Revisiting the Hallway

On monastic retreats, I've loved being in my tiny cell - alone with God yet aware of the silent presence of others. I am with God, others are with God, and we are all connected.  A long hallway links us together.

As one who wants to live for God in the cell of my heart, I am grateful for everyone who is doing likewise. I do not know each person in every other 'cell,' but I can stop and remind myself that they… that you… are there.

Ours is the hallway of the Church. Our hearts are each part of a multitude of 'cells,' part of the vast and ageless Communion of Saints. 

Our hallway is not limited by geographical location. It is wide and vast and stretches even beyond the ages, connecting us to all in the Communion of Saints in ways we can scarcely grasp.

How do I, in everyday life, enter the hallway?  Certainly I do so by my participation in the Sacraments. I may also be involved in the life of my parish, of my diocese.  Perhaps I'm part of a prayer group or Bible study. Maybe I share faith through the Internet. Perhaps I homeschool, or teach CCD, and hopefully I share God's love freely with my family and friends. Even if I can't get out and about (perhaps due to physical limitations), I can actively 'enter the hallway' by praying for others, maybe offering my trials and sufferings as prayer.

The truth is: there is a door into the hallway for every single one of us. 

I pray that we will find, and turn, the knob. 

'The children of the world are all separated one from another because their hearts are in different places; but the children of God, having their heart where their treasure is, and all having only one treasure which is the same God, are consequently always joined and united together.'  (St. Francis de Sales)

'If St. Paul exhorts us to pray for one another, and we gladly think it right to ask every poor man to pray for us, should we think it evil to ask the holy saints in heaven to do the same?'  (St. Thomas More) 

'Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.... Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.  Let them look up, and see no longer me, but only Jesus! ... Let me preach You without preaching, not by my words, but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears for You.'  (John Henry Cardinal Newman)

'Do not think of the poor as only those with no money.  Look at each person's needs.  Perhaps you are well off in something when someone else is in need of just that.'  (St. Augustine)


This is an edited repost from our archives. It is linked to Reconciled To You and Theology Is A Verb for 'It's Worth Revisiting Wednesday.'  
 
© N Shuman.
thecloisteredheart.org       

If You're Not Feeling Merry

It's a bad time of year to be hurting.  Not that there is a good time for pain, of course, but the weeks around Christmas and New Year's can be particularly poignant for some.

I suspect many of us have had such seasons. Times when we can't be with loved ones, or a relative or close friend has died, or we've suffered a miscarriage, or we're sick, or we've lost our job, or there is illness in the family.  Even the time of year can make us feel blue.  Here in the northern hemisphere, night falls early in these months of bleak midwinter. We may be struggling to adjust to the long, long, long dark.

For anyone reading this who is sad, in pain, or maybe just wishing the holidays would be over and gone - know that you're not alone. In fact, you are so 'not alone' that I'm going to ask a favor of everyone reading this.

Could we each take just a minute and offer a little prayer for anyone coming across these words who might be hurting?  If this gets to a number of people, that could amount to quite a few prayers.

May God lift burdens, heal pains, comfort loneliness, and soothe hearts. 

'We beseech You, Lord and Master, be our help and succor, save those among us who are in tribulations, have mercy on the lowly, lift up the fallen, show Yourself to the needy, heal the ungodly; convert the wanderers of Your people, feed the hungry, release our prisoners, raise up the weak, comfort the fainthearted, let all nations know You are God.'  (St. Clement of Rome)

'Cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for You.' (1 Peter 5:7)




This is a post from 2014. 
Painting: Viggo Johansen  

I am Broken Too

From our guest-poster Trish:

"I'm sweeping my kitchen floor and my back is starting to ache a tad more than usual. I look at my broom and realize it could be my own reflection, staring up at me. 

I'm quite short for an adult, just 5 feet, and my old broom is even shorter; in fact, it's much shorter than the average broom. Have we both shrunk? Why yes, we have. It's easy to see that we've both become a little 'abbreviated' over the years. 

Been through a lot together and I'm very fond of this particular old broom-friend. It always does what I ask of it, in spite of all its obvious flaws and weaknesses, but it wasn't always so short nor so flawed. Once upon a time it was a proud and upright object that both my husband and I put to good use every day - until that one fateful afternoon! Hubby was merrily and quite vigorously sweeping along the dusty floor when we heard it.  A distinct and sickening 'snap,' and with it my proud broom was suddenly humbled in half.

