The Presence of God

I know that for the right practice of it (the presence of God) the heart must be empty of all other things, because God will possess the heart alone; and as He cannot possess it alone without emptying it of all besides, so neighter can He act there, and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.

There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God.  Those only can comprehend it who practise and experience it; yet I do not advise you to do it from that motive.  It is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this exercise; but let us do it from a principle of love, and because God would have us.

Where I a preacher, I should, above all other things, preach the practice of the presence of God; and were I a director, I should advise all the world to do it, so necessary do I think it, and so easy, too. 

Ah! knew we but the want we have of the grace and assistance of God, we should never lose sight of Him -- no, not for a moment.  Believe me; make immediately a holy and firm resolution nevermore wilfully to forget Him, and to spend the rest of your days in His sacred presence, deprived, for the love of Him, if He thinks fit, of all consolations.

from The Practice of the Presence of God

by Brother Lawrence

O Christ, Our Teacher

This hymn by Harry Hagan, OSB has some wonderful images and thoughts to carry into prayer.  We hope it is as much a blessing to you as it is to us.

O Christ, our Teacher and our Way,

Teach us to follow you this day,

And as our hearts with love expand,

To run the way of your commands.

O Christ, our Teacher and our Light,

Illumine us with truth and right

that we may see but you alone,

And by your light and truth be known.

O Christ, our Teacher and our Life,

Teach us to reconcile all strife,

To break down each dividing wall

And live this day in peace with all.

All praise to you, O Christ, our Way

Our Truth and Life, our only Day!

All praise to you, O Christ, the Son

With Father and the Spirit:  One!  Amen.

Text:  Harry Hagan, OSB, b. 1947,

(c) 1999, St. Meinrad Archabbey. 

Published by OCP Publications.

Meditation

God of history and of my heart,
so much has happened to me
during these whirlwind days.
     I've known death and birth;
     I've been brave and scared;
     I've hurt, I've helped;
     I've been honest, I've lied;
     I've destroyed, I've created;
     I've been with people, I've been lonely;
     I've been loyal, I've betrayed;
     I've decided, I've waffled;
     I've laughed and I've cried.
     You know my frail heart
     and my frayed history
and now another day begins.

O God, help me to believe in beginnings
and in my beginning again,
no matter how often I've failed before.

Help me to make beginnings:
to begin going out of my weary mind into fresh dreams,
     daring to make my own bold tracks in the land of now;
to begin forgiving that I may experience mercy;
to begin questioning the unquestionable that I may know truth;
to begin disciplining that I may create beauty;
to begin sacrificing that I may accomplish justice;
to begin risking that I may make peace;
to begin loving that I may realize joy.

Help me to be a beginning for others,
     to be a singer for the songless,
     a storyteller to the aimless,
     a befriender of the friendless;

     to become a beginning
         of hope for the despairing,
          of assurance for the doubting,
          of reconciliation for the divided;

     to become a beginning
          of freedom for the oppressed,
          of comfort for the sorrowing,
          of friendship for the forgotten;

     to become a beginning
          of beauty for the forlorn,
          of sweetness for the soured,
          of gentleness for the angry,
          of wholeness for the broken,
          of peace for the frightened and hurting of the earth.

     Help me to believe in beginnings,
          to make a beginning,
               to be a beginning,
     so that I may not just grow old,
         but grew new
               each day
                    of this wild, amazing life
          you call me to live
          with the passion of Jesus Christ!

Adapted from "Guerrillas of Grace,"  by Ted Loder

On Preparing to Meditate

You may not understand how to practice mental prayer.  I will instruct you shortly and simply.

Place yourself in the presence of God by these four means.  First, keenly and attentively realize that God is everywhere; there is no place or thing in the world where he is not.  Let us go where we will, be where we will, we shall always be where God is.  We know this as an intellectual truth, but we do not always realize or act upon it.

We do not see God, and although faith tells us that he is present, not seeing him with our own eyes we soon forget, and act as though he were far away.  Though as an act of reason we know his presence everywhere, if we do not think about his presence everywhere, if we do not thing about it, the result is the same as if we did not know it.

Secondly, God is specially in your heart and spirit.  He is heart of your heart, spirit of your spirit.  David calls him the God of his heart (Ps. 17:28).

Thirdly, reflect that our Lord in his humanity looks down always upon us from heaven. 

Fourthly, in imagination behold Jus in his humanity as actually present with us.

Make use of some of these methods to place yourself in God's presence.  Let what you do be short and simple.

From Athirst for God

by St. Francis de Sales

Strengthen the Heart

The word encourage is a powerful one.  Since it comes from the Latin word for heart, cor, one could say that encourage means “strengthen the heart.”  In fact, we have the roughly equivalent word hearten.  We also sometimes say, “Do not lose heart.”  Since in spirituality the heart is a person’s core or deepest center, where he or she encounters God, encouragement in the Christian sense serves to strengthen faith and to nurture relationships with God, especially amid feelings of doubt and fear...  

From Lessons from Saint Benedict, Finding Joy in Daily Life

by Donald S. Raila, OSB

A Thought from G.K. Chesterton

Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.

Squirrel Nunning?

One of the miracles of our monastery is that we have no hired help, just incredibly generous volunteers who give tirelessly of their time and talents to help us.  Several of our volunteers also donate time to the local wildlife shelter where our little "friend," Josephine, was brought after she fell from a tree shortly after she was born. 

Josephine has made several visits to the monastery with her surrogate "mommy" and we have enjoyed seeing how she is growing and developing.  The above photo is from her second visit.

And God made them all, great and small...