Friends in Faith/St Patrick Qc

05/14/2025

Pope Leo XIV to Eastern Catholics: The Church needs you
Pope Leo XIV welcomes Eastern Catholics to the Vatican for the Jubilee of Eastern Churches, and highlights the need to preserve their traditions and pray for true peace, “which is reconciliation, forgiveness, and the courage to turn the page and start anew."
By Christopher Wells.
Pope Leo XIV welcomed Eastern Catholics to the Vatican with the traditional Easter greeting, “Christ is risen! He is truly risen!”
Addressing the faithful from the 23 sui iuris Churches in full communion with Rome, the Holy Father said, “You are precious in God’s eyes,” and expressed his happiness at being able to devote one of the first encounters of his pontificate to the Eastern faithful.
“Looking at you,” he said, “I think of the diversity of your origins, your glorious history, and the bitter sufferings that many of your communities have endured or continue to endure.”
At the same time, he reaffirmed “the conviction of Pope Francis that the Eastern Churches are to be ‘cherished and esteemed for the unique spiritual and sapiential traditions that they preserve, and for all that they have to say to us about the Christian life, synodality, and the liturgy’.”
Recalling the teachings of previous Popes, including Leo XIII and St. John Paul II, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the importance of Eastern traditions, especially the liturgy.
He also expressed concern for “many of our Eastern brothers and sisters” who have been exiled from their homelands “and risk losing not only their native lands,” but also their religious identity.
Pope Leo insisted on the importance of preserving the Eastern rites and asked the Dicastery for Eastern Churches “to help define principles, norms, and guidelines” to help Latin Bishops support Eastern Catholics in the diaspora to preserve their heritage.
The Church needs the East
“The Church needs you!” Pope Leo said. “The contribution that the Christian East can offer us today is immense,” he continued, pointing to the need to recover the sense of mystery expressed in Eastern liturgies; the importance of rediscovering the sense of the primacy of God and of mystagogy; and the need for “penance, fasting, and weeping for one’s own sins and for those of all humanity.”
“It is vital then, that you preserve your traditions without attenuating them," he said.
The Holy Father went on to highlight the “medicinal” value of eastern traditions of spirituality that combine “the drama of human misery with wonder at God’s mercy.”
“Who better than you,” he asked, “can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence.”
Taking up Pope Francis’ recognition of eastern communities as “martyr Churches,” Pope Leo lamented the violence that continues to plague regions as diverse as the Holy Land, Ukraine, the Middle East, Tigray, and the Caucasus.”
“Rising up from this horror, from the slaughter of so many young people, which ought to provoke outrage because lives are being sacrificed in the name of military conquest, there resounds an appeal” for peace.
He made the appeal, he said, “not so much of the Pope, but of Christ Himself, who repeats, ‘Peace be with you!’”
“Let us pray for this peace,” the Pope said, “which is reconciliation, forgiveness, and the courage to turn the page and start anew.”
Commitment to peace
Pope Leo XIV forcefully expressed his commitment “to make every effort so that peace may prevail,” reaffirming the Holy See’s willingness to do everything possible “to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another,” to dialogue, “so that peoples everywhere may find hope and recover… the dignity of peace.”
Appealing directly to the people of the world and their leaders, Pope Leo made a heartfelt appeal: “Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate!”
He insisted that “war is never inevitable” and called for the silencing of weapons, “which do not resolve problems, but only increase them.”
He went on to thank God for all those who are “sowing peace,” while also expressing gratitude for those Christians, “who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them.”
The Pope affirmed the need for eastern Christians to be given “the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence.”
Recalling once again that “Jesus, the Son of Justice, dawned” in their lands, he thanked Eastern Christians “for being ‘lights in the world’” and encouraged them to “be outstanding for your faith, hope, and charity, and nothing else.”
He called for the pastors of the Eastern Churches to promote “community with integrity,” so that their communities might be “places of fraternity and co-responsibility.”
"Today more than ever," concluded Pope Leo XIV, "the splendour of the Christian East demands freedom from all worldly attachments, and from every tendency contrary to communion, in order to remain faithful in obedience and in evangelical witness.”

