Summer Garden

SUMMER  GARDEN

Tall – proud – pink phlox

stand in glory.  Sunshine baths them –

they enjoy it.  Pink color – so soft!

They do not mind bumble bees

touching – kissing their petals – looking for sweet pollen.

Four o’clocks are still in siesta –

will bloom later in the afternoon.

Summer garden calms me – I sit in

its peace.  So different from the

world I live in . Grim!

I feel the load – my shoulders –

heavy – tired.  So many wars drag

on – new ones beginning. My country –

bankrupt but soldiers – planes – bombs –

USA has them all over – countless

dead  - women – children.

I see young men angry – looking for work.

Men – women over 50 losing their jobs – where

will they find another? Clouds

from my world hang over me –

they are damp – dark. Let me not

give up hope.  Like the garden that

goes through its winter – comes alive in

the springtime – let me take courage –

hoping – my world will also have its spring!

Robert Trabold

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Contemplation in the Summer Time

Robert Trabold

            The different times of the year and seasons have an impact on our meditation. We are affected by sunshine, weather, garden with its flowers, seashore, mountains, etc.  Summer also is a time for vacation where we can take a break from our hectic lifestyle in the city. I am lucky and live in a house with a garden and it is big enough that there are quiet corners where I can sit and not be noticed. Neighbors are working during the day which adds to the quiet. Sitting in my chair, I can feel the silence of nature and let the beauty of the flowers and plants touch me. I am fortunate also that I live close to the seashore – the Atlantic Ocean. Jones Beach is only thirty minutes away from my house.  Walking on the seashore, watching and listening to the sounds of the waves and feeling the wide blue sky has a calming effect on me and helps me enter into contemplation. Summer time is also a time where I enjoy taking a trip into the mountains. I have been hiking and back packing all my life and my camping experience takes me to the high peak region of the Adirondack Mountains near Lake Placid, New York where I am able to encounter God in the beauty and silence of the mountains.

            These occasions of silence and quiet of the various seasons and places of the natural world can be of great help to us to reach the goal of contemplation - resting in God’s presence. Contemplation is the act where we encounter the divine presence at our center and still point. In centering prayer, we learn a discipline helping us focus and be silent for this encounter. We need to control our schedule so that we can have time for two twenty minute meditations daily, our posture and position is important, a place in the house conducive to meditation, etc. We repeat our mantra or word to calm the mind and be attentive to the silence of God’s presence touching us. The use of the mantra is very important because it helps us focus our attention on the interior divine presence. Our minds were made to wander, be inquisitive and always ask questions. The mantra controls this to a degree and helps us be aware of someone within us – the presence of God touching us. This calming process in contemplation is not easy and we constantly have to struggle to control our minds. There are always thoughts, feelings and memories of present and past events, crowding into our consciousness.  As a result, we wonder at times if we are progressing in our prayer life.

            Because of the loveliness of nature in the summer time, we can add this to our contemplative discipline and routine helping us to focus on God’s presence within us. The goal of our meditation is to rest in the awareness of the presence of the divine at our center and still point. St. John of the Cross puts it well: cultivating loving attentiveness to this interior presence. This is the goal to which our whole contemplative discipline should lead us. When we reach this loving attentiveness, we do not need to repeat the mantra or word because we are in touch with our Beloved’s presence. John of the Cross mentions that at these moments, we feel God touching us, alerting us that He/She is there and looking at us with loving attentiveness. These are moments which are beyond words – God’s language is silence and we rest in this silent awareness. We meet our Beloved.

            If we have access to a garden, the seashore or the mountains, we can use nature to help us cultivate our resting in God’s presence – that loving attentiveness. It is an encounter simply looking with our spiritual eyes – feeling God touching us at our center and still point. As we approach summer and perhaps as our schedules calm down and we take some vacation time, let us use nature available to us and rest in God’s presence – cultivating and enjoying that loving attentiveness.

“Let us be happy, my Beloved,

and look at your beauty

in the mountains and valleys

where fresh pure water flows,

let us enter more deeply into the forest.”

“Spiritual Canticle,” John of the Cross

Nature and Contemplation

GREAT STILLNESS

Permeates all – penetrates all

as if nothing moves.

Wind brushes through pine branches –

sun shines brilliant white –

sky provides its deepest blue –

it does not matter – stillness prevails over all these.

Nor do the sea gulls’ cries dispel

the quiet. It is all powerful.

Yet silence gives itself away –

I spot footsteps in it – I sense

the presence of someone.

