I am away camping again for a week or so. So excited and happy, though the weather is not so good. But it doesn't matter. After the Lock Down it feels so weird to be able to do this, like a dream. I woke up this morning and thought to myself that we who have the Faith are rather children who follow a Soap Bubble. For to us we see God through Faith and our Faith is so often so very,very weak. Now, as St Paul says we see Him in a Glass, Darkly but in the Resurrection we shall see Him face to face and what a Dawning that will be. I have prayed without ceasing now since I was 29, every heart beat a prayer. 34 years of prayer with every heart beat. Sleeping or waking. But in recent years I have chased even my slightest thoughts to centre them on Him. Even if the dream, even if the Soap Bubble where never real I have never and will never regret chasing Him. For He is all my joy, all my peace , all my love and all of my Hope. Prayers for all here.
What a wonderful inspiration - To capture every good thought and centre them on the love of God. And to cast those thoughts from darkness into the abyss where they belong. The spiritual battle of the mind is a minefield and we can often lose. But the mind must be submitted to the will like the rider breaking a newly ridden horse. These days of personal trial and with mum's terminal illness God has manifested His love and lifted me like the good Samaritan attending to my every need. I am carried by the updraughts of His love. I never knew His love could be so personal and so present. That is the Good News which we must preach with our lives.
I'm with you Padraig! I feel the same way about my Faith. Alho its not like a bubble... it is... and becoming more so every day... very isolating. I have the sense that I've been cut out of the pack and am leading a VERY solitary life.. There is nothing but prayer and more prayer in an ever deepening urgency. My once very loving family is even farther from me these days. Some days I get to feeling very lonely but I'm always refreshed by reminding myself that Jesus himself was put into a deep dark cell the day before he was crucified...very alone. I visualize myself next to him there!
So wonderful Padraig! Enjoy your time off, it is wonderful that you and your dogs get off the beaten path of life. It is more wonderful that you will be surrounded by the saints, angels and protected under the mantle of our mother Mary. May God bless you with abundant sunshine.
What an eloquent beautiful meditation on "practicing the presence of God." Have a wonderful getaway. Stay safe and come home refreshed.
ellen, you express it well, this is my situation too. Siblings and one child completely gone from the Faith. My husband and daughter are liberal minded though go to Mass. Makes me wonder, the “deep dark cell” and private revelation, is that near to where most of the fifteen secret tortures took place? And one of those 15 is prophesied in the OT. Remember the scene from The Passion of the Christ? Bound, Our Lord looks up, Our Lady is kneeling at the very spot above ground touching the walkway, the only way to embrace her Son in the dungeon. See a YouTube of Marian scenes from the film. I use to watch this one over and over: Isaiah 50:6 I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them: I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me, and spit upon me.
Katfalls, I dont think its so much of a" dark night of the soul" that Im experiencing... which I understand to be the souls sense of the loss of God ....but a distancing from earthly things(like family) which leaves one alone here on earth while growing closer to Godly things. Im happy to be going in that direction...but. Hard to explain I guess.
The “detachment “ that God allows is very difficult. It is not limited to the material...it’s scope is limitless. It can include anything that comes between us and God. Detachment is painful, but it’s eternal benefits are also without limits. Losing family attachments would be among the most difficult....especially if we are detached from those we love...for the love of God. We have to trust that everything we separate ourselves from on earth will be fully restored in eternity.
