Undusted Texts

  St. Nil Sorsky and the Miracle-Workers of White Lake There are times that we set aside for prayer, when we follow a prayer rule, or set aside time to sit in the Lord's presence, or take part in the Church's Liturgy.  Yet we are called to pray unceasingly, and few of us can spend all of our time in prayer rules.  So we have other ways to pray: short prayers we can say when God spontaneously comes to mind, or when our hearts are filled to bursting to pray to Him.  These prayers are many and varied, and they stretch across many traditions.  The Roman Church used to call them "ejaculation" or "aspirations," while the Copts have a common one they call "the Arrow Prayer."  What matters is that they are short prayers we can offer to God at any time, when our souls are filled to bursting with love of Him or with a desire to plead to Him.  "It is possible to pray sitting, walking, sleeping, working, alone and in company. Everywhere, at all ...

In the very start of those strange, exotic, "eXtreme" days known as the '90s, a quirky little band called They Might Be Giants released a nigh-nonsenical song entitled "Birdhouse in Your Soul" (paired with an incomprehensible video).   The song is sung from the point of view of a nightlight in the shape of a blue canary belonging to what seems to be a very lonely child.  The aforementioned nightlight asks the child, in the chorus, to "make a little birdhouse in your soul," so that the child will carry the memory of the luminous bird wherever he goes. While having a birdhouse in our souls would not be conducive to the spiritual life (unless you think of it as a birdhouse for housing the Holy Spirit in the form a dove), what would be conducive is a tabernacle.  The concept of keeping a perpetual space for the Lord within our hearts is one I wrote about before, in my post on the teachings of Ven. Clara Fey .  She wrote, "Our Lor...

I have sometimes heard complaints that certain devotions that have become popular as the Church has progressed through history are too revolutionary, that since they are not rooted enough in the most fundamental doctrines of the Church taught since the times of the apostles they are just new fads a saint or other spiritual writer came up with off the top of his or her head. While I cannot say that there are no absolutely no devotions like this, I think I can safely say that the majority of devotions grew and developed over time (like doctrine does) and was merely given a more normative exposition by a certain saint or spiritual writer. One example of this is seen in the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, associated most with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. According to The Revelations of Margaret of Cortona , about a Third Order Franciscan saint from a few centuries before St. Margaret Mary, she was not the first to have this devotion: "Long before the revelations of Our Lord to...

Venerable Clara Fey, P.C.J. (1815-1884) was the foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus. One day she saw a vision of a poor child standing in front of a building asking for alms for him and his many brothers and sisters who were also poor: this child was the Child Jesus, and the building He stood in front of became the first motherhouse for the Congregation. The point of this post is not to discuss the Congregation, but rather it is to discuss the spirituality of its founder, particularly her focus on living in God's Presence. The Lord told us to "pray always," and thus we should always keep our minds on Him: "Even while working our heart should be with Him" (90). One quote by Mother Fey sums up her teaching well: "Our Lord does not wish to dwell in us in a transient way through Holy Communion. No, His spiritual dwelling in us should be continual. He remains in us. The same Lord Who enters our heart in the morning accompa...