The truth of the matter is, we all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel the good from the bad, the pure from the impure. God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. That is what grace means, and not only are we saved by it, we live by it as well. And we pray by it. - Richard J. Foster (Pray as you are, and pray as you pray.)
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Hg 1:1-8; Ps 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b Lk 9:7-9 Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening,
and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying,
"John has been raised from the dead";
others were saying, "Elijah has appeared";
still others, "One of the ancient prophets has arisen."
But Herod said, "John I beheaded.
Who then is this about whom I hear such things?"
And he kept trying to see him.
Reflection on the Scriptures
Our gospel finds Herod perplexed, and more so with reports he was hearing from the Jewish people. He wanted
to see Jesus. But what was his motivation? Perhaps he needed some self-reflection and evaluation? We are living temples of the Holy Spirit. We are a place where Christ dwells. What is our relationship with Jesus? Or Christ. Or the Holy Spirt, Or God our creator? How do you know God and how do you find ways to grow in a more intimate relationship with our triune God? Is there is need to rebuild a broken relationship?
Yes, God desires this relationship. What must each of us do to perhaps restore, renovate, or widen the walls of our hearts to recognize this Sacred Occupant of our Temple? Go up or deep into your interior landscape and gather all that is needed for you to begin. Unlike Herod, you can see/know this Holy Presence and do not evict it! Hear God say, listen, and know that I am God, with you, in you, around you, always. Then… Let the faithful exult in glory.
Let them sing for joy!
Let high praises of God be in their throats.
This is the glory of all God’s faithful! (Ps. 149)
This is a blueprint for life!
-by Candice Tucci, OSF
St. John of the Cross and the Beginning of Contemplation by James Arraj From St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. J. Jung, Part II, Chapter 3. Inner Growth Books, 1986. Another way of explaining this process is by saying that grace must initially take us as we are. The phase of sensible spirituality is a necessary stage, and in St. John's mind it serves as a remote preparation for divine union: "For though the
apprehensions of these faculties are not a proximate means toward union for proficients, they are a remote means for beginners. By these sensitive means beginners dispose their spirit and habituate it to spiritual things and at the same time they void their senses of all other base, temporal, secular, and natural forms and images."(7) But sensible spirituality is only a remote preparation, for it labors under inherent difficulties. Its most fundamental limitation springs from the fact that the senses can never adequately contain the spiritual, and therefore will always give a fragmentary and inadequate account of it. Furthermore, in regards to purity of intention, the soul is drawn to spiritual things not so much
by what they are in themselves, for its understanding of their true nature is very limited, but more by the pleasure and consolation it finds in them. Sensible pleasure, then, is often a prime driving force. It is from this source of motivation that arises part of the fervor of beginners with their ability to spend hours in prayer and to devote themselves to penance and discipline, for all these things, as strange as it may seem, are sweet and enjoyable to them. St. John describes the faults and
weaknesses of these beginners at great length in the first part of his Dark Night of the Soul. This sensible spirituality forms the point of departure from which the transition to contemplation begins.
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