Catholic Hermit Reflects on Psalm 1: 1-2

While considering how pointless it is in life to not accept others as they are and thus to love others as God loves us--accepting us as we are--there is also a valid truth evidenced in Psalm 1: 1-2.

"Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night."

Early this morning, awoke with the usual, constant pain.  it is made worse any time there is a storm front either coming in or passing on.  I tried to distract some with perusing online news, of which there is always much for prayer.

But I grow weary of distractions; and as a hermit, I ought to grow weary of them, for my "distraction" if anything, is to turn to the Lord, to the Living Word, to the law of God: the law of love.

And the Lord is not a distraction but rather He Is the Source of All Beingness and Love.  He IS.  I am the distraction....

I considered yet again, that of simplicity and freedom when I see clearly how best it is to accept others as they are, and I practice this a bit, bringing to mind various persons whose actions have cut me deeply in the past.  And I can easily consider those of my actions who cut others deeply, as well--particularly, I am sure, my parents, perhaps mostly my mother, who hoped success in the gifts and talents I was given.  But my forages into the temporal world usually met with trials and temporal disasters and hardships.

(I was intended for something other--as a mystic and contemplative, and not for a worldly path or place, although in my on-going foolishness at times can wonder why not, or have fleeting moments of wishing I could have had or still have, a normal, active, temporal existence.  Not to be, and for good reason, for God wills it not!)

I return to the reflection of accepting others as they are as being a type of condition necessary in love of others and thus love of God in Himself.  And when I leave off with the usual distractions from pain, I turn to what always provides rich solace and purpose: His Real Presence.  And I find in the daily Mass readings of His Living Word: Psalm 1.

This Psalm answers the questions some may pose regarding accepting others as they are--that it may be too simplistic and even an excuse for the situations in which it may seem we should not accept others as they are--those others who do bad things or seem evil through and through.

Psalm 1 provides the recourse of the blessed.  While one can accept others and love them as they are--even if wicked, sinful, insolent--we are not to take their counsel, follow their ways, or keep their company.  Rather, we are to remain in God's love and turn to God and His precepts, day and night.

Being in Christ does not mean we do not accept and love others as they are; but it means we exist for and in Christ's love--God's law of love--and we strive to live accordingly.

There are times in our lives in which we must move on from some relationships.  Recently, I've had to take God's cues that my purpose and time with another person is best left off.  The person is entering into a phase of life and has a vocation of marriage and parent to fully embrace; God wills it.  In the new phase of life for this person, of entering more deeply into sinking roots more deeply into this aspect of life, God also reminds me that I am on the verge of a new phase, be it in this life or the next.  The present phase is coming to a close, one way or another.  Deeper conversion beckons, always.

I suppose this can be ever the case, for we never know the day or hour; yet in a very real sense, we do go along in life assuming there is going to be another day and hour here--for there are temporal responsibilities to which we must attend while we are in our temporal bodies.  However, our minds and hearts and souls are best to be delighting in and meditating on God's truths and His Love.

The recent situation with the time of spiritual friendship and advisement came to the fore when I realized the divergence in vocations as well as in life phases--and that there was not much spiritual progress for either.  Time was nigh for the other to learn to figure out what matters in life and to live the lessons necessary in proceeding with family and friends, and to turn to God increasingly. I really had nothing more I could or should advise; I had become repetitive beyond effective.  The Lord, as well, needed me to turn increasingly to Him and to be prepared for whatever is next in deeper conversion lived in the path of the eremitic vocation.

In the delight and meditation on God's law, we find our flaws unraveling when we otherwise may have considered that our lives were stitched up nicely. We do tend to live, often enough, in false security.  Thus, sometimes others do not even need to be all that obviously sinful, or the wickedness fleeting or situational, or the insolence also temporary--and that can be for our own.  Yet, we need to effectually remove ourselves in essence by turning to and returning to that deeper, more quiet, inner Source of All Power and Beingness:  His Real Presence.

"Remain in My Love, Jesus tells us through His Living Word.

Meditating on the law of God, the law of love, we may be surprised to find that it is most loving to cease the company of some others when our paths must diverge according to God's loving will--for one or the other, or for both.  Especially as we travel along in life, if we aspire to remain on the narrow path, there are moments when those with whom we walk and who walk with us must reroute or fall back or move forward.  This occurs naturally if we note the path narrowing or angling off in a God-determined mode, dependent upon His will for each individual soul.

We do not remain in the same company--us insolent and capable-of-sin humans--all our lives.  But we can always love one another no matter our insolence and sin, and that includes accepting one another as we are yet also accepting that our sojourn in this life is taking us beyond where we were; and where we were ran its course of productivity and progression in that phase.

This is something to accept in ourselves and others--yet does not preclude love that ought live on eternally.

God bless His Real Presence in us!

Catholic Hermit: Thinking About Love

The manual labor continues as much as the pained body can muster. There are very few days remaining in which the temperatures are high enough and there is no rain, in which to continue painting the deck, pergola--and if good weather holds long enough--the front porch flooring.

