For any readers that do not receive Mark Mallets insights and postings, I had to share that his current Lenten Retreat has touched my heart and soul. So many many of his entries thus far have come at a time when they apply exactly to my life or situation in that moment- as if God is truly using them to instruct, console, confirm, and reach me. So I had to share todays posting- but do go back and read his full Lenten messages. It will touch you in some way as well... Mark Mallet: WHEN God entered human history in the flesh through the person of Jesus, one could say that He baptized time itself. Suddenly, God—to whom all eternity is present—was walking through seconds, minutes, hours, and days. Jesus was revealing that time itself is an intersection between Heaven and earth. His communion with the Father, His solitude in prayer, and His whole ministry were all measured in time and eternity at once…. And then He turned to us and said… Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. (John 12:26) How can we, who remain on earth, be with Christ, who is seated in Heaven? The answer is to be where He is on earth: in the present moment. The moment past is gone; the one to come hasn’t arrived. The only moment that is, is the present moment. And thus, that too is where God is—that’s why it is the Grace Moment. So when Jesus said, “seek first the kingdom of God”, the only place to seek it is where it is, in God’s will in the present moment. As Jesus said, …the kingdom of God is near. (Matt 3:2) The spiritual pilgrim, then, is not one who runs ahead, but one who carefully and lovingly takes one little stepping stone at a time. While the world meanders down the wide and easy road, God’s will is expressed in whatever the next demand our state of life requires. Just as Jesus kissed His Cross, we should kiss these little moments of changing diapers, filing taxes, or sweeping the floor, because there is God’s will. At the age of 12, Jesus sanctified the ordinary when He left the temple in Jerusalem and returned home with his parents. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them… And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man. (Luke 2:51-42) But for the next 18 years, Our Lord did nothing more than the duty of the moment. So one would be tragically wrong to say that this was not an essential part of Christ’s ministry and witness. If Jesus transformed the skin of lepers years later, in Nazareth he was transforming the nature of work: God was sanctifying the duty of the moment. He made hallow doing the dishes, sweeping the floor, and wiping sawdust off the furniture; He made sacred carrying water, making the bed, and milking a goat; He made holy casting a fish net, hoeing the garden, and washing the clothes. For this was the Father’s will for Him. My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. (John 4:34) Then at first, the work of the Father was to be a carpenter! Could we not imagine that this next little saying of Jesus was perhaps an echo from the wisdom of Mary or Joseph when He was growing up? Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. (Luke 16:10) Yesterday, I spoke about total abandonment to God by being faithfulin each moment, whether God’s will brings consolations or crosses. This abandonment includes letting go of both the past and the future. As Jesus said, Even the smallest things are beyond your control. (Luke 12:26) Or as the Russian proverb goes: If you do not die first, you will have time to do it. If you die before it is done, you don’t need to do it. Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade puts it this way: Our only satisfaction must be to live in the present moment as if there were nothing to expect beyond it. —Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence, translated by John Beevers, p. (introduction) And so, “Do not worry about tomorrow,” Jesus said, “tomorrow will take care of itself.” [1] There is a verse in David’s psalms that is packed with wisdom, especially in our era of uncertainty. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105)
Mark continued- God’s will is most often, not a headlight, but just a lamp—enough light for the next step. I often talk to young people who say, “I don’t know what God wants me to do. I feel this calling to do this or that, but I don’t know what I should do…” And my answer is: do your homework, do the dishes. Look, if you are doing God’s will moment by moment, striving to be faithful to Him, then you won’t miss the turn in the bend, the opened door, or the signpost that says, “This Way My Child.” Think of a merry-go-round, the kind you played on as a child that revolved in circles. The closer one came to the middle of the merry-go-round, the easier it was to hold on, but at the edges it was pretty tough to hang on when it got going really fast! The center is like the present moment—where eternity intersects with time—the Grace Moment. But if you’re “on edge” hanging onto the future—or holding on to the past—you’re going to lose your peace. The place of rest for the pilgrim soul is in the now, the Grace Moment, because that’s where God is. If we let go of what we cannot change, if we abandon ourselves to the permissive will of God, then we become like a little child who can do nothing but sit resigned on his Papa’s knee in the moment. And Jesus said, “to such as these little ones does the Kingdom of Heaven belong.” The Kingdom is found only where it is: in the Grace Moment, for Jesus said: …the kingdom of God is near. (Matt 3:2) SUMMARY AND SCRIPTURE The duty of the moment is the Grace Moment because that is where God is, and where His servant must be. Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? …Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:25-26, 32)
Yes, this is the type of spirituality that needs discussed and reflected on. I think this is the type of material that makes our Blessed Mother's site valuable to the soul. We owe Mark a great debt of gratitude for keeping our focus on Jesus in these times of great deception, confusion and political absurdity within the church and society.
3/12/16 Lenten retreat- Mark Mallet FOR all the beautiful teachings Jesus gave—the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, the Last Supper discourse in John, or the many profound parables—Christ’s most eloquent and powerful sermon was the unspoken word of the Cross: His Passion and death. When Jesus said He came to do the will of the Father, it wasn’t a matter of faithfully checking off a Divine To Do list, a kind of scrupulous fulfilling of the letter of the law. Rather, Jesus went deeper, further, and more intensely in His obedience, for He did all things in love to the very end. The will of God is like a flat disc—it can be accomplished robotically, even without charity. But when done with love, His will becomes like a sphere that takes on a supernatural depth, quality and beauty. Suddenly, the simple act of cooking a meal or taking out the garbage, when done with love, carries within it a divine seed, because God is love. When we do these little things with great love, it is as though we “crack open” the shell of the Grace Moment, and allow this divine seed to sprout in our midst. We have to stop judging those mundane, repetitive tasks as somehow being in the way, and begin to see them as The Way. Since they are God’s will for me and you, then do them… …with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30) This is how to love God: by kissing every cross, by carrying every task, by climbing every little Calvary with love, because it is His will for you. When I stayed at Madonna House in Combermere, Ontario, Canada several years ago, one of the tasks assigned to me was sorting dried beans. I poured out the jars before me, and began to separate the good beans from the bad. Then I began to see an opportunity for prayer and to love others through this rather monotonous duty of the moment. I said, “Lord, every bean that goes into the good pile, I offer as a prayer for the soul of someone in need of salvation.” Then, my little task became a living Grace Moment because I was doing my work with love. Suddenly, each bean began to take on a greater significance, and I found myself wanting to compromise: “Well, you know, this bean doesn’t look that bad… Another soul saved!” Well, I’m sure someday in Heaven, I will meet two kinds of people: the ones who will thank me for setting aside a bean for their souls—and the others who will blame me for that mediocre bean soup. All things in love—love in all things: do all work in love, all prayer in love, all recreation in love, all stillness in love. Because… Love never fails. (1 Cor 13:8) If you are bored, if your work has become tedious, then perhaps it is because it is missing the divine ingredient, the holy seeds of love. If it is the duty of the moment, or you can’t change the circumstance before you, then the answer is to embrace the Grace Moment wholeheartedly with love. And then, Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others… (Col 3:23) That is, do all things in love. SUMMARY AND SCRIPTURE The Grace Moment imparts grace to us, and others, whenever we do all things in love. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. In this is love perfected with us… because as he is so are we in this world. (1 John 4:16)
