Contemplative Haven

Autumn Closing (Bliss Carman)

The show is over, and the leafy tent
All gold and crimson where the sunlight lingered
Through the slow afternoon, is coming down.
The bittersweet is scarlet on the bough
Reluctant to be gone, though frosts have strewn
Patins of glory on the forest trails,
While tatters of torn splendour go to feed
The smoky bonfires in the village street.
What singer pipes the closing autumn hush
With surest note of cheer in all the wild?
A dauntless minstrel of the changing year,
Chickadee of the wilderness! He knows
What sweetness gathers in the winter’s heart,
What saving oracles the North Wind sings.

Part 5: Exploring Prayer of the Heart (Based on Chapter 30) Way of Perfection

…it may seem to anyone who doesn’t know about the matter that vocal prayer doesn’t go with contemplation; but I know that it does.  Pardon me, but I want to say this:  I know there are many persons who while praying vocally, as has already been mentioned, are raised by God to sublime contemplation [without their striving for anything or understanding how.  It's because of this that I insist so much, daughters, upon your reciting vocal prayer well.] 

…and in her fiesty, no-nonsense way that we’ve come to love:

…those of you who are the enemies of contemplatives should not think that you are free from being a contemplative if you recite your vocal prayers as they should be recited, with a pure conscience. [And so I will speak of this again. Whoever doesn't want to hear it may pass on.]  

I am reading, “By Little and By Little.  The Selected Writings of Dorothy Day”, and just wanted to share a passage about Peter Maurin that brought tears to my eyes:

Peter had been insulted and misunderstood in his life as well as loved.  He had been taken for a plumber and left to sit in the basement when he had been invited for dinner and an evening of conversation.  He had been thrown out of a Knights of Columbus meeting.  One pastor who invited him to speak demanded his money back which he had sent Peter for carfare to his upstate parish because, he said, we had sent him a Bowery bum, and not the speaker he expected.  “This then is perfect joy,” Peter could say, quoting the words of St. Francis to Friar Leo.

He was a man of sincerity and peace, and yet one letter came to us recently, accusing him of having a holier-than-thou attitude.  Yes, Peter pointed out that it was a precept that we should love God with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength, and not just a counsel, and he taught us all what it meant to be children of God, and restored to us our sense of responsibility in a chaotic world.  Yes, he was “holier than thou,” holier than anyone we ever knew.

[Excerpt from:  By Little and By Little.  The Selected Writings of Dorothy Day, Edited, with an Introduction, by Robert Ellsberg, pg. 127, from a letter entitled "Peter Maurin.  A Poor Man", dated June 1949]

Recover for me, my God, the time I have lost by giving me grace in the present and in the future, so that I may appear before You with nuptial garments, for You can do this if You wish.

[Lingering with My Lord. Post-Communion Experiences of St. Teresa of Avila, Introduction and Translation by Michael D. Griffin, O.C.D., pg. 36]

Well, call me a diehard, but our turkey is real and I’ll be up all night making the pumpkin pies!

CBC Archives

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, my fellow Canadians!

Part 4: Exploring Prayer of the Heart (Based on Chapter 29) Way of Perfection 

Chapter 29 continues with the prayer of recollection, and as Sr. Donna points out and as St. Teresa writes, “…this recollection is not a silence of the faculties; it is an enclosure of the faculties within the soul.”  St. Teresa is teaching us in this chapter “how vocal prayer should be recited well”, and that even if repetition is involved, “we should see and be present to the One with whom we speak without turning our backs on Him, for I don’t think speaking with God while thinking of a thousand other vanities would amount to anything else but turning our backs on Him.”

Our holy desires and our wills are very active and important in this prayer of recollection, for it is not infused prayer.  St. Teresa is teaching us here of how to “disengage ourselves from everything so as to approach God interiorly and even in the midst of occupations withdraw within ourselves.”  This is something we can “desire and achieve ourselves with the help of God”, and she writes words of encouragement, knowing that in the midst of our busy days and exterior distractions there may be times when we have to “force ourselves to be close to this Lord”, but that He will “understand us as if through sign language” and that “He is very fond of taking away our difficulty.”

For those who have difficulty recollecting themselves, St. Teresa recommends saying the Our Father even if “no more than once in an hour”, telling us that this is a manner of praying that the soul gets used to quickly, that “everything involves struggle before the habit is acquired” and that it involves “a gradual increase of self-control.”

O my Jesus, my Master and Director, strengthen and enlighten me in these difficult moments of my life.  I expect no help from people; all my hope is in You.  I feel alone in the face of Your demands, O Lord.  Despite the fears and qualms of my nature, I am fulfilling Your holy will and desire to fulfill it as faithfully as possible throughout my life and in my death.  Jesus, with You I can do all things.  Do with me as You please; only give me Your merciful Heart and that is enough for me.

[The Diary, Notebook II, # 650] 

One Sunday morning as I opened my missalette, a piece of paper fell out.  On it was written a prayer to St. Thérèse, with the instructions to say the prayer for nine days for your intention, and also to copy out the prayer eleven times and place it in other missalettes where people would eventually find them.

At the time I was not familiar with novenas, and the thought of copying it out eleven times for others struck me as absurd, like some sort of religious chain-letter.  But I prayed the prayer over and over, not just for nine days…

I don’t remember what my intention was, but the prayer has always stayed with me:

Petite Thérèse de l’enfant Jésus, toi qui nous a promis de faire du bien sur la terre, répand ta pluie de roses sur tous ceux qui t’invoque.  Accorde-nous la grace de ta bonté.  Amen.

I have not been able to find that exact prayer anywhere in books or online, but I believe it may have been based on the prayer I found here:

Well, as a matter of fact, I did sit down one night and wrote out eleven copies of the prayer.  After a few Sundays had passed, I had managed to slip it into eleven missalettes for others to find.

Thank you, St. Thérèse.  Merci pour ta pluie de roses dans nos vies.  May you have a festive day today in heaven, with the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin,  all the angels and saints, and our loved ones.