Breeze brushing my face reminds me

of the prophet Elijah in the cave –

divine was not in the thunder nor lightening

nor earthquake

but in the gentle breeze passing by.

Let me be happy in the same cave –

stillness is not empty –

touch of my Beloved on my shoulder.

It is so nice to meet Him.

Robert Trabold

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NATURE AND CONTEMPLATION

Robert Trabold

You, mountains and hills,

bless the Lord!

You, oceans and rivers,

bless the Lord!

                                                                                Daniel, 3.

            People following the path of contemplative prayer and building the discipline of silence into their lives need motivation to preserver in this endeavor. We are busy people and face the challenge to make room for two periods of meditation daily.  Life also has its concerns and we are involved in many things, such as, family, work, interests, etc. We need motivation to focus ourselves and encounter the presence of God at our center and still point. It behooves us to reflect and see what things can help us in our daily attempts at contemplation. One thing that can aid us in our prayer life and to focus on God’s presence is to use nature to lead us into silence. The natural world is full of beauty and silence, and manifests a sense of transcendence and all of these can be very valuable to us.

            In relation to the beauty of nature, I am lucky that I live in a house with a garden which is fairly big and has many bushes and plants so that I can sit there in privacy. During the warm weather of spring, summer and the fall, I take opportunities to meditate there because the flowers of the different seasons touch me and give me a sense of God’s presence. It is good to remember the words of Jesus: “Not even Solomon in all his glory can add to the beauty of the lilies of the field.”  Tulips, daffodils and lilacs of the springtime, roses, hydrangea and phlox of the summer and the chrysanthemums and black eyed suzies of the autumn, each of these has its own feeling and beauty helping me enter into God’s presence. Also, I do not live far from the Atlantic Ocean and walking along the seashore with the blue sea and dunes capture me and help me enter contemplation. The seashore varies with the seasons of the year giving me a variety of experiences and enhancing the spiritual dimension. I have been backpacking my whole adult life in the high peak region of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. Each year I am drawn back and I find it a contemplative experience because the beauty of the peaks, lakes and forests calm me down and help me focus on God’s presence at my center.  In summary, the beautiful things of the natural world can help us in our contemplative journey toward God.

            The second element of nature that can usher us into the contemplative spirit is its quietness. It is as if the natural world is standing at attention in the silence of God. I find the quiet of the garden in the morning and evening helpful to focus on meditation. It has a way of pushing into the background the noises and cares of my daily life and aiding me enter into the silence of contemplation. Walking along the seashore has the same effect. The dunes and the ocean have a calm and quiet touching me and leading me into meditation. Even the sound of the waves in the distance can accentuate this experience. In my backpacking and hiking experience, the mystic mountains and forest exude a silence which is penetrating. I am far from the noise of New York City and the mountains lead me into God’s silence.

            The third quality of nature, its sense of transcendence, grows out of its beauty and silence. In contemplation, we are cultivating a relationship with God who is other and absolute. Although in contemplative prayer, we cultivate a deep intimacy with God who resides at our center – still point, we also have the experience of our Beloved being completely other and different. God is ineffable and in a certain sense, always slips through our fingers. We cannot grasp the divine. The natural world has also this sense of transcendence. The changing beauty of the spring – summer garden with different flowers, the mystic seashore with the vast ocean and its waves and endless dunes, touch us and point to an abyss within us at our center where the transcendent God is present. High mountains and vast views over the landscape from the peaks give us also this sense of otherness. It is as if God left traces of Himself/Herself in the natural world despite the fact that the divine is ineffable and ultimately nothing can be said about it.

            In sum, in contemplative prayer, we are making an inward journey to the divine at our center – still point.  In our life, we cultivate a discipline of silence so that we can meet God in this encounter. In the struggle to be faithful to our contemplative engagement and help us enter into the silence of God, we should use the natural world as an aid to this goal. In our daily struggle to focus ourselves in prayer, the natural world with its beauty, stillness and sense of transcendence can give us a helping hand.

Let us be happy, my beloved,

and look at your beauty

in the mountains and valleys,

where fresh water runs,

let us enter more deeply into the thicket!

                                                                 ‘Spiritual Canticle,’ John of the Cross

                                                                                   (my translation)

Pilgrimage into the Dark Night

HOLY SPACE

John of the Cross

Holy space – John of the Cross

worked here – burial place also.

I feel his presence – still here –

listens to the pilgrims. We come

worried – carrying our luggage

from back home.  We – pulled

in many directions – What do we want?

