Newsletter 

No.3                                                                                                      July/August 2003

We wish our subscribers a well deserved rest during the summer months.

Of course life with all its day to day chores carries on.  Not all of summer is a holiday.

There is no such a thing as taking a holiday from personal prayer.

One doesn’t take a holiday from a relationship!

A holiday is not an escape but a well thought up plan to “do” something different, relaxing and worthwhile.  It is a time to restore our physical, psychological, relational and spiritual energies.

A “holiday” is tantamount to a retreat.  One needs the time to withdraw into a different and slower mode of living in order to pick up the pieces of a fragmented self.

A “holiday” is equal to a time of qualitative prayer.  It offers us a spell of time to focus deeply on things that are essential to our existence…our openness to beauty in people and creation…a sign of the eternal.

 Happy Holidays,

Fr Vince sj

Finding God in All Things

A moment of faith – becoming aware of the presence of God.

Notice, as you breathe in and out, that your breath, the air of your life, is God’s presence in you.

Without air you would die.

The air you breathe is God’s closeness to you.

Think back over the day and notice what you are grateful for.

Hour by hour, remember people or events, moments of peace and joy,

or the ordinary things you might take for granted,

like sight and health, faith and loves,

and be grateful.

Allow yourself feel this gratitude,

and thank the Lord in words if you like.

Notice moments in the day when you wanted God’s help and light.

Confusion over a decision, bad health, strength in bad times,

or, it may be a similar prayer for someone else.

Allow yourself feel your need for God

And say this to him in your own words.

Sinfulness and faults are part of our day.

Go back over the day and allow yourself feel sorrow for what has been sinful

or mean in your day.

It may or may not be serious, but you may find yourself feeling your own sinfulness,

And ask for forgiveness.

Finally look ahead and pray over the time ahead:

the people you may meet, the work you have to do,

the whole future of your life and offer it in humble love to God.

Donal Neary SJ 

A CLEAN HEART

To be able to pray we need a pure heart. With a pure heart we can see God.

Prayer gives us a clean heart and that’s the beginning of holiness.  Holiness is not a luxury of the few; it is a simple duty for you and for me.

Where does holiness begin? It begins in our own hearts.  That’s why we need that continual prayer – to keep our hearts clean, for the clean heart becomes the tabernacle of the living God.

Jesus has made Himself the Bread of Life to give us His Life, so that we can become like Him.  So let us be like Jesus, full of compassion, full of humility towards each other, for in loving one another we love Him.  You and I have every opportunity to become very holy through prayer, sacrifice and love.  Let us pray for each other that we may grow more and more in the likeness of Christ.

Jesus Christ has told us that we ought “always to pray and not to faint”, that is, not to grow weary of doing so.  St Paul says, “Pray without ceasing”.  God calls all men to this disposition of the heart, of praying always.

Let the Love of God once and for all take entire and absolute possession of a heart; let become to the heart like second nature; let that heart suffer nothing that is contrary to it; let it apply itself continually to increase this love of God by seeking to please Him in all things and refusing Him nothing that He asks; let it accept as from His hand everything that happens to it; let it have a firm determination never to commit any fault deliberately and knowingly or, if it should fall, to be humble for it and to rise up again at once.  Such a heart will pray continually.

Knowledge of God gives love and knowledge of self gives humility.  Humility is nothing but truth.  St Paul asks…what have we got that we have not received?  If I have received everything, what good have I of my own?  If we are convinced of this, we will never raise our head in pride.  If you are humble, nothing will touch you…neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.  If your are blamed you will not be discouraged.  If they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal.  Self-knowledge puts us on our knees.

Change your hearts…

Unless we change our hearts we are not converted.

Changing places in not the answer.

The answer is to change our hearts.

And how do we change?

By praying.

Mother Theresa

Ignatius Maxims (part 2)

1. Love ought to manifest itself more by deeds than by words. (Spiritual Exercises, 230)
   
   

2. The more universal the good is, the more it is divine. (Constitutions SI )
   
   

3. In our relations with our brethren, we ought to speak little and listen much; and those few words should be spoken as if the whole world were to hear them, although we speak to one alone. (Daniello Bartoli sj)
   
   

4. It seems to me in the light of the Divine Goodness, although others may think differently, that ingratitude is the most abominable of sins ..for it is the forgetting of the graces, benefits, and blessings received. As such it is the cause, beginning, and origin of all sins and misfortunes. (Letter to Fr Simon Rodrigues)
   
   

5. The love of God never kindles a brighter fire within the heart, than when it is fed with the wood of the Cross, if which Our Lord made use to offer up a sacrifice of infinite Charity. (Daniello Bartoli sj)

Compiled by Fr. Arthur Vella SJ

Book review

At Sea with God by Margaret Silf

Margaret Silf has produced a master piece in this latest of a series of books on the spiritual life.  For anyone who seriously wants to grow and mature spiritually, this is the book for you!

Tough it is very intense, it is written in simple language that would widely appeal to novice and more experienced alike.  The content is very down to earth, whilst exploring the events and history of our lives, so to speak, with great sensitivity and brilliant insight.

Based on Ignatian spirituality, the author leads the reader, using the sea and boats as metaphors, to a great depth of self analysis and reflection, questioning of  one’s life and attitudes, in a very gently but penetrating way.

In a sense, Margaret Silf has provided a map for her readers to chart their own waters, leaving it up to them to decide where to steer the sails of life.  The book speaks for itself, and it will, I am sure, become a classic of its kind.

Ms. Noreen Caruana