Ponderings

High on the summit of the mountain of the Lord, above the clouds of darkness and confusion, lies a tiny spring of crystal clear water, the waters of truth goodness and purity – a stream of pure and unblemished though and consciousness. As it descends towards the valley of sin and brokenness it becomes more and more polluted by the evil

Presently I am praying together with two friends to launch a new prayer initiative in the local parish. Each of us has received some
beautiful words of prophecy from the Lord on how to make this something after His own heart.

This morning in my prayer time I asked the Holy Spirit to teach me something new, and I was surprised at what came to me both in the prophetic sense in regard to the illumination of conscience, but also in the beauty in which it reveals the Mercy of God and the call to always remain strong in hope.

Before we sin the Lord is always the gentle accuser – don’t harm yourself or damage your relationship with me – calling us to draw closer and take refuge where He will shoulder the yoke with us. The demon on the other hand is the appeaser.

It opens the heart to see things from God’s perspective and it helps to heal images of God that are far far from the truth. In fact a point comes in the spiritual life where a Copernican shift occurs in which we realize that God is not a part of our world at all – we are part of His, and that as a consequence of our reversed spiritual vision form the fall, we have spent a lifetime trying to make God into our image, orbiting our needs and desires. Our images of God harsh and reflect more about us than about Him.  We can find a glimpse of God’s true face, though, through the revelation of His desire

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Having read the Gospel of Luke 8:4-15, I had only to get to Luke8:5 before the Lord reminded me how the seed is the grace of the
present moment, scattered again and again throughout  life, and how I have to repent for wasting it.  How often I waste this and trample it under foot by failing to respond to the proposal of Jesus in the now. It’s not so much an asking to “do” something but the cultivation of an awareness of Jesus companionship.

To walk in the freedom of the Spirit requires risk, one that we would often rather not take. For many Catholics this results in the
choice to hide their humanity behind the form of religion rather than be transformed by it’s substance. I count myself among those who should risk more for the Lord. We would rather be told what to do in every walk of our spiritual journey and be given a comfortable religious form rather than risk following the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Even those of us firmly committed to the Christian path of sanctification often, or even usually, have a backwards vision of spiritual reality. We see ourselves as searching for God and in need of great personal effort towards purification before we can arrive at a place where we might merit great spiritual favors or experience an infused level of contemplative prayer like the saints did.

For many the call to witness as Christians with a simplicity born of spiritual childhood been hijacked by the confusion propagated through social media and other internet outlets. The sad tendency for Catholics to flame those who don’t agree with their opinions, to openly criticize the Pope and to demand this or that form of liturgical reform, has left the church on the brink of a collapse