At Prayer

(March 23, 2012)

I am praying before the tabernacle early in the morning at St. Mary's church in Rowley, Ma. There is no Mass, but I have keys to access the church as I offer Alpha and other programs from this site. As Mass is only offered on Monday and Tuesday mornings, I had begun to make it a practice to go there early (usually 7:00 am), and to pray for at least one hour's time worshipping and praising the Lord, and quietly listening for his voice.

On this particular Friday morning, amazingly, during prayer I am able to remember with preciseness the names of many of my grammar and high school friends, associates with whom I flew in the Navy so many years ago, ex-clients and associates from my various workplaces. And, as I begin to go down this list of remembrance, I mention each name in the silence of my heart and I say: "Yes, Lord, thank you for him (or her), and bless him". This list of remembrance was quite long and extensive, and while I was praying this way I did not think that what I was doing was anything unusual.  Some of the men brought to mind had not lived the holiest of lives, but I was moved, with great love, to thank the Lord for their existence, and to bless them. This went on for perhaps twenty minutes or so.

At the conclusion of this time, I finished my prayers, knelt before the Lord humbly asking his blessing, and left the church.

It was only the following day that I noticed something quite substantial had altered within me.  Suzanne and I went to a luncheon with some friends during which I was seated across from man with a very difficult personality. He was someone I consciously sought to avoid.  To my amazement, I was filled with great love for him, had wonderful joy in my heart, and had no difficulty listening to his meandering and quite vociferous stories. Love caused me to view him as Jesus viewed him, and I knew that the Lord was blessing and preserving him even as I spoke to him (He is quite ill.). I also knew that the Lord desired that I love him with a father's love, so that he would be open to the love of the Father either now, or at the point of his death, and come to know Jesus.

I learned so much that day, and it has changed my heart toward others. I have come to more fully understand that God loves and blesses, and does not curse his creation. It is men and Satan and his minions that do that. I learned too, that such love is costly, but that it is the only way to reach into the heart of a wounded, fearful and broken man. In the beginning, God used his son to show us the way of love in order that we might come to know  salvation, and how costly such love is. Now, he relies on us to reveal that love, and that love opens to me (us) the path of peace and reconciliation.