Poverty and Prayer

A passage from one of the books I'm reading for formation this month called 'Clowning in Rome' by Henri Nouwen.  Note: Intercessory prayer is when you pray for someone else.

There is a powerful connection between poverty and intercessory prayer. When we give up what sets us apart from others-not just property but also opinions, prejudices, judgments, and mental preoccupations-then we can allow friends as well as enemies to enter with us into our solitude and lift them up to God in the midst of the great encounter. In real solitude there is an unlimited space for others, because there we are empty and there we can see that, in fact, nobody stands over and against us. An enemy is only our enemy as long as we have something to defend. But when we have nothing to hold onto, nothing to protect, nothing to consider as exclusively ours, then nobody can be an enemy and then we can, in fact, recognize in the center of our solitude that all men and women are brothers and sisters, In solitude, we stand so naked and so vulnerable before God, and become so deeply aware of our total dependency on his love, that not only our friends but also those who kill, lie, torture, rape, and wage wars can become part of our flesh and blood. In solitude we are so totally poor that we can enter into solidarity with all human beings and allow our hearts to become the place of encounter not only with God, but, through God, with all human beings as well. And thus intercessory prayer is the prayer of self-emptying because it asks of us to give up all that divides us from others so that we can become those we pray for and let God touch them in us.

Lent

A talk that gave last year around this time for the CLC guys at St Mary of Sorrows that I wanted to type up since I had it scribbled down on a piece of paper.

Lent offers us 40 days to enter into the desert with Jesus to prepare ourselves for the coming of Easter. Not so much for the new clothes or the candy, but it's about focusing on the resurrection from death into life and understanding the greatness we were created for. Lent offers us the challenge to revisit our sinfulness and how that impacts our personal relationship with Christ from our end and allows us to reorient ourselves in that relationship. Jesus spent 40 days revisiting the disciples after his resurrection before they were sent forth to be missionaries for the world, so it makes since for us to spend sometime revisiting the person of Christ and refocus on how we're called to be leaven for the world. (Acts 1:3)

40 Days in the Bible

(Gen 7:12) For forty days and forty nights heavy rain poured down on the earth.
(Gen 8:6) At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark

Moses was on the mountain with God for 40 days (TWICE)
(Exo 24:18) But Moses passed into the midst of the cloud as he went up on the mountain; and there he stayed for forty days and forty nights.
(Exo 34:28-29) So Moses stayed there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.


Elijah strengthened by one angelic meal went forty days to Mount Horeb where the Lord passed by and he heard the voice of God
(1 Kings 19:8) He got up, ate and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.


Jonah warned the City of Nineveh they had 40 days to repent
(Jonah 3:4-7 and 10) Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day's walk announcing, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed," (5) when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. (6) When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. (7) Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: "Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. … (10) When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.


Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness
(Mat 4:1-2) Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (2) He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.

Fasting is a heavy theme associated with the 40 days throughout the bible.  As a tradition we fast on Ash Wednesday (today) and Good Friday as well as abstaining from meat on those two days and every Friday during Lent.  Other traditions that we hold to are increased Prayer, Almsgiving, and Repentance.  A few specific examples of those would be going to Confession during Lent, giving up something we like a lot (Fasting), praying for a friend or cause, praying the stations of the cross, and donating our treasure (time or money) to others as a way of giving Alms.  These traditions all come from our ancestry as it's recorded in the bible.

Eros Love

An interesting point on the unity of body and soul.

Man is truly himself when his body and soul are intimately united; the challenge of eros can be said to be truly overcome when this unification is achieved. Should he aspire to be pure spirit and to reject the flesh as pertaining to his animal nature alone, then spirit and body would both lose their dignity. On the other hand, should he deny the spirit and consider matter, the body, as the only reality, he would likewise lose his greatness. The epicure Gassendi used to offer Descartes the humorous greeting: “O Soul!” And Descartes would reply: “O Flesh!”.[3] Yet it is neither the spirit alone nor the body alone that loves: it is man, the person, a unified creature composed of body and soul, who loves. Only when both dimensions are truly united, does man attain his full stature. Only thus is love —eros—able to mature and attain its authentic grandeur.


