For the Missionary, clarifying and sharing one’s inner vision is always connected with what one receives in prayer and shares with others.
The other portion will be entirely consecrated
to outside works requiring the most active zeal
such as missions, preaching, confessions,
catechizing, directing young people,
visiting the sick and prisoners,
giving spiritual retreats and other similar exercises.
1818 Rule, Part Two, Chapter One. Regarding other principal observances
The Christian cannot divorce prayer from life-experience and action:
While maintaining within ourselves an atmosphere of silence and inner peace, we seek his presence in the hearts of the people and in the events of daily life as well as in the Word of God, in the sacraments and in prayer. We are pilgrims, walking with Jesus in faith, hope and love.
CC&RR, Constitution 31
“The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one’s self to others.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“We are pilgrims, walking with Jesus in faith, hope and love.”
I don’t know if it has been used, but this is a good title for a deMazenodian Retreat.
What Eugene is teaching us is balance, harmony and unity of the inner world and the outer world. Both are good and both are necessary. And how to do this, “perseverance”.
I just looked at my nephew’s facebook page. He is finishing up his first year at university and staying up late at night and cramming for tests. And so let me share with a teaching from Swami Brahmananda. “Practice meditation regularly. Don’t miss even one day. The mind is a like a spoiled child-always restless. Try to repeatedly to steady it, by fixing it on the Chosen Ideal (for disciples of Jesus, we find our focus in Him as He points to the Father), and at last you will become absorbed in Him. IF you continue your practice for two or three years, you will begin to feel and unspeakable joy and the mind will become steady…… You must forcibly pour the thought of God into your mind, then as you persist, you will be flooded with joy. What a terrible ordeal a student undergoes to pass his examination. To realize God is far easier task! Call on Him sincerely with a tranquil heart.”