Contemplation: Every Chance We Get!

"Disengage yourself a while from earthly care, and give yourself for a time to think of God, and to repose a little in Him. Then, having closed the door of your senses, say with the affection of your soul: O Lord, behold I am in quest of Your lovely Countenance; teach Your poor servant how to find it." - St. Augustine


At the end of some days each week, I think to myself, "Huh. I haven't really talked to my Lord yet today, have I?" Now I might have talked to Him in the morning of the day and at night before I go to sleep, but I realize at some point sometimes that I haven't really talked to Him, talked to Him with a more personal attitude enough in a day, or at least not enough. Obviously it's never really enough, both for us and for Him, for as Saint Augustine says, "our hearts will not rest till they rest in Thee". It is never enough for us while we're still here and not with our Lord in Paradise.

So what can I do to get more time to speak with Him? What can we all do? Sometimes it feels like we never have time to talk really personally with Him, like we can only do the memorized prayers at specific times in the day that we've set aside. This is obviously a good practice to do, but we also all need to talk with the Lord at other, more random times. To get to know Him better, to fall more deeply in love with Him, and to devote ourselves completely to Him, we need to talk with Him every chance we get, especially when we think we're too busy with something. Saint Francis de Sales once said, "Everyone of us needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when we're busy - then we need an hour." In our kind of world where so many people feel the need to be doing something at every moment, we need to pray more and more often as we get busier, for how else are we going to be able to do the things we need to do?

However, I'm not only saying that we need to take even small bits out of our day at random times, though that is good to do. We also especially need to pray during everyday activities like homework, working at a job, walking, driving, waiting for someone somewhere, anything! We need to talk to our Lord whenever we can, even if it's just thanking Him for the day so far, for the people around us, and even just for small things like a lunch. And don't just thank Him and be monotonous; talk to Him like a best friend, because that's what He is for us. Talk to Him like the most beloved person in your life, because that's what He should be always and everywhere. Talk to Him on the bus, talk to Him in the car, talk to Him in class and/or at work, talk to Him every chance you get, especially the chances you think you don't have at first.

Saint Augustine, in his "Confessions", wrote "You were with me but I was not with you." Our Beloved King of Kings is constantly waiting for us to start a conversation with Him, to even simply say, "Hi, Lord! Thank you for today!" We so often simply go through our day without talking to the One Who wants to have our day be a day of love, a day when we can be given more and more to Him, coming closer to His love where we can finally rest, and we need it. We all need to talk to the One Who loves us beyond words, beyond anything, because how else can we know what His will is and how we can go about doing it? What better way to know how to love Him than by talking to Him every minute of the day?

All of you holy men and women and all of you angelic hosts, please pray for us! Mother Mary, please obtain for us the graces necessary to go past our laziness and talk with Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ!

All of you readers, please pray for the writers of the blog!