LENTEN BOOTCAMP DAY 39 – THE DIVINIZED LIFE
DAY 39 – MARY, QUEEN OF PATRIARCHS, PRAY THAT WE LIVE A DIVINIZED LIFE!
Becoming “Masters of Mental Prayer.” Each day, during Lent, we will practice “Mental Prayer,” as we reflect on, and desire the greatest gifts, so God may show each one of us a “More Excellent Way” (1 Cor. 12:13). Do your best to find a minimum of 15 minutes each day. By the regular practice of Mental Prayer, you will become more attuned to the “Still Small Voice.”
GUIDE TO MENTAL PRAYER: HERE
THE DIVINIZED LIFE
“Let your door stand open to receive Him, unlock your soul to Him, offer Him a welcome in your mind, and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the everlasting light.”—St. Ambrose
Everything in the religious order — sacraments, teaching, scripture, moral discipline, preaching, etc. — is meant to bring us to this deeper state of being, to this Divine Connection. Jesus calls it “abiding.” The Latin for this is “maneo” which means “to remain” or “to stay” or “to endure” (or like the Marine Corps’ semper fi). This Divine Connection, this conformity to love, this participation in the Divine Life of God is the very power of the Holy Spirit and is referred to as being in a state of grace.
While far too many modernized Catholics have all but completely ignored the necessity of the divinized life under the supernatural power of grace, our ancestors could not conceive of life without it. “Grace,” wrote Thomas à Kempis “is the mistress of truth, the light of the heart, the comforter of affliction, the banisher of sorrow, the expeller of fears, the matrix of devotion, the producer of tears. What am I without it but a piece of dry wood and an unprofitable stock, fit for nothing but to be cast away.”
Suscipe Prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola:
Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will; all that I have and possess. You have given all to me; to you, O Lord, I return it. Everything is yours: Do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace; that is enough for me.
