Audioboo – 002: Introduction to the topic of Prayer

This is the first of what will hopefully be a weekly series of micro-podcasts (give or take as health permits).

This week’s micro-podcast starts the topic of prayer, and introduces four basic categories: petition, praise, penitence, and prostrate. Each will be covered in more detail in future micro-podcasts, which are 3 min. or less in length.

Thanks for listening!

Link: hermitjrnl micropodcasts on audioBoo

 

Audioboo – 001: Reading from the Desert Fathers

micropodcast using audioboo:

 

A Christmas Gift

wishing you & your loved ones a blessed Christmas Day –

* Merry Christmas * 

***

one solitary life

by James Allan Francis

Let us turn now to the story. A child is born in an obscure village. He is brought up in another obscure village. He works in a carpenter shop until he is thirty, and then for three brief years is an itinerant preacher, proclaiming a message and living a life. He never writes a book. He never holds an office. He never raises an army. He never has a family of his own. He never owns a home. He never goes to college. He never travels two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He gathers a little group of friends about him and teaches them his way of life. While still a young man the tide of popular feeling turns against him. The band of followers forsakes him. One denies him; another betrays him. He is turned over to his enemies. He goes through the mockery of a trial; he is nailed on a cross between two thieves, and when dead is laid in a borrowed grave by the kindness of a friend. Those are the facts of his human life. He rises from the dead. Today we look back across nineteen hundred years and ask, What kind of a trail has he left across the centuries? When we try to sum up his influence, all the armies that ever marched, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned are absolutely picayune in their influence on mankind compared with that of this one solitary life. … He has changed the moral climate of the world, and he is changing it now, and will continue to do so until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. I ask you to pause a moment and think of this thing which Christians believe. We are talking about great adventures. I remind you that there must be a great adventure in faith before there can be a great adventure in action. No man has ever done a great thing until he has first believed a great thing.

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From:
THE REAL JESUS AND OTHER SERMONS by James Allan Francis.
Philadelphia: The Judson Press. © 1926. “Arise, Sir Knight!” p. 123-24.

This quote, or some version similar to it, has been shared many times over the years. This particular version is suppose to be the original. It was apparently presented by Mr. Francis, at the First Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California, to the National Baptist Young Peoples’ Union convention on July 11, 1926. Click here if you would like to learn more behind the quote.
link: http://www.sjvls.org/bens/bf007sl.htm#fn3

 

To become like the Angels – a poem

“To become like the Angels.”

A Hermit in his simplicity once asked me

“Will we end up in the same place ?”

I often sit and think about that question .

I also think of the answer I gave that day .

I pray to God for both of us that in His mercy it will come true .

That day I said ” There are many paths to God but one destination .”

As I think of this it calls to mind the words of Jesus “In the Fathers house there are many rooms .”

In each room however the promise spoken the prophet can be fulfilled:

“They will become my people and I will become their God .”

The celebration of the birth of Christ will soon come once again .

Once again we will journey to the manger .

Once again on each path to the one destination the drink of nothingness is being offered .

Christ leaves all He has known and enters in to our humanity .

Christ empties Himself and is born in a manger .

The Son of God rests in the least of all places .

He then goes to live in the least of all places ” Nazareth .”

For the hidden years Christ looses Himself in a simple place and the carpenter’s workshop .

Come and taste the drink of this nothingness .

Drink of it until you are full to overflowing .

The hours when we learn to empty self are the preparation for all the future progress in the spiritual life .

These precious hours prepare us to receive the higher spiritual gifts .

If a man or a woman is prepared to go to the deepest depths they can become like the Angels and loose themselves

in prayer and adoration every moment of their lives.

God is never limited in His dealings with man .

Man simply limits God by his lack of faith .

The sin and disobedience of Adam and Eve expelled man from paradise .

It is possible for this paradise to be regained in a mans soul .

A man on earth can be like the Angels in Heaven .

He can act justly , lover tenderly , and walk humbly with his God .

The secret as we are drawn in to the hidden movement of grace is to surrender the will .

Surrender is the key to everything .

It removes the heart of stone is .

It gives us the heart that can only love God alone .

– Father Lazarus

 

THE CHRIST OF THE PRIEST IN SOLITUDE — a poem

Here is another poem by Father Lazarus.  I’ve been posting them here for a couple of reasons. First to help share the message that each poem brings, and also to act as a repository for a few of his poems. Enjoy and prepare to be blessed!

