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Blessed Unrelating

Prayer of an Over-Socialized Introvert

When both words and silence perplex my desiccated
self dried out from hours, days, of narrating, associating—
wooed, enthused, amused by acquaintances,
pressed by the cherished weight of loved ones
and with nothing left to wring out for communicating—
when your longed-for presence is
too much and your absence unbearable,
when your beauty would efface me,

You (mercy!) free me from the burden of your heft
without asking me to speak to you, sing to you, think about you,
neither praise you, beg for forgiveness
nor (O graced withholding) stand dazzled by your radiance.
You vouchsafe me, you, word, water, beauty,
song, silence, a timeless instant of
unrelating to you
in you.

 

We are happy to announce that the Archdiocese of New Orleans is buying the Metairie Cenacle property.  Our own sadness at leaving is eased by the awareness that retreats will continue in this beautiful place.

“I am very pleased that we are able to purchase the property and keep the retreat house open for the women of the New Orleans area,” said Archbishop Gregory Aymond. “We are sorry to see the sisters leave the archdiocese but we are committed to maintaining a special focus on ministering to the spiritual needs of women and their families.”

Year of Faith (4th Reflection)

As an eager reader of James Gill’s column in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, I was shocked and disappointed last month to read (in his essay titled “Science Education Act provides plenty of reasons to be scared”):

“It is for science to encourage critical thought, and for religion to suspend it.”

No, no, and a thousand times, no!

On the contrary, a mature faith does not disdain, but welcomes critical thought. Would God give us a mind and then forbid us to use it?

● Critical thinking compels me to recognize, for example, that the Hebrew word adam means “humankind,” and therefore reveals more about the truth of humanity and our relationship with God than about an individual named Adam.

● Critical thinking allows me to ponder and wonder about the curious ways of God as expressed in the evolution of species.

● Critical thinking prompts me not to place limits on the limitless God who is present in the birth of a child, the music of Bach, the beauties of nature, the discoveries of science, and every molecule and quark.

● It is also critical thinking that obliges me to recognize my human limitations, and to acknowledge that at times reason itself bends the knee before the unfathomable mysteries of life and death.

 

The Spirit of God is always brooding over the cosmos
and over our own hearts.

 

Veni, Sancte Spiritus (I) – Verses 1 and 2
II – Verses 3 and 4
III – Verses 5 and 6
IV – Verses 7 and 8
V – Verses 9 and 10

Verse 9

Veni

 

Da tuis fidelibus,
in te confidentibus,
sacrum septenarium. 

- – -

On the faithful, who adore
and confess you, evermore
in your sevenfold gift descend.

In the last two verses we are asking for gifts.  “Give to your faithful,” we pray, grant to those who are trusting completely in you the sevenfold gifts (or the sevenfold holy things).

What are these sevenfold gifts?

Wisdom
Understanding
Counsel
Fortitude
Knowledge
Piety
Fear of the Lord

These are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, as listed in Isaiah 11:2-3.  (Although you will actually find only six gifts listed there, the seventh, piety, is included in the Septuagint and the Vulgate translations of Isaiah.

 Verse 10

Veni

Da virtutis meritum,
da salutis exitum,
da perenne gaudium,
Amen, Alleluia.

- – -

- – -

Give them virtue’s sure reward
give them your salvation, Lord;
give them joys that never end.
Amen. Alleluia.

Give them virtue’s sure reward. As St. Ignatius says, all good gifts descend from above, as rays descend from the sun, and waters from the fountain. Anything in ourselves that we can claim as good, any virtue, we recognize as a gift from God. So we’re not talking about earning something, nor getting a prize for being virtuous — rather we could say that the reward comes with the gifts itself.

We have to cooperate, of course. We allow ourselves to be disposed, like the friends and family of Jesus who gather in the Upper Room between the Ascension and Pentecost (Acts 1), persevering in prayer even though they don’t really know yet what is going on, or what their call is for the future.

As they pray in expectation of the Spirit, the Spirit is paradoxically already praying in them — for otherwise how would prayer be possible? — preparing them to receive that pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit when it is given.

…Just as the Spirit also prays in us whenever we pray. Because the Spirit prays in us, says Karl Rahner, “our prayer is infinitely more than our prayer. Because [the Spirit] helps, our prayer is a piece of the melody that rushes through the heavens, an aroma of incense that sweetly rises to the eternal altars of heaven before the triune God” (The Need and the Blessing of Prayer).

Give them your salvation, Lord,
Give them joys that never end.

When I was a senior in high school, our English teacher, Mrs. McLeod, was skilled in leading us into discussions that made us think about life. I vividly remember one day when she commented that children have the ability to be either totally happy or totally sad — can be one and then the other — but that for adults, joy is usually intermingled with sorrow.

Now remember, we were 17 or 18 years old then, and thought of ourselves as pretty grown up. Well, a girl in the class raised her hand and said, “But Mrs. McLeod, sometimes I’m completely happy.”

To which Mrs. McLeod very kindly and gently replied, “Yes, but Sue, you’re still a child.”

I hope Sue retained her capacity for joy. Here we are asking for the joy of a child of God: total joy, a never-ending and never-failing joy. And we are asking for the joy of God’s eternity, experienced in God’s own heart, and bestowed in God’s own time.

Amen. Alleluia!

Veni, Sancte Spiritus (I) – Verses 1 and 2
II – Verses 3 and 4
III – Verses 5 and 6
IV – Verses 7 and 8
V - Verses 9 and 10

Verses 7 and 8

Veni

 

Lava quod est sordidum,
riga quod est aridum,
sana quod est saucium.

- – -

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
on our dryness pour your dew;
wash the stains of guilt away.

Veni

 

Flecte quod est rigidum,
fove quod est frigidum,
rege quod est devium.

 - – -

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
melt the frozen, warm the chill;
guide the steps that go astray.

More literally, these verses read:

Wash what is dirty (or shabby),
moisten (bedew) what is dry,
heal what is hurt (or distressed).

Bend what is stiff (or inflexible),
warm (or caress) what is cold,
guide what has gone astray.

According to J. B. Phillips:

Every time we say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit,” we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.

J. B. Phillips, Plain Christianity

The Spirit is indeed working to transform us. However, one source of our humility resides in the likelihood that not everything in us that needs fixing is going to be fixed in this life. And this fact of our own continued imcompleteness is also a source of compassion toward other people — also in whom not everything that needs fixing is going to be fixed in this life.

Not to mention the possibility that what we think needs fixing in other people (or even in ourselves) may not be what God thinks needs fixing.

And so we continue to entrust ourselves to the Holy Wisdom of God.

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