Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I like team sports. I have coached the seminary volleyball team each fall semester for many years. I’ve watched videos on the Internet and read up on good drills and volleyball strategies. While all of it is helpful, the most important time spent is practicing with the seminarians, honing their instincts and communication skills while practicing on the court. The best players get the game into their muscles, their very being, and they play with others as a team.
To bring the sports analogy to the spiritual life: It’s the difference between merely “receiving advice about prayer” and actually praying. Many spiritual writers avoid giving “tips” or “techniques” about prayer because it cheapens the mystery of grace at work on the human heart. We do not want to reduce a relationship with God to something superficial.
The Prophet Jeremiah speaks of two evils against the Lord: 1) Forsaking God, the source of living waters, and 2) Digging broken cisterns that hold no water. We can only grow closer to God by drawing close to Him, allowing the Spirit to fill our very being, and knowing and loving God with our whole hearts. As Pope Francis recently wrote, “Christian faith is either an encounter with Him alive, or it does not exist” (Desiderio Desideravi, 10). Let us not forsake God or try to fill ourselves with anything that does not direct us closer to the Lord, the source of living waters.
Reflection by Fr. Paul Sheller, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections