We learn to remain in silence

We continue to look at prayer in the Constitutions of the Society of the Sacred Heart to see how this helps our own spirituality today.

20.

In prayer we come to Him

with everything that touches our life,

with the sufferings and hopes of humanity.

We learn to remain in silence

and poverty of heart before Him.

In the free gift of ourselves

we learn to adore and to abide in His love.

"In prayer we come to Him" that is what prayer is all about: to be with Jesus. When we are really present with Him we bring Him all that touches our life - nothing is too small, nothing too big that it cannot be taken to prayer!

We bring the sufferings and hopes of humanity and this is important. I read the daily paper and wonder how we can continue to do some of the things we do; I used to get angry at the state of the world with war and injustice , destruction, and dishonesty...I found that by holding the glass globe that I have on my prayer shelf beside me each morning and confiding the continents etched on it to Jesus, one by one, I find hope and confidence as He loves the world and can do all things.

I bring to prayer all that is in my heart...and I learn to remain in silence before Him; He teaches us how to do this until it becomes a delight, a joy just to be with Him. Words are not needed. Remaining in silence requires poverty of heart and humility and love on my part. I am then content to just be with my Beloved and I am His!

We surrender our whole being to the One who loves us and we learn to adore and to abide in His Love! 

We discover His Heart...

To continue reflecting on Sacred Heart spirituality with the section on Prayer in the Constitutions of the Society of the Sacred Heart, #19

In the Gospel

through His words, His attitudes,

His relationships with people,

His way of relating to all created things,

we discover His Heart

wholly given to the Father and to all people.

We do discover His Heart in the Gospel through not only His words but also His attitudes, His whole way of being...Then we look at His relationships with people, with the world around Him, with those who were in need, those who were ill, lonely, and now, His relationship with me, ...Is He standing at the door and knocking?

His Heart "wholly given to the Father and to all people" - and my heart? I ask Jesus to help me to discover His love for all and to make my heart like His!

Sea of Galilee

I am continuing with reflections from the section on prayer in the Constitutions of the Society of the Sacred Heart and this picture seems appropriate today.

18.

Jesus calls us

to a personal encounter with Him.

He wants to make known to us

the feelings and the preferences of His Heart.

He has chosen us...
He calls us by name to come and follow Him, to heed His voice...to bear fruit.
What has He called us to? A "personal encounter with Him."
What does a personal encounter with Jesus mean - is it different for each of us? It is certainly a gift and I think it must be unique for each of us is unique; it is intimate, relational with the One who knows us better than we know ourselves.
And why does He call us to this personal meeting with Him? He wants to reveal to us His Heart - what He feels, what He desires, His preferences, His way of being...

Who would not want to heed His call? Let us respond today with all our heart ....

Trinity Sunday

The "Old Testament Trinity" subject is best known from the famous icon painted by St Andrey Rublev (created sometime between 1408 and 1425).
This icon is actually more properly called the "Hospitality of Abraham" (see Genesis 18:1-15). The appearance of the three angels to Abraham at Mamre was a type of the Holy Trinity, not an appearance of the Holy Trinity itself.^{[citation needed]} This type goes back to Early Christian art and has remained the most common Orthodox depiction of the Trinity.

I thought this brief explanation of the famous icon was worth copying here. The point is that we really cannot picture the Trinity. I also have a New Testament image but prefer the "Old testament Trinity".

Here is a prayer I love from "The One Who Listens" by Michael Hollings and Etta Gullick:

Holy Spirit, come like a mighty rushing wind and awaken us our of our complacency, our apathy, our indifference.
Disturb us, for we are too content to let things go on as they are and to let people go on not knowing you.
Penetrate the closed gates of our hearts and make us live again.
O Holy Spirit, create among us a mighty Christian revolution and cast the fear of the unknown our of our lives. Amen.

Prayer and Interior Life are Essential!

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Well, here it is June and I have decided to keep deepening my own reflections on spirituality as found in the Constitutions of the Sacred Heart. I will be using the section on prayer for most of the month with some blogs also being for the Feast of Christ the King, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary - all big feasts in the month of June.
To begin with, I will quote the first paragraph in the section on prayer found in the Constitutions (this is in what was called the "new" Constitutions in 1982 but printed in the same book with our 1815 Constitutions that still are valid for our spirit. I will begin my reflections on #18 but you should always go back to the fact that prayer and the interior life are essential.

                 PRAYER

 

17.

"The spirit of the Society

is essentially based upon prayer and the interior life

since we cannot glorify the adorable

Heart of Jesus worthily

except inasmuch as we apply ourselves

to study His interior dispositions

in order to unite and conform ourselves to them."

