|
Medjugorje
Message: June 25, 2012 |
|
Published
by the Marian Center of San Antonio / A Catholic Evangelization Ministry This beautiful message from Our Lady
was given on the 31st anniversary of her apparitions at Medjugorje. As
from the very beginning in 1981, today the Blessed Mother calls us to prayer : “With great hope in the heart, also today I call you to
prayer.” Throughout the
past three decades, Mary’s “School of Prayer” at Medjugorje
has been a training ground for “prayer of the heart” where we’ve heard
her perennial injunction to “Pray, pray, pray!” This is the path
that the Queen of Peace has shown us for finding peace in our hearts,
families, communities, nations, and the world. It is a path of conversion
of heart—a beautiful gift of God that requires our participation
through the opening of our hearts and minds in prayer. For Our Lady, prayer
is the answer to all our problems—personal, interpersonal, professional,
political, economic, social, cultural, physical, mental, emotional, and
spiritual. In this month’s message, Our Lady
sheds light upon prayer in a new way—as an integral aspect of our life
that is not to be compartmentalized or limited to only certain times or
actions, but rather a quality of being that is
woven into the fabric of our existence intimately from moment to moment. Our Lady reveals prayer as a sense
of Presence that pervades our everyday life—not just an isolated
action that we “perform” at Sunday Mass or when we recite our rosary or say
intercessory prayers. Our Lady tells us: “If you pray, little children, you
are with me and you are seeking the will of my Son
and are living it.” Did we know that?! Did we realize that simply by praying we
are automatically “with” Mary, seeking the will of
Jesus Christ, and living it?! All that—just by praying! In our usual fragmentary, compartmentalized
way of viewing things, we often hope that “if” we pray, we
might, at some future time,
experience or receive these wonderful blessings. But Our Lady says that they are already
ours, just by the fact that we are praying! This illuminates St. Paul’s instruction to
“Pray
always” and “Pray without ceasing.” Whenever
we are in prayer, we are with Mary and living the Divine will! This begs the question, how can we do it more?! Our Lady elaborates further the
meaning of prayer: “Be
open and live prayer and, at every moment, may it be for you the savor and
joy of your soul.” This sentence is loaded with jewels of
instruction and pearls of wisdom for our spiritual journey. To move from the
idea of prayer as a particular, isolated, and compartmentalized activity
that we “do” at certain prescribed times and places (like the hypocrites standing on street corners with their many words,
that Jesus warned against) to the notion of prayer as something we “live”
by “being open” is a great revelation pointing us toward a
profound transformation of human consciousness and a step forward in
spiritual evolution. Our Lady is moving us along the path from “doing”
to “being.” She says of prayer: “At every moment,
may it be for you the savor and joy
of your soul.” Surely Our Lady knows
that we cannot be attending Mass or saying specific prayers “at every moment.” And yet she calls us to let prayer be the
“savor” and “joy” of our soul in each moment we live. What an interesting word is “savor”! It means the taste of something—its
distinctive quality, property or characteristic, as well as the power to
excite or interest us. The Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich
Nhat Hanh, wrote a book
called Savor, which is about
mindful eating and mindful living, in alert,
attentive awareness of the present moment. “Mindfulness” is an
important spiritual practice in Eastern traditions which is perhaps similar
to the “savor and joy of our soul at every moment” to which Mary is inviting
us as she broadens and deepens our understanding of “prayer.” Many times in Medjugorje
Our Lady has said, “Pray until prayer becomes joy for you.” Similarly,
Jesus told us, “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste,
with what can it be seasoned?” (Mt 5:13) All of these sayings are leading us to an intense
quality of being, from moment to moment, that truly “tastes” the Presence
and action of God in wakeful, conscious awareness or “mindfulness” of the
eternal Now we are living. In this 31st anniversary
message, Our Lady moves us forward in her School of Prayer, advancing and
promoting us to the next “grade” in our spiritual journey—as she says, “with great hope in the heart,” even in
the midst of these hard times for the Church and for religion in general in a
sad, cynical, and disillusioned world.
She gives us a new definition of prayer: to “be open.”
