But the oppsoite of this is also true. If we forgive our prayer takes wings and we not only run but fly in the Gardens of prayer. For forgiveness is not a once only event it is continuous, ever day and every second of every day event. For we are all sinners and our need for forgiveness and to forgive is a continous never ending story. We may see an event that calls on us to forgive, perhaps deeply as an obtacle, but the fact we have to forgive is not an obstacle but steps on the stairway..to heaven. For, make no mistake about it if we did not find the occasion to forgive, ourselves first and others second there would be no progress in prayer. It may even be we find we have to forgive the good GOd most of all....
Padraig, I am praying that the recent visit of the Queen to our country and the expressions of regret and forgiveness will yield a harvest of conversion for Ireland and Britian. I really felt that the grace of God has been moving throughout the land in the past few days and events long over but not forgotten have been dealt with and closure given. Mary
Mary, Amen to that beautiful prayer. I've only known that she was there not the results. This is very hopeful indeed.
I must admit I really struggle with forgiveness in the political realm. But that which is a problem or stumbling block is also a doorway to grace. Everyones different but I find forgiveness and the need for forgiveness a really ungoing thing.
I think people often wonder why in the case people seem not only to walk but actually to run in the ways of prayer. Look for instance at the young saints like St Therese of Liseaux and St Tereasa of the Andes who climbed the peaks of hoiness in just a few short years. I think one of the reasons for this is that grace gets damned up by habitual and long term sinful ways of living and habits. For instance entering the garden of prayer, say, as an empoloyer you ruthlessly exploits his/her employees; a husband or wife whose relationship has poisoned because of selfishness, someone livng in a deeply sinful sexual relationship and so on. Such deep rooted sinful manners of living have to really be abandoned. This is not to say that before entering the garden of prayer we must be perfect, we are sinners and we will always be sinner as it is written: Proverbs 24:16 for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity. ...and the best , the only way to overcome sin is through prayer and deepseated habits of sin are often only overcome through prayer and fasting. But there is a kind of deepseated sin which fashions onto the soul like a limpet , dragging the soul down and damming up grace so the soul simply cannot go forward..and in the spiritual life the soul that does not go forward simply goes backwards. For instance take a man who has spent many years in prayer. Now he finds himself in some financial difficulty and decides to cheat on his taxes. There is no real possibilty that he will be discovered in this, he is saving quite a deal of money on it and after a little while it is no longer a , 'one off' but habitually year after year he turns in false claims. So it reaches a point of hardness and fixedness in his soul where he cannot imagine how he would keep himself afloat without doing this chaeting. Of course his conscience and his good angels reproves him for this but it seems so essential for the welfare of himself and his family that there just seems to the man no way of abandoning this situation. Again consider a lady whose relationship with her husband has hit a very dry patch, Her husband is unaffectionate and cold and she finds herself in a relationship with another man who is very warm and emotionally fulfills her. This contiunues to the point were she simply cannot imagine living without this relationship and when her conscinece and good angel gently reproves her with this she believes that to end this would simply emotionally kill her. So here we are not talking simply about sin , we are talking about dams to grace, real anchors to the soul. If examination ever has any point it is in a most particular way in relations to these. Because just as a ship will not go froward when its anchor is planted in the ocean so the soul will not go truly into the garden of prayer with such a sinful anchor weighing it down. We must be realistic; a soul cannot have two masters, the ship will not go forward when the anchor is down; It simply won't happen. Matthew 6:24 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Understand here I am not talking about habitual sin as such, I am talking about a habitual serious sin which we simply don't want to let go of and which of course we have no real intention to reform cannot be healed by the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Padre Pio knew this and that's why he sometimes simply refused people absolution, for he knew thay simply had no intent to reform; In the sacrament of confession Padre Pio was very demanding. He couldn't bear people that went to him only out of curiosity. A monk once told the following story: "One day Padre Pio didn't give absolution to a penitent and he told him: "If you go to confess to another priest to have gain absolution you will go to hell together with him". He meant that the sacrament of confession is profaned by people that don't want to change their lives. They are guilty in front of God. A man once went to St. Giovanni Rotondo to confess to Padre Pio. It was between 1954 and 1955. When he finished the accusation of his sins Padre Pio said: "Do you have anything else to confess?" and he said, "No Father!" He repeated the question: "Do you have anything else to confess?" "No Father!" For a third time Padre Pio asked him: "Do you have anything else to confess? At this third negative answer the hurricane exploded. With the voice of the Holy Spirit Padre Pio howled: "Go away! Go away! Because you are not reformed of your sins!" The man was also petrified because of the shame that he felt in front of so many people. Then he tried to say something but Padre Pio said: "Keep silent, gossiper, you have spoken enough; I now want to speak. Is it true that you go to discos?” "Yes, Father." "Do you know that dancing is an invitation to the sin?" The man was surprised and he didn't know what to say: he had the membership card of a disco in his wallet. The man promised not to commit any other sins and after a lot of effort he received absolution.
