In a busy world full of distractions, how can we shut out the “noise” and find quiet? Why does God often choose to speak to us in the silence?
When St. Augustine asks us to ‘re-enter our hearts’, what does he mean? How do we “wander outside of” our hearts in the first place?
Our priorities are often wrong, concerned with the physical rather than the spiritual. Is there a proper balance, or are the spiritual needs always superior?
Guest934 (guest): The heart is a cave of silence and passion where I can live with our Lord away and separate from the noice of life.
Mar 23 2014, 7:37 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I probably have more quiet than most, exteriorly, yet… sometimes the mind goes a -jumping anyway!
Sister Susan MarieIt is an “interior” topic tonight!
Guest934 (guest): Yes an a very exciing one.
Sister Susan Marie: About Lent lived from the heart
Sister Susan Marie: You may be a natural contemplative
Mar 23 2014, 7:38 PM
Sister Susan Marie: St Francis de Sales said we should hold our heart in our hand, metaphorically
Guest934 (guest): I do not have the silence that I crave so despertly but the Lord have given me the Grace to have that silence interiorly
Sister Susan Marie: To know its preciousness, its delicacy and its stance before the Lord
Sister Susan Marie: If you have interior silence and peace you have it all, ultimately. Because that is the goal of the outer silence
Guest934 (guest): The heart is naked before the Lord.
Kim (guest): Yes, my mind rambling seems to be the problem and I have a hard time entering the cave of silence when so much is on my mind. I have not tried to imagining holding my heart in my hand.
Sister Susan Marie: Saying the name of Jesus with love can quiet our being
Sister Susan Marie: Have you had the experience of knowing what God is saying to you? Sometimes it comes in a flash, other times it seems He says nothing
Sister Susan Marie: He corrects our hearts’ courses with His Love and inspirations
Guest934 (guest): There is nothing that can come against the name of Jesus. Especially when we hold our heart open for him hiding nothing
Kim (guest): I have known what God is saying to me and have experienced much sweet intimacy with Him, but not now as much as I used to.
Sister Susan Marie: THere are so many different ways that the Lord leads us; from sweetness to dryness to suffering to joy to love…
Kim (guest): I sensed a few years ago that I must remember the sweetness for the future when it wasn’t present anymore.
Guest934 (guest): I have had moments of complete unity and longs periods of dryness.
Sister Susan Marie: We need to grow closer and ever more in love with Him in all those states
Guest934 (guest): It is those moments that carry me thru the periods of dryness.
Kim (guest): I know that I am probably growing closer to him most when the times are dry and I just keep trusting. .
Sister Susan Marie: I have much more dryness than anything else, on one level, yet there is an indefinable draw that brings me always back to the Lord to be with Him, dry or not
Sister Susan Marie: I find reading the saints very helpful, esp their letters which are fervent and it helps my lack of fervor
Kim (guest): It seems that I have to have a period of time when I am not exhausted in order to be quiet long enough to speak to him and listen to him.
Mar 23 2014, 7:49 PM
Guest934 (guest): Yes, for me it is the memories that I relive that helps in the dry periods and the knowledge that he is testing me..
Jim Sister do you think your dryness could be caused by your life of Asceticism
Sister Susan Marie: Good question- but our acsticism is interior not exterior
Jim I often wondered that about Mother Theresa..if her darkness was just depression
Jim : from being around so much suffering all the time
Kim (guest): Yes Sister, I agree reading the Saints is a great gift.
Sister Susan Marie: There is a difference between depression and dryness
Am: Hi Jim, I agree that depression is different than dryness
Sister Susan Marie: For Mother Theresa I think because she saw the Lord and He gave her a mission- then she had to live by faith after that- that must have been hard
Jim : Yes but I was wondering if the depression can be a cause of dryness
Sister Susan Marie: Maybe in some cases
Jim : losing joy in everthing including God’s presence
Mar 23 2014, 7:52 PM
Am: Depression can also cause you to be closer to Jesus because you need Him so much
Sister Susan Marie: That’s what it did for me
Jim : in my case it was the anxiety that makes me feel I need Him more
Kim (guest): I think I lost hope for a while, causing great sadness. But, that did bring me closer to Jesus eventually.
Am: Dryness can be a time of growth because you pray out of obedience and love and not because of the consolations He gives you
Kim (guest): Yes, Amy. A test of true love.