THE CHRIST OF THE PRIEST IN SOLITUDE

The Christ of our solitude leads us in to the abyss of faith so beautifully lived out in Nazareth.
” Can any good come out of that place? “
Over two thousand years later the same question is placed before us in our hidden places of aloneness.

Nazareth what a place in the eyes of the world.
A place of nothingness.
No importance in they eyes of a passing world.
A small insignificant place full of totally insignificant people.

In the solitude of Nazareth we also are invited to become insignificant.
The Christ of our solitude invites us to become a nobody going nowhere important in the eyes of the world.
We are to be exposed to our false images of both God and ourselves.
In the depths of our poverty we will be liberated from the false desires that we seek to live out placing impossible demands on ourselves and those around us.

In this place of darkness we will no longer be able to measure our progress like we did in the world.
In this abyss of faith words will leave us.
There will simply be the communion of a Priest alone before his God.
A communion sometimes even hidden from the sight of our brothers and sisters.

In this meeting the light of the Holy Spirit invisible to man will guide us and teach us.
In our solitude all the opposites and contradictions in the church and world and ourselves will come and meet together,
By being nobody going nowhere they will sometimes be resolved and sometimes not.
The soul will become more passive as the months pass and simply except such things as Gods will.

The life of Jesus of Nazareth becomes our life.
Sufferings will come to us as they did to Christ.
Those sufferings lived out do not become ones individual sufferings alone.
One bears the sufferings of the broken world so that the liberating power of God may be channelled to the world through
the insignificant solitude hidden from the sight of the world.

The Christ of solitude invites a soul ” Stay here and keep watch with me.”
A watch that will last until the ultimate moment of liberation.
The moment we are called to our eternal room in The Fathers House.
The moment of death; a nobody in the eyes of the world soon to no longer be remembered.

– Father Lazarus

 

He who gives himself entirely …

“He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.”

~ Henry David Thoreau / Civil Disobedience

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I find Thoreau offering a keen insight into human nature by these words. He brings out a particular characteristic that is common to most and far too many are blind to, either out of ignorance or possibly self-preservation.

It is a quote that I also find timely for the season — Easter. This weekend is a time where many pause to remember a man who gave of himself entirely. And he too is often viewed as useless, even selfish by some. The man Jesus, who is also the living Christ.

Peace and all good to you this Easter Season,

for He Is Risen!

 

BE SILENT BEFORE GOD — a poem

another poem by Father Lazarus, who has kindly given permission for posting his poems:

“BE SILENT BEFORE GOD .”

We by instinct fall silent before the one who is truly beautiful ; good ;
and Who gives us the gift of peace.
Words are a kind of stepping stone that bring us to the thresh hold of Gods silence
We then have to leave our many words behind as we are drawn ever deeper in to this
God who gives meaning and purpose to all things.
He is in all things and all things are in Him except sin.

Any words we offer are simply humble invitations that invite us to an awareness
of something that is far greater than the capacity of the human mind to understand.
Now we can only see and understand God in part.
One day we will come to a place where we will fully see and understand Him .
Then we will be fully happy and at peace in Him forever.

We can never hear silence.
We simply become aware of its echo.
An echo that reflects the beauty and glory of God.
Silence is the mystery of this immense reality that enfolds us .

We are part of this mystery.
We were created that we could come to know and love Him.
To open our hearts to Him we must simply become still and know that He is God.
We must fix our gaze on Him who is far beyond our world.

The secret in the end is to receive all that He gives us without trying to hold on to it .
All that He gives us is His gift of love .
Silence in the end is the monastic message of hope  to this passing world.
It is our lasting act of faith and hope in God .

Silence in the end becomes the fullness of our journey to God in God.
Beyond all our days on earth ;
Beyond sin , suffering and death all will be well.
All is well in our eternity in and with God .

Father Lazarus

 

living “in love”

For several months now I’ve been slowly working my way through the “bridges to contemplative living with thomas merton” booklet series. While originally intended for use as a springboard for contemplative group dialogue, when honest with yourself and God, it is a great personal guide for reflection and development of a contemplative life.  Recently I was working through a chapter where I received a special gift concerning Love.

