Revisiting the Fence

A cloistered nun told me, some years ago, that my life for God in the midst of the world was more difficult than hers. At the time, I didn't think that was possible. I did not have to rise every morning at 5:30, show up in chapel when a bell rang, and spend most of each day in silence.

In the twenty-five years since Sister said this to me, I've gained a better idea of what she meant. I believe she was saying that the framework of my life was one in which it was difficult not merely to live, but to live for God. Which is, after all, the point of life... to live for God.

The life of a nun would be impossible for me, because I don't have grace for it. Sometimes, however, I long for the framework of such a life. I long for physical structure to securely fence me in and keep me from getting sidetracked by things that are unimportant, frivolous or even sinful.

In the midst of a society that finds the very thought of living "for God" repressive, fanatical, and politically incorrect, I find myself not securely fenced in, but camped out and living on the fence. I don't intend to embrace the world's standards, but in my attempts to blend in with the rest of society, sometimes I just might find myself compromising.

The fence is where I settle in to watch a PG-13 movie while trying to close my ears to the language and my eyes to "those scenes." It's where I enter a party determined not to gossip, but wind up laughing along with those who do. It is where I know I'm to stand up for Christ, for life, for morality, for biblical truth - yet I pull back for fear of what others might think. In a monastery, questionable movies would not be seen, and speaking ill of others would be frowned upon. Distressing news items wouldn't be matters for debate, but for prayer. God would be the center, there, of everyone's life.

I realize that religious life is not utopian; I do know this. But I would love to live within a structure where prayer times are scheduled, outward distractions are minimal, and God is never forgotten. The world is crazier than ever at this point in time (yes, I realize that's an understatement), and sometimes I would love to just hide away from the insanity. But my call is not to do that. My call is to live for God, love others for God, and pray for God's loving will to reign over all.

My call is to step off the fence and live fully, not just partly, for God.

"Faith is one foot on the ground, one foot in the air, and a queasy feeling in the stomach." (Mother Angelica)

"Great saints have often been made out of great sinners, but not one was ever made out of a wimp." (Peter Kreeft) 

"You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all." (St. Therese of Lisieux)

"Do not be satisfied with mediocrity." (Pope St. John Paul II)

"You want to do something for the Lord.. do it. Whatever you feel needs to be done, even though you're shaking in your boots, you're scared to death... take the first step forward. The grace comes with that one step and you get the grace as you step." (Mother Angelica)

"Why don't you give yourself to God once and for all... really.... NOW!" (St. Josemaria Escriva)

This is a repost from our archives. It is linked to Reconciled to You and Theology is a Verb for 'It's Worth Revisiting Wednesday.'   
 

Inside These Walls

A potential nun does not march into the monastery announcing which boundaries she will or will not accept.

'This wall of the enclosure suits me, but I'm not comfortable with that one...'  No, she does not say it. 

Were she to express such thoughts, she would be told that her vocation is elsewhere. These are the boundaries of this monastery, she would be told. These are the walls within which we remain. 

Boundaries are important in a physical monastery. They are important in a spiritual one as well. In the analogy of the cloistered heart, I am invited to live within the boundaries of God's will as a nun would live inside her enclosure.  I don't have to map these out for myself; they are clearly defined for me in Scripture and in 2,000 years of authentic Church discernment.

Today, let's have a look around the enclosure. Click on any line below to open that topic....

An Enclosure Door For Me

Location, Location, Location
 
O, Blessed Enclosure

Our Refuge For Christ


Public domain photo of Clervaux, via Pixabay

 

A Line Drawn

When a potential postulant enters a monastery, she is shown the boundaries within which she's to live. These have already been defined. She does not have to bring her own bricks and mortar and build them herself. All she must do is decide: shall I live within these walls... or not?  

'You recognize that you have arrived at a limit, a barrier-line. Turn, then, and direct your steps, if you choose, to some other quarter. You cannot penetrate the sacred enclosure of the convent. It is a line drawn, a barrier set up, between the loose, miscellaneous world and the things of God.' (A Story of Courage, p. 8) 

In the analogy of the Cloistered Heart, we view our enclosure as the will of God. We do not have to map the boundaries of such 'enclosure' for ourselves; they are clearly marked out for us in Scripture and 2,000 years of authentic Church discernment. We may welcome such boundaries, or we may choose to turn and direct our steps to some other quarter. But these are the boundaries God has given us; they reveal His will, in which He wants us to live. If we decide to tear down a wall here and move a fence there, then ours will not be the enclosure God has built for us. 'If you believe what you like in the Gospel,' wrote St. Augustine, 'and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.'

