May Mater keep us throughout our busy and overcrowded days in the radiance of the things that are not seen. ~ Marie Therese de Lescure RSCJ, Circular Letter, 16 July 1949.
There is a busyness to life, a hustle and bustle, which is inevitable. We might think it is a consequence of our technology-driven lives, but, as Mother de Lescure's letter from 65 years ago reminds us, busyness has always been with us, though experienced differently by each generation. What has never changed throughout the ages, though, is the power of inner stillness and contemplation and our deep need for them.
Mater Admirabilis, pausing in the midst of her work, filled with the radiance of things unseen, clearly understood this. As she sits wrapped in stillness she could easily be living the words of our Chapter 2008 document on Contemplation:
We are called to stop, to choose silence and to open and let ourselves be opened to our inner depths where the Spirit of God allows us to feel, see and understand reality with God's Heart... Then in the secret place of the heart the Spirit gradually transforms our feelings and responses, and draws us into an intimate relationship with God...
These are the things unseen, the essential, 'the one thing necessary'; herein lies the radiance in which we long to live, with which we long to be filled and which we so want to share. Today - whether it be busy and overcrowded or relatively quiet - is a good day to be reminded of this: it is a good day, too, to pause and pray for the grace to keep our lives centred in the Essential and the Invisible.
Mater Admirabilis, pausing in the midst of her work, filled with the radiance of things unseen, clearly understood this. As she sits wrapped in stillness she could easily be living the words of our Chapter 2008 document on Contemplation:
We are called to stop, to choose silence and to open and let ourselves be opened to our inner depths where the Spirit of God allows us to feel, see and understand reality with God's Heart... Then in the secret place of the heart the Spirit gradually transforms our feelings and responses, and draws us into an intimate relationship with God...
These are the things unseen, the essential, 'the one thing necessary'; herein lies the radiance in which we long to live, with which we long to be filled and which we so want to share. Today - whether it be busy and overcrowded or relatively quiet - is a good day to be reminded of this: it is a good day, too, to pause and pray for the grace to keep our lives centred in the Essential and the Invisible.
"...pausing in the midst of her work, filled with the radiance of things unseen". What a beautiful gift to be able to do that! It's a challenge - would anyone, ever, be able to say that of me, I wonder? It's a grace I shall pray for.
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