“Let us cross to the other side.”
A storm awake,
Waves of fear,
Waves of doubt,
Waves of mutilation,
Waves pounding,
Waves thrashing,
Waves announcing,
Upheaval unable to pronounce,
I drove my car into the ocean,
Ceasing to resist, I call out,
One sleeping in peace,
One dreaming onto the Father,
Notices the disruption,
“Quiet! Be still!”
“Why are you terrified?”
Sitting during early mass at Sacred Heart, aware of no men’s meeting this week, aware many of the men were still attending, a strength germinated within. Several of the men sitting in silence inspired. I admire the success coupled with the ability to remain quiet. A strengthening, a receiving is attained within their religious experience. Warriors in life, they come to mass for nourishment, bringing to the sacrifice of Our Lord what He truly adores: a humble soul needing the Eucharist. A sentence from Abbot William’s autobiography detailing his founding of the Maronite Monks of Adoration: This predicament of life could easily discourage one, or hopefully, bring one to turn more ever readily to the Lord in submission and abandonment. I am privileged to perceive prosperous men leading families, humble to the world of employment, active within the Church, utilizing their faith in order to embolden themselves within active lives of personal success. Within the storm of life, within the privacy of their own life, unseen for the most part, they are accomplishing something substantial. It is so diametric to the recovery world where the majority of individuals lack the ability to surrender to family, employment, or others, while always demanding attention and recognition within the church and world of recovery, constantly demanding to be perceived as superiors within their religious and secular interactions. Quick thoughts. More words from Abbot William: Over the years I was able to see how the Lord was training me. He was preparing me for something, instructing me what to do and what not to do, how to be and how not to be, as a religious, priest, monk, and superior. To move into the religious world, the mindset of anonymity within a sound psychological temperament, one incurred through hard knocks and self-knowledge, I am able to be strong within servitude, the subtlest forms of self-aggrandizement an affront to the degree they are detected, continual progress graced through an ever-growing peace and Presence.