Have we seen what happens when we try to make boundaries apart from God? We grasp for moral guidelines that, if we find them at all, are contrived and artificial. Using mere human efforts, we try to make peace happen - and it doesn't. The world outside of God's will is a loose mix of miscellany, and we can be hard pressed to make sense of it all.    

Because God loves us, He has set boundaries in place for our security. 'Live in My will,' God tells me. 'Live in My will when you understand it and when you do not. Trust ME.'  In the face of such an invitation, I have a choice to make. Yet God does not force me. I have been given free will, and I can choose whether to live as God asks, or to direct my steps to some other quarter. 

Will I dwell in the security of God’s will? 

Or must I insist on stumbling about in the hazards of my own.   

"Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may judge what is God's will, what is good, pleasing and perfect."  (Romans 12:2)



Text not in quotes © 2016 N Shuman thecloisteredheart.org  

Photo: N Shuman, Wall at Georgetown Visitation Monastery, DC, 1990s 


This post is part of our series 'A Story of Courage.' To continue in chronological order, click this line.

Do I Accept the Gospel?

Revisiting What God Really Said

Reviewing the basics of the cloistered heart analogy, I'm reminded that our 'call' is that of every Christian.  The analogy we use is simply a way of helping us envision it.

Each of us is called to live according to the will of God. Our Creator placed us on this earth and gave us instructions on how to live (Genesis 2:16-17). It was pretty simple, really, and absolutely do-able.  God said, in essence:  I have put before you all you will ever need. A splendid bounty. You don't even have to work for it. All I ask is that you trust Me, trust that I know what's best for you, and just do not eat of that one single solitary tree. 

Ooops.

All these millenia later, we still face the same basic choice. Because of that first ooops, we were not born into Eden - but thanks to Our Savior, we do have an eternal garden of glory awaiting us. And the way I look at it, we also have an opportunity to live, even on earth, in the best location possible. A place from which we can look with anticipation toward our eternal Home. A place in which we can be assured that God is ordering our circumstances (even when we see them as painful or murky) toward nothing but good.

Of course, I'm speaking of the will of God, the boundaries of which are mapped out for us in His Word and through His Church.

Yes, this is very basic stuff.  But oh, how easy it is to lose sight of basics! Which is why I'm grateful for the imagery of enclosure, and of grillwork, because these help me as I try to practice the basics day by day.

In circumstance after circumstance, we are presented with the question: 'Did God really say?'  This threads through our culture, usually as a general assumption that He said no such things. 'In this enlightened, scientific, sophisticated age, do you mean to tell me you think all that stuff in the Bible is really true? You think God really said? Why don't you just open your eyes and judge for yourself!?'

'The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom...'  (Genesis 3:6)

The woman saw. The woman judged for herself. She could see no reason not to eat from that particular tree except for one teeny tiny detail, surely a small matter that could be overlooked.   

God said.  


This is a slightly edited repost from our archives. It is linked to Reconciled to You and Theology is a Verb for 'It's Worth Revisiting Wednesday.' 
 
© 2015 Nancy Shuman
thecloisteredheart.org   

Only God's Grace

Continuing to look back over old letters, I realize some things don't change all that much. Have I shared the following here before? I cannot remember. It was written in a letter more than twenty years ago, when I was going through a time of physical discomfort and distress.

'I ask for enclosure in the will of God, and flesh fights valiantly against such death. It whines and complains and tries to feel sorry for itself. I recently wrote that I was not 'beating my fists against the grillwork' of God's will as I had in times past; this time I've been coming at the grillwork with chain saws and hammers. But all the while my will is given over to God, to preferring His will over mine and His plans to mine, choosing to stay in the enclosure in spite of all of flesh's clamorings. By an act of my will I have chosen to trust that if I say I want to be in His holy will, then that is where I am indeed. He does not give snakes to those who ask for fish. And so I choose to trust Him, knowing He sees the whole picture and I do not. I have actually become grateful that the choice is tough, because if it were easy it would not be the free choice that in fact it is.  And I know I cannot make this choice. I can never do so.  Only God's grace poured out can enable me to do so... '

No, some things do not change. It remains true - it shall always remain true - that only God's grace can enable me to make the choice for His will, no matter what I may ever face.

