I am usually very hard on myself and very easy on others, so I’m not sure it holds fast that how we treat ourselves is how we treat others, but I may be wrong, I usually am
Your quote above struck a note with me. I am blessed with a wonderful sister in charge of me and during one spell of dryness she stopped all spiritual exercises and reading for me seeing how painful it was to force these things. She simply set me to make small ejaculatory prayers such as ‘Jesus I love you’ or ‘Thank you Jesus’ or ‘Mercy Jesus, Mary help’ etc , you get the drift. This immediately stopped an awful struggle and I was able to endure this dry period with much less pain. It was a great mercy she did for me and I will always be grateful to her. Of course after a time this dry period passed and I returned to all systems go as before. We must adjust our prayer life to the work God is doing in our soul and not work against it.
As it says in Sacred Scripture there is a time for everything, a time for war and a time for peace, a time to build and a time to tear down etc, this is true of the prayer life as it is for other things.
In the Living Prayer of my life
Howdy again BS
…I nearly overlooked the above Post. Concentration not the best at the moment - c’est la vie!
Yeah, I agree with Sister. (“it is mercy I desire, not sacrifice”) I am under direction also, and just today discovered that a retired priest and a very holy and learned man and priest will take me under his wing as my director and confessor. Please join in giving thanks for this. I have been praying for a confessor/director ever since I lost my first one to cancer 20 years ago roughly. At the moment I am seeing a religious sister and ex novice mistress as my director. Our shortage of priests, dire shortage indeed, here in South Australia means that even retired priests are kept busy and most often do not have sufficient time to give to spritual direction. No one was more surprised than me when Father agreed to see me, after someone recommended I contact him. Father knows me extremely well from the long ago.
I dont think we should ever drive ourselves in any spiritual exercises at all
too hard - and it can be difficult to recognize when we are reaching that “too” stage - that elusive often sense of balance. There are many ways of praying and it is not dependant on the time, type or physical position etc. factor. I may go to my prayer time and not feel at all like it and it is ok to feel that…and then during the day I may be at my duties and praying with heartfelt ejaculatory prayers. Which is the best prayer - both is the best prayer!!!
I am reminded of my great aunty who had been a nun for 54 years before her death. On entering the Convent grounds as a “to be postulant” she wanted to run in the opposite direction totally. Instead she went to the Chapel and knelt down and said “Lord, I am here. And Lord, I am here for life”. She prayed and also actually committed her life without any sort of consolation.
While one should never push oneself too hard - times of lack of consolation for whatever reason at all (and there can be many and diverse) can come and go … and not necessarily a reason hence to give up formal prayer. At times it can be hard to get at the core problem. Balance and insight again…and/or good spiritual direction. Lack of consolation is one thing…a spiritual desolation or type of desolation is another thing.
Having a good spiritual director is a great gift indeed. I know I find it far easier to be objective with others than with myself. A director sees things objectively and over a usually long period of time or forever how long they have directed one.
I think probably most are harder on themselves than on others -a common fault I think. It is just that I find it easier to forgive others than myself and this is not unusual either.
Why I said that how we treat ourselves will probably reflect in how we treat others, or perhaps what I should have saidhat(sorry!) is that we need to recognize indeed that we are constantly in need of forgiveness (which precedes actual self forgiveness if one can!)…and then we will not be hard on others needing exactly the same constant forgiveness - especially if perchance they tread on one’s toes. That old and very true adage: “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”…and we are all spiritually in “glass houses”.
I hope all that makes sense!..a bit distracted at the moment.
Blessings and regards…Cheers!..Barb
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_14_5.gifJMJ
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