She gives us a new understanding of what prayer is supposed to be: “at every moment…the savor and joy
of your soul.” In these
teachings, Our Lady is sharing with us the solid food of the spiritually
mature: the contemplative dimension of the Gospel that moves us from
isolated, circumscribed events we call “prayer” to an abiding state of
God-consciousness through open loving awareness and attentiveness to the
Divine Presence in each moment of our life. The kind of spiritual
practice that helps us cultivate this abiding awareness and surrender to the
Divine Will is a silent prayer form of receptivity and intention such as
Centering Prayer or the ancient scriptural reading called Lectio Divina.
May we open ourselves wholeheartedly to these next steps with Our
Lady! July
Musings . . . What is ‘Pro-Life,’ Anyway? . . . Is Centering Prayer ‘New
Age’?. . . The Stages of Church Consciousness . . . Big Book Wisdom . . .
& More on Mary What is “Pro-Life,”
Anyway? Patrick O’Neill and his wife, Mary Rider, have eight children. Their
lives are wholly devoted to an authentic Catholic lifestyle, as they have
founded and serve 24/7 in a Catholic Worker House in North Carolina. Their
entire large family lives, breathes, and advocates for a consistent ethic of
life as being sacred “from the womb to the tomb.” In other words, they truly deserve the
title, “Pro-Lifers.” Ironically and disappointingly, this exemplary pro-life family receives
criticism from all sectors of Catholic activism for life. They make the
annual trip to Washington, DC for the March for Life calling for an end to
abortion. Some of the children have also joined a “Die-In” in front of the
White House to protest US drone attacks on civilians, and the family has
marched from the White House to the Supreme Court to protest the 10th
anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay prison opening, where scores have been
tortured and detained without due process. In embracing a consistent ethic
of life, this family stands opposed to abortion, euthanasia, war, capital
punishment, poverty, racism, sexism, and environmental degradation / global
warming. All of these stands are supported and heralded by the Catholic
Church and there are many papal, ecclesial and magisterial teachings to back
them up. Sadly, many Catholics who call themselves “pro-life” are actually only
“pro-birth,” as their advocacy for “life” is limited to anti-abortion
efforts. While vehemently opposing abortion, God help you once you’re born, for many “pro-life” Catholics also
support US militarism and arms buildup, the accessibility of guns at every
level of domestic life, war, capital punishment, exploitation of the earth’s
natural resources, and the abolition of social programs that would support
poor mothers in problem pregnancies and their children—those in our society
who need help “post”-birth, in order to live with dignity this life that we
deem so sacred. There is a serious flaw in Catholic thinking that calls itself
“pro-life” while supporting all sorts of postpartum killing. Such superficial,
compartmentalized thinking often views the criminalization of abortion
through legislation as the only path for ending it, rather than addressing
the underlying socio-economic conditions that keep women from choosing life in the first place. Here, as in the
other contradictory stances mentioned above, there is a manifest lack of love and compassion in this grossly mislabeled “pro-life” position. The larger problem we face in our world is simply killing, or what Pope John Paul II called the “culture of death,”
and abortion is one aspect—and oftentimes, a result—of it. In his encyclical The Gospel of Life, John Paul II
identified the biggest threat to humanity as the widespread
debasement of life through drugs, war and arms,
abortion, euthanasia, destruction of the environment, and the unjust
distribution of wealth. He wrote that these scourges are all caused or
supported by economic, social and political structures that conspire against
life: a culture of death. This view is deeply holistic,
consistent, comprehensive and coherent, unlike the fragmented
“cherry-picking” concerns of many so-called “pro-lifers.” Unfortunately, the O’Neill family gets grief from all sides, with
single-issue “pro-lifers” (who are really only pro-birth or anti-abortion)
berating them for diluting the “Cause” with so many other Life issues, and
more progressive or liberal folks criticizing them for being “anti-woman” in
their support of the unborn. In reality, this family gives witness to a
“seamless garment” of respect for life that is deeply rooted and sincere,
without any of the loopholes of Pharisaic hypocrisy that Our Lord so often
bemoaned in the religious leaders of his day. We might all measure our own
advocacy for Life in the light of this family’s example, which models a real respect for its sanctity and the inherent dignity
of the human person, not only at the beginning and end of life, but at every
stage in between. Should Catholic activists who support life in the womb but death and killing
everywhere else really be allowed to claim the title, “pro-life”? Is Centering Prayer “New Age”? EWTN aired a 13-part series entitled, The New Age: Satan’s Counterfeit.
