“Deep calls to deep… By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life.”
Oh, blessed Feast of the Presentation (2/2) into Ash Wednesday (2/26) to dearest Sisters in Christ. February days will prove full. Then ready or not, Lent comes to meet us!
epiph·a·ny | \ i-ˈpi-fə-nē – an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking (Merriam-Webster definition). Epiphanies arrive unsolicited. Schlepping along the banks of a lake skipping rocks apparently served as an ideal milieu for one. Tossing a flat stone as best my five-year-old arm could lever it, the result was a loud thud. My brother, two years my elder, offered a side glance and comment, “Hey, you might have hit a fish’s head!” Oh, uh, huh, ahhh… my narrowed focus upon the lake’s surface instantly bloomed into a newfound fascination of what lie beneath the surface. The epiphany still guides!
Seven Sisters generously attend to the plea of the interior life versus skimming the surface of life. We hearken the lead of our Master, “Put out into the deep”. Though not fully understood, the invitation entices. We hold a calming sense that He patiently anticipates our acquiescence. In our littleness we find He who is all-sufficient. In our fractured love efforts, He who is Love awaits.
Therefore, we can contentedly enter our Holy Hours “knowing little about how and what to pray for”. In our poverty, God’s wisdom guides. The prayers needed for “that day, that week for that priest, that bishop” gradually unfolds. Trust swells. How wide the door to a peace that God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours. The psalmist reminds, “How great are thy works, O LORD! Thy thoughts are very deep!” (Psalm 92:5). They direct our prayers. St Therese of Lisieux concurs, “Let us go forward in peace, our eyes upon heaven, the only goal of our labors.”
Weekly fidelity before the Blessed Sacrament and entering the deep, trusting places of prayer there may open us to epiphanies. After all, we are in the presence of Light Himself, the dawn from on high. In His light, we see light (Ps 39:6). Little by little, grace upon grace, may we be led to an intuitive grasp of reality in more keenly understanding our significant role as intercessor and Father’s role and current needs as pastor (or spiritual director, hospital chaplain, educator, retiree, etc.). Knowledge of both assist us. May we also gain insight regarding the movement of our prayer efforts, a lingering in particular moments of prayer or even into periods of silence. The inner help we receive strengthens and sustains us and more so, fortifies the one for whom we offer these sacrifices. Our time of hidden prayer becomes a deeply cherished time.
At the beginning of the new millennium and at the close of the Great Jubilee, St John Paul II echoed this invitation of Christ, “Duc in altum” (put out into the deep). “These words ring out for us today, and they invite us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm and to look to the future with confidence.” In this new decade, let us listen closely too.
In this season of intense reform and healing in the Church, we submit our own interiors for the same. Church history endorses that periods of purification often coincide with periods of tremendous renewal and exaltation for the Church. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (I Cor 2: 9-10). As one who lived in the deep, St Louis de Montfort encourages, “Pray with great confidence based upon the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray.”
Let us continue to seek our own conversion in our very depths and to allow our prayers to be informed from this sweet center. More than simply what we offer, the Apostolate is enhanced by who we are. Our prayer fosters a virtue in us so as to endure all for the sake of love. The hearts of the priests and bishops stand to benefit and the eyes of the world take note of the witness of our lives. So many years ago, I was challenged by my older brother, John, to consider what lies below the surface. One of our patrons and an elder brother in Christ, St John Vianney, offers a challenge too: “There are those who lose themselves in prayer, like fish in water, because they are absorbed in God. There is no division in their hearts. How I love those noble souls.” Carry on, noble souls! (I promise not to throw stones!) St John Vianney, pray for us!
United in prayer and mission…that our prayers may find the heart of every bishop and priest…
… eternal gratitude continues as you each remember to offer a wee Hail Mary for me every day…. “One Ave Maria makes hell tremble” (St John Vianney). Pray that I will not ‘spoil the beautiful work that God has entrusted…’ (St Teresa of Calcutta)
… your kind emails and notes and phone calls and generous support always arrive to my heart door at the right moment! Your financial sacrifices are for 100% furtherance of Apostolate. THANK YOU! The letters of testimony are so beautiful and edifying! What glory is given to God through your writing! Eternal gratitude is mine for YOU! Be assured of my continued daily prayers for you at the altar.
Janette
+JMJ+
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