We are called to people the solitude of His Heart

The idea that the Heart of Jesus is longing for our love is one that still is with me. Jesus is both human and divine and thus is moved by different emotions just as we are. He longed to stay with us and gave us Himself in the Eucharist. He is truly present and waits for us to receive Him and wants us to take His love and give it to all we meet. Then the level of love in this world of ours rises.

The words, "Alone, detached, and offered" helped me, I think, to enter the Heart of Jesus in prayer. When I finally discovered a more contemplative prayer, it was an image that seemed to help me to enter into His Heart in prayer. Even when I began Centering Prayer, this image helps and I have Father Thomas Keating's assurance that an image can replace the mantra. My image is first of all a quiet pool in the forest; I go down deep into the pool where there is a cleft in the rock at the deepest part. I enter the cleft and find myself in the Heart of Jesus which is full of light and love.

Going over my prayer history is proving helpful for I find so much to thank God for during these many years. Even the hardest times for prayer were times of grace when I review them now. 
I hope you will find the same grace if I encourage you to review your life, especially your relationship with Jesus.

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sundays are always special. I am happy to have this one as my friend, Patrick, left last Sunday and now my brother and sister-in law are arriving on Wednesday. Sunday is the Lord's day and we are always aware of that and happy to have a whole group of people who attend out Sunday liturgy. Then, we have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday afternoon for an hour which I love. 
As I am scheduling this blog ahead, I am not looking ahead to find the readings for this Sunday. Instead, I think we just need to reflect on what makes Sunday so special for us. It is often a family day. I remember good times both at my grandmother's where all her six children would gather plus spouses, children, and friends for supper and games. Then, because of the 2nd world war and gas rationing plus the fact that I now had two baby brothers, we started having family dinners at home with my mother's side of the family. My Dad usually made us all a huge breakfast; his biscuits were the best, but he often did crepes, or pancakes plus wonderful egg and bacon dishes. Then we did not need lunch but had a roast in the oven for a four o'clock dinner with all the family sitting around the dining room table. When I entered, it was one of the memories that made me homesick so now I just am grateful that we had such good family gatherings.
I also remember Sundays at the lake with my Dad and often the entire family. We would go to early Mass and take a picnic and spend the day at the lake. I loved to swim and spent most of the time in the water while my little brothers played in the sand.  They would fall asleep on the way home and my mother would wake them up so they could be bathed before going to bed. As I was often the one to give the boys a bath, I wanted to just let them sleep but my mother believed in keeping them clean so I would even need to wash their hair which was not their favorite thing!
Again, not a very spiritual blog but good memories.

"Alone, detached and offered"

To continue sharing the influence of this November 1949 letter of Reverend Mother de Lescure on my prayer life, I need to tell you that the idea of the solitude of His Heart has never left me.

Mother de Lescure said that Saint Madeleine Sophie founded the Society to people this solitude with souls who would know how to heed the "ardor of His heartbeats and who would not leave Him alone in the depths of His Life." She spoke of the willingness of the Heart of Jesus to reveal His solitude to us provided that we are ready to descent there alone, detached and offered....
This was to be the prayer of the Society and we were to ask our Mother Foundress to teach us to prepare this descent each morning. How? "A deed, a word, a gesture, a movement, an attitude of Jesus in the Gospel,...all may lead us into the solitude of His Heart,..."
And then, "May she also teach us that we do not leave this solitude when our prayer is over..."

That was the hard part -- to keep united to Jesus during the day.

"The solitude of His Heart is a crushing reality"

Now to share the part of Reverend Mother de Lescure's Letter to the Society that most impacted my prayer:

After speaking of the right our name gives us to enter and dwell in the Heart of Jesus, she says"
"this name would also be a title to entrance, not to the threshold but to the very depths of this divine Heart... The solitude of His Heart is a crushing reality. How many souls remain at the threshold, without ever trying to reach, were it only the edge of the torrents of Love which rise towards his Father and souls....The immense solitude of His Heart does not often find anyone with whom it can communicate. When he asks us not to leave him alone, let us understand of what desert he is speaking, what is the desire that consumes him of finding someone who is willing to enter and descend to its very depths."

To be continued tomorrow.  I was, of course, one who wanted to enter into the depths of the Heart of Jesus.

Sharing about the development of my own prayer

Before I entered the Society of the Sacred Heart, I love to make visits in the back of the Chapel - first at the Academy of the Visitation, then at the Academy of the Sacred Heart during high school, and then at the old Maryville Chapel during my two years of college. I had the desire to make up to Jesus for all those who did not even think of Him or thank Him.

