Resting like an athlete

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Exciting news! 

I am thrilled to be a guest on "Morning Offering" on Annunciation Radio and Ave Maria Radio this Tuesday, February 17th. I look forward to speaking with Pat Oedy-Murray live at 8:45 am. Listen online at: https://www.avemariaradio.net/listen-ave.


 


I was slogging along on my treadmill while watching the winter Olympics. I was no match for the agile, fast, sleek fast skaters gliding along their icy track.

Have you been able to watch the various events?

It simply cannot escape us how hard the athletes work--and for how many years they practice--to achieve their level of expertise. Sometimes the result of all their practice is satisfying, and sometimes not so much.

It seems to me that our journey to a mature faith can take no less time to achieve a level of communion with God. I've been reading Thomas Merton lately and he seemed to acquire a sense of unity with God that goes beyond words.

Merton put it this way:  

"the contemplative . . . [is] he who has risked his mind in the desert beyond language and beyond ideas . . ."

He continued . . . "if you dare to penetrate your own silence and dare to advance without fear into the solitude of your own heart, and risk the sharing of that solitude . . . you will truly recover the light and the capacity to understand what is beyond words and beyond explanations because it is too close to be explained."

This really gets at the heart of prayer, doesn't it? Prayer is communion with God, resting in and being with God, where our heart of love can experience more than words, because as has been said, it is the love of God that is within us that creates that oneness. It is not something we manufacture.

All of this is just a fancy way of saying--make sure you take time to sit in silence with your heart open to God. It may not seem like anything is "happening," but it is never a waste of time. Like a skilled spiritual athlete, resting in the quiet and practicing solitude may seem like work, but it is well worth our time.

Janet Cassidy
Email me at:  jmctm2@gmail.com

janetcassidy.com
https://www.facebook.com/reflectionsinfaith/
https://www.youtube.com/@janetcassidy 

 



 

 

 

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