The following of the Living Word of God dwelt within me since a morning reading last week. I especially felt the warning of that which I placed in bold: "Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy...from the anxieties of daily life."
It is the anxieties of daily life that tend to trip me in various ways. I become drowsy in my prayer life unless I offer as prayer the anxieties and the physical pain that when out of control becomes mental and emotional pain.
Yes, the physical pain has been out of control off and on, day in, day out, sometimes skips a day, but seems to go with barometric pressure shifts in weather: storms. So storms have become the anxieties of daily life--and the cold! Despite insulation, heat pump--the hermitage is very cold downstairs.
The monk priest up the road today suggested stapling plastic over the stairwell opening....
[I just lost with one wrong tap of a laptop key, the bulk of the text of what I wrote of the anxieties of daily life and am too weary to attempt the rewriting. So a swath of sharing, ideas, and obviously not crucial thoughts to you readers and to God Himself, are several paragraphs omitted now due to their being lost forever, which is perhaps a mercy!
Some of the words included examples of more obstacles in various ways, of daily life anxieties of this consecrated Catholic hermit and mystic, including a bizarre event this morning requiring much prayer for a man involved in an accident...requiring the cabinet installer to have to leave before he even began the final effort to finish the hermitage kitchen. By now, after various repetitive such occurrences with about anything attempted in the hermitage, or also with doctors, I am convinced God's reasons are for me to pray for the people and events and not be concerned with the obstacles preventing a temporal means to an end.
I'm not sure what I wrote prior to these words, but It had something to do with being prepared to meet at any time, in judgment, and the only to whom we ought be concerned ultimately:]
are the Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, God in Three Persons, His Real Presence.
There is more I'd like to share, such as additional thoughts of the Lord's helping me adapt to and accept the more austere aspect of hermit life, that of more reclusion and the practical reasons thereof. As for the spiritual benefits, there are also challenges; but He will guide, lead, unfold and sustain me in the gradual but currently unavoidable process.
How marvelous is the Lord in all aspects of every detail of our lives! I must remember to not over work the efforts nor to fret the obstacles, to not succumb to the anxieties of daily life. For now, I pray whenever it comes to mind, day or night: Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Luke 21:34-36
"Jesus said to His disciples:
'Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man.'"
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