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Real, Not Imagined, Intimacy With Christ
"Christ: My child, many would like to live a more prayerful daily life. They desire the peace which comes from a closer union with me. Still, they will not do what it takes to reach this heavenly peace. Let me tell you how to achieve this:
Limit your activities to a few useful projects, and abandon all useless interests. To do this, you will have to control some of your present desires. When you have limited your interests, you will have more time to turn your attention to Me... This deliberate separation from all useless interests is necessary for you if you are to come closer to Me. Such interests are like chains around your mind. They tie down your attention and prevent you from turning easily to Me throughout the day. To few know how to give me their full attention for any length of time. Too many people are continually absorbed in unnecessary distractions."
Fr Anthony J. Paone SJ, in "My Daily Bread", Brooklyn, NY, Confraternity of the precious Blood, 1954, pp243-244
posted by Holly at 1:50 PM
1 Comments:
The value of clearing out one's mind and heart cannot be underestimated.
When I first began my rule, just the writing down of the chores and activities that needed to be done cleared my head so much, that I could not believe the feeling of having all the time in the world! All that empty space in my head (chuckle) could now be filled up with a real conversation with God.
And I began to offer everything up, and converse with Jesus through all the little events of my day, and He came. Simple. And I realized that I had had a mountain of cares and concerns which had prevented real intimacy with God.
And somehow, I realized had also misread the spiritual books. I had interpreted the dryness in my prayer to some strange purgation in my spiritual life. Where instead, God was all too ready to visit me, as long as there was room at the inn!
As things progressed, one day I saw a little picture of a road in my head - with many paths leading off of it. I understood that at the end of the road was God, and that the paths represented all the natural interests I had in life - from obsessing about my garden to reading about Y2K to reading magazines to watching a show.
I understood that, I was perfectly free to venture off on some of those paths - they were often legitimate goods - but that to do so was not a direct route to God. And in veering away from a straight path to God was to take a risk of not finding my way back!
The spiritual life is the same.
We are called to intimacy with Christ. Not imagined intimacy. Real here-and-now intimacy. We are meant to feel his presence. Meant to have our hearts filled with gratitude fro his gifts. Meant to hear his consoling voice in suffering. As one priest told me once - we do have a direct line to God - through prayer! It depends upon which paths we take - the direct one or the side-trails.
Yet how many times do we live with our hearts and minds totally focused on God's Will? How many times are our hearts dissipated - scattered by a thousand desires and interests? How many times does an internet search lead us down useless paths of browsing? How many pet projects do we have on the go?
And in the end, how many of us complain that we either have no time for prayer, or, we don't experience God in our prayer... that our prayer is dull and lifeless.
Our renunciation of the excessive interests and opportunities of our culture is just as important as our renunciation of having too much 'stuff'. Just as there is a superfluousness which comes from too many unnecessary possessions, so too there is a spiritual gluttony which comes from a spiritual affluence, perhaps - of attaching our heart to too many unnecessary desires.
This quote from Fr Paone calls for a deliberate and conscious purging of too many desires and interests as a means of making room for Christ in our hearts.
It seems to me that a solid focus on the 5 Ps is a good start to channelling our thoughts and hearts into the 'few useful projects' and then perhaps a stress-busting hobby or volunteer experience, but then, dropping other things on purpose, in order to make time for conversing with Jesus.
"Behold I stand at the door and knock..." says Jesus.
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