November 15, 2022
God gives us the freedom
In silent recollection, united in our deep faith, overcoming all the darkness that seeks to prevent it, we glorify You, Lord, in our silent adoration.
Send us Your Spirit to awaken in each one of us a burning love for You; to move us to seek You incessantly and to quench our thirst with the sweetness of Your presence. Amen
Dear friend, have you noticed in your walk of faith that there comes a time when knowledge and doctrines about God are no longer enough? Do you know why this happens? It is because they do not fulfil our deepest desires. … Because man seeks the Source himself, where he can quench his thirst and his deepest desires. It is not enough for him to know about God, but he desires God himself.
But, a drop of liquor wanting to join a whole ocean, must give up being liquor. In the same way to reach God will always be through renunciation and detachment.
Today I invite you to approach this Mystery of Immensity that we call God, in an attitude of wonder, of holy fear, of humility, of detachment from the things that normally entangle us… This attitude can be explained, in the words Moses heard before the burning bush that was not consumed: “Take off your sandals because the ground you are treading on is sacred”.
The experience or encounter with God will only be possible through prayer. Silence your mind right now and pray:
¡O inaccessible Summit! that we climb incessantly, without ever reaching. A reality of our being that we believe we have discovered, to soon see it disappear. Wonderful state that we believe to apprehend, but that leads us farther… farther more and more… each time towards unexplored depths… No one could say: I have known You and yet we all carry You within; and in the silence of our soul, we can hear the echo of Your voice saying: “I stand at the door and knock. If you open, I’ll come in and we’ll have dinner together”.
How can I do it, my God, how can we have this dinner alone with You? A dinner in joy and love. Is this utopian wonder at all possible?
Yes my friend. It is possible through what I expressed above: First, your sincere desire and second, walking the arduous path of humility, emptiness of self. Renouncing the haunting of the “ego”.
What is ego? It is that artificial being, full of illusions, fears that we all have adhered to ourselves and that tyrannizes our lives. This is our greatest obstacle!
Only God can break that egocentric core and free it in such a way… that it becomes purified, pacified, full of wisdom and peace… God’s presence bursts into our life in such a way that the egocentric self is overshadowed by a stronger Sun. The Sun that is born from above, but on condition of letting God do. Let us be molded like clay in the hands of the Potter; and trust that He will form us into His image and likeness. In the image and likeness of his model: The Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth.
I invite you to look at the Sun that is born from on High, and ask it to illuminate and free you from those shadows of death that chain your life:
Let us pray – (Prayer from the book Transfiguration, Chapter 2 Detachment)
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
I ardently beseech You to make my heart like Yours.
Give me the grace to gradually acquire a heart
Which is generous and empty, meek and patient.
Give me the grace to feel good in silence and anonymity
Free me from fear of ridicule fear of failure.
Keep sadness far from my heart.
Make me free, strong, and happy.
Let nothing disturb my peace, nor frighten me.
Let my heart be free from the need for self-satisfactions
Let me sleep in the bed of peace.
Clothe me in sweetness and patience,
Meekness and strength,
Gentleness and vigor, maturity and serenity.
And may those who see me, see You, Jesus.
Amen
October 1, 2022
Praying with the Psalms
“The Psalms are the best way to experience a truly profound prayer” (Saint Romualdo of Ravenna)
The Psalms are the flower and the fruit of a long romance between God and man. (Ignacio Larrañaga. “Psalms for Life”)
Dear friend, I invite you to enter into this world so vast, so ancient and also so current, which are the Psalms; to be able to know them better and thus live them more deeply; for the Psalms take from ancient times the experiences and prayers of many men, that dragged human life to God with their worries, hopes and discouragements; rebellions and submissions; imprecations and praises…
It could be said as well that they were the basis of spirituality and the foundation in Jesus’ prayer.
You have in the Bible, a rich Psalter with 150 Psalms; and most of them can be a magnificent crossroads where to meet God.
Therefore, it is important to acquire knowledge of what they express, so that when you pray with a Psalm, it would be an inexhaustible source of life.
You may choose a Psalm according to your state of mind.
There are Psalms that express misery and adversities of all kinds; even protests and imprecations… There are many others who are full of praise, where the psalmist expresses his gratitude, for the graces received during his life… There are other Psalms, where we see that the psalmist neither asks, nor complains, nor thanks… he simply worships… There are some Psalms of such beauty, that worship reaches the highest level of purity… The important thing is to choose the most appropriate one for your emotional state at the moment of choosing one to be able to express your feelings to God.
That’s why you need to get to know them and as you are reading them make notes of what they express as you read them.
How to pray and revive the heart with the psalms?
We proceed as follows: Make a brief invocation to the Holy Spirit, then, begin to pray the Psalm you have chosen with the prayerful reading method… pause… try to understand the meaning of the words you are reading…
Moments later you have to give way to the heart; that is, say with all your soul the most evocative words… (leave out those that don´t say anything to you) repeat them several times…. assuming the phrases you are saying; try to live them, identify yourself with the content of the phrases. Try to feel what the psalmist experienced when he was writing that Psalm.
Gradually let yourself be enveloped by the presence of God, and keep an intimate dialogue with Him, through the phrases that you are going to pronounce.
It is a question of making the heart alive; of making the phrases you say, something alive and vital in your dialogue with God. When you reach this stage your mind and heart are in His living and true Presence.
Make those verses you have prayed with yours, so that they move your heart to express feelings and words that do not come out of the intellect, there are not the fruit of reasoning; but reveal your authentic feelings.
In this way you will revive your heart with the Psalms! In this way you will avoid the greatest enemy of prayer: routine!
I invite you at this time to pray with Psalm 90 which expresses how, despite the fragility and lightness of man, his destiny is to be a child of Immensity.
At this moment make silence and gather yourself in your own interiority…
Let the Spirit of God envelop you with His gentle and loving breath as He pours out His gifts upon you. Be silent for a moment and say:
Holy Spirit come to me. For without You, I am nothing; without You, I cannot do anything; without You, I am worthless. Holy Spirit come to me.
PSALM 90 (89)
V1 Lord, you have been our refuge age after age.
v2 Before the mountains were born, before the earth or
the world came to birth, You were God
from all eternity and for ever.
v3 You can turn man back into dust by saying “back to what you were, you sons of men”
v4 To You thousand years are a single day
A yesterday now over, an hour of the night
v5 You brush men away like waking dreams, they are like grass
v6 sprouting and flowering in the morning,
Withered and dry before dusk.
v7 We too are burnt up by Your anger and terrify by Your fury
v8 having summoned up our sins, You inspect our secrets
By Your own Light
v9 Our days dwindle under Your wrath,
Our lives are over in a breath
v10 our life lasts for seventy years, eighty with good health
But they all add up to anxiety and trouble – over
the trice, and then we are gone
v11 Who yet has felt the full force of Your fury, or
learnt to fear the violence of Your rage?
v12 Teach us to count how few days we have
and so gain wisdom of heart
v13 Relent, Yahweh! How much longer do we have?
Take pity on Your servants
v14 Let us wake in the morning filled with Your love
and sing and be happy all our days;
v15 Make our future as happy as our past was sad,
those years when you were punishing us
v16 Let Your servants see what You can do for them,
let their children see Your glory
v17 May the sweetness of the Lord be on us!
Make all we do succeed.
Closing Prayer The Path 14
You are Everything
Father,
You are my food and my drink;
You are by bed; in You I rest.
You are everything that I am
and everything that I have
I am in constant communication with You.
Because You are the one who is, and
You are there; no place exists
where You cannot be found