Workshop On "Formation And Allegiance
To Jesus Christ"
by Kathy Myny, OCDS
There once was a Discalced Carmelite, who
had trouble with mental prayer. She had such
difficulty in keeping focused, that she thought
St. Teresa was talking especially about her
when she said in chapter 19 of The Way of
Perfection that there are some souls and
minds so scattered they are like wild horses
that no one can stop.
One day, frustrated with her inability
to
concentrate she said to the Lord, "Let's
do something different! Could we go
for a
boat ride on a lake."
She was surprised that immediately
she found
her mind focused on a scene with Jesus,
in
which he beckoned her into a row boat.
The
Carmelite was prepared to take up the
oars,
but Jesus insisted on rowing. As He
took
His position in the boat, he said,
"I
am the Server."
The Carmelite, like a helpless child,
sat
in the boat. Her attention was completely
centered on Jesus, the Rower. The setting
was a picturesque lake, much like one
of
those lakes up north in the early morning,
with the mist rising off it just before
dawn.
As Jesus rowed across the peaceful
lake,
He told the Carmelite how intricate
the soul
of each person was, and how much time,
for
want of a better word, God took to
fashion
each person, and how unique and precious
each soul was to Him. He explained
that no
matter how deformed or limited the
body of
a person was, the soul was always created
perfectly, and was the true worth of
a person.
Those who delve into their own spirituality,
He said, were the ones who would discover
their true destiny and purpose, as
prescribed
in their soul. He also talked about
the mud
and decaying matter at the bottom of
the
lake, and how much it was like sin.
He said
it filtered down from the events in
our life
and lay there collecting, stifling
the life
of the soul and interfering with the
ability
of the individual to understand itself
and
its purpose in life. After some time,
the
Carmelite found herself reluctantly
leaving
Jesus and the boat. His last words
to her
were: "Remember Me today, and
call My
Name often."
This Carmelite made the scene so real to
me, I began to think about what it all meant.
Here was Jesus, the "Server", taking
the position of Navigator, Teacher and Guide.
That's like us in our individual relationship
with Him. He wants it to be intimate and
interesting and He also wants us to accept
our helpless position, our inability to even
row our own boat for ourselves. He wants
us to accept His guidance, knowledge and
authority as a loving parent-child relationship.
He wants us to listen to His commands and
obey them out of love for Him. To do that,
we need to be in touch with our own spirituality,
to keep our soul as pure as we can. That
means to have a great fear of offending God,
like St. Therese did of soiling her baptismal
robe. She wanted so much to keep her soul
in a pure state to please God. (Story of
a Soul, 150) She intuitively realized that
Pope Paul VI said in his Dialogues (25),
"God is the first cause of being, God
is the supreme ground of thought, God is
the fundamental law of human action."
Precisely, because at one point in
our life,
we as individual Christians got in
the boat
with Jesus, and we obeyed His call,
we are
here. At this very moment the searching
and
discovering goes on for each one of
us.
When Jesus was on earth, He often got
in
a boat with the disciples. Sometimes
He taught
them in a boat, or on a mountain, or
any
place where He could get their attention
and teach them. This group of disciples
was
the first community of the church.
They were
searching and discovering as we are.
Now, if we transcribe these thoughts
to our
own communities we can see, that in
formation,
our aspirants are in a similar position
to
the apostles in their community with
Jesus.
We are all in the same boat physically
once
a month with the other members of our
community.
Jesus, God, is always the Guide the
Voice
we should listen to. This isn't always
easy
for the waters can be stirred up, and
the
boat can be rocking, and mud can be
flying
everywhere, from the personalities
we encounter
and our own ideas and agendas. These
roadblocks
can prevent us from seeing the direction,
the concrete steps in organization
that should
be taken to best serve our aspirant.
Thomas
Kempis says in the Imitation of Christ
(164),
"My own sins frighten me and my
muddied
conscience holds me back from sharing
...
Your sweet words call me to you, but
my many
offenses weigh me down." Integration
of our aspirant into our communities,
and
their initial teachings are most important
to make them feel welcome and to preserve
their initial enthusiasm. The Holy
Spirit
gets so excited and happy, when someone
takes
the right step, that through grace,
that
person is filled with real zeal and
real
energy to learn and discover.
We all know love is our most precious
resource.
In our communities it needs to flourish
in
its purest form. Love is the best adhesive
ever. It's better than duct tape or
glue
or any sticky stuff man has ever invented.
Love's the glue that holds a community
together.
It holds without smothering, without
diminishing
our demeaning, without judging and
without
aggression. True love is not associated
with
sin, pride or egoism. Charity is love
made
visible through action: acts of kindness,
patience, consideration, respect and
dignity.
Archbishop Cushing in the Introduction
of
Divine Mercy said, 'In loving and serve
we
become like the Server, Jesus, or in
the
words of St. John of the Cross, "God
by participation."'.
Prayer is the link to the divine that
sets
us free. If in doubt, pray! Call on
His Name,
Jesus, often. Acts 4.12 says, "There
is no salvation through anyone else,
nor
is there any other name under heaven
given
to the human race by which we are to
be saved."
Not only can you be saved at the end
of your
life by the name of Jesus, but at each
moment
you can be saved and blessed by calling
on
Jesus by name. His heart aches while
He is
waiting for you to call Him. St. Therese
tells us in her letters, that our soul
is
so well made for consoling Him ...
She invites
us to love Him to folly for all those
who
don't love Him.
The cross is our standard, our flag
of allegiance.
Everyone has a cross to carry; their
life.
It is freely given. It is exactly what
we
need. Just as St. Therese accepted
everything
as necessary for her progress towards
God,
so it is of us. Accept with joy, gently,
with dignity and be honoured that you
work
of the Kingdom. Accept your cross as
the
athletes accept the Olympic torch.
Stand
tall and straight, for as a member
of God's
Kingdom, you are called to serve faithfully.
You are always on duty for war is perpetually
declared in the battle of good and
evil.
The Discalced Carmelites are a specialized
division in the King's Army. Prayer
is our
weapon. Knowledge of His word and the
study
of the saints given to our order are
our
guides and ammunition. In studying
faithfully,
we commune with the Divine and the
community
of saints.
Our aspirants must feel and see the
difference
in the atmosphere of your communities
compared
to other church and secular gatherings.
If
we are disciplined Carmelites in God's
Kingdom,
it will show. St. Paul said to the
Romans
12.12 "Do not conform yourself
to this
age but be transformed by the renewal
of
your mind, that you may discern what
is the
will of God, what is good and pleasing
and
perfect."
Carmelites are called as faithful member
of the Apostolic Church on earth, to
love
and serve through prayer, in order
to evangelize
others into the inner circles of God's
Kingdom.
Your oath of Allegiance to Jesus is
this:
I, a humble child of the Kingdom of
God,
promise to try to love God with my
whole
heart, with my whole soul and with
my whole
mind, and to love each one I meet or
pray
for, as Jesus loves me. (Mat 22.37)
I would like to close with a quote
from Pope
John Paul II during World Youth Days
2002,
at Downsview Park. You might wonder
why,
because you think of yourself as old.
But
even though your body is old, or you
feel
old, your soul is timeless and in comparison
with the age of this earth or the Discalced
Carmelite Order to which you belong,
you
are so very young. Our mission as Christians,
in allegiance to Jesus Christ, be it
today,
or 2000 years ago, has always been
the same.
"God is entrusting to you the
task,
at once difficult and uplifting, of
working
with Him in the building of the civilization
of love."