What can we get? What cannot we get?

Life has many crossroads –

not always to our liking –

things do not always turn out as we want.

Life is beyond us – it slips

through our fingers like sand.

But I made this pilgrimage – wanted

to be in this holy space. Someone is

here – a presence – listens – knows me.

I leave my luggage from back home here and listen.

What does that someone have to say?

John of the Cross – mystic – saint – loved

his Beloved – Jesus – with a passion.

His poetry sings of this – John was

able to sort out what was important – not important.

What Jesus wanted – John wanted.

I am sure not always to his liking –

such is life.

He knew Jesus as his Beloved –

who loved John – never let him down.

In this holy space – pilgrimage –

John will speak to me – lead me –

lead me to Jesus – into the stillness of God

who will put the luggage of my life

in the right place –

a job never finished on earth.

Giving me that peace – knowing - 

I am in the right hands –

despite it all.

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PILGRIMAGE INTO THE DARK NIGHT

Robert Trabold

            In the spring of 2011, I made a pilgrimage of silence to Castilla y León, Spain where the two great mystics, John of the Cross and Theresa of Avila lived and died. It was a pilgrimage of silence in so far that in visiting these holy sites and spaces, I was lead into contemplation trying to touch the presence of the divine at my center and still point. I did not bring along books to read but did bring one of the poems of John of the Cross.  While on the trip, I read slowly his major poems which helped me focus on the presence of the divine. The poem of John, ‘A Dark Night,’ helped me feel that this inward journey of contemplation to meet God at our center and still point is one that is always wrapped in mystery. It leads us to an encounter with God who is transcendent and completely other from ourselves and the natural world around us. In that sense, it is very different from relationships we have with other humans. In spite of this dimension of transcendence and otherness, this relationship is much closer and deeper to us than other relations can be. In human relationships, the other is always in front of us and exterior to us. But in this encounter in contemplation and silence, we feel the divine presence deep within us where no one else can enter. So this relationship has a dimension of mystery and darkness which John of the Cross so well celebrates in his poem. We note also that although this relationship is completely different from our ordinary experiences, it is an encounter of love where the divine touches and reminds us that He/She loves us and asks us to respond to this invitation.  As John of the Cross so well puts, it is an encounter in darkness but one that is also burning with fire of love. We are meeting our Beloved who takes us by the hand and asks us to respond with our love. While I was on pilgrimage to Segovia where John lived and is buried, his poem about the dark night was always present to me and helped me feel the presence of the divine within me.

            On this pilgrimage also to Castilla y León, I made it a point to visit several Marian shrines with statues of the Black Madonna and I wanted to enter more into their

symbolism. Statues of the Black Virgin are all over Europe and are centers of pilgrimage for many people. I was able to visit such statues in the Basilica of Our Lady of Atocha in Madrid. I made a trip also to Toledo and in the cathedral, I visited the chapel of Our Lady of the Sanctuary and the beautiful statue of the ‘La Virgen Blanca.’ These two statues are very famous and attract many visitors to the church. I sat in meditation in front of these and the dark complexion of the mother and child had an aura of mystery. Because the faces and skin were black, I had the feeling that the Virgin was leading us into the mystery of the dark night that John of the Cross speaks about in his poem. With this dark color of the face and skin, Mary directs us in our inward journey to meet the transcendent God who is completely other than we are but loves us and wants to have our friendship. I believe that these Black Madonna pilgrim shrines not only in Europe but in many places in the world attract people for this reason.  Darkness is a symbol which draws and leads us into mystery of God to whom we want to orientate our life. Our daily life is full of many things, interests, occupations, concerns, etc, and it is a challenge to find the central focus which will push our life in the right direction. This focus is God and we have the challenge through our faith and prayer to know and love God better so that the divine can be the center of our activities and relationships and put them into the right direction. This is the challenge of our life and the Black Madonna is in these pilgrimage shrines reaching out to many people and assisting them in this journey of faith.

            The color black is also symbolic of the earth and fertility which are deep human realities.  We come from the earth and our mother’s womb. Looking at the Black Madonna, we ask her to help us with the many problems of our life and the world we live in. In a pilgrimage, we go to a holy space where we have a special encounter with the divine.  We bring the problems and cares of our daily life back home to this holy place asking God his help with these things. The Black Madonna celebrated and honored at these particular shrines can be an intercessor in this regard.

