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Maintaining Consistency:
After consistency is established,
the next issue is to maintain it.
While maintaining consistency
might seem simple enough, it is
often more difficult than it
seems, and in most cases, there
are some very significant issues
which need to be addressed. As a
matter of fact, consistency is
rarely established for more than a
few weeks. In the few cases where
consistency is established, it is
usually lost in a matter of months.
We tend to look at consistency as
only having the discipline of
maintaining a certain schedule,
but almost everyone maintains a
schedule while hardly anyone
maintains consistency. Consistency
puts us on the path towards deep
prayer, deep prayer is the most
powerful thing that can happen to
a human. At the very least, it is
a life changing event, and
although few people realize it,
the course history often revolves
around it.
For example, given the holy
development in Avila, it is not
surprising that the Spanish
discovered the New World and
converted most of it Christianity.
Christianity went from a European
religion to a North American,
South American, and European
religion. A secular historian
would argue that it was a natural
development of imperialism, but
evangelism doesn't occur
naturally. For example, look at
Asia. The one country the Spanish
took an interest in, the
Philippines, is the only country
in Asia that is mostly Christian,
but all of Asia suffered
from imperialism.
The evangelical success did not
occur because the Spanish were
better at evangelization. The
Spanish did not enjoy this measure
of success either before or
afterwards. The success occurred
because the deep prayer brought
God and the world closer together.
It was a grace given as a gift
between friends.
While most of us would be highly
skeptical that Avila had anything
to do with the spread of
Christianity, so many similar
circumstances have occurred
throughout history that the cause
and effect can nearly be reduced
to a mathematical equation. We
only need to look at the impact
and effect of the lives of Saints
Dominic (of Guzman), Benedict,
Thomas (of Aquinas), Paul (the
Apostle), Francis (of Assisi),
Colette, Clare (of Assisi),
Catherine (of Siena), and many
others. With possible exceptions
similar to those of Dominic at
Muret or Joan (of Arc) at Orleans,
secular historians won't record
the historical linkage which is
why they can not foretell the
future, but through the eyes of
Faith, the Church knows well in
advance the course that will be
taken. As more recent examples of
this phenomena, look to Fatima or
"Humanae Vitae", and the
historical examples, that could be
used, would fill many books.
Consistency changes things, and
change doesn't come easy. The
greater the change, the harder it
is, and God is restoring the world
to a sinless state. As we become
consistent, we begin participate
in God's venture of change. To say
the least, we should expect
consistency to be troublesome.
This is most likely why
consistency is such a rarity.
Consistency requires that we at
least attempt to focus our
thoughts. If we lose our focus
during prayer and allow ourselves
to engage in idle chatter, we will
find these prayer times to come
much easier than deep prayer. To
be perfectly clear, chatter is not
consistency, because deep prayer
requires focus. In deep prayer we
listen to God (not vice versa).
Many of us have been taught that
prayer is talking to God. While
this can be an accurate
definition, in any reality, what
are we going to tell God, that God
doesn't already know? We can't
participate in God's design, if we
don't listen to it, or as Padre
Pio puts it, "Don't be a
nuisance."
Since we know how difficult
consistency is going to be, let us
look at some practical problems we
might encounter when trying to
maintain consistency. These are
common problems that people have
after they found consistency.
Before we get into the list, we
should keep in mind that any list
of this sort can never be
exhaustive (although these
problems are some of the more
common ones), and we can easily
have more than one problem at a
time. Progress isn't made as much
by solving the problem as it is by
moving towards
spiritual poverty which
we might call the second
step of deep prayer.
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The Boredom of Control:
For some of us, maintaining
consistency is as easy as getting
up earlier and praying. When we
are able to do this, the greatest
danger to consistency is probably
dry (read boring) prayer times.
Dry prayer times have a number of
problems. For example, since the
prayer times are boring, we might
decide that the prayer times have
little value which isn't exactly
inaccurate, but we want to use
virtue to eliminate the boredom.
We don't want to give up the
consistency.
When we have so much control over
what we do, we often control our
prayer times, but at some point,
we want God to control our prayer
times. The same discipline that
established consistency makes it
difficult for us to, "Let go and
let God."
When we have this much discipline,
we probably value our time. If we
are not getting much out of the
prayer time, at some point, we
might decide that the prayer times
are not working for us. We need to
avoid this line of thinking. Since
we are all called to love God,
prayer times are for everyone.
Boring prayer times are the result
of bad technique (not good
routine). God doesn't need good
technique, but we have to work
with who we are.
The technique we need to escape
boredom will be more fully
developed later, but we will touch
on certain points here.
We can not expect to know much
about meditation during our first
session. As Jesus told Martha, we
are worried and upset over many
things, and during quiet times
these things can percolate. In the
"Song of Songs", the lover comes
in the stillness of night and
under the cover of darkness. We
want to establish techniques that
move us toward a productive
stillness.
