Catholic Hermit: St. Teresa of Calcutta on Humility

Love these thoughts on humility from No Greater Love written by Mother Teresa.  She writes, personally, from a heart of wisdom, grace, and total humility.  Expresses much of what I feel and experience, what so many of us feel and experience.  Know you loving, desirous-of-Christ readers will find the following inspiring, also!


"I don't think there is anyone who needs God's help and grace as much as I do.  Sometimes I feel so helpless and weak.  I think that is why God uses me.  Because I cannot depend on my own strength, I rely on Him twenty-four hours a day.  If the day had even more hours, then I would need His help and grace during those hours as well.  All of us must cling to God through prayer.  My secret is very simple:  I pray.  Through prayer I become one in love with Christ.  I realize that praying to Him is loving Him....

"People are hungry for the Word of God that will give peace, that will give unity, that will give joy.  But you cannot give what you don't have.  That's why it is necessary to deepen your life of prayer.  Be sincere in your prayers.  Sincerity is humility, and you acquire humility only by accepting humiliations.  All that has been said about humility is not enough to teach you humility.  You learn humility only by accepting humiliations.  And you will meet humiliation all through your life.  The greatest humiliation is to know that you are nothing.  This you come to know when you face God in prayer. 

"Often a deep and fervent look at Christ is the best prayer:  I look at Him and He looks at me.  When you come face to face with God, you cannot but know that you are nothing, that you have nothing."

Accept humiliations.  I suppose even appreciate them especially much for the gift of humility that they bring us.  I also appreciate Mother Teresa realizing that God used her (and no doubt still very much utilizes her in heaven) because she was helpless and weak.  This gives me great consolation, for I am so helpless and weak these days, and in actuality have been so all my life, despite the blessings of Jesus' graces and helping me through marvelous and unexpected means, angels, saints, and fellow human beings.

But Mother Teresa's secret is that she prays.  Let us all benefit from her secret and to pray and pray.  And along with prayer, let us praise God always, for praise can be inherent in prayer.  Our prayer can become praise, as much as pain can become prayer.  Can pain, then, become praise?  I will ponder this insight that came just now.  Praise God!

I also love that of knowing that the greatest humiliation is that I am nothing.  We all are nothing and we have nothing.  All Is God.  And that, dear spiritual friends and readers, for whom I pray and thank you for praying for me--for deeper conversions in God's will and to love God and love as God loves--is a truth for which I used to be and just recently again was criticized by someone who struck up a conversation with me.  

Many people do not like me to say or write that I am nothing.  But it is the truth.  Mother Teresa knew that truth and embraced it, and also embraced that we have nothing--all is God's, and if we "possess" any object, person, thing, thought, feeling, or someone, these are actually not "ours" but rather are lent us by God for a breath of temporal time.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Praise God for any and all humiliations given us!  



    

Hermit Rides Again

His Real Presence has taught much this week. The nothing Catholic hermit is thankful to not be so cold inside here, and is back in the ride of life, working on the manual labor tasks-- as well as praying and listening to lessons He is teaching.

The ferris wheel image is magnificently helpful.  It has expanded to include a street fair of life, with enticing booths galore, so that if one task or life issue is wearying or has a road-block, just turn slightly and there will be another to which to attend.  If weary, there is the little bed in the midst of mess, that offers itself for a painful back to recline.

Am gearing up for the first tactical attempt at the little exercise in dying to self and modulating the externals to hopefully ease the irritating aspects of this hermit to another who has had the courage and comfort level to express the annoying peccadilloes.  

In fact, a call yesterday brought news that the weekend's schedule is altered.  Another person is visiting there, and nothing Catholic hermit is not to come, after all. But yet still come at a certain time, in order to help with something they need.

Also, Raphael who had held out the life line which motivated this hermit to rise and begin work once more, trying anything to make progress here, ended up not coming with his men.  Nothing hermit noticed some electrical outlets not wired.  A call to the electrician, and he said he had to do more work before drywall installation in that room.  He was going to come the day before Raphael and men were to come.  But the electrician's truck alternator went out that morning, so he could not come.  

