Advent

DARK AFTERNOON - ADVENT

Winter time – cloudy – cool

days – rain – snow in the air.

Although predicted, no sun came out.  Something drew me to

walk outside – I miss sunshine

but felt drawn to walk.  Cool damp

air wrapped around me.  Kept on walking –

quiet of the neighborhood touched

me – I felt something – deep –

mystery.  Modern life – big cities –

full of noise – we have busy lives.

Today in the neighborhood –

silence reigns – mysterious – deep. 

One can say – silence

is empty – nothing there.

But walking slowly – listening –

feeling something is there –

mystery.

I have to stop once in a while –

look – listen –not to look – hear

sport’s racing cars.  Walking in the

quiet, I am in another wave

length.  Slowing down – listening –

I feel myself – my heart beating –

see winter trees – standing bare – at attention.

Silence prompts me to write this poem –

trying to put into words –

what seems to be nothing – silence –

mystery.

If I listen closely – stand still –

I feel a meeting – silence has a

presence – presence of the divine.

My life has slowed down – someone

else came in.

Let me to be open to this meeting –

someone tells me – the Lord loves me –

watches over me – fills the silence

with my gratitude.

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OUR CONTEMPLATIVE PATH

“My soul longs for the Lord more than

the watchman waits for the dawn.”

                    Ps. 129

Robert Trabold

WATCHMEN IN THE NIGHT: ADVENT

             In the Old Testament, the psalmist mentions that his soul yearns for the Lord more than the watchman waiting for the dawn. Watchmen, the security guards of the ancient cities, made their rounds in the night and were happy when the dawn came to end their work. On examining the events surrounding Jesus’ birth, we note that many important things happened at night.  The shepherds were tending their flocks and the angels announced to them the birth of a savior. Then, a choir of angels appeared and sang praises to the newborn. The shepherds went to the town of Bethlehem to visit the family with the child. The Magi, also, watched the stars in the night and then followed the special one in the darkness until it led them to Bethlehem

            I have been attracted by the phrase “watchmen in the night” as capturing the meaning of the contemplative path to which God calls us. It points to the mystery of this encounter since God is transcendent and an ineffable presence in our life. Our contemplative life is a response to this meeting. As John of the Cross mentions, in the dark night, God has us lose many attractions we have for our human activities, such as work, recreation, art, etc, and we are drawn to a peaceful resting in the divine presence. It is not something that we have control over but God gently touches us to want to be with Him/Her. This presence is different from others because we sense it at our deepest core – at our center. For this reason, there is no one so close to us as God. On the other hand, in other relationships such as friendship or marriage, the other person is always opposite to us.

            For all the above, contemplatives are called to grow in their inward journey and be sign to others who are also called to discover this way of interiority.  The mystics that are popular in history are ones often who have left behind writings and exemplary lives showing us the way to God.  John of the Cross’ beautiful poetry and the autobiographical and spiritual writings of Theresa of Avila are examples. By reading these works, we can get an insight into their interior life helping us on our path.

            Contemplatives living out their inward journey are a sign and ask a question to the world around them. Humans are busy with their life of work, family, education, etc. and the contemplative path being one of silence and interiority presents another dimension of life. It raises the issue of the ultimate meaning of our journey on earth with its contingency and temporality. The contemplative path points to a presence within us which is the ground of our being and the goal of our life on earth. We can be so busy in life with every day affairs that we lose sight of this or never discover it. It takes a reorientation of our life to become aware of this presence and make those changes so that we can grow in a relationship with it. God is not only present within us but also is active in the world and in the lives of all people. In beginning our journey inward, we will grow in sensitivity to the divine actions in the world. We are social animals living in societies with other people and need to realize how God is active in these groups making them more just and peaceful.