For example, when most people
begin to meditate, they can only
hold their undivided concentration
for maybe 2 to 6 seconds. In
addition, concentration is as much
emotional as it is mental. As we
begin concentration techniques,
emotional turmoil is likely to
surface, and we will need
inner healing to
deal with these things
in an effective fashion. The inner
healing could come with the aid of
others in our prayer group, but in
most cases, so much healing is
required that we need to
understand at least some of the
basics ourselves. We won't cover
inner healing here, as there are
many good books on the subject.
After the inner healing phase, we
usually go through the creative
phase. All kinds of new ideas pop
into our heads while we are trying
to pray. Our concentration is
getting better, and we are
becoming more intelligent. These
ideas are likely to be some of the
best ones we have ever had, but we
can't let them distract us from
our march towards
spiritual poverty. In
other words, we need to ignore
these creative urges. We can take
advantage of them after the prayer
time is over, but during the
prayer, let us not forget to keep
our undivided attention on the
meditation.
The phases are different for
different people, but the
following phases are typical for
those of us who prefer discipline.
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1. |
Interesting Activity: For
example, we may feel ourselves
developing a relationship with
Jesus as we read the Bible.
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2. |
Inner Healing: As we grow quiet
(perhaps we are concentrating on a
certain passage from the Bible),
all kinds of past events, that
haven't been emotionally resolved,
come to interfere with our
meditation.
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3. |
Creative Impulses: Once we are
quiet for short periods, we are
likely to feel creative surges
which must be ignored. As Saint
John of the Cross put it, let us
not be running towards Jesus
through a field of flowers only to
stop and smell the roses!
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4. |
Boring Inactivity: When
everything is quiet, we are likely
to be bored. While the inactivity
is necessary, we must double our
virtuous efforts (i.e., practice
faith, hope, and charity) to bring
an bring an experience of God out
of the quiet (Ed Note - Don't
worry; we will cover this in detail
later).
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Boring prayer times are neither
necessary or desirable. Since they
are unpleasant, we will find them
emotionally repulsive. We can
easily get frustrated with the
lack of progress and start
thinking that we will never make
real progress. Boring prayer times
are an indication that we are not
making as much progress as
possible. In other words, we are
close, but we are not practicing
good technique.
Before the music resonates with
the crowd, we need to have the
right music playing to the right
audience. Along the same line of
thought, we want to pick a
meditation that has the right
theme with the right amount of
activity.
Let's consider the activity first.
When we are new to deep prayer,
our prayer times will need to be
more active. As we gain control,
the amount of activity in our
prayer should be reduced. If there
is too much or too little
activity, we will tend to be
bored.
Activity is somewhat like clothes
for our ego. At first our ego will
be large, and we will need a lot
of activity to fit it.
As we find God, our ego becomes
smaller, and we will need less
activity. If we have too much
activity, the clothes will get in
our way. In other words, we will
be spending time on the activity,
when we could be spending time
with something more meaningful.
If the clothes of activity are too
small for our ego, they will seem
restrictive and confining. When
the activity is too little, the
prayer time can almost seem
painfully rigid.
Let's look at some examples of too
much activity. Spiritual readings
are highly active. For example, it
would be considered highly active
to read the Bible without stopping
to ponder it. If we are reading
the Bible for the first or second
time, we will be finding out about
Jesus, and this is the primary
purpose of the Bible (as Saint
Paula convinced Saint Jerome -
Jerome compiled and edited the
Bible as we know it). At this
time, continous reading is
probably the correct amount of
activity.
At some point, the study of the
Bible begins to be less about the
personality of God, and more about
facts that surround the story of
Jesus. For example, we might
notice inconsistency, humor, and
other items that will never lead
us to spiritual poverty. Then, it
is time to ponder.
When we ponder, we can't worry
about what clothes Jesus wore or
roads He traveled. We need to
ponder something that takes us
into the infinity of God. In other
words, we should ponder something
mysterious. For example, it is
unlikely that the pondering of who
won the roll of dice for the
clothing of Jesus will lead to
much progress. It would be better
to ponder, for example, why Jesus
had to die.
While pondering is not as active
as reading, we won't reach
spiritual poverty by pondering. We
need to learn to relate to the
person of God, but pondering tends
to dwell on the attributes of God.
We can also make the mistake of
using too little activity. When
this happens, we usually don't
have enough structure to carry us
through our own prejudice, bias
and other personality quirks that
we may have. In a typical example,
we would be using too little
activity if we tried to maintain
consistency with the Jesus prayer.
There is nothing specifically
wrong with the Jesus mantra,
except that it is usually too
little activity for us.
With too little activity, the mind
wanders which is okay as long as
we don't justify the distraction.
To put this another way, any
authentic prayer time has a
structure and a goal. In terms of
the structure, we use the
commemoration to
reach spiritual poverty. Then we
drive the spiritual poverty with
virtue to reach
contemplation which
is the goal. If this seems overly
simplistic, we need to remember
that God is infinitely simple. We
are suffering a distraction any
time that our heart, mind, or soul
wander from the commemoration.
With too little structure, we
might wander from the simplicity
and then justify the waste.
The distraction is not that
harmful and certainly not
dangerous, unless we endanger our
simplicity by letting the
distraction become our
destination. We might even make
some progress while meandering
here and there, but we are
certainly not taking the shortest
distance between two points.
