Come to His Well

     “Action relies upon contemplation for its fruitfulness; and contemplation, in its turn, as soon as it has reaches a certain degree of intensity, pours out upon our active works some of its overflow. And it is by contemplation that the soul goes to draw directly upon the Heart of God for the graces which it is the duty of the active life to distribute. As so, in the soul of a saint, action and contemplation merge together in perfect harmony to give  perfect unity to his life,"                                                                                  Dom Jean-Baptist Chautard   


     I was not quite forty, but as a stay at home mother of five, I was feeling somewhat weary and tired! The giving and doing seemed endless! I wondered at times how I could continue at this pace.
I was serious about my relationship with God and longed to become the woman that God was calling me to be. I just wasn’t sure how to go about doing it. It was at this time in my life when I was blessed with a spiritual director.

     Almost from the start, Father talked to me about beginning contemplative prayer. “Oh great! I thought. Something else to do. How in the world will I ever find the time to fit this in?”

     Month after month, Father would ask if I had started my quiet prayer time. Month after month, I would reply that I hadn’t. I was beginning to feel embarrassed. I knew that if I wanted to continue to meet with Father, I would have to make the time.

     Needing to be honest with my spiritual director, I shared this defense. “Do you know how early I’d have to get up to pray? I already get up so early to do all that I have to do now.”  Father said that God would not be outdone in generosity. Anything I did for God would be returned to me in abundance. He did not see this as an option but something he believed I truly needed. Even though I was a daily Mass communicant and went to confession regularly, this would fill me in a way that I was now lacking. I could not continue to give to so many without being depleted. Father felt quiet prayer was a necessity. He wanted me to make it a reality. Although I knew it would not be easy, I promised I’d try.

     I began to get up a half hour before everyone else and spend some quiet time with God. I committed to twenty minutes in the morning, and even used a timer so I’d stay on my tight schedule.

     Little by little, I began to look forward to my prayer time. As time passed, I began to end my day with an additional twenty minutes of quiet prayer. I could see a difference in myself, and although I would still get tired and weary, I had a reservoir from which to draw. God was filling me with the graces I needed for my particular vocation.

     My awareness of God became sharper, and I was handling things differently. Because I began my prayer time by reading the Mass readings of the day, I was being filled with God’s Word and it was having a positive effect upon me.

     My director also told me that in time, contemplative prayer would bring me to union with God. How I long for this union! Then or when that happens, my will would have no importance. Only the Will of God will matter. I would be at peace with all that happens in life. It would be a taste of heaven!

     I was naïve, to think that this would be something that would happen in a short amount of time. Twenty-five years, and it is still not achieved. But however, there has been a positive difference in my relationship with God and in my life.

     I am like the woman at the well, I come each day to be filled with God. I have grown from the woman expecting to be wooed and courted by God, to the woman has persevered in love when the wooing is often not felt or experienced. I know that He is there waiting for me, although I don’t always feel His consolation during my time of prayer. I know He is present, to fill me with the graces I need to continue to serve Him, and all those He sends into my life.

     Prayer has made a better person. I am, and will always be eternally grateful, to the holy priest that continued to challenge me to quiet prayer time.

     I challenge you this day: If you do not pray this way, begin. If you have slacked off, begin again. If you pray this way, continue. Come to the well, where you will drink fully of the Living Water. God will not be outdone in His generosity. He will slake your thirst!

     “Know, dearest daughter, how, by humble, continual, and faithful prayer, the soul acquires, with time and perseverance, every grace and virtue. Wherefore should she persevere and never abandon prayer, either through the illusion of the devil or her own fragility, that is to say, either on account of any thought or movement coming from her own body, or of the words of any creature. The devil often places himself upon the tongues of creatures, causing them to chatter nonsensically, with the purpose of preventing the prayer of the soul. All of this she should pass by, by means of the virtue of perseverance.”                                                                God the Father to St. Catherine of Sienna