            Contemplatives are examples of ‘watchmen in the night’ signaling others to join them in this interior journey. As Psalm 129 says, “My soul longs for God more than the watchman waits for the dawn.” It is a difficult journey demanding changes within ourselves so that we can be ready to meet the absolute; we humans are selfish and proud and these are obstacles to growth in union with the Transcendent. In the contemplative path, God takes the initiative to meet and touch us and we have to sit in silence and listen and wait to see how the divine reveals itself and woos us into a mutual love.  We are not in control but God will do it in His/Her own way and time.

            As I mentioned in the title, contemplatives are ‘watchmen in the night.’ They live in silence and a presence hopefully helping others to be aware of a light and love within themselves. This presence of God who is transcendent but also so close to us as no one else is a mystery and so our relationship with the Absolute is in the night. As long as we live on earth, we will not possess God but only touch and taste the divine. For this reason, John of the Cross in his beautiful poem ‘In the Dark Night’ has to two lovers meeting each other in the night full of mystery and desire.

In a dark night,

burning with fires of love!

“I will seduce my love, lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.”

Hos. 2.16

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Inward Mystical Journey

INWARD JOURNEY

Summer day – warm and humid

but not oppressive.

Clear sun brightens up the

yellow blooming black eyed Suzie’s in the garden.

I sit in the quiet – notice my heart beat –

my breathing in and out -

pointing to a presence within me –

my Beloved.

Total mystery – otherness – that

my quiet heart beats point to.

My Beloved covers me –

embraces me – my whole body feels the touch.

I sit in mystery – so deep within me.

I say nothing – I let

my breathing highlight the presence.

In the ebb and flow of my life –

 in the years gone by – in the moments now -

in the currents and undertows that almost

did me in –

Someone was there – never let me go.

I bath myself in this love –

because of it, I did not get lost

in the crossroads and curves of the years gone by.

There were no dead end streets

but always an exit.

How lucky I am that Someone loves me!

Robert Trabold

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MYSTICAL QUEST:

INWARD JOURNEY

Robert Trabold

           

            If we examine all religions of the world, we see that spiritual seekers make pilgrimages and trips to holy places in order to have a special encounter with the divine. They make a special effort to travel far to a holy place and/or at a special time of the year and often at a great expense on their part. These pilgrimages and quests are external to us. In the spiritual life, however, there is also an interior quest and journey to encounter the divine within us and this usually takes place in the cultivation of mystical prayer by sincere seekers. (Underhill 3-4) The great mystics were not content to live in the day to day world and be absorbed with all its pressing and not so pressing activities.  They stepped back, reassessed their life, tried to go beyond the changeable things of the world and their human life on earth and touch the ultimate reality which in the West we call God.  The mystics believed that they could not be happy with just possessing the every day things which we humans need but wanted to have a relationship with the divine, the ground of our being, who alone can make us happy and give us the real goal to living on earth. It is an inward journey into our center and still point to meet God within, leading us also to a discovery of our true selves.

            Despite the various differences among the religions of the world, the basic structure of the mystical path is the same in all of them. It is an inner journey to the deepest level of consciousness to have an experience of the most interior being, the highest reality, the truth – God. This dimension and experience cannot be grasped by the intellect because it is beyond rationality but nevertheless resides in each person. Mysticism then is a way of knowing, a particular type of experience and state of consciousness. The goal is to have immediate contact of the deepest level of being, the ground of all beings in the world, to have an experience of and a union with it. For the mystic, this is a transpersonal experience because he/she feels also the unity of all beings in this encounter with the divine.

            In this experience, the mystic has the certainty to have reached the place where the person has his/her origin, for which he/she has such a great yearning and receives the answer to the question of “Who am I?” Life then has a new meaning and depth. This mystical experience is beyond the intellect and rationality and it also breaks through the boundaries of normal spiritual experiences. The mystic pushes to an encounter with the absolute, God – TOTAL BEING. This experience cannot be directly shared; it is inexpressible in that it lies beyond the rational sphere to which language belongs. The desire to articulate it expresses itself in parables, symbols, poems, negation, that is, to say what it is not.  Words cannot grasp the mystical experience but only point to it.