Only God's grace.

thecloisteredheart.org 


Painting: Charles West Cope

Revisiting Shadows

“As the wall remains the same however many shadows pass across it, and as the looking glass remains the same however many changes of expression it reflects, so the soul that is held fast in God remains uninfluenced by the waving shapes and images that come and go.” (Dom Hubert Van Zeller, The Yoke of Divine Love, Templegate, Springfield IL, 1957, p. 226)
 
Sin casts shadows. Living in the world as I do, I can't help but see them. Shadows of sin wave daily across my enclosure walls. I walk into a room with a TV and I might hear them. I step into a store and they are there. 

Wanting to live enclosed in the will of God, I choose the boundaries of that will in circumstance after circumstance. Yet unless I run away from everything in the world - unless I run away from my own self with my sinful inclinations, memories, and attitudes - the shadows of sin remain. 

"Be intent on things above rather than on things of earth," Scripture tells me, and I want to do exactly that. "Put to death whatever in your nature is rooted in earth:  fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, and that lust which is called idolatry.  These are the sins which provoke God's wrath.  Your own conduct was once of this sort, when these sins were your very life.  You must put that aside now:  all the anger and quick temper, the malice, the insults, the foul language.  Stop lying to one another.  What you have done is put aside your old self with its past deeds and put on a new man, one who grows in knowledge as he is formed anew in the image of his Creator."   (Colossians 3:2-10)

'Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may judge what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect.'  Romans 12:2

Today I make the choice to live within the boundaries of God's will. In this time, in this place, I make the choice.

And the shadows? They will be there. They will tempt and remind and whisper; they'll try to frighten and condemn. But when it comes right down to it, they do not bring anything into the enclosure. They are only reflections of things outside.

Shadows are just shadows, after all.    





This is a repost from 2014. It is being linked with Theology Is A Verb and Reconciled To You for 'It’s Worth Revisiting Wednesday'   
 
Text not in quotes © 2014 Nancy Shuman. 
thecloisteredheart.org    

And Our Enclosure is...

It can be awfully strange, for those of us not called to it, to consider a life of full enclosure. But in the analogy of the cloistered heart that we use here, the idea of enclosure is extremely important. There IS an enclosure into which we are invited.  It is a genuine enclosure, one that goes beyond all of our loftiest mental images.

The fact is:  if we’re human beings, we are called to live within the will of God.   

In the analogy of "the cloistered heart," I am invited to live within the boundaries of God's will as a nun would live inside her enclosure.  A potential cloistered nun does not set the boundaries of enclosure for herself, saying that she really prefers other areas, thank you very much.  No, she accepts them as they have already been set up... or she goes elsewhere.

I look around, today, at the boundaries of my enclosure.  I don't have to map them out for myself; they are clearly defined for me in Scripture and in 2,000 years of authentic Church discernment. 

Sometimes we can fear the boundaries of God's will, worrying that they'll sap all joy and pleasure from our lives.  The saints tell us otherwise. 

“Our happiness consists in knowing and doing His holy will.” (St. Jane de Chantal)

“Freed from the heavy burden of my own will, I may breathe freely under the light load of love…”  (St. Bernard of Clairvaux) 

 

"Do you want to be free?  Then free yourself by your own act; have no will but God’s will.”  (La Trappe in England by a Religious of Holy Cross Abbey, 1937)

(This is a re-post from 2011)

Text not in quotes © 2011 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org   

Photo on this post in public domain, from Wikimedia

Walls Within

When a potential postulant enters a monastery, she is shown the boundaries within which she's to live.  These have already been defined; she does not have to bring her own bricks and mortar and build them herself.  

As a Catholic Christian, I also have boundaries.  I do not have to map them out; they are clearly provided for me in Scripture and in 2,000 years of authentic Church discernment.

I know I've been repeating myself on this point.  Probably I'm beginning to sound like a cloistered parrot, mimicking my own words over and over.  But this is something the culture around does not tell us.  We won't switch on television and hear it; in fact, often we'll be shown its very opposite.  

In order to recognize the walls of God's truth and thus be able to live within their protection, we must be able to see them.  This seeing is not always easy, especially when the "walls" are viewed against a backdrop of cultural norms.  

There is goodness outside the walls as well as within, and we can participate in the goodness.  Still, we must learn to discern where the walls within are rising up to warn us: "this is good, but not that."  

God's intention is not to wall us off from people.  His intention is to protect us (and them) from temporal and eternal harm.

Life inside the walls of a monastery is counter-cultural.  If we live inside the boundaries of God's revealed will, our lives are often counter-cultural as well.  

"Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you."  (Matthew 5:44) 

"Blest shall you be when men hate you, when they ostracize you and insult you and proscribe your name as evil because of the Son of Man.  On the day they do so, rejoice and exult, for your reward shall be great in heaven." (Luke 6:22-23)

"Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart."  (Matthew 5:28)

"We demolish sophistries and every proud pretension that raises itself against the knowledge of God; we likewise bring every thought into captivity to make it obedient to Christ."  (2 Corinthians 10:5)

"Be on guard lest your spirits become bloated with indulgence and drunkeness and worldly cares."  (Luke 21:34)

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."  (Romans 12:20) 

"Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness."  (James 1:2)

"Rejoice in the Lord always!  I say it again.  Rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4)  

Photos on this post © Nancy Shuman

Test not in quotes © 2014 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org    



To look further inside our 'walls,' click here 

 

Apart from the World, Inside Boundaries

A potential nun does not march into the monastery announcing which boundaries she will or will not accept.

"This wall of the enclosure suits me, but I'm not comfortable with that one..."  No, she does not say it.  

Or if she does, she is told that her vocation is elsewhere.  These are the boundaries of this monastery, she is told; these are the walls beyond which those called to serve God here do not go.  

The boundaries are important to those in a physical monastery.  They are important to those in a "spiritual" one as well, which we will discuss next time.  

For now, let's take another swift glance at the physical enclosure.  

"If Christ's love is the enclosure wall... He encloses you; He IS the enclosure.  So it is the most spacious place in all the world." 

"And whereas some think that we are immured behind walls, we know the walls as simply a beautiful expression of our immersion in Christ our Lord."

Above quotes from Mother Mary Francis PCC, from the booklet "Walls Around the World"

(Advertisements on any videos shared are NOT chosen nor endorsed by me) 

A beautiful link:
A Divine Enclosure Set Round Our Hearts 

Photo at top of post:  Visitation Monastery Mobile, Alabama; public domain photo, digitally enhanced




For a look at our own boundaries, click this line


 

Cherished

'What is 'ecclesiastical legislation' regarding papal enclosure?  It is precisely the arms of the Church cherishing her contemplatives.  And thus, if an enclosed nun is encouraged to rebel at 'strictures,' she will let her smiling silence itself best explain that she is not incarcerated but cherished.  For her, 'legislation' pertains to the realization that the arms of the Church are around her.  And she rejoices, as any normal woman rejoices, to be held in loving arms.  She has penetrated beneath the level of 'legislation' as restrictive or prohibitive to the understanding of how love, of its nature, seeks to safeguard the beloved.  Thus her understanding of ecclesiastical legislation on her cloistered life is expressed in the cry of the psalmist:  'how I love Your law, O Lord!' (Psalm 119).' (Mother Mary Francis PCC, 'The King's Rooms,' copyright Poor Clare Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  This booklet may be ordered by clicking this link)   

The will of God is the safest, most secure place in which a person can dwell.  In order to live within this place of refuge, however, we must accept Our Lord's invitation to embrace its boundaries.  The primary perimeters of God's will are not hard to find.  They are revealed in Scripture and outlined clearly in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.   

Because God loves us, He has set these boundaries in place for our security, and He has generously revealed them to us.  
 
We are cherished.

Painting:  William Adolphe Bouguereau, The Proposal, 1872


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The Window of Temptation

I am enclosed within the will of God.  It's a sweet thought, isn't it?  I have chosen to live within the boundaries of God's will as these have been built for me, to protect me.  God has given Scripture and Church teaching to show me these limitations...  to fence me in, so to speak.  If I remain within this enclosure, I am safe from spiritual harm.

But oh, the world outside God's will can look so appealing.  Those who live out there, free of constraints imposed by the 'shalts' and the 'shalt nots,' can look pretty happy.  They're choosing their paths without regard to God, living however they wish, indulging their every desire, engaging in behavior that the Bible and the Church clearly assure us is wrong and harmful.  They make sport of everything - even of us.  Go the way the world goes, they insist.  Don't be such a killjoy!  Why don't we get with the times?

Whether or not I'm drawn to join in the more obvious out-of-enclosure-frolics happening in the world around me, I definitely encounter temptations.  The world outside God's will can look awfully appealing.  And after all, I'm not sealed up in a cage  There's no lock on my enclosure wall.

