As we begin the New Year and seek to be a better person, a better child of God, then the quest for a life of holiness should be at the top of our list of things to continue to do, because I do pray that we have been in years past seeking and walking a road of holiness with our Lord Jesus Christ.
On Monday next week I will be heading away for five days for my annual priest retreat. I will be spending my days in silence and in prayer to seek to renew, refresh and reenergize my relationship with God and his holy Church (that’s you). In other words, I hope to become a better Catholic in the practice of my faith.
One of the central things that I will be doing is prayer…I will be listening to, talking with and contemplating the voice of Love…seeking and being sought by the Divine Love. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us: “Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of he kingdom revealed to ‘little children,’ to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history but it is just as important to bring the help of pray into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom.” (CCC 260)
I know that I often speak of prayer and at times it can seem repetitious to say it again and again but in truth it is the life blood and the foundation of our love in God. Each day, I have promised through my Ordination, to pray for the Church, to pray for each and every person. As pastor of a parish, I am given the care of each and every soul that lives within the parish boundaries. And as a Christian, to faithfully live and proclaim the Gospel. These duties, while they may sound grand, are same duties as a father or mother have in the family. In Marriage, the spouses are called to pray each day for the other and with the other. They are given the care of the souls of each other and their children and are called to faithfully live out their Christian vocation in proclaiming the Gospel. And as it is with all vocations there is a necessary time of renewal and re-energizing of all relationships whether they are priestly, religious, marital or the single state.
The practical aspect of this is, we must learn to know the other. This is only possible when we choose to ask for nothing and give everything in love to the fount of all Love; to God. We may reflect on Christmas morning and how parents of young children expect nothing but the joy of their children as they gather around the tree. The parents have poured, time, talent and treasure in the hope that the love offered through the gifts spark the love of thanksgiving within their children. It is the same with the gift of the Eucharist and all Sacraments offered in the hope of the spark of thanksgiving, the response of love. Cardinal Sarah expresses this wonderfully, “The love that says nothing and asks for nothing leads us to the greatest love, the silent love of God. The silence of love is the perfect silence in the presence of God that sums up all goodness, all beauty, and all perfection.” (#99 “The Power of Silence” Robert Cardinal Sarah) Or as St. Francis of Assisi prayed…”It is giving that we receive.”
Because it is not about the gifts, but the desire to enter into joyful union where we discover God.
And believe it or not, this is the blessing I rediscover over and over again in my yearly retreats. When I am able to make a gift of my self, the gift of my vocation to God in silence and in prayer, God opens me in joy and returns ever greater joy into the poor vessel of my soul so that I may spend it in service of His Holy Catholic Church. And it is why each of us, and especially married couples together: need to, must do, take time to, or whatever phrase you wish to retreat with each other and God to be filled by the other and to fill the other in joyful blessing.
So I will take a week of prayer, “But do not imagine that prayer is an action to be carried out and then forgotten…Our whole day can be a time of prayer—from night to morning and from morning to night.” (St. Josemaria Escriva, “Christ is Passing By” P 119) So I may return to be prayer in the joy of Jesus Christ.
God Bless
Fr. Mark