Contemplative Prayer

I want my kingdom to come – the soul doing its own will… not God’s

We soften up and loosen up – God is taking me and reshaping me and remolding me and I need to relax and forget this “little picture” of who I am and who everyone else is – while He allows a deeper Mystery of who I am and to bring that into a deeper communion with others whom He is drawing to Himself.

Our Lord is gently moving us along – keep allowing the Lord to take care of things – i
“Is someone betraying me, giving me what I deserve? – everything turns to plastic, gets brittle” – Our Lord says, “Let’s move back into the Mystery; let’s not keep score; let’s get fed by the Holy Eucharist, assure each other with gentleness.” We may walk with Him in His way –releasing from rigid-crystalline-shatterings and we re-enter by Christ back into the Mystery of transformation in Him – let’s start living on Earth as it is in Heaven as we will live forever.

World War II in England, children were moved during the bombing raids – two different reactions – when the parents were very freaked out and frightened the children were shattered – when the parents presented the moves as just another camping trip – “we don’t know where we are going – we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen or where we’re going to end up, but it’s OK” – a spirit of moving along with confidence and adventure – the children experienced no long term fears and traumas.

Disappointment and chaos results when we do not move with Christ in confidence in the outcome of the adventure and the Mystery that He knows and He comprehends the “entire picture,” history, outcome for all of us as unique persons and in relation to each other and as members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

Since before the time of Abraham the Lord has been trying to invite His own into this inner reality (of trust and faith in His love) – the Lord is taking care of us now, tonight, there is a rest and peace in knowing that He knows and Loves and cares for us – He wants us to have that reality today – the Lord says, ”Chill, rest – ”

Scotty in economics class, he had just eaten, there’s a side that wants to be [what he thinks is] the perfect saint and when he falls short of that he gets mad at himself, gets discouraged, -- his teacher is talking about world poverty – so Scotty is surfing the Internet and reading the Saints – they’re telling him in a sense to: “Listen to your teacher, be in your class –“ “I was checking out different saint’s writings and each was saying be obedient to your duties.”

Plants have an inner order – and individual parts may not understand the entire plan or order [as obviously they can’t since they are plants – but we can learn and see the order of those individual parts. But we still can’t see the extra dimensions beyond what our limited natural human reason deals with] – Abraham left himself open to God’s Mysterious Plan – he stayed in tune with God’s inner order (Abraham didn’t go skipping and running about on his own). God is trying to woo creation in this Love affair He has with His creation. God’s main gift is freedom and His creation must use its own inner freedom to move in accord God’s fuller Mystery of Creation. We use both reason and powers of faith within this matrix pattern we live in and are invited by God to open into ever-deepening inner life in God.
God needs to keep helping and coaching His creation until it can do this with God.

God says to Abraham, “You can start consciously moving with Me – walk forward with Me in a very intricate delicate way, but you won’t be able to control it – leave your homeland and start moving.” – But it wasn’t just a geographical journey that God was inviting Abraham to move in, but to live out the inner expression of God’s Holiness – to walk in that spirit to that trueness to God’s inspiration and God’s ways.

The exposition of Divine Union will take place in “ordinary blending in” – What might on the surface look like being, “just being another bump on a log” – it looks like nothing is happening – you will do that not only as a Catholic but as someone who graduates from a Seminary – does your assignments – Our Lord says: I’ll be doing the most unbelievable astonishing things but it won’t LOOK like anything is going on at all.

St Therese of the Child Jesus is the all time expression of this. She felt certain she was called to be a missionary and evangelist and yet – Our Lord gave her the call and then seemed to frustrate her living it out in an external way – She was a cloistered person with very limited contact with people in the world.
Anything good comes from God and she had this good desire to evangelize and desires have their source in God – God does not plan to fill all our desires in the way we picture in our unaided natural reasoning in this life.

Desire is for a perceived good that we are not united and that causes in yourself a movement toward it – we have an infinite capacity for God and we have a capacity for finite things, people, food – Sometimes we get God and goodness and good things blended together in one way –– our way. God may have another way, even better, but it may not seem like it. – ALL good things come from God – in the channel of God’s grace He accomplishes these things – we should ultimately want Him and God is not a thing. – St Therese’s desire [to be a Missionary/Evangelist] was never fulfilled in her lifetime – but deep within her God was uniting her to Himself who is love. Theresa is part of God’s people that she felt like she wanted to evangelize one after another but God was entering into her deeply and in invisible ways God’s love was entering into His people through inner connections by the human solidarity we all share. She became the entry spot. Theresa’s life was ordinary and unnoticeable on the outside and in the small picture, but The Mystery of God’s creation was opened in her inner life and God’s love was being shared without her noticing by the connections in the matrix we live.
1 John 4 :10 In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us...



This is good – the experience of wanting to control things is largely an illusion – this is how dirt turns to gold – so we want to go really slowly here.

Control in this life is an illusion –– but the Gospel states that this life isn’t it – you can’t trust in Divine Providence unless you have Hope – even if you suffer, Christ rose from the dead and this as it seem to be the whole of life isn’t the whole of life – soooooooooo follow God – I may desire to be famous or wealthy (seemingly good desires) God has a way of fulfilling deeper desires that are within my desires. There is more to True Happiness the what seems promised by getting the things or goals I have. Theresa achieved the Happiness of others coming into God’s Love without achieving her felt-goal of being an “evangelist.” God can achieve through His powers we share of Faith, Hope and Love, in a far greater and better way than I can imagine and He cannot accomplish this and even greater perfections in me without me first completing this or that exercise. Allowing God’s trust to work in me may take an entire lifetime and I may remain feeling incomplete. Yet my soul and other souls may be opening in a deeper and hidden way to God’s love so that the abundant Life and Wealth and Fame and Nobility fall short of, so that what Jesus came to give us may abound even more fully than I could imagine were I to limit myself to merely building up my kingdom …]

He IS the one building and it is not us. The mechanism of action – how we get from here to there – the missing link – this promise, this inner longing and this place of rest – the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth – Thy Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven – what is the dynamic that gets us from here to there – Ps 127 and 1 Jn 4:10 – The Lord blesses His Loved ones as they sleep. So I need to enter into the space where God FIRST Loves me. Allow Him to make an orderly Place for the Lord to work this tremendous Mystery and for Our Lord to accomplish this transforming union. Catechism 2713:


True. 2713: Contemplative prayer is the simplest expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gift, a grace; it can be accepted only in humility and poverty. Contemplative prayer is a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts (Cf. Jer 31:33). Contemplative prayer is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, "to his likeness."



How do we distinguish between our desires and God’s? Ultimately we need Christ for this, because only in Him does our ultimate happiness occur. In Christ we undergo a continual dying and rising so our goals and our measures of good are developing and transforming in Him. But in the meantime there are some limited helps. The key to following a desire is that it brings Peace [of Soul]. Peace presupposes Justice. To discern a good thing, whether I can do this action – is there an authentic and consistent Peace of Soul – Peace can only occur where there is Justice – we can only have Justice by Faith – Faith is Jesus’ capacity for Justice. We cooperate on the way and join with Christ in the ordinary ways of life while we are also part of a greater Mystery of Creation.

Kristin & Scotty: Scotty wants to be a Saint but has to do so while being a student. Kristin likes to give everyone the opportunity to exercise their Heroic Sanctity while trying to exercise hers at the same time. Everyone is buying and winning her Divine Lottery tickets whether they know it or not, but Our Lord sees that Scotty can and needs to win the jackpot. Two weeks of what looked like failed opportunities. She won’t give up. Our Lord is at work here. There’s work to be done and a Fortune to be made. Scotty is not excluded from the opportunity of exercising his preference for completing his duties as a student.

Matthew 5: 42 Give to him that asks of thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away.



St Therese states that to “turn not away” does mean saying “no” and letting one’s alms sweat in one’s palms.
The Mystery of Creation of allowing God to enter into us in deep rest in His Love also shows itself if the Ordinary Life:

Scotty checks his Palm at exactly the Providential moment – he has just a little “free” time between exams and classes to … add supererogatory acts of Charity to his day … Tired, thirsty laborers are given bottles of water – able hands are hired for 10 minutes of work – those not hired are consoled – in a matter of a few minutes Scotty has done and compounded many acts of Charity and returned to his studies. In 2 hours everything that had not been done in 2 months or 2 weeks is completed without a hitch and with an overwhelming display and grasp of the Gold of Charity. It takes two to Tango  and everyone who could NOT make the Dance has won Infinite Dividends with the Banker of Talents. Everyone involved benefits in Time and in Eternity.

2nd Peter 1:3-4 His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power.
Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature,
Galacians 4:9 also in but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and destitute elemental powers? Do you want to be slaves to them all over again?
Hebrews –

In this sacred space – this little gap – Abraham wants to do the right thing – St Paul wants to do the right thing – in that space – where we want to fulfill God’s plan but we don’t have what it takes

His divine power has bestowed on us everything

We don’t have what it takes to get the good things – we don’t have what it takes to move into the Good – Jesus says who are you calling “good” – only God is good – we are longing to move into Goodness itself/Himself – He lends us the Divine Nature to get us to the Divine Nature – Pope Benedict XVI – Hope itself contains the power of the Kingdom –Hope And this Hope moves within us in a transforming way (we don’t have a Divine Nature to activate) Grace gives us the ONLY link to the Divine Nature which is Christ Himself – He makes this installation of His own Divine Nature in our nature to draw more and more of our nature into His Divine Nature.

In this space – the Place – where God first Loves me (God IS Love – all existence is held by God Who Is Love) we have a call to move toward the Kingdom of God but we can’t get there – we are made for you Lord – our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee – God’s Knowing IS Loving – He takes our place –the place of not being able to know, Love – in that inability – God purifies that inability: 2 Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
1 John 4:10 “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation”
“I will carry you to where you can’t go and I will go with you.”
“Unless you die with me, you cannot Live with Me.”