The structure can be either
personal, social, or both. In our
Jesus prayer example, a personal
structure would be to empty
ourselves as we are beathing out,
and let Jesus us fill us as we
breath in. When the breath is
either completely out or in, we
would ask ourself if we are on
track. A social structure would be
to quietly use the Jesus prayer
during a social prayer such as a
Mass or Rosary.
Activity is something to be aware
of, but the root cause of boredom
is a lack of virtue. We need to
practice virtue as we pray. Virtue
is the key that opens the door to
the contemplative experience.
Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint
John of the Cross, Pope John Paul
the II, and others wrote about the
connection between virtue and
contemplation, but for most of us,
it is still an area that lacks a
general understanding. We can't
cover what is needed about virtue
here, but we will begin to explain
what it is.
Virtue and activity are somewhat
related as Saint John of the Cross
so adequately demonstrated. In
other words, we should practice
virtue in the meditation, and as
we begin to leave contemplation,
we reemphasize the virtuous
meditation.
To be more clear, when we pray, we
don't doubt God; we believe that
God loves us, and want to have a
relationship with us. We believe
that God will give us a deep
contemplative experience to help
us build a relationship with God.
A virtuous meditation needs a
focus (or actually a window) and
only Jesus and Mary provide the
perfect window (for they are
without sin). The Saints provide
good windows, and we should be
able to see a little of God in
just about anyone. In a hopeful
meditation, we long to feel the
presence of either Jesus or Mary.
The stage before contemplation
involves the surrender of our own
agenda to feel and to belong to
our focus (i.e., Jesus or Mary).
This is the virtue of charity,
because we give up ourselves to
feel the presence of Jesus and
Mary.
We continue to feel and drive the
virtues of faith, hope, and
charity throughout the
contemplative and meditative
experience. Of course, we will
cover this in much more detail in
the chapter on virtue, but we can
easily see that such feelings are
anything but boring.
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The Value of Time:
Once a prayer time is consistent,
it might take awhile to find the
results. During this time, we
might wonder whether the prayer
time is being wasted. A number of
years often go by before the
prayer time becomes the central
and critical event of the day.
There will likely be many times
where something else seems more
important than the prayer time.
Once a few prayer times are
missed, we lose consistency, and
in a short while, we are back at
the beginning of the process.
To resist succumbing to the
importance of time, we need to
keep our focus by going back to
the greatest commandment. Our
whole life should revolve around
God. The value (as in most
valuable player) of our lives is
not dependent on what we do, but
in how closely we follow God.
For example Saint Francis of
Assisi and Emperor Frededick lived
at about the same time. Frederick
was the ruler, and his time was
valuable. As such, (it is safe to
say because the fruit of his labor
did not last) he did not have time
to maintain consistency.
On the other hand, Francis was
considered to be a fool at first.
His time was not considered to be
as valuable as that of the Emperor
of the Holy Roman Empire which was
Frederick's title, but Francis
used his time more wisely. Francis
would not stay at a house unless
it had a good private place to
pray.
Even though time was so much more
important to Frederick than
Francis, Frederick's contributions
(either positive or negative) did
not stand the test of time. In
fact, Frederick died an early
death, and his son lost the
battles and influence almost
immediately. On the other hand,
the ministry that Francis inspired
is still going strong.
As we grow in God, we can feel God
working through us, and God's work
is both necessary and lasting.
When we don't spend time with God,
we are wasting our time. To put
this another way, God gives us the
grace to find the meaning in our
life. When we ignore God, our
lives become meaningless. In other
words, the people who shape the
world are the people of God.
Everyone else is chasing the fame
of their own ego.
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The Vicissitudes of Life:
The dramatic changes of life are
probably the main reason we don't
maintain consistency. Deep prayer
novices are not aware and do not
believe the power of deep prayer.
When everything is done right, we
should expect things to happen.
When things do happen, we don't
trust God enough to believe He is
working in our best interests.
In fact, even the suggestion of
God helping us through hard times
makes us bitter and resentful. In
our pain, we ask, "God where are
You?" During these times, most of
us temporarily lose our Faith in
God, and of course, consistency is
lost completely for the
foreseeable future. After years of
healing, many of us will still not
see the coincidence between the
deep prayer and the painful times.
Deep prayer is powerful. It was
designed by Saints who knew God.
With this close divine
relationship, they were able to
put together a package that
delivers. We can be fooled when we
see deep prayer as just another
spiritual exercise. It is much
more than that.
When we begin deep prayer our
lives will pivot toward our real
identity. We will begin to become
who we were called to be at our
creation. Those things in our
lives that stand in the way of our
authentic identity will crumble.
Vocational decisions are often
reversed. Here are some common
examples. The married person gets
divorced. The business person goes
bankrupt. The family person
grieves the death of a close
family member. The religious
person is expelled from the
community for embarrassing
reasons. It is also common for
there to be some combination of
these and other calamities.
The fortunate few of us, who
maintain consistency through these
hard times, are rewarded with more
than a conventional life time can
deliver. It is greater than human
love, material wealth, or any
other combination of rewards from
a normal life. If we stay with it,
these hard times usually occur
simultaneously with our first
encounter of God. For example, we
will probably experience the first
flight of the soul (i.e., words
used by Saint John of the Cross to
to describe the first
contemplative experience)
during these hard times.