Raphael answered the call, and said he felt it best not to come, but he would send two men to at least make room in pole barn and carry out some bulky items to make more space in here to work.  He also said a man named Jorge would arrive this coming Tuesday, who could assist and work with the hermit on tasks that need two people--and Jorge knows how to do plumbing, also.

But Raphael did not send the two men, despite a call on Friday reminding in a message.  The electrician came, however, and the two of us remained focused and accomplished much.  Progress!  The ferris wheel is rising! But then it descended (does at night when tired and ready for sweet sleep), then rose, and descended, and rose again.  Such is life.

Nothing Catholic hermit is learning to enjoy the ride!  

Immediately when dusk came on Friday and the men never came and Raphael did not call, nothing hermit knew for certain that His Real Presence chose not to have them come.  The hermit is not out money.  The hermit can get furniture sliders for under $5 and even though it takes time, shift bulky furniture from right to left in the room, and back again, and bit-by-bit put the insulation in ceiling, and bit by bit ready the studs for drywall--plumb and level them with drywall shims.  Then, if no help even then, can at least drywall the lower parts, even if must use smaller pieces of drywall--heavy, the large sheets!

Tomorrow will go at the appointed hour to help the one who is providing excellent practice for this hermit to die to self and try to be the peacemaker by modulating its own irritating personality and expressiveness.  Am told the one person who has not wanted contact with the hermit for 19 months, says it is all right if the hermit comes, and then he will leave with the others, so will be a brief passing.  

Am supposing the one who cut off the relationship is curious, as has heard reports of the aging, the wrinkling, the weight-losing, the weariness in the old hermit's appearance.  But the ferris wheel descends yet rises again.  Rejoice and be glad, for this hermit considers the beauty of Mother Teresa of Calcutta in her later years!  Ah, what a psalm exudes in her face and eyes!

Nothing Catholic hermit is learning yet more detachment in a very good way, and is able to pray and love in a very universal way.  This morning, over and over, came the word-reminder of Jesus:  Blessed are the peacemakers.  Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me, so goes the song.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love one another, for God Is Love!

Settling Into God's Stream

Such a lovely time away from Te Deum House and into civilization but was quite ready to return.  The daughter has noticed the transition effort in being in temporal comfort and then returning to the hardships of this place.  

Dom Scupoli's writings in the particular chapters being read address sloth--not simply spiritual sloth but the temptation to cease working at a task when there are so many tasks as to be overwhelming.  He then asks of the reader to make the spiritual connection, as well.

There is great progress with the little grandson in mastering a youthful and very human tendency to grumpiness when something does not quite go his way, or when some project or schoolwork is frustrating.  He seems to respond to the little suggestion God gives his "Gaga" that each step and thought we take or have is a step toward goodness or bad, heaven or hell.  Just the little reminder, and he pulls right out of a bad attitude.  Ah, but his Gaga could do as well when the physical suffering exhausts the body, and the dark angels try to trip the mind and spirit. 

But there is progress outwardly here, and within, also.  The good is grasped more and more from what appears as otherwise negative.  A helpful conversation the other night with the spiritual father brought about his assessment of whether or not this "nothing" Catholic hermit is being moved in the direction of not belonging to a parish, or at least that God seems not willing active involvement if involvement at all, other than of love and prayer for all peoples on earth as it is in heaven.

He thinks God is not willing this hermit to be in a parish.  What has occurred, is the rather fearful, awkward, leading to uncharitable, reactions of the parishioners and priests seemingly due to an atypical but not unheard of state during Mass.  And when the waters have been tested otherwise in small involvement, the nets have come up empty.  It is quite simple, and the reality is set out and becoming more a direction than coincidence or fault of anyone involved.  It just is as it is; and that is a good thing, for negative is merely the opposite of positive.  Change and adaptation:  Growth is at hand!