In the third segment of the series, Centering Prayer is identified
with New Age aberrations and with Eastern religions. The following
clarifications are in order concerning allegations brought against Centering
Prayer in this series [or in any other source that tries to link Centering
Prayer to “New Age.”] 1. Centering Prayer is a traditional form
of Christian prayer rooted in Scripture and based on the monastic heritage of
Lectio Divina. It
is not to be confused with Transcendental Meditation or Hindu or Buddhist
methods of meditation. It is not a New Age technique. Centering Prayer is designed to prepare sincere followers of Christ for
contemplative prayer in the traditional sense in which spiritual writers
understood that term for the first sixteen centuries of the Christian era.
This tradition is summed up by St. Gregory the Great at the end of the sixth
century… as the knowledge of God
impregnated with love…the fruit of
reflection on the word of God in scripture, as well as the precious gift of God. He calls it
“resting in God.” In this “resting,” the mind and heart are
not so much seeking God as beginning to experience what they have been
seeking. This state is not the suspension of all activity, but the reduction
of many acts and reflections into a single
act or thought to sustain one’s consent
to God’s presence and action. 2. Centering Prayer does not “empty the
mind” or “exclude other forms of prayer.” It is not a “technique that
automatically creates mysticism” or a means to “reach an altered state of
consciousness.” It is important not to confuse Centering Prayer with certain Eastern
techniques such as Transcendental Meditation. The use of the Sacred Word in
Centering Prayer does not have the calming effect attributed to the TM
mantra. There is no cause-effect relationship between using the Sacred Word
and arriving at some altered state of consciousness. The
Sacred Word is merely the symbol of the consent of one’s will to God’s
presence and action within based on faith in the doctrine of the Divine
Indwelling. The Sacred Word is simply a
means of reaffirming our original intention at the beginning of the prayer
period to be in God’s presence and to surrender to the divine action
when we are attracted to some other thought, feeling, or impression. 3. Centering Prayer is designed to deepen
the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity and to develop the most
ancient of all Christian methods—the practice of Lectio Divina leading to contemplation. Centering Prayer is two things at the same time: first, the deepening
of our personal relationship with Christ developed through reflection on scripture; and second, a method of freeing
ourselves from attachments that
prevent the development of this relationship.
It reduces the tendency to over-activity in prayer and to depending
excessively on concepts in order to go to God. In short, Centering Prayer
reduces the obstacles in us, especially selfishness, so that we become sensitive to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit
that lead to divine union. This form of prayer was first practiced and taught
by the Desert Fathers of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. It has representatives
in every age: St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great…St. Bernard of Clairvaux…St. Hildegard, St. Mechtild,
Meister Eckhart…the author of the Imitation
of Christ and The Cloud of
Unknowing…Julian of Norwich…the Carmelites St. Teresa of Avila, St. John
of the Cross, and St. Therese of Lisieux…St.
Francis de Sales…Fr. Jean Pierre de Caussade…Thomas
Merton. The method of Centering Prayer is a further attempt to present the
teaching of earlier times in an updated form and to make it available to
ordinary people who are experiencing a hunger for a deeper life of prayer and
a support system to sustain it. The Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some Aspects of
Christian Meditation (by Cardinal Ratzinger) was not directed at
Centering Prayer, which is the traditional form of Christian Prayer. Having noted the affirmation (in the Letter) of the value of
Eastern practices when rightly integrated into Christian faith, may I point out
that Centering Prayer is the one contemporary form of contemplative practice
that does not make use of any of these techniques? The quotation from the Letter that the gift of
contemplative prayer can only be granted through the Holy Spirit is precisely what we teach. Nor does
Centering Prayer encourage a privatized spiritual journey or the seeking of
spiritual experiences, but rather fosters the complete
surrender of self in faith and love that leads
to divine union. There is much greater danger in concentrating on oneself in
discursive meditation and in intercessory and affective prayer, especially if
one is preoccupied with one’s own feelings and reflections. In Centering Prayer one is not reflecting on one’s self or
one’s psychological states at all. – Fr.