He helps us to rest – and awakens a deeper identity – and identity that is in union with Him and without the (outside of our) control.

What’s in this for me? Bits of my clothes stuck in the barbed wire, go back, continue dying and rising with Christ. The ongoing Liturgy is the ongoing movement – this deep transforming love machine – the Mass – one Mass one Christ one transforming union – dying with Him – rising with Him – and Christ gets to inhabit the center of her being (she is not just orbiting around Him) He is realizing that transforming union in her as she rests and in that rest God is WORKING.

Jesus could do miracles on the Sabbath because He was RESTING ¬¬–– and GOD was working !

We have a scientific positivistic concept of knowledge. The Israelites – perish for lack of knowledge of union with God – you are not allowing the God Who Loves you to rest with you and to do His work in you and through you

Catechism of the Catholic Church #1325 The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination of both of God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and though him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus delivered us from the power of darkness – in Him we have the redemption from sin – the Eucharist IS the POWER to do this – to die to our own limited ability – to die to our limited selves – we do not have the ability to empty ourselves for the Lord that presumably would lead to divine happiness –
What? me empty myself for the Lord – HE is the only one with the power to empty in that way– Philippians 2:6 though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; 5 and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
Christ FIRST Loving me – now I can do it because He Loved me – NO – stay with step 1 – Christ will Love others through me – God IS Love – How can I Love unless I am God ? I am not. Christ is.

We are Christians united in Christ – He Loves the Father, He Loves the neighbor …

Romans 7 – St Paul – is long converted and after he is already a long-time good guy – here he is moaning and groaning about how he can’t get himself to behave…-- in fact we do not want to be well – until all the other members of Christ are brought into that wellness (Romans 9:1+).

Who will deliver me from this mortal body? I myself with my mind – with my flesh and the law of sin.

Jesus – now you’ve got the raw action. Jesus says: I want to be where you are sick – where you are cursed – let me in, to join you on your ride down – unless you go down you are not going to go up – ride the round trip ticket with Me. We will go down to where sin takes you –– death –– My Presence, My power, My joy, My Love will be with you transforming you and the horse you came in on.

The Eucharist lifts us up, gets our suspenders out of the door jam, pants off the barbed wire fence. Unless you die with Me you cannot rise with Me – everything seems to be dissolving into the biggest nothingness. I Love you completely as your are dissolving in every way you think you could be – I am taking that stamp into Myself – I will be in that really dark crazy spirit with you and in you and by and for you in my bond of your faith, trust in love which I am offering and that contains my power, because you cannot go into this place by yourself. – Your will upheld by grace and in Solidarity with others, keeps trusting My Will – I will support you (by the power of the Eucharist in the Mass) so take the full ride – go for what Jesus wants to give me – He wants me to be fully in union with Him and this is how it takes place – the Church starts becoming transformed – and everyone we are connected with starts getting the transformation of the Eucharist. A tiny bit of Divinity is way more than anything else that we think we have.

St Therese allowed God to Love her. This Teenager was simply allowing Jesus to Love her without her seemingly accomplishing anything – In the end, the Church received an incredible transformation, revitalized through one little person – not by political activity – but by the sense of the Holy Spirit within the book and within the readers, and not by the book itself (i.e., St Therese’s Autobiography of a Soul).

The Lord blesses His beloved as she rests –– allowing Christ to first love her.

St Therese doesn’t like a certain person but Christ’s Love works in St Therese. That person thinks St Therese likes her the most !

Gen 1:26-27

Then God said let Us make man in Our Image after Our Likeness… God created man in His image and in the Divine Image …

Matt 18:15 We must be Active and Receptive (not Passive) stand up – get out of our comfort zone – with Him we can –

If your brother sins against you, go an tell him your fault if he listens to you … tell the Church… then treat him as …

Go into the Eternal Divine moment of Christ dying – now let’s go inside – we’ll confront our brother – let’s use this Eucharist with this Divine dying of Christ – in this mysterious zone – open yourself up and let Jesus – you messed up, yet Christ in you and in me can be transformed. The with predictability of falling is joined to the one who takes us down together is his falls and in Solidarity graced faith, trust and love, he and we will be well. -- This is the power of contemplative prayer in the matrix of our “ordinary lives,” in the matrix of the Mystery of God.

CCC 2713
True. 2713: Contemplative prayer is the simplest expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gift, a grace; it can be accepted only in humility and poverty. Contemplative prayer is a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts (Cf. Jer 31:33). Contemplative prayer is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, "to his likeness."


The simplest expression of the mystery of prayer – a 15 year old French girl receives a Gift – a Grace accepted in humility and poverty established by God – the Holy Trinity conforms man to His likeness – while we are sleeping – this is a team (the Most Holy Trinity) you want to hire – are you humble and poor?