05/10/2025

05/10/2025

Biography of Pope Leo XIV,
born Robert Francis Prevost. Prior to his election as Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. Here is the biography of the 267th Bishop of Rome.
By Vatican News:
The first Augustinian Pope, Leo XIV is the second Roman Pontiff - after Pope Francis - from the Americas. Unlike Jorge Mario Bergoglio, however, the 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost is from the northern part of the continent, though he spent many years as a missionary in Peru before being elected head of the Augustinians for two consecutive terms.
First Augustinian Pope
The new Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.
He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.
On September 1 of the same year, Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.
The future Pontiff received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).
In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica by Archbishop Jean Jadot, then pro-president of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, which later became the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and then the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
Prevost obtained his licentiate in 1984 and the following year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985–1986). In 1987, he defended his doctoral thesis on "The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine" and was appointed vocation director and missions director of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, Illinois (USA).
Mission in Peru
The following year, he joined the mission in Trujillo, also in Peru, as director of the joint formation project for Augustinian candidates from the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac.
Over the course of eleven years, he served as prior of the community (1988–1992), formation director (1988–1998), and instructor for professed members (1992–1998), and in the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial vicar (1989–1998) and professor of Canon Law, Patristics, and Moral Theology at the Major Seminary “San Carlos y San Marcelo.” At the same time, he was also entrusted with the pastoral care of Our Lady Mother of the Church, later established as the parish of Saint Rita (1988–1999), in a poor suburb of the city, and was parish administrator of Our Lady of Monserrat from 1992 to 1999.
In 1999, he was elected Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Chicago, and two and a half years later, the ordinary General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, elected him as Prior General, confirming him in 2007 for a second term.
In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, serving as director of formation at the Saint Augustine Convent, first councilor, and provincial vicar—roles he held until Pope Francis appointed him on November 3, 2014, as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, elevating him to the episcopal dignity as Titular Bishop of Sufar.
He entered the Diocese on November 7, in the presence of Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green, who ordained him Bishop just over a month later, on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of Saint Mary.
His episcopal motto is “In Illo uno unum”—words pronounced by Saint Augustine in a sermon on Psalm 127 to explain that “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”
Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, from 2015 to 2023
On September 26, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis. In March 2018, he was elected second vice-president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, where he also served as a member of the Economic Council and president of the Commission for Culture and Education.
In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy (July 13, 2019), and in 2020, a member of the Congregation for Bishops (November 21). Meanwhile, on April 15, 2020, he was also appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Callao.
Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops
On January 30, 2023, the Pope called him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to the rank of Archbishop.
Created Cardinal in 2024
Pope Francis created him Cardinal in the Consistory of September 30 that year and assigned him the Diaconate of Saint Monica. He officially took possession of it on January 28, 2024.
As head of the Dicastery, he participated in the Pope’s most recent Apostolic Journeys and in both the first and second sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, held in Rome from October 4 to 29, 2023, and from October 2 to 27, 2024, respectively.
Meanwhile, on October 4, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him as a member of the Dicasteries for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches), for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the Eastern Churches, for the Clergy, for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, for Culture and Education, for Legislative Texts, and of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.
Finally, on February 6 of this year, the Argentine Pope promoted him to the Order of Bishops, granting him the title of the Suburbicarian Church of Albano.
Three days later, on February 9, he celebrated the Mass presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces, the second major event of the Holy Year of Hope.
During the most recent hospitalization of his predecessor at the “Gemelli” hospital, Prevost presided over the Rosary for Pope Francis’s health in Saint Peter’s Square on March 3.

03/07/2025

On Sacraments : The new Catechism of the Catholic Church from 1992 and the Pontificate of St. John Paul II now uses three categories: the Sacraments of Initiation; the Sacraments of Healing; and the Sacraments at the Service of Communion.
There are three Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist. These three Sacraments should be received when you are young and just getting started in the Christian Life.
The two Sacraments of Healing are Confession – also known as Reconciliation or Penance – and the Anointing of the Sick. A good confession can heal the soul and restore it to the life of Grace, and the Anointing of the Sick can do the same, and sometimes leads to recovery of health, at least for a period of time.
Finally, the two Sacraments at the Service of Communion are Matrimony and Holy Orders, both of which provide Sacramental Grace to allow those who receive them to be of service to others. In the case of Matrimony, the spouses are capacitated by grace to be of greater service to each other and their children, while the sacrament of Holy Orders capacitates a man to die to himself, like Jesus on the Cross, and be of service to everyone. And finally, if you have been counting and paying attention, there are a total of Seven Sacraments. And I like to say that “seven” is a very Catholic number: There are seven sacraments; seven days of creation; seven corporal works of mercy; seven spiritual works of mercy, and seven gifts of the Holy Spirit! (Fr.Rocky)

03/06/2025

What is Sacrament. It comes to us in English from both Latin and Greek, and it means a “Sacred Mystery”; therefore Sacraments can only come from God.
What is a Sacrament? “A sacrament is an outward sign, instituted by Christ, to give grace.”
What is an “outward sign”? That is something that you can perceive with one or more of your five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, or hearing. Although Sacraments are mysteries, they are not invisible or “make believe.”
When we say a Sacrament is “instituted by Christ”, we can find evidence of the moment of the institution in Scripture or Tradition.
Finally, the phrase “to give grace” means that each of the seven Sacraments has the effect of giving the soul an increase in grace: Sanctifying Grace, Sacramental Grace, and Actual Grace. And what is grace? It is the participation in the life of God. A soul in grace is like a light turned on. A soul out of the state of grace, is like a light turned off. It’s the difference between light and darkness, life and death, joy and sorrow. So, the more grace in our soul, the happier we will be! The more grace we have, the more we will be like God. (Fr. Rocky)

03/05/2025

Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Forgiveness basically means that even if you have negative feelings toward certain people, you still wish them well; in fact, you still wish them the greatest possible good, which is Heaven. It means that even if you’re revolted by the thought of those people, and even if you’ve legitimately chosen never to associate with them again, you still hope that they embrace God, that they’re sorry for their sins, and that they ultimately receive salvation. Christ spelled it out very clearly when He said that we have to “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us” (see Matt. 5:44). Praying is really the acid test when it comes to forgiveness. It’s the bare minimum we have to do for those who have hurt us.

It is by forgiving the injury that the future of reconciliation opens. The wounds of division and hatred are overcome. By becoming a victim himself and, as such, acting as the one who forgives, Jesus reveals a new logic in human relationships, one not based on the dictates of retribution but on the demand for mercy.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

03/05/2025

The rules for fasting and abstinence to be observed during Lent
March 4, 2025

We offer a summary of the rules to observe during Lent
During Lent the following are compulsory:
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday: Fasting and Abstinence
Every Friday: Abstinence
These precepts are gravely obligatory, that is: if they are voluntarily omitted, they cause mortal sin.
As C3S we recommend observing, where possible, the tradition of fasting every Friday of Lent and abstinence every Friday of the year.
What does ecclesiastical fasting consist of?
In having only one meal without meat,to which it is allowed to add breakfast in the morning and in the evening or in the middle of the day (depending on your habits).
In general, breakfast in the morning consists of a drink and some bread, and breakfast in the evening or midday consists of about ¼ of a normal meal.
According to the law of the Church they are required
fasting: people aged 18 to 60 initiated.
Abstinence: people aged 14 and over.
(It is highly recommended to accustom children from an early age to abstinence and to a minimum amount of fasting appropriate for their age).
What does abstinence consist of?
By not eating meat, meat sauces and extracts, or foods seasoned with meat.
The following are exempt from fasting and abstinence:
the sick, pregnant women and those doing heavy work
travellers (long journeys)
for other cases, it is advisable to consult a priest
God is Truth, Goodness and Beauty
(The Path of the Three Paths)

12/21/2024

May the Lord give us His peace, fill us with grace, and pour out upon us His Spirit of Mercy. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2025.

12/17/2024

The Church teaches that a person receives the Holy Spirit and becomes a Christian at Baptism, and is strengthened in the gifts of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation, regardless of whether one evidences “speaking in tongues.”
The Holy Spirit is probably the most misunderstood of the three persons of the Trinity. Don’t believe any of these myths, and help spread the truth!
Myth 1: The Holy Spirit is a “force”
Truth: The Holy Spirit is actually a person, just like the Father and the Son. The fact he is called “Spirit,” rather than a term we’re used to using for people (like Father and Son), might make this confusing, but he is a person nonetheless.
Myth 2: The Holy Spirit didn’t exist in the Old Testament
Truth: The Holy Spirit has always been the third person of the Trinity from all eternity, including during the Old Testament. Whenever God does something in the Old Testament, that’s the Holy Spirit at work!
Myth 3: The Holy Spirit is of a lesser status than the Father and the Son
Truth: Yes, we call the Holy Spirit the third person of the Trinity. But this refers to relations between the divine persons and does not indicate any lesser status. All three persons are co-equal, as is confessed in the Athanasian Creed.
Myth 4: The Holy Spirit is just a part of God
Truth: Actually all three persons of the Trinity are all of God. This might be confusing, but God has no parts. Anything God does, all three persons do, including the Holy Spirit.
Myth 5: A true Christian with the Holy Spirit will “speak in tongues”
Truth: First, there is a great deal of controversy over what “speaking in tongues” even means. Though many modern Christians believe it refers to a Christian speaking what sounds like gibberish, traditionally it was understood as the gift to speak in multiple real human languages, as the Apostles did at Pentecost.

12/16/2024

The surplus and the true gift.
“Do you want to honor the body of Christ? After honoring it in church, do not despise it when it is covered in rags outside the church door. He who said ‘This is my body’ also said ‘This is my hunger’. What does it matter if the Lord’s table sparkles with golden chalices, while he is dying of hunger? What sense does it make to offer him purple and gold, and refuse him a cup of water? Make the house of the Lord beautiful, but do not despise the beggar, because the temple of flesh of this brother is more precious than the temple of stones”.
John Chrysostom

11/23/2024

Contemplation--A Treatise on Mysticism
by --Jacqueline Galloway
(Author's Note: The purpose of this article is to bring to the reader's attention that there need not be a complex progression in the spiritual journey to bring one to mystical contemplation nor is it an exercise for just the exceptionally pious.)

It seems to me that if Jesus came to Los Angeles today to talk about the inner journey, He would head for the inner city, to the homeless and the poor and He would speak directly and simply in the "language of the streets," as He spoke to the shepherds and the fishermen in their "language" 1900 years ago. Contemplation is meeting reality in its simplest and most direct form.
The words mysticism and contemplation are essentially the same. Many mystical people are totally involved in affairs of the world. What makes them mystical is their great love of God and how their lives stem upward from the all-consumed love. We don't have to grasp all the classic prescriptions on contemplation according to the master teachers, namely the saints known by their mysticism. It is not extraordinary that God is within and wants to speak to us, we need only to search within ourselves and discover that God may be calling us to a mystical life.
There is an inordinate search for the mystical. Every bookstore has a section devoted to mysticism. The modern press moves us to conjure up strange images of weird psychics and phenomenal yogis performing feats that blow the mind. What I am discussing here is not the false mysticism of a fanatical movement that captivates a person and pulls them out of touch with reality. The mysticism that I will describe is not what drug enthusiasts call 'tripping out'. It is more like 'jumping in'. The contemporary hermit monk, William McNamara,OCD, author of numerous books on Christian mysticism, teaches;"The mystic is not an isolated thinker who simply loves to reflect, prowling around in the sanctuary of his own psyche. Most of the mystics I know are strong , robust and vibrant, almost fierce, obsessed with a Zorba-like, or better, Christ-like madness."1
The authentic Christian mystic does not look for the extraordinary. A mystic has a direct intuition of ultimate reality and is convinced of his divine intimacy with God. The genuine mystic is known by joy, patience, trustfulness and peace.
Contemplation, although the highest form of prayer, is not an elite, lofty endeavor for special 'holy' people. It is for ordinary, happy, uncomplicated people who enjoy being with God.
Contemplation is a long, loving, listening, joyful look at the real God, at our real self,'at real people and at the real world. Down in the depths of contemplation, we play no games.... we are dealing there "in the sacred sanctuary of the core of our being," says St. Augustine. Simply stated, it is a personal experience of God, a direct and immediate contact with the divine. It is as Moses experienced...seeing God face-to-face, not through a concept or an image but directly through faith.
As a mother knows her child, the artist knows his work, a musician recognizes his created music, the contemplative knows God. It is knowing God deeper than the intellect, will or external senses; it is knowing God at the core. Contemplation is a spiritual knowledge, communicated spirit-to-spirit. It is an authentic, mysterious knowledge, a sacredness of self and of God, a pure, serene light inward. We cannot analyze it nor really conceptualize it, it is a view of the divine. It is relaxing in God, it is enjoying God in holy leisure, it is an act of sublime adoration. "I look at God, looking at me!"2 It is when our two natures are united in union. We feel His love, and we are united in serenity, unity and harmony. What we feel is a joy and tenderness, and we find ourselves in an ocean of tranquility. When we are free from external fears, cravings, desires, drives, pain, compulsion or attachments, we pass the world and traveling in faith, we go to that place where we shed all our human senses and we are filled with the supernatural.
--How Can We Come to Know God?
: It is through self knowledge that we enter the world of contemplation. There are no college degrees or prerequisites. Nor is it mandatory to dissect the wisdom in the classic books written by the masters of contemplation, St. Theresa of Avila or St. John of the Cross, we need only to listen to the director of our soul, God. The works of the mystics are a fine means of study and comparison, but we are not dependent on any exact pattern.
When we relax, listen, are still and let go, God speaks to us. "He alone will map the individual course to lead us to the still waters of contemplation." In order to understand what Christian contemplation is, it is prudent to realize what it is not. It is not a theory learned from a text , it is not meditation. It is not a theology, a ritual, or learning through natural knowledge. It is not metaphysical or arising out of effects. It is not philosophy, nor a form of escapism, Zen, Yoga or oriental. It is not weird physics and above all, it is not magic or the occult. It cannot be produced by hypnosis or by using drugs. Finally, it is not locutions,4 ecstacies,5 visions,6 or the levitations,7 found in the lives of some of the greatest mystical saints. Mystical saints warn us against such consolations or phenomena. We are to seek the God of consolation--not the consolations of God.
The act of contemplation is very simple, subtle, supernatural, loving, pure, divine, and very deep. It is as a ray of darkness that gives light. There are three signs that will direct us to contemplation, assuming that true self-knowledge is present (It always helps to have a wise, discerning Spiritual Director):
1. No longer is meditation (which was once helpful) enjoyable.
2. Attentiveness to meditation is impossible.
3. There is a pleasure just being alone with God.
Acknowledging these three signs, with the coordination of a few efforts, just as one might prepare for an athletic competition, the door to contemplation can be opened.
--How Do We Contemplate?
: To achieve the state of contemplation we must prepare ourselves. It is a time when we stop, listen, and be still. Doing nothing is almost impossible for some people. The masters suggest we find a quiet place , and begin with the body. Still the feet, the hands, then close the eyes and ears. Then, still the emotions (especially discarding negative thoughts), shed all desires or feelings. Above all, still the imagination and memory. The memory is very powerful. What we remember we recall, what we recall we relive and what we relive, we make really present. If that thought or memory is good, then a sense of peace and joy pervades, if the thought is bad, then we allow unpleasant and sad thoughts and emotions to contaminate the "space" we are trying to achieve. Leaving curiosity behind, we don't analyze, we let go. As a diver collects himself on the high board before entering the water, we must collect ourselves to enter the waters of contemplation. The diver images his dive, takes several deep breaths, centers, and goes down.
As we collect ourselves , if we are distracted, we search to see if the obstacle is the present "activity". The problem might be in the trying. We must relax and be still. Like the athlete, we prepare our mind, body and spirit. As a note of interest, consider the fact that the word silent contains the same letters as the word listen. We must be silent to listen.
If we are sitting on the bank of a tranquil lake watching sailboats drifting gently, we ordinarily would not be involved in what is below the water surface, but we focus on the boat, the color of the sails, the people aboard, and other external things. In contemplation, we also let all that go by...go past every possible feeling, thought, or perception. If thoughts enter, just let them go, as we might treat the weather as we watched those sailboats drifting. We simply accepted the weather and didn't dwell on it.
: Similarly, if we are engaged in a meaningful conversation and a noisy group of people pass by, we would not ordinarily stop talking to listen to their conversation, but we would ignore it and continue. So too with any distraction...ignore it and continue the journey inward. This is called the interior silence. Not just the absence of sound, but a delicate sense of inner tranquility. This is a time for faith and trust. God does not encourage us to do something beyond our nature. Nor does He oblige anything created to go beyond its nature. Fish do not walk nor do felines fly. We have the ability to use our mystical powers but we cannot rely on our own abilities, we must listen and wait, focus, recollect and center. God does the rest.
--How Do We Center Ourselves?
To make ourselves really present to God where we can meet Him, we must be present to hear. We do not listen to our conscious thoughts but rather to the super-concscious. We listen with a mystical ear. God wants our ears, He wills us to listen to His Word in faith. "The person who controls our ears, controls us." When we give our inner ear to God, He controls us.
We learn to drive away distraction and drive away ideas. This is accomplished by using a repetitive word. A sanskrit word...something to bring us into the presence of God, such as: Abba Father or Glory to God, Holy is Your Name. This mantra will be the only words used, since contemplatives do not speak words once in the superconscious state, a contemplative is merely present. God does the speaking.
The key to contemplation is making time and persevering. Playing very soothing instrumental music or natural sounds such as ocean waves, birds, etc. aids in bringing us to stillness. If one stays with this regularly, it can become a conduit for great peace and joy. Don't look for results, and don't give up. Those who don't want to know their real self and can't go past their own ego to the true center will not be successsful. We can't do this alone...it is up to God once we have prepared ourselves to listen. Moses, the prophets, Jesus --all went into the desert to contemplate. They rested, relaxed and came out refreshed.
"The mystic is not a special kind of person. Everyone is (or ought to be) a special kind of mystic. It is an experience every one of us should know first hand."

Allegory:
A little fish swam up to his mother one day and asked: "Mommy, what is this ocean I hear so much about ?"
She replied, "You silly fish , it's all around you and in you. Swim up onto the beach, lie there and you'll find out!"
A kitten asked his mother, "Mommy, what is this air I hear so much about?"
She replied, "You silly kitten, it's all around you and in you. Stick your head in the lake and you'll find out!"
Finally, there was a beginner on the spiritual journey who went to a Spiritual Director and said: "What is this God I hear so much about?"
We all expect the Spiritual Director to reply, "He is all around you and in you ." But he is supposed to be able to tell him what to do to discover and experience this reality.