You ARE Called: Week 6
Sunday 14 July 2019
Prayer
Most powerful Holy Spirit, come down upon us and subdue us. From heaven, where the ordinary is made glorious, and glory seems but ordinary, bathe us with the brilliance of your light like dew. Amen
Reflection
Acts 9:1-20
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. ’The men who were travelling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ He answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ The Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.’ But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’ So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’
Daily journaling
God’s instrument
Monday 15 July 2019
Prayer
Most powerful Holy Spirit, come down upon us and subdue us. From heaven, where the ordinary is made glorious, and glory seems but ordinary, bathe us with the brilliance of your light like dew. Amen
Reflection
Horace Bushnell (1802-1876) spent most of his adult life as a pastor of the North Congregational Church in Harford, Connecticut. He was active in the early Sunday School movement, dedicated to the idea that children could grow steadily in Christian love and did not have to sink deep into sin before a dramatic conversion experience. Influenced in both content and style by the Romantic movement then important in theology, philosophy, literature, and the arts, Bushnell saw God’s spirit at work in every aspect of both nature and history. He here sets out those views and goes on to give an account of how we are to know our callings.[1]
Horace Bushnell, Every Man’s Life a Plan of God
Christ himself testifies to the girding of the Almighty when he says, “To this end was I born, and for this purpose came I into the world” (John 12:27). Abraham was girded for a particular work and mission, in what is otherwise denominated his call. Joseph, in Egypt, distinguishes the girding of God’s hand, when he comforts his guilty brothers in the assurance, “So, it was not you that sent me hither, but God” (Gen. 45:8). Moses and Samuel were even called by name, and set to their great life-work, in the same manner. And what is Paul endeavoring, in all the stress and pressure of his mighty apostleship, but to perform the work for which God’s Spirit girded him at his call, and to apprehend that for which he was apprehended of Christ Jesus. And yet these great master-spirits of the world are not so much distinguished, after all, by the acts they do, as by the sense itself of some mysterious girding of the Almighty upon them, whose behests they are set to fulfill. And all men may have this; for the humblest and commonest have a place and a work assigned them, in the same manner, and have it for their privilege to be always ennobled in the same lofty consciousness. God is girding every man for a place and a calling, in which, taking it from him, even though it be internally humble, he may be as consciously exalted as if he held the rule of a kingdom. The truth I propose then for your consideration is this—
That God has a definite life-plan for every human person, girding him, visibly or invisibly, for some exact thing, which it will be the true significance and glory of his life to have accomplished.
….But, the inquiry will be made, supposing all this to be true, in the manner stated, how can we ever get hold of this life-plan God has made for us, or find our way into it? Here, to many if not all, will be the main stress of doubt and practical suspense….
You are on the point of choosing, it may be, this or that calling, wanting to know where duty lies and what the course God himself would have you take. Beginning at a point most remote, and where the generality of truth is widest,
Consider 1) the character of God, and you will draw a large deduction from that; for all that God designs for you will be in harmony with his character. He is a being infinitely good, just, true. Therefore, you are to know that he can not really seek anything contrary to this in you. You may make yourselves contrary, in every attribute of character, to God; but he never made you to become any thing different from, or unworthy of, himself……
2) Consider your relation to him as a creature. All created wills have their natural center and rest in God’s will. In him they all come into a play of harmony, and the proper harmony of being is possible only in this way. Thus, you know that you are called to have a will perfectly harmonized with God’s and rested in his, and that gives you a large insight into what you are to be, or what is the real end of your being. In fact, nine-tenths of your particular duties may be settled, at once, by a simple reference in this manner to what God wills.
3) You have a conscience, which is given to be an interpreter of his will and thus of your duty, and in both, of what you are to become.
4) God’s law and his written Word are guides to present duty, which, if faithfully accepted, will help to set you in accordance with the mind of God and the plan he has laid for you. “I am a stranger in the earth,” said one, “hide not thy commandments from me”; knowing that God’s commandments would give him a clue to the true meaning and business of his life.
5) Be an observer of Providence; for God is showing you ever, by the way in which he leads you, whither he means to lead. Study your trials, your talents, the world’s wants, and stand ready to serve God now, in whatever he brings to your hand.
Again, 6) consult your friends, and especially those who are most in the teaching of God. They know your talents and personal qualifications better, in some respects, than you do yourself. Ask their judgment of you and of the spheres and works to which you are best adapted.