You know suddenly I almost blush when my conscience shows me an area of my life were I myself am guilty of this and realy need to to reform. I can easily imagine Padre Pio shouting at me for this. I pray again the prayer of the Chinese Missionary, 'Lord let me convert the whole world beginning with myself'. Lord help me to do better in these things. Make me a person Padre Pio need not shout at. Ah well in the garden there are weeds, there will always be weeds. but help me at least Lord to make sure there are no more anchors; like the one you have just pointed out: As St Francis used to say each morning, 'Little brothers let us begin today'.
Well we're still at the gateway of the First garden of prayer and still haven't entered in..but we'll get there yet. :lol: But before we enter in , a question. What is the single greatest thing we can do to accelerate and imprive our prayer life? The answer is simple the sacraments especially daily mass / communion. THe Eucharist is not called the bread of life for nothing. I suppose this is the ten millionth time I have told this story but I'll tell it again. When Padre Pio was first in his friary at San Giovanni he set up his forst prayer group for the local ladies there. He had one simple rule no one could join his prayer group unless they attended daily mass. If they didn't attend they had to do so for six moths before joining otherwise they didn't get to join. Thats how important Padre Pio took attendace at mass. Of course Padre Pio would have taken it for granted that thos ewho attended daily mass would have recieved Holy Communion. Without the Bread of Life we walk, with it we fly, its important as that. If we are going to get serious abut prayer; which is another way of saying if we are going to get serious with God ; DAILY MASS IS A MUST. I couple Holy Communion here with the Word of God , for me the two go right along hand in hand. Growth in the love of God goes hand in hand with a deep hunger for the Bread of life and an ever deeper appreciation and hunger for the word of God. So much so that it becomes a real need and souls would do just about anything rather than miss them. Another great aid is Fasting, though I accept that this is perhaps something people might need to grow into as they go along. There are other great aids but lets talk about those as we go along; its time to enter the first Garden.
The First Garden of Prayer. THe Enclosed Garden...............Meditative Prayer Perhaps I am wrong but when I think of an enclosed garden I think of a small heavily cultivated patch of land with striaght lines, not a weed in sight, everything perfect and everything in its place. In the old days the monateries used to have herb gardens for the infirmary and cooking very close to the monastery itself. From here they got their medicines for the infirmary and kitchens and in many ways you could say it was one of the most important places they had. So with this garden it is a place of the mot intense cultivation and care, the garden were the gardener is doing the most work in the garden of her soul. Now notice in the centre of this garden is the very centre of her labours a little well. The well contains the waters of the Holy Spirit with which she makes the herbs and flowers of her soul grom and bloom. But the very first thing we think of when we see the bucket and little winch is.......WORK. For this is what personifies this stage most of all. For later on this well , with time will grow into a little stream, a river and last of all a lake of the Holy Spirit whenas time goes on the Holy Spirit becomes more and more Himself the gardener of the soul. John 4:13 and 14 (13) Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, (14) but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4 Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman 1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a]) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” The Disciples Rejoin Jesus 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” Many Samaritans Believe 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
I think a good example of how Mediative Prayer works is a mother with her new born baby. Consdider how many ways the mother regards the baby and all that causes her to love it. Now there seems to be no way that one person can experience another that a mother does not experience her baby. She cradles it inside her, feels it kick and move, she smells it, touches it , feels it, seees it hears it and in such a way that no other two people can ever have such a close connection. Not only this but each of these two are actually designed for love. The baby in its shape and form is designed to be adorable and most easily loved, the big eyes and beauty engaging love from the doting mother. The mother in her turn designed by God to be a nurterer to provide for the child everything it needs in terms of love and sustenance. Isaiah 49:15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! ]
