Composed by: Br. Dominic

Do you find yourself anxious? Are you worried about the uncertainties of the future? Are you troubled by the past? Is there something which you desire, that draws your attention and consumes your thought?

Often times, I do.

"Our wanting must be always be caring, peaceful, patient, detached and abandoned to God." p53.

1. There is value in the manner in which we conduct our wanting, waiting, wishing, hoping, and working.  On one end, we can choose to get worked up in the process or begin to move with confidence in God and not ourselves. The author refers to the ideas and reflections of Lorenzo Scupoli, found in the spiritual masterpiece, Spiritual Combat. Whether those desires come from ourselves or from the Lord, we are inspired to want for more. At times, that feeling of want can be overwhelming, but God reminds us that He will always provide!

On several occasions, I find my heart in a state of persistent waiting and wishing, to the point of emotional and spiritual exhaustion, hoping and praying that God provides. Although I feel fatigued and weary, scripture reminds me to remain with the Lord. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt 11:28-30).

In the manner that we conduct our work, I am reminded that we who labor, do so in the name of the Father. We can choose to dedicate our words and actions to God as an act of love. The smallest task, when given to God, takes on new meaning. In the end, we can choose the disposition of our hearts, finding and maintaining the peace of God in a troubled and hurting world.

"The measure of Divine Providence acting on us is the degree of confidence that we have in it.”
St. Francis de Sales.

2. I found the Lord asking me to trust Him in a deeper way, not being overcome by fear of losing control but rather being confident in His providence. Despite being in want of material things and virtues which I lack, God has and always will provide in all my necessity. He gives me more than what I can ever want and ever need and He gives only what is beneficial for our salvation. Out of His goodness, He is able to use both the good and the bad in order to bring me closer to him.

“It is not so much a question of our making superhuman efforts to completely eliminate our imperfections and our sins, but to recapture our peace when we have fallen into sin or have been troubled by the experience of our imperfections, and to avoid sadness and discouragement.. for it is not by our own efforts that we succeed in liberating ourselves from sin; it is only the grace of God which attains this end” (p.57-58).

In approaching stressful circumstances, occasions of sin, and moments of fear and doubt, I found that my focus was centered on myself and not the end, which is God. I'm more anxious if I let my mind wander, asking the "what ifs" and always thinking and preparing for the worst-case scenario. When it came to surrendering to God the things in life that were out of my control, I found it easy. (It just made sense, leaving big things for the Big Guy to carry). But in areas of my life where I did have control, I found that I have been managing them myself, not wanting input from anyone. I hope to seek direction from the Lord and to orient specific aspects of my life that are in my influence (e.g. praying for and maintaining holy friendships). In moments of sin and temptation, I would lose all peace. It’s easy to feel frustrated and defeated, and I would normally need to take time to regain my thoughts and composure.

3. By the grace of God, we can receive and maintain peace, even in difficult and trying times. In all things the things we experience, whether perceived as good or bad, we are reminded that God uses all to show us that He is ultimately in control. Through it all, we are left with an open invitation to trust and live confidently in God's love and goodness.

"The more we are dependent on Him, the more our souls acquire grandeur, beauty and glory, so much so that we can heartily glory in our infirmities. The greater our infirmities, the greater too, our joy and happiness, because our dependence on God becomes that much more necessary" (p.108).

Source:
Searching for and Maintaining Peace
Written by: Father Jacques Philippe

These posts are to help you kick-start the week and find inspiration through the lives of the saints. There is a depth of value in which we can learn from their insight and reflections. We hope to share them with you so that we all live for God at work, with friends and with family.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior!

In celebrating the Dominican Jubilee, here are some Facebook Cover Photos. Feel free to download and share!

Composed by: Sr. Catalina Rosa

My reflection that was posted on our blog last month (http://joyofthejust.weebly.com/blog/time-for-prayer-in-a-busy-life) is an updated version of my answer of this question from my months of postulancy formation for the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic:

As contemplatives in an active world, we try to "pray always." How do you set time aside strictly for prayer? Is it enough? What can you do to improve?

I just re-read my reflection from last month that answers the question above.

The reflection is still applicable.

It's also still a mere overview of my prayer life.

I find the most interesting aspect of my daily prayer to be this aspect:

I've recently started to take seriously the need to have a friendship with God, and with the Blessed Virgin, too! So, throughout the day, I tell Jesus and Mary what I think and feel--just as I do with my close friends.


I'm a "Millenial" and a "cradle Catholic." Despite stereotypes of my generation, I had grown up with a formal education of the Catholic faith. One of the earliest conversations I recall having with one of my grandfathers was this:

"Do you know the words of the Gloria?"

"No."

"You should know it. I want you to know it by heart before our next conversation."

"OK."

I was seven or eight years old at the time.

Like the dutiful girl I was, I obeyed quickly. I wanted my grandfather to be pleased with me! I linked perfect knowledge of the catechism, of canon law, of the liturgical calendar, and of traditional Catholic prayers with affirmation by the major adults in my life. Such was my understanding of my education of the Catholic faith.