            In conclusion, in making the pilgrimage of silence to Castilla y León, I am always drawn to visit the place where John of the Cross lived and is buried.  I read his poems which set the tone for the trip and this year, I read many times his poem ‘In a Dark Night.’  We are on an inward journey of contemplation to meet God in silence and darkness. It is a meeting of love where the divine invites us into a relationship of friendship.  This year, I also coupled this pilgrimage with a visit to three chapels with statues of the Black Madonna. The darkness of the statues exudes mystery and invites us to take the hand of Mary who will lead us into the presence of the transcendent God who awaits our friendship.  Since this is a journey to meet God who is completely other and different, we must be content to make this trip in mystery and darkness. The poems of John of the Cross and the statues of the Black Madonna will help us find our way to this beautiful meeting with the Lord.

TWO SILENCES OF GOD

DRYNESS

Somber mood – happy sunshine slips behind

encroaching clouds –

rain tonight!

Spring’s colors of the seashore become dull –

lose their life.

Off-shore breeze – cool – sharp –

after 3 PM –

reminder – ocean water still cold.

Cloudy seashore echoes my mood – feelings –

dryness hangs over me.

I whisper: “For you alone, my soul waits in silence” –

over and over – words – crisp – dry

fall into pieces.

Words touch an abyss – I cannot enter –

abyss covers me – at my center – still point.

Longing – desires well up in me -

cry out in darkness.

Where is my Beloved? –

hidden in this darkness.

Strange – darkness is sweet –

despite it all – I touch someone –

I sense presence –

presence – so deep – far away –

presence that grasps me – loves me.

So I sit in darkness – life – mystery –

God – a mystery –

deep within me – darkness is sweet.

Robert Trabold

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TWO SILENCES OF GOD

Robert Trabold

            John Main, the founder of the John Main Meditation Movement, states that in our contemplative prayer and voyage, we will encounter two types of silences coming from God. The first is the silence we have when we experience the sweet presence of the divine at our center and still point and rest in that infinite presence. The second form of silence is one of absence, that is, we feel ourselves in a void and no longer experience this divine presence within us.  In our inward journey in contemplation, Main mentions that it is important that we understand these two very different prayer experiences.

            In the first experience, we feel the infinite and sweet presence of God within us and it is an important one and comes with our growth in the discipline of silence. We learn to calm down, control our wandering mind, pay attention to our posture, create a space in our house where we can be quiet and meditate, use the mantra which helps us focus on the divine at our center and still point, etc. With this discipline, we are disposed to feel God’s presence within us and see how the divine loves us and wants us to reciprocate. This sense of intimacy and quiet can also come to us when we are in the presence of nature, like the seashore, the mountains, our flower garden, etc. The beauty and stillness of nature touches us and triggers off an experience of the infinite silence of God within us. Particular times of the year and holidays can also have a similar effect on us. These positive experiences of God’s silence are periods of consolation and encourage us on in our inward journey.

            The other silence we experience is one of absence and void.  That sweet experience that we had of God’s presence disappears and we feel emptiness within us.  There is dryness and we can be very distracted in our contemplation. It is at this point that we should try to understand what is going on. In one sense, there will always be a void and emptiness in our experience of the presence of the divine because it is transcendent and we will never grasp it. God will always slip through our fingers like sand on the seashore.  On the other hand, there is also another dimension to this feeling of void.  The divine sends these periods of absence and dryness in order to purify us. The challenge of our contemplative path is to love the Lord selflessly as he loves to us. He wants to teach us to grow in a deep love of him, be faithful in that devotion and attachment to him. We are called to love God for Himself/Herself and not for the sweetness we experience in a close presence.

            These are two experiences we have to understand in our contemplative prayer. Any journey in life has its difficulties and challenges and we have to adjust to them. In the ups and downs of this trip, with all its feelings and movements, we have to learn to love our divine beloved always stronger.  The discipline of the mantra can help us love the divine no matter what happens. We know that God is love and calls us to respond to this call and dwells within us in unimaginable intimacy. We know and have this conviction whether we feel the sweetness of the divine’s presence or its absence. It is a challenge for us to be indifferent to these two experiences of the divine and have both in perspective. They are two sides to our contemplative journey and we have to deal with them. We meditate not because we are happy with the sweet experiences we have of his infinite presence.  We are faithful in our prayer because we are growing in a love relationship with the all merciful and loving God who reaches out His/Her hand in friendship and wants our faithful response. Both fill out our relationship with our Beloved. Feeling the sweetness of God’s infinite presence within us fills us with wonder at the divine and the experience of its absence teaches us to be faithful in our quest to respond to this love and friendship for us.

