P. Wilfrid Stinissen, OCD
(excerpts from the daily meditations of the same name book)
1. Green oases in the world.
The only constructive force in the world is love. Without love, human effort can never bring lasting results. According to John of the Cross, a single drop of pure love provides the world with greater benefit than all other works combined.
Therefore, it is so important that there are people who dedicate their entire lives to the art of opening themselves to God's love. Others criticize them for this, pointing out that they are distancing themselves from the world’s needs. However, through some invisible guidance, these people embody the world’s openness to God. Along a spiritual line, though entirely realistically, the world gains new eyes and ears through them, new antennas that restore the original relationship of creation with God. When they humble themselves before God and ask for forgiveness, they are not alone. They carry the whole world with them and offer to God the heavy burden of the world's sins as a sacrifice. They are no longer individuals but universal brothers and sisters.
Once, I asked Father Voillaume, the founder of the Little Brothers of Jesus, how he thinks about the lives of Carmelite sisters and whether he believes that their strict way of life apart from the world still holds significance for the Church of our time. "It is very, very important," he answered me, "that such monasteries exist. They are like green oases in that great city called the world."
Whoever lives their life in surrender to God does not feel superior to others; no one feels their smallness more than the one who stands in the full light of God and is fully aware that they have been called to such a life to serve the world.
2. Prayer reveals who you are.
Nothing reveals a person as much as the way they pray. Some people claim that a person's character can be read from their hands. Perhaps this is true. Even better, we get to know a person when they reveal to us how they pray.
Prayer speaks of your trust or self-righteousness, of whether you yearn for God or desire trivialities, of your love or your selfishness. Your prayer can reach the heart of God, but it can also build a wall between God and you.
Jesus tells of two men who went to the temple to pray (Lk 18:9-14). The prayer of one of them "pierces the clouds," while the prayer of the other barely rises above the surface of the earth. The first man returned home justified, while the second became even more entrenched in his self-righteousness.
The Pharisee seemingly addresses God. "God," he says. In reality, he is turning to himself: "I am not like other people, I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all my income." He seems to speak to God, but he only has his own interests in mind. He is so preoccupied with himself that there is no room for God in his heart.
The tax collector's personality does not evoke particular admiration. He is a heartless extortionist and has gained advantages at the expense of others. Yet he comes before God just as he is. His prayer consists merely of coming to God with all his misery and asking God for help. That is why God can give Himself to him.
And that is precisely the essence of prayer: to give God the opportunity to be who He is and to allow God to fill our being with Himself.
3. Your innermost being is uncorrupted.
Whether you are aware of it or not, deep within your innermost being lies a desire for God, a love for God. Therefore, your spiritual growth is fundamentally about returning to the depths of your soul.
At the center of your being, you are completely healthy. There is no sin here; you are an unblemished image of God. Your turning away from God has wounded this image, but nothing can completely destroy it. This disturbance is caused by the fact that you do not live fully in your innermost being, in your center, where everything is pure and uncorrupted.
You carry your core with you constantly. If you have even a little experience with prayer and inner stillness, you know that you already harbor a sacred dwelling within you, in which you are fully united with God. In moments of grace, you may even glimpse the light that dwells within it. For now, you are not yet allowed to settle definitively in that light. However, your spiritual path, day by day, is a constant and ever-deeper penetration into the core of your being.
Eventually, when you reach the depths, you will find Christ there. The abundant life you uncover within yourself is Christ's life. Your true life is Christ's life.
Christ in your innermost being is not someone separate from you, whom you can talk to and listen to, yet who nonetheless lives a different life than yours. His life is your life. You and He are one, just as the limbs are one with the head, just as the branches are one with the vine. That is Jesus' heart, which beats in your chest and gives you life.
(Translated by Prof. Dagmar Chvojková)
