Father
John
J. Lombardi
Some meditations to
intensify your spiritual lives in the Holy Season of
Lent…
A few years ago on a
pilgrimage to India and Tibet, this chaplain saw
dramatic, spiritual things--some Christian, and some
not; but all were inspiring, yanking me out of a
"spiritual slumber" I had grown accustomed to…
One hot, Indian evening
I entered Mother Teresa's house, in the heart of
Calcutta, after a traumatic ride there passing oxen-led
carts, open-air-camp fires and thatched, squatter's
huts. Arriving at the evocative upstairs chapel I was
awed to see a hundred nuns sitting on a bare floor,
praying silently before the Lord Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament. Right below us was a major roadway-akin to
Fifth Avenue in New York City-which permeated the
virginal cloister with the sounds of honking cars and
trucks, open-air marketers selling their wares, cackling
chickens, and Muslim evening prayer calls from nearby
minarets-all creating a cacophony in the Bengal
night.
I thought: How could
anyone pray here?! Meanwhile, the Missionaries of
Charity simply-and elegantly in their blue and white
saris-- knelt, adored, prayed: riveted by Jesus Really
Present in the Eucharist so that no "noise"
would overcome them; I was both amazed and inspired by
their focused love…+Meditation: Don't we all need-at a
more intense level-- the spiritual discipline of
persevering prayer in our lives-like these tried and
true "ladies of the Lord"-so as to become more
one with God, the Most holy Trinity?…How do I need to
intensify, concretize my prayer life?…
Later that summer, in
the Tibetan capital of Lhasa--amidst a stunning
Himalayan backdrop--I stumbled upon a seventy-year old
Tibetan monk practicing "public penance".
Wearing flowing burgundy and yellow-colored robes-with a
kind of "smock" on the front of his body--I
eventually figured out he would walk amongst the crowds
in the streets and then, every few steps, would first
fall on his knees, and then drop to his face upon the
ground, pray a penance, and then rise and repeat this
process continually through the meandering mountain
streets. +Meditation: the tough love of penitential
pruning may not seem attractive-but, this Lent, like
that monk in Tibet, isn't God calling us to a deeper,
heartened sorrow for sins?…
Many Indian people
hosted me beautifully and bountifully, and one family
took this priest up a mountain to look for elephants
(!). After our venture we came upon a religious shrine
and, amazingly, a "local sanyasi"-or Hindu
holy man. This turban-crowned ascetic lived by himself,
for some forty years, in a continual fast, while
spending his days in meditation and renunciation. The
few words he spoke were on escaping suffering and the
need for intense purification. I noticed there was
hardly anything else to his life than the temple he
tended to, his spiritual life and greeting pilgrims.
Meditation:
convictingly
think of all your needless and inordinate attachments in
life, your seeming need for earthly entertainment and
human praise, and fear of deeper asceticism…and vow to
overcome them for love of God and Christ-crucified!
Holy Seasons-like
Lent-are just that: like the salt of today's Gospel they
are meant to flavor the spiritual flatness of our lives,
and like illuminating light they can polish us where we
have not been shining.
Lent, comes for the old
English word meaning spring. Spiritually speaking, our
Church reminds us we have been deadened by sin and
therefore need a spiritual spring in our souls-a
re-birthing by God's supernaturalizing grace. As it is
for the Maryland daffodils and dogwoods, so it is for
us: we need to "ignite" a spiritual birth in
us to evade decay and the ever-ensnaring cocoon of
lukewarmness, and thereby manifest the fragrant beauty
of new life which God plants within us. Like nature
around us, this dying and rising process is at once
painful and beautifying. Lent should be a time for
growth, reinvigoration, for stretching. Asceticism comes
from the Greek word meaning "training." The
above-mentioned people were souls dedicated to
fine-tuning and training their souls in serious,
concrete and persistent ways…
All the Olympic
athletes currently in Utah did some kind of training to
arrive there-and we should be reminded as we watch them
in their tremendous thirst for a gold medal, of the need
for spiritually training, tempering and tuning what has
gone awry in us and how complacent we have become: When
compared to the heroic love of the saints-single,
married and religious ones-our lukewarmness is
madness!
Question. What are some
ways to intensify my spiritual life-in ways the saints
practiced?
- FASTING:
"Abstain" from one meal a week, or lessen
your meals ("fast") once a week (if you're
medically able) and when you grow hungry:
- thank God for
the food you're able to buy;
- think of Jesus
and hunger for of Heavenly and "Real
Food";
- offer up your
fast for another person or sinners;
- in saying
"no" to food at that time harness the
gained self-mastery to other needed
"conversion causes" (anger, lust,
gossip, etc). Begin, if possible, to fast more
often. If not able to abstain from food, then
try abstaining from certain drinks, from sleep,
inordinate affection or love, comforts and
luxuries, etc.: "Christ suffered for you
and left you an example to follow." (+I Pt
2:21) Jesus' ultimate act of love for us
was a sacrifice-do the same…
- PRAYER: Spend more
time in prayer…Try fifteen minutes a day:
- Spend FIRST FIVE
MINUTES in "Oratio" (talking to God
verbally or mentally): spend time thanking God,
praising Him, interceding for others;
penitential confession…
- SECOND FIVE
MINUTES in "Meditation": Take a
Biblical passage, life of Jesus or of the Virgin
Mary or a saint, or gaze upon a holy picture,
and
- in thinking
deeply about it the subject savor the
revealed insights;
- form
affections to God in response to it
(thankfulness, praise, etc.);
- make a
resolution/response to it…
- THIRD FIVE
MINUTES in "Contemplation": this means
placing all your thoughts, desires and memories
in God, by a simple loving attention to Him; a
trustful surrender into Him-quietly and
peacefully dwelling in His Sacred Threefold
Presence. "Come away by yourselves, to a
deserted place, and rest a while." +Mk.
6:31
- SERVICE: Make time
to serve the poor, the sick and the dying-find Jesus
in them, esp. in the ones you find it hardest to
serve. Give without expecting anything in return.
+Read Mt. 25
- EXAMINE ONE
CONSCIENCE: At the close of each day, take 3-5
minutes to consider:
- How, when and
where did God grace me today with favors and
blessings? Make a "mental note" of all
these-large and small-and thank Him for His
divine favors, thereby cultivating gratefulness…
- How, when and
where did I sin, or fail God or my neighbor?…How
can I improve and seriously resolve to change
these situations of faults or failures in my
life?
…Oh, and by the way,
you ask, just what was the main lesson from the holy
lady, Mother Teresa of Calcutta? One word-tenaciousness:
an intense love of Jesus Christ, esp. in the Eucharist
and in His poor and dying. The immensity of her
spiritual intensity was lived everyday. She was fond of
saying regarding Jesus: "Cling to Him."
SPIRITUAL QUOTE: "
In truth you see the Trinity if you see love….Look,
they are three: He Who Loves, He Who is Loved and Love
itself." St Augustine
Read
other Sermons by Father John J. Lombardi