Just then as a mother and baby were designed by God to love each other so our hearts are designed by God to love Him and 'hug' Him in prayer, prayer which is simply designed as an expression of love, like a baby smiling or reaching out for its mother. "Our Hearts are Restless Until They Rest in You" From the Confessions Saint Augustine of Hippo Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you – we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you. Grant me to know and understand, Lord, which comes first. To call upon you or to praise you? To know you or to call upon you? Must we know you before we can call upon you? Anyone who invokes what is still unknown may be making a mistake. Or should you be invoked first, so that we may then come to know you? But how can people call upon someone in whom they do not yet believe? And how can they believe without a preacher? But scripture tells us that those who seek the Lord will praise him, for as they seek they find him, and on finding him they will praise him. Let me seek you then, Lord, even while I am calling upon you, and call upon you even as I believe in you; for to us you have indeed been preached. My faith calls upon you, Lord, this faith which is your gift to me, which you have breathed into me through the humanity of your Son and the ministry of your preacher. How shall I call upon my God, my God and my Lord, when by the very act of calling upon him I would be calling him into myself? Is there any place within me into which my God might come? How should the God who made heaven and earth come into me? Is there any room in me for you, Lord, my God? Even heaven and earth, which you have made and in which you have made me – can even they contain you? Since nothing that exists would exist without you, does it follow that whatever exists does in some way contain you? But if this is so, how can I, who am one of these existing things, ask you to come into me, when I would not exist at all unless you were already in me? Not yet am I in hell, after all but even if I were, you would be there too; for if I descend into the underworld, you are there. No, my God, I would not exist, I would not be at all, if you were not in me. Or should I say, rather, that I should not exist if I were not in you, from whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things? Yes, Lord, that is the truth, that is indeed the truth. To what place can I invite you, then, since I am in you? Or where could you come from, in order to come into me? To what place outside heaven and earth could I travel, so that my God could come to me there, the God who said, I fill heaven and earth? Who will grant it to me to find peace in you? Who will grant me this grace, that you should come into my heart and inebriate it, enabling me to forget the evils that beset me and embrace you, my only good? What are you to me? Have mercy on me, so that I may tell. What indeed am I to you, that you should command me to love you, and grow angry with me if I do not, and threaten me with enormous woes? Is not the failure to love you woe enough in itself? Alas for me! Through your own merciful dealings with me, O Lord my God, tell me what you are to me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Say it so that I can hear it. My heart is listening, Lord; open the ears of my heart and say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let me run towards this voice and seize hold of you. Do not hide your face from me: let me die so that I may see it, for not to see it would be death to me indeed. Excerpted from the Confessions of St. Augustine (Book I, Chapter 1)
So, to continue the analogy of a mother with a baby and a soul with meditaitve prayer.... The mother I think can be regarded as looking at her baby with two, 'eyes'. The first eye being of the 'head'. the senses and the mind. She sees the beauty of the child, she smells it she feels it, she hears it , the baby is never out of her thoughts. All this 'Regard' of the baby with the 'eye' of the mind stirs the mother to 'see' the baby with another 'eye' the 'eye' of the heart. With the eye of love. So the baby becomes not just any baby or a stranger child but 'her' child out of all the babies in the world her very own . So lets turn to meditaive prayer and really it is about just the same thing, it encourages to 'see' God with our first , 'eye' the eye of the mind so that the most important 'eye', the 'eye' of the heart may be stirred into action and begin to love. Not just any 'love' like the feelings of joy and affection we feel when we see any baby, no, GOd we begin to see is not just impersonal or remote He is 'our' baby just as for the mother it is not just any baby but her very own baby. This personal love , this family love is our spirituality , our spirituality being our very won for each of us very different as we all belong to our different families. For instance the Fransicans, the DOminicans, the Jesuits and so on. Each baby beonging to a different family and each baby and mother having their very own special relationship each being created differently by God. Tow things here. Firstly it is important to look at this love that grows in our hearts for God is not a remote thing of , 'Him up there in the sky' which it maybe is at the start of the journey. No meditaive, real meditaive prayer should grow very real ,very quickly I believe for the soul should turn as quickly and strongly to loving God as a mother turns very quickly to loving her child. THe 'eye' of the heart should open strongly as a heart beat. To measure this love, which is perhaps measurelss ; consider this. How many mothers , even having held their baby in their arms for the shortest time would not die for them? Jesus said of this: John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. So this love that is to be stirred in our hearts will not be bettered, it is boundless, we should expect it to grow in such a way that we would die for the GOd we see with our newly opened hearts; as Jesus says there is no greater love than this, just as there is no greater love than a mother has for her child....
