Thoughts on rest

 

Living in the Present

Much derails us. Noise, distraction, an inability to say no, an inability to have boundaries for a healthy self. Our internal worrier will continue to pester us: “What’s the secret? How do we actually practice it?” But that is the enigma, isn’t it? Life turns left and does somersaults when we least expect it. So, we juggle and we multitask. And we want someone to give us the answers. We want someone to balance it all or give us the list. Living in the present, fully alive and wholehearted, is not a technique. There is no list. And chances are, we pass by life—the exquisite, the messy, the enchanting, the untidy, the inexplicable—on our way to someplace we think we ought to be. When life throws us a curve that makes our present moment loom larger than anything else, we learn to shift our focus. There is meaning—consequence, value, import—only when what we believe or teach touches this moment. In other words, it’s the small (and specific) stuff that really does matter. Belief is all well and good, but there has to be skin on it—something we touch, see, hear, taste, and smell. The ordinary really is the hiding place for the holy.

To stand still is to practice Sabbath—meaning literally, to rest. To stop. To savor uncluttered time. To be gentle with yourself. And yes, to waste time with God. The bottom line? I’m no longer chasing what I assume will fill empty spaces in order to make me something I am not. Replenishment begins here: “I am enough.” In our Western mindset, living in the present becomes a staged event—staged to be “spiritual,” as if this is something we must orchestrate or arrange. No wonder we sit stewing in the juices of our self-consciousness (“Am I present? What am I doing right or wrong?”), all the while missing the point.

—from the book Stand Still: Finding Balance When the World Turns Upside Down,
by Terry Hershey, page ix

Thoughts on humanity

 

You Are Part of the Human Family

One of the greatest human spiritual tasks is to embrace all of humanity, to allow your heart to be a marketplace of humanity, to allow your interior life to reflect the pains and the joys of people not only from Africa and Ireland and Yugoslavia and Russia but also from people who lived in the fourteenth century and will live many centuries forward. Somehow, if you discover that your little life is part of the journey of humanity and that you have the privilege to be part of that, your interior life shifts. You lose a lot of fear and something really happens to you. Enormous joy can come into your life. It can give you a strong sense of solidarity with the human race, with the human condition. It is good to be human. Henri Nouwen

More thoughts on adoration

 

Turn from Anxiety to Adoration

Spending time in adoration, in the Presence of God,  is the invitation to an essential turning toward God. First, we reflect on the obstacles to overcome. Perhaps the obstacles we face are clutter or schedules, maybe they are prejudices, grudges, or judgments. When we limit any of these things, we turn our focus toward serving, loving, honoring, and adoring the Lord God. Next, the cares and anxieties that often overwhelm us, such as financial, medical, or familial concerns or conflicts, can be put aside in this prayerful, allloving Presence. As we turn these worries over to God’s care, we strive to allow our adoration to strengthen our faith, trust, hope, and compassion.

Contemplate Gracious, loving God, help me to be more aware of the obstacles, cares, and anxieties that limit my turning toward you. May I walk the daily path with you, placing my focus on the ways to serve, love, honor, and adore you! Amen. 

Choose one obstacle to overcome and create a way to turn cares and anxieties into opportunities to entrust all of your life to God. 

—from the book  Eucharistic Adoration: Reflections in the Franciscan Tradition 
by Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration

Thoughts on Adoration

 

Be the Jesus Presence

One of the primary Franciscan traditions is to acknowledge the presence of Jesus in our lives. Both Francis and Clare built their lives around this idea. According to the first admonition of St. Francis, the gift Jesus gave us in the Eucharist is the opportunity to expand the work of the kingdom of God to everyone. When we participate in the practice of perpetual adoration, we put ourselves in direct contact with the God of presence and mission. Our action as adorers pales in the face of God’s action of infusing us with the spirit of the Divine Being. We are changed dramatically just by being in this living presence and being open to the action of our gracious God. We become instruments of God’s peace, mercy, joy, consolation, or courage. The more we celebrate the small miracles of daily life, the more we realize the very personal action of God in our daily living. The presence of Jesus among us is just that—a widespread presence among all of God’s people. We are able to embed the wonders of the presence of God within us. Each of us can and must be the “Jesus Presence” in this world of ours. 

—from the book  Eucharistic Adoration: Reflections in the Franciscan Tradition 
by Franciscan Sisters of Adoration

Thoughts on joy

 

Joy

Joy is essential to the spiritual life. Whatever we may think of or say about God, when we are not joyful, our thoughts and words cannot bear fruit. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing—sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death—can take that love away. Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us. . . . Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on Pentecost

 Pentecost

Throughout the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, God and Jesus Christ always take the initiative calling and inviting the people and us into relationship with Him. Sunday's Gospel is John's version of Pentecost and happens on Easter evening. The risen Lord appears to his apostles who are hiding in the room where they had celebrated the Last Supper. They are filled with fear, despair, discouragement and confusion. Jesus greets them with "Peace" twice and then breathes the Holy Spirit upon and into them. He sends them and us to be his witnesses, to be peacemakers and reconcilers in our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods and communities. On this feast we pray for the grace to be increasingly aware of the Spirit's presence within us, responding to the Spirit's guidance and invitations.

Fr. Ralph Huse, S.J.

Thoughts on community

 

Community is Heart Calling to Heart

Friendship, marriage, family, religious life, and every other form of community is solitude greeting solitude, spirit speaking to spirit, and heart calling to heart. It is the grateful recognition of God’s call to share life together and the joyful offering of a hospitable space where the re-creating power of God’s Spirit can become manifest. Thus all forms of life together can become ways to reveal to each other the real presence of God in our midst. Community has little to do with mutual compatibility. Similarities in educational background, psychological makeup, or social status can bring us together, but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together, and not in the attractiveness of people to each other. . . . The mystery of community is precisely that it embraces all people, whatever their individual differences may be, and allows them to live together as brothers and sisters of Christ and sons and daughters of his heavenly Father. Henri Nouwen