body and soul

conference   #7



"....everything you do in the flesh is spiritual...."   ignatius of antioch


a benedictine a jesuit and a dominican were all on a cruise ship and the ship
sank many died but the three priests all were able to swim to safety
and were together on a deserted island
after some weeks of basic survival they were visited by an angel
the angel said
i grant each of you one wish
wish it and god will grant it
so the benedictine said
i took a vow of stability and i desire to return to   st john's abbey
and whoosh he was gone
the dominican thought for a moment and said
the benedictines are always first they are the wise ones
i think i want to go back to black friars at oxford
and whoosh... he was swept away in a cloud
the angel then asked the jesuit what he desired
he said
you know i'm getting a little lonely here
i wish that my old friends the monk and the friar
 would come back here and be with me     : )

what does the  holy spirit do for us
the HOLY SPIRIT drove jesus out tot he wilderness
this seems to be the pattern
each of us can think about times in our ives
when we were in a wilderness a desert place
JEAN VANIER had a promising career in philosophy
he had won honors and had an academic career set out before him
then he met two troubled and disabled young men
and he was invited by the HOLY SPIRIT to go into the wilderness
of the DISABLED
it was in this wilderness that he could hear the quiet whispering voice of GOD

the trials of shame embarrassment scandal horror tragedy of the sexual abuse scandals
have forced the church into a wilderness of sorts
we've all had to ask ourselves where is GOD in all of this
...the best that we've been able to discern is that we can hear the healing words of GOD
calling us to be healers of all human sexual sin all the damage of misplaced intentions
in every aspect of sexuality...this seems to be our contemporary wilderness

the CARMELITE tradition faces right up to the phenomenon
of the DARK NIGHT
(  fr timothy confessed he'd never had a dark night experience he feels he's not strong enough
but he admits to quite a few very grey evenings  )

he described his struggle with   " acedia "
of going through bouts of blahzaisse approaches to everything
no sense of vitality no desire to pray days and weeks of
nothing

what is the difference between the believer in doubt
and the unbeliever in everyday life
the believer is willing to WAIT FOR GOD

prayer is the courage to
LET IT HAPPEN TO ME AS GOD WILLS

timothy related a moment when he was actualy in the garden of gethsemane
in jerusalem
it was there he was finally one day jolted out of his spiritual doldrums

WATING FOR GOD IN SILENCE
PRAYING IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
THE SPIRIT ACTING IN   US
WE DO NOT PRAY ACTUALLY
THE SPIRIT PRAYS IN US

CAN I TRUST THIS

IS IT GOD OR ME ???

here there was a beautiful digression into the thought of CHARLES TAYLOR
i got so excited i almost fell off my chair
he pointed out that nobody in the 20th century has been able to focus in
on the problem created with the loss of imagination in a big section
of christianity
and the replacement  of   CONTROL  the society of CONTROL
the option for   REASON  has meant the option to control life
without much imagination at all

we must all ask ourselves
IS OUR CHURCH A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE WANT TO GO

( i found myself thinking about the abbey church
     not too many people go there to pray  )

in a retreat given to bishops fr timothy recounts his message::
the BISHOPS'  role is to make sure
that      GOD RULES
        -not the climbers
        -not the fearful
        -not the self assured
        -not the good ole boys

we pray at compline

INTO YOUR HANDS LORD I COMMEND MY SPIRIT

our basic question

DO I REALLY WISH TO BE HEALED LIKE THE LAME MAN
DO I WISH TO CLING TO PETER JOHN PAUL ALL THE SAINTS
DO I WANT TO BECOME HOLY

archbishop joseph cardinal bernardine was a well-trained
impeccable ecclesiastical bureaucrat
one day he was having lunch with three of his priests
they were talking about the spiritual life
the archbishop stated bluntly that he didn't pray all that much
the rosary once in a while yadda yadda yadda
the three priests took this very seriously and they challenged him on this
at one point he asked them if they were serious in their critique
it turns out they were passionate
they each in their own way insisted that he return to ardent prayer
and from that day forth he gave the first hour of every day to intentional prayer

it looks a little silly from the outside
but the common objective of all our prayer is
to ....    LET GOD BE GOD

there's a GOD-SHAPED hole in the human heart
that nothing else can fill....blaise pascal

how do i face a void
and emptiness in my life
can i let god sit there
on a little stoop in the empty place
in the prison cell of some hardly understood
mystery of my little life????

we are to TREASURE the empty spaces
in our prayer...don't fear them...don't run away from them

the conference ended with the story of   pere marie jean joseph  lataste  OP

this man in the late 1800s went into womens prisons in CADILLAC
and committed his life to serving them
he would address the women in his sermons as   "my sisters"
and this won the women over to him
they loved him and he sought their healing
many were women of the street or abandoned mistresses
who had gotten in trouble by basically being abandoned
and having nowhere to go
he initiated  the   DOMINICAN SISTERS OF BETHANY
who exist today as communities of women who provide a holy living context for
other women who have fallen on hard times for whatever reason

he was beatified and then canonized one year ago

praise GOD

everything you do in the flesh is spiritual






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