Do Not Be Silent

Hold Onto the Map

'There is always hope for the man who knows that he is doing wrong, 

but there is no hope for the man who is doing wrong and calls the wrong right. 

The Catholic gets off the road like anyone else, but he never throws away the map.'

Fulton J. Sheen, from the Wartime Prayer Book

Our map can be found here or here. And here or here.

Revisiting Contemplative Renewal

I have long believed there is a kind of contemplative renewal occurring in the Church. From where I sit, I've seen an ever growing body of evidence that this is the case. An increase of Eucharistic adoration, a re-focus on the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, an emphasis on Divine Mercy, interests in contemplative prayer and monastic life and silent retreats. So many things make me think this has all been growing, hidden, in the darkness of a world increasingly confused about Truth.

This renewal has not arrived with the fire and exuberance of some other movements.  It is growing in a quiet, hidden way. 

One cannot make this sort of thing happen here or there or anywhere; one can only be a yes to God and make oneself available.  And one "yes" - one unconditional, unqualified yes to the will of God - can reverberate throughout the whole earth.  I believe we are seeing fruits of some of these yeses, this very day.

Tough times produce tough yeses. These yeses may not be spoken in the midst of great emotion.  They may be uttered in the pain of darkness, or with the sting of aridity, or with the apprehension of knowing that those who stand for the Truth of Christ are often scorned and looked down upon.  This in itself makes the yeses unconditional. I think the blooms of contemplative renewal are being spotted here, and there, across the earth.  They have been growing hidden, their roots spreading deep under the soil.

It is a struggle to get these words down, for I suspect they sound a bit dramatic.  But in 1995 I made an attempt to speak of this to a priest, a man (now deceased) who traveled the world teaching the Truth of Christ.  He responded:  "you write of a 'contemplative renewal.'  Yes.  We are shoots of a larger growth - of the Spirit - coming up everywhere.  There is hope.  It is He."  

Those looking for fanfare and accolades for their opinions don't pay much attention to little clumps of flowers here and there.  But little clumps of pray-ers, rooted securely in the Church, are the ones God has always used to hold the fertile soil of His world together.    

Yes, there is hope.  It is He.



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.'  



Text not in quotes © N Shuman.
thecloisteredheart.org

Who Know Their Creed So Well

     'I want a laity... who know their religion, who enter into it, 
     who know just where they stand, 
     who know what they hold and what they do not, 
     who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it,
     who know so much of history that they can defend it. 
     I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity. 
     I wish (them) to enlarge (their) knowledge, to cultivate reason, 
     to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, 
     to learn to view things as they are,

     to understand how faith and reason stand to each other,

     and what are the bases and principles of Catholicism.' 

     Blessed John Henry Newman

      Painting: Peter Paul Rubens, The Four Evangelists

Resources to form us as holy laity:

Bible Online

Official Catholic Catechism Online 

I Must Decide

Today I happened across something I wrote just as the world was entering the 21st century. The questions I asked myself then are ones I'm asking again right now.....

Oh, how much time we waste! We live in an anesthetized society, one not recognizing the truth that we are all called to live in the will of God. We go about like people in a stupor.  

Yet we are called to walk in the footsteps of the saints gone before us, the ones who came out of their societal denial and used their allotment of time for God. Ours is not an easy task. There is no more time to walk with one foot in the world and one in the will of God. We must decide. 

We must walk in the footsteps of those who, in their own times, were not popular. Oh, saints are popular enough now, when we read about them in biographies, when we gaze upon statues of them in the churches blessed to still have such things. But the truth is, few were popular in their own times. Why? Largely because they reminded the world that what we GET out of life is not what really matters.

I ask myself: how much of this thinking have I, myself, bought into?

What is the motivation behind what I do with my moments and hours?

What is the focus of my life?

If I knew God were coming for me tomorrow, what would I do today?

Have I been on the fence, perhaps not fully given over to the world ... but not altogether ready to abandon myself to God? 

I cannot walk with one foot in the world and one foot in God's will. I must decide.

Those Things the Fathers Taught

'Teach nothing new, but implant in the hearts of everyone those things 

which the fathers of venerable memory taught with a uniform preaching.'

Pope St. Leo the Great

 Painting: Caravaggio, St Augustine, c. 1600

Revisiting the Cloistered Lightship

We who live for God in the world can find much to identify with by having a look at lightships.  These are vessels responsible for carrying light where a lighthouse cannot go. 

Lighthouses must be built on land. Their job is to keep a ship on course and to warn of treacherous obstacles.  Yet there are hidden dangers out IN the waters.  To mark these hazards is the lightship's job.

A lightship is, in effect, a floating lighthouse. It goes out into the waters and stands anchored in the midst of waves, regardless of the relentless, unpredictable nature of storms and surging seas.

A monastery can be compared to a lighthouse standing on a hill. It is a beacon sending out prayer and witness.

We who live for God in the midst of the world are like lightships sent out on mission.  We do not have to look far to see darkness, rising tides of sin and secularism, waves of materialism, winds of confusion threatening the world in which we live.  We all have our roles to play in the midst of it, in just the spots where we've been placed.  We have much light to carry, for the storms surge all around and all we have to do is pick up a newspaper to see the truth of this.

We who feel drawn to live in the world while keeping cloister in our hearts have received much light from the warm glow of monastic life.  Ours is the call to live as God calls His people to do, in the midst of a world that will often question why anyone would want to live this way.  Ours is the call to receive the glow of God's revealed truth and then to carry that fire into the very environments in which we have been placed - into our families, neighborhoods, work situations.  We have before us the call and the challenge to bring the light of Christ into the "sea" of the world, and to hold that light aloft amidst storms and surges.

We must hold the light aloft when the waves of circumstance grow so tall that they seem likely to overwhelm us, when we feel in panic at the swells all around.  We must hold the light aloft in polluted waters, waters filled with the grime of sin and confusion and unholy compromise. Ours is the task of standing firm, anchored deep in Christ in the midst of the world. 

It is hard to remain firmly anchored in times of storm.  Imagine how it must feel to be on a small ship in powerfully surging seas, when thunder rolls and weighted black clouds seem to come down and envelop the earth.  We do not see land then, nor do we have much hope of it.  We can feel isolated.  We can feel as if we've become one with the clouds, the storms, the sea.

It is our challenge to remember that we are not the sea, nor are we of it.  We are merely in the midst of it.  We are not the fear, the lies, the confusion that surround us; we are not the evil that encircles.  We are vessels in which the Light of Christ dwells.

What do we do when storms surround us, leaving us tossed about and frantic?

What do we do when the seas around are calm, and we're tempted to forget all about the light, and we find ourselves drowning in a sea of complacency about things of God?

The answers are there; help is available.  God does not commission His lightships without thoroughly equipping us.  He has provided training manuals:  we've been given Scripture so we can stay on course and in good working order.  We have also been given a marvelous gift in this time in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  The One Who has placed us in the seas has given us a wealth of navigational aids.

We are kept from floundering by staying in continual contact with the One Who equips and commissions us.  Prayer is our "ship to shore radio," so so speak. Through it, we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

His is the Light we carry.  He is the reason we serve.

© 2012 and 2015 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org    

Painting: Carl Locher, The lightship at Skagen Reef , in US public domain due to age

Drawing of Sevenstones Lightship in US public domain due to age

"Ambrose" lightship photo: public domain via Wikimedia

This was originally published in 2012. It is being linked with Theology Is A Verb and Reconciled To You for 'It’s Worth Revisiting Wednesday'  

Still Carrying The Fire?

Some years ago, it occurred to me that a person desiring to live totally for God might feel like someone standing with a candle in an artificially lighted room. We have found, in Scripture and Holy Mother Church, the fire of God's love.  Holding in our hearts this genuine, precious Light of truth, often we find ourselves in the presence of something that appears to be light, but that is no more fire than a light bulb is fire.  

We have all experienced "artificial light."  We live surrounded by it. The world is drowning in it. It is the "light" that says we're doing just fine without God. It's the "light" that, if it credits God for even existing, shoves Him to the periphery and makes its own way without Him. It reminds us, in one way after another, that we are now "enlightened." We have harnessed electricity, been to the moon, decided when life is valuable enough (to us) to be born and when it's useless enough (to us) to end. It's quite convenient and tidy, this artificial light. It reveals the ingenuity of mankind, and it's more appealing than a messy candle that burns to a nub as it carries the flame. It is today's light, self-sufficient and broad-minded, and certainly more sophisticated than the humble flame once carried by John, Peter, Paul, Benedict, Francis, Therese. 

I suppose we would feel quite foolish if we were to stand around in electrically lighted rooms holding candles. We would know people were talking about us behind their hands, probably snickering, perhaps feeling sorry for someone so silly as to stand with an old fashioned candle in a lighted room. 

But what if there were a storm, a lightning strike, a downed power line?  What if the room suddenly fell into darkness?  It's at such times that people dash about in search of candles. 

