Friendship and communion
Dear friend, to reach the relationship of friendship and communion with God it must be carried out, in silence and solitude. Dealing with God is something personal and non-transferable; That is, no one can do it for you. Nor does it consist of an intellectual treatment but rather an experiential one, since it must always be conscious; since He is always present, the moment you invoke Him.
Sometimes we want to do a lot for God and we skip the most essential thing: In order to pour out to others, it is necessary to first fill ourselves. Our lives cannot be fruitful without God enabling us.
Fecundity is different from productivity.
I invite you at this moment to enter into deep meditation. Visualize Mary praying, collected, silenced, something that must have been habitual for her and that the text of the Gospel of Luke, makes us understand, when the angel Gabriel entering her, let her know the sublime news from God. Entering into her, indicates that she was deeply immersed in God.
Keeping this model of Mary in mind, I invite you, at this moment, to empty your mind of thoughts and worries… Release everything that is in your mind and the problems and anxieties that oppress your heart… Silence in the mind and serenity in your heart … Take a little time to achieve, as much as possible, this state of peace and calm…
Now is a good time to trust and abandon your will and your understanding in God. You have no need to explain, because He knows you better than you know yourself. Just trust fully and feel lovingly looked at in His presence. Be silent and present…. Observe how peace, calm, serenity reigns throughout your being… Fruit of the love with which God looks at you. Even if you are a great sinner and an unworthy and weak person… God always sees in that way.
Pray slowly and make the following prayer your own. Take a few pauses and repeat several times the phrases that you feel most challenges you:
Day after day, Lord of my life, may I remain before you, face to face
With clasped hands, I will stay before you, Lord of all the worlds, face to face
In this world that is yours, in the midst of the exhaustion, of the turmoil, of the conflicts, of the impassioned multitude, I must remain before You, face to face.
And when my duty in this world is finished,
O King of Kings, alone and in silence, I will remain before You face to face. Amen.
Prayer E-65 “Face To Face”.
Now try to experience before God, a feeling of humility and smallness… observe the need you have for Him, to be able to advance fully as a beloved child, because you truly are. You are a life project that will develop in Him and from Him.
Psalm 131(130) expresses very well all this spiritual littleness that I just told you. Do the prayerful reading. It’s only three verses. Stop and savor each one of them. Make them yours. Pray them in the spirit of Mary, for she would many times pray with this same Psalm:
Lord, my heart is not ambitious, nor my eyes haughty.
I do not follow paths of greatness or wonders that surpass me.
But I keep my soul in peace and silence, like the child in its mother’s arms. I will always wait on the Lord now and forever.
Dear friend, in these moments when you feel like a little son in the arms of the Father, immersed in God; Knowing that He loves you, understand that this loving refuge is not disinterest in those around you; On the contrary, it is a source of energy and radiation, because as I told you at the beginning, to spread, it is necessary to charge.
I invite you to finish with this prayer of supplication to the Spirit of God, so that He guides your steps along the paths of your life. It belongs to John Henry Newman, an Anglican bishop who converted to Catholicism:
Guide me, radiant light, through the darkness that surround me; lead me always further on. This night is dark and I’m far from home; guide me further on.
Guide my steps; I do not ask to see right away what you have in store for me later. One step at a time is sufficient for the time being. I was not always like this, nor have I always prayed for You to lead me. I preferred my own way; but now I pray that you will guide me, always forward. I dreamed of days of glory, and pride lead my steps. O! do not remember those past years
Your might has blessed me abundantly; and today, again, you will undoubtedly lead me through mounts and vales, through stony paths and steep ridges, until night ends and morning smiles.
Prayer 44-E “Lead Me”
May God bless and keep you my dear friend.