Journey Archives - Page 82 of 122

The bridge that leads to contemplation — Serenity

I’ve been trying to “sell” this contemplation thing for some time now. It seems people just can’t find the time to sit in stillness.

Just recently I had an aha moment as I watched my beloved puppies sleeping. It made me realize there’s more to contemplation than I’ve been letting on. Yes, it’s relaxing. Yes, it brings peace. Yes, it changes you, but how? Then it hit me – every time I see my dogs sleeping or just being still I get this urge to lay with them and hug, kiss and caress them. I get this overwhelming loving feeling in my heart. Let me be clear, I love them always but these times of stillness move me the most. I just don’t get the same overwhelming feeling when they’re running, jumping or eating – when they’re “busy” living their lives. Can you see where I’m going with this?

Yes, God is always with us. As a matter of fact, during one of my latest retreats I came across an interesting sign. It read: Bidden or not bidden God is present. The translation – Invited or not invited God is present. There is no doubt in my mind that God is everywhere. However, I believe that our state of being has everything to do with the distance He keeps or at least how we perceive the distance He is keeping.

Just think for a moment about how you feel about your children (or pets if, like me, you don’t have children). Wouldn’t you agree that there’s something about these precious gifts being still and silent that makes you want to hug and kiss all over them – to squeeze them into you? That’s what I believe God feels. He wants to love us, embrace us, speak to us and transform us. Unfortunately, He can’t get a word in edgewise when we’re too busy to acknowledge His presence.

That’s where contemplation comes in. Imagine being still and God getting the same overwhelming loving feeling for us I talked about earlier – except as with all things God – it’s even more so! The love He feels toward us is magnified. WOW! That’s it! That’s when He’s closest – in the STILLNESS. That’s when we can FEEL Him – in the STILLNESS. THAT’S when we will be fed, transformed and truly happy!

I think of all the things we do in life that require work. We want nice things in life so we spend most of our day working at a job that sometimes we don’t even like. We want to be healthy so we eat some things that we’d rather not and we go to the gym to work out and honestly cannot say we “like” it.

Day in and day out, we do a number of things that require real WORK, either in terms of labor or in terms of psychological manipulation and yet we do them because they lead to something we want. They lead to results, something tangible, something visible. THAT’S where the problem lies. This contemplation thing, the just “sitting” doesn’t bring about results we’re used to. So we’re not in a rush to just sit and waste time. But I promise you, it’s not a waste of time. You may not see the results you’re used to seeing, but change is happening. Transformation is happening. God is working, He is there in the midst of it all!

I recently read the following excerpt in the Liturgy of the Hours:

In good pastures and on the high mountains of Israel, I shall feed them. And their grazing ground shall be there, that is, the place where they will rest, where they will say: “I am happy”; where they will say: “It is true, it is clear, we are not deceived.” They will find rest in the glory of God, when they find rest in those grazing grounds. And they will sleep, that is, find rest, and they will rest in good pleasures.

He never ceases to amaze me! How He guides me in my reading – where everything I come across at a particular point in time seems to have a common theme. I understood the “mountain” in this excerpt to symbolize the stillness I have been alluding to. We are told that the mountain is the grazing ground where we will find rest, where we will be happy.

We don’t have to go hiking to climb “the mountain.” But we have to climb the mountain to be fed, to find rest and happiness. Will you take some time this week to climb and sit atop the mountain? God bless you!

quote by St. John Chrysostom — St. John Chrysostom

A beautiful sermon by St. John Chrysostom I wanted to share. I thought it was the perfect time, just a few days before the election, when so many are expressing a fear of what is to come.

The waters have risen and severe storms are upon us, but we do not fear drowning, for we stand firmly upon a rock. Let the sea rage, it cannot break the rock. Let the waves rise, they cannot sink the boat of Jesus. What are we to fear? Death? Life to me means Christ, and death is gain. Exile? ‘The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord. The confiscation of goods? We brought nothing into this world, and we shall surely take nothing from it. I have only contempt for the world’s threats, I find its blessings laughable. I have no fear of poverty, no desire for wealth. I am not afraid of death nor do I long to live, except for your good. I concentrate therefore on the present situation, and I urge you, my friends, to have confidence.

Do you not hear the Lord saying: Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst? Will he be absent, then, when so many people united in love are gathered together? I have his promise; I am surely not going to rely on my own strength! I have what he has written; that is my staff, my security, my peaceful harbour. Let the world be in upheaval. I hold to his promise and read his message; that is my protecting wall and garrison. What message? Know that I am with you always, until the end of the world!

If Christ is with me, whom shall I fear? Though the waves and the sea and the anger of princes are roused against me, they are less to me than a spider’s web. Indeed, unless you, my brothers, had detained me, I would have left this very day. For I always say “Lord, your will be done”; not what this fellow or that would have me do, but what you want me to do. That is my strong tower, my immovable rock, my staff that never gives way. If God wants something, let it be done! If he wants me to stay here, I am grateful. But wherever he wants me to be, I am no less grateful.

Yet where I am, there you are too, and where you are, I am. For we are a single body, and the body cannot be separated from the head nor the head from the body. Distance separates us, but love unites us, and death itself cannot divide us. For though my body die, my soul will live and be mindful of my people.

You are my fellow citizens, my fathers, my brothers, my sons, my limbs, my body. You are my light, sweeter to me than the visible light. For what can the rays of the sun bestow on me that is comparable to your love? The sun’s light is useful in my earthly life, but your love is fashioning a crown for me in the life to come.