First of all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men. 1 Timothy 2: 1
Two words spring very quickly to mind when we consider this first garden, work and discipline. Of course it is true that Prayer is first and foremost the work of grace, God's own work. He being the great gardener of the vine of our souls. Galatians 4:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." However of all the gardens I think the great charisms of this garden are work and discipline. For at this earliest stage of prayer the Holy Spirit is not a stream, river, lake or sea in the soul, He is present in the form of a well and in order to raise the Waters of Life the soul must have discipline in constantly doing the work to raise the waters of life to the lips of its thirsty heart. To this extent then the person who enters this first garden is not at all unlike any person who adopts any hobby or type of work. Firstly they must have the discipline to set aside a set period of time each day to garden the soul. Not only most it be a period of time but it must be the best period of time that the day has to offer, the period in which we are at its best. In this we obey the biblical injunctions that only the very best of the flock and the first fruits of our hands must be offered to the Most High God. Romans 11:16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. For different people this best set aside time will be different for different people, for some first thing in the morning, for others last thing at night , for still others mid day, everyone is different and each of us have differing first fruits of the best to offer. At the very beginning of prayer I suggest a period of half an hour to be set aside. Better half an hour of earnest prayer genrously given than a much longer period of over enthusiastic set aside time spent wastefully. In either case God is Master of the Harvest, the Holy Spirit will take us up on Eagles Wings in prayer like the Prophet and ELijah and sweep us away to more time at a later time , joyfully given. Isaiah 40:31 "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint."
Its so sad to find Catholics of our generation and most especially religious leaders such as nuns and priests turning to other cultures and religions for inspiration in initiating Meditative prayer. For we have a religious culture that goes back thousands of years and beyond. For instance the use of forms of rosary beads for prayer goes back so far into the mists of time I don't know if anyone has ever tracked down their beginnings. To be frank some of the Eastern techiniques, such as Zen Practise are downright dangerous. Maybe I will just touch on why they are dangerous, before moving on. A very ,very serious mistake was first made by many Catholic Spiritual teachers, such as the AMerican Cistercian Monk, the late Thomas Merton , around about the 1950's/ '60's and carried through to the present day which saw all religious medidative practise, right across religions as somehow equivalent. I don't want to come across as a religious bigot but I don't think this notion of, 'It doesn't matter how you get there we are all heading for the same place'. This is in efffect the rehash of a heresy we have seen rising again and again in the CHurch down the centuries. A heresy originating in Spiritual Pride. Its basis is that really a person prays for a period and begins to believe that she/he , 'Has it made', so to speak and since they are in direct contact with GOd they no longer need dogma, scipture , teachings whatever, that they are directly 'plugged in', to God and can hack out their own road. That they are the fulfilment of the law, so to speak in their own persons and so can ply their own course. But this ends, always in complete disaster for Jesus said, John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The idea that their our others roads, just as good. Why would we ,as Catholics take of from the wide clear road of the Gospels and the Teachings of the Church to take strange, winding Eastern or other paths when the golden road to heaven lies stright and steady like Gold before us? "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." - Matthew 7:13-14