It is easy to get mad at God when
our lives are falling apart. We
want answers, and we want them
now. Yet, during these times, our
emotions are hurt, and no answer
is going to address our emotional
pain. Furthermore, this state
sometimes continues indefinitely.
Instead of allowing God to put our
lives on track, we turn our backs
on God.
Consistency and good technique
don't necessarily bring us bad
things. If our lives are already
on course, we will simply see the
doors of infinite spirituality
open before us.
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The Crisis of Faith:
We can not continue to progress
along the spiritual journey
indefinitely, unless the spiritual
journey is carried past the prayer
time and into the day. Two
countries might have all sorts of
peace treaties but still be at
war. If we don't live our
covenants, they will mean very
little. At some point, we need to
make progress towards integrating
our prayer time into the rest of
the day. Of what use is Church on
Sunday, when it makes no
difference to the rest of the
week?
To be more to the point, deep
prayer moves us along the
spiritual journey, and this is a
life changing (even world
changing) event. It is not just
something we do with God that is
nobody's business but our own. God
has an agenda, and to maintain
consistency, we will have to be
vehicles of that divine agenda.
While this might seem easy, it is
often much more difficult. God is
great, and He calls us to be like
Him. There are many problems
associated with this Divine
Calling, but to save space, we
will only look at four of the more
common ones as they affected the
lives of some famous holy people
(namely, Saint Teresa of Avila,
Saint Francis of Assisi, Moses,
The Blessed Virgin, Mother Teresa,
and Saint Colette).
The reason that we are going to go
into this with such elaborate
detail is that the following
discussion is nearly entirely
unknown. Furthermore, it is
absolutely essential, and yet, it
seems completely ridiculous.
Normal people would probably
ascribe the following short
biographies to the eccentricities
of Saints, but deep prayer isn't
normal. The Saints have a method
to their madness that makes
everything else either inadequate,
insane, or both.
To put this crisis of Faith in the
proper context, why do we Baptize
in the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. Yes, Jesus told
us to, but why did He prescribe
these words? We know, from the
Bible, how the early Church
experienced and referred to the
Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and
many people have experienced the
Baptism of the Holy Spirit
throughout the history of the
Church. For example, Saint Anthony
of Padua spoke in tongues before
the Pope and a large gathering of
people at the Vatican on
Pentecost. Just as with Saint
Peter (as related in the Bible),
each person heard what Saint
Anthony was saying in their own
language. The Baptism of the Holy
Spirit is about enthusiasm and
evangelization.
There is also the Baptism of the
Son where we give our lives
completely to Jesus Christ. This
personal conversion is usually
reflected in the turning away from
sin and the associated redemptive
graces. We try to live our lives
with a personal Saviour and doing
what He would do.
Some of us think we received the
Baptism of the Holy Spirit twice,
but, of course, this is
impossible. The Holy Spirit is
such a strong, indwelling force
that we can never forget it. We
experienced two separate Baptisms.
The Baptisms of the Son and the
Spirit. History is replete with
examples of each. The Baptism of
the Spirit is described by Jesus,
Saint John of the Cross, and the
Biblical account of Pentecost. The
Baptism of the Son is related many
times in the Bible where Jesus
forgives people their sins. There
are many examples of people who
underwent the same conversion such
as Saint Augustine or Matt Talbot.
After these Baptism(s), we
personally know the Son, Spirit,
or both.
Jesus also told us to Baptise in
the name of the Father. Jesus said
a lot of things that seemed crazy
at the time, but we now know that
he meant what He said. The Baptism
of the Father is no different.
There is a Baptism of the Father,
but it seems that few of us can
recognize it. History gives us
numerous accounts of this Baptism.
For example, the Baptism of the
Father is all through the Bible
from Adam through Paul. This
baptism is a radical calling from
God where we dramatically decide
to become the authentic person who
God made. The Baptism of the
Father is about indentity and
vocation. At some point, we have
to go back to being who we are if
want to continue the spiritual
jouney of deep prayer.
Our crisis of Faith occurs when we
are between a rock and a hard
spot. On the one hand, we see the
value of deep prayer, and we know
we want to continue, but God often
calls us to impossible and
unreasonable things that seem too
crazy to take seriously (our
imitation of Christ?).
It is a crisis of Faith because
God doesn't necessarily appear to
us with explicit testimoney. While
the calling can be overt, it is
more likely to be an interior
urging. Will we have the Faith to
proclaim from the rooftops, what
we heard in secret?
Since the Baptism of the Father
seems to us to be an incredible
reach, we might think of ourselves
as egomaniacs rather than servants
of God. Our false sense of
humility may make us want to
suppress these inner urgings, but
the Blessed Virgin, a model of
humility if there ever was one,
had no qualms about the
Magnificat. Few of us have the
Faith of Mary that moves us to
place ourselves in God's hands and
be the subject of impossible
circumstances.
Then, if we don't follow the
Baptism of the Father, we can't
maintain consistency because God
requires Faith to make progress.
