Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius February 19, 2017 Spiritual ponderings
Let us begin today’s reflection with the simple idea of praising God for the fact that he desires to be with us and wants to talk to us.
5. Heart of the Matter One day I was watching a documentary on the Navy Seals and as a part of this documentary the announcer explained that navy seals were first developed in a response to a problem. As the navy fought the Japanese in the South Pacific it found itself going from one island to the next island. Navy leaders would send airplanes to these islands to get a good view of the land and the different beaches and coves. There was a problem however the pilots and other crewmen could not see the dangerously sharp coral reefs underneath the surface f the ocean and so many of the landing boats would be ripped to shred by this unseen danger. In response to this navy swimmers began to form groups of underwater swimmers and it was their job to map the underwater coral dangers for the navy and in the process save lives and material. In Europe these divers were also give the task of blowing up the underwater obstacles that the Germans had placed along the coast of France.
Sometimes in our prayer life, I think many of us stay on the surface level and pretend that everything is just fine. The following is one of my favorite prayers:
So far today, God, I've done all right. I haven't gossiped, haven't lost my temper, haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or over-indulgent. I'm really glad about that. But in a few minutes, God, I'm going to get out of bed and from then on I'm probably going to need a lot more help. Thank you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen
What I like about the above prayer so much is that it reminds me that prayer needs to be more than surface level. We need to be brave enough to look down deep in us to discover what it is that we really need to talk to God about. It is often these deep thoughts and patterns of thinking that are the real dangers like the coral reefs were to the navy ships.
In my own prayer life, I make it a point to speak to God about what is bothering me. If I am mad at Him, I let God know that I am mad. If I am confused I am brave enough to admit that I don’t know something. Finally if I am disappointed or proud of myself, I let God know it to. There is no need to hold back from God. After all He is not going anywhere. He already knows what I have done but my experience of being able to tell Him what I have done and see Him not runaway strengthens my relationship with Him.
How would the world be different if Adam and Eve went to God and told him about the devil’s insinuations and lies?
6. Persistence/Consistency When I was growing up there were sometimes I was so focused on watching television that I would not notice when my grandmother had entered the room despite the fact that she was calling my name. My grandmother would walk up to me and place one of her hands over one of my ears. She would then say “Now that I know that what I want to say will not go in one ear and out the other ear anymore...” She would then proceed to tell me what she had been trying to say.
This memory of my grandmother came to mind when I started learning about consolation and desolation in the spiritual life. St. Ignatius of Loyola makes it very clear that God is always present in our lives. If he wasn’t we would cease to exist. There are times though in which we know or feel his presence and there are times that He feels absent even though He is always present. St. Ignatius called the times that God feels present consolation and the times in which God feels absent desolation.
A mistake that many Catholics make is the assumption that consolation is the goal of our spiritual life but the real goal of the spiritual life is to learn God’s will and to do it because God wants what is best for us. While God does not cause desolation, God can speak to us through desolation according to St. Ignatius.
According to St. Ignatius God allows desolation for one of three reasons. The first reason is that God respects our freewill. If we are not praying, He will not force himself on us. The second reason is that God wants to make sure that we are praying to be in a relationship with Him and not just to get good feelings. Finally God allows desolation to remind us that He cannot be controlled or manipulated and therefore even when we do everything right God may withhold His presence so that we realize that He is in charge and we are not.
No matter what reason God allows us to go through a period of desolation the important message is that we need to remain consistent and persevere in prayer. Like an athlete training for a race, we must persevere in prayer even when we do not feel like it as the athlete preserves in running even when he or she does not feel like it. St. Ignatius goes so far to say if you normally pray for fifteen minutes a day and now don’t feel like praying, you should then pray for sixteen minutes a day. This is important because it is the devil that desires you to stop praying.