June Meditation

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
   He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
   he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
   for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
   I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
   your rod and your staff—
   they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
   my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
   all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
   my whole life long.

Meditation (Adpated from New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton)

How many people. . . place their hope in a certain sense of spiritual peace, of comfort. Then when they begin to struggle with the real difficulties and burdens of mature life, when they become aware of their own weakness, they lose their peace. . . That is to say: it becomes impossible for them to comfort themselves.

Place no hope in the feeling of assurance, in spiritual comfort. You may well have to get along without this. Place no hope in those inspirational preachers of sunshine, who are able to pick you up and set you back on your feet and make you feel good for three or four days – until you fold up and collapse into despair.

Self-confidence is a precious natural gift, a sign of health. But it is not the same thing as faith. Faith is much deeper, and it must be deep enough to subsist when we are weak, when we are sick, when our self-confidence is gone, when our self-respect is gone. I do not mean that faith only functions when we are otherwise in a state of collapse. But true faith must be able to go on even when everything else is taken away. Only a humble man is able to accept faith on these terms. . . If we are not humble, we tend to demand that faith must also bring with it good health, peace of mind. . . But if we insist on these things as the price of our believing, we tend by that very fact to undermine our own belief. . .

This is where so many holy people break down and go to pieces. As soon as they reach the point where they can no longer see the way and guide themselves by their own light, they refuse to go any further. They have no confidence in anyone except themselves. . . But when the time comes to enter the darkness in which we are naked and helpless and alone; in which we see the insufficiency of our greatest strength and the hollowness of our strongest virtues; in which we have nothing of our own to rely on, and nothing in our nature to support us, and nothing in the world to guide us or give us life – then we find out whether or not we live by faith.

It is in this darkness, when there is nothing left in us that can comfort our own minds, when we seem to be useless, when we seem to have failed, when we seem to be destroyed – it is in this abandonment that we are made strong. This is the night which empties us and makes us pure.

Hymn: Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley 

Jesus walked this lonesome valley.
He had to walk it by Himself.
O, nobody else could walk it for Him.
He had to walk it by Himself.

We must walk this lonesome valley,
We have to walk it by ourselves;
O, nobody else can walk it for us,
We have to walk it by ourselves.

You must go and stand your trial,
You have to stand it by yourself,
O, nobody else can stand it for you,
You have to stand it by yourself.

Sacred Silence

Scripture: James 1:2-12

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 

Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.

Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.