3 Meditations

On the way to mass this morning I was listening to a tape from Gil Bailie's "Let This Mind Be in You" where he tells of a visiting priest from Cape Town, South Africa who gave a homily that included the following:

“You know that God is at work when you are unlovable and you still get loved: when you have done something unforgiveable and you get forgiven: and you are
untrustworthy you are trusted anyway.” He went on to say that this is what God does and what Christians have to do is to imitate God - that is that we have to love the unlovable; forgive the unforgiveable; and trust the untrustworthy.

Very powerful.

I get to mass and read the Meditation of the Day from the Magnificat:

Richard Hermit rehearses a ... tale of perfect contrition that the same clerk Cesarius tells. He tells that a scholar at Paris had done full many sins of which he was ashamed to shrive him. At the last, great sorrow of heart overcame his shame, and when he was ready to shrive him to the Prior of the Abbey of S. Victor, so great contrition was in his heart, sighing in his breast, sobbing in his throat that he could not bring one word forth. Then the Prior said to him, "Go and write thy sins." He did so and came again to the Prior, and gave him what he had written, for still he could not shrive himself with his mouth. The Prior saw the sins were so great, that with the scholar's leave, he shewed them to the Abbot to have his counsel. The Abbot took the writing wherein they were written, and looked thereon. He found nothing written, and said to the Prior, "What can here be read where naught is written?" Then saw the Prior and wondered greatly, and said "Wit ye that his sins were here written, and I read them: but now I see that GOD has seen his contrition and has forgiven him all his sins." This the Abbot and the Prior told the scholar, and he, with great Joy, thanked GOD. - RICHARD ROLLE from THE FORM OF PERFECT LIVING AND OTHER PROSE TREATISES.

Awesome!

And later I stumble across a meditation from my friend Gerry Straub. The following is an excerpt from “My Soul is Thirsting for God”

…
In my time of early morning prayer,
in the stillness and silence
that blankets the coming of dawn,
I get it and want to do it.
But then I get up,
and I am no sooner out of the house,
and my resolve begins to collapse.
I argue and become petty.
Resentments rise,
faith falls.
Doubts and confusions
encamp around me.
By nightfall,
I have been reduced to ashes,
a smoldering heap of anguish.

But You love me,
always, everywhere,
even when my behavior
turns its back on You.

O my God, I beg You
to heal my wounds,
to help me go through this day
more in harmony with You.
Help my faith and actions
have less and less gaps
between them.
Give me please, my God,
the grace to pause
often during the whirlwind
of the day,
and tell you that I love you,
that I need You,
that I want to do Your will.
Shower the parched, dry, waterless
terrain of my life
with Your abundant grace
that will keep You
in my heart and mind
all day long.
…


I think that the following excerpt is a stunning observation.

Resentments rise,
faith falls.
Doubts and confusions
encamp around me.
By nightfall,
I have been reduced to ashes,
a smoldering heap of anguish.

Link HERE to past post on "Let This Mind Be in You"