God is the rock, and the
practicality of life is the hard
spot. While it might seem like we
are faced with a dilemma, we are
being given the infinite
opportunity to accept ourselves
for who we are which is children
of God.
To move forward in our spiritual
journey, we need to follow the
example of Mary and make this
incredible leap of faith by
saying, "Yes", to God. This
radical decision can be made
easier by becoming more familiar
with it. Towards this objective,
we will examine the Baptism of
Father as undertaken by six heroic
models. To pursue these accounts
with discipline and structure, we
will force each biography into a
format that covers the same four
difficulties (not that these are
the only ones possible). Then we
will look at how it all worked out
for the glory of God. By going
through these real cases, we will
gain an understanding of how the
Baptism of the Father occurs.
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1. |
Committed: The person might
have already committed to
something else.
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2. |
Outrageous: The calling
seems so bizarre that we wonder
how it could be from God.
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3. |
Surrender: The calling
often means that we need to give
up everything we have to follow
God.
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4. |
Illogical: The calling
isn't just impractical; it is
impossible.
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5. |
Anecdote: In this part, we
will cover how God worked things
out for the obedient servant.
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Saint Teresa of Avila:
Teresa was called to reform the
Carmelite order which would
involve either the conversion of
convents to her way or the
founding of new convents from
scratch.
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1. |
Committed: She was already
a nun in a convent who had vowed
obedience to her superior whom
already followed a certain
practice.
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2. |
Outrageous: Why should she
assume that God was talking to her
and no one else? If God wanted the
convent to undertake a different
practice, why didn't God speak to
the mother superior?
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3. |
Surrender: She had to leave
her sisters, friends, and the
security of the convent to
undertake a risky venture, and she
had to trust her inner voice to do
something that she had no way of
doing.
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4. |
Illogical: Besides taking
the vow of poverty, she had no
money or even friends who had
enough money to undertake what God
was asking. She didn't have anyone
to join her. With her vow of
obedience she couldn't try to find
either money or other Carmelites.
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5. |
Anecdote: God drew
attention to Teresa by placing
miraculous events in her life. For
example, she would float in the
air (especially when she was
singing). After her reputation for
holiness grew, she became very
ill. Since the nuns could not take
care of someone as ill as Teresa
was, she was sent to a rich lady
to die.
At the rich lady's house, Teresa
recovered, and the rich lady
became a benefactress of Teresa's
undertaking. Since Teresa had the
miraculous reputation, some other
nuns joined her.
During the Spanish Inquisition,
Teresa's new order was scrutinized
because it was new. The Spanish
Government confined Teresa to her
original convent which was not
part of her new order. While she
was there, the convent, which had
many nuns, decided to join her new
order, and under Teresa's care, it
became even larger.
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Saint Francis of Assisi:
Francis was called over several
messages which is typical. On his
first call, he was called to
follow God instead of fighting for
the Pope. After a while, he was
called to rebuild the Church. At
first, Francis thought God meant
to rebuild the church he was in
which he did by begging for
building materials. After a while,
Francis came to the understanding
that God was calling him to
rebuild the entire Church.
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1. |
Committed: He had committed
to go fight for the Pope, and he
had left Assisi. If he returned to
Assisi without fighting, he would
be considered a coward. It was
very expensive to outfit a knight,
and his family had sacrificed to
buy the gear that Francis had.
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2. |
Outrageous: Are we not
called to serve the Church to
build the Body of Christ? Why
would God wait until he was on his
way to battle before calling him?
How would Francis rebuild the
Church through poverty when the
Church had more money and property
than most Kings? Everyone esteemed
Francis for what he was doing, and
everyone would pity Francis for
what God would call him to do. How
could Francis be right, and the
rest of the world be wrong?
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3. |
Surrender: He had to give
up the chivalry and prestige of
knighthood, and in their place he
was required to do embarrassing
things that would subject him to
ridicule. For example, instead of
wearing the fancy clothes as the
son or a wealthy clothing
merchant, Francis wore the rags of
a beggar. While fate had reduced
some people to misery, Francis
chose to suffer poverty.
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4. |
Illogical: How was he going
to rebuild the Church by embracing
poverty which most people found
repulsive? He was not a Priest,
and he didn't even belong to a
religious order. Who would listen
to a person whom had no
credentials.
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5. |
Anecdote: Francis followed
his interior inspirations which
generated a lot of talk around
Assisi. Some people thought he was
holy and others thought he was
crazy. He did attract a few
followers such as a 16 year old
girl, Clare.
The local bishop told Francis that
he needed permission from the pope
to start a religious order. At
first, the pope said no, then God
gave the pope a dream which caused
the pope to change his mind.
In another dream, Dominic saw
a stranger and himself as working
towards a reformation in the
Church. The next day Dominic saw
Francis for the first time and
realized that Francis was the
stranger in the dream.
Besides their respective orders
and their associated ministries,
these two founders built a vision
in the Church which focused on
radical spirituality. By following
this vision, people could aspire
to the highest levels of
spirituality.
Many people were attracted to this
new vision, and Francis, Dominic,
and Clare were able to carry out
the vocations that God gave them.