Storms come to everyone, at some time or other. The artificial light reaches only so far. Regardless of how bathed in self-sufficiency a person may be, eventually there is sickness, there are crises, there are times when darkness falls and the lights we've relied upon all of our lives flicker out. We've all heard of churches filling up after widespread disasters, for it is often during times of storm when people go in search of Real Light.  It is then that they look for those who carry it. 

As ones who live for God in the midst of the world, we are surrounded by light that is no light - or at best is temporary "this-world-light."  We might feel different from our neighbors if we're seen to be carrying the Real Thing.  We may be known as ones who don't hold the "popular" opinion, ones who live as if God actually exists, ones who go so far as to live as Jesus said to live.

If so, we can know we are not alone.  We can remember that God is with us, that the saints dealt with the very same thing, and that there are "carriers of the fire" all around the world, in this very age of the Church.

We can also know that God has us where He wants us, in our neighborhoods and workplaces and families. All around, there are people searching (whether they realize it or not) for living, breathing examples of the Real Thing.

When storms come to their lives, such persons might be relieved to find those who are still there, still standing firm, still caring. Still giving example. Still carrying the Flame. 

"Your light must shine before men so that they may see goodness in your acts and give praise to your heavenly Father."  (Matthew 5:16)

© 2012 and 2015 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org    

This was originally published in 2012. It is being linked with Theology Is A Verb and Reconciled To You for 'It’s Worth Revisiting Wednesday'  
 
Painting: Marianne Stokes, A Rumanian Bridesmaid 
Photo of candle via Pixabay 

A Way Through That Wall

Picture Attribution

I never want to be separated from the love of God. So I'm thankful to have the following as a vital piece of my grillwork:  "I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

I read these words a second time, and a third, and I let their power wash over me.  Time cannot conquer this astonishing love, death itself cannot separate me from it. No distance anywhere will ever be too far.

However, if I look closely at the "grille" (Scripture and the teachings of the Church), I do find one specific thing that can put a wall between me and the love of God.

"Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become 'like gods,' knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus 'love of oneself even to contempt of God.' In this proud self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation." (Catechism of the Catholic Church n.1850)

"If we say, 'we are free of the guilt of sin,' we deceive ourselves; the truth is not to be found in us. But if we acknowledge our sins, He who is just can be trusted to forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrong." (1 John 1:8-9)

"If I cannot perceive God because of sin," I wrote here several years ago, "maybe it works both ways. Maybe He can't see ME.  Maybe He'll forget all about me, and then He won't notice that I'm living in sin. Maybe there isn't any such thing as sin; I mean, all I have to do is turn on TV to know that today's 'social norms' do not even seem to recognize its reality. 

"I can do a lot to hide that pesky wall. Add a bright coat of paint, plant some ivy, maybe even put up a hedge so I don't see the wall at all, in time. Sin can be made to look quite attractive and normal.  Just a spray of denial and a dulling of conscience, and I'm all set. 

"Except that I'm not.  I'm not set at all.  I'm walled off from God; and in my moments of honesty, I am miserable.  If I find myself in such a spot, I don't have to stay there.  If I am in serious sin, I daresay I know it. I might have tried fooling myself, playing some 'everybody's doing it' games in my head.  But I know...."

Thank God, there is a way through that wall. "If we confess our sins, He who is just can be trusted to forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrong."  (1 John 1:9)

Lord Jesus Christ, I confess to You that I am a sinner.  In particular, I ask forgiveness for these  transgressions___________.  I am so sorry.  If my sins have been grave, help me get to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Give me the strength to turn away from sin and temptation, and to avoid occasions that would lead me into sin.  Thank You for Your grace and mercy.  I ask You to break down any walls of sin that keep me from You.  Jesus, I trust in You.  Amen.

Painting: Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Molteni Giuseppe, La confessione, courtesy of Wikimedia. Click here for link.

The Trouble with Truth

'People hate the truth 
for the sake of 
whatever it is 
they love 
more than the truth. 

'They love truth when 
it shines warmly 
on them, and hate it 
when it rebukes them.'  

St. Augustine




Painting: Jan Lievens, Young Man in a Yellow Robe 

In Such a Period

We have looked at God's need for 'fire carriers.'  We hope to stand for the genuine truth of God in the face of every shabby imitation marching boldly toward the limelight.

It is interesting that, decades ago, others saw this time approaching.  Even though he died in 1977, Dietrich von Hildebrand wrote the following:  

"Ours is, I believe, the period of the greatest crisis the world has ever faced, a period in which the anathema has become unpopular and is unfortunately considered as incompatible with charity...

"In such a period, every faithful Catholic who is fully devoted to Christ, to the teaching of the Church, to the deposit of the Catholic faith, to the dogmas, is called to raise his voice in defense of orthodoxy." 

I pray that we will all be given grace to learn, discern, cherish, witness to, reverence and proclaim the glorious fire of God's truth.  



Painting: A Procession in the Catacomb of Callistus
Click here to leave comments in the Parlor 
This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network Linkup Blitz 

A Light for Our Way

Those who remember our earlier discussions of Real vs. artificial light might understand why Pope Francis' first encyclical has given me a real jolt.  A holy jolt, that is: a heavenly flash, a bolt of Godly illumination.  

"In speaking of the light of faith," writes His Holiness, "we can almost hear the objections of many of our contemporaries. In modernity, that light might have been considered sufficient for societies of old, but was felt to be of no use for new times, for a humanity come of age, proud of its rationality and anxious to explore the future in novel ways....  Slowly but surely, however, it would become evident that the light of autonomous reason is not enough to illumine the future; ultimately the future remains shadowy and fraught with fear of the unknown. As a result, humanity renounced the search for a great light, Truth itself, in order to be content with smaller lights which illumine the fleeting moment yet prove incapable of showing the way. Yet in the absence of light everything becomes confused; it is impossible to tell good from evil, or the road to our destination from other roads which take us in endless circles, going nowhere... (emphasis mine)"

"There is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim. The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God. Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love, a love which precedes us and upon which we can lean for security and for building our lives. Transformed by this love, we gain fresh vision, new eyes to see; we realize that it contains a great promise of fulfilment, and that a vision of the future opens up before us. Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time...." (Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Lumen Fidei, 2013)

I am practically breathless as I read this.  No, I'm not exaggerating.  For a glimpse into why this has so hit me, click here to check out our earlier post entitled 'To Carry the Fire.'

I hope we can all take a bit of time to read, ponder and pray with Pope Francis' encyclical (available in its entirety here).  
  
It is time.  Clouds are gathering.  

Let's go light the world. 
 

This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network Linkup Blitz  

Full Truth and Nothing But..

As we look at "contemplative renewal," we do well to remember that all authentic renewal will line up with Scripture and Church teaching.  Anything falling short of this is not truth.  Oh, it may have some elements of truth embedded in it, but anything falling short of full truth is not the God-given contemplative renewal to which we are referring.

I mention this because, as most of us know all too painfully, the world holds forth a lot of "artificial light" at present.  It can be tough, at times, to discern.  For anyone wondering what I mean, I will include a few links at the end of this post.  

And as for me, for years I've engaged in discussions of real vs. artificial "light." The following are excerpts from a few of my letters:

1993:  I think people get into pseudo mysticism because they are literally starved for genuine contact with God.  But there are "systems of mysticism" that do not require God to be God.  They allow us to feel "mystical" without having to be accountable to Another and to surrender to Him unconditionally.  They allow us to do things our way rather than His way, and that is why a key element in the cloistered heart way of life is the acceptance of God's right to be God.  The only door into enclosure of the heart is the doorway of surrender to God.  And this surrender must be to the Person of God, to the Real God Who is revealed to us in Scripture and Church teaching.

1994:  What falls under the heading "new age" promises much without asking much of us.  We are urged to look into self.  We are encouraged to improve self.  We are not asked to die to self.  There is no exhortation to take up one's cross daily and follow Jesus.  And so there is the promise of the supernatural realm without the cost Jesus asks of us:  that of our very lives.  It is why the convenience of artificial light, light which shows the ingenuity of man, can be more appealing than fire that invites one to sacrifice self in the flame.

1995:  The contemplative renewal is about souls that proclaim Jesus Christ as our only Lord.  We do this proclaiming in prayer, in word, in deeds of love and mercy.  We adore the Lord and we "stand in the gap" for those who do not adore Him.  We speak of Truth to those who may not hear it from anyone else.  We stand in the midst of artificial light, carrying our humble flames of God's love and truth and mercy, and we cannot exchange them for anything less no matter how much the less may glitter.  May the renewal of contemplative love and truth and fire springing up here and there throughout the world continue on; may it light a world that does not even know it's steeped in darkness.

May our zeal to carry this flame never be drowned in compromise in all the years to come.. this is our prayer.  To pray for this and to work for it with every fiber of our being - this is our call.

Links:  

Dangers of New Age Movement  

Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life

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