Day by day, I have a choice.  Not just to enter 'the enclosure of God's will' once and for all, but the ongoing choice to remain within it.

I have, minute after minute, a decision to make.

Shall I stay within the will of God?

Or not. 

"Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may judge what is God's will, what is good, pleasing and perfect."  (Romans 12:2)

(this is a re-written post from our archives)  



Text not in quotes © 2014 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

Painting:  Escaping Criticism, Pere Borrel Del Caso

My Vast Dwelling

"The novice promises not just to obey orders but to 'live IN obedience.'  The phrase has a splendid ring to it, as though she were throwing up imposing castle walls around her whole life.  And that is precisely what she does.  She makes her whole future existence a kind of vast dwelling place through which she can walk in perfect security always." (Mother Mary Francis PCC, A Right to be Merry, 1956 edition, p. 99.  (This book is now published by Ignatius Press)

In the analogy of "the cloistered heart," I am invited to live within the boundaries of God's will as these are clearly defined for me in Scripture and in 2,000 years of authentic Church discernment.  I might find myself worrying that such boundaries will sap all joy and pleasure from my life.

The saints tell me otherwise. 

"Always remain quiet and calm in the shelter of God's will, under the mighty protection of the Most High."  (St. Paul of the Cross)

"Freed from the heavy burden of my own will, I may breathe freely under the light load of love…”  (St. Bernard of Clairvaux)

“The height of loving ecstasy is when our will rests not in its own contentment, but in God’s will.” (St. Francis de Sales)

Painting:  Edmund Blair Leighton, The Roses' Day, in US public domain due to copyright expiration

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Yes. God Really Said.

As we continue to revisit the very basics of the cloistered heart analogy, I'm reminded that our "call" is that of every Christian.  The analogy we use is simply a way of helping us envision it.

Each of us is called to live according to the will of God.  Our Creator placed us on this earth and gave us instructions on how to live (Genesis 2:16-17).  It was pretty simple, really, and absolutely do-able.  God said, in essence: here is all you will ever need.  A splendid bounty.  You don't even have to work for it.  All I ask is that you trust Me, trust that I know what's best for you, and just do not eat of that one single solitary tree. 

Ooops.

All these millenia later, we still face the same basic choice.  Because of that first ooops, we were not born into Eden - but thanks to Our Savior, we do have an eternal garden of glory awaiting us. And the way I look at it, we also have an opportunity to live, even on earth, in the best location possible.  A place from which we can look with anticipation toward our eternal Home.  A place in which we can be assured that God is ordering our circumstances (even when we see them as painful or murky) toward nothing but good.

Of course, I'm speaking of the will of God, the boundaries of which are mapped out for us in His Word and through His Church. 

Yes, this is very basic stuff.  But oh, how easy it is to lose sight of basics!  Which is why I'm grateful for the imagery of enclosure, and of grillwork, because these help me as I try to practice the basics day by day.

In circumstance after circumstance, we are presented with the question:  "Did God really say?"  This threads through our culture, often as a general assumption that He said no such things.  "In this enlightened, scientific, sophisticated age, do you mean to tell me you think all that stuff in the Bible is really true?!  You think God really said?  Why don't you just open your eyes and judge for yourself!?"

"The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom..."  (Genesis 3:6)

The woman saw.  The woman judged.  She could see no reason not to eat from that particular tree except for one little detail, surely a small matter that could be overlooked. 

God said.  

© 2013 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org   

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I Choose the Wall

Living within the will of God, making a specific choice to do so, can be a pleasant thing to talk about.  It's nice to write of, good to meditate upon, and the idea fits well in the pages of a "cloistered heart" blog.

It's just a bit different when it comes to the "doing" of it.  Oh, it's not so bad when God's will and mine are precisely the same.  But the funny thing is:  at some point(s), my will and God's are going to conflict.  

What happens then?

Tonight I'm looking at the "walls" of God's will - the boundaries in which I am "enclosed" if I genuinely want to live for Him.  I'm thinking about what the Church teaches on particular subjects.  I'm considering Scripture.  Wow - there are some tough things to live up to in Scripture!  Pray for my persecutors?  Love my neighbor as myself?   Do not judge?!

Sometimes I find myself picking and choosing.  I'll live this commandment, but not that other one.   I'll go right along with this chapter in the Catechism, but surely I'm not expected to take that one seriously.  I mean... c'mon!   Who does?