Guest934 (guest): In my case it is the enemy that shows how much I need Jesus.
Sister Susan Marie: So do we find ourselves wandering away or out of our own hearts? How can that be? I am thinking of not being true to oneself as a possibility or example
Kim (guest): Yes Sister. I think it is when we are not true to ourselves, no the person God created us to be.
Sister Susan Marie: St Augustine would not advise people to re enter their hearts unless he knew this happened. I know the Eastern Church talks about uniting one’s mind with one’s heart in prayer
Sister Susan Marie: We can put on a false front in many situations, esp at work. That is leaving one’s heart too
Mar 23 2014, 7:58 PM
Jim I think maybe we wander into the flesh and ignore the spirit
Sister Susan Marie: THe physical overriding the spiritual there
Jim : a false sense of joy2014, 8:00 PM
Jim : fooling us into thinking the spirit is joyless
Sister Susan Marie: So how get it all in balance
Kim (guest): Whenever I have taken the time to just tell God what is on my mind, he has always turned my thoughts into a heart lesson.
Mar 23 2014, 8:00 PM
Guest934 (guest): That is true Jim but the spirit “soul” is eternal.
Guest934 (guest): The flesh fades and falls away.
Guest934 (guest): That is true Jim but the spirit “soul” is eternal.
Kim (guest): I think it is a balance of the physical and spiritual. God created us body and soul.
Sister Susan Marie: A holy friend- if that gift were given to you, would help in that integration
Guest934 (guest): As Jesus suffered for us we too must suffer for him and those lost souls who do not understand or are lost.
Sister Susan Marie: The deepest core of us is our heart and it needs to be pointed in the right direction- God’s Will
Mary Roberta Viano: Thumbs up to holy friendship!
Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS says, “Holy friendship: while steeped in the object of the senses, it has neither beauty nor grace, but no sooner is it steeped in God, in the spirit, in charity, than it finds its perfection.” (Letter to SJFdC) ,
Mary Roberta Viano: I’ve been blessed with good spiritual directors, too.
Mary Roberta Viano: Putting out feelers, Jim, will find you a good one, I’m sure.
Kim (guest): Holy friendship is stronger than the bond of blood (family).
Mary Roberta Viano: True, Kim!
Sister Susan Marie: And we cannot let our feelings of unworthiness get in the way
Jim : I think I need to be locked up in a monastery for a couple months
Mary Roberta Viano: God fills our needs – esp. for spiritual guides.
Kim (guest): It is sometimes easier to love and to receive love.
Kim (guest): “than” to receive love.
Sister Susan Marie: Jim that might be an inspiration!
Good idea, Jim! There are all kinds you could stay in for a month or so.
Sister Susan Marie: Have you ever read Henri Nouwen?
Jim : the world provides too many distractions and temptations for a person like myself. Too weak to handle them that is.
Sister Susan Marie: He spent time in Monasteries He was a priest but not a monk
Guest934 (guest): I do not have a spiritual director but I do have books that have been written by different saints. They are great teachers.
Mary Roberta Viano: True for all of us
Mar 23 2014, 8:10 PM
Jim heard about Henri Nouwen…never read his stuff though
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, reading the lives of saints can guide you well.
Sister Susan Marie: He actually was it seems an emotionally fragile person, a great writer and much loved- even famous but he suffered alot
Kim (guest): God often uses the weakest among us in the most powerful ways.
Mary Roberta Viano: A good friend of mine always said her spiritual director was St. John of the Cross: She read him every day.
Jim a holy environment (such as monastery etc) may be even more important than holy friendship
Guest934 (guest): He is a wonderful role model.
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Mary Roberta Viano: Another way is to give away your TV and other electronics – to create more silence and fewer distractions. ,
Jim: so true Sister but some of us just don’t have that strength to do it
if it were ripped away than that would help haha
Kim (guest): I say to you Jim and to myself often – pray for it!
Am I agree, the television is a terrible distraction. Jim, How about just turning off the tv for some hours of the day?
Mary Roberta Viano: Maybe just turn everything off for a week, then, Jim.
Guest934 (guest): For me it is the attitude of the world and the pain I observe that bothers me. I crave a life of prayer and solitude..
Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS suggests creating that prayer and solitude in the cell of our own hearts.