Once more 7) go to God himself, and ask for the calling of God; for, as certainly as he has a plan or calling for you, he will somehow guide you into it. And this is the proper office and work of his Spirit. By this private teaching he can show us, and will, into the very plan that is set for us. And this is the significance of what is prescribed as our duty, viz., living and walking in the Spirit; for the Spirit of God is a kind of universal presence, or inspiration, in the world’s bosom; an unfailing inner light, which if we accept and live in, we are guided thereby into a consenting choice, so that what God wills for us we also will for ourselves—settling into it as the needle to the pole. By this hidden union with God, or intercourse with him, we get a wisdom or insight deeper than we know ourselves; a sympathy, a oneness with the Divine will and love. We go into the very plan of God for us, and are led along in it by him, consenting, cooperating, answering to him, we know not now, and working out, with nicest exactness, that good end for which his unseen counsel girded us and sent us into the world. In this manner, not neglecting the other methods just named, but gathering in all their separate lights, to be interpreted in the higher light of the Spirit, we can never be greatly at a loss to find our way into God’s counsel and plan. [2]
Daily Journaling
God’s life-plan
Tuesday 16 July 2019
Prayer
Most powerful Holy Spirit, come down upon us and subdue us. From heaven, where the ordinary is made glorious, and glory seems but ordinary, bathe us with the brilliance of your light like dew. Amen
Reflection
George Herbert (1593-1633) attended Cambridge, where his success promised an important career in the Church of England. But he tok a job as a priest at a small church and remained there until the time of his death. He wrote both reflections on his life as a pastor and some of the great religious poetry of the English language. This poem expresses his frustrations with, but finally acceptance of, his own calling. The title evokes not only the clergyman’s collar, but the yoke or collar which ties an animal to its work, “choler” (anger), and “caller” (the God who calls).[3]
George Herbert, The Collar
I Struck the board, and cry’d, No more. I will abroad.
What? Shall I ever sign and pine?
My lines and life are free; free as the rode; Loose as the winde,
as large as store.
Shall I be still in suit?
Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me bloud, and not restore
What I have lost with cordiall fruit?
Sure there was wine
Before my sighs did drie it: there was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
Is the yeare only lost to me?
Have I no bayes to crown it?
No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted? All wasted?
No so, my heart: but there is fruit,
And thou hast hands.
Recover all thy sigh-blown age
On double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute
Of what is fit, and not. Forsake thy cage,
Thy rope of sands
Which pettie thoughts have made, and made to thee
Good cable, to enforce and draw,
And be thy law,
While thou didst wink and wouldst not see.
Away; take heed:
I will abroad.
Call in thy death’s head there: tie up thy fears.
He that forbears
To suit and serve his need,
Deserves his load.
But as I rav’d and grew more fierce and wilde
At every word,
Me thoughts I heard one calling, Child!
And I reply’d. My Lord.
Daily Journaling
Our Father
Wednesday 17 July 2019
Prayer
Most powerful Holy Spirit, come down upon us and subdue us. From heaven, where the ordinary is made glorious, and glory seems but ordinary, bathe us with the brilliance of your light like dew. Amen
Reflection
Christine de Pisan (1365-about 1430) grew up in Italy. Her father, a physician and astrologer, was a great success at the court of the King of France, Charles V, and Christine married a promising young nobleman. When both her husband and her father died, Christine found herself, at the age of twenty-five, a widow with three children, a mother, and a niece to support. She turned to writing poems and essays dedicated to noble patrons and became one of the few “professional authors” in the Middle Ages.[4]
Christine de Pisan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies
Now here is what you must do. God does not command anyone to leave everything to follow Him: that is only for those who wish to pursue the very most ideal life. Each person can be saved in his own station in life, and when God says it is impossible for a rich person to be saved, that means a person who has riches without virtues and who does not distribute his riches in alms and good deeds, a person whose whole happiness is in possessing great wealth. There is no doubt that God hates such people and that they will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless they change their ways. And as for the poor, who He says are blessed, those are the poor in spirit. Even a very rich and wealthy man could be poor in spirit if he does not prize the riches of the world, and if he has any of them, he distributes them in good works and in the service of God, and if he neither prides himself on his honor nor thinks himself greater because of his wealth. Such a person, even though he is wealthy in worldly good, is poor of spirit and will possess the Kingdom of Heaven, and you can see the evidence of it have there not been a great host of kings and princes who are saints in Paradise, like St. Louis, King of France, and several others who did not retire from the world but reigned and possessed their lordships at the pleasure of God? They lived justly, but not because they did not appreciate glory or rejected the honors that they were given. They considered that honor belonged not to their own persons, but to the status of their power and wealth, of which they were vicars of God on earth. Similarly there are a great many queens and princesses who are saints in Paradise, like the wife of King Clovis of France, and St. Badour and St. Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, and many others. There is no doubt at all that God wishes to be served by people of all conditions. At every level of society anyone who wants to can be saved, for the rank does not cause damnation, but rather not knowing how to use it wisely.[5]
Daily Journaling
Riches
Thursday 18 July 2019
Prayer
Most powerful Holy Spirit, come down upon us and subdue us. From heaven, where the ordinary is made glorious, and glory seems but ordinary, bathe us with the brilliance of your light like dew. Amen
Reflection
Henri Nouwen, Discernment
God speaks to us through the people who speak to us about the things of God.