            The method of the mystical path is the inner journey which has three levels: the purgative, illuminative and unitive ways. (Wehr 35-36) In the purgative way, the mystic sees that he/she cannot remain the same. Life has to be changed and God helps the person see his/her many bad habits and sins and actively aids the individual to become more God-like. In the illuminative way, the mystic sees the world and life in a new way – a waking up experience, that is, leaving behind an old way of life and having the freedom and liberty to see things differently. The third step in this journey is the unitive way in which the seeker achieves a union with the absolute and in spiritual literature, this act is expressed in the image of a mystical marriage. This is the peak of the inner journey. It should be understood that these steps need not follow this chronology but can have a different sequence and perhaps occur simultaneously depending on the disposition of the individual and the will of the divine. Underlying all these three steps, there is also the need to cultivate the discipline of silence so that the individual can encounter God whose language is silence and quiet. This means coming to grips with our daily schedule, take stock of our many activities and letting go some them in order to make our life less busy and create spaces to encounter the divine. In addition, to grow in meditation and contemplation, we have to become aware of our posture, breathing, use of mantras, time allotment, etc, so that we can experience the transcendent at our center and still point and grow in union with it. The many contemporary contemplative and mystical prayer movements in our country can help us in the practical steps so that we can grow in this discipline of silence and contemplation.

            In the whole above process, the mystic becomes the illumined one who breaks through the deepest level of consciousness and lives out his/her life on this level – in union with God. The person is walking in an endless horizon, in union with all beings and loving all creatures; this is done in the understanding and wisdom of this experience of union with the divine. The mystic is an ordinary human but also no longer one because he/she is detached from the things of this world. The mystic also helps others reach this deep level and consciousness of the divine and as such is a catalyst of human development in the world.

            In our inward journey and quest to encounter the presence of the transcendent within us, we will then know and discover our true selves. As human beings, we are in a constant process to grow and develop ourselves. All our activities and relationships in our family, work, education, etc. work to make us hopefully more mature and capable people. In mystical prayer, we grow in a relationship with God within us. It lets us know that we are beings that can encounter God and very important it takes place within us at our center and still point; at the deepest level of our consciousness, we meet the consciousness of the absolute.  This presence of the divine within us is not strange and unfriendly because it lies in the depths of our heart and we experience the absolute as the ground of our being. We discover ourselves as capable of having this relationship with the divine and since this is a relationship of love, we find our peace and fulfillment in human life in this union with God. No earthly thing can satisfy this yearning for the transcendent on our part. This bond with God puts all earthly things that we are involved with in perspective; we realize the many finite and contingent things of the world can never really fulfill us even though many are good things and necessary for our human life. Because we are human beings open to the transcendent and capable of experiencing its presence at our center and still point, this is the most important thing helping us put all things into focus and not letting the many contingent things of life pull us in many different directions and possibly inflict harm on ourselves and others. We find our happiness and peace in fulfilling our ability to be open to the transcendent; we rejoice that we have this capacity and this is our true self and nature we must grow in through our years on earth.

            As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, there are many kinds of pilgrimages and quests in life; many are to external things and places around us but an important one for religious seekers is the inward journey to meet the presence of the divine at our center and still point, at the deepest level of our consciousness. This has been a quest that the great mystics throughout the ages have made and their writings are a testimony to this. Interestingly, this inward journey to meet God at our center is the meeting of love involving deep intimacy. This inward quest is also a journey to discover our true selves. We as human beings are open to the transcendent and can have a relationship with it. It is the definitive relationship in our life giving us a sense of peace and security of finding the reality that fulfills us, loves us and calls us to reciprocate in the same way.

Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism: A study in the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness. Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1967.

Wehr, Gerhard. Die Deutsche Mystik. Koeln: Anacona Verlag, 2006.



Canadian Pilgrimage

 

 

SAINT BROTHER ANDRÉ

Oratory of Saint Joseph

 

He was a small man – not overly educated –

always delicate – precarious health.

He knew his weaknesses –

but always told people – he prayed without cease.

