Devoted to Prayer and the Ministry of the Word

We just do not hear much about contemplation in the church. We hear quite a bit about action and so much ministry, which is wonderful. But Scripture tells us that when the apostles came out of that upper room they were devoted to prayer and ministry. Sometimes we think we have to be either or. It is really that we must be "and" and "both".

Pope John Paul II talks about this for all ministries. "All ministry without exception," he said, "has to come out of contemplation." Paul VI, in one of his encyclicals said that there can be no effective evangelization unless it comes out of contemplation." John Paul II takes it a step further by saying that there can be no effective ministry - none - unless it comes out of contemplation ."

Contemplation is about relationship - our relationship with the Father. It took me a while to really see and understand that this, primarily, is what God is interested in - relationship. When I received that light I thought, "Oh! That is wonderful! That is really all that I am interested in too - relationship!"

Jesus invites us, as He invited His apostles, to come apart and rest awhile. The word "rest," is a very contemplative term. It means just that - rest - which means that we can receive. We can just "be" in the presence of the One we love. I also love the first part of that sentence, "Come apart, " and rest awhile. We need to be able to come apart and to rest in a place where we can truly be ourselves. So often we wear different facades, different hats, different faces - for so many different roles. How good it is to come into God's presence and come apart. He will put us back together. But first we need to come apart.

What is needed to rest in the Lord? First of all we need silence - silence. We live in a culture that makes it difficult to find silence. But that is what is needed. It is in the silence that we can receive. We cannot give something we do not have. We want to be able to give love. We want to be able to give Jesus. In the silence we receive; then we give it all away.

God wants us to experience Him. That is what contemplation is all about. It is an experience of God and that experience will be different for different people. There is no way to really share an experience. It has to be your experience. I can tell you what it is to me to eat an orange. I can try to explain it. I can, perhaps, tell you how it is grown and when is the best time to pick it. I can tell you about the different ways to fix it. Unless you have the experience of tasting it, however, you can not know what an orange is.

Saint Paul, a great missionary with great zeal, really knew God. He progressed to that point of knowing. You can see the progress in his relationship with God through his letters. Finally, one day he could say, "I live now - no, not I but Christ lives in me." He came into that deeper, deeper union. He began to realize that he could not give that experience to anyone. In Ephesians 3 we hear him saying, "This is why I kneel before the Father and I pray that He will give you that experience of Jesus in your heart - the experience of that love - so that you can know the height and the depth, the width and the breadth of His love." Paul knew that he could ask and pray for that experience. In intercession, that is one of the things for which we pray. I would encourage all of you to beg God to give all His people the experience of His presence with them.

In Hosea, we read, "I will lure you into the desert - into the silence and there I will speak to your heart." We need to hear God. Jesus said, "Blessed are they who hear My word and live it out." We must receive God's word. We need the silence in which it comes.

The type of prayer I am talking about is heart-to-heart. The heart will inform the mind and the mind then, can carry out what it has heard. It is the heart that receives and hears and understands and knows. We must listen with our hearts and listen to our hearts. We must, I like to say, walk around with our head in our hearts.

Before I was Catholic, I used to be a flight attendant. I remember one trip when it was night time and everyone was resting. The cabin was quiet and I was looking out the window down below. My heart was trying to communicate something to me that night. "You are missing something. There is more to life." When you are looking down from a plane, things seem so small. When you look up, there is this immense heaven and the stars! I thought, "There is something I am missing!" My heart was trying to tell me something. But I put it aside because I did not know what it was and I did not know I should be listening more to my heart.

It came back to me again when I was sailing on Lake Michigan - that same feeling. Lake Michigan is a lake that is so big, you cannot see the other shore. I started experiencing again than inner voice. "There is more! There is a shoreline there. There is a life that I cannot see. There are places I have not been." My heart was beginning to let me know, "You need to seek. You need to find whatever that mystery is."

There is a mystery within us. I encourage you to listen to your heart; it is trying to communicate what it needs. Jesus said to Saint Margaret Mary one time, "The thoughts of My heart are to all generations." Well, that means our generation as well. He wants us to know His heart thoughts and He wants to know ours.

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