Too Good not to Steal

I took this from Sacred Space, guided meditations website, which can be found in my links section for Reference.


Lent reflects the rhythm of our spiritual life, between Tabor and Gethsemani, the Transfiguration and the Agony in the Garden. There are times when God shows himself, as on Tabor: prayer is easy, our hearts are light. We feel loved and loving, on holy ground. J.D.Salinger used to say: All we do our whole lives is go from one little piece of holy ground to the next. Then there are times of disagreeable growth. You remember the parable of the barren fig-tree (Luke 13,6), and the farmer who said: I need a year to dig around it and manure it. We can feel God doing this to us, feel the pain when our roots are struck by the spade. We feel useless, past our best, no good to anyone, a failure in the most important things we tried, whether marriage, vocation, rearing children, our job and career. Life loses its savour. We cannot pray. We sense that some people think the world would be better off without us.St Ignatius called this state desolation; and he advised: remember that it will pass. Never make any change (a girl on a holiday or a racehorse in a rainy day), but remain firm and constant in the resolution and decision which guided you before the clouds gathered. Make use of the grace God gives you, and you will be able to withstand your enemies. In consolation, think about how you will conduct yourself in time of desolation. And insist more on prayer (SE 317 ff). Then you come to see – gradually – that this same ground, however stinking, is holy, and we can find God there. He is wielding the spade, spreading the dung.