Do I have “the mountain”? Where is my mountain? In my bedroom, office, favorite armchair or desk? Do I have a habit to go there frequently? He, “after the five thousand had eaten and were satisfied… went off to the mountain to pray” (Mk 6:45-46). Prayer is so natural for Him. Part of everything. Natural reaction to action. The foundation for all kind of activity.

We work hard, we are so tired, we need some rest, – and later, if we have enough strength, probably, we will pray. Have you ever tried to meet Him because you were tired? Have you prayed like this:

“Let me stay with You, Lord. I am so tired, because ‘the wind was against’ me. I have come to You empty, without any good or nice prayer. Just to be with You.” And maybe He will act as He did in today’s Gospel – “He got into the boat with them and the wind died down” (Mk 6:51).

Sometimes it is more important to be with Him without any word or spiritual activity. Just to be. Loving presence in silence is a prayer, too.

“Then, opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.” (Mt 2:11)

They offered Him gifts. The best they had: gold – for the King, frankincense – for God, myrrh – for His death on the cross. But gold could also symbolize our love, frankincense – our longing, and myrrh – our suffering. 

When I go to visit Him, how often do I bring Him only leftovers. Remains of my time, busy schedule, last minutes of my day. How often did I fall asleep during the liturgy of hours, during my daily meditation. Not because of malice, only because I was so busy in the service of my Lord.

Today’s feast reminds me how important it is to put Him in the first place of my day – before I start to serve Him. Service is the measure of my love, and love first needs to meet its object.

The Magi first came to visit Him. The gifts were only a consequence of the visit. Without the visit – there are no gifts.

“Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas’ — which means Rock.” (J 1:42).

When I pray looking at Him hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, I like to think that He is also looking at me. What does He see in me? My sins, my limitations and shortcomings – or…?

Maybe He does for all of us what He did for Saint Peter: “you are to be called”…He has a new name for me, the name which will cover all the levels of my service.

Oh, how good it is to remain under the gaze of the Lord for a some time. Let Him look at you as often as possible. Maybe sometimes He will say something, but even if it is only His loving gaze at you, it is more than you can imagine. No one can look at you with such a great love.

“No one who remains in him sins” (1 John 3:6) 

Continuation.

St. Teresa of Avila suggested, for the beginners in prayer generally, and in meditation especially, that at the very first moment of meditation they should think about the best  companion for prayer – and invite Jesus. He is the best companion for your prayer and for your life.

If you try to remember several times a day that He lives in your heart as if you were a live tabernacle, you will see how your life is changing.

To remain in Him means to give Him a permanent place in your heart. And this is your meeting point.

For St. Teresa, accompanying Jesus was always very important. She shared  the way she learnt to be in His constant company, to remain in Him, both with her sisters and in her writings

“To remain in Him” is a process. Neither long nor short. Just a process. Any level could be improved. And the beauty of His company is that “no one who remains in him sins”.

“It is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost” (Mt 18:14)

The God’s will.

Sometimes when people think about God’s will, they think about doing something special, difficult, and quite often connected with some penance and self-denial. But God’s will is so simple. He is a God who is Pure Love, so His will is – love each other. He came to give us example. Like a good shepherd: “In his arms he gathered the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care” (Is 40:11).

We are in His arms. Specially, during the Holy Mass. We can invite Him to our hearts and take Him to our homes, streets, neighborhood. We can put our loved ones, our difficulties, problems and worries into His arms. 

We are His little ones. Stay close to Him.

Fr. Jay

This is above all the panel of the leaders of the conference of bishops of the US, Canada, Latin America and Brazil. Also the bishop from the Philippines and Caribbean was included but because of the tragedy he didn’t come, which is understandable.

I will need some more time to put these matters in order but I can see already how important his meetings was and even though it concerned America, many things can be related to our situation.

What was did the speakers stress most? That evangelisation is not only our thing but it is also the great concern of God for all the children to come back to Him.

There is no evangelisation that does not stream from an individual encounter with God so at the first place there is prayer and the personal relationship with Jesus. The church and all of us are missionaries – this is not a post or a title but the identity of each of us. When we encounter the living Jesus, we want to share this experience with everyone.

The Holy Spirit, promised to us, will lead in us in every situation. This requires openness and internal freedom. We must also constantly reflect on things and react to changing reality. The social structure of many countries is changing from rural to urban societies. What was good before is no longer sufficient. For example, in Toronto 50% inhabitants were not born in Canada. This shows that we are in a very happy situation, although in our country we can also see the trend from rural to urban.

A parish is a community of communities, we repeat it often and we must come back to it again and again. Each of us needs a smaller community that gives a sense of closeness and understanding. But our mission is not to serve our community or even our parish but… the world. We need to conquer the world for Jesus. We discussed the need to change our mentality to become missionaries. We need to change our parishes in mission territories. For example: bring every year two new married couples to our meetings – what would happen in 5 years’ time?

Every day we started and ended with a prayer. I was happy that there was ample time for prayer, so it was not theoretical speaking of the need to pray but putting in practice what was said.

Remembering you all

Padre J.

I went for a few days to the Mexican countryside and I stayed for a while in Malinalco – Puebla Magica. It is a place worth visiting. Perhaps one day I shall relate my impressions but today I’d like to share a few images from the visit to the Divino Salvador  church and the Transfiguracion convent, founded by the augustins in 1540. The place is worth visiting not only because of archeological artefacts of the Aztec culture but also to see the black and white frescos made by Indians on all the walls of the viridary.

But I was more attracted to the signs of piety; it is good to entrust the child or someone from the family to Mary, it is worth making a request to San Charbel Makhlouf, the much revered maronite,but it’s also good to make sure that they will remember.

I must say it has touched me deeply. They must have a lot of intentions to attend to so a small mind-jogger will be helpful. I wonder if there is some cleaning done from time to time – there must be room for new intentions.

Remembering you all

Padre J.

Retreat participants have left. The retreat is over. The house for a while returns to its natural silence. Of course, intense housework keeps going on, as in a few days another group will turn up, consisting of several times as many families, and all the rooms will have to be ready. But it is not work that keeps this place alive. It is the chapel and its silence. Even though the sounds from different parts of the house and from the outside reach this place, this special kind of silence prevails. The heart of the house is here.

Today during the evening Adoration I prayed for those who were here and for those who will come here before long. How many beautiful meetings this place will witness, how many moments and hours spent on peaceful gazing at the One, who is waiting.

It does not matter how busy you are, you may always pay Him a visit, even for a tiny moment, closing your eyes and travelling in your mind to the chapel. Or greeting Him from your car, when you’re driving past the church.

He is waiting for us everywhere. And He wants to listen to you. And to tell you that He loves you. Very much. He loves you most in the whole wide world.

From Wisełka

Fr Jay

Like with someone who’s close to us… About less and more important things. Warmly. In a feeling of complete safety.

And sometimes – just being close, very ordinarily. Without words.

Even for a short while.

Basia

* Gabriela  Bossis, He and me, vol. I, p. 60