| Recollection and Finding Time View this email online if it doesn't display correctly |
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| Retreat Day 1: Recollection and Finding Time |
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Recollection
is paying attention to the presence of God in your soul. To “recollect”
is to remember something, and it’s easy to forget God’s presence and
promise when life gets busy. Taking time—making time—for silence and
solitude is one of the best ways to truly recollect God’s love.
In the Catholic tradition, we recognize two types of recollection:
- Active
recollection may be acquired by our own efforts aided by the grace of
God. It means creating a habit of thinking about God’s presence in your
life, and in this moment, right here and right now. It means fixing your
attention on God and his presence and perfection.
- Passive
recollection doesn’t depend on our own efforts, but is an extraordinary
grace given by God. In this mode of recollection (which mystical
writers see as the first degree of infused contemplation), the Holy
Spirit reaches into you and absorbs your mind and heart into God.
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| Three things are necessary: solitude, silence and the recollection of the presence of God. |
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Most of us, most of the time, will engage in active recollection. Here’s what St. Alphonsus Liguori had to say about it:
To preserve recollection of spirit or the constant union of the soul with God, three things are necessary:
solitude, silence and the recollection of the presence of God. It was
these three things which the Angel of God referred to when, addressing
St. Arsenius, he said: "Flee, be silent and rest." In other words: seek
solitude, practice silence, and rest in God by keeping the thought of
His presence ever before you.
It may seem that silence and
solitude don’t have much of a place in modern life. We have telephones
with us constantly; the Internet sucks our time; our families and work
and friendships all make demands on us. Who can “flee, be silent, and
rest”?
When we think about silence and solitude and recollection,
it’s tempting to believe that it would all be easier to do if we lived
in simpler times. It’s tempting to blame our distractions and lack of
time and energy on our century and our location. Yet the reality is that
God called us to be here, in this time
and in this place. God called us into the complicated nexus of the
modern world, and he did so for a reason.
So what is our response?
Perhaps
we can start by making that our offering. God has asked us to dwell in
this world, to sanctify it somehow. To make of all the drudgery and
distractions and lack of time a holy thing, an offering of love. To see
that it is through those very things that God is dwelling inside of us.
We
don’t need to go on retreat to feel God’s presence. We can discern it
in everything around us… including in our own tired, cluttered,
distracted lives. And we can do that with the practice of recollection.
So
take this summertime retreat as a way into really thinking about that
offering. To claim a space of silence and solitude to recognize God
dwelling inside of you (even if it’s only for a precious few minutes a
day!), and then to take the experience of that silence and that solitude
out into the world that God has called you to live in. To remember
it—to recollect it—whenever things feel overwhelming. The more you practice, the more it will be a comfort to you, an energizing touchstone to which you can return again and again. And
the more you practice, the more you’ll be aware of God’s presence with
you all the time, not just in the precious few moments you can set aside
for prayer and reflection.
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Before You, Lord, in Prayer
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LORD, help me to recollect your presence in my life and my being all the time.
Open
me to the slightest whisper of your voice so that I may go about my
tasks and duties with the knowledge and assurance that I am your servant
in everything I do.
Take my offering of my busyness, my distractions, and my responsibilities and help me to see them in the light of your love. Amen.
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Father
Jean LaFrance talks a lot about recollection in his book, Pray to Your
Father in Secret. We don’t go to God, he says: it is God who seeks us
out, who calls us to him. Recollection is how you can open yourself up
to God:
"You will become a truly spiritual person—that is, a person of prayer—when you live completely in the present moment.
"We
have within us a secret desire to live in a state of unceasing prayer.
We feel that to live in the presence of God is the source of joy, peace,
and true happiness. If we gathered together all the minutes and hours
we waste each day, we would have plenty of time to pray. Now and then,
take five minutes to stop and rest in inner silence. Focus only on being
that you are there, speechless and motionless, in the presence of the
living God. Throughout your day, never let an hour go by without going deep into your heart in the presence of the Most High. You have frequent opportunities to call upon God for help—cries of love or recognition, even in taking a breath.
"You will be a person of continual prayer if you know how to accept the present moment as a gift of God."
Jean Lafrance, Pray to Your Father in Secret, pp.118-119
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