February 2017
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
When the eye is unobstructed, the result is sight. When the ear is unobstructed , the result is hearing. When the mind is unobstructed the result is truth.. When the heart is unobstructed, the result isjoy and love. - Anthony DeMello
We seek to be clear-sighted, with hearts and minds unobscured like cloudless skies and still water. Our fears and desires cloud our vision. Only souls immersed in the love of God and consciously living in the flow of grace found in every present moment, anchored by internal stillness and vigilance can see things as they really are. From this comes wisdom to choose what is good and right. Holiness springs from open hearts unencumbered by fear.
It is my prayer that all of us find the still, small voice of God in the midst of the distractions and noise of life. The still place where the voice can be heard is within. We mustn't seek for it anywhere else.
St. John of the Cross, who sought to reawaken the spirit and practice of contemplation in the West and who, of course, was much maligned for it by church authorities, wrote this:
"In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds."
Our inner turmoil is caused by wounds that reside deep in our subconscious, wounds of which we are largely unaware. All must be brought into the light of compassion and understanding before healing can take place. Our resistance to stillness reveals our resistance to transformation. We don't want to see, so we don't see. We don't want to feel the pain, so we bury it. We fear love, so we cover it with anger. But everything hidden will be made manifest, our Lord tells us, so why wait? Why not now?
With much love,
+Fr . Antony