On Reverence

Abandon all Gossip, Ye Who Enter Here! (via Waymarks)

There’s a sign I want to post outside my church. A simple message:

This is the House of the Lord of all Creation. Leave the outside world at the door.

It may strike some of you as odd that I feel the need to say this. Everyone knows that church is the house of God. We are all taught that at an early age.

And yet, how many of us actually take the time to think about what that means? How many of us walk into those doors and still carry with us the latest bit of gossip, a funny joke, a recipe for magnificent blackberry pie that we simply HAVE to share with Betty Ann from down the block? I know I have my moments when I chat in church. It can be irresistible.

It is a bad habit, and one we need to knock off.

When we walk through the doors of our church (or our redecorated parish hall, as is the case with my parish as we prepare to move our sacred space to be closer to our beloved dead), God is in there waiting for us. Yes, God is with us all the time. But when we gather for Mass, he is there in a unique way. In the tabernacle, he is present and waiting for us in person. We have crossed the threshold into a space removed for a time from temporal existence. We are before the gates of Heaven as the most powerful being in existence, who loves us so very much, has come to dwell with us and in us.

I liken this to visiting your neighbors. Yes, you may see them on the street, and you may act a certain way with them there. You may walk about in your swimsuit and make snide remarks, as I often do on my days off. This is fine for the situation.

But when you enter their home, is it not right to treat them with increased politeness and formality? Do you not wear better clothes to show respect for their invitation? When they tell you to make yourself at home, do you not sit gently and accept their gracious offer of refreshment, even if you are not thirsty? Or do you throw your coat on the floor and put your unwashed feet up on their coffee table? (If you do, I’m never letting you into my house, that’s for certain!)

The sacred bond of Guest and Host may be less apparent in modern society, but even so, it is there underlying your actions. Or it should be. And this is especially true in the house of the Lord of All Created Things.

God is there with us, and in the personhood of the Son will soon die for us in the event that pierced time and space. In the Mass, we are brought together united with that eternal moment of his sacrifice, that was and is and shall continue until time dies. We should fall to our knees in tears of joy and ecstasy at this. We should tremble before God’s throne in awe and wonder. This mystery is so powerful, so intrinsically filled with goodness that we should not even be able to gaze upon the altar without absolute love and surrender.

So why don’t we? Why aren’t we aware of this from the second we cross the threshold?

Because we are human. We are marked with Original Sin, and this blinds us to the metaphysical reality of what is taking place. Our vision of God is occluded. And we have to rely on faith to guide us where our earthbound senses fail.

A good first step to finding God in church is to be silent. This is the hardest thing that any human will ever do. But we must. We must be silent and leave all the worries of daily life at the door when we cross over. As Psalm 46 states, we are given this beautiful command from our Father:

“Be still, and know that I am God.”

Imagine if we could take even five minutes before every Mass and just be still. Imagine if we could kneel before the altar in homage and just be with God for those brief moments, without worries or cares or anything at all in our hearts and minds outside of love. Imagine the graces, the absolute blessings and peace beyond peace that would be showered upon us merely for taking the time to reverence our God.

Imagine this. And then do it.

The world and its troubles wait for you outside the door, but do not think of them. Let God nourish you with the strength you need to slay your dragons. If you do not let him fill you with his grace, how will you ever survive their fiery breath? But with God’s help, you will find that they are no bigger than your feet, and easily squished.

So enter his house with joy and respect, dressed nicely. Give him due homage. And when you make yourself at home, do so with dignity. And accept the refreshment he offers, listening to him and letting your bond grow.

If you do this, surely you will be blessed beyond measure.

-E.G. Norton

Emotional Fitness and the Heroic Life

Friends don’t let friends be in a glass case of emotion. (via 8tracks)

Yes, I’m afraid it’s come to this. We need to talk about Heart.

Heart. That most useless of all superpowers, next to talking with sea life. That insidious force that governs human emotion and can make us stupid piles of squee-jello at the drop of a pin.

Emotions are one of the most unruly, hard to tame aspects of the human person. Anyone who’s been a teenager (and unless you were spawned from a tank, you probably were, or will be) knows the brutal toll hormones can have on one’s emotional state. This is particularly true for you young ladies out there. Yes. You know who you are.

There is nothing worse than letting your emotions govern you. Yes, I know we hear “follow your heart!” all the time from our culture. Or, my favorite, “do what feels good!” Hm. Yes. I’ll admit that giving in to your emotions can feel very good indeed. So does eating an entire tub of Chocolate Caramel Brownie Avalanche, but the aftermath is not pretty. Not in the slightest.

Natasha knows what I’m talking about. (via snOOp)

I’m not saying emotions are evil. Quite the opposite, in point of fact. God blessed mankind with hearts to love and adore Him above all things. The Heart is the house of our Creator within us, who is Love beyond all loves. And there is a singular purity in properly-channeled emotions that can lead mankind to create deep, soulful works of art, that can inspire him to commit acts of singular heroism. Heart is the driving force of human life, and to deny that is to deny that which makes us capable of greatness.

But just as with a flabby body and an undisciplined mind, a heart unguarded and unchecked can destroy a person. Emotions are the easiest parts of the human person to manipulate, and the forces of darkness are more than happy to take advantage of a weak heart. Love which knows not itself can so easily be twisted into lust. Ambition to greatness can so easily be swayed into ambition at all costs. A word whispered in the ear, a hunger left unchecked, can easily grow into a dragon that defies slaying.

So we have to kill the dragons while they are still geckoes. And we can kill the geckoes of sin with discipline and prayer.

To discipline the heart, we have to allow our minds to work alongside it. As in spiritual matters, emotions must be governed by Faith and Reason. To ignore positive emotions and think only with the mind can prevent us from being compassionate. But to ignore red flags because we are so caught up in emotional frenzy can lead us into places where Reason cannot follow. We must reflect on what is good, what is true, what is beautiful. For God is in these things, and that which is of Love generates more love.

If we stare too long into the darkness, if we let worry and fear rule our hearts, we are essentially feeding our hearts a steady diet of whiskey and doughnuts. And, if we allow frenzy to overshadow common sense, we can overindulge even on good things. As with a physical diet, moderation is key.

Temperance. Always and forever, Temperance.

Prayer is the squat rack of the human heart. In developing a healthy prayer life, we learn to control our hearts, rather than allowing them to control us. In prayer, we come before Love Himself, so overwhelming and powerful that He obliterates all lesser emotional responses and makes all new in reflection of His glory. If we surrender to his passionate onslaught, if we relinquish the lesser things we cling to, He will teach us how to live in control and passionate Joy beyond our own ability.  When you truly give yourself over to God’s will, the Heart finds at last its home, and the restlessness and fickleness of the untrained heart will ease.

This is why I firmly believe that all good things must be rooted in prayer, for all good things must come from the Source of all good. Every night before I go to sleep, I pray a prayer that asks God to make me a bearer of light, to bring me in line with His Divine Will. I thank him for my blessings. I thank him for my trials, for even these are blessings as they are born out of Love. And since I began praying this prayer, I have never been more at peace. My emotions do not master me. I can be patient. I can be pure. I can begin to really be who I was meant to be.

If you are ready to train your Heart, go to God, your personal trainer. Let Him lead you. Let Him teach you. Above all, let Him love you.

The rest will follow.

-E.G. Norton