Tag: prayer

Even Now, Return to me

“Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.” (Joel 2:12-13)

These are the words of the prophet Joel to the people of Israel, but they are no less words for us today. “Even now” he cries, “return to [the Lord]. “Even now”, whether close or far from God, return to Him who is slow to anger and rich in kindness.

Scripture tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), what then are we to do… “Repent and believe” (Mark 1:15), Jesus says or as the Douay Reims declares, “Do penance…”

Merrium Webster defines penance as “an act of self-abasement, mortification or devotion performed to show sorrow or repentance for sin.” Further, mortification is defined as “the subjection and denial of bodily passions and appetites by abstinence or self-inflicted pain or discomfort.”

These are in keeping with what John XXIII says in Paenitentiam Agere, “Penance is that counterforce which keeps the forces of concupiscence in check and repels them.” and elsewhere, “Only so [by penance] will he be able to drive away the enemy of his soul and keep his baptismal innocence unsullied, or regain God’s grace when it is lost by sin.”

And how shall we make a return to the Lord (RF Psalm 116:12)? Through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These three pillars of Lenten penance are key to our “return to [to the Lord].”

Prayer is that elevation of the mind and heart to God (CF CCC 2559). A conversation of love. But prayer is penance too, Br. Lawrence reminds us that we “ought to give ourselves up to God, [in things both] temporal and spiritual… seek[ing] our satisfaction only in fulfilling His will, whether he lead us by suffering or by consolation, for all would lie equal to a soul fully resigned.” He further states “that… needed fidelity in those dryness, or insensibilities and irksomeness in prayer, by which our God tries our love to him, that then was the time for us to make good and effectual acts of resignation, whereof one alone would often times very much promote our spiritual advancement.”

Fasting is refraining from food or drink as an expression of interior penance. (CCC p 879 Glossary). It is too, however, an “apprenticeship in self-mastery” (CCC2339), a school in self-discipline.  Jesus says, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me (CF Matt 16:24). Our willful self-denial, first and foremost of those things that offend God, leads us most surly through the “narrow gate” (Matt 7:13-14). In fasting we learn to long for the things of heaven and to despise the things of earth, to subdue our passions and affections and order them to the things of God.

Almsgiving. Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me” (Matt 19:21). Jesus is constantly calling us back to himself, back to a relationship with Him. The “poor are with us always” (Matt 26:1), and it is the poor in spirit who have the kingdom of heaven (CF Matt5:3). Sharing our material goods and monies with the poor is both charity and penance. For we give from what we have and not only from our surplus (ref Mark 12:42-44, Tobit 4:16).

In addition to the materially poor are our spiritually poor brothers and sisters. Those who do not yet know God, or those who because of sin, or fear are far from God.

Let us remember the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. In this way we minister, as good stewards of God’s grace, to both the material and spiritual welfare of our neighbor.

Lord, as we enter this holy season of Lent, let us, even now, return to you. Guide us this Lent in your ways, and by our discipline and self-denial, make us holy and acceptable in your sight. For we know, Lord, that you are faithful from age to age and that eternal is your merciful love. Amen.

Patience in the Garden

Of all the plants in the garden, the bramble is the most stubborn and most unruly. It is a wild bush. Much time and effort is required to prune back his branches, and this is not without some consequence for the Gardener, for the bramble easily pricks and scratches him. And yet how patient is he and how gentle in his care? For he knows the wild nature of the bramble but knows all the more, that well tended it will bloom and produce much fruit at its appointed time.

It is the patience of the Gardner that encourages the bramble, and gives him the hope of blooming in due season. For unruly is his life, and he often grows where he will, where he should not be. How often must he frustrate the Gardner with his stubborn branches that bend so unwillingly. With much difficulty does he change his growing course.

The bramble would do well to take courage in the tending of so good a Gardner. For he knows what he is doing in the tending of so unruly a bush. For what seems to the bramble a mistake may very well be for the Gardener an opportunity. Trim here, prune there, pinup here and secure there. See how patient and thoughtful the Gardner works. The bramble would do well to be as patient with himself and the Gardner is with him.

Though he is stubborn, and training his branches is not an easy task, he does change, he does grow and flourish in the garden. It is the brambles effort to grow, to spread wide and far his branches, it is his nature. But is it the Gardner who directs his path, who watches day and night over the bramble, who rightly trims and prunes in due time.

With confidence let the bramble submit to the master, to trust the efforts of so good a Gardener. For what the bramble may not see from his place in the garden, is the plan of the Gardner. For it is he who planted him here, and he who will tend to so beautiful and diverse a garden.

“Unwilling as I may seem O Lord to bend in the direction of your hand, be ever patient with me as I grow here in Your garden. Do not abandon me to my unruly nature, but tame and subdue me, set me right upon the course of your desire. Grant me patience with myself, as you are so patient with me. May I in your careful hands, come to bloom and fruit in time, according to your most perfect will. Amen.”