Fr. V. emailed some advice and encouragement. Saturday last, the nothing consecrated Catholic hermit had come to some insights in accordance with what the spiritual father had decided regarding parish involvements. This Catholic hermit had been praying for the Lord to please send the priest or priests of whom the Lord chose to help guide and also spiritually befriend, one with the other.
Within minutes of this prayer, the phone rang. It was Fr. V from Nigeria on the phone! While the call was disrupted not long into conversation, he was able to listen and also to speak. Their internet service was not doing well in his part of the world, in his religious community.
Yesterday, however, he was able to send an email. It is worth pondering as well as to praise God for the simple and excellent advice as well as the encouragement.
"It pains me sometimes seeing you undergoing all these [ordeals]. I want to remind you once more as I [have] before, that you are unique. There's no way people can easily understand you. All our lives is a mystery, but some are more mysterious than others. Even yourself often find it hard to understand the things happening around you. All you need do is to always remind yourself that you are special and that human judgment doesn't mean much to you. The ordinary mind sees only the physical, but the spirit filled soul sees far ahead.
Remain in His Love."
I have never liked being considered different. My early years and into adult hood were spent trying to fit in, trying to blend in. I did not know otherwise and felt quite normal enough, yet not quite. My parents protected me from much of the world-at-large, while at the same time encouraging me to explore with studies and interests, to be social and very, very Christian. We lived a pragmatic and quiet life but with lovely experiences all through. There was deep security in our modest yet privileged lives--for my elder sisters and myself. There was also expectation of education, achievement, and excelling in what we were called to do by God and by others, in service and responsibility.
My mother was aware of the mystical aspects inherent in my being. If it comes through a bloodline, it was through hers. My great-grandmother had some clairvoyance, but not as a mystic. As for my mother and her large and loving family of siblings and a maternal grandmother with whom we were close, and relatives on my dad's side, as well--all loving family and upstanding people--when one has gifts that are not the usual and normal, those around us adapt for we have always been the way we are. And I did not recognize much different for how would I know that it was not how my sisters' perceived, or anyone of family or friends? We adapt to our environment and perhaps develop a sense of somewhat false security.
When in college, away from the family unit and small town life of extended family and long-time friends--loving and lovely Christians of great kindness and decency--I was first confronted by someone who said I was very different in a supernatural way. I was revolted by this assessment--a foreboding, it seemed!
Later, I had to face it yet again in my early thirties. What I had to "see" was that I do not perceive others and the world in the way most people do. I have paranormal experiences and am sensitive to the supernatural of God and souls. Those around me sometimes experience outer manifestations of such experiences, but not often, or at least not that they notice consciously.
Once, when my teen and college-age children were watching a Stephen King movie, I happened to view some of it with them. A man had a gift of inner sight; and when he would be around people (not all) and maybe would touch a person, he could sometimes see within. Sometimes his inner sight produced a clairvoyant effect of seeing something that was to happen with the person in the future.
The future is God's realm as is the past and the present. All of time is God's creation and realm and not ours; God gifts us with time. I related deeply with the man in the movie. His life had an element of anguish and torment in some instances, for he did not usually want to see what he was shown. And what was shown in inner sight often required some form of action depending upon the severity of a situation. He sometimes could let things pass as he saw them evolve, but in others he had to act to try to warn or change something, to help make a situation better for the person or for many.
Today I am in civilization, providing love and service to a family member who needed some assistance. It is proving to be a marvelous vacation of sorts, although--guess what?--today am washing, caulking, filling holes, priming, and painting woodwork! It gives the opportunity to pray and ponder, to listen within to what His Real Presence desires of His hermit, His mystic, His earthling-soul spouse, His child who loves Him greatly and of whom He loves, as well.
Am also considering a connection of something that I've been reading about and viewing that is of success in persons of the world, of those who have true passion for what they are doing and thus succeed in ways that also are quite poignant. When we are fulfilling God's will for us in our lives and doing so with passion and focus, with effort and joy and love--God and all creation take part in the rejoicing. This is not to suggest that the effort is easy!
Perhaps I will write more on this another time, or perhaps not. But I am considering where is my passion, and of course it is with His Real Presence, first and foremost. Also I have wondered if in vocation, being a consecrated hermit, professed and avowed now nearly 15 years in the consecrated life of the Catholic Church--if being a hermit is of primary position in God's view and desire for me. Or is it more that as a mystic in relationship to my participation in His Real Presence, in that the temporal and mystical intersect and interact within His Real Presence both in tangible and intangible ways.
We progress in what becomes obviously the passion for which God calls us and in which He graces us and empowers us as we progress through this life on earth and into the eternal life beyond this earthly, temporal existence.
God bless His Real Presence in us! Little children--we are--of His Real Presence! Let us love Him and love one another!
No comments:
Post a Comment