There is a basic expectation of Christians, believers, to be loving. Something much more easily said or expected than lived out in truth and practice. For selfish desires or interests often cloud sincere love. Not just in the person who wants to express love in word and deed, but all too often also by the recipient who desires to exploit it.

For the believer who seeks the spiritual maturity where by love, Christ’s Love, is expressed in all that is said and done, it matters not how the recipient of that love responds. What is most difficult for the believer, is to moment by moment live out Christ’s Love without skewing it with their own sin based thoughts and emotions. As I read the following from bridges, I came upon an excellent help. A wonderful reminder to not just be loving, but more importantly to “live in love“:

The keenness and intensity of love brings with it suffering, of course, but joy too, because it is a foretaste of heaven. . . . Even that relationship which is set off from other loves by that slight change in phraseology (instead of “loving,” one is “in love”)—the very change in terminology, denoting a living in love, a dwelling in love at all times, being bathed in love, so that every waking thought, word, deed, and suffering is permeated by that love—yes, that relationship above all should give us not only a taste of the love of God for us but the kind of love we should have for all.

– Dorothy Day
On Pilgrimage

Source: bridges to contemplative living with thomas merton
booklet seven: adjusting you life’s vision
pg. 17

So far, when I feel frustrated or unloving, with the Holy Spirit’s help, I remember that I live, dwell in Love — Christ’s Love. I am immersed in it. I then gain a sense of God’s Love permeating my weak flesh and putting to rest my selfishness, giving clarify Christ-centered life to my desires and actions. Thus allowing me to be truly Loving.

-:-:-:-

Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member.  Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier.  Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual.  But the one who has love, courage, and wisdom moves the world.

– Ammon Hennacy
Catholic activist
1893 – 1970

 

Psalm 139

This Psalm was part of my daily reading and prayers this past Friday.  It spoke loud and strong.  Especially about God’s relationship with me.

He is the sovereign, omnipotent, omnipresent one.  He and not “I.”  It is silly and shallow minded to think and behave as if I can hide anything from God and that He may have access to me only at my invitation. While I may know all this and believe all this, my flesh still tries and will continue to struggle to be top dog.  I do not like this nature in my flesh, but it remains and only makes me all the more dependent upon Him through His indwelling Holy Spirit.

O Lord, you examine me and know.

You know when I sit down and when I get up;
even from far away you understand my motives.

You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest;
you are aware of everything I do.

Certainly my tongue does not frame a word
without you, O Lord, being thoroughly aware of it.

You squeeze me in from behind and in front;
you place your hand on me.

Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension;
it is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it.

Where can I go to escape your spirit?
Where can I flee to escape your presence?

If I were to ascend to heaven, you would be there.
If I were to sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be.

If I were to fly away on the wings of the dawn,
and settle down on the other side of the sea,

even there your hand would guide me,
your right hand would grab hold of me.

If I were to say, “Certainly the darkness will cover me,
and the light will turn to night all around me,”

even the darkness is not too dark for you to see,
and the night is as bright as day;
darkness and light are the same to you.

Certainly you made my mind and heart;
you wove me together in my mother’s womb.

I will give you thanks because your deeds
are awesome and amazing.
You knew me thoroughly;

my bones were not hidden from you,
when I was made in secret
and sewed together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb.
All the days ordained for me
were recorded in your scroll
before one of them came into existence.

How difficult it is for me to fathom your thoughts about me,
O God!
How vast is their sum total!

If I tried to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
Even if I finished counting them,
I would still have to contend with you.

If only you would kill the wicked, O God!
Get away from me, you violent men!

They rebel against you and act deceitfully;
your enemies lie.

O Lord, do I not hate those who hate you,
and despise those who oppose you?

I absolutely hate them,
they have become my enemies!

Examine me, and probe my thoughts!
Test me, and know my concerns!

See if there is any idolatrous tendency in me,
and lead me in the reliable ancient path!

– Psalm 139
For the music director,
a psalm of David.

source: The Missio Dei Breviary
Week 3: Friday Evening

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“By the Grace of God I am a Christian, by my actions a great sinner.”
– Anonymous Russian Christian

 

are you unfaithful?

speed bump

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For all those who enjoy their journal and like to blog too — thought you might enjoy this wee chuckle!

Blessing to all!