THE
P RTAL
March 2016
Page 6
Spirituality Matters
Relax a little in the
presence of Christ!
Basing her thoughts on a variety of English spiritual writers,
Antonia Lynn encourages us to use Ordinariate material during
“24 Hours for the Lord”
‘I hope
it does not sound frivolous to say: “Relax a little in the presence of Christ!”’ These are the words
of the theologian John Macquarrie. We are probably all familiar with the acronym ACTS as a mnemonic
for structuring our prayer times - ‘adoration, contrition, thanksgiving and supplication’ - but I was once
introduced to another version: REACTS. The usual points are preceded by ‘receive’ and ‘enjoy’.
The very word ‘reacts’ suggests something more
passive than ‘acts’; and here, on that theme, is
Macquarrie again: ‘Sometimes there is the need for
passivity before God. Here one has to stand against
the trend of the times and not conform to the fashion.
That fashion is activism, but there are occasions when
our action has to be suspended before Christ. Activists
are in constant danger of becoming too intense, too
politicised, too polarised, too self-righteous.’
The passivity Macquarrie is advocating is, he
suggests, to be found above all in the adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament. I am reminded of Pope Francis
in Misericordiae Vultus: ‘With our eyes fixed on Jesus
and his merciful gaze, we experience the love of the
Most Holy Trinity.’
This Lent, Pope Francis urges us all to do just that by
way of ‘24 Hours for the Lord’, to be celebrated on March
4 and 5, a whole turn of our planet spent in ‘adoration
of the Blessed Sacrament and Reconciliation’. Note the
order! We spend time with our eyes fixed on the Lord,
the ‘face of mercy’, meeting the gaze of the one who
has long been looking on us with love.
The receiving and enjoying of that gaze will flow into
adoration of his goodness and then - only then - will
the desire for reconciliation come naturally, not as the
fearful need to appease a punitive Father. With Julian
of Norwich we shall be able to say ‘I saw no manner
of wrath in God.’ In words given by a 15th century
English poet Jesus will say to us:
‘thou shalt finde
Me full kinde
Lo! Here my heart.’
The Holy Father goes on to tell us that ‘the season
of Lent during this Jubilee Year should also be lived
more intensely as a privileged moment to celebrate
Before the Blessed Sacrament, in the words of C S
and experience God’s mercy.’
Lewis, ‘the veil between the worlds… is nowhere else
so thin and permeable to divine operation. Here a
Traditional Lenten imagery is full of activity: hand from the hidden country touches not only my
ideas of struggle and fighting. Not much sense of soul but my body.’
‘celebrate and experience’, or indeed of ‘receive
and enjoy’, as we are urged to focus our energies on
You will notice that I have included many quotations
fasting and a