JimI hear ya 934…inserting yourself into that holy environment
Am: But to run AWAY from the world is no reason to go to a monastery,you want to run TO it, not to escape
Guest934 (guest): I want to go out and help everybody and that is not possible so pray is most important at this stage in life.
Jim : I think that is what we are saying Amy
Guest934 (guest): I want to run to the cloister to pray to help what I see in the world.
Jim I know Sister has always said that she needs the holy structure to keep her in line
Mary Roberta Viano: We can pray in our own rooms – doesn’t have to be a cloister.
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, I need that structure, too – like a spiritual girdle!
Sister Susan Marie: Structure really helps me
Sister Susan Marie: That’s funny Sister!!
Jim yes, great way to put it
Kim (guest): Yes, living alone is very difficult.
Guest934 (guest): True I can shut everything out but I want the structure and the Holy Friendship that the cloister provides..
Am: Daily mass and doing the hours give structure even outside the cloister
Sister Susan Marie: Sometimes all you need is a friend or spiritual partner who is like a sponsor for your spiritual life to whom you are accountable
Jim : For some, the power and seduction of the world can be overwhelming..like being flushed over by a tidal wave
Sister Susan Marie: We had spiritual aids in the Monasteries in the past
Mar 23 2014, 8:20 PM
Guest934 (guest): I can not go to daily Mass as I take care of my grandchildren and clean house. I can use all that I do a prayer.
Mary Roberta Viano: Right! Just gathering with a friend or two for prayer or attending Mass together can provide some structure.
Guest934 (guest): My heart is my cave and I retire there to pray especially at night.
Mary Roberta Viano: That’s where me meet the Lord – in our hearts.
Sister Susan Marie: Human loneliness can be an issue for some people though so companionship on a spiritual level can help
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, communing with Our Lord in one another’s hearts, too.
Guest934 (guest): The spiritual companionship seem more important the human.
Kim (guest): Well put Sister Mary Roberta.
Mary Roberta Viano: Heart speaks to heart, SFdS always says.
Guest934 (guest): Then we become as one in the Lord
Kim (guest): One Heart – His Heart!
Mary Roberta Viano: Right!
Guest934 (guest): Exciting!
Mary Roberta Viano: We admire people who are big-hearted – meaning full of God’s charity.
Mary Roberta Viano: That was what most attracted me to this religious community: the sisters’ big-heartedness.
Jim: I apologize Am…I think you were right..after thinking of it, I probably want to run away from the world.
Jim I: I fear what the world offers and seek refuge in a monastery
Mary Roberta Viano: Stay put, Jim. The world needs you!
Mary Roberta Viano: You just need to put on the armor St.Paul talks about in Galatians, I think. (Where’s my concordance?!)
Guest934 (guest): The world holds little meaning with God.
Guest934 (guest): Without God.
Mar 23 2014, 8:30 PM
Kim (guest): Jim, you might ask God to show himself to you in and through the world (people and situations).
Mary Roberta Viano: God gives us all we need to deal in love with the world – His world, after all. He created it and found it good.
Guest934 (guest): But then original sin and then Noah and the flood.
Kim (guest): He gave us a new commandment, love one another as I have loved you. Most do that in the world.
Guest934 (guest): I think thru prayer we can and do make the world better.
Mar 23 2014, 8:32 PM
Kim (guest): It is only by His grace that we do anything good.
Am: I agree Kim
Mar 23 2014, 8:33 PM
Jim : Can we just stay in this chat forever? haha…holy friends (other than me of course) in a holy environment..ahhh…the sanctity of such a place
Kim (guest): And His grace is abundant!
Guest934 (guest): But there are wars and genocide. The world is one of free will. I prefer a world of prayer.
Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS writes that God alone can keep a man firm “by making use of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving and frequenting the sacraments, association with good companions, and reading holy Scripture.” (Treatise on the Love of God)
Am: Beautiful, Sister
Sister Susan Marie: Maybe a chat in future on a particular chapter of the Treatise?
Mar 23 2014, 8:34 PM
Am And we only hope for His second coming!
Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS is a real master of “inspired common sense,” as our Sr.Berchmans calls it!
Guest934 (guest): I know it is time to sign off so bless everybody. and have a good week.
Mary Roberta Viano: Special Lenten prayers for our virtual community!