The Sound of God's Voice In this Chapter the Father writes very beautifully on the fact that the person of prayer comes to recognise the sound of God's Voice within. This reminds me of the vert apt scripture: John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— Certainly many people are deceived and what they think is God's voice is simply their own delusion or that of a demon. Witness the False Prophets Muhommed and Joseph Smith. Invariably such people are proud and proud people are not God's own. I was thinking last night if the voice of Jesus had changed through the years. Well it has and it hasn't. I was first really conscious of the voice of Jesus within when I was about three years old. I think way back then we used to chatter together like two little birds about anything and everything in a kind of no stop ramble. Now we like two very old friends sitting on a rocking chair ,sipping a glass of whiskey looking out at the view. Maybe from time to time exchanging a very rare comment about this or that. An older person who chatters a lot makes me uneasy. It is in silence we hear the voice of God. In listening. It is in silence we listen to others. I would hope the lessons of the years might have taught that simple Wisdom. The parish priest repeated a beautiful piece of advice from St Teresa of Avila yesterday in his homily on her Feast Day. She advised her nuns to imagine themselves standing with Jesus and then to imagine themselves as an onlooker watching on. She told them to imagine Jesus looking at them with a humble , loving gaze. So beautiful.
I have the eastern prayer rope (chotki) of 150. I haven't used it in a long time. I never did the prostrations. Perhaps, now is a good time to start again
I don't respond very often to your posts, Carmelite, but I just wanted to say you're a great source of encouragement for me!
I am so glad Mario. Thank you. I too struggle with discouragement, but I had Confession the other day and the priest gave me good advice. He said, “ When you wake up thank the Lord for your breath, that your hands and feet work etc. All day long pause and do this and your mindset will change. “ It takes reminders, but it works. God bless you
Noise and Prayer In this Chapter the Father writes very well about the challenges we may face fitting our prayer relationship with God in what are very often very,very busy lives. One time St John Vianney made a run for it from his Parish in Ars and tried to escape. His life was so busy, morning to night confessions and Parish duties. He was very humble and conscious of his sins and just wanted out to have time to prayer. I would guess he probably wanted to enter a Trappist monastery and pray, pray pray his heart away. But a posse of the Mayor and parishioners chased after him and begged him to come back . The old saint, seeing in this the will of God went back and worked hard right until nearly the very last moment of his wonderful life. My mother, before she was married, used to pray a lot but when the first of her ten children came along she found less and less time for prayer in a busy life. She asked an old priest about this and he looked at her and said, 'Now your children are your prayer!' This put her at once at ease. I asked her one time after her and my father lived alone why now she had time to go that she did not go to Mass every day. She pointed out that she seriously unwell and if she did go it would be only my father drove her there and back everyday; a big ask. I understood at once. We can only do what we can , when we can. But if our hearts are in it the Good God will not let us go short and will make up the difference. I am very much alone myself and if I move to Spain to the country I will be very much more alone. The prefect conditions you might think for prayer. But I do notice in myself a huge tendency to fill my days with nonsense and noise of my own making. To escape God and prayer. This teaches me that it is not so much about where we are but how we are. The main thing is that our hearts at least want to pray even if we have not time to do so. Desire for prayer is prayer. 'The more one prays, the more one wants to pray. You have a small heart, but prayer enlarges it and makes it capable of loving God. It is not the long nor the beautiful prayers that the good Lord looks at, but those that come from the depths of the heart, with great respect and a true desire to please God.' Saint John Vianney
One thing I do notice about prayer which Father Stephen does not mention and which we see in the lives of the saints and which you may have discovered in your own lives is this: God may choose a part of your life to call you apart and get you ready. In the case of St Catherine of Sienna this was in her home when she stayed in her room alone for a few years. In the case of St Padraig , it was when he was a slave minding the sheep on Mount Slemish. In the case of the Cure of Ars it was when he was hidden away in a small village hiding from the conscription. In the case of St Ignatious of Loyola it was when he was recovering from a battle wound. In the case of St Paul of Tarsus it was the three years in the desert in Arabia after his conversion. God has a way of winning through .If we need time out God will get it for us.
Joy in the Lord. The Father is so wise. He distinguishes here between Joy and Happiness. Happiness comes and goes but Christian Joy remains forever, it being an outward sign of an inward reality, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the soul. It reminds me of the difference between Weather and Climate, which people often get confused with (especially in what they term , 'Global Warning'). Weather changes day by day and hour by hour as does happiness. Climate like Joy is the overall state of things. So if I live in a temperate climate the weather will hardly ever go to extremes. It is the long term view of things. The deeper view of things. A good example of Joy was Padre Pio . He was described by one of his fellow Friars as, 'The happiest man on Earth'. He was a real pleasure to be in the company of , always laughing and joking and telling stories. That was Padre Pio's Climate, warm, sunny and joyful. But on the other hand he was a Victim Soul , constantly enduring huge physical, spiritual and emotional pains. Huge trials. So the weather for Padre Pio, the happiness may often have been awful. But underlying this was this constant joy. As St Teresa of Avila once famously said, 'God save me from sad faced saints'. Our Lady warned St Bernadette, 'I cannot promise you happiness in this life'. In other words the young saint was being warned of bad weather. This sounds catastrophic , what could be worse? But her climate , her inner joy would always be superb. Because she prayed and prayed the rosary. I think this confusion between joy and happiness is what leads to a lot of despair in the spiritual life. People often think because they are leading a Godly life they somehow always be happy. They mistake happiness for the inward Joy and Peace of the presence of the Holy Spirit, which abides forever. I notice that when Saint Bernadette rejected the first statue of Our Lady of Lourdes she did so because it did not show Our Lady smiling widely enough and if you read the accounts of the apparitions Mary laughed quite openly on several occasions. Romans 14:17-18 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval
One time many years ago I was in the first few years of the Dark Night of the Soul and was in a very bad way; as St Teresa of Avila comments folks in the Dark Night are very,very much to be pitied. So I went off to a sea side town to take my mind of things and maybe cheer myself up a bit. In my own experience it is the start of the Dark Night that is the killer, once we get settled down to things it gets loads easier. So I saw a kerbside Protestant Preacher preaching near the beach and after he had finished I decided to wander over and talk to him hoping he might share some scripture and maybe cheer me up. But he looked bamboozled that a Christian could be in the dumps and asked me what Church I attended? When he discovered I was Catholic his face lit up. Problem solved. Catholics are not Christians hence my unhappiness. This view of things did not cheer me up any and I departed , gloom and all. But it does seem to me that a lot of Evangelical Protestantism assumes a pay off of happiness and prosperity for living the Gospel. Even when I look at young Christians at their big huge concerts I sometimes wonder how much it is about getting an emotional high and how much about true worship? Catholic Western Spirituality centers, on the other hand, very,very much on the Cross. This seems to me very,very wise indeed. Life can be full of very great suffering. Few of will avoid this. We really do have to pick up that old rugged cross and follow.
I notice with some people they "keep calm and carry on" regardless of their crosses. They have a kind of subtle peace to them, likely accepting their crosses as a part of life while still being inspired. The promises in the gospel are all true, regarding both prosperity and problems.
I got to Church the other morning half and hour early so I could read a Chapter of the Bible and say my rosary before Mass. To my great edification there were already about a dozen people there already looking towards the Tabernacle and praying their hearts out. A huge reminder of the everyday holiness of our good Catholic people.
This devil in the image seems to represent the Beast of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation, which, according to the Didache, will appear as if it were the "Son of God."
