photo by Josh Scholten
The bridge of grace will bear your weight…
~Charles Spurgeon
Trust his providence
It is not so
“And I saw that truly nothing happens by accident or luck, but everything by God’s wise providence. If it seems to be accident or luck from our point of view, our blindness and lack of foreknowledge is the cause; for matters that have been in God’s foreseeing wisdom since before time began befall us suddenly, all unawares; and so in our blindness and ignorance we say that this is accident or luck, but to our Lord God it is not so.”
― Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
God is always with us
“God is always with us. Even in the dark nights of our life, he does not abandon us. Even in the difficult moments, he is present. And even in the final night, in the final solitude in which no one will be able to accompany us, in the night of death, the Lord does not abandon us. He accompanies us, as well, in this last solitude of the night of death. And for this reason, we can be confident: We are never alone. The goodness of God is always with us.” (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI)
He loves, He hopes, He waits.
“He loves, he hopes, he waits. Our Lord prefers to wait himself for the sinner for years than keep us waiting an instant.”
~St. Maria Goretti
A Hope Carol
A night was near, a day was near,
Between a day and night
I heard sweet voices calling clear,
Calling me:
I heard a whirr of wing on wing,
But could not see the sight;
I long to see my birds that sing,
I long to see.
Below the stars, beyond the moon,
Between the night and day
I heard a rising falling tune
Calling me:
I long to see the pipes and strings
Whereon such minstrels play;
I long to see each face that sings,
I long to see.
Today or may be not today,
Tonight or not tonight,
All voices that command or pray
Calling me,
Shall kindle in my soul such fire
And in my eyes such light
That I shall see that heart’s desire
I long to see.
Christina Georgina Rossetti
I offer this stretch of path
I would like to introduce you to a Professor of mine, Dr. Antony Lilles. (“Catholic theologian, married father of three, living in Colorado since 1992. Having completed doctoral studies in ’98, his research is dedicated to the wisdom of the saints and mystics of the Church. He has recently published Hidden Mountain Secret Garden, Omaha: Discerning Hearts (2012).” You can follow him on his blog: Beginning to Pray.
Dr. Lilles is currently walking the Way of St. James in Spain. Here is one of his reflections, written yesterday. In it he gives some excellent examples of how to intercede in the midst of daily life:
Faith on the Way
What does a pilgrim find in Spain?
A land of paradox. Extremely modern communist style apartments can rise above very ancient and warmer architectural forms on the same street. Miles of the old primitive path are interrupted by brand new roads or in other places bordered by electric fences (a deterrent for livestock or pilgrims or both). Beautiful silence is sometimes swallowed by the droning of “power generating” windmills. The spirit of Don Quixote and the spirit of materialism, idealism and cynicism, faith and skepticism, ancient Catholicism and new religions of drug culture, simplicity of rural living and the complexity of over technologized souls, joy and sorrow; all of these movements one picks up on while treading the via primitiva.
Asturias was very beautiful but the chapels and sanctuaries were all locked or else in ruins. This made finding a place for daily mass very difficult and, really, our greatest hardship. Now in Galacia, chapels and masses are a little more available.
The other hardship which we are still contending with is the walk itself … About 18 miles a day. The body adjusts to this. And there are only two days to go. Still, more than half way and drawing closer to Santiago, I still find the last three miles always a little more difficult, but because of that, the very best for prayer.
It is not a deep mental prayer of insight, or or delving introspection, but a prayer of intercession that comes easiest, “I offer this hundred yards in reparation for the scandal I caused in the hearts of others…please let them know your love and draw them close to you even in the face of my failure to witness- because no matter how great my sin, your love is greater.”
Or else “remember my friend who died. His life was filled with so much ambiguity and difficulty, but you were with him through it all. Now, as he stands before you, let this little act of love I offer with my feet open up the floodgates of your mercy on him.”
Or again, “I offer this stretch of path in thanksgiving for all the blessings you have lavished on meand my family. I did nothing to deserve them. But you blessed us anyway. Let these steps be for your glory …”
The one phrase however that returns time and again is “Into your hands I commend my spirit. With this step, I give myself to you completely, I abandon myself to you, with all the love of my heart, with total confidence, for you are my Father.”
As I wrote this reflection in the Albergue, in the room next to me, graduate student Lucy Ridsdale’s voice echoed over the 1970s pop song playing on the local radio. It was paradox: sachrine tunes suddenly overshadowed by something deeper and richer, and more fully human. Everyone stopped. The radio was turned off. One young man broke down in tears.
I will post that recording in the future but here is a rendition of the chant dedicated to St James, sung in Santiago almost 800 years ago, when Saint Francis trod this path during another age of paradox and contradiction, penance and renewal: O adiutor omnium seculorum
Gazing on Him
“We shall not be purified by looking at our miseries, but by gazing on him who is all purity and holiness.”
~Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity
God never tires
“Where are you?” (God to Adam in Genesis)
“God never tires of looking for us.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
Be as a child with God
An excellent description of our relationship with God:
A child has no dissimulation, no concealment. As soon as he is capable of deceit he is no longer a child. In like manner, nothing can equal the openness and candor of the spiritual child. He does not compose his exterior; his recollection has nothing constrained about it; his actions, his conversation, his manners, everything in him is simple and natural; when he says anything, he really thinks it; when he offers anything he wishes to give it; when he promises anything, he will keep his promise. He does not seek to appear different to what he really is, nor to hide his faults; he says what is good and what is evil of himself with the same simplicity, and he has no reserve whatever with those to whom he ought to disclose the state of his soul.
A child shows his love with artless innocence: everything in him expresses the feelings of his heart, and he is all the more touching and persuasive because there is nothing studied about him. It is the same with the spiritual child, when he wishes to show his love for God and his charity for his neighbor. He goes to God simply, without preparation; he says to God without set formulas or choice of words all that his loving heart suggests to him; he knows no other method of prayer than to keep himself in the presence of God, to look at God, to listen to him, to possess him, to tell him all the feelings with which grace inspires him, sometimes in words, but more often without speaking at all.
(Father Jean-Nicolas Grou)
Witnesses to Hope 