Nourishing the Marketplace

"If we don't spend time with God in prayer, then we go empty-handed into the marketplace." 

Hearing these words from a friend, I was reminded of times when I've dashed out without taking time to be with God.  Times when I've decided I was "too busy" to spend even a few minutes with Scripture, too busy to let God feed me with His Word.  Too often I have rushed, malnourished and empty, into the marketplace - bringing nothing to share with others but my own flawed, weak human nature.

If I spend time with God, however, I'm giving the fruit of His Spirit an opportunity to grow.  I am allowing God to strengthen me, causing my life to overflow with goodness that will eventually nourish not just me, but also those around. 

It takes time for fruit to grow.  It takes patience to sit through those dark silent moments of prayer when it seems nothing is happening.  

"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness, and chastity."  (Galatians 6:22)  We don't have to look far to see that these very things are in scarce supply in our workplaces and schools and governments and towns.  

There is a fruit shortage right before us, right here today.  And it's severe.

I can do something about it, about the shortage, but I can't do it alone.  I cannot manufacture fruit.  I can only come to God in prayer, reading His Word and letting it become living and active in me (Hebrews 4:12), causing the fruit to grow.

Then I can go nourished to the marketplace, carrying Light into the shadows, sharing what God has planted in the secret of my prayer.

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.'



thecloisteredheart.org 

Today in the Cloister Garden

Fighting the Fruit Shortage

"If we don't spend time with God in prayer, then we go empty-handed into the marketplace." 

A friend said these words to me over a year ago, and I continue to ponder the truth of them.  How often (I ask myself) do I dash out before taking time to be with God?  How often do I think I'm "too busy" to spend a few minutes with Scripture, too busy to let God feed me with His Word?

All too often I rush, malnourished and empty, into the marketplace - bringing nothing with me but my own flawed, weak human nature.

If I spend even a bit of time with God, however, I give the fruit of His Spirit an opportunity to grow.  I allow Him to strengthen me, causing my life to overflow with goodness that will eventually nourish not just me, but also those around.  

It takes time for fruit to grow.  It takes patience to sit through those dark silent moments of prayer when it seems nothing is happening.  

"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness, and chastity."  (Galatians 6:22)  

I do not have to look far to see that these fruits of the Spirit are in scarce supply in our workplaces and malls and media and schools and towns.  

There is a fruit shortage right before us, right here today.  And it's severe.

I can do something about it, about the shortage, but I can't do it alone.  I cannot manufacture fruit.  I can only come to God, reading His Word and letting it become living and active in me (Hebrews 4:12), allowing Him time and space to cause His fruit to grow.

Then I shall go into the marketplace, no longer empty-handed.  

I can carry to others what God has planted in prayer.   

© 2014 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

Painting: Emil Barbarini, Gemüsemarkt in einer Altstadt

Comments are welcome in the Parlor

This post is an edited version of one from our 2012 archives   

This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network Linkup Blitz    

Light in the Shadows

Someone spending these "days" of lectio with us recently said the following:

"If we don't spend time with God in prayer, then we go empty-handed into the marketplace." 

I was reminded of times when I've dashed out without taking time to be with God.  Times when I've decided I was "too busy" to spend even a few minutes with Scripture, too busy to let God feed me with His Word.  I've rushed, malnourished and empty, into the marketplace - bringing nothing with me but my own flawed, weak human nature.

If I spend even a bit of time with God, however, I'm giving the fruit of His Spirit an opportunity to grow.  I am allowing God to strengthen me, causing my life to overflow with goodness that will eventually nourish not just me, but also those around.  It takes time for fruit to grow.  It takes patience to sit through those dark silent moments of prayer when it seems nothing is happening.  

"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness, and chastity."  (Galatians 6:22)  We don't have to look far to see that these very things are in scarce supply in our workplaces and malls and media and schools and towns.  There is a fruit shortage right before us, right here today.  And it's severe.

I can do something about it, about the shortage, but I can't do it alone.  I cannot manufacture fruit.  I can only come to God in prayer, reading His Word and letting it become living and active in me (Hebrews 4:12), causing the fruit to grow.

Then I can go nourished to the marketplace, carrying Light into the shadows, sharing what God has planted in the secret of my prayer. 

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

To continue "A Day of Lectio," click this line  

(Painting:  Petrus van Schendel, Market, in US public domain) 

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....


To continue "A Day of Lectio," click this line   

Go Forth

A few days ago, someone shared this from the Dialogues of St. Catherine of Siena:

"Go forth from this place of contemplation, and bear fruit that will last."

This has been sticking to my spiritual bones.  As I begin a new monastic day,  I won't be lingering for hours in my place of contemplation.  Even those living in a physical monastery do not do that.  Work time always cycles back around; there are things that must be done.  Hopefully the "vein of prayer" has been opened and I'm able to carry on a dialogue with God as I begin another day's work.   But at some point I WILL be going forth.  Maybe to another room to scrub a tub, maybe out to drive carpool, maybe to a job in the city.  

Wherever my day takes me, I have been sent forth.  I've been commissioned.  Whatever my vocation or my occupation(s) may be, I am sent forth by God to bear fruit that will last.  

It's really quite an opportunity.  I wonder what will happen if I spend today thinking about it, letting myself grow in awareness of it, watching for ways in which I can drop a seed of good example here and a word of encouragement there?  Jesus is the Vine, I am a branch.  My Heavenly Father looks upon me as I interact with family and co-workers, as I answer the phone and run out to the bank and write a letter to a friend.

What kind of fruit does He see? 

"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity."  (Galatians 5:22-23)

"Let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His Name."  (Hebrews 13:15) 

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

To continue our next monastic day, click this line

In the Summer Garden

It is summer, and the cloister garden is in full bloom.  This is a season of constant change, when droughts alternate with downpours, when weeds must continually be battled, when pests need to be put to flight lest they harm delicate blossoms.  

Pastel greens of springtime have deepened, now,  into darker shades.  It's a time of heat and heady fragrance, busy bees and fireflies and cicadas, crackles of thunder and balmy nights. 

I ask myself:  how are things in my own "inner garden?"  Do I see a blossoming of prayer?  Fruit grown in suffering?  Weeds of worldliness and distraction?  The sting of aridity and drought?

"Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil.  Fertilize the soil ever so richly; it will remain barren unless fed by frequent rains."  (St. John Vianney)

"He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails."  (Isaiah 58:11)

"Our mortifications, humiliations, prayers - in a word, all the exercises we practice - what are they but acts of virtue, which are like so many beautiful flowers, that send up a perfume extremely sweet before the Divine Majesty?"  (St. Francis de Sales)

"I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Vinegrower.  He prunes away every barren branch, but the fruitful ones He He trims clean, to increase their yield.  You are clean already, thanks to the word I have spoken to you.  Live on in Me, as I do in you.  No more than a branch can bear fruit of itself apart from the vine, can you bear fruit apart from Me. "  (John 15:1-4)

"O garden-dweller!  My friends are listening for your voice, let Me hear it!"  (Song of Songs 8:1)

So... what is happening in the garden of your soul?






(flower photos on today's post are © N Shuman.)

from the cloister garden

“The affections and passions of our souls are to be judged by their fruits.  Our hearts are the trees, the affections and passions their branches, and their works and actions are their fruit…. A good tree bears good fruit.” (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout life)

(photo copyright © 2010 N Shuman)