The Next Step

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Before I began home schooling my children, I didn't give my faith a lot of deep thought. I went to Mass and received the Sacraments, but I took my faith for granted. I assumed it would always be the same. Like many Catholic home schooling parents, I rediscovered my faith through home schooling. And it wasn't just the intricacies of Catholicism, but a deeper love for God that I discovered.

And in the past year or so, since I began using the Divine Intimacy every day, I have learned that our active faith has its ups and downs. It ebbs and flows. We don't always feel like praying, we don't always hunger for the Mass. But, fortunately, with Catholicism, we have the Church to lead us through the motions when we are "lost."

These meditations that I am posting, from this past week's Divine Intimacy, show how our active faith, and what I mean by that is the active searching for God and seeking him out, can wane, and that is normal. We can not always be at the height of our faith, at least not most of us. But, when it does wane, we can use other means of connecting with God to keep our faith active. It has been very enlightening to realize that, apparently, every one (even our greatest saints) goes through these dry and rainy spells.



Meditative Reading Divine Intimacy

O Lord, teach me to seek You, even when my heart is dry and my mind distracted.

Meditation

The simplest way of conversing with God is certainly vocal prayer, properly made; but as the soul progresses in the spiritual life, it is natural for it to feel the need of a more interior prayer, of one that is more intimate; and so it spontaneously turns toward mental prayer. If the divine attraction takes hold of the soul by giving it some sensible devotion, no difficulty is experienced in becoming recollected in God; on the contrary, this exercise becomes easy and pleasant. But it is quite different when the soul is left to itself, especially if an excessive activity of the imagination makes thoughts on a definite subject almost impossible. St. Teresa (of Avila) remarks that there are many who suffer from these continual wanderings of the mind, in which “they go here and there, and are always upset, whether the fault is their own nature, or whether God permits it” (Way of Perfection, 19).

Those who are in this condition are easily tempted to give up mental prayer, which has become so painful that they find it almost impossible. The Saint has an entirely different opinion, and insists that even these can apply themselves to mental prayer with profit, although they ought to do it in a somewhat special way. This way consists in helping themselves by reading a book, which, she says, “will be a great help to recollection, and is practically indispensable; let them read, therefore, even if only a little, but let them read” (Life, 4).

This does not mean that we are to spend the time allotted to mental prayer in continual reading. Rather, we should use some devout book in which we can find, from time to time, a good thought which serves to recollect us in God, to put us in contact with Him. St. Therese of the Child Jesus, who suffered habitually from aridity, often used this method. “In my helplessness,” she said, “the Holy Scriptures and the Imitation [of Christ, Thomas Kempis] are of the greatest assistance. ... It is from the Gospels, however, that I derive most help in the time of prayer; I find in their pages all that my poor soul needs, and I am always discovering there new lights and hidden, mysterious meanings” (Story of a Soul, 8).


St. Teresa of Jesus, who before she was raised to the highest states of contemplation had long known aridity and the torment of importunate thoughts during prayer, confesses: “I passed more than fourteen years unable to meditate, except with the help of a book. ... With this help, I was able to collect my wandering thoughts, and the book acted like a bait to my soul. Often, I only needed to open the book: sometimes I read a little, at other times much, according to the favor which the Lord showed me” (Way of Perfection, 17 – Life, 4).

It is important to choose a book which will arouse devotion, such as, in general, the writings of the saints. It will usually be preferable to take a book we have already read and one which we know will be helpful. We may even have marked some passages in it which have made an impression on us, whereas with a new book we would be somewhat lost, and perhaps exposed to the temptation of reading out of curiosity. We must avoid selecting authors who are too speculative, and choose instead those who are more practical and affective, since we are not interested in studying or learning but in praying, which consists much more in the exercise of love than in the work of the mind. Hence we should read, from time to time, only what is necessary to put the soul in a proper mood for conversing with God. As soon as we have read enough – and it may be only a sentence – to arouse in us good thoughts and holy affections which will occupy our mind devoutly, we must stop reading and turn our attention directly to God: meditating in His presence on the thoughts we have read, or savoring in silence the devotion they have awakened in our heart, or even speaking to Him the loving words inspired by the reading. Like birds, who, when they drink, bend their heads toward the water, take a few drops, and raising their beaks toward the sky, swallow gradually, and then begin again, let us also bend our heads toward the devout book to gather a few drops of devotion, and then let us raise them to God, so that our minds may be fully impregnated with these thoughts. In this way, it will not be difficult to finish the prayer which we have begun by reading in an intimate colloquy with God.


Colloquy

O Lord, teach me how to seek You! Do not hide from my eyes, for I need to find You, to converse with You, to approach You, O infinite Love, to be inflamed and attracted by You.

“Although I am but dust and ashes, shall I speak to You, O Lord? Yes, from this vale of tears, from this place of exile, I dare to raise my eyes and fix them on You, supreme Goodness! Just as faithful servants and handmaids watch attentively for the slightest sign from their masters, so my eyes are on Your hands, O Lord. I beg You, have mercy on me.”

“O good God, have pity on the work of Your hands. I am incapable, Lord, of formulating by myself any good thought, since all my sufficiency comes from You; nor can I worthily invoke Your Name without the help of the Holy Spirit. May it please You, then, to send me Your Spirit, in order that the rays of Your light may shine down upon me from the height of heaven. Come, O sweet Holy Spirit; light of hearts; come, wonderful comforter; come, sweet guest and refreshment of our souls. You are rest in toil, dew on a summer morning, consolation in sorrow. O blessed Light! Fill the inmost places of my heart” (cf. St. Peter of Alcantara).

O Lord, enlighten my heart, for without Your light, without Your Spirit, even the holiest books leave me cold and dry and do not speak to me of You. When, on the contrary, You come to my aid and give me Your interior grace, then everything is illuminated with a new light, and even the simplest words are food for my soul. Grant me then, O Lord, this grace, without which no reading, however sublime, can inspire me with devotion; no reasoning, however lofty, can move my heart to love You and my will to accomplish good.


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