While it is true that God reveals wisdom and direction through the Bible and the books and articles we read, as well as the Book of Nature, it also is true that God speaks through the people we meet in daily life. When I joined L’Arche Daybreak, where people with disabilities are at the center of the community, no one cared that I write books or give lectures to university audiences and church groups around the world. My achievements did not impress them. What they cared deeply about was how consistently I showed up for them and showed them how much I loved them.
In the everyday routines and conversations of life, I began to hear the voice of God anew. The Spirit of God seemed to speak directly to them and through them, unmediated by books or intellectual discussion. Some members of my community may not have a lot of physical or mental capacities and skills, but in their poverty and simplicity they are more open to God than I am. Because, their center of being is wide open to God, they seem to be able to see and speak directly to the heart of my concerns. “Henri, do you love me? Will you be home tonight? Will you take me with you? Will you care for me? They helped me see that I could write about being God’s beloved, but it was in my relationships with them that I would learn what it meant to be loved and to give love as part of learning what it means to love God, myself, and my neighbor as Jesus commanded.
People we meet, some great in the eyes of the world and some almost invisible to the larger society, are often conduits of God’s wisdom. When I met Mother Teresa during a visit to Rome, I sawimmediately that her inner attention was focused only on Jesus, and through him she came to see the poorest of the poor, to whom she dedicated her life. When ordinary social, psychological, or medical questions were brought to her, she did not answer them on the level they were raised. Instead, she addressed them with a divine logic and from a spiritual place and perspective that remains unfamiliar to most of us. That is why many found her ways simplistic, naive, and out of touch. Like Jesus, she challenged her listeners to move with her to that place where things can be seen as God sees them and to look beyond the surface to the place of divine encounter or call.
….The gift of discernment is the ability to hear and see from God’s perspective and to offer that wisdom from above to others. Truly, god spoke to me through the mouth of Mother Teresa. She called me back to the discipline of prayer and being in God’s presence, which is the starting and ending place of which guidance emerges.
The power of friendship is great if it doesn’t find all its meaning in itself. If people expect too much from each other, they can do each other harm; disappointment and bitterness can overpower love and even replace it. But in the practice of discernment in daily life, we can learn to appreciate our closest friends, family members, and sometimes complete strangers, as signposts pointing toward God. Friends may be guides who see what we may not be able to see ourselves.
….As I struggled to understand my need for close friendships, I came to understand why Jesus sent out his disciples into the world in groups of two. Together, they could maintain the spirit of peace and love and the affirmation they found in his company, and they could share these gifts with everyone they met.
….I have in my life many close friends and neighbors, community members and mentors, who are living signs of God’s love and direction in good times and bad. Beyond family and friends I also feel a special closeness to certain “saints” in the church’s memory who speak to me of faithful witness and strength and sometimes provide guidance in time of need. Together, God’s people ground me in the reality and wholeness of Christ and his church, holding me firm and safe in God’s loving embrace. God speaks regularly to us through people who talk to us about the things of God. Certain people become living signs that point us to God. Whether in life or in memory, the people God puts in our lives can help guide us and show us the way.[6]
Daily Journaling
Signs from God
Friday 19 July 2019
Prayer
Most powerful Holy Spirit, come down upon us and subdue us. From heaven, where the ordinary is made glorious, and glory seems but ordinary, bathe us with the brilliance of your light like dew. Amen
Reflection
St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul
It is in order that the soul may be enlightened supernaturally that this night darkens the sensory, the interior and the spiritual appetites. They are no longer able to find pleasure in anything at all. The memory, the imagination and the intellect are darkened and unable to function. Over them hangs a dense and burdensome cloud (“the cloud of unknowing”). The soul walks securely in this cloud, freed from its appetites. They can no longer lead the soul into error or into the snares of the world, the flesh and the devil. The soul is subject now only to the blessings of union with God. It is no longer distracted with useless things. It is secure from vainglory, from presumption and from also joy. The soul, by walking in darkness, not only avoids losing its way but actually advances rapidly.
