monastery Archives - Shepherd of Faith

Wait in stillness!

Journey to Christmas? Yes, it’s called Advent. Several years ago, I bought a book called Monastery Journey to Christmas, by Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette It’s a small book with daily meditations which start on November 15 and go through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (also known at Three Kings), Theophany(Baptism of Jesus) and Candlemas (Presentation of Jesus). I love this book because it begins on November 15 – usually before the start of Advent. It’s a good way to settle myself and get into the proper frame of mind to commence Advent on the right foot – in the spirit of WAITING!

Each year I start reading when Advent begins because I forget that the meditations start way before and then I have to play catch up. This year, I remembered and pulled the book out just three days late instead of weeks late. Anyway, I’ve begun to quiet the mind, to be on guard for the temptation of the commercial world. I highly recommend this book. It provides great insight, ideas and history. You’ll definitely learn some things you never knew.

I’d like to share Bro. Victor’s meditation for November 18: Advent Waiting

Advent is primarily about waiting. It is about waiting for the Lord to come. There is something special about this particular type of waiting. First of all, waiting is a spiritual attitude we cultivate deep within ourselves. We know the Lord is coming, and therefore we desire and hasten his arrival by a patient attitude of waiting for him. We wait and wait for the Lord. We become very conscious of the waiting. It is an eager waiting, full of anticipation and wonder, for as the prophets of old, our companions on the road, we long to see his face.

The Lord, of course, is very much aware of this patient waiting, of this deep yearning for him, and he is ever ready to come into our lives and fulfill our deepest desires. Advent waiting is always twofold. On our part, we await prayerfully, consciously and anticipate his coming. On God’s part, he is eager to arrive and find a warm dwelling place in our hearts. The greater our desire and patience in waiting for him, the fuller we shall be filled with his presence.

The early Christians, as the Apostle James reminds us, live daily, steadily, waiting patiently for the Lord. Of course, they thought this was going to be the Lord’s final, triumphant coming and it was going to happen very soon, thus they wished to be ready for it. Perhaps at one point they were a bit disappointed that it didn’t occur according to their expectations. At the end, it didn’t matter, for their eager waiting for him was rewarded by the Lord entering into their lives more fully and transforming every inch of their beings.

Furthermore, many of them were blessed with a physical vision of the Lord just before they underwent martyrdom. The Lord may not always act according to our expectations. After all, he tells us in the Scripture, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.” Yet he never disappoints us.

If we learn to cultivate this inner attitude of waiting for him steadily, faithfully, not only during the blessed Advent days, but throughout the whole of our lives, we shall likewise be rewarded with the grace, joy and warmth of his real presence in the innermost of our hearts.

Ok………. so………….funny story. After typing this entire meditation, I realized the ending didn’t ring a bell. Am I losing my mind? Yes and no! I realized, it wasn’t the page I intended to share. But as we all know, God has a great sense of humor and obviously He had other plans!

I won’t post another meditation from the same book, so I’ll just mention the basic idea of what I intended to post. It was about making Advent “plans.” To decide early on how you will approach Advent and what you will do differently this year to observe the spirit of stillness and waiting.

Bro. Victor makes a good point in the meditation. He says: “often if no plans are made in advance, much of Advent goes unnoticed and wasted.” So there you have it. Make plans. Slow down. If you have children, start a tradition with them – teach them the art of waiting. Help them to embrace and savor the season of waiting, instead of jumping right into Christmas after Halloween (yes, I meant to say HALLOWEEN)!

Let’s get back to the meditation God shared. I was moved by several of the words in it (I’ve set them in boldface). It dawned on me that Bro. Victor was describing the benefits of contemplation. What I got from it is Advent waiting is more than a preparation for Christmas.

Advent serves to prepare us for life in and with Christ. Here’s what I mean: I have learned through reading that in contemplation God works in us – we do nothing but surrender. So many times, people will say that they didn’t “feel” anything when they were just sitting in contemplation. The reality is you may not feel anything, but God is working in you through grace.

Let’s try an experiment. Take all the boldface lines out of the context. When read together you may agree with what I am saying.

On our part, we await prayerfully, consciously and anticipate his coming. On God’s part, he is eager to arrive and find a warm dwelling place in our hearts. The greater our desire and patience in waiting for him, the fuller we shall be filled with his presence.

We sit prayerfully during contemplation in the hopes of growing in deeper union with God (anticipating his coming). God on the other hand is always waiting for us to surrender to his action and presence in our lives. When we surrender and are ready to receive him we begin to feel him taking up residence in our hearts.

At the end, it didn’t matter, for their eager waiting for him was rewarded by the Lord entering into their lives more fully and transforming every inch of their beings.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that we don’t “feel” anything. It doesn’t matter what our expectations are because regardless of what we feel, we are being fully transformed!

we shall likewise be rewarded with the grace, joy and warmth of his real presence in the innermost of our hearts.

God is showering down his grace on us during contemplation. Through this grace we become joyful, warm and radiant! Thanks be to God!

If you currently do not have a regular practice of contemplation I hope that you will resolve to start one. The benefits are AWESOME! Read up on it – I have several books listed on my recommended reading page. This is not some New Age thing I’m promoting, it is a tried and true Christian practice. Not only will you benefit from your practice, but the whole world will as well. The world needs more contemplatives!

Happy Thanksgiving and God bless you!

One day during one of my retreat trips to Erie, PA, I decided to take a walk along the monastery property and wound up on a deck overlooking Lake Erie. It’s such a pleasant place to sit with your thoughts. On this particular day, it was quite windy and the water was a bit choppy. I enjoyed sitting there watching the waves crashing and feeling the resultant mist sprinkle across my face. At one point, I noticed the sea gulls in their struggle to fly against the wind and thought to myself: “it would be so much easier if you turned around and flew WITH the wind” – then I chuckled- another lesson to be learned there, right?

After a few minutes, I changed my focus. This time I noticed the beautiful white, fluffy clouds – pure white. They showed no sign of struggle with the wind whose strength was apparent to me and the sea gulls. If you looked at the clouds for a split second, they didn’t even seem to be moving. However, if you focused on them for much longer you could notice their slow, steady movement.

Two things came to mind as I witnessed the clouds and the gulls – one as I sat there that day and the other several months after, as I contemplated my experience. The first thing that came to mind was my conversation with Fr. George on purity (see my post entitled Coming to a Place of Purity). I watched the clouds move slowly and steadily, all in the same direction. As I followed their path, I realized further down to my right that they were floating into one another – they were becoming ONE. Then it hit me – that’s what we are meant to become – ONE. Furthermore, our journey to oneness must be similar to the journey of the clouds – pure, slow and steady.

The second thing that came to mind was the contradiction between the two subjects in the same environment. The clouds showed no sign of struggle while the sea gulls looked like they were going nowhere fast. To me the clouds were the image of grace, humility and peace while the sea gulls were the image of over-confidence and struggle. What was the difference? The clouds seemed to be going with the flow, while the sea gulls were relying on their own abilities and going against the “flow”, if you will.

Think about your own struggles. Are they a result of your inability to go with the flow? I realize that life feels like a struggle when things don’t go my way. The times I feel struggle are the times I forget who’s in charge. At these times I regroup, change focus and remind myself that God is in charge and that He has a different plan for me. In Romans 8:28 we read: God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Let’s trust in that! For me, when I trust in God’s plan, absolutely nothing in life seems like a struggle.