I know now that God can make good out of anything, so I don't regret the good that has come from my early years. Just like various habits that had been drilled to me over the course of several years starting a young age--balletic posture, playing the piano, writing in cursive--I'm grateful that I've learned what I did about the Catholic faith when I was young enough to absorb knowledge much faster than I do now. (On a side note, I'm also now tickled pink that my childhood parish's pastor quoted the Baltimore Catechism as often as he did, now that I'm living in Baltimore and have visited frequently the Baltimore Basilica here [where said catechism was written]!)

What was lacking, though, was an understanding of a personal relationship with God, and that proved to be detrimental in my early adult years; however, the story of my struggles with and reversion to the Catholic faith is one for another time.

Conversing with Jesus and Mary, therefore, has become the "most interesting" aspect of my prayer life, because it's the newest practice I've adopted.

Getting into the habit of having that conversation has been an amusing journey over the last, oh, two years or so.

Initially, many attempts at such a conversation started like this:

"Hi, Jesus. I haven't talked to you in a while. I'm sorry. Uh... uh... uh... SO LET ME RAMBLE ABOUT MY DAY IT WENT LIKE THIS AND LET'S HAVE A STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT KITTENS NOW? Oh, my God. I'm allergic to cats. And did I just think, 'Oh, my God' when talking to God? Oh, God. ARGH. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Ack."

Then I would be self-conscious of my awkwardness, revert to a daily routine of formal prayers, procrastinate on my next conversation with Jesus for a while, attempt to converse with Him again, find that I was less clumsy but still clumsy (eek!), and repeat the cycle.

My initial attempts to talk to Mary were easier. She's a woman! I am, too. However, my initial attempts at conversation with her were mostly limited to questions such as this:

"Mary, I'm in my late 20s, and by this point in your life, you had been the Mother of God for a while, and you lost Jesus in Jerusalem but managed not to explode when you found Him. I find that I can become cranky over little things. Can you please help me with my patience?"

I'll admit that I've used clumsier wording and more specific examples of what makes me cranky--especially once a month--than the paragraph I had written above.

These initial conversation attempts were better than no attempt at all, but they were inhibited by nervousness and a fear of messing up. Oh, and I was overly conscious of the fact I was talking to the Son of God and to the Mother of God, both of whom were humans who never sinned, so who was I to whine to them?

When I realized that I tended to have less difficulty "going with the flow" when talking with strangers--especially when I had to be pleasant to strangers in the context of work-related interactions--I was mortified, and found myself uttering this simple prayer:

"Jesus and Mary, I want to converse with you. I'm having a hard time doing so. Please help me."

Then, I found myself in a period when even my closest friends were going through trials in their lives that I was keeping my deepest internal struggles to myself and to conversations with my spiritual director. However, I knew I needed to do more in order to avoid bottling up my feelings, which (I've learned the hard way) is also not an appropriate way to handle problems.

My initial reflex: Play the piano. Play a lot of piano. Play, play, play the piano.

It helped. It did! However, I'll need to save my thoughts on music as prayer for another time.

It was after one evening of playing piano that I found myself not quite ready to fall asleep, but I wanted to talk. I was happy about the music I had just played, and wanted to "geek out" about it. My roommates were already asleep, and I had already texted and called my friends quite a bit that day.

So, I chose to gush to Jesus about it. Yes, gush.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was!

Gradually, I found myself finding it easier to talk to Him and to Mary about little things that I enjoyed, that I despised, that I saw, that I smelled, that I tasted, that I felt, that I heard.

I still feel, at times, self-conscious during my conversations with Jesus and Mary. Earlier today, in fact, this happened:

"Hi, Jesus. It's me. Oh, gosh, I'm getting reminded of that Adele song 'Hello.' Aaaaand I feel myself clamming up. Can I blame a lack of sleep? No, you went through the Agony in the Garden. Anyway, HI! Thanks for letting me see another day. I have this song stuck in my head that I heard in a dance class last night. It's about Zeus, and I know he's a false god, but I sure hope you don't mind that I like it. It has a nice melody! Maybe I'll try to come up with better lyrics. I dunno. I'm too tired to think that much right now. Now that Adele song is stuck in my head, too. That's not irreverent, is it? I really do need some coffee. Sorry."

Ha!

We all mess up. Fortunately, God is a God of mercy, and Mary is as sweet as she is.

I'll end this post with this line from Psalm 124 that Dominicans often pray to close a meeting:

"Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth."


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Composed by: Rose

Prayer is where we build a relationship with God and where we learn what authentic love looks like.  As that love grows, so too does a desire to know God more deeply and that others might know him.  Hence, we turn to study to increase our knowledge of Christ and to be able to speak accurately and adequately about Church teaching so as to express the beauty of the Church to others.  Community simultaneously grows with knowledge of God.  Because we are all made in the image and likeness of God, we all have God within us. The desire to know God draws us to fellowship with others because we are able to recognize our Love, Jesus Christ, in others. Through community we are called to use our various gifts and talents to serve the Kingdom.  I hope that my active participation in the chapter’s apostolate can bring unity to our ideas and a willingness to work and serve in humility.

Thank you for reading our blog!

If you've enjoyed reading this post, help us spread the word by sharing it with your friends and family. Doing this helps us share with others the goodness of God and how His work affects our society today. For more content, reflections and insights stay updated here at Joy of the Just.

Joy of the Just, pray for us!