SOMETIMES we can get stuck in our spiritual lives due to our wounds, judgments, and unforgiveness. This retreat, thus far, has been a means to help you see the truths about both yourself and your Creator, so that “the truth will set you free.” But it is necessary that we live and have our being in the whole truth, in the very center of the Father’s heart of love…
Let us begin Day 14: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Come Holy Spirit, Giver of Life. Jesus is the Vine, and we are the branches; You, who are the divine Sap, come and flow through my being to bring Your nourishment, healing, and grace so that the fruits of this retreat will remain and grow. Draw me into the Center of the Holy Trinity that all I do begin in Your eternal Fiat and so never end. Let love of the world within me die so that only Your life and the Divine Will flows through my veins. Teach me to pray, and pray in me, that I may encounter the living God each moment of my life. I ask this through Jesus Christ my Lord, amen.
There is nothing I have found that more quickly and wonderfully draws down the Holy Spirit than to begin praising God, giving Him thanks, and blessing Him for His gifts. For:
God inhabits the praises of His people… Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise. (Psalm 22:3, 100:4)
So let us continue declaring the holiness of our God who is not only seated in the Heavens, but in your heart.
Holy Are You Lord
Holy, holy, holy
Holy are You Lord
Holy, holy, holy
Holy are You Lord
Seated in the heavenlies
You are seated in my heart
And holy, holy, holy are You Lord
Holy, holy, holy are You Lord
Holy, holy, holy
Holy are You Lord
Holy, holy, holy
Holy are You Lord
And seated in the heavenlies
You are seated in our hearts
Holy, holy, holy are You Lord
Holy, holy, holy are You Lord
And holy, holy, holy are You Lord
Holy, holy, holy are You Lord
Seated in the heavenlies
You are seated in our hearts
Holy, holy, holy are You Lord
Holy, holy, holy are You Lord (repeats)
Holy are You Lord
—Mark Mallett, from Let the Lord Know, 2005©
Every Spiritual Blessing
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens… (Eph 1:3)
I love being Catholic. The universal — which is what “catholic” means — Church is the Barque that set sail at Pentecost containing all the means of grace and salvation. And the Father wants to give it all to you, every spiritual blessing. This is your inheritance, your birthright, when you are “born again” in Christ Jesus.
Today, there is a certain tragedy that has taken place in the Catholic Church where certain factions have developed in isolation; one group is “charismatic”; another is “Marian”; another is “contemplative”; another is “active”; another is “evangelical”; another is “traditional”, and so forth. Hence, there are those who only accept the intellectualism of the Church, but reject her mysticism; or who embrace her devotions, but resist evangelism; or who bring social justice, but ignore the contemplative; or those who love our traditions, but reject the charismatic dimension.
Imagine a stone being thrown into a pond. There is the center point, and then there are the ripples. To reject part of the Father’s blessings is akin to placing yourself on one of the ripples, and then being taken off in one direction. As where the one who stands in the center receives everything: all the life of God and every spiritual blessing belongs to them, nourishes them, strengthens them, sustains them, and matures them.
Part of this healing retreat, then, is to bring you to a reconciliation also with Mother Church herself. We are so easily “put off” by people in this or that faction. They’re too fanatical, we say; or they’re too pushy; too proud; too pious; too lukewarm; too emotional; too serious; too this or too that. Thinking that we are more “balanced” and “mature” and, thus, don’t need that aspect of Church life, we end up rejecting, not them, but the gifts Christ purchased with His Blood.
It’s simple: what does Scripture and the teachings of the Church tell us, because that is the Voice of the Good Shepherd speaking loud and clear to you right now through the Apostles and their successors:
Whoever listens to you listens to Me. Whoever rejects you rejects Me. And whoever rejects Me rejects the one who sent Me. (Luke 10:16) …Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. (2 Thessalonians 2:15)
Are you open to the charisms of the Holy Spirit? Do you embrace all the teachings of the Church, or only those that suit you? Do you embrace Mary as your mother too? Do you reject prophecy? Do you pray every day? Do you witness to your faith? Do you obey and honour your leaders, your priests, bishops, and popes? All of these and more are explicitly in the Bible and in Church teaching. If you reject these “gifts” and divinely appointed structures, then you are leaving a spiritual crack in your life where new wounds can abound and potentially shipwreck your faith.
I have never met a perfect Catholic, Christian, priest, bishop, or pope. Have you?
The Church, though holy, is filled with sinners. Let us refuse from this day forward to use the failings of both the laity or the hierarchy as an excuse to reject the Father’s gifts. Here is the humble attitude that we must strive for if we truly want this healing retreat to bring us the fullness of life in God:
If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others. (Phil 2:1-4)
Enter the center.
