A Certain Beginning of Glory

O, the joy of coming fresh from the Sacrament of Reconciliation!  Our life washed clean, all scrubbed and shining, our resolution to "go and sin no more" firmly intact!

It is the time of year when we're invited to take a sober look into our ways of living, our motives, our sinful patterns.  We do so not merely for the sake of observation.  We look at our faults in order to bring them to the ONLY One Who can heal them.

As we do so, we're able to come to a deeper appreciation of our Savior.

If we can catch even the merest glimpse of His love for us, I think we might explode with joy.

"Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian."  (GK Chesterton)

"Grace is nothing else but a certain beginning of glory in us."  (St. Thomas Aquinas)

For prayer and meditation: 

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old order has passed away; now all is new!  All this has been done by God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  (2 Corinthians 6:17-18)

Jesus "said to the woman, 'your faith has been your salvation.  Now go in peace.'"  (Luke 7:50)

(painting The Laughing Boy by Robert Henri 1910.  In US public domain)

In the Confessional

One area of the monastery I might prefer to skip over is the Confessional.  This place is part of the physical monastery, certainly - but does it have to be part of the spiritual monastery as well?  I mean, maybe I'd rather think about a nice little “friendship area,” where I imagine myself talking things over with Jesus and I can “hear” Him telling me what a really good job I’m doing out here in the world.  After all, I’m not a big sinner.  I don’t go around robbing stores.  Perhaps I could just do away with the confessional part, replacing it with something less untidy.

The truth is, however, that the confessional IS part of the monastery.   It is part of the physical monastery, and it must be part of the “monastery” of a cloistered heart.   

To tell Our Lord that we are sorry for our sins is, in reality, coming to the Doctor for healing of our wounds. “As a doctor hates sickness and does everything he can to eliminate it and to help the sick person, so do you, my God, work in me with your grace to extinguish sin and free me from it.” (St. Augustine)

Am I aware of “sicknesses” in my soul today?  Am I carrying a burden of sin or failure in need of healing?   If so, I can be assured that Jesus knows.  And in His compassion, He waits.   

With His forgiveness, mercy, and healing held out to me, Jesus waits…..

For reflection:

“Should we fall into sin, let us at once humble ourselves sorrowfully in His presence, and then, with an act of unbounded confidence, let us throw ourselves into the ocean of His goodness, where every failing will be canceled and anxiety will be turned into love.”  (St. Paul of the Cross)

 

"Let no one doubt concerning the goodness of God; even if a person’s sins were as dark as night, God’s mercy is stronger than our misery.  One thing alone is necessary: that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so little, to let in a ray of God’s merciful grace, and then God will do the rest.” (St. Faustina).

“Repentance is the renewal of Baptism and a contract with God for a second life.” (St. John Climacus)

“If my conscience were burdened with all the sins it is possible to commit, I would still go and throw myself into our Lord’s arms, my heart all broken up with contrition.  I know what tenderness He has for any prodigal child of His that comes back to Him.” (St. Therese of Lisieux) 

For prayer: 

“I acknowledged my sin to You, my guilt I covered not.  I said, ‘I confess my faults to the Lord,’ and You took away the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5)

 

"I have brushed away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like a mist; return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 44:22)

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us.  As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.  For he knows how we are formed; he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:12-14)

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


(painting: Sankt Janobus del Altere by Rembrandt)

Where His Glance Falls

"God passes through the thicket of the world, and where His glance falls He turns all things to beauty.”  (St. John of the Cross)

God’s glance seems to have fallen on cloister gardens lately.   In my part of the world, gray shades of winter have given way to greens and yellows and pinks.  Spring itself appears to have been bypassed, erased from the calendar, as sudden blossoms race toward July.

It is, I think, a time for relishing.  Whatever the weather outside our own doors, we can take time to notice it.  Perhaps our “exercise” today can be that of noticing.  Maybe we can take a moment during this day or evening to sit down, sit still, sit back, and allow ourselves to find – perhaps in something right before us - the presence of God. 

“Creation is a great book.  Look above you; look below you!  Note it; read it!  God did not write that book with ink.  Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He had made.  Can you ask for a louder voice than that?  Why, heaven and earth cry out to you:  ‘God made me!’”  (St. Augustine)  

For prayer and meditation: 

“Arise, My beloved, My beautiful one, and come!  For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land.  The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.  Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!” (Song of Songs 2:10-13)

(photo © 2010 N Shuman)

By the Light of Obedience

If our enclosure is within the will of God, obedience is what keeps the paths lit.  After all, without obedience to God there is no such thing as “enclosure in God’s will.”  Enclosure in the will of God without obedience TO the will of God would be impossible; it would be a contradiction. 

