more children
For the conversion or return of spouses and loved ones to the Catholic Church, most particularly for Amanda's husband
For the men and women of the American Armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families, may the Good Lord provide sustenance, support, compassion, and love that these separated families might continue to grow in strength and love.
Special Prayer Projects:
(1) Chris Keith, the young lady whose biopsy went poorly got the results of that biopsy--carcinoma of the liver. The cancer is metastatic from colon cancer. Surgery has taken place to treat the colon cancer.
I paraphrase her mother:
"We [members of the family] are standing on the Rock and are rock solid. We are all okay and we are looking for a few prayer warriors to help us in this battle." Because this mother means so much to me for the great good she has done for my friends, I plan to stand with her and her family in this battle, and I invite you all to join me. Expect to hear about this on and off over the next few months.
(2) For Katherine and Franklin, Janet and Louis, Peter Kucera, and for all who are seeking employment and suffering through difficult times as they wait.
(3)Healthy Pregnancies and good and safe deliveries: From Davey's Mom: I am with child once again and could use prayers for a healthy pregnancy. For Suki, for a healthy pregancy and a safe delivery. For Ashli and her child that doctors may find a way to help her carry her young one to term. For JCecil3 and Wife. For Pansy Moss. For Mts. White and child. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, pray for us. Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
A very important request from a St. Blogs parishioner--"I found out recently that my friend's sister is pregnant for the fourth time. Her other three children have autism, and I know it would make her very, very happy to have a normal child." Please pray for this poor woman that she might have the joy of a healthy pregnancy and a happy, healthy delivery and new infant. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, Pray for Us.
Blessed Gianna, pray for us.