With the years, prayer overcame

weaknesses. People noticed something –

came to talk with him – shared

their problems of life – looked for advice.

Many came physically sick – Brother André

healed them. With time, many healings occurred.

He became known as a healer. Those healed, left their

crutches – medical wrappings behind.

Brother André had a dream –

he loved St. Joseph – wanted a basilica

in his honor.

For years, he travelled far and wide –

amassing funds for a basilica.

He never saw it finished – but

knew it would be one day.

It was completed after his death – I am sure

he is happy to see his dream

come true. Each year, thousands

come to visit and honor St. Joseph –

touch the tombstone of Brother André.

Newspapers estimate – one million people

came to his wake and funeral.

Brother André touched many

people’s lives – still does today.

Crowds come to the basilica – touch his

tombstone. He continues his work –

sign of life in a desperate world.

Robert Trabold

 

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CANADIAN PILGRIMAGE

Robert Trabold

 

 

            At the beginning of September, I had the opportunity to make a two week pilgrimage to Québec, Canada visiting the various shrines along the St. Lawrence River. It was a contemplative pilgrimage because I went by myself and not with a group; I tried to be for most part silent in my visits to the various shrines. I repeated my usual mantra and watched my breathing in order to touch God’s presence. In Québec city, I visited the burial chapel of Mary of the Incarnation, a remarkable and relatively unknown mystic who reached the heights of contemplative prayer. To me she was the Theresa of Avila of North America. I spent two days of silence there not saying too much because I knew that Mary knew all the problems that I brought on this trip and the problems of my world. I then drove to Trois Rivières where I visited the famous shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary who appeared there to several people in the 19th century. Over the years, the place became very famous and many people went there. The shrine was situated on the vast and mighty St. Lawrence River. The sky is very blue in that part of the world and makes the river also deep blue. For this reason, I have called this area Mary’s country because of the intense blue in nature. I was silent and felt God’s presence in the lovely setting of the church on the banks of the river. I spent many hours of silent prayer in the ancient chapel where the apparitions of the Virgin took place. I felt her presence acutely which gave me confidence that she was happy that I made such a long trip and would remember my concerns and the problems of the world and bring us more peace. The interior of the basilica on the grounds was very beautiful and the dim atmosphere from the deep red and blue stained glass windows gave an aura of mystery which led me into silent prayer.

            The last leg of my pilgrimage was five days spent in Montréal where I visited various shrines. I went to one of the most celebrated Canadian ones, the Oratory of Saint Joseph, which had the burial chapel of St. Brother André. The latter was a remarkable man. People came from all over the world to talk to him about their problems and he had the gift of healing them from their physically aliments. The church walls had many of the crutches that people have left behind upon their cure. At the time of his death, the newspapers reported that one million people came to his wake and funeral. I felt the power of this saint when I was in his burial chapel and touched with other people the marble of his tomb stone. There was an acute silence in that room which lead me to believe that Brother André was there and was aware of all my problems and those of the world. I did not say many words but just let the silence touch me and lead me into the presence of the divine. In contemplative prayer, silence is the language of God. I also had the opportunity to visit a lovely chapel devoted to St. Padre Pio, a modern structure and very beautiful in the interior. Like the Marian shrine in Trois Rivières, it was situated in lovely grounds which added to its sense of holiness. I was very touched by the statue of Padre Pio to the right of the altar and felt a great silence coming from it. He was a man like Saint Brother André who touched many people helping them with their problems and healing them of their infirmities. I sat there many hours in silence repeating my mantra and watching my breathing. I intensely felt the presence of the saint and Jesus. It gave me confidence that they have not forgotten us and would bring more justice and peace to our world.

            In making this pilgrimage to a foreign country and distant from my home in New York City, I was physically away from my daily life and concerns.  In this distance, a space opened up where Jesus then was able to enter into and was with me in silence. Prayer was not too difficult and although distractions never left me, I was able to rest in silence and meet the Beloved Jesus who was happy that I made the effort to visit these holy places in a distant land. He entered this space which the pilgrimage made and both of us met. It was presence meeting presence and I met Jesus, the Virgin and the saints in a special way.

