Where is God

Yesterday was another beautiful fall day here in Michigan.  As I walked around saying my rosary, there were many people outside --- playing with kids, walking the dog, or raking leaves.  And whenever I passed by them, I raised the rosary in my hand to the beautiful sky above and said: “Isn’t it great how God answers prayers for our country?”  Most agreed in one form or another, some saying: “Yes, keep praying.”  Thinking back on that wonderful walk, perhaps I should have suggested they pray too!  Nah! That’s for the Holy Spirit to suggest.

At this morning’s early men’s group meeting, we watched a video where the priest speaker noted that his mother had stage 4 cancer Alzheimer’s disease.  She recognized no one, but the family prayed next to her in her final days.  When suddenly, she sat up, now totally aware of her surroundings.  Her doctors were astonished; she was cured!  In the days that followed, she spoke to them of her many blessings, AND of that person who really messed up her life.  When the topic came up, her family spoke to her of the Catholic teaching on importance of forgiveness (see Mt 5:23 and 18:15), The video speaker said that after a while his mother said she understood, and “yes, I forgive her.”  And almost instantly, her Alzheimer’s returned.  Forgiveness is so important, and God had given her the grace to do so before she died.  Wow!

As the video progressed, it was explained how important it is that we accept sufferings in our lives, and offer them as atonement for our sins, and the souls in Purgatory.  Like Peter walking on the water towards Jesus, when he turned away from Jesus to look at the troubles around him, he began to sink.  “Offer it up” used to be a common phrase, but the heart of it is still correct today.  We can get to heaven by staying focused on Jesus, not ourselves.

After this morning’s men’s meeting, I went to a quiet area of the church where a couple of us sometimes spoke of God in our lives.  This morning I knew no one would join me there, and I thought to go home and have a nap before mass, but I sat down alone and closed my eyes in prayer. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised at the time that had passed, and got up to go home, but I paused as a friend arrived early for mass.  It was then I noticed the beautiful, awesome, sunrise.  Still below the horizon, an huge array of red clouds reflected the rising sun.  As I stood there facing East and quietly praying and thanking God for His blessings, I could see the very slow increase in red clouds, the beauty slowly, quietly moving West.  Dark clouds became shadowy, then a faint pinkish color, becoming more red in the few minutes I stood there.  Like Peter, I could see God’s work as long as I stayed focused on Him, and not the dark around.   

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I laughed out loud as mass began a short while later, and the choirmaster said to “turn to hymn number 576 in your hymnal, The Canticle of the Sun.

The Canticle of the Sun

The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and all creation is shouting for joy,
Come, dance in the forest,
Come, play in the field,
And sing, sing to the glory of the Lord.

Praise for the sun, the bringer of day
He carries caries the light of the Lord in his rays.
The moon and the stars who light up the way,
Unto Your throne.

 

And at the mass end was the recessional hymn, number 591: This Little Light of Mine:

This Little Light of Mine

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,
Let it shine; let it shine; let it shine

Everywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine.
Everywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine.
Everywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine,
Let it shine; let it shine; let it shine.

Jesus gave it to me, I’m gonna let it shine.
Jesus gave it to me, I’m gonna let it shine.
Jesus gave it to me, I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine; let it shine; let it shine.

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Sometimes people in the meetings I attend discuss important matters, like kids, spouse, work, and their personal problems.  As friends, we have empathy and pray for them.  But in the culture are many who think like Pilate, when he asked Jesus: “What is truth?”  They view all bad things as being allowed by God, and in that they are correct, but God was there, even in the darkness; like the red clouds among the darkness.  Where is God?  He is always with us.  We need to seek Him, and look at Him and trust, as Peter did when walking on the water.  No matter how dark and painful our times may appear, they are not as bad as those of Jesus, God made man, as He neared His terrible passion and death.  And it seems as if He would go through that alone.  “The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you (disciples) will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave Me alone; yet I am not alone for the Father is with me (Jn 16:32).

Where is God?  He is always with us, His children.

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I set out delivering groceries to the homebound later that afternoon, and the sky was clear and warm.  When finished, I headed to the chapel and as I arrived was surprised to see a few tiny drops hit my windshield.  And was equally surprised/shocked a short while at the loud BOOM that rattled the windows of the chapel.  And as a heavy rain began pouring down, I thought: “what better place could I be?”  The rain continued pouring down, but began to ease up as I drove home.  And as I pulled into my drive it stopped ---- so I could go out and get the mail.  And I wasn’t a bit surprised. 

 

Review: Wisdom from the Christian Mystics

 

-- How to Pray the Christian Way

 

David Torkington has written a few books about contemplative prayer, describing this very deep prayer; this is his culminating effort.  This deepest interaction with God is not something we make happen.  These books, in describing that, speak of silence and persistence and trust in God as key, and underlying all these, His love.  That is something He makes available to us, for us to become more holy, more like God.  We need to grow in love, a love that is a total self-giving, but a key to our love attaining that growth is to let His love pervade us, so we can become more like Him.

This book is set as a series of talks by a man speaking of God’s never-ending love, and how we might better partake of it through contemplative prayer.  “Meditating on Christ as He once was, we can come to contemplate Him as He is now, and through Him to contemplate the Father.”  Mystical love is “putting self second and someone else first, whether you feel like it or not.”  But, “Mystical contemplation is a pure gift of God, and to suggest that it can be attained by man-made methods and techniques is heretical.”

In another place he wrote “Read, re-read and reflect all Jesus said and did in St. John’s account of the Last Supper, and these profound truths will come alive in a way that nothing I can say ever will.”  The apostles lived with Jesus for 3 years; John lived with Mary for 20 years before he wrote his gospel.  Perhaps her influence is why his Gospel is sometimes called The Gospel of Love.

If you want to grow closer to Jesus and better understand contemplative prayer, this book may open new doors for you.  

Review: The Song of the Lamb

 

 

I’ve always liked the wisdom of Robert Cardinal Sarah, and how his words open my soul to new insights.  In this book, his words sometimes made me sad, as he speaks of God’s awesomeness and beauty, and His gift of the Liturgy to man.  Sacred music played then, should immerse us --- however imperfectly --- into the atmosphere of heaven.  Yet, how often does music at mass seem to us like a mere concert, or as Cardinal Sarah writes, “like kitsch”.

This book tells how the Liturgy is “the summit of our Christian life, drawing us into the mystical presence of God Himself.”  But, as the Cardinal explains, the popular music styles such as folk, pop, jazz and rock often heard at mass serve more as a participation in the culture, and the idea of communal worship.

I think the overall feeling I came away with from this book is the need to return to more reverent music, such as Gregorian Chant, and worship expressed by silence and listening for God’s grace.  While the cardinal is from Africa, he did not speak highly of where local cultural music and dance there have been incorporated into many locations.  There is a place and time for local worship gatherings, but not at the mass, which is the summit of Christian life, the mystical presence of God Himself.  At the mass, we celebrate Christ giving of Himself to us at the Last Supper.  And we celebrate His giving of Himself for us as on the crucifix.  An awesome God, Creator of the universe, is with us.

Cardinal Sarah reminds us that the beauty of the church building and the reverence of our music makes our worship about Him, not us.