'love dwells in ourhearts.'

“Nothing will shake us from our conviction that God is, that God is love and His love dwells in our hearts.” , pg 8; The Way of Unknowing. John Main. OSB; The Crossroad Publishing Company; 1995

One of the good fruits of Christian Meditation is the growing awareness that God is love. It is not a matter of how we feel but of an inner conviction of this reality. The very fact that we meditate is an indication that God is at work in our hearts for Jesus has told us: “Without me you can do nothing.” John 15.5

You know we are just common sinners and yet we are so loved. I was delighted when I came across something by Richard Rohr OFM in which he said that redemption precedes everything including repentance. So when by the gift of God we decide to take time to be silent with God, we are willing to let God do the great divine work of love in our hearts. And God is so trustworthy. We can always say with Jesus, in the Garden of Gesthemane, not my will but Yours be done. Or with Mary: behold the servant of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.

The 12 steps for alcoholics are really profound and based so much on this truth that all is gift, all is grace. And the 11th step leads right into the possibility of the practice of Christian meditation. “sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him. Praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out.”

This is why it is always a good thing to begin every session of meditation with a very conscious act of faith in the presence of God and in his great love for us. It can be as simple as saying as directly as possible to God whom we do not see or feel, I believe you are with me, I believe in your great love for us all and for me here and now. You could add, help my unbelief!!

Let us enter into the silence with the conviction and God is, that God is love and his love dwells in our hearts. Let us pray.

Review of How to Meditate:
Sit down. Sit still and upright. Close your eyes lightly. Sit relaxed but alert. After your act of faith in the reality of God present with you. Interiorly begin to say a simple word or a short phrase. We recommend the prayer phrase ‘Maranatha’. Recite it in four syllables slowly and listen to it as you say it. You can use another word or phrase instead. Some say the holy name of Jesus. Or Abba. Or come Lord Jesus. I know someone who says O God be my Guide. When I started, in 1951 I used the prayer repeated by the desert fathers and mothers: O God, come to my assistance, O Lord, make haste to help me.(Ps 70) but shorter may be better, Do not think of anything or imagine anything at all. Not even holy thoughts. If thoughts come just gently return to your word. If you become aware of silence just start your word. Meditate twice a day.

TheConsolation and Challenge of the HOly Spirit praying in us

We know from Romans 8:26-27 that the Holy Spirit of God prays in us, with groans and sighs:
"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
However we are praying, in our weakness or our blindness or our selfishness, the Holy Spirit is praying In us according to the will of God.
This is a great consolation. What matters is that we pray, whether it be a groaning prayer, a rote prayer, any way of praying. We can trust that our prayer is transformed by the Spirit to be in accord with the will of God.
I love the words in Psalm 86:
Teach me your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart to revere your name.
I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and I will glorify your name for ever.
For great is your steadfast love towards me;
you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
(11-13)
There is also a challenge to us to open our hearts and minds to let God heal our divided hearts. We can spend some time each day praying without an agenda, without seeking to achieve anything, without intending to look good in our own eyes. We sit and say a simple prayer quietly, even repeating it slowly, so that we are open to what God wants to do with us. We accept the mystery that God is truth and beauty and goodness and we entrust our whole being into the hands of God for this short prayer time.
Let us pray.

Awaiting Ascension

Fix your minds on the things that are above, and not on the things of earth. Col 3.2

For you have died and your life is hidden with God.

This suggestion about how to live our lives is preceded by this: If then, you have risen with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Col 3;1

Seated at the right hand of God. This image is from Psalm 110 which I never paid much attention to until I realized that the phrase is threaded through the New Testament. (Mark 12:35-37; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Hebrews 1:3,13; 1Peter 3:22 It is in our creed.

We hardly pay attention to it. Perhaps it expresses a mystery too deep for words? St. Thomas Aquinas O.P. writes that it does not mean a physical place at all. But it means the glory and power and love that is God, which Christ shares because he is True God as well as true man.

And having said this we are still dealing in mystery. But the additional thought of Aquinas is that the glory of God and the reality that God is love means the Jesus shares this and so will we. In fact he goes on the say the we have this gift from Baptism. By Baptism he says we have risen with Christ. In another place in the New Testament it says that Jesus having joy before him endured the cross. I guess this is true for us when our faith is strong. We are able to endure sorrows confusions and miseries because we are sure of God’s love, which is the source of all joy.

As Rene Voilaume wrote: Joy is the instantaneous fruit of a look of faith at Jesus. When we start to meditate let us always call to mind that