Yo, Bro!

This would be appropriate and nourishing and challenging any day, but at a time when we’re reminded as a nation to look around and love a little more, this meditation today in the indispensible Magnificat is an especially timely guide:

We must also nourish this deep desire to meet God so that when the opportunity presents itself, we can take hold of it, and transform every event into an opportunity for genuine dialogue. But the real obstacle to a life of prayer arises from an inordinate love; the Love of self…

In our relationship with Christ, however, each of us must resolve one great problem: to pass from the abstract level to the personal one, that is, to put aside the kind of relationship that consists largely of ideas one has about Christ and to come to a direct encounter. The same transition points are found in the life of prayer as in any friendship. There is a time when we are still not completely sure of the other person, when we are uncertain as to whether he will think or react like us. Then the moment comes when we are assured of the other person, and every exchange is founded on a personal relationship. Every event and even apparent differences are accepted without fear, since the reciprocity involved is one truly based on love. We love someone else because he loves us. What sustains and activates dialogue is this response, it is the fact that the other person is happy to love us. Therefore, the value of every method of prayer will depend primarily not on the number of abstract ideas it can give rise to, or on any other consideration, but on this fundamental question: Is it a help or a hindrance to the development of an authentic dialogue with Christ?

Father Bernard Bro, O.P.