"Not any companionship is true, but that companionship that makes Christ's gaze be present to me. This is why it is not enough to read texts of the past. Even to read the texts of the past like the Bible, tradition is necessary, because tradition is the beginning happening again...If Christ doesn't remain as present as at the beginning - as Fr. Giussani always taught us - we find ourselves alone with the texts of the Bible and myriad interpretations, as happens for the Protestants, until we get bored" (Fr. Carrón from Living is Memory of Me).
Maranatha
"Until we get bored."
ReplyDeleteI always feel like when I try to "make stuff happen" that it's always dependent on what I can do. If I'm doing the right prayer or whatever. Then it's not "right". "I better pray the rosary today or I'm going to commit mortal sin!" I don't get myself.
What you express, David, in your admirable honesty, is something we all deal with, at least from time-to-time. Another variation is finding something that "works", at least for awhile, and clinging to it as if it is the only thing that works, even after it stops working! There is always the delicate balance between understanding prayer as a spiritual discipline, which means praying even when (maybe especially when) I don't feel like it and forcing the issue.
ReplyDeleteIt helps me to think of prayer as either remembering, or making myself available, that is, cultivating an openness. Whatever the case, if it's dependent on what I can do, or even on what I do, then I'm in trouble!
Hi Scott,
ReplyDeleteThis is a cogent piece of yours !!
Aswe get ever better at our "interpretations", debunking the myths, many of which I grew up with it is easy to throw the baby out with the proverbial bathwater and the atheists seem to relish using science to wipe out many of the miracles too. But your post shows what we are always seeking and that never changes and the acid test of that is the beautiful phrase : If Christ doesn't remain as present as at the beginning..."
We often find ourselves on the defensive these days against sophisticated arguments against the existence of God etc etc but this post reclaims our faith and hope in a God that was and is and ever shall be ( even if I can't always explain that in words!!).
Godbless and peace for the end of Advent and the coming week of Christmas
"our faith and hope in a God that was and is and ever shall be ( even if I can't always explain that in words!!)" world without end. Amen.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Philomena.
When it becomes about what I do, then it gets frustrating, infuriating, boring, useless, pointless, hopeless.
A joyful and blessed Advent to you, especially as we enter this last week of joyful waiting characterized by the hope that if words could express it would not be true.