Cloistered nuns and monks vow obedience to the will of God as stated in their rules and constitutions, and as discerned by their superiors.  They do not do this blindly, but with their eyes fixed upon Jesus.  It is out of love for Him that they choose to obey. "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…” (Mother Mary Francis PCC, A Right to be Merry) 

We who wish to live for God in the midst of the world are called to obedience.  Our Rule is Scripture.  Our “constitutions,” if we are Catholic, are found in the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church.  Our superiors are the Pope and bishops teaching in union with him.  God has given us free will; we can choose to obey or not obey Him.  Out of love for God and by His grace, we are free to make the loving choice:  to obey all that He asks of us.  We can then look upon obedience not as a burden, but as a precious opportunity to express our love for God.

Hesitant and questioning though I may be, I am invited to embark upon the road of obedience, trusting that the ways and the whys will become “illuminated” as I move along. I am invited to watch self-love crumble beneath each obedient footstep. 

This is no small gift, for as the darkness of self-love scatters, I shall have more room in my life for the illuminating love of God.

For prayer and reflection:

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

“The love of God consists in this: that we keep His commandments - and His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)

“God loves your tiniest act of obedience more than all other homages you might think of offering Him.” (St. John of the Cross)

“He who obeys the commandments he has from Me is the man who loves Me; and he who loves me will be loved by My Father.  I too will love him, and reveal Myself to him…. Anyone who loves Me will be true to My word, and My Father will love him; we will come to him and make our dwelling place with him.” (John 14:21 & 23)

(Georges de la Tour painting public domain) 

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

The Treasure of Chastity

Contrary to what many believe, chastity is not the “absence” of something. “Chastity, so often considered ‘negative’ or ‘repressive,’ is supremely positive and liberating. It’s the virtue that liberates sexual desire from ‘the utilitarian attitude,’ from the tendency to use others for our own gratification.” (TOB)

Chastity provides for us an undistorted lens through which we can see God’s gift of sexuality as it is really meant to be:  an opportunity for holiness, and a treasure so precious that God uses it to seal our marriage covenants and bring forth new life.   It is precisely because human sexuality is noble and holy that we make a grave mistake when we trivialize it, or when we cooperate with the distortion, commercialization, or profanation of this gift.  

Every one of us - whether we are married, single, or celibate for the kingdom of God - is called to practice the virtue of chastity.  “All Christ’s faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2348, emphasis mine).

The best material on chastity I have personally encountered is Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body,” and an ideal introduction to this topic is a book entitled Theology of the Body for Beginners by Christopher West.  This little volume has opened my eyes in a deeper way to the richness of God’s plan for humanity, and to the harm we inflict upon ourselves when we allow the devil to rob us of the treasure of chastity. “God created sexual desire ‘in the beginning,’”explains West (citing the Holy Father) “to be the very power to love as he loves - in a free, sincere, and total gift of self.” “If we want to know what’s most sacred in this world, all we need to do is look for what is most violently profaned.”  (TOB) 

"Brace yourself! If we take in what the Holy Father is saying in his Theology of the Body, we will never view ourselves, view others, view the Church, the Sacraments, grace, God, heaven, marriage, the celibate vocation...we will never view the world the same way again."  (Christopher West, emphasis mine, because I have personally never viewed the world the same after encountering this eye-opening, beautiful, inspired point of view.  To find excellent articles on the Theology of the Body, click on this line) (I particularly like the article you can get to by clicking here).  

For prayer and reflection:  

“As for lewd conduct or promiscuousness or lust of any sort, let them not even be mentioned among you…. nor should there be any obscene, silly, or suggestive talk…” (Ephesians 5:3-4)

"Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom.  The alternative is clear:  either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2339)

“Be exceedingly quick to turn yourself from every form of lewdness and its allurements.  This evil works insensibly and from small beginnings it advances to great troubles.  These are always more easy to avoid than to cure.”  (St. Francis de Sales) 

“How many … think that because certain forms of behavior are socially accepted they are therefore morally right?”  (Pope John Paul II, 1995)

Married, single and celibate forms of chastity are very clearly defined for us in The Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2331-2400.  Pertinent Scriptures (in addition to those quoted above) can be found in  Ephesians 5:5; 1 Corinthians 6:15-20; and Matthew 5:27-28.   

If I compare Christ’s teachings with the “everybody’s doing it, everybody’s watching or reading or listening to it” view of sexuality, I just might find myself at a crossroads…. 

Which view will I follow?  

(citations marked TOB are from Theology of the Body for Beginners by Christopher West, Ascension Press) 

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