Then I entered for the Feast of the Sacred Heart in June, 1950.

The entire Society of the Sacred Heart was preparing for the 150 year celebration of our founding. A letter written by our Mother General, Reverend Mother de Lescure, on November 16, 1949, had asked all to spend time with St. Madeleine Sophie to help us prepare for the celebration of the 150 years on November 21, 1950.

This letter had a great impact on my prayer life and it still has, almost 70 years later. I will share more tomorrow, but it tells us that the name of our Society gives us the right to enter and dwell in the Heart of Jesus.

To choose God

Here is the second half of the poem and I again do not know where it came from or the author:

To choose God
is to realize that you are known and loved
in a way surpassing anything one can imagine.
Loved before anyone had thought of you or spoken your name.

To choose God
means giving yourself up to Him in faith.
Let your life be built on this faith
as on an invisible foundation.
Let yourself be carried by this faith
like a child in its mother's womb.

And so,
don't talk too much about God but live
in the certainty that He has written your name
on the palm of His Hand.
Live your human task
in the liberating certainty
that nothing in the world can separate you
from God's love for you.

Feast of the Transfiguration

The Synoptic Gospels have slightly different versions of the Transfiguration of Christ. Luke has Jesus inviting Peter, James, and John up the mountain to pray.  His Transfiguration took place when He was at prayer. His garments became dazzling white. Moses and Elijah appeared and were conversing with Jesus. Then, a cloud came and from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." After the voice had spoken, Jesus was there alone and told his three friends not to tell anyone at that time what they had seen. 
Peter will later write about it in his letter as it was a tremendous experience for them. It must have been a very consoling moment for Jesus. He will take the same three friends into the garden when he prays in agony before his Passion. 

seeking God

Someone gave me a lovely poem called "Seeking God" but she does not know the author or where she got it. I am going to be sharing it with you this week as I like it and think my readers will, too. 

Seeking God

You want to seek God with all your life,

and love Him with all your heart.

But you would be wrong

if you thought you could reach Him.

Your arms are too short, your eyes are too dim,

Your heart and understanding too small.

to seek God

means first of all

to let yourself be found by Him.

He is the God of Avraham, Isaac and Jacob.

He is the God of Jesus Christ.

He is your God

not because He is yours

but because you are His.

To be continued on Wednesday; tomorrow is the Feast of the Transfiguration and one that I love.

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I guess the main lesson for us in Luke's Gospel (12:15) today is not to be greedy. We do not need to accumulate anything: we not only are not to be greedy for possessions or money, but also power and prestige. Life is not that; we are called to follow Christ and he showed us the way.

Am I greedy? I seem to make sure that I do not want for anything. It helps to have only a very limited amount of space, but I think I have the tendency to hold on to things I do not use and do not need. Maybe this Gospel is calling me to go back to finding one thing to give away each day. That has been a help to me in the past to keep from collecting. 

How do I pray?

Now for the last verse of "Silence"

When you pray, be like a bird
endlessly singing before the Creator
its song rising like incense.
Pray like the turtle dove
and you will never lose heart.

I tried to copy an image of a bird but did not succeed. That is why I think I need a vacation. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed thinking about praying like a mountain, a flower, the ocean, breath, and now like a bird.
The important thing about prayer is to just "Show up!" 
I think I pray more like the mountain in stillness and silence as that verse said, "Do nothing; just sit, just be;...it was the first verse and my favorite.
I have not forgotten that I promised to share some of the way my own prayer has developed over the years. I will get to it soon, I hope.

Remember the breath

Here is the fourth verse of "Silence" by St. Seraphim of Sarov:

"When you pray, remember the breath
that made us men living beings,
from God it comes, to God it returns.
Blend the Word and prayer with the flow of life
and nothing will come between you and the Giver of life."

That is a consoling verse.

Of course, the song that I say many times day and night is:
Breathing in, breathing out,
I am calm, I am smiling.
You in me, I in You,
Present moment, wondrous moment,
Peace to the world, peace to the world.

Is your heart calm?

Today is the last day of my four-day retreat at Villa Maria del Mar. This is being scheduled ahead and I am continuing with the third verse of St. Seraphim's "Silence":

When you pray, be like the ocean

with stillness in its depths

the waves ebbing and flowing.

Have calm in your heart, and evil thoughts will flee of their own accord.

I have been debating taking a vacation from the blog for at least a few days here and there in August so do not worry if, after a few days my blog is absent. We shall see how busy it is here with so many visitors. I just might miss some days this month and want to warn my readers that it is just taking a little vacation once in a while. That is good for all of us.