Help
With Your Rule
Seeking Tranquility...
"The enemy of tranquility in the hearts of God's people is confusion. A confused person cannot think straight. Today we have a tremendous number of confused Christians... How does one get confused? By allowing disorder to enter one's mind and heart. How does one get 'unconfused'? By seeking first the order of the kingdom. This means taking time out from activity, from even 'doing good', and entering into the great silence of the Lord. Alone in that silence, bible in hand, slowly the terrible noise inside us will die, and the voice of God will be heard. The [Scriptures]...are another incarnation of Christ, [which] will speak to us in depth, and we shall clearly see which are the first items on our agenda. Unless we do this, it is to be feared that we shall be drowned in our own inner noise..."
Catherine Doberty in "The Gospel Without Compromise", Ave Maria Press, Indiana, 1976, pp40-41
posted by Holly at 2:10 PM
1 Comments:
There are whole parts of our persons which modern living does not permit us to attend to: Our intuitive intellects are our capacity for deep reflection and contemplative prayer and teh supernatural experience of God... Our hearts are where we personally reside and where we know God intimately and know our own motives...
Too often, our fast-paced, affluent and busy lifestyles prevent us from tuning into our hearts and our contemplative natures. It is this problem which makes prayer-time "boring" instead of a real and personal encounter with the Living God.
There must be a conscious slowing down in our lives - an ability to let go of much of the superfluous stuff AND superfluous activity which fills our minds and hearts to distraction.
It's sad when the average Christian can't say "I know Jesus personally." It is more a state of lukewarmness in the church when most people experience a relationship-void with Christ.
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God" scripture tells us... Put God first...
May our first waking moments and our final bedtime attention be directed mostly to God and our intimate conversation with him.
May our daily rule be such that moments of reflection come easy because we are not running frantic with too many unnecessary things to do or think about.
May we make sure that adequate time for prayer and reflection and sacraments is given. "What will we gain to have the whole world but lose our souls?" What do we gain by having so many things in our lives and on our plates that we have no personal time nor space for God?
There is no benefit here - only personal confusion, only a slow and lazy stupor - unbefitting to our need to stay alert, especially within the times we live in...
Post a Comment
<< Home