SKILLS I WISH I HAD WHEN I WAS A YOUNG CATHOLIC

I have been blessed to have been a Catholic (Roman Rite) since I can remember, but I am not the same Catholic I was way back then (1940). I use the analogy of new wine being placed in new skins and not old ones as my first realization– that Christ makes all things new daily, hourly. I don’t have to do a thing to make this happen, just wait. Waiting is not the passive shutting down of all mental and spiritual awareness so much as it is just being present to Christ on that couch in my upper room.

1. Waiting for me now is more of a prayer than it was before. Before, it was just an inconvenience to wait for a driver’s license or to get into a movie. My realization now is that waiting itself is prayer, when I totally give up my agenda, when I am sitting down in the presence of Christ. Abandonment of self is a great part of this approach, and one which I lacked both the patience and awareness that it even existed. Secular waiting is tied to my ordinary way of thinking in the physical and mental universe. Spiritual waiting is when I purposefully sit in the presence of the Holy Spirit and keep still in my mind and heart. In the secular kingdom, I do all the work when in prayer; in the spiritual kingdom of God on earth, God does all the work, and I just try to tag along as I can. Patience is a virtue that I can now appreciate, even though I struggle to practice it.
2. The interior life is open to those who have the capacity and capability to dig for spiritual gold. Catholicism is very challenging in that you must work diligently to maintain even the status quo of Faith. As a Lay Cistercian now, I find that a schedule tailored to my needs and age is the best way to remind me that I must be both consistent and constant in my passion to have the mind of Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5-12). Conversion is another word for this process. Daily conversion and prayer are essential for growth in complexity and consciousness, where I assimilate whatever is during the day in terms of my center (Phil 2:5-12), and it automatically becomes a part of me. Digging means conversion morae (a mindset that seeks daily conversion false self to the true self in Christ.
3. The Catholic Church demands that each individual create new wineskins to hold the new wine of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Only a new wineskin from Christ is permitted, and this activity comes from being in the presence of Christ and waiting for further instructions. This is a conscious act of the will to accept the boundaries and limitations of the world to open up the limitless possibilities of encountering the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Liturgy of the Hours, Private Contemplative Prayer, Forgiveness of Sins, and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Christ makes all things new through the Church’s teaching magisterium and what is true in each age.
4. If your religion is easy because you think of it as a mere association of people, you might have a wrong notion of what it means to take up our cross daily and follow Christ. Life gives us a choice between what is easy and what is right. Christ gives us what is right or correct from the Father so that we will not walk in the darkness of our own delusions. We must work to free ourselves from being hostage to our image of what God is and what God wants of us.

Being young in the Faith does not mean young in age, but young in starting over each day as a test of how well I walk the WAY, seek the TRUTH, and live a LIFE consistent with the boundaries from Christ through the Church and particularly in my making new wineskins to hold what the Holy Spirit reveals to me.

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