Divine Ocean

GREAT STILLNESS

Bitter cold winter – long –

a break!

Welcome – January thaw!

Ride to the seashore – full

sunshine today – gentle

breeze from the south – warmer air.

Sun baths all – nature rests

in winter’s sleep –

a few gulls flying looking for a hand out.

Deep silence – quiet reigns over all –

cold put nature to rest –

sunshine is silent too.

Stillness of the seashore echoes

deep within me –

I feel – hear slow beats at

my center – still point –

echoes of the loneliness of life.

My breathing – in and out – feels it –

presence deep within me.

Mystery – I can feel it

but not grasp it.

Yet it fills me – grasps me –

lets me know – my life in the city is not all.

Something lacking –

I need to come to the sea – feel

stillness – sunshine – winter’s emptiness.

There I meet my anchor – compass –

companion.

Despite my running around – doing many things –

hopefully good -

I touch deeper ground –

presence – felt in silence – quiet.

God speaks in silence.

Someone has loved me –

chased me through the years – never

let me go –

held on to me.

Someone cared!

I will continue my life in the city –

busy – running back and forth.

Once in a while – I come

to the seashore –

my true lover meets me – touches me –

fills a hole – infinite –

only God can fill.

Robert Trabold

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OCEAN OF GOD

Robert Trabold

            John Main, the founder of the John Main Meditation Movement, states that we have to be courageous and launch out through meditation and contemplation into the ocean of God. It is journey in which we encounter the presence of God at our center and still point. In this trip, we get away from ourselves and go beyond our life of self interest to which we can be enslaved.  Humans are very attached to themselves and are constantly working to enhance their position in the world. This is how we see life and deal with people.  This goal is very immediate to us and the challenge of meditation is to help us to get beyond it. In one sense, we are to leave behind the superficial and very obvious appearances of life, like our self interest, and arrive at a new depth and vision of things which only God can give us.

            The Lord gives us this new and deeper understanding of ourselves and life in meditation. We have to launch out into contemplation and be faithful to the discipline of silence daily. One of the new bases of our lives is the two periods of twenty minutes of meditation in which we encounter the divine. Ironically, we are not called to do many things and actions but in contemplation, we are invited to enter into the stillness of the Spirit. In the quiet and seemly doing nothing in meditation, the transcendent reveals itself to us and enters into our life as our new center; The divine touches us and invites us to enter into a relationship of love. This new dimension of our life then replaces our efforts to aggrandize ourselves and self interest.  It is pushed to the side and we have now a new way of seeing things. We have launched ourselves into the ocean of God and we have to discern where we are being lead. 

            On our part, we are challenged to be faithful to the discipline of silence and our daily meditation.  We do not abandon the use of the mantra but say it diligently in our journey to encounter God. This is not easy because our meditation will go through periods of dryness and emptiness and we wonder whether this inward journey is really worthwhile.  This is compounded by the fact that God is transcendent and beyond us; so this relationship is completely different from our normal human relationships of life. The divine is vast like the ocean and we have to have confidence that despite the darkness at times, that we are being lead by someone who loves us and draws closer to us. In meditation, we leave words and images behind and enter into the naked presence of Jesus, our Beloved. The mysterious thing about this is that it is done in silence which on the surface, seems to be empty but really is full of meaning and launches us into a new dimension of living. We have pierced the superficiality of life of just tending to our self interest and see the world in a different fashion. God becomes our anchor and gives us a new way of living in the world and handling its challenges. We are on a new trip and God is the rudder.  When we are on a ship and look at the sea, it is dark and mysterious.  So too is this journey into God through meditation and contemplation. There are many currents in our life but the divine is there and offers to us a new way of being beyond the superficialities of human living. We have found a new lover who walks with us through the years and will welcome us into the beyond at death.

           

           

           

Therese Neumann

MORNING SILENCE

Konnersreuth

Silence hangs over the land –

golden wheat fields – dark

green forest all lay in quiet.

Dim sun slowly rises – eats

away morning mist.

Silence over a holy land –

saintly woman lived here – farm

girl – worked the fields – feed the

animals.

She loved flowers – fields – green trees

but loved the Lord more –

her Beloved!

Silence is the language of God –

silence hangs over the land.

I made a long trip to come here –

pilgrim’s way.

I came to touch Silence of God –

Silence of Therese Neumann –

Silence of morning’s landscape.

