Meditation for the 23rd Sunday 2016

Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends? For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans. For the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns. And scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out? Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.

Anyone who takes up the practice of personal, meditative prayer soon discovers that prayer is all about relationship; it takes two in order for prayer to happen. It is, “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you”…, as the song goes in the King and I. It is about Christ the King and I. But in this striving to know Christ, I learn about myself as I see myself reflected in the eyes of him who knows me perfectly. Who I am, where I come from, why I am here, where I am going and how I am doing, all of these are learnt through a measure outside of myself; a measure held in the hand of the Designer. The world is full of all manner of measures and standards, some of which I may already apply to myself. In prayer, all of these are set aside; some as misleading, some as outright false, but all of them inadequate if I ever hope to learn who I am in truth. In this text from the Book of Wisdom, the author recognizes well the challenge these ponderous questions pose. (Even in this age, aided by the tools science provides, we end up with more questions than when we began.) But the author begins to understand that a Teacher is given to help us work our way through the challenges to understand life’s mysteries. “Who has learned your counsel, unless you have given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?”   This Teacher is the Holy Spirit. So now, having proclaimed his gospel, and as Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure, he reminds them of the Teacher they will have guiding them. “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.  All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:23-26 This is what prayer is – entering the presence of the Father and Jesus, to listen, to learn, to dialogue with them – with the Holy Spirit as the “translator”, helping us understand the heavenly language. It is not with our ears and audible sounds we hear, but with the heart-to-mind. St. Paul ends chapter thirteen of his first letter to the Corinthians: “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” (New Living Translation) The question then: “Do I pray; pray in the manner of meditative/contemplative prayer?” (These pages are devoted to encouraging and assisting this prayer.) If I have begun, is it time to refresh and renew my efforts?

Psalm 139

At the Beginning of Prayer When Strangers meet for the first time they are naturally guarded in how they reveal themselves. An atmosphere of trust is yet to be built. Certainly there are many things that one keeps hidden, especially things one is not proud of.  So on the surface a dialogue begins as they explore the degree to which they will be open to each other. This is no less true of how people often approach personal and meditative prayer. We feel the need to appear pious and spiritual; using the language of form prayers and various religious conventions. Believing we must impress, we take the role of initiator of the direction this prayer time will take. It's the head that gets a workout while keeping well-hidden things we believe would invalidate the very integrity of our praying. But all the while, as this struggle to get a good start at prayer unfolds, He waits - waits with loving patience for an opening to take his part. As the one praying approaches "in fear and trembling", (burdened with the expectancy of devotional correctness. Lk. 10:41) the Lord awaits to take him/her up into his arms with loving tenderness. May I suggest that one begins with a careful and audible reading of Psalm 139.

Psalm 139 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,  when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—  when I awake, I am still with you. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

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Conscience and the Voice of God

By God's willing it so, we live in a material world that God has designed and created. God also gave us intelligence by which we are able to investigate this material world and to discover its complexity. But what does it all mean? The great minds of religion, philosophy and science, have all pondered this great question through the ages and we turn to them looking for answers. But why not ask the One who created it all in the first place? “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Cor.2:9 Great minds may be helpful in pointing us in the right direction for our search, but only God knows what he has planned for each one.  But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 1 Cor.2:10 God has a vast vocabulary and can speak to us in many ways. It is the Spirit who translates for us, enabling us to understand the message God is speaking to us.  We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 1Cor.2:12 The more we listen the better we become at hearing and understanding what God is saying to us personally. But if we are not tuned in (prayer of contemplation) we are on our own, trying to make sense of it all. The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor. 2:14 Speak Lord, your servant is listening.

	Tuning In The Vocabulary of God When and Ways God Speaks
Scripture		Church Teaching	Sacraments
Sense of the Faithful		Inner Peace / Unrest	Prayer / Insight
Devotional Prayer		Spiritual Direction	Lives of Saints
Spiritual Reading		Faith Sharing	True Prophets
Manifestations of Charity		Spiritual Gifts	All Creation

Bishop Robert Barron has an interesting talk on the subject of Hearing God's Voice and the role of conscience.  [ ... Link ... ]