Last week, I had a long lunch
with a friend
Who was visiting from Australia.
He was fired up about a new
project he was working on.
Something he called the Barnabas
Project.
(The name Barnabas means son of encouragement.)
It grew out of his experience
with the Spiritual Exercises of St.
Ignatius.
Where he was devoting time to
quiet, contemplative prayer.
He felt that this quiet prayer
was bringing him much closer to God.
It was also bringing him a few
surprisingly dramatic experiences.
And he decided he wanted to share
this gift he’d found.
And promote this powerful form of
prayer.
So, he set up a website,
barnabas.cloud, to encourage others.
Encourage them to set aside 20
minutes a day for quiet prayer.
Time to just be with God, listen
to God, interact with God.
His idea went further—it’s still
a work in progress.
He targeted older folks, who
might be an underutilized spiritual force.
And who might more easily set
aside their 20 minutes.
And encourage each other to stick
with it.
He also suggested we mentally bring someone with us
Into our
prayer time.
Someone who we would like to
receive the grace from that prayer.
A spouse, a child, a
friend—anyone we felt was in need of that grace.
(And who doesn’t need more
grace!)
But we don’t have to wait until
we’re older.
This quiet prayer time is a gift
all of us can give ourselves, now.
Any time devoted to prayer helps
us build our relationship with God.
Ideally, we can find a quiet
place and time,
Where we won’t be interrupted.
A regular routine will make it
easier to form a daily habit.
There are a number of approaches
to quiet prayer.
We can experiment to figure out
which ones work best for us.
But contemplative prayer can be
particularly powerful.
It can make the experience of our
time with God more tangible,
More concrete, more memorable.
One approach is to start by being
quiet, clearing our mind.
And then focusing on some event,
Like perhaps the Marriage Feast at Cana.
And then trying to place
ourselves at that event.
We use our senses.
What does the room look
like?
What do the people look like?
Who do we see there?
What do we hear?
Music? Voices?
Who’s saying what?
Is it warm or chilly, day or
night?
Can we smell the roasting lamb?
Can we taste the wine?
Our presence at the event becomes more real
As our
senses fill in the details.
We grow in our understanding of
the importance of the event.
We grow in our relationship with Jesus
By sharing
the experience with him.
On different days, we’ll feel
more successful or less successful
After our 20 minutes.
But, we’ll always benefit from
spending that time in prayer.
And sometimes it will be
dramatically rewarding.
My friend said that when he was
just getting the hang of this,
He contemplated the Wedding Feast
at Cana.
It was especially vivid and real.
He saw Jesus sitting at another
table, with his back toward him.
As he was looking at him, Jesus
stood up
And turned and walked over to him
and said,
Jim! Long time no see!
Clearly that’s not part of the
biblical script.
But it’s a sense of how deeply we
can be absorbed into our prayer.
How directly and personally we
can communicate with God.
Jim gave me one more example of a
dramatic prayer-time experience.
He usually prays early in the
morning, in his den.
But one morning he had to be out
early.
By his normal prayer time he was
near his church, so he went in.
It was quiet, and he went and sat
by a statue of the Madonna and Child.
He just sat there contemplating
Mary and Jesus.
Suddenly, Mary stepped down from
the altar and handed him the baby.
She said, I don’t do this for everyone.
But here, you carry him.
He was shocked.
It wasn’t like just a thought, or
even a dream—it was vividly real.
I think it was Mary’s request
that he carry Jesus,
That showed Jim he needed to
share this gift he’d found.
And motivated him to start his
project and his website.
We can’t expect to have such
dramatic experiences very often.
But that 20-minutes-a-day
Will
attune us to the messages God is sending us.
It will prepare us, enable us,
form us, cultivate us.
We heard in today’s Gospel how
important cultivation can be.
We can find ourselves in rich
fertile soil, or unsuitable soil.
In that parable of the Sower, we
see the dangers we face
If we don’t attend to our
cultivation.
If we don’t develop some
understanding of the kingdom,
We’ll be like seed sown on the
path. We’ll very quickly lose what we
have.
If we don’t develop a deep,
lasting relationship with God,
We’ll be like seeds sown in
shallow, rocky soil.
Without good roots, when troubles
come we’ll fall away.
If we don’t develop our spirit
And maintain some
separation from worldly things,
We’ll be like seeds sown in the thorns,
And worldly
concerns will pull us away.
The details of the parables are
always vivid yet strange,
And intended to make us think.
They open up a set of images
That
can be used and viewed in different ways.
A few days ago, our Gospel spoke
of the harvest,
And the need for laborers.
So, we might be the seed one day,
the soil another,
And the laborer the next.
Whatever role we’re called to at
any particular time,
A solid relationship with Jesus,
built through prayer,
Is the key to being prepared for
that role.
If we attend to our cultivation
We’ll be like that seed that lands in rich soil.
Bearing fruit 30- 60- or
100-fold.