The faculties must be darkened even in relation to good, spiritual and holy things. This is so because, in themselves, the faculties can only operate according to their own nature and abilities. But these are incapable of lifting them up to God. Only God can lift them up to God. The soul should see this darkening experience then as a grace, not as an affliction. God is freeing the soul from itself. By faith, God is taking the soul by the hand and guiding it through the darkness to a place it knows not. What greater security could it have!
There is another reason by which the soul is secure in this darkness. The soul advances by suffering. Strength is given to the soul by God. The virtues are practiced, the soul is purified and blessed with wisdom. This obscure wisdom or “ray of darkness” immerses the soul into the dark night of contemplation, protects it, frees it from all that is not God and brings it ever closer.
By this dark contemplation, God cares for the soul like a good nurse cares for a sick person, carefully safeguarding it from all surrounding dangers. As we are told in Psalm 18, “God makes the darkness his hiding place.” The light which is God blinds and darkens our natural faculties and, at the same time, protects them from the world, the flesh and the devil. The soul is also given a wonderful solicitude about what it should do or not do in the service of God so that the powers of the soul are used only in paying homage to God.[7]
Daily Journaling
Security in God
Saturday 20 July 2019
Prayer
Most powerful Holy Spirit, come down upon us and subdue us. From heaven, where the ordinary is made glorious, and glory seems but ordinary, bathe us with the brilliance of your light like dew. Amen
Reflection
Elizabeth Liebert, The Way of Discernment
The final step in the discernment process, taking a look back, is shared with all good decision making, and can help us do just that. Even if we discover flaws in our process or lack of generosity in our response, we can gain invaluable knowledge for our future discernments.
Ignatius says:
When the enemy of human nature has been perceived and recognized by his serpent’s tail and the evil end to which he is leading, a new procedure becomes profitable for the person who was tempted in this way. He or she should examine immediately the whole train of the good thoughts which the evil spirit brought to the soul, including their beginning, and then how little by little the evil spirit endeavored to bring the soul down from the sweetness and spiritual joy in which it had been, and finally brought it to his evil intention. Thus the person, by understanding this experience and taking note of it, can be on guard in the future against the characteristic snares.
According to Ignatius, we can learn about our discernment and about the ways we get tempted even when we have succumbed to the temptation. This “discernment in reverse,” this looking back and seeing what happened, means that nothing need be lost, even if we botch the discernment.
Notice the two levels to the review. The first concerns the process itself, as suggested by Ignatius. The second continues the process of confirmation, this time adding two new dimensions. The decision has been made and implemented. The situation is no longer hypothetical. Deciding and acting set loose new dynamics. Acting invites responses from others. We are, in fact, in a new discernment situation. Does this new discernment situation suggest that the original decision ought to be changed or tweaked? Or does it further confirm the original decision by the fruit that is appearing?
An important caution: a well-discerned decision should not be lightly or easily changed, and then only by again discerning. Why? Because there will always be resistance to any course of action. Sometimes we have “buyer’s remorse” with our decisions and get cold feet as we set about their implementation. Sometimes others punish us for the decision, trying to get us to reverse course. If the spiritual masters are to be believed, we should expect such static around decisions, especially significant ones.[8]
Daily Journaling
Looking back
[1]William C. Placher, Callings, Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Erdmans Publishing Co., 2005), p. 353.
[2]Horace Bushnell, Sermons for the New Life(New York: Scribner’s, 1889), 9-17, 18,21-23.
[3]William C. Placher, Callings, Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Erdmans Publishing Co., 2005), p. 273, 277.
[4]William C. Placher, Callings, Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Erdmans Publishing Co., 2005), p. 176.
[5]Christine de Pisan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies, trans. Sarah Lawson (New York: Penguin Classics, 1986), pp. 35-38,39-41, 43-50, 167-71.
[6]Henri Nouwen, Discernment (New York: HaperCollins, 2013), pp. 66-81.
[7]St. John of the Cross, ed. William Meninger (New York: Lantern Books, 2014), p. 184-185.
[8]Elizabeth Liebert, The Way of Discernment (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), p. 153-155.