If I intend to live cloistered in heart, then I "does."  I don't just go grabbing stones out of my enclosure wall.  For if I do, it won't be long before that wall - that high, beloved wall built by Our Lord Himself to protect me - comes swiftly tumbling down.   And I am left unprotected, unshielded, vulnerable to attacks on my life, my spirit, my immortal soul.  

God's will and mine are going to conflict.  At various points, this is going to happen.  In order for me to choose God's will for Him and not just for my own self-interest, this HAS to happen.  

For if God's will and mine are always the same, however could I make a truly free choice for His?  

"Don't lose heart, I entreat you; gradually train your will to follow God's will wherever it leads."  (St. Francis de Sales)

Text not in quotes © 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org    

The Lighted Path

Our friend Joy went on retreat recently, and brought back the following rays of light...

"In the monastery, there were lit pathways and grounds with the safety and security of the tall brick wall surrounding us.  I can just see in my mind these lit pathways all around the enclosure within God's will, and how we are called to walk these paths that would otherwise be too dark, uneven and dangerous in places. 

"But by depending on the glow that comes from the ever so gentle light that washes over our way and guides us safely though the obstacles that lie on our path to the finish, we are thankful and even happy that this obedience is there for us.  It is easy to see when we have the light guiding us along, but if we veer off on our own and without this light, we are on our own to face whatever difficulties lie in the unseen.  

"Because of our free will and self love, we think we know best and we become a little adventurous - breaking free of the loving way that God has prepared for us.  Hopefully we soon realize our mistake and see our fault and run back to the loving safety of the light that has never gone out.  It has ever remained where it was, calling us back to the easier path, the way that is lit with God's love."  

"A lamp to my feet is Your word, a light to my path."  (Psalm 119:105)

"If we walk in light, as He is in the light,we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of His Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin."  (1 John 1:7)

"Let us walk in the light of the Lord!"  (Isaiah 2:5)

Text not in quotes © 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

  

(Georges de la Tours painting public domain)  

Zapped, Gratefully

Some years ago, I had occasion to talk with friends about how we discerned boundaries enclosing us in the will of God.  I thought of invisible fencing, where the "fence" is actually a kind of current.  One does not see such boundaries, not with the eyes.  Such "fencing" can only be detected if we make a move to cross it. 

I feel the zap of the invisible fence when I start to head out of God's will.  Inside me there is a "zap," a pricking of conscience, an uneasiness that tells me: "No.. head back.  Stop."

Invisible fencing is not fatal.  It is possible to endure the discomfort and cross over the "fence."  Sometimes I do this.  I move out of what I know is God's will in spite of the warnings.  Paying no heed to pricks of conscience telling me to "stop, don't say that; don't snap at this person; don't give in to anger," I go right ahead.  And the jolt gets worse.  Then I find myself outside the "enclosure," stuck, stranded, feeling sour, aware of having moved away from God.

I am thankful for the zaps, every one of them.  They help me find the boundaries; they hedge me in and keep me safe.  My fencing is the will of God as revealed in Scripture and Church teaching, the word of God is my rule of life.  I must become so thoroughly acquainted with the Truth that I will feel "zapped" when I move away from it. I cannot find my boundaries if I don't know God's word... (adapted from book The Cloistered Heart)

"Conscience is a judgement of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1778) 

"In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path; we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice.  We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross.  We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church."  (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 1785)

(Laurits Andersen painting 1903.  US public domain) 

Text not in quotes © 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org   

Location, Location, Location

The will of God is prime spiritual real estate.  It is the safest, most secure “place” in which a person can dwell.  In order to live within this place of refuge, however, we must embrace its boundaries.  

The primary perimeters of God's will are not at all hard to find.  They are revealed in Scripture and outlined clearly in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Because God loves us, He has set these boundaries in place for our security, and He has generously revealed them to us. 

"Live in My will,” God tells me.  “Live in My will when you understand it and when you do not.  Trust ME."  In the face of such an invitation, I have a choice to make.  I am issued this invitation not just once, but in circumstance after circumstance, day after day.  

Will I dwell in the security of God’s will? 

Or must I insist on stumbling about in the hazards of my own. 

For prayer and meditation:

“You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, say to the Lord:  ‘my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”  (Psalm 91:1-2)

“You must know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is within - the Spirit you have received from God.  You are not your own.  You have been purchased, and at a price!  So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)  

Text © 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
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