We had a very good retreat this past week: four days of silent prayer with scriptural passages selected by Fr. Michael Warren, OMV, who is parochial vicar at our Holy Ghost Church in Denver, CO. He began by defining prayer as seeking the face of the Father, the encounter with Him that invites us to surrender our lives, giving way to His grace, a sharing in His divine life, and realizing that He sought us first. This idea stayed with me for the whole retreat, as we looked at kataphatic and apophatic prayer (leaving behind the foundation of feelings and knowledge and understanding into the indescribable experience of God, a taste of heaven), praying with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, and taking Mary as our model.
Adding to the notion of seeking the face of the Father, I was particularly attracted to the image of a child seeking his father’s face: a child sitting with his grandfather on the couch who looks up at his grandfather’s face, perhaps scratched by the stubble on his chin, as I fondly remember... or a child at play coming over to tug on the sleeve of his father as he converses with other adults, perhaps thirsty or just expressing the intimate love for his father, head back, looking up at his face. The invitation to “become like little children,” has attracted me for some time; “for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Mt 18:3; 19:14).
This semester promises lots of interesting stuff to read and learn! I continue Old Testament studies with the Narrative Books (Genesis, Exodus etc and Joshua, Judges, Kings, Chronicles, etc); New Testament studies continue with the Letters of Paul; the Christological issues that were so much a part of Patristics and Fundamental Theology in the past semester give way to a course on the Blessed Trinity; we get to explore Communication and Evangelization with the director of Catholic TV, Fr. Robert Reed; and we open Sacramental Theology with an Introduction to Sacred Liturgy.
During my retreat, I began reading a recent book by Fr. James Martin, SJ, entitled Between Heaven and Mirth. I heard a few references to it last semester and grabbed a copy. It is a hilarious book that, using stories from the lives of the saints and prominent spiritual authors, as well as passages from scripture, demonstrates that humor, laughter, and joy (esp. in the fully spiritual sense) are an integral part of a healthy life, and, in the case of joy, evidence of a soul close to God. It is a very entertaining yet thought-provoking read with much material for prayerful reflection, and I highly recommend it.
And for a little fun, check out this screenshot of the weather report for Long Beach. As you can see at the top of the page, I was sitting in a cool but not freezing Boston while my family was freezing back home!
Happy Feast of the Baptism of the Lord! As we leave the Christmas Season and move into Ordinary Time, let us recall how Jesus set the example, in the words of St. Francis and following the themes in today’s readings: to preach, and, when necessary, use words. Let us live out charity toward our neighbor so that what we do “all over [our] Judea” (Acts 10:37) will inspire the same charity in others bring all into the Father’s good pleasure (cf. Lk 3:22). And let us invite Mary, who nurtured the boy Jesus until He began His public ministry, to likewise nurture us with her Son’s graces and her simple example that we might come to see clearly the face of the Father, the Beatific Vision for eternity!
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
2 comments:
speaking of studying the Trinity...are you guys studying this yet? "The One Thing is Three, How the Most Holy Trinity Explains Everything" - it's like his Summa Theologica http://thedivinemercy.org/theonethingisthree/
We're going to focus on the questions at the beginning of Aquinas' Summa in this course... several Oblates have mentioned Fr. Mike's book, though, since they found out I'm taking Trinity. Good stuff!
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