Recent journal entries:

Faithful to the Magisterium
Keep Celebrating!
The Love Which Moves the Stars
Mystical Core
Not a High Definition World

Make Haste to Help Me!

When Sister Elizabeth (who was at that time Lieutenant Elizabeth Hillmann) returned from World War II, her post-traumatic stress disorder did not show up right away.  It surfaced after she entered the Cenacle, when she was sent to our retreat house in Middletown, Connecticut.  There, in order for the sisters to go from one place to another, it was necessary to walk through a long basement corridor where all the doors were closed – in other words, where there was no place to run.  For this is what she had been taught during the war, always to have a place to run – to take cover from strafing aircraft, to escape from any potential attack.

The long corridor brought back with a vengeance the terror of war.

Then something else came back to her, something she had read – that the early desert monks had walked about all day reciting the first verse of Psalm 70: “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.”*  She began to follow their example.

Descending into the corridor, Sister Elizabeth prayed, over and over, “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.”  Walking through the corridor, she prayed, “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.”  And eventually, throughout the day, she would pray, “O God, come to my assistance; Lord, make haste to help me.”

Gradually, the terror dissipated.

Here is a brief portion of what John Cassian (ca. 360 – 435) says about this verse:

And so for keeping up continual recollection of God this pious formula is to be ever set before you. “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me,” for this verse has not unreasonably been picked out from the whole of Scripture for this purpose. For it embraces all the feelings which can be implanted in human nature, and can be fitly and satisfactorily adapted to every condition, and all assaults. It contains an invocation of God against every danger, it contains humble and pious confession, it contains the watchfulness of anxiety and continual fear, it contains the thought of one’s own weakness, confidence in the answer, and the assurance of a present and ever ready help. For those who call constantly on their protector are sure of having him always at hand.

John Cassian (ca. 360 – 435), Conferences, X

For a helpful reflection on the same verse, see Father Pat Collins, CM, “Learning to Pray at All Times.”

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    * Douay-Rheims version.  This is the translation of Psalm 70:1 used at the beginning of each hour of the Divine Office (the Liturgy of the Hours).

Sister Rose Hoover

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