Help
With Your Rule
A Mother's Rule - A Path to Contemplation
Dear Holly
.... I wanted you to know that your book is changing lives ... drawing "us plain moms" to Jesus Himself. The end of your book, where you talk about Jesus coming to you (active contemplation) was the thing that finalized my choice to draw up my own mother's rule. For I had read about this, but only imagined that it was for those who had less busy vocations, or at least, vocations where prayer times flourished. I didn't think it was possible for someone with six kids to share in this. It is something I long for.... as you say, deep intimacy with God.
Labels: 1st P Prayer, About a Rule of Life
posted by Holly at 8:43 PM
3 Comments:
Thank you so much for your zeal and desire for God! It is very inspiring to me!
I think God's call to contemplation for mothers is a special blessing of our time in history: a time when the family is under attack and motherhood itself is being derided and rejected by our culture. I believe God wants to flood Christian mothers with his graces, and bring about a renewal of the family and motherhood, from within, so to speak. So the best place to start is with Moms.
For me, the things I have found most helpful in disposing oneself to contemplation are:
a) that we desire Him: the fact that we find ourselves longing for Him, yes, even as busy Moms, is an indication of his graces working and calling from deep within us
b) the intent of our actions: that more and more, we learn to do all that we do as a response to His call. That he asks us to cook and clean and raise children can all be done out of obedience and love for Him, to please him. This is the speed-route to God.
c) the clearing of our minds and hearts of too much stuff: possessions, ideas, worries, desires, even interests; to level the mountains of cares and concerns to prepare a way for the Lord. Hence the reason for a well-thought out rule, and for writing it down - so we can remove the busyness from our heads and obey what's on paper. When we have internal room, we can commune with Him.
Those are the top-three things which in my opinion foster contemplation.
For further reading, you might want to look at St Theresa Avila's "The Interior Castle" and her "Autobiography", as well as Fr Thomas Dubay's "The Fire Within". Also, there is a wonderful textbook-type overview in Adolph Tanquerey's "The Spiritual Life". These and John of the Cross are my favorite reads.
Can I also add "The Soul of the Apostolate" to the list? I am reading this now since I saw many quotes from Holly from it. It is a wonderful apologetics for why we NEED an interior life. I never realized how important this is and that our success in raising holy, God-centered children absolutely depends on our own holiness. Now that I understand the absolute necessity, I'm ready to tackle The Spiritual Life and Interior Castle.
Thanks Holly! God has used you in such a wonderful way to lead me to Him!
Leslie
Mom of 8
There is a very lovely truth in what Leslie said about discovering that HOLINESS is the foundation of one's personal and vocational calling. It has been striking me very powerfully over the past few months that holiness is truly the ONLY fruitful "work" we can strive for as Christians. When we look at the lives of the saints it becomes so obvious that the search for God, that passionate and single-hearted seeking after the kingdom of God, is at the root of their whole existence. What the saints DID is only a fruit of what they BECAME through their constant intimate communion with God. Living as we do in a materialistic, goal-oriented society we can easily fall into the trap of feeling that holiness consists in "accomplishing something for God". In truth, holiness is born and grows to maturity when we allow God to accomplish the fullness of His marvellous will within us!
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