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Moses:
Nearly everyone knows the story of
the burning bush, but for those
who don't, we summarize it. Moses
grew up as royalty in Egypt. He
ran into trouble and fled into the
desert. He married a desert girl
and settled down as a shepherd.
Then, one day Moses saw a burning
bush that did not burn. When he
went to look closer, God told him
to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to
set the Hebrews free.
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1. |
Committed: He had the
normal family obligations, and in
his day, the family was necessary
for survival. He had both plans
and responsibility that needed his
attention.
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2. |
Outrageous: How could he
free his people? He knew that
Pharaoh would not let his people
go. He had no army to fight Egypt
which was one of the stronger
nations.
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3. |
Surrender: He had to give
up the peace and tranquility of
his current home to go to a place
where he was wanted for murder.
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4. |
Illogical: Well God gave
Moses a staff that would turn into
a snake and back to a staff and a
brother who had the gift of gab,
but these things were supposed to
impress Pharaoh? Moses and the
Hebrews didn't even know each
other. How could he speak for
them? Why would God speak to Moses
when Moses had never practiced the
religion of the Hebrews?
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5. |
Anecdote: Of course, this
is all found in the Bible. God
worked a number of miracles, but
He saved the best for the final
departure. God led the Israelites
with a cloud by day and fire by
night, until He had them trapped
by the Red Sea. Then God split the
waters of the Red Sea to save the
Israelites and destroy the
Egyptians. Moses then led the
Israelites through the desert for
a number of years before they
finally entered the promised land.
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The Blessed Virgin: God ask
Mary to be the Mother of His Son.
She seemed to understand what this
meant very quickly. For example,
she went to visit Elizabeth
immediately after Gabriel's visit,
and in the "Magnificat" she
outlines her vocation to
Elizabeth with very good accuracy.
Since Mary was without sin, the
understanding and acceptance of
her vocation was apparently very
simple.
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1. |
Committed: She was promised
to Joseph, but she had not lived
with him yet.
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2. |
Outrageous: Mary was very
young, perhaps 13, 14, or 15, when
she was called. Had she told her
high school (or junior high)
counselor, what do you suppose the
counselor would think?
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3. |
Surrender: In Mary's day,
being pregnant without being
married was a big problem that
carried significant penalties.
Mary had to give up her reputation
and risk being exposed to the law.
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4. |
Illogical: In Mary's view,
she wondered how she was going to
have a baby without a male partner.
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5. |
Anecdote: Since Mary was
conceived without original sin,
her story began before she was
born. Not only does the dream of
the Chosen People reach its
fruition in Mary, but Mary becomes
the perfect woman (the new Eve)
that most accurately witnesses the
feminine side of God. Holy people
need to meditate on the life of
Mary just as they meditate on the
life of Jesus. For her part, the
Church recognizes major Marian
Feast Days such as the Assumption
and the Immaculate Conception.
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Mother Teresa: Mother
Teresa was a nun in India when God
called her to serve the "poorest
of the poor." As she understood
it, she would have to establish
her own convents and attract her
own nuns.
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1. |
Committed: She had already
promised to serve her current
order.
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2. |
Outrageous: How could she
go work among the poor with no
resources?
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3. |
Surrender: She had to give
up her friends and the security of
the convent to go live in a
dangerous environment and its
uncertain future.
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4. |
Illogical: Wouldn't she
just become involuntarily poor
like the people she was assisting?
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5. |
Anecdote: One of the most
extraordinary things in Mother
Teresa's life is how she answered
yes to God's call. If only more
people would follow her example!
Her yes was not just momentary. It
lasted the rest of her life, and
her sisters still celebrate the
day of Teresa's call. The
beginning of her journey was so
difficult that she destroyed her
journal of it, but she remained
faithful to the call. Today her
call, to serve the poorest of the
poor, is a household phrase
throughout the world.
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Saint Colette: God called
upon Colette to reestablish
poverty as a central part of the
Franciscan order.
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1. |
Committed: In front of her
entire town, she had taken solemn
vows to be a recluse (this is like
being in solitary confinement;
usually along side of a church).
Recluses were usually for
repentant sinners who were in the
autumn of their life. Colette's
vows were sensational because they
were for the prettiest girl in
town. It would be difficult and
embarrassing to break the vows. At
first, Saint Colette resisted this
as a matter of honor.
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2. |
Outrageous: To reform the
Franciscan order, she would need
the support of some Franciscans,
and she didn't even know any of
them. How could she reform an
order she knew nothing about? How
could she reform any order if she
broke her vows of a recluse?
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3. |
Surrender: She had never
undertaken a task of this sort
before. She was used to serving
God in some minor role. Therefore,
she would have to give up her
solitude to become a manager and
organizer of a great undertaking.
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4. |
Illogical: Why would God
ask her to reform the Franciscan
order when she was not a
Franciscan? How was she going to
get permission from the Pope to
reform the Franciscan order when
she was not a Franciscan? God did
not ask her to join the order, but
simply to go to the Pope to ask
permission to start a reformed
order of Franciscans.
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5. |
Anecdote: While Saint
Colette's life would make good
material for a movie, many people
are unfamiliar with her life.