(Abridged Plan, 1815)

Wonder, Gratitude, and Joy

My birthday was lovely and today I probably will not write much but want to tell you I have made a plan for my blogs for June and will definitely go back to our Spirituality as shown in the section on prayer in our Constitutions as I see that it lends itself to line by line reflection in many paragraphs and think it will be fruitful for all of us.
The other plan I have in June for myself is to take a phrase from the Litany of the Sacred Heart (the one we used to say in our schools for the First Friday novena years ago) and stay with it each day. I found this very fruitful when I did it before and think the Holy Spirit is inspiring me to return to this - today is the first invocation: Sacred Heart of Jesus, to your adoration I unite myself. I am not sure what this means and have been struggling as a theologian to understand the implications of uniting myself to the adoration of Jesus, but that is fine as long as it keeps me centered on my phrase for the day. This really is a great way to pray all day so do try it with me. Tomorrow is "to your burning love, I unite myself" and much easier to stay with and desire intensely.

A New Year of Life and Our Lady's Feast

Going back over the most special of the interior graces I have received is another grace and takes time and attention as I get caught up again in the awesome experience of God.
Now, I think that I am going to be inspired in June to return to the spirituality of the Society of the Sacred Heart as it is expressed in our Constitutions but is also a spirituality that is centered on the love of the Heart of Jesus for each of us and so much applies to anyone who takes the time to read my blog. I think it will be great preparation for the feast of the Sacred Heart which is June 15 this year. It was also on June 15 that I entered the Society of the Sacred Heart sixty-two years ago. Time really does fly!
Therefore, beginning tomorrow, June 1, look for more spiritual reflections from me, although I am sure the Spirit will continue to push me to write whatever comes to mind when I sit down to write my daily blog.

Today is also the Feast of the Visitation. May 31 has always been a feast of Our Lady, but the Visitation used to be July 2. Mary went with haste to visit Elizabeth and she was carrying Jesus; she is the first Christian missionary! And Jesus communicated with John, who was still in the womb of Elizabeth but who leaped for joy! Jesus loves to communicate His joy to each of us, too. Let us contemplate the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth and maybe enter into the conversation with them.

Reviewing Graces before birthday

I found myself going back again over my life in preparation for my 81st birthday on Thursday - there are many great graces that I want to thank for and so I have actually written and numbered 81 graces and made myself stop there.
Now I am reviewing the great interior graces that are unforgettable but often are also more difficult to articulate; they are moments when God revealed Himself in sudden and surprising ways. The reason that I am writing this in my blog is that I have found it a wonderful preparation for any birthday and I urge all my readers to try this and you need not wait for your birthday. It has made me feel very grateful and almost overwhelmed by the review of my life - God was always giving me gifts. God is still giving me gifts!

Fear of the Lord

When we drew the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I drew "Fear of the Lord" and immediately recalled that this means to trust the Lord and not rely on self. I forget where I learned that bit of information, but I really like it - it is also a desire to please the Lord that comes not from what we think of "fear" but reverence and respect. I guess I will need to reflect more on this gift. Joy is the fruit I am trying to cultivate as I think the Lord has given me something of His Joy and wants me to communicate it to others.
My reflections are brief but better to put something on this blog for you to look at and then you can do your own reflection. I think sometimes just to sit in silence with the picture is a daily help to a more contemplative life.
I must add that I am still going back in my prayer journal and listing all the big things in my life that I am most grateful for and I am reaching the early 1980s now and have over 54 big things to thank for so I will surely have 100 or more by the time I get up to this year. I will be 81 on Thursday and that means I have many graces to thank for in my happy life.

Memorial Day

The pictures say what I want to say today - the problem is that wars continue and lives are lost daily. On this Pentecost Monday that is also Memorial Day, let us pray for peace.

Pentecost Sunday

We always had a tradition in the Society of the Sacred Heart of drawing a gift and fruit of the Holy Spirit on the Feast of Pentecost; I like to continue the tradition and usually prepare the gifts and fruits for my community for them to choose at our community prayer tonight. I am not sure now if we drew the fruit and gift we were to pray for during the year or that the fruit and gift we drew each year meant that this was being given to us by the Holy Spirit for the year. I suspect it was both. I think that we forget how active the Holy Spirit is in our daily lives.
We all remember the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and I will try to list them here : Piety, Fear of the Lord, Fortitude, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, and Wisdom.
The gifts vary and I think one could list any dozen and they would all be correct. Here is what I recall: joy, charity, modesty, love, kindness, humility, meekness, generosity, courage, simplicity, goodness, compassion...
I suspect others will remember other fruits; one of the readings gives Paul's list and will include long-suffering...
Here is that list: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Only eight given)

You might pray today to ask the Holy Spirit to choose the gift and fruit you need for this year - of course, we need them all but it always helps to strive for something and I suspect we get the whole package when we pray to the Holy Spirit and allow the Spirit to transform us!

Tomorrow is the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down in the form of flaming tongues as the disciples and Mary were gathered together in prayer. It is often called the birthday of the Church as the timid Apostles received the gifts and fruits of the Spirit and went forth to preach the Good News fearlessly. The Holy Spirit worked through them and a huge multitude of persons accepted the teachings of Jesus and were baptized. I guess it was quite thrilling for all the visitors to each hear the Apostles speaking in his own language.
Today we are preparing to receive the Holy Spirit again in a new way this Pentecost. We have all received the Spirit in Baptism and in Confirmation, but the Spirit continues to want to increase His Presence with His gifts and fruits in our lives. Let us desire this, welcome this, and thank for this as truly we are blessed.