Advancing In Our Spiritual Life (part 1 of 2)

Advancing in our Spiritual Life
(part 1 of 2)

It is said that without regular mental prayer it would be difficult to advance in our spiritual life. Every Christian should therefore endeavor to engage in regular mental prayer. For this is the higher kind of prayer, especially contemplation, that will most richly contribute to growth in grace. Yet we tend to think of contemplation as too mysterious and reserved only to convents and monasteries.

It does indeed involve one of the greatest of all mysteries, the union of the creature with the Creator. That is why it is hard to teach it in any proper sense. At best we are advised to engage in the essential act of all prayer, that is, the raising of the mind and heart to God, and converse with Him. If we do this the best way we can, God Himself will teach and guide us toward the heights of contemplation. For “in the first place it should be known that if a person is seeking God, his beloved is seeking him much more” (St. John of the Cross).

We ought to converse with each of the three Divine Persons, but especially with Jesus, our Divine Savior and Mediator, with whom this conversation is easiest. We are blessed to have
access to His Eucharistic presence, which enables us to go to the feet of our Lord as did the disciples, and pour out our hearts to Him in His humanity. However, it is important also to have a lively sense of God's presence, not only in the Eucharist, but also in the tabernacle of our soul when we are in the state of grace. Once we realize this, then conversation is possible, anytime and anywhere. For how is it that we wouldn't speak to Him whom we know is present and loves us so dearly?

But what are we to tell God? The most natural thing is to tell him our troubles, problems, and difficulties. There is no one with not much to tell when it comes to problems. And so let us
hasten to tell Jesus all our troubles, confident that He understands everything and considers nothing to be trivial. A good prayer life is built upon the constant habit of petition, the basic
prayer, which expresses the fundamental fact that we are creatures who must receive everything from God, even the grace of prayer itself.

We must, however, realize that conversation with God must go beyond asking. We ought also to praise, adore, and thank Him for all His blessings. Most of all, we must take time to tell Jesus how much we love Him, and gratefully acknowledge His personal love for us. During our prayer time we are at liberty to express our love for Jesus in every way, bathing also in His love for us.

Yes, we are advised to speak to our Lord, but also to listen to Him. “But I don't hear him say anything”, we might say. Ah, the radical difficulty in this conversation is that God does not talk back. If only we could see Jesus smiling at us, or tell us “don't worry, I'll take care of you”; or “this is what I want you to do”. But after all our earnest pleas there is no reply but silence.

Nevertheless it is not true that God does not talk back. Jesus is the very Word of God that can never be in silence. “In giving us His Son, His only Word [for He posseses no other, He spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word…. by giving us the All Who is His Son”] ( St. John of the Cross). But by nature we do not hear God's voice. Now we must be assured that the only ear by which we can hear Jesus is the virtue of FAITH. Herein comes the need for meditation, a ‘thinking over’ or ‘chewing over’ our mind some truth of our faith, meditating for instance on the mysteries of Jesus’ life, as when we pray the Rosary; or when we meditate on a chapter in the gospel. This is a kind of listening in faith to the Word who is Jesus, God's infallible Word. As we turn over our mind the mystery we are meditating on, for instance, giving it a chance to sink in, applying it to our life, it will normally lead to some kind of resolution. This, we might say, is God's reply to our prayers and questions—God guiding us to a course of action.
to be continued…