Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Shout
Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Your justice I kept not hid within my heart;
your faithfulness and your salvation I have spoken of;
I have made no secret of your kindness and your truth
in the vast assembly.
Lately I’ve been aware of cacophony inside me, while all around me the noises of the world fade away. I revel in opportunities to move around in all that big wide world, to listen for a moment to the voice of God speaking everywhere. But inside myself it is so loud! I feel like shouting, “Shut up!” How can I hear God when all I hear are echoes of my own thoughts and feelings bouncing off each other?
Cynthia Bourgeault has a suggestion about dealing with this inner noise, noise that all of us encounter every day of our lives.
The practice of meditation is an authentic experience of dying to self—not at the level of the will, however, but at the level of something even more fundamental: our core sense of identity and the egoic processing methods that keep it in place. When we enter meditation, it is like a “mini-death,” at least from the perspective of the ego (which is why it can initially feel so scary). We let go of our self-talk, our interior dialogue, our fears, wants, needs, preferences, daydreams, and fantasies. These all become just “thoughts,” and we learn to let them go. We simply entrust ourselves to a deeper aliveness, gently pulling the plug on that tendency of the mind to want to check in with itself all the time. – Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, chapter 8, “The Theology of Centering Prayer”)
I’ve been “checking in with myself” as long as I can remember. In fact, that’s a great way to describe the everyday working of my “ordinary” self. The only problem is, as Cynthia says, this ordinary “me” is intended to be a good servant but makes a dangerous master. What she calls my “deeper aliveness” asserts itself only during an awesome sunset, or a fleeting vision, or a moment of presence. And then, alas, it falls away.
So Cynthia seeks what I too am looking for, a practice of “gently pulling the plug” and sustaining this deeper aliveness, rescuing my ordinary ego from its own clutches, for its own good.
The role of meditation in service of the gospel becomes much more clear: it creates a bridge between these two levels of awareness within us, offering a consistent and reliable way of practicing the passage from small self to greater Self.
This is part and parcel of my salvation, deepening the ongoing everyday renunciation of sin and recognition of my forgiveness, followed by freedom to be eager and happy to share all I’ve been given, much less distracted by the shallow claims of my ordinary self for attention and protection.
There is no fear in love.
On this wonderful day celebrating the coming of Gabriel to Mary, announcing the entrance of Jesus into the world through her womb, it is good to know how fear has no place in the rich, sweet spiritual selves we have been offered by our Savior.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Then Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.
(Isaiah 7, Psalm 40, Hebrews 10, Psalm 1, Luke 1)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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