Take a moment to write down in your journal how you may be struggling with the Church today. While this retreat cannot possibly go into all the questions you may have, this website, The Now Word, has numerous writings that address almost every question on human sexuality, Sacred Tradition, the charismatic gifts, the role of Mary, evangelization, the “end times”, private revelation, etc., and you can freely peruse them in the months ahead. But for now, just be honest with Jesus and tell Him what your struggling with. Then give permission for the Holy Spirit to lead you into the truth, and nothing but the truth, so that you may receive “every spiritual blessing” that the Father has in store for you.
When He comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you to all truth. (John 16:13)
Prayer: The Center of Your Spiritual Life
One could not end a healing retreat without speaking about the means that God has provided for your daily healing and to keep you centered in Him. When you finish this retreat, despite new and beautiful beginnings, life will continue to deliver its blows, new wounds, and challenges. But now you have many tools on how to deal with hurts, judgments, divisions, etc.
But there is one tool that is absolutely essential to your ongoing healing and maintaining peace, and that is daily prayer. O, dear brothers and sisters, please, trust Mother Church on this! Trust Scripture on this. Trust the experience of the Saints. Pray is the means by which we remain grafted on the Vine of Christ and keep from withering and spiritually dying. “Prayer is the life of the new heart. It ought to animate us at every moment.”[1]Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2697 As Our Lord Himself said, “without me you can do nothing.” [2]John 5:15
To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need the help of the grace that God in his infinite mercy never refuses them… Prayer attends to the grace we need… Purification of the heart demands prayer… —Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), n. 2010, 2532
I pray that during the natural course of this retreat, that you have learned to speak with God “from the heart.” That you have truly accepted Him as your Father, Jesus as your Brother, the Spirit as your Helper. If you have, then hopefully prayer in its essence now makes sense: it’s not about words, it’s about relationship. It’s about love.
Prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him… prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. —CCC, n. 2560, 2565
St. Teresa of Avila says simply, “Contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.”[3]St. Teresa of Jesus, The Book of Her Life, 8,5 in The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila
Contemplative prayer seeks Him “whom my soul loves.” —CCC, 2709
Daily prayer keeps the Sap of the Holy Spirit flowing. It draws graces within to purify us from yesterday’s falls, and strengthen us for today. It teaches us as we listen to the Word of God, which is the “sword of the Spirit”[4]cf. Eph 6:17 that pierces our hearts[5]cf. Heb 4:12 and tills our minds to become good soil for the Father to sow new graces.[6]cf. Luke 8:11-15 Prayer refreshes us. It changes us. It heals us, because it is an encounter with the Holy Trinity. Thus, prayer is what brings us into that rest that Jesus promised.[7]cf. Matt 11:28
Be still and know that I am God! (Psalm 46:11)
If you wish that “rest” to be uninterrupted, then “pray always without becoming weary.”[8]Luke 18:1
But we cannot pray “at all times” if we do not pray at specific times, consciously willing it… the life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with Him. This communion of life is always possible because, through Baptism, we have already been united with Christ. —CCC, n. 2697, 2565
Finally, prayer is what centers us again in the life of God and the Church. It centers us in the Divine Will, which issues from the eternal heart of the Father. If we can learn to accept the Divine Will in our lives and “live in the Divine Will” — with all the good and all the bad that comes to us — then, truly, we can be at rest, even on this side of eternity.
Prayer is what teaches us firsthand that in the daily battle, God is our safety, He is our shelter, He is our refuge, He is our stronghold.[9]cf. 2 Sam 22:2-3; Ps 144:1-2
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle,
my fingers for war;
My safeguard and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I take refuge… (Psalm 144:1-2)
Let’s close then with this prayer… and afterward, just rest a few moments in the arms of the Father, in the center of His heart.
Only In You
Only in You, only in You is my soul at rest
Only in You, only in You is my soul at rest
Without You there’s no peace, no freedom in my soul
O God, You are my life, my Song and my Way
You are my Rock, You are my refuge
You are my Shelter, I shall not be disturbed
You are my Strength, You are my Safety
You are my Stronghold, I shall not be disturbed
Only in You
Only in You, only in You is my soul at rest
Only in You, only in You is my soul at rest
Without You there’s no peace, no freedom in my soul
O God, take me to Your heart, and never let me go
You are my Rock, You are my refuge
You are my Shelter, I shall not be disturbed
You are my Strength, You are my Safety
You are my Stronghold, I shall not be disturbed
God my God, I long for You
My heart is restless until it rests in You
You are my Rock, You are my refuge
You are my Shelter, I shall not be disturbed
You are my Strength, You are my Safety
You are my Stronghold, I shall not be disturbed (repeat)
You are my Stronghold, O I shall not be disturbed
You are my Stronghold, I shall not be disturbed
Only in You
—Mark Mallett, from Deliver Me From Me, 1999©
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