Thomas Keating, OCSO “When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and
pray to your Father in secret.” --Jesus in Matthew 6:6 The Stages of Church Consciousness: Building More Stately
Mansions In John 16:12, Jesus anticipated the higher levels or stages of human
consciousness that would someday evolve through the Holy Spirit, noting that
there were many teachings of His that were not accessible to His followers at
present: “I still have many things to say to
you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, that
Spirit will guide you into all the truth.” In the famous poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Chambered Nautilus, this wondrous sea creature’s evolving
spiral of homes being gradually outgrown and abandoned for new ones
symbolizes the human soul: “Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, as the swift
seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than
the last, shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
till thou at length art free, leaving thine
outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!” All religions, including Christianity, evolve along with the emerging stages and modes of human consciousness,
gradually outgrowing old paradigms of understanding, and opening, like the
nautilus, into larger “chambers” or “mansions” of spiritual growth. In
Christianity, our evolutionary movement is always from “less
Love” (or Jesus-likeness) to “more
Love” (or Jesus-likeness). Jesus
himself lived at a much more evolved or higher level of loving God-
consciousness than anyone had ever attained, and—as he taught in the
Gospels—was pointing the way toward
which the Holy Spirit would lead all of us, in time. In its earliest modes, the Christian religion was Magical: the first level “Tribal” Church was filled with concern for fantasy and family, and the
second-tier “Warrior” Church fixated on fighting and fervor. With centuries of
development, Christianity grew into a Mythical religion with its third-stage “Traditional” consciousness focused on faithfulness and fitting-in, or
“mythic membership” through dogmatic orthodoxy. From there, Christianity
slowly grew into Mental
religion in its fourth and fifth stages, called “Modern” and “Post-Modern,” which have been both flourishing and flailing, fulfilling and flat.
Today we stand at this crossroads where the Church struggles and gasps to
survive amidst the powerful cultural impact of secularism that is emptying
Catholic and non-Catholic pews alike. So we find ourselves in the 21st century on the threshold of
a new frontier: from Magical, Mythical, and Mental stages (all of which still exist in certain places), we are called to
evolve to the fourth mode of the Christian religion which we might call Mystical religion, represented by an “Integral” consciousness. Fr. Thomas
Keating has said that in Medjugorje, Our Lady is
calling us to the contemplative dimension of the Gospel; that is, to this “mystical” level of consciousness that is the
Church’s emerging next stage of development. The great Catholic theologian
Karl Rahner, SJ, wrote prophetically: “The Christian of the future will be a
mystic, or not exist at all.” He was pointing precisely to this moment in the evolving stages
of our religious, spiritual, and church consciousness; as at every level in
this developmental process, we must “evolve
or die.” Christ has promised that the
Indwelling Spirit of God insures our ongoing evolution against “the gates of hell.”
(Adapted from Paul R. Smith, Integral
Christianity: The Spirit’s Call to Evolve) WISDOM TEACHING from the Big Book
of Alcoholics Anonymous: When I stopped living in the problem and began living in the answer,
the problem went away….And acceptance
is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find
some person, place, thing, or situation—some fact of my life—unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that
person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing,
absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by
mistake. Unless I accept life completely
on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what
needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes.
(p. 417)
|
Mark Your Calendar
|
July 4 |
Independence Day |
|
11 |
St. Benedict |
|
16 |
Our Lady of Mount Carmel |
|
22 |
Rosary
Making: 2:00 pm - 5:30 pm, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s, ……… free parking &
materials |
|
26 |
St. Joachim & St. Anne, parents of
Blessed Virgin Mary |
|
28 |
PEACE
MASS: 12 noon, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s ………11:30 am Peace Rosary |
|
“If I look at the mass of humanity, I will never act. If I look at the one
human being, I will. What people
really need is for someone to be Jesus to them.” --
Mother Teresa of Calcutta |
|
Copyright, Marian Center of San Antonio. All
rights reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced without
permission. |