CANDLEMAS LESSONS PART 2: Tips for the journey

In Part 1 of this reflection, we pondered the Holy Family humbly taking their Son, the Son of God, to present Him to the temple. The Glory cloud, the Presence of God, resided in the Ark of the Covenant within the Holy of Holies of the Jewish Temple. When the Temple was rebuilt, the Glory cloud was not present. Only when Jesus was presented to the temple did the Glory of God return. This time in human form. 

So God Himself, and His immaculate mother and holy foster father all were obedient to the law and submitted themselves to God the Father. The question for us then, as we pursue our universal call to holiness, is how can I let God transform me into His peaceful child? 

For some, the first attachments to let go of are our current ways of prayer. These are emotionally soothing but only for a time. God wants us to experience interior peace habitually. Setting aside Awaken, Jesus Calling, He and I, and the barrage of litanies we’ve packed into our prayer time is necessary. Only then can we sit in silence to learn to hear Him. It requires His training of our soul to develop “ears to hear”. 

Examining thoughts and choices during the day is a critical part of change that leads to growth because it gives us the ‘material’ for the conversation with God. These can only be real conversations when honest; otherwise, we fool ourselves with psychological consolation and pride. 

This is not inward-focused, nor is its purpose to develop one’s own litany of sins. It should be an intimate sharing between hearts…yours and Jesus’. A fruitful approach is: 

• I look at my thoughts in a situation. Were they centered in my assuming I know what is best and right? My expectations of the others involved? Conversely, were they fearful because of my perceived inadequacy?
• What are my emotions? Why am I feeling this?
• Recall a past experience when God was truly active in your life of His own initiative. It might be a single moment of His actual grace in a situation. It might be an interior ‘knowing’, sense or otherwise unspoken peace that came over you in prayer. Look to some instance where you realized “this is God”, the experience of being awestruck even if just a moment. You know it wasn’t of your own doing.
• Contrast that to a time when you thought or did something you were sure was ‘Godly’, only to have God teach you later it wasn’t His way at all. How do these thoughts and choices ‘feel’ when centered in you and not Him? You will soon come to recognize where God’s action exists within your heart and can define memory of it. You will know most concretely what isn’t of God and is of your own psyche. At the same time, you’ll learn to recognize the ways in which satan either ratchets-up your natural pride and emotions, messing with you, or imitates God and holiness to fool your thinking.

You’ll likely begin the humbling experience of realizing your so-called ‘discerned’ and ‘holy’ choices weren’t so holy or discerned after all. But don’t beat yourself up over it. St. Joseph did the same thing deciding to divorce Mary quietly, and God had to send him an angel to set him straight. May God do so for us too! 

You’ll also find God brings to you the spiritual reading, devotionals and saints that He already has had planned for you in this very moment. Every saint had their own ‘favorite saint’ from which they learned and were inspired in their own calling and vocation. God will give you to the saints you need for mentoring and intercession, the devotions that will serve you, and more. But only if you first give them up to Him. 

God delights in you and wants to exalt you as His own. Let Candlemas be your new start. Allow God to begin to purify your soul.

Let us then continue praying for our clergy and religious, especially Pope Francis, and for our worldwide church: 

Almighty ever-living God, we humbly implore your majesty that, just as your Only Begotten Son was presented on this day in the Temple in the substance of our flesh, so, by your grace, we may be presented to you with minds made pure. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam ??