Living the Annunciation

The reading for this talk is Luke 1 26-38 - nothing is impossible for God.

Therese of Lisieux - spoke of a desire to be a priest so that she could preach about the real Mary, not the imagined one. 

So we have to think about the real Mary, strong, chapped hands, rounded shoulders from carrying loads, furrowed brow from worrying about her Son - very human.

Mary as a model for everyday life.

The Annunciation narrative is a powerful model for discernment.   There are three stages of the narrative, all vital.

First stage,  the announcement, the facts. 

Second stage, the questioning, the bewilderment, the distress - how can this be?

Then the third stage, the renewed trust in God. 

(The three stages can be thought as 3 words - salutation, sifting, submission)

Think of this in your own lives. 

A change of job or community, a health issue, battling a difficult habit in life, a big fall out with someone - an event is the announcement.

Then the pondering, the struggle, all coming under discernment, where is God in this, what does God want? Impossible to jump to submission without understanding. We take it to prayer, if we have a spiritual director we chat with them, we draw up a little list of pros and cons, we look at our feelings and emotions about it. The baseline is wanting to do God's will in this. 

Finally, the last part, the renewed trust in God - which may be a Yes or a "can we talk about this again?" The presumption is usually in favour of doing what is asked, but not in blind obedience!

Try this with some issue in your life now? 

Mary is a very real model for discernment. 

Cardinal Newman speaking of Mary said - she does not shine of herself or for herself, but when she appears in the darkness we know that God is near. 

Ignatius of Loyola's daily prayer - Mary, put me with your son

Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ - I shall never be at peace till I have achieved a tender love for our most sweet mother, Mary 

 Pope Francis - devotion to Our Lady Untier of Knots.

Deepening the relationship

The first reading for this talks is Mark, chapter 8 vv 27-30 

Christ asks "who do people say I am?" 

Peter's answer - "you are the Christ"


What is our own response? 


The purpose of retreat is to deepen relationship with Christ. 

This is very clearly put in the prayer of St Richard of Chichister



Thanks be to you, our Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits which you have given us,
for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us.
Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother,
may we know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
day by day.


Pope Francis has said that the first fruit of being close to Jesus is an abiding sense of joy in the life we have been given.
Read first paragraphs of Evangelii Gaudium - no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord.

Joy is letting nothing come between Jesus and you - spell joy as JOU as a reminder! 

Teresa of Avila - struggled for many years with the life of prayer, having problems with the structured prayer of her day. The penny dropped when she realised that " prayer is the sharing of intimacy between friends' - friendship was the key. She said "we can cope with everything provided only that we have. You, Christ Jesus, living within us as our friend and affectionate guide. You help and strengthen us, you never desert us, and you are true and sincere in your friendship."

John of the Cross - whole life shaped by memories of his parents. His father reduced his own rank and embraced the poverty of his beloved wife so that they could marry. The essence of John is passionate love, and when speaking of God's love for us, he wrote in the language of passion. "In perfect love this law holds, that the lover becomes like the one that he loves." He also said "there are depths to be discovered in Christ Jesus, he is like a mine containing rich treasure and no matter how much you try to fathom them the end is not reached. Rather you discover here and there new veins of new riches" 

St Paul - when you read St Paul, you know that Christ exists.  "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,  rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." (Colossians 2 v 6-7) is a powerful image of living in union with Christ, sinking roots deep into him.

The life of faith, by which we walk

The reading for this talk is Matthew chapter 14 vv 22-33 

So what is the life of faith, by which we walk?

Tagore - faith is that bird which feels the light while the dawn is still dark.

Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. 

Faith for those who have undertaken religious life is a radical decision - the boats are burnt!  

A strong faith is not without difficulty or doubt, it is a journey. Ask for deeper faith - as it deepens, the invisible world becomes sharper, the glimpses and twitches of the veil that let us know that God is present. 

Pope Benedict said "the door of faith is always open to us".

Pope Francis also spoke of faith as a doorway "When we go through the doorway of faith we begin a journey that will last a lifetime, ending in the encounter of the person of Jesus Christ"   Pope Francis also said "in God's gift of faith we realise that a great light has been offered to us, a good word spoken to us." 

We have the image then of faith as a light, leading us along the way on wings of hope. 

Paul Murray speaks of knowing God from your own experience - the witness of a changed life. Saying to your own doubting heart and your five agnostic senses "I know him"

In times of trouble you must think of "inhabiting the promises" 

Come to me and I will give you rest. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God and trust in Me

I will be with you till the end of time. 

Make a quiet time, choose a promise and breathe it in. 

And what is the life of prayer? Described with some humour as "a crumpled Amen?" "A threshold of boredom?" "Trying to be in the presence of God with ones people on one's heart."

Two readings to meditate on.

Thomas Aquinas - "O Godhead here in hiding" 

Revelation 3 20-22

Sharing the things of God

Psalm 61

In God alone is my soul at rest... 

 Psalm 45

God is for us a refuge and a strength... 

 Those two psalms are the background for these days together. 

What better way to spend life than being together, sharing the things of God? 

What a graced moment it is when we come on a retreat, time to relax in the Lord who delights that we are here. No sense that we should be working at anything, being at peace. 

We are in the Year of Religious Life - let us, as Pope Francis said in his "Letter to Religious for the Year of Consecrated Life, "remember the past with gratitude, embrace the future with hope, live in the present with passion."   Today is the feast of St John Paul II, a giant figure of the 20th Century, a man totally centred on Christ. He was Pope at the crossover between two millennia. We saw him in two versions, the colossus bestriding the world in his fifties, the older man carrying his cross in age. 

We come here as we are, from all the mess of daily life, from anxiety, bereavement, trouble. We do not put this aside, but we carry them quietly, holding them with us with God. We remain aware of our human family, aware of the suffering of our brothers and sisters on the move away from war and sorrow, we hold them in our hearts and prayers, we bring them with us this week.

We gather as the bishops in Rome come to the end of the Synod - let us pray that our Church finds a way to both witness to the sanctity of marriage, but also carry mercy to those suffering.

There is no doubt that the great gift of this retreat will be the inner and outer silence of these days. Not just "be still and know that I m God" but " be still and know that you are loved."

"Nothing is so like God as silence" - Eckhard - all around, untouchable 

"if we can silence the din in our mind, the ear of our heart picks up the music which is everywhere" - St Augustine. 

Thomas Merton once went on an interfaith conference - he asked a Buddist Zen master what he learned most in his novitiate - the answer was how to open and close doors quietly!

John O'Donoghue said " if we can just withdraw for a little while from the glare of the world and enter into our own inner stillness, then we will soon quicken into life in the embrace of God"

MotherTeresa was asked "what do you say when you pray." She said "I just listen." She was then asked "them what does God say?" " oh, he listens too!"

In retreat, we seek the face of God in silence.   You can compare the silence of a retreat to the harbour with the boats gradually passing out to sea, and finally seeing the water that bears you up.