            This intense encounter with the divine and the saints reminded me also that this journey would end after two weeks and that I would continue in the future my pilgrimage of life. I came back home and my life with all its joys and concerns were there. I realized that my years on earth were a pilgrimage and I was travelling on to my eternal home. The earth was not my true home but a temporary one. I hope that in my journey on earth, the encounters that I had with Jesus and the saints in Québec, Canada, will give me the strength and faith to continue on this trip. I need to be faithful each day to my practice of contemplative prayer and be active to make our world more of a place of justice and peace.

 

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Prayer in the Summer

 

PASSING OF TIME – SPRING

 

Lovely clear day – sunshine

is finally warm – winters

are long – we long for them

to end. Foliage is rich –

from much rain – snow.

First flowers are lovely – white

alyssums – blue bells.

It is delightful to sit in the garden –

just taking it all in.

We live in four seasons –

they come – go – start again.

Such is time –

such is life. Life is a big

mystery – where does it all go?

Life is a river – just flows on.

My life flows too – many

things happened to me – some good -

bad - others indifferent.

So my life flows on – mysterious

as the four yearly cycles.

Life in the world goes on –

painful to me – American Empire –

endless wars – bombing –

cover ups – lies – violence -

killing done in the name of

democracy – liberty.

I do not know when it will end -

God only knows.

So I sit in spring sun light –

garden – my life – life

of the world are beyond me.

I put all into Jesus’ hands –

hoping that the wheel of time

will some way be positive –

turn out good.

 

Robert Trabold

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QUIET IN THE SUMMER TIME

 

Robert Trabold

 

            In the hectic life we lead in the big cities, the summertime can be a time of slowing down. The warmer weather allows us to be outdoors and if we have a garden or live near the seashore or mountains, we can relax and enjoy the loveliness of nature.  Being in contact with God’s creation can have a calming effect on us and be an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the flowers, seashore, etc. I have a garden and do find that it is a place of meditation when I can sit in its quiet and be present to the flowers and trees. The ocean shore and the mountains have always been a contemplative experience where their beauty and quiet allow me to enter into the silence of God. The summer can be a less busy time because other people are away and some of our usual business slows down due to their absence. People look to take a break which helps us be free of some of our usual activities. New York City was particular hot this July and I had to stay in the air conditioned room a good part of the day and doing my chores or work in the morning and evening when it was cooler. This gave me more time to reflect on the silence of our contemplative prayer and where it should lead us.

            In our meditation, its quiet and the repetition of the mantra, we attempt to touch the presence of the divine, but not by thinking about God, conjuring up images or using many words. These are put aside and we try to be in the presence of the Lord who is. Our contemplative prayer is a journey to reach, know and love the unknown and transcendent one. Our faith teaches us that the divine knows and loves us and invites us to reciprocate the same. This is done in naked presence and we do not rely on many images, words or explanations. Our contemplative prayer is an exercise to develop the discipline of attentiveness to the divine who is, is personal and lives at our center and still point. There is a stepping out of our absorption with our self-importance, selfishness and involvement with the infinite cares of our daily life. The focus now is on the source of our life on earth and around whom we want to orientate ourselves.

            Our journey into contemplative prayer is an attempt to develop the discipline of presence.  We are present to ourselves and not running away from anything but through this self- presence, there is a touching of the Lord who is at the deepest part of our being. No one can be present to us as the divine at our center and still point. This is then the challenge of contemplative prayer. Through the years, we want to be faithful to this process which requires patience, faithfulness and discipline and putting aside our self-importance and sitting in our poverty. We are touching the infinite source of life – the ultimate mystery calling us by our name and wanting us to call his/her name in knowledge and love.

