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

If You Want to Leave in the Middle of Prayer...

                              'Take no notice of that feeling you get

                              of wanting to leave off in the middle of your prayer, 

                              but praise the Lord for the desire you have to pray.  

                              That, you may be sure, comes from your will 

                              which loves to be with God.  

                              It is just melancholy that oppresses you 

                              and gives you the feeling of constraint.
           
                             Try occasionally, 

                             when you feel yourself oppressed in that way, 

                             to go to some place where you can see the sky, 

                             and walk up and down a little... 

                             It is essential that the soul be led gently.' 

                                St. Teresa of Avila

                             Painting:  George Hitchcock, Calypso

             

Shall I Trust?

            'If we allow our worthlessness and our infidelities to paralyze
            and set limits to our trust,
            we have failed to understand thoroughly
            the love and goodness of God,
            and we know not the life of self-abandonment.
            This life of self-abandonment is for all souls
            who are wistful for self-forgetfulness,
            who give themselves without reservation,
            or who, at least, desire to make this gift.
            It is for all souls whose happiness it is
            to substitute Jesus for their own ego;
            to disappear, to die,
            that they may live and grow in Him.'

                (from Fervorinos from the Lips of the Master, compiled by a Religious, Pelligrini, Australia, 1940, pp. 178-179)

               Painting:  Byam Shaw, The Caged Bird, 1907, cropped

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To Give Clear Witness

'Enclosed nuns are called to give clear witness 

that man belongs entirely to God, 

and so to keep green among the human family 

the desire for a heavenly home.' 

Poor Clare Constitutions, quoted in 'Walls Around the World', p.14.  Click here for link.

A Bell and an Open Vein

One facet of monastic life that looks greener on the other side of the fence (to me) is the call to prayer.  The bell rings, it's prayer time, and there's no putting it off.  No opening a newspaper, no checking the morning news, no doing 'just this one thing' before settling down to pray.

I don't know about you, but if I do just one thing before giving God a few minutes, all too often one thing turns into ten, and before I know it, 'things' have crowded out prayer altogether.  Again.

Of course, there are important reasons why some of us need to squeeze prayer into a 'To-Go-Box' from the minute we get out of bed.  Babies need feeding, we're late for work, kids need to be gotten off to school... but these are not the things that take up my personal time, not anymore.  Even when I have a busy day ahead, I can usually grab at least a few minutes to NOT turn on morning news and NOT check e-mail and to instead give that little chunk of time to God.  But do I?  

I will just say this:  it's a struggle.

Sometimes I long for the discipline of a bell.  I long for the accountability of those who will notice if I'm not in my choir stall.  Oh, I know my mind might wander if I were in fact standing there, breviary open before me and my mind still half asleep.  But at least I'd BE there.  I would be praising God, and giving Him a chance to whisper...  something... to my sleepy heart.

I often compare the first prayer of morning to a time when I received an i.v.  During preparation for the birth of my second child, I was given an i.v. of saline.  Asking why this was necessary, I was told that it was in case I needed medication administered quickly at any time during the birth.  The doctor wanted to have an open vein, ready to receive help on a moment's notice.

Years later, the memory of that came back to me as I pondered the grace of morning prayer.  If I pray, even briefly, early in the morning, I am in effect opening the vein.  Once I've begun conversation with God, prayers on-the-go are somehow easier throughout the day.  I believe inspirations from God are more easily 'heard' as well.

Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim your praise.  

"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.  I am the Vine, you are the branches.  He who lives in me, and I in him, will produce abundantly, for apart from Me you can do nothing."  (John 15:4-5) 

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

(this is a slightly edited re-post from our archives) 

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