It will be a long trip home –

long car ride to the airport –

long flight over the ocean.

Memories will last of this holy land –

holy land!

Feelings – awe – wonder will not fade away.

My life – a pilgrimage – many

years have passed – how many more?

Only God knows! I have to

keep on walking - climbing the

mountain of life – like Therese Neumann.

Memories of this holy land

will help me along.

Robert Trabold

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THERESE NEUMANN:

MODERN DAY MYSTIC

Robert Trabold

            I had the opportunity last summer to visit the birth place of Therese Neumann in Konnersreuth, Germany.  She was born into a small farming village in southeast Germany in 1898 and died there in 1962.  She was a farm girl and lived most of her life in this modest place.   She had a normal youth and worked hard on the farm and then had a serious of accidents in her work which left her bed ridden and blind for several years. She had a great devotion to Therese of Lisieux and on the day of the beatification of the latter, she was cured of her blindness and on the day of canonization, was miraculously able to walk again.  Therese Neumann was a devout person and attained the heights of contemplative prayer; many people testify to her union and intimacy with God. Shortly after being cured of her illnesses, she received the wounds of Jesus on her body and each Friday, from noon to 3 PM, she suffered in her bed and bled from her wounds. At that time also, she had many visions of the life of Christ which were then written down by people who spoke to her afterwards.

            In visiting the small village, one can go to the house where she lived and into the room with the bed where she suffered on Fridays.  In the cemetery, one can visit her grave and there is a small chapel to her honor where people place plaques of thanksgiving to Therese who interceded for their needs.  She loved nature and one can visit the garden she planted and see how artistically it is laid out with flowers blooming all during the summer. At a local home for the aged, there is an hour’s film of her life which is very impressive and touching; she lived in the modern era so that the film depicts her speaking to people and working in the town.

            During her life time, she had many visitors who came to talk with her and be present in her room when she suffered for the three hours on each Friday. The people who came were devout who wanted to experience this event recalling the suffering of Jesus.  Others were curious only wanting to see such a thing.  During the years, there were many people who came to the small town asking advice for their life and difficulties. After the Second World War, the American soldiers who occupied the town were very impressed and touched by Therese’s life and sufferings.  On returning to the United States, they talked about Therese and started movements to spread devotion to her.  The little town became a place of pilgrimage and it is the same until this day; pilgrims come as individuals or in groups and in buses to visit the various sites of her life. There is a movement now in motion to have her beatified and canonized.

            In reading the various books and pamphlets written about her, the writers testify to her ascent into mystical prayer.  She achieved a great intimacy with Jesus and this was manifest in her words and actions. After her many sufferings and visions, she would rest for many hours in the presence of God and felt intensely this friendship.  In visiting the various places of her life, such as her house, the room where she suffered, her grave and her garden, I did feel a silence.  From these places, there exuded a quiet which was the presence of the divine.  In making the pilgrimage to Konnersreuth, I did not feel that Therese drew me to herself but led me into the silence of God to rest there. In these moments, I was quiet just to be in the presence of Jesus. This sense of silence was most manifest in her room when I was next to the bed she suffered in and in visiting her grave where she is now resting. I spent long hours there and very much felt the presence of God within me and washing over me.

            Beside being so touched by contemplative silence, I was also moved that she was a stigmatic and manifested in such a deep way the sufferings of Jesus on Good Friday. She suffered with Jesus and her clothes and sheets of the bed were marked by the blood flowing from her wounds. This touched me deeply and in one way, grace was flowing over me. Also once Therese received the wounds of Jesus and became a stigmatic, she never again had to eat in her life nor drink water nor have to sleep. These were signs of her deep union with Jesus and hopefully will act to bring other people close to him. We can say that she was a mystic who attained deep union with God in contemplative prayer and silence entering deeply into His/Her presence. On the other hand, she was a stigmatic and manifested in her body the physical sufferings of Jesus. Certainly, these were miraculous things and helped the many pilgrims who came to see her have more faith. Wondrous things done by God can help us believe. Therese Neumann wanted her life to do this and not focus attention on herself.

            I did make a long trip to fly to Germany and drive to an out of the way place in that country. I wanted to be a pilgrim going to a holy place and experience the presence of such a great mystic and stigmatic. I went there also burdened with cares and troubles of the world and my life.  I left them there hoping that Therese would intercede for me and my world, bringing it more peace and justice. I was not disappointed and hopefully, the effects of this pilgrimage will play themselves out in blessing us all and our world which is so troubled.