An Article Worth Reading & Reflection

[BarbTherese]

Trying yet again to clear out my subscription read only email Inbox - at least clear out in part - I came across the following article, which I thought worth prayerful reflection :

 

"How Does Cloistering serve God at the Highest Level?"

 

http://rcspiritualdirection.com/blog/2013/06/03/how-does-cloistering-serve-god-at-the-highest-level?utm_source=Catholic+Spiritual+Direction&utm_campaign=d2d589ccfb-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9dd96593f8-d2d589ccfb-59796817

 

It was interesting to me with a smile that in tie article, Father did not directly answer the actual question posed to him - and rightly does he refrain!  Theologians have argued practically non stop down the centuries as to which is the greatest: the contemplative life, the active life or a mixture of the two i.e. contemplative/active.  The same genre of argument to me as (the story goes) trying to work out how many angels cam stand on the head of a pin.  Or (sometimes attributed to St Thomas Aquinus) trying to work out the Mystery of The Blessed Trinity. An angel appeared to him, the story goes, and told him that he would be far more successful counting all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world, and of course an impossible task.

 

One does NOT have to be a cloistered religious to praise and thank God in every single moment of every single day - every circumstance(s) therein.  Single people can do so, as can the married - as can any person in any vocation whatsoever.  But in the Mystical Body, it is the particular duty of contemplatives  to focus on praise and thanksgiving to God at all times and their life is structured solely for that purpose, as is their actual environment.  In The Mystical Body these contemplatives are focused on Praising and Thanking God and on our behalf as well. Many have been the times for one reason or another I could not pray and then I united myself to our contemplatives.  The highest Praise and Thanksgiving, serving God at the very highest level, is The Blessed Eucharist in which all the baptized share bringing their lives to The Lord as an offering united to His and through, with and in Him, who is truly present under the species of Bread and Wine.  All from the saintly contemplative religious in the strictest and most penitential of religious orders - to 'crazy' woman struggling minute by minute with serious mental illness and psychosis - everyone of us and all of us -  can equally bring our lives to The Blessed Eucharist, to Jesus, for consecration and unity with Him and thus a holy offering to The Father of Praise and Thanksgiving as Mass is offered at every single moment somewhere in our world.  My almost constant 'knee-trembles' and prayer is that my life will not contain anything unworthy of being united to Jesus - The Holy and Humble One who stoops so willingly and lovingly to His very least.

           (I am reading a book at the moment which has quotations from the various writing of Thomas Merton, with a particularly beautiful and extremely short chapter on the rightful place of suffering in our lives in the context of our Baptism. CCC #1227: "According to the Apostle Paul, the believer enters through Baptism into communion with Christ's death, is buried with him, and rises with him: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.²⁹The baptized have "put on Christ."³⁰ Through the Holy Spirit, Baptism is a bath that purifies, justifies, and sanctifies." ........... Merton quite conscisely and beautifully explains that in our sufferings here on earth, we are witnessing to our baptism in which we are baptized into the Sufferings and Death of Jesus - and rise with Him to new life".  Our sufferings have great value and quite positive meaning in our Catholic understanding, united as they are to our Baptism.  The way we bear our sufferings here can witness to our "walk in newness of life") 

 

To my way of thinking :

•   The highest vocation on the theological level and an objective only consideration is undoubtedly that of faithful poverty, celibate chastity and obedience for the Love of God and neighbour - i.e. the evangelical counsels as professed in religious life simply because that is the way the very person of Jesus intimately lived out His Life in each and every circumstance and moment.  He is the Celibate Chaste, Poor and Obedient One.
• However, if I consider things on the subjective level and a totally different consideration to an objective one, the highest vocation for any person (subjective level) is that vocation to which God invites - and the person responds positively to that invitation and accepts it and follows through. When one accepts an invitation from God, with that invitation comes the necessary Graces to fulfil all that accepted invitation is going to ask of one and all Graces necessary to achieve salvation and great personal holiness.

The only way any person in any vocation whatsoever is going to remain a faithful and devoted follower of Jesus and His Gospel is if God grants one all the necessary Graces to do so.  If one fails, then it is personal failure only not the lack of Grace - and failure to respond to Graces granted.  Each and every single one of us, saint or sinner, is granted all Graces necessary for salvation and great personal holiness.

 

But do read the article (link above) - it has much of real value to state to my mind. I hope other readers may pick up a few gems too.  It is not lengthy, not even a five to ten minute read.  Reflecting prayerfully on the gems it contains is well worth much more time.

 

 

 

 

[BarbTherese]

In the article I have quoted above, is a link to another article by Fr John (although all articles are actually responses to a posed question by members on the site).  The link connects to "How Do I Deal with Dry Homilies?".  Fr. John's response responds directly to that question but his response is also very much more and worth a read well and truly.  It contains points and explanations that as Catholics striving to follow Jesus and His Gospel in our own lives really do need desperately to know and internalize about homilies (the 'good, the bad and the ugly') and all the other ways that The Holy Sprit can and does use to touch us very meaningfully in some way - to reach out and communicate with us.

 

Here is the link again :  HOW DO I DEAL WITH DRY HOMILIES?

 

Why does The Holy Spirit use various means to reach out to us and not speak to us directly in words?"  For the very same reason that The Second Person of The Blessed Trinity became human like us in all things, sin excepted.  For the very same reason that Jesus is truly Present under the most everyday type ordinary and humble of species of bread and wine.

Only in Heaven for most all of us will we be able to understand just who indeed we are and what this universe we inhabit actually really is.  Just what indeed it means that God, Creator of the universe and us and all in ihe universe, sought to be Incarnated as one of us and walk among us and seeks in every single day to truly be with each and every person  and quite personally with all of us, each a unique creation and a one only of, in our daily journey.