Nowadays Christianity of the past is often criticized as having been opposed to the body; and it is quite true that tendencies of this sort have always existed. Yet the contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive. Eros, reduced to pure “sex”, has become a commodity, a mere “thing” to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity. This is hardly man's great “yes” to the body. On the contrary, he now considers his body and his sexuality as the purely material part of himself, to be used and exploited at will. Nor does he see it as an arena for the exercise of his freedom, but as a mere object that he attempts, as he pleases, to make both enjoyable and harmless. Here we are actually dealing with a debasement of the human body: no longer is it integrated into our overall existential freedom; no longer is it a vital expression of our whole being, but it is more or less relegated to the purely biological sphere. The apparent exaltation of the body can quickly turn into a hatred of bodiliness. Christian faith, on the other hand, has always considered man a unity in duality, a reality in which spirit and matter compenetrate, and in which each is brought to a new nobility. True, eros tends to rise “in ecstasy” towards the Divine, to lead us beyond ourselves; yet for this very reason it calls for a path of ascent, renunciation, purification and healing.

Encyclical Letter: Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) Benedict XVI

Testimony of Hope

One of the books Chip and I are currently reading is 'Testimony of Hope' by Archbishop Van Thuan.  The book is the complete text of a Spiritual Exercises retreat that he gave to the Roman Curia (Cardinals of the Catholic Church & the Pope).  It's a very excellent spiritual book that discusses hope in Christ on a very real and profound level with a flair of asian influence.  The book is also influenced strongly from his 13 years in prison by the Communist government in Vietnam.  A particularly inspiring point about the Christian witness of loving our enemies was when in isolation, five police took turns so that there were always two guarding him.  The leaders had told them, "We will replace you every two weeks with another group so that you will not be 'contaminated' by this dangerous bishop."  Afterward the leaders told them, "We've decided not to switch you anymore; otherwise the bishop will contaminate all of the police."

Short Bio

He was born in the Imperial capital of Huế, Vietnam. In 1941, Nguyễn Văn Thuận joined An Ninh Minor Seminary and was ordained a priest on June 11, 1953. After six years of further studies in Rome, he was appointed in 1959-1967 as a faculty member and rector of the Seminary of Nha Trang.

He was appointed Bishop of Nha Trang on 13 April 1967 and received episcopal consecration on 4 June 1967 at Huế at the hands of Angelo Palmas, Apostolic Delegate to Viêt Nam (and later, Nuncio to Colombia and to Canada), assisted by Bishops Philippe Nguyen Kim Dien, Apostolic Administrator, sede plena, of Huế, and Jean-Baptiste Urrutia, titular archbishop of Carpato.

On 24 April 1975, he was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Saigon. On 30 April, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army, and Nguyễn Văn Thuận, targeted for his faith as well as his family connection to Ngô Đình Diệm, was detained by the Communist Government of Vietnam in a reeducation camp for 13 years, 9 of them in solitary confinement.

While in prison, he smuggled out messages to his people on scraps of paper. These brief reflections, copied by hand and circulated within the Vietnamese community, have been printed in the book The Road of Hope. Another book, Prayers of Hope, contains his prayers written in prison. The bishop fashioned a tiny Bible out of scraps of paper. Sympathetic guards smuggled in a piece of wood and some wire from which he crafted a small crucifix.

Quotes:

"God knows how to write straight with crooked lines."

Speaking of his mother, Nguyễn Văn Thuận said, "When I was in prison, she was my great comfort. She said to all, 'Pray that my son will be faithful to the Church and remain where God wants him'."


“In our country there is a saying: ‘A day in prison is worth a thousand autumns of freedom.' I myself experienced this. While in prison, everyone waits for freedom, every day, every minute. We must live each day, each minute of our life as though it is the last.”

Recorded on the Feast of the Holy Rosary, October 7, 1976, in Phu-Khanh prison, during his solitary confinement: "I am happy here, in this cell, where white mushrooms are growing on my sleeping mat, because You are here with me, because You want me to live here with You. I have spoken much in my lifetime: now I speak no more. It's Your turn to speak to me, Jesus; I am listening to You"[5].

Ten Rules of Life of Nguyễn Văn Thuận

I will live the present moment to the fullest.
I will discern between God and God’s works.
I will hold firmly to one secret: prayer.
I will see in the Holy Eucharist my only power.
I will have only one wisdom: the science of the Cross.
I will remain faithful to my mission in the Church and for the Church as a witness of Jesus Christ.
I will seek the peace the world cannot give.
I will carry out a revolution by renewal in the Holy Spirit.
I will speak one language and wear one uniform: Charity.
I will have one very special love: The Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Present Moment

If I look at the future, I am full of fear,

but why go forward into the future?

