Silencio

I was reading in my Foster book on Prayer today and came across the following. I thought it was worth sharing...

"A second time honored practice is 'silencio,' or the stilling of what the old writers called "creaturely activity." This means not so much a siclence of owrds as a silence of our grasping manipulative control of people and situations. It means standing firm against our codependency drives to control everyone and everything around us. The agitated creaturely activity hinders the work of God in us. In silencio therefore, we still every motion that is not rooted in God. We become quiet, hushed, motionless until we are centered. ... We let go of all distractions until we are driven into the core. We allow God to reshuffle our priorities and eliminate any unnecessary froth. "
and at the end of that section-
"We must silence every creature, we must silence ourselves, to hear in the deep hush of the whole soul, the effable voice of the spouse. We must bend the ear, because it is a gentle and delicate voice, only heard by those who no lnger hear anything else." -Francois Fenlon

I have been thinking a lot about this hush as the busy activities of the year seem to bear down on me. And more and more I am realizing how Fear is the weapon of the evil one, because it is the opposite of peace and drives our peace. Allowing ones soul to rest in peace, meaning the deep love of the Trinity, despite what busy occurences the physical body and mind may be experiencing is the only ground for true caring to grow from. I find that as the year draws closer and fear begins to creep in with questions about my future plans, or lonliness, or even how an introvert will handle to mass of people from day to day, I find my ability to care and genuinely love others begins to dwindle. Of late however, I have found the grace of God pulling me back to that place of rest. Even without my asking first, He is teaching me a new way of living. And from there, care, love, and peace begin to grow anew. My prayer for us this year my friends is that we will not allow fear to atrophy our ability to love and care for our brothers, sisters, friends, and family but that our Father will hold us fast in a prayer of rest we may or may not be aware of. Have a wonderful week yall!

love,
anna

Good

Just thought this was interesting and good...


“The human soul is still the image of God, and no matter how far it travels away from Him into the regions of unreality, it never becomes so completely unreal that its original destiny can cease to torment it with a need to return to itself in God, and become, once again, real.”

From The New Man by Thomas Merton


love,
anna

"We will never fully appreciate the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist until we see the intimate connection that exists between the mystery of the Holy EUcharist and the mystery of the Church, the Body of Christ. -T. Merton

a good thing to think about.

interesting

So I read this pretty interesting chapter in the Richard Foster book, Prayer, I'm going through. That sentence amazes me because it has a lot of legitimate capital letters. Thats not often that you see five, no six, capitol letters in a sentence unless somethings wrong. Anyways, the chapter. back to the chapter. It was called "The Prayer of Relinquishment" (keep in mind this is different from resignation). Generally it was about allowing our will to be cruicfied... and to pray that we surrender everything encompased in a will, hopes, dreams, wants, needs- all of it, to the cross and let them be radically transformed through the resurection. It was about surrendering control, and trusting the Lord not only to take over, but to redeem things. Now, if you know me at all, you know that i am fairly fixated with control in most areas of my life- school work, my clean house, how loud thigns are, where I am (i used to drive everywhere i went so i would never get stuck anywhere)... But praying for discernment means relinquishing that control. Like Pride, thats a battle I will allow Christ to fight wiht me forever, because that is likely how long it will take for me to give up my healthy pride that I can control things and make them better.
I've been thinking about this chapter all day. Wondering if God will ever take control away from me, and if I will ever trust his goodness. I know i will one day, He can teach me, but it will be a long lesson. Simultaneously, I'm thinking about a new study for IV- a prayer study for older believers to walk in prayer with one another. I've had a vision of our chapter being in prayer as well as service for a really long time now, and I've felt the need for this group since about march when this idea popped up and wont seem to go away. But i worried. I still worry. What if our chapter doesnt want to pray? What if they dont want to make time to go to the Lord ever day- heaven knows I am far from faithful. What if they think its dumb? most of all, How would such a thing be STRUCTURED? that last one was sticky for me. So i justified us not needing such a group. Well, outreach is our focus this year; not prayer and inreach. Small groups dont typically go that intimate, maybe it wouldnt be appropriate anyway. But talkign to Andy LaGrange tonight I realized that none of those thigns have really been whats bothered me. What bothers me is that I cant plan it. Walking with brothers and sisters in prayer cant have a gameplan, to some large extent I will have to rely on the spirit to move. that scares me. What if it stays still? Will people still give it a chance?
I havent brought it before the Lord until today though. I th ink I am finally in a place to allow it to be cruificied. If it is resurrected, then I will go with the Lord down that path. But until th en, I'll have to be content to wait. It's a huge moment that the Lord has done there. I'm no good at waiting.

just and interesting idea. it's a good book.

love, anna