            Hopefully, the quiet and relaxing time we have in the summer will help us reflect on our journey into mystical prayer and realize what is involved. This extra time can be like a retreat where we deepen our experience of the Lord and renew our faithfulness to the discipline of meditation.

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STIGMATICS

 

 

 

 

MARIE-ROSE FERRON:

STIGMATIC

 

Sunday morning, quiet reigns

over the cemetery grave of

 

Marie-Rose Ferron.

 

Silence that haunts –

 

full of mystery – presence.

 

Silence is not empty –

 

touches me

at my center – still point.

Silence watches over me as

a gentle cool morning breeze.

Silence is full – presence of the

divine – the Beloved –

full of presence of Marie-Rose –

full of mystery of life –

death – wars – violence – injustices.

Marie-Rose wounds bleed from these.

I sit in the silence

letting mystery touch – overwhelm me.

It overwhelmed Marie-Rose –

her wounds bled from it.

Such is our journey in life –

we carry a heavy load – our sins –

sins of the world.

I made a pilgrimage

to the grave of Marie-Rose.

I will never understand life – its dark side –

Marie-Rose did not either.

She carried that burden –

wounds show it.

She will give me strength

To carry burden of living.

 

Robert Trabold

 

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PILGRIMAGE OF SILENCE:

STIGMATICS

 

Robert Trabold

 

When we think of stigmatics, we usually believe that they are people and a phenomenon of Europe, such as, Theresa Neumann of Germany and Padre Pio of Italy. But if we do our homework, we will find that there have been four Americans who have been stigmatics in recent times. Marie-Rose Ferron, a French Canadian who immigrated to Woonsocket, RI and died in 1936. Little Audrey Santo was a native of Worchester, Mass. and passed away in 2007. The two others were Veronica Lueken, Bayside, New York, 1923 - 1995 and Rhoda Wise, Canton, Ohio, 1888 - 1948. During the year, I frequently attend the various prayer sessions of the V. Lueken Movement and visit her gravesite which is not far from where I live. Recently, I decided to make a pilgrimage to the places in southern New England where M. R. Ferron and A. Santo lived and are buried.  In that area, another visionary and stigmatic, Marie Esperanza from Venezuela, worked and was instrumental in the founding of house of prayer, Betania 2, in Medway, Mass. These places are a holy corner of the globe which was blessed with the presence of three saintly people.

I made the pilgrimage by myself and wanted it to be one of silence and meditation. The highlights of the trip were the times of prayer at the gravesites of Marie-Rose and Little Audrey and having the privilege of seeing the latter’s little chapel and room and the bed where she suffered. The visits to the graves touched me very much because I felt a silence which was so deep that it was not only an indication of the stigmatic’s presence but also that of Jesus. The two stigmatics led me into the presence of the divine. I usually visited the graves for up to an hour resting in the quiet and mentioned certain petitions of the needs of myself and the world. I had the privilege of being able to enter the chapel and bed room of Little Audrey and I felt a deep silence there. Audrey led me into the presence of Jesus and I was deeply touched. These two rooms had statues of Jesus which in recent years have had blood and oil coming out of them. Upon investigation, the blood is true human blood and the oil is genuine.  This is truly a miraculous phenomenon since these statues are made of plaster of Paris. In all, the heavens opened up for a moment and preformed wonderful signs which should strengthen our faith and give us confidence that God has not forgotten us.

In praying at the graves of the stigmatics and visiting the chapel and room of Audrey Santo, I was confronted with the great mystery of why certain people manifest the wounds of Christ on their body. This phenomenon has been around for a while and St. Francis of Assisi was the first one recorded in history. Stigmatics are people who have a very intense love of Jesus and a desire to be attached and united to him. This unity with the beloved Jesus leads them to share in his sufferings and as a result, the wounds of the Lord appear on their bodies. This is the great mystery of love which confronts us on visiting their places of residence and burial sites and which we will never completely understand while we are on earth. We should remember however that we are called to this unity with and love of Jesus in our life time. Our daily faithfulness to contemplative prayer puts us into the presence of the Lord who calls us to a deep union with him although we may never share his physical wounds.