Colette wasn't just holy; she was
miraculously holy! She performed
some first class miracles such as
multiplying food and stopping the
sun. When she went into a trance
and communed with Heaven which
happened with some frequency, she
was encased in a white light.
Perhaps her modesty prevails even
in death.
We have a very good record of her
life because many people
recognized her holiness when she
was alive and several began
writing her biography, but Colette
found one of the better
biographies and burned it.
Saint Colette was called when she
was a recluse. Since she did not
want to break her vows, God had
her go blind to help her see His
way. She finally said yes, and God
gave her sight back. A priest was
called at the same time, and two
worked together to have a bishop
rescind her recluse vows.
They then appealed to the Pope (at
least to them, he was the Pope -
there were two or three people
who claimed to be Pope at the
time) who granted them the right
to begin the reformed order. The
two carried out this work for the
rest of their lives.
Since Colette was so
extraordinary, she attracted a lot
of attention and support. She
rejuvenated the ideal of poverty
in the Franciscan order, and the
reform eventually spread to the
other orders.
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In these six examples, we can
begin to see why many people fail
to answer yes to the Baptism of
the Father.
It is not uncommon for the Baptism
of the Father to come with some
supernatural experience. In the
examples above, there is a visit
by an angel (Mary), a bush on fire
that didn't burn (Moses), a
talking crucifix (Francis), and
other things. It is as if God uses
these things to help us place more
believabilty in the experience.
Even with this divine aid, hardly
anyone accepts the Baptism of the
Father.
Some people might hold the opinion
that the Baptism of the Father is
an experience only a few people
have a chance to receive, but the
way of the spiritual journey
dictates that the Baptism of the
Father is for everyone. A saint in
development goes through the
following steps.
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1. |
Consistency in daily prayer
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2. |
Spiritual poverty
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3. |
Contemplation
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4. |
Vocational development
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These steps are consistent with
the methods of spiritual masters
(e.g., Benedict, Dominic, Francis,
Ignatius, among others) throughout
the history of the Church. For
example, Saint Dominic's motto,
"Action through contemplation,"
sums up the last two steps. In
another example, Benedict had a
monk who pretended to go into
ecstasy, and then he would leave
daily prayer to do other things.
Benedict took care of this problem
by beating the monk with a stick
while the monk was pretending
ecstacy which shows that Benedict
believed in consistency. Of course,
daily prayer is required in all
religious orders, but in this
case, Benedict was concerned about
a specific type of prayer that
meets the definition of
consistency we gave earlier.
Perhaps the strongest case for
spiritual poverty is made in the
"Song of Songs" which is from the
Bible, but the phrase, "spiritual
poverty", was most likely coined,
many centuries later, by Saint
John of the Cross. Many other
Saints, including Saint Catherine
of Siena, wrote about the need for
this singular desire.
These four steps have been
established for a long time, but
they are not practiced by almost
all people. God is inclusive, and
all are called. If we practice
these steps, we will be called to
do something for God with the
attendant attributes we listed in
our six examples that were just
given.
While these four steps occur in
order, the Baptism of the Father
can occur at any time. It is not
uncommon for the Baptism of the
Father to occur before
consistency, and in the case of
Colette (and probably Mary and
others) the Baptism of the Father
did not occur until after the
third step. Of course, it can't
occur before the fourth step
because we can't develop a
vocation that we know nothing
about.
This leaves us in a predicament.
We are all called, but very few
are ready to be taken because we
don't have the relationship with
God to trust the call.
In fact, many of us are called,
and we don't even recognize the
call. The call is often over
several events, but we don't
realize that the events are all
different parts of the same thing.
It is easy to tell when anyone
accepts the call because God
doesn't light a lamp and put it
under a basket. Lamps are easy to
see in the dark. This allows us to
look across the world and see how
many people accepted the call. In
any single century, the number of
people who accept the call can
usually be counted on ten fingers.
We shouldn't take this to mean
that very few people are saved
because we are judged by our
appetites, but it does mean that
many of our appetites won't be
saved because we never developed
our vocation. When we attempt the
spiritual journey, we often face
this crisis of faith. On the one
hand, God requests something that
is completely unreasonable, and on
the other hand, we can't become
the children of God without
accepting our identity.
There are those who would argue
that this is not fair in some
cases. For example, if we die as
an infant, how can we develop our
vocation? We need to remember that
God judges us as a group as well
as individually, and secondly our
identity stays with us after we
die.
In other words, whether we are a
minute or century old, we are
judged by our appetites. An
infant's appetites are mainly
inherited (i.e., for example
original sin but also the good
deeds of the ancestors).
Therefore, the ancestors which the
infant favors play a large role in
the appetites of an infant. While
modern science now testifies to
these facts, Aquinas actually
proved this about 800 years ago.
Let's look at this from a
different angle. We are the
recursion of smaller parts. In
other words, we can be identified
by these smaller parts. These
smaller parts have a free will,
mental capacity, and the
independence to make their own
choices. In turn, these smaller
parts (most likely a cell) are
made up of still smaller parts
that have all the same
characteristics. This process goes
on to infinity in both the smaller
and larger ways (from Aristotle or
before). We, therefore, create a
larger being (probably the human
race) that has the capacity to be
saved or lossed.
Infant deaths, along with all
other problems, are the result of
sin in the human appetites.
Without sin, we would all reach
our vocation. An infant who dies
is all part of this larger
process. For example, in our age,
the mothers who are assisted by
medical personnel often kill their
babies either at conception or a
little latter. Our children can
not reach their vocation when they
are murdered. Is God not being
fair by allowing us the ability to
be able to be pro-choice?
Original sin is not a grudge God
holds against the human race. We
have sinful appetites, and we can
not escape this sin except through
grace. This is one reason why we
say that Mary is full of grace,
because all grace flows through
Mary. Mary can do this because she
is without sin. We can never escape
original sin without turning our
appetites back to God. We pass
these appetites to our children
through heredity and example. The
Church holds the keys that can
solve this dilemma.
From these philosophical facts, we
can expect salvation to be both an
individual and collective process.
The process is more collective in
an infant and individual choices
play a larger role as we age.
The Baptism of the Father is not
required for salvation, but we
need to develop our vocation if we
want God to recognize the design
He created. If we love God and
follow His commandments, God will
recognize some of our appetites.
Without the development of our God
given identity, however, we can
expect fewer of our appetites will
be saved. In some ways, we can
receive the power of the Holy
Spirit (Baptism of the Spirit) and
be saved from our Sins (Baptism of
the Son), and yet we might only be
talking the talk. With the call to
our identity (Baptism of the
Father), we have to walk the walk.
There isn't anyway to accept the
call of the Father without living
life in the Spirit and Son. While
these Baptisms might be years
apart, they are all interrelated.
For example, call of the Father is
a call to our identity, but the
Baptism we receive first says a
lot about who we are (from Abbot
David of Pecos, NM).
The crisis of Faith that the
Baptism of Father emphasizes is
the same problem we have in all
parts of our lives. For example,
as engineers, we might do the
practical thing and support our
family with a job that is a dead
end, when we could have taken the
step in Faith to pursue the
invention that God is calling us.
In aother case, we might decide to
accept a prestigious position when
we know that it is not from God.
In each case, we bow to pressures
from the community, family, or
practicality, when we could have
given ourselves to God.
The vocation should not be
casually or accidentally chosen.
It needs to be from God and of
God. We are likely to take the
less traveled road for God's sake
rather than taking risks merely
for the sake of gain. We can not
simply choose to be another
person; we have to accept who we
are.
It doesn't mean that we won't
fail. If we look at the lives of
the Saints, we will find a number
of times where they failed. For
example, Saint Ignatius of Loyola,
failed several times before the
Jesuits got off the ground, and
the same can be said for most
other Saints.
We have covered a lot of ground in
this section. The Baptism of the
Father is the "crisis of faith"
for God calls us to some
impossible task. Then our
practicality kicks in, and we have
a hard time of accepting who we
are. We can't expect to continue
the spiritual journey by
pretending to be someone else.
This means that our prayer times
will suffer, unless we accept the
call. This crisis of Faith has
proved to be a major stumbling
block for almost all of us.
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The Disruption of Routine:
Most of us have a routine that we
fall into. In most cases, the
routine is something that is
established partly by chance and
the rest by necessity. When we
begin to establish consistency,
our prayer times are often
dependent upon our schedule. Every
time our schedule changes, we are
at risk of losing our prayer time.
In a true life example, a man
established a prayer time over the
summer. His routine consisted of
walking around a golf course
before his prayer time. When fall
came, he did not want to walk
around the golf course in the
dark, and his prayer time left
with the walk.
Relatives have a strong tendency
to change our schedules and hinder
our prayer times. While it is not
common for us to establish a
prayer time in the first place, we
have even a harder time
maintaining consistency when we
visit relatives or relatives visit
us.
If our relatives won't respect
our prayer time, then we can
resort to tricks. For example, we
can pretend to be reading a book
or taking a nap, or we might just
slip away to be by ourselves.
Many of us try to justify missing
prayer times due to busy
schedules, but consistency won't
come from excuses. Furthermore, we
all have a number of things that
we do everyday (e.g., eating,
sleeping, dressing, etc.). The
reason we are on earth is to love
God through living our vocation,
but we can't follow our vocation
without striving for spiritual
poverty. As we pointed out,
spiritual poverty can only come
from consistent internal
meditation. When we miss prayer
times, we are not getting the
basics we need.
One strategy is to tie the prayer
time to a daily necessity. For
example, we might decide to not
eat until after our prayer time.
Different problems require
different solutions. If it is
impossible to pray at home, we
might leave earlier for work, and
pray at a church on the way to
work. If we have a constant
companion, we might have the
companion share the prayer time in
silent reflection. If we have
small children, we might still do
the prayer time while letting some
of their needs interrupt the
prayer time. We could compensate
by using a longer prayer time.
Our schedules are supposed to help
get the necessary things done. If
our schedules are not letting us
get our prayer times in, we need
to rework the schedules. There
isn't much reason for us to live,
unless we live for God.
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