Each day, also, I am trying to paint one side each of two doors, each on a set of saw horses here beside the mattress on the floor of the hermitage great room.  The deck took much preparation: hammering popped nails as well as installing over 300 deck screws to keep the nails from further "popping" their heads up.  Then I had to sand the entire surface.  The next two days were for priming the surfaces, and then each nail and screw indentation needed wood-filler.

All this was hopscotched between rain as well as waiting for the heavy dew to dry enough--taking at least until early afternoon.

But the pith of prayer has continued, and there have been four persons who either by a phone call or email correspondence, have confided some rather serious dilemmas going on in their lives, involving loved ones and also themselves.

Life can be quite painful.

And I began to conclude that the bulk of our human relational issues has to do with control.  We desire control; and I suppose, who wouldn't think that a marvelous ability--to control situations and people in them?

And I thought some about how difficult it is to control oneself.  And I will be more specific in what I was thinking: How difficult it is to control my own self!  Difficult to control thoughts, difficult to control impulses, difficult to put mind over matter when it comes to pain management, difficult to make the body work when it wants to give in to itself.

But above all, I had an insight the other day amidst my becoming quite drawn into some of the troubles people were relaying to me, asking for some input in some cases but mostly wanting a listener, a supporter, and someone who they know will PRAY.

What came to me in the four or so scenarios of real lives dealing with real crises, is that all our lives would be much smoother and peaceful if we simply accepted people as they are.  

To do this, we'd have to let go of control or a desire to control.  We'd have to let go of our own thoughts as to what would be best for someone else; and in some cases maybe it would be better for them.  But we must learn to let others live their lives just as others have let us live our lives.  And above all else, God has given us freedom to live our lives, to learn our good lessons and to make our regrettable mistakes.

But back to what struck me as the insight, of which somehow I'd not considered it so profoundly in its simplicity prior--all these years of freely living life--and that is that by accepting others as they are, we are actually achieving the act of loving others.

Admittedly, I wonder if I really can accept some people.  And thus, can I say I love them?  Sometimes I am told personal aspects of other persons' relationships, and some of the situations involving spouses or children or other relatives and friends in people's lives can be horrible.  Some people are quite ill emotionally or psychologically, or both.  Some are abusive, some passive aggressive, some afraid to be assertive and thus accept abuse, or some can manipulate others or situations to a despicable degree.

So can I accept all others as they are?  Can I, thus, love them--for love is so connected with the other, with accepting others as they are.  For, truth be told, that is how Jesus loves us.  He is able to love us because He accepts us as we are.

And of course, we must include the reality that while love is perhaps interrelated or conditioned with accepting others as they are, we know that we do not have to accept sin, wrong-doing, nastiness or vice-blighted situations.

Realizing the connection between love and accepting others as they are has helped me in the few days the insight (after all these years!) somehow struck me anew, with a reality that is actually simple.  Realizing that not accepting others as they are means that I do not have love for them--unconditional love.  Not accepting others as they are means I still have a need or desire or purpose of control of others, of lives not my own.  It means I am deceiving myself, for I would not want to think I am playing at being God....

There have been some pretty awful situations shared with me and for which I have prayed, and in some cases the situations are so nasty that I developed a great dislike for an abusive person.  While I prayed for the person and the situation, I readily admit that I did not love the person.  It is not easy loving someone who abuses others.  

Yet, somehow I now am able to love by means of accepting others as they are, including an abuser or the murderers in the news, or maybe even myself with all my flaws and foolishness.  And I am learning better to separate the sin from the person--something I've thought I was doing for the bulk of my life, but I realize I was not succeeding in a deep way.  For there would be irritation, or frustration, or anger within my thoughts when being told of some of persons in situations. 

How can I pray well if I am not accepting others as they are, for how can one pray purposefully, successfully, in communication with God Who Is Love--if I do not love with full acceptance--people as they are?  

So I'm working on this insight, working it into my heart, mind, and soul.  I kind of practice by bringing forth in the mind some of the most irksome, nasty, abusive, murderous people out there, not only in the present moment but also from the past.  And I look at them with the reminder to accept them as they are--which means to not judge them....  

I suppose this all seems simplistic to most of you readers, but somehow it all was stupendous to me the other day, and a marvel, for even if I might have considered it at various times in life, I could not recall that I had, for I'd never absorbed the depth and impact of it, and the truth that I have not been loving anyone who I was not accepting for who she or he was or is.

And thus I have had a stumbling block in my love for God, as well.

As St. Bernard explains that the highest degree of love is to love God in Himself, I suspect it is also true that the most Christlike love of others is to love them in themselves.  To really love them as they are which means to accept them as they are.

It is all quite a relief; it is all quite freeing.  Accept others as they are; love others in themselves.

Catholic Hermit Shares Inspiration and...

...a laugh.

Eleventh day as pain siege subsides--and able to get up after an intense day yesterday of soul-cleansing, spiritual insights, and reality therapy.  This morning someone posted this photo, and I find it inspiring due to the body, mind, heart, and spirit effects of laughter.

Even hermits, even Catholic hermits--even Catholic hermits with gut-wrenching, constant pain--can benefit from a belly laugh.

Enjoy!

God bless His Real Presence in us.  Little children let us love one another and love our each and every ridiculous and boring natures--absolutely!