While praying at the various sites of the stigmatics, I believe that we do participate in the wounds of Jesus by our living. Our world is full of violence, hatred and endless wars and many innocent lives are lost in such violence. Wars just go on and do not seem to end. The stigmatics also lived in this world and carried the burden of its endless violence and conflicts.  They intensely felt this and it was part of the pain of the wounds of Jesus. On top of this, we humans have the pain of seeing and carrying our own sins and failings and have this burden until our death. We may never have on our bodies the physical wounds of Jesus but we have those interior wounds of suffering under the injustices and violence of our world and our failings which never end. We are stigmatics burdened with our world and a pilgrimage to Southern New England hopefully will help us not get discouraged. It reminds us that we have to keep our eyes on Jesus who is our hope and despite it all, had his Easter Sunday. He will let us share in this victory.

 

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Love of God

LOVE

 

 

All is quiet – just a soft breeze

touches my face.

Sunshine is strong – telling me

spring is on its way.

 Vast sea seems calm – I see

no violent waves.

Sand is motionless – no

wind blowing it in my face.

I do not move – lay quiet

in my big chair.

 Tears come to my eyes – pangs –

desire fills me –

I chock but no sound.

Mystery of yearning – desire overcomes

me – silent – absolute –

nothingness grips me – touches me.

Divine – transcendent one

overwhelms me –

tears are my response.

 Late winter beauty of seashore

 lead me gently to an encounter –

 one of love – mystery.

 On earth, I cannot get further than that –

 I must live in the ecstatic moment –

waiting – some day -  full embrace.

 

Robert Trabold

 

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LOVE OF GOD

 Robert Trabold

             In our journey into contemplative prayer and in our faithfulness to the discipline of silence which enables us to be constant to our daily meditation, we become aware of the love of God for us and the world. This divine love is a great mystery and it takes time on our part to fathom it. God created us and chose us to be human. All during the years of our life on earth, the Lord continues to love us and help us on our long or short existence on earth. It is a challenge on our part to appreciate this and to realize that it answers a deep need. At times, we can feel very alone in our human journey. Things can go wrong causing us to wonder where we are. If we keep in mind that the divine really loves us, we realize that we are not alone in life but that the Lord calls us to an ‘I –Thou’   relationship with him which helps us also love and be attentive to our neighbor. We are no longer separate and alone but in a deep communion with the divine and each other. We have found a home.

            God calls us to this great dignity of being his/her children and so we are able to build bonds with our neighbor. One of the great paradoxes is that we can reject this. We are humans with free will and can reject the vocation to which we are called. We can turn our back and lead an isolated and selfish existence. This comes to play in the many decisions that we make each day, some leading us to deep union with the divine and the neighbor or others which lock us into a selfish stance. One of the great mysteries is that the Lord is always waiting for us to return to the vocation he calls us to. In the gospels, the father was waiting for the prodigal son to return and welcomed him back when he saw him coming home.

            This challenge and vocation to respond to the love of God in our lives carries its risks and can make us vulnerable. We all have experienced that many times we have reached out to people but have been rejected and this can be painful. At this point, we have to remember that Jesus also suffered but in the end, had his Easter Sunday.  In one sense, the sin and evil of the world do not have the ultimate power but the Lord’s love is stronger and will overcome the selfishness and evil happenings in the world.

            When we try to respond to the vocation of love to which we are called, we take a risk. We take this because we have faith that God loves us more than the world which can inflict harm. The Lord gives us the grace to take this risk and so we can be comfortable with our vocation and can relax into what we are called to. It encourages us to be faithful to our schedule of daily meditation and to live our vocation in the world with good actions and standing up for justice and peace in a war torn and violent world. In our daily meditation, no matter how dry it is and full of distractions, we should keep our eyes on the vocation of love with the Lord and one another to which we are called. It is a life’s journey which ultimately has us feel at home in the world and assures us of place in our true home in eternal life.