Meditation

“In the context of Catholicism, we can phrase it this way: to love and to be loved, or to be a saint. The meaning of life is love, from God and through us. It is the fundamental human vocation, ‘for man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1604).

Christ (Jorge Santango)

When I was a little schoolgirl, we would practice meditation at school.

This was not like the new-age meditation that is so commonly practiced these days where people do this in yoga and other forms of spiritual and physical exercise.  This was quite a different thing altogether.  What would happen is that my entire class would walk down to the school chapel and we would sit together inside the church and listen to the priest read some passage of scripture and then speak to us – like a homily – to explain those things to us.

We would start and finish with a formal prayer – like an our father or a prayer that allowed us to prepare for the message that we were about to receive – and then we would sit quietly and listen to the priest and everything that he had to say.

I look back on those ties and can rarely remember anything that I was taught – in the specifics – but somehow everything seemed to come together to ensure that the ultimate message of my faith was understood and I was able to learn a little more about God and to Know Him and Love Him more – as is the purpose of my life…

“In the context of Catholicism, we can phrase it this way: to love and to be loved, or to be a saint. The meaning of life is love, from God and through us. It is the fundamental human vocation, ‘for man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1604).

And knowing God means allocating some time in our busy lives to actually put Him in the FRONT of our mind.  We need to call Him into our meditation and our reflection.  We need to ask ourselves questions about God and then silently ponder those questions, to be inspired by the Holy Spirit.  This means being curious, and having great attention to God.

It is easy enough to think about that sort of curiosity in a theoretical capacity.  I can think to myself – and often have – the price of Heaven is not too great.  Simply avoid sin and make choices that would be pleasing to God.  Focus on God first and foremost.  No distractions.  No disruptions.  And then it is Christmas or Easter – and I am thinking about what to cook or what to buy or which party to go to.  And even in the midst of the miracle, I forget all about heaven and focus instead on things that will pass through my body and become dust within hours.

I focus on the literal worthless things.

And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about mediation, because it seems to me that I have stopped doing those meditations since I was a little school girl, and perhaps today I need to refocus on that!

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.