Only the present moment is dear to me,

because perhaps the future will not lodge in my soul.

The past is not within my power

to change, correct, or add something.

Neither the wise nor the prophets were able to do this.

I trust therefor to God that which regards my past.

O present moment, you belong to me completely;

I desire to use you as much as it is within my power...

Therefore, trusting in your mercy,

I go forward in life as a child,

and everyday I offer to you my heart

enflamed with love for your greater glory.

~St. Faustina Kowalska

Reflection on “The Annunciation: Mary’s call”

Archbishop Sheen explained that there is a difficulty in relating our call to Mary’s call. You might even say the Annunciation is a mystery, and a joyful one at that.

“Mary was chosen by God to be His Mother and was even prepared for that honor by being preserved free from the primal sin that had infected all humanity. If she were so prepared, would she be free to accept or to reject, and would her answer be the full fruit of her free will? The answer is that her redemption was already completed but that she had not yet accepted or ratified it. It was, in a way, something like our dilemma. We are baptized as infants, and our bodies become temples of God, as our souls have been filled with infused virtues. We become not just creatures made by God but partakers in Divine nature. All this is done in Baptism before our freedom blossoms, the Church standing responsible for our spiritual birth as our parents did for our physical birth. Later on, however, we ratify that original endowment by the fee acts of our moral lives- by receiving the sacraments, by prayers, and by sacrifices.” ~ THE WORLD’S FIRST LOVE

A variation of a question that has been stuck in my head for quite a while now and one that perhaps most people encounter that are earnest about the longings of their heart, is this. How am I to know I’m being faithful in attempting to discern and truthfully follow God’s will for me in both my vocation and in my daily life?


More recently this question has been a part of discerning my big Vocation and comes up so often in prayer and thoughts throughout the day that I would like to have some peace of mind to it sometime soon, but I’ve come to know through some good advice that God’s preparation of my heart in this discernment is quite possibly as important as the answer itself. I tried a number of different things at the beginning of my commitment and even the year before my commitment to prepare myself and keep track of how I’m doing as well as taking time to write down points of reflection. The latest system is my note cards and I wanted to share a few of those with you tonight.

October 17, 2009
I need to be leaning on my brothers to be able to live out my commitment and receive the intimacy that I need. Too often I reject the love of my brothers in the ways in which they reach out. I seem to be expecting or demanding that for me to accept that love that it should come in certain ways that I prefer. Lord, please remove my heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh on fire with your love.

November 28, 2009
God is asking me to be faithful:
-Some days the temptation to be disobedient is strong
-Some days I can’t clear my thoughts and I’m angry
+Sometimes I spring out of bed and I’m excited and hopeful for the day to come
-Sometimes I let other people’s attitude/their anger/their frustration penetrate my serenity
+Sometimes I can really feel God’s presence when I put my pride aside
In all of these moments God is asking me to be faithful.

December 18, 2009
This year is for my relationship with God. For my heart to be formed and the garbage to be cleaned out. To step out bravely into the dark with the light of Christ as my Truth. To love and be loved as God intended. To hopefully see into the depths of my heart and make free choices for my future that will ultimately bring me joy and peace. To know and believe that my reward in heaven will be great if I bear all of my suffering in the name of Christ.

December 30, 2009
You are a jealous lover indeed. I try to push myself to what would be good for me but I know you haven’t yet lead me there, if you are to lead me there. You want me to be content with discernment to be able to truly submit to you in your will for me, in your time. You want it all; you want me to be fully alive in you, to be free.

I’ve had to take to the method of keeping these things and pondering them in my heart after the model of Mary. Patience, trust in the Lord, slowly becoming and falling in love with Jesus my Savior. Working to do my best to say yes in the small things so I will be prepared for the bigger moments where more things are on the line. Lord, please grant us the grace to wait for your counsel and never forget your works. Hearts that are confident in your majesty and interior freedom in line with mother Mary’s Fiat.

Prayers for My Family

You'll notice that I added a new link to a seperate blog that I'm going to be posting on once a week (and I mean it this time!) called Prayers for My Family.  This is my Christmas present to my family and what is going to happen is that each week, for the next year, is dedicated in prayer to a different family member or family unit.  If you click on the link it'll give you a better explination, but for now I'm just floored how well recieved the idea was from my family and how greatful they were and on board to want to join in to be praying for someone else in the family in unison.