The reality of God's unique and individual desires for each and every soul is beautiful!  We grow and go in a flow, and the stream is not as predictable as we might think.  The spiritual father suggests trying the monastery for weekly worship; or if a parish for worship, then to anonymously and quietly come and go.  He does not think God wills this hermit to be a parishioner or belong to a parish.  Our conversation included those hermits who were not at all parishioners.  It was not easy to think of any of which we could identify in history, who were.  None came to mind.  The fact of privately professed, Catholic hermits being consecrated religious, helps define the difference and provides reason and understanding.

Mother Teresa was not a hermit by vocation, but neither was she in a religious order after she left it to follow God's call to "help the poorest of the poor." She also was not a member of any parish.  Much later she was called upon to formalize the women working with her, and the Missionaries of Charity were born and organized as a religious community within the Catholic Church.  

The spiritual father and "nothing" conversed on several noted persons in the history of the Church (including John the Baptist) who can come to mind, who were not in parishes.  If they had been in a parish setting, their religious lives and spiritual desires and emphases--well, one can ponder how that could be problematic with the every day efforts of many parish priests and parishioners.  

["Repent!  Repent!"  Now, that would not gain favorable inclusion, would it?  John the Baptist would not likely pass the scrutiny to give a program to elderly parishioners.  And  Jesus did not find loving welcome in His hometown temple, that is for sure, nor other temples of His day, either.]

We can also compare and contrast the various scenarios with today's parishes, as we exist in the present moment.  And a hermit vocation is not the same in the living out as that of a parish priest or one in a religious order, or a lay parishioner, any more than their vocations are the same in the living out as a hermit's vocation.

All this causes this "nothing" Catholic hermit to ponder anew its vocation and the chastisement over eight years ago by the Guardian angel:  "You have not been living nor honoring the hermit life that God has chosen for you and values very much."

That was a jump-startling event, causing more focus and effort in living and honoring the hermit life--which needed to be deepened through prayer, awareness, learning, listening and making some changes in outer and inner daily life.  We can see over time, no matter our vocations, the shifts and the wanderings, and then the herding and guiding that comes from His Real Presence in both tangible and mystical ways.  

It takes earth time, and it takes willingness to adapt and submit and to accept the gradual or sometimes blunt alterations.  Now is a time for adapting and submitting all the more to honoring the hermit life God has chosen and values for this "nothing."  

What causes the heart to sing?

That is a very good question to place beside various thoughts and actions throughout the day and night.  When a stream is flowing as God wills, the water sings as it tumbles over the rocks, or when it slithers silently--barely perceived in stretches of calm pools.

Nothing now must consider for worship: Mass at a nearby monastery.  [It is of a different rite, but that ought not matter in these circumstances.  Presumably, if the apostles were alive today, they would be priests of various rites in either the Western or Eastern Church.]  If "nothing" attempts worship again at a parish, then is to come and go without comment, politely decline answering questions if any, and ignore (as Jesus had said to "nothing" previously) the criticisms and judging from wary priests and parishioners. 

This entire process has nothing to do with anything other than discerning, now, more, the unfolding of God's will regarding group worship in a specific hermit's life.  

God does utilize situations in His created world and with His created people to help guide and direct His each and every created soul.  We are to cast our nets even if we have cast them before.  Time evolves, and the fish move along unseen in water's depths.  Nothing is permanent in this life--no matter if a hermit or monk or nun or priest or lay married or single person.  

We must live and honor the vocations of our lives which God has chosen for us and values very much, and this means there are shifts and adaptations and alterations along the way by which the Lord teaches us faith, hope and charity.  We must remember always that these three greatest of God's gifts go beyond a pew, some structural walls, a town, city, country or continent.

Once we begin to open our eyes underwater as part of the flowing stream, and within the proper, peaceful flow and elements, our hearts begin to sing.  Then we are living and honoring that which God has chosen--even if we see or find that outside the waters, there is hardship and contradiction.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love one another for God Is Love!