'Well, that's the end of that! We'll have to get another one now,' I heard my husband say.

'"No.. it's okay.. I can still use it.'  I wasn't going to let a mere thing like that take my beloved old broom away from me! 

Hubby arrived home the next day, with a new broom.  

I continue to use my old one.

It means I have to bend down a bit more now; but still, there is no other broom I love more than this one and no other that cleans up half as well as it does.  Hubby finds it a bit embarrassing for anyone to know I use a broken broom. He thinks it should be tossed out - after all, it's broken - so why keep it when we have a new one to replace it with? 

Well, for one thing, it's a good hard straw broom and the new one is soft nylon. I like straw. And I like broken things. 

I'm sweeping my kitchen floor and my back is starting to ache a tad more than usual. ('O God, come to my aid; O Lord make haste to help me!')  

Help me to sweep without grumbling today. Help me to be grateful for dust and kitchen crumbs, and a few extra twinges. ('Lord, I offer these pains up for H, our dear friend who is battling cancer and who loves You so much!')  

Help me choose to do this monotonous housework with a light heart, even though I'd rather be reading a book or gardening! Help me to be careful not to put too much stress on my old broom today... and to remember this.. .I am broken too. So broken, You have to reach right down from Heaven itself to make any use of me. 

Help me remember how You love me, in spite of my obvious sins and failings; that You never give up on me or turn me away. You never want to replace me with anyone else.. with a new or better version. You just want... me. 

'Let him regard all the vessels of the monastery and all its substance, as if they were sacred vessels of the altar.'  Would St Benedict tell his cellarer to toss out a broken broom, just because it made the monk bend lower? I wonder...  
 
I am the cellarer in my monastery. 

I keep all the broken brooms.  

Oh yes, it's true... I live in a monastery. I am a 'monk'. My inner monastery is the Abbey of my heart.  The Holy Trinity is my community there, and the Will of God is my Rule. Wherever I am, my inner Abbey is with me. Whatever I do, I do within its grounds. I am never 'away' from it, no matter how far I travel or how long it takes to get home. 

And the community of my inner Abbey, the three Persons of the Trinity, always go with me... and I with Them. We come together each day for prayer... for the work we do together... and for sitting together in silence.  We are heart-monastics, companions, confidantes, family within Family. 

When I am weak, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are there to uphold me. 
When I am suffering, They are there to console me.  
When I am rejoicing, They celebrate with me.  
When I am wrong, They guide me back to the right path. 
When I am sick with sin, They heal me. 
When I am in my most unlovable state.... The Father, Son and Holy Spirit love me still! 

Oh, who would want to live without such a Community as this!?  

How I became a heart-monastic is a mystery, even to me. It was nothing I did, nothing I planned, nothing I foresaw happening. I just know that one day something 'snapped' within me and I fell so low that only God could reach down and lift me up. And where He touched me now burns. Flames on His altar, consuming all that would sever the embrace of our souls. 

I am broken... and sweet is the breaking within me. I am hidden... and how lovely is my enclosure. I am silent...and how loud my heart beats for Him. I am alone... and always with Him. I am called...my fiat given. I am not worthy.  

HE... is all that is!"

This post was written by Trish, who blogs at 'Monastic Housewife.'  

Paintings by:    (top) William Paxton (cropped)
                      (middle) Vilhelm-Hammershoi
                      (broom alone) Pierre August Renoir (detail)
                      (bottom) Norwid

                                 


This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network Linkup

Gathering Fruits of Lectio

It is hard to put our Lectio into words.  God speaks to us in Scripture, we speak to Him in prayer, and these back and forth encounters weave into and through our everyday lives.

"I must admit," wrote one of you this morning "that when I first heard about Lectio Divina, I was intimidated thinking that it was a practice that only a few could master along with the great saints.  But as I am learning more and more everyday, it can be very simple and maybe even something that I have been doing all along and was unaware.  Maybe it can be as easy as sitting in a favorite chair in peace and silence and feeling the love of God envelop me.. feeling His greatness and my smallness and dependence.  I think this is something that we can all master..."

"We are not always going to have an experience," said someone else; " i.e. the scriptures will not always speak to us at that specific moment... it may even be quite dry. We may find that nothing struck us but a few days later, that particular verse will come to mind. There are times when I read a verse and it does strike me, but I don't have any particular words to say so I will sit quietly in God's Presence.  It will be different for each unique soul."

Others had the following things to say:

"Scripture not just contained in prayer time, but weaving throughout the circumstances of our whole day..."

"Monastic life seems to be simply life itself, lived more intentionally, lived symbolically... it confirms that what has been in my own heart is something real, something that can harmonize with my vocation to married life and motherhood."

"For various reasons (some known to me, some unknown), opening the Sacred Scriptures is a challenge for me...  I do love the Bible and there was a time in my life when my relationship with the written word of God was strong and healthy. This gives me hope for what is to come though I also know that things will necessarily be different now than they were in the past. A renewal of active love for Sacred Scripture seems to be the resolution God is leading me to for the Year of Faith."

"He puts in front of us what we need...whether those words speak to our hearts at the time, later in the day or maybe even a few days later."

"I am happy to learn that I have maybe been practicing lectio on some level, as I have begun my morning with scripture and prayer for many years. In a very loosey-goosey unguided kind of way. But I like the suggestion to re-read scripture several times, pray and reread, and will begin tomorrow."

"My prayer life has been unfolding ten-fold. It's been a quiet, gentle process and feels very natural. I have begun following the Divine Office online with morning prayers and night prayers. I love to listen along to the podcast (especially the night prayers.) It gives me a sense of community, joining the universal church in prayer, while still having that private prayer time I crave."

"I often will find myself drawn to one word or phrase that then becomes my prayer for one day or more. As long as I feel moved to pray it, I do that.  Often that prayer and the need for that prayer is made known, sometimes not. But it is kind of a way of ‘praying without ceasing.’"

"The prayer weaves in and out of my days... "

"Your suggestion of writing down or journaling what we hear in Scripture on a given day is an excellent one.  Our techy gadgets can keep us grounded in Scripture too.  Yesterday as I was praying one of the Offices for the day, a verse from one of the Psalms struck me.  I put it into the Memo feature on my phone and returned to it throughout the day.  It helped to keep that grille work in place!"

"Rosalind Moss once referred to Scripture as God's love letter to us."

"Today's gospel was a huge smack in the head, a good one. It made me realize that even though I stop giving chase to Him (neglecting my prayer life), He never stops His."

© 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

There is much more ahead on this topic, so I hope we can keep up prayer that God's will shall be done in it all....


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To Speak, to Serve

Afternoon recreation often finds nuns or monks strolling in their cloister gardens, soaking in the fresh air and sunshine.  They generally engage in conversation as well.

In his book The Holy Rule, Dom Hubert Van Zeller speaks of the importance of community recreation.  "The dispensation from the normal state of silence was originally granted to monks not because silence was found to be a bore but because recreation was found to be a good.  By mixing with one another and enjoying one another's conversation, monks came to have a better understanding of the family life, of the mystical body, of humanity supernaturalized...... The monk who absents himself from occasions of association with his brethren is withdrawing from a primary monastic influence; he is withdrawing from a unity, from the whole.  Given that he is present, moreover, the monk must make it his business to contribute to the purpose of this common recreation.  He is not a passenger, he is not there to be entertained merely.  He must serve - and serve in charity."  (Van Zeller, The Holy Rule, Sheed and Ward, NY, 1958, pp. 239-240)

Thinking of this tonight, I was struck by one significant difference between conversation in the monastery and conversation in the "world."  That is:  people living in a monastery are pursuing the common goal of living totally for God.  They speak with one another with a goal of "serving in charity."  Their talk does not drift toward idle, immoral topics because their minds are not centered on such things.  Their minds are on God.  Their actions are for God.  Every facet of the monastic jewel is cut to reflect the glory of God.

It is different, isn't it, out here in "the world?"  Conversations we encounter might easily drift toward less than Godly territory.  In can be tough not to find ourselves swept along, like a piece of driftwood bobbing in a muddy river.  In our pursuit of life lived for God, we can feel a bit, well....  lonely at times. 

It occurred to me (thinking of this) that we are blessed to know, as we check in here, that others are "here" with us.  Like nuns or monks praying and working and studying alongside one another in a monastery, we know we're not walking this path alone.  We are in various states and countries and continents, and the circumstances of our lives may differ widely... yet we have all chosen the same path.  We want to live for God.  

© 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

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