Do you ever hurry your prayers in the morning so that you can get on with the routine of worrying (and the frenzy of the day)? Do you quickly mouth supplications so that you can tend to “busy-ness”? Think about how illogical that is, and yet how often we all do it. The old expression: “Hurry up so that you can wait!”
Do we do that? Do we rush prayer? And as a result, do we gloss over problems we might otherwise be able to eradicate?
Lent is a good time to ask those questions because it’s the time of year to sit back and reassess our relationships with God, as well as to evaluate ourselves. The “veil” is thin at this time of year. We seem better able to communicate.
And so it’s an excellent opportunity to head deeper into spirit and take care of issues that may be causing persistent problems, problems we aren’t able to shake.
We all have roadblocks in life, and we get to the bottom of them, we recognize them, only through slow reflective prayer, and lots of it, especially at the start of a day.
Do you have problems that seem intractable? Do you lack a certain virtue — no matter how much you yearn for it? Do you keep repeating the same mistake?
When we go deep, slowly and powerfully invoking the Holy Spirit (Who is the Spirit of Truth), often we’re able to get to the root of a blockage that has afflicted us for years. And often that root is surprising. For example, you may have trouble loving other people, which we are all called to do. You may want to love everyone you meet, but you can’t seem to develop that real feeling of loving; you don’t “have it in you.” Try as you might, something is blocking it.
The usual prayer in this case is probably one asking God for that “missing” love when we also need to deal with a deep-seated, more hidden problem such as the spirit of jealousy or pride or anger.
When you have trouble loving, the blockage could be an anger you don’t even recognize, an anger that stops you from extending the kind of love that Jesus has asked us to extend, an anger that may have been with you your entire life. The love you want to flow within is blocked by distemper.
Many are those who are afflicted by this negative spirit — and it is a root spirit. From it come jealousy, negativity, criticality, unforgiveness, and other blocks to spiritual development.
Beyond mean, critical, and heartless, when we think of Scrooge, what we see etched on his face is anger. It is the anger that caused his cold heart. It’s the anger that made him mean. Anger stops much that is good and can spoil anything — especially a holiday when relatives get together and there is the danger of “flashpoints.”
Pray the spirit of anger far away from you this Christmas!
Ask the Blessed Mother to help you.
Invoke St. Padre Pio.
It’s incredible how clear the air can suddenly become when we finally isolate a problem and call it by its name, which lessens its stranglehold. Pray deeply until the Holy Spirit reveals what needs to be revealed and the negative spirit leaves. Be persistent! Keep the Name of Jesus on your lips! The same is true of stress. This can be caused by a lack of faith or by the root spirit of impatience. Impatience does not stand alone; it leads to many negative emotions and robs us of tranquility.
Anger is behind lack of love and impatience blocks peace; to root them out and enjoy the full season of Christ’s sacrifice, suffering, and Mass we have to go deeper.
Meanwhile, clear the spiritual air of your home by commanding any negative spirits that may have entered, that may have been collecting all year, to leave. Do so, of course, in the Name of Jesus. Go deep and pray until you feel a real calm and clarity pervade your house. Use Holy Water frequently. Employ blessed salt. Ask a priest to bless your home. Make sure a Crucifix hangs in every room. This is especially important at a time of year when many enter our homes (and can unwittingly drag in spirits with them). When we pray from the heart and especially when we fast the bad drifts away like the smoke that it is.
Bring to yourself, through fasting, His loving tranquil Spirit. Many tensions in our lives or other blocks are caused by spirits that are hovering in our midst but that in our hurry to pray have escaped our notice. A spiritually clean home is a home devoid of tension, a home without strife, a home with no jealousy, a home where there is love, clear thinking — and good baking! Once we clear the air, it’s remarkable how good everything seems.
December